I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
- KJV I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
- NKJV I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
- NASB I am the man who has seen misery Because of the rod of His wrath.
- NLT I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord’s anger.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The poet speaks as one who has personally known affliction under the rod of God's wrath. It begins a deeply personal lament that will lead to hope.
Overview
Chapter 3 shifts to an individual voice representing the suffering community, 'the man that has seen affliction.' He owns the experience of God's chastening rod firsthand rather than viewing it from a distance. His journey from this darkness to renewed hope (vv. 21-26) traces the path of faith through suffering, ultimately answered in Christ, the true Sufferer who passed through anguish to glory.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 88:7Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
- Ps 88:15–16From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Job 19:21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
- Lam 1:12–14Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger?
- Jer 20:14–18Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.
- Jer 38:6So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
- Isa 53:3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
- Jer 15:17–18I never sat with the band of revelers, nor did I celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You have filled me with indignation.
- Ps 71:20Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.