They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.
Lamentations 3 turns from the city's ruin to one man's voice. That voice describes being chased like a bird by people who had no reason for it. Two questions arise at once. How can trouble be undeserved when God Himself has judged Jerusalem? And whose sorrow is speaking in these lines?
The verse belongs to a short run of pictures. Each one says the same thing in a different way — that escape was impossible.
In verses 52-54 the prophet sets out, through various pictures, the calamities that fall on the Jews from their enemies. They were no more than a bird before skilled fowlers. They were like someone shut up in a dungeon sealed with a stone overhead. They were like someone drowning under waters rolling over him.
A bird has no defence against a trained trapper. That is the point of the picture.
"Without cause" sits oddly in a book about deserved judgment. One writer answers by separating the two parties. God had a reason; the invaders did not.
Identifying himself with the people who had gone wrong, he keeps pleading their cause. He was like a bird chased by hunters without cause. In this he does not ignore the righteousness of God in visiting His people with judgment. On that side there was cause enough. But Babylon's oppression of Judah was quite unjustifiable by any standard of human fairness. Her wars were driven by greed for rule and a hunger for power. It often happens that God allows sorrows to come on His own as discipline which, as far as the actual troubles go, were not really deserved.
The same writer brings this down to everyday life.
For example, a believer may be accused of what he never did, and this brings him deep mental grief. All the while he chafes at knowing he is innocent of the cruel charge, and feels he is treated wickedly. But seen rightly, this is an opportunity to share in Christ's sufferings. For was He not hated "without a cause," and did not false witnesses rise up against Him? Such circumstances, painful as they are to flesh and blood, are often a necessary part of the education of the soul.
One writer ties these verses to what happened to Jeremiah himself, and shows where the passage goes next.
In Lamentations the prophet recalls the distress of his soul in this terrible situation. Feeling that he is perishing, he cries to God: "I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You have heard my voice…" In answer to the eager pleading of His servant, the Lord directs Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian official in the king's household, to draw Jeremiah out of his trouble.
One writer hears more than Jeremiah in this chapter. He sees the prophet speaking by the Spirit of Christ, in a double position: suffering with the people and suffering at their hands.
In chapter 3 the prophet speaks in his own person, by the Spirit of Christ. He expresses everything he felt as one who shared Israel's affliction and was at the same time the target of their hostility. His position was remarkably like that of Christ. What suffering can equal this? He shares the suffering of God's people, yet he cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message.
The same phrase turns up in the Psalms, where it points past David to Christ.
David was a man surrounded by enemies. They spoke evil against him and wanted nothing but harm for him… He had given them some cause for this, as his confession to the Lord shows. Yet all his adversaries were as nothing compared to those who united against Jesus and hated Him "without a cause" (Ps. 69:4).
Three verses later the tone changes. That turn is why the chase is recorded at all. The remnant here means the faithful few left in Israel.
Like someone thrown into a pit and left to die, the remnant call on the Lord from the depths of the pit. Faith can say, "You have heard my voice," and "You came near when I called on You; You said, Do not fear." How comforting this is! God is quick to answer the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
- Hunted. The verse pictures a man run down like a bird before expert trappers. It is the language of total helplessness, matched by the sealed pit and the rising water beside it.
- Without cause. God had reason to judge Jerusalem; Babylon had none. Discipline from God's hand can reach us through treatment that is unjust.
- Shared. Unjust hostility becomes a share in Christ's sufferings. He too was hated without a cause, and false witnesses rose up against Him.
- Voiced. One writer hears more than Jeremiah here. The prophet speaks by the Spirit of Christ, suffering both with the people and because of them.
- Answered. The chase is on record so the rescue can follow. He called from the depths of the pit, and God came near with "Do not fear!"
They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.
Enemies drop a man alive into a pit and push a stone over the mouth of it — the sound of a burial, not an arrest. Two questions press on the reader: who is speaking, and does anyone hear a voice from under that stone?
One commentator reads this verse with the two on either side of it, and explains each picture:
In verses 52-54 the prophet sets out, by various figures, the calamities that fall on the Jews from their enemies… They were no more than a bird before skilful bird-catchers. They were like one shut up in dungeons secured by a stone overhead. They were like one truly overwhelmed in waters rolling over him.
The older translation he follows says "dungeon" and "a stone upon me." The ESV says "pit" and "stones."
Behind the poetry lies an event. Jeremiah kept speaking God's word, and his own countrymen read it as treason:
Upon hearing Jeremiah's words, certain men say to the king, in agreement with the princes, "Please let this man be put to death." The Scriptures preserve their names (38:1). In their eyes Jeremiah is nothing but a traitor — an ally of Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah has no strength of character. He hands Jeremiah over to them, knowing he is powerless before them. These men seize the prophet and cast him into the pit in the court of the guard. "And in the pit there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire."
The harm came from his own people, and it came because he spoke for God:
What suffering can be like this? A man shares the suffering of God's people, yet he cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message. He carries that affliction on his heart, feeling that if this foolish people would only have listened, God would have turned His wrath away. It was the lamentation of Christ Himself, "Oh, if you had known," and so on. In the main Jeremiah shared the same feelings… Jeremiah suffers for the testimony, and for the rejection of the testimony.
One commentator separates two things here. The nation's ruin was deserved. The cruelty of the men who carried it out was not:
He does not in this ignore the righteousness of God in visiting His people with judgment. On that side there was cause enough. But by any human standard of fairness, Babylon's oppression of Judah could not be justified… God often permits sorrows to come upon His own as discipline. As far as the troubles themselves go, they were not deserved. For instance, a believer may be wrongly accused, and that brings him extreme mental grief. All the while he frets, knowing he is innocent of the cruel charge, and feeling that people are treating him wickedly. But seen in the right light, this is an opportunity to share in Christ's sufferings. For was He not hated "without a cause," and did not false witnesses rise up against Him?
The stone sealed the pit; it did not seal his mouth. The next verses answer it, in the mouth of the remnant — the faithful few left in the land:
Like a man cast into a pit and left to die, the remnant call upon the Lord "out of the low dungeon." Faith can say, "You have heard my voice," and "You drew near in the day that I called upon You: You said, Fear not." How comforting this is! God is quick to respond to the first cry of a troubled soul when there is integrity of heart before Him.
That rescue is why the prophet's own ordeal belongs in a public lament for the city:
There was one difference, however, between him and his people. God had brought him out of his affliction; they were still in theirs. He suffered with them as one of them. But his own sufferings as God's faithful servant in Israel were over. So one man had been in affliction like theirs and had been delivered. This gives hope, and this is how the book holds them up.
- Pit. Three images stand together: a hunted bird, a sealed dungeon, water closing overhead. Enemies are doing their worst.
- Cause. The nation's judgment was deserved; this cruelty was not. Suffering you did not earn is where a believer shares the sufferings of One hated without a cause.
- Testimony. Jeremiah went into the pit for speaking God's message. He suffered for the testimony, and for its rejection.
- Cry. A stone over the mouth of a pit does not stop prayer; God draws near at the first honest cry and says, "Fear not."
- Hope. God brought him out while his people were still in their trouble. That is why his story stands in the middle of their lament.
Waters streamed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
The pit, the stone and the rising water have done their work, and the prophet's verdict on himself is that it is over. The verse sits inside a long lament. It raises two questions: can a man of faith really say such a thing, and what does God do with him when he does?
The verse closes a short run of images. One commentator reads them together as three ways of saying one thing: hunted, buried, drowned. The commentators quote an older translation, where the ESV's "I am lost" reads "I am cut off."
In verses 52-54 the prophet uses various pictures to set out the calamities that fall on the Jews from their enemies. "My enemies chased me hard, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off." They were no more than a bird before skilful bird-catchers. They were like someone shut up in a dungeon with a stone over the top. They were like someone actually overwhelmed by waters rolling over him.
Jeremiah was not speaking from imagination. One writer sets out what he said and where it landed him.
Nebuchadnezzar has already besieged the city. So the message from God is to accept the judgment from His hand and surrender to the Chaldeans. In the eyes of his accusers Jeremiah is a mere traitor. These men seize the prophet and throw him into the pit in the court of the guard. "And in the pit there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire."
Another writer draws a careful line at this kind of sentence. The sufferer says how things look to him, and then names the hand behind the darkness.
He is like someone for whom the business of life is over, discharged from it, "free among the dead," like someone cut off from God's remembrance and His help. Not that he will say this is so, but that so it seems. And God Himself has done this, and laid him in the lowest pit, in the awful darkness of His prison-house — in the depths.
The waters were real. The verdict spoken under them was the judgment of a drowning man.
One writer hears more than one voice in this chapter. The distress is Jeremiah's own, yet the Spirit of Christ shapes it, at a time when Jerusalem stood under judgment.
In Lamentations 3 we find the language of faith, of sorrowing faith, of the Spirit of Christ in the remnant, at the time of the judgment of Jerusalem, the city where God had dwelt… But in chapter 3 he places himself in the middle of the evil to express the sentiments of the Spirit of Christ. This is not, it is true, in an absolute way, according to the perfection of Christ Himself. The Spirit acts in the heart of the prophet, expressing his personal distress — a distress produced by the Spirit, yet clothed in the feelings of the prophet's own heart.
One writer takes the words "without a cause" and hands them to ordinary sufferers today.
God often allows sorrows to come upon His own as discipline, when, as far as the actual troubles go, they were not really deserved. For instance, people may accuse someone falsely and cause him extreme mental grief. All the time he frets under the knowledge that he is not guilty of the cruel charge, and feels that they are treating him wickedly. But seen rightly, this is simply an opportunity to share in Christ's sufferings. For was not He hated "without a cause," and did not false witnesses rise up against Him?
"I am cut off" was not God's last word. The next verses show how the rescue came.
Feeling that he is perishing, he cries to God: "I called on your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice"… In answer to the earnest pleading of His servant, the Lord directs Ebed-melech to draw Jeremiah out of his trouble. Ebed-melech is an Ethiopian official in the king's house. This man takes it on himself to go to Zedekiah to plead for the prophet, and gets permission to deliver him.
Others make the same point as a principle: the distress itself became the place where prayer was proved.
But prayer may be, and has been, proved effective even in their distresses; and the following verses show this, as with Jeremiah.
- Picture. Three images stack up: a hunted bird, a sealed dungeon, water closing overhead. The last one shows a man overwhelmed outright.
- Pit. Behind the picture lies a real cistern with no water but mire, where Jeremiah sank for telling the city to surrender to God's judgment.
- Seeming. "I am cut off" reports how things look to a man in the depths. It is not his verdict on God's remembrance of him — and God Himself laid him there.
- Voice. The sorrow is the prophet's own, yet the Spirit of Christ shapes it. The words carry a grief larger than one man's imprisonment.
- Rescue. From the lowest pit the cry went up, and God heard it. The answer came through an unlikely man in the king's house.