I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
- BSB I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s 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 88:7Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
- Ps 88:15–16I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
- Job 19:21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
- Lam 1:12–14Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
- Jer 20:14–18Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
- Jer 38:6Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
- Isa 53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Jer 15:17–18I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
- Ps 71:20Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.