Lamentations 3 - Summary

The central and longest chapter presents an individual sufferer—perhaps the poet himself—who has seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath, led into darkness, besieged with bitterness, and made a derision among all peoples. Yet from the depths emerges the book's theological center: 'It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, for His compassions fail not; they are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.' The sufferer counsels waiting quietly for salvation, bearing the yoke in youth, putting mouth in dust if perhaps there be hope, while acknowledging that the Lord does not willingly afflict the children of men.