I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord’s anger.
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.
- 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.
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 lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
- Ps 88:15–16I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
- Job 19:21“Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
- Lam 1:12–14“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
- Jer 20:14–18Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
- Jer 38:6Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard. They let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.
- Isa 53:3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
- Jer 15:17–18I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.
- Ps 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.