58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all their plots against me.
61 “You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
all their plots against me.
62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants
are against me all the day long.
63 Behold their sitting and their rising;
I am the object of their taunts.
64 “You will repay them, O Lord,
according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them dullness of heart;
your curse will be on them.
66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under your heavens, O Lord.” – Lamentations 3:58-66 ESV
Jeremiah had lived a called life, having been commissioned by God Almighty to deliver His message of repentance to the people of Judah. But Jeremiah lived what few us would consider having been a charmed life. He was a social outcast whose persistent warnings about God’s pending judgment had produced more enemies than friends. He knew what it was like to face opposition. In fact, his entire ministry as God’s prophet had been met by hostility and hatred from the very people he had been trying to save.
He was speaking the truth of God and his own people despised him for it. They didn’t just hate the message, they loathed the messenger. And their growing animosity for Jeremiah showed up regularly and from the highest offices of the land.
At one point, God had ordered Jeremiah to make a permanent record of his messages.
“Get a scroll. Write on it everything I have told you to say about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now. Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” – Jeremiah 36:2-3 NLT
Once the scroll had been completed, Jeremiah instructed his secretary, Baruch, to read it aloud to the people in the temple courtyard. Eventually, the royal officials heard about the scroll and had it confiscated. The king, curious to know what it contained, had it read out loud to him. And his response speaks volumes.
As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow. – Jeremiah 36:23-24 NLT
No repentance. No change of heart. Instead, they decided to punish the messenger.
The officials were very angry with Jeremiah. They had him flogged and put in prison in the house of Jonathan, the royal secretary, which they had converted into a place for confining prisoners.
So Jeremiah was put in prison in a cell in the dungeon in Jonathan’s house. He was kept there for a long time. – Jeremiah 37:15-16 NLT
And this animosity toward Jeremiah did not stop with the fall of Jerusalem. While his official duties as God’s spokesman had been completed, the people of Judah saw him as the cause of all their pain and suffering. From their perspective, Jeremiah had prophesied doom and gloom and it had all taken place just as he had said. So, he was to blame.
But Jeremiah knew that God was aware of his circumstances.
“You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord…” – Lamentations 3:59 ESV
“You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.” – Lamentations 3:60 ESV
“You have heard their taunts, O Lord…” – Lamentations 3:61 ESV
Jeremiah had an advocate in God. He had a powerful ally in his ongoing battle with his enemies. The opposition Jeremiah faced was real and intense. Their threats against him were constant and he found comfort in knowing that God was fully aware of all that was going on around him.
But this chapter ends on a rather surprisingly vindictive note. Jeremiah calls on God to pay back all his enemies for their treatment of him. He wants divine vengeance meted out on all those who opposed him and sought to harm him. But there is far more going on here than just the pleas of a disgruntled prophet demanding divine payback against his enemies. Jeremiah recognizes that his lot in life is directly tied to his calling as God’s prophet. His enemies are actually God’s enemies. They stand opposed to God, not Jeremiah. He was simply God’s messenger.
So, Jeremiah’s words are less a personal plea for revenge than they are a confident knowledge that God will do the right and just thing. These people could attack the messenger, but Jeremiah knew that they would one day have to answer to the one who had sent him. God would repay them for their actions.
“You will repay them, O Lord,
according to the work of their hands.
You will give them dullness of heart;
your curse will be on them.
You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under your heavens, O Lord.” – Lamentations 3:64-66 ESV
Jeremiah was living in the dark days following the destruction of Jerusalem. He was experiencing the same pain and suffering like everyone else. But his suffering was intensified by the hatred of those who held him responsible for their plight. Yet, Jeremiah placed his hope in his God. He found solace in the fact that God had his back. God had rescued him from the pit. He had freed him from the prison. He had protected him all during the days of the siege. And God was still by his side even in the darkest days of his life. Things on earth looked bleak, but God was still on His throne in heaven.
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? – Romans 8:31 NLT
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
