He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.
Jeremiah has been describing what God's hand has done to him, and verse 6 is the lowest point of that description. It raises three questions: who is speaking, why he blames God and not the men who jailed him, and how this line can lead on to the hope of verses 22–24.
Chapters 1 and 2 give the voice of the ruined city. Chapter 3 changes speaker, though it does not change the subject.
The prophet expresses his own sorrow. He no longer speaks for Zion but for himself. At the same time his grief is bound up with the people — and no less so, because they mocked and hated him for loving them in faithfulness to Jehovah.
Kelly groups verse 6 with the two lines before it:
Next, in verses 4-6, Jeremiah tells how he is wasting away. He tells of Jehovah's preparations against him, and of his own clearly doomed condition.
The darkness was a real prison. Jeremiah traces it past the men who put him there.
The prophet does not accuse the people and their leaders of inflicting on him all the persecutions he endured. Instead he receives them from the hand of God. He says: "I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath." He recalls the years spent in the darkness of prison (v. 2, 6) and the loss of his freedom (v. 7, 9). He remembers the torture that broke his bones (v. 4).
The comparison is to tombs. Ironside describes what that dark place did to the prophet's sense of God.
Bitterness and hardship surrounded him. Dark places held him, like the tombs of the dead. A hedge shut him in, and a heavy chain weighed him down. He cried and shouted, only to feel that God shut out his prayer. Nothing could be sadder than the gloomy picture this brings to mind. The Lord had apparently forgotten, or had even become an enemy.
The voice is one man's, but Darby hears more in it.
In chapter 3 the prophet speaks in his own person, by the Spirit of Christ. He pours out all that he felt as he shared Israel's affliction. At the same time he was the object of their hatred. His position was much like that of Christ. What suffering can equal this? A man shares the suffering of God's people and cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message.
Jeremiah's experience matched the nation's at almost every point, with one decisive difference.
He had seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath. They, including the prophet, could say God had covered them with anger... But there was one difference between him and his people. He had been brought 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. Here was one who had been in affliction like theirs and had been delivered. That gives hope, and that is how they are supported in this book.
Fifteen verses later the same man says, "Therefore I have hope." A picture from the farmer's field explains the turn.
How deeply the ploughman thrusts his blade into the soil, leaving a gaping furrow behind him! What is all this hard labour for? A great purpose. The seed-basket follows the plough, and golden grain is cast into the broken soil... But the field would yield no harvest if it were not first cut and seamed and ploughed. Because the plough does its work in the soil, there is hope.
- Hand. Jeremiah refuses to blame the men who jailed him; he receives the darkness from God's hand as the rod of His wrath.
- Grave. Set among the long dead, he feels the Lord has forgotten him, or even become an enemy.
- Fellowship. He speaks for himself, yet his grief stays tied to the people who hated him for his faithful love.
- Echo. Commentators hear the Spirit of Christ here — One who shares His people's affliction while they turn against Him.
- Harvest. The furrow is not the end. God brought Jeremiah out of his darkness, so his record gives hope to everyone still in theirs.
He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out he hath made my chain heavy.
Jeremiah has just described darkness, wasted flesh and broken bones. Now the picture narrows to a prison wall and a heavy chain, and the hand that set them there is God's.
Verses 7 to 9 form one picture. The man is shut in, and then finds that even prayer cannot get him out.
In verses 7-9, the prophet shows what his portion was. It was not only imprisonment with a heavy chain. There was also the terrible added weight that pleading and prayer could not secure his release. The way was fenced — not to protect him, but to shut him out and frustrate him.
Older translations say God "hedged" him in. A hedge normally guards what is inside it. Here it works against the man inside.
In Israel, chains were copper. Older translations call the metal "brass".
Samson was bound with "fetters of brass" ("copper" — Judges 16:21; 2 Kings 25:7). Copper seems to have been the recognised material for bonds. David, in his lament over Abner, says: "Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters" (2 Samuel 3:34). The word means, literally, "in copper" (see also Lamentations 3:7).
Job also called himself a man hedged in by God. But Job's complaint stops where Jeremiah's goes on.
He adds to this the first of his charges against God, calling himself "the man whom God has hedged in". Jeremiah's Lamentations uses similar language: "He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy" (Lamentations 3:7). But Jeremiah goes on: "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions do not fail." And again: "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD" (verses 22, 26). We fail to find anything like this in Job's words.
This chapter reads as Jeremiah's own record of what he suffered. But one writer hears more in it — the Spirit of Christ speaking through a man hated by the very people he suffered with.
In chapter 3 the prophet speaks in his own person, by the Spirit of Christ. He expresses all that he felt as one who shared Israel's affliction and was at the same time the object of their hatred. His position was remarkably like that of Christ. What suffering can match his? He shares the suffering of God's people, yet he cannot turn the evil away, because they refuse to hear God's message.
The wall did not stand for ever. Jeremiah came out, and that is the point of the record.
Little could Jeremiah have guessed what use God would make of his trials… He had seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath… But there was one difference 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. Yet the personal sufferings he describes, as God's faithful servant in Israel, were over. So one man had been in affliction like theirs, and God had delivered him. This gives hope, and this is how the book supports them.
Later in the chapter Jeremiah says he has hope. One writer points to a ploughed field to show why.
How deeply into the soil the ploughman thrusts his blade, leaving a gaping furrow behind him! To what purpose is this determined labour? A great purpose! He is preparing the ground for a miracle. The seed-basket follows the ploughshare. Golden grain goes into the furrowed soil… But the field would yield no harvest without that first cutting and seaming and ploughing. Because the ploughshare does its work in the soil, there is hope. Has the ploughshare of adversity or sorrow left deep furrows in your soul? Then have hope.
- The wall — this hedge does not protect Jeremiah. It shuts him out, frustrates him, and blocks even his prayer.
- The chain — Jeremiah's chain was copper, the metal that bound prisoners in Israel and held Samson.
- The echo — Job made the same complaint about being hedged in. He never reached Jeremiah's next line about mercies that do not fail.
- The voice — some hear more than one man here. Jeremiah shares his people's affliction while they hate him — a position remarkably like that of Christ.
- The harvest — Jeremiah's confinement ended. The record of his rescue gives hope to a people still inside their trouble. The ploughed field is the one that yields a harvest.