Verse-by-Verse Bible CommentaryLamentations 3:53
They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me. Jump to: Barne's Notes • Gill's Exposition • Geneva Study Bible • Commentary Critical and Explanatory • Wesley's Notes • Calvin's Commentary • Trapp's Commentary • Poole's Annotations • Whedon's Commentary • Haydock's Catholic Commentary • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes • Ellicott's Commentary • Treasury of Knowledge Other Authors
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole BibleThey have cut off my life in the dungeon - Or, “They destroyed my life in the pit,” i. e. tried to destroy it by casting me into the cistern, and covering the month with a stone. See the margin reference. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Gill's Exposition of the Whole BibleThey have cut off my life in the dungeon,.... Jarchi interprets it, "they bound me in the prison.' Jeremiah was both in a prison and in a dungeon, where he was deprived of the society of men, as if he had been dead; and he was in danger of losing his life; but whether any respect is had to it here is not certain: it seems rather to respect the people of the Jews in captivity, who were deprived of their rights and liberties, and of the comforts of life; and were like dead men in their graves, to whom they are compared, Ezekiel 37:11; but since Jeremiah was not dead, nor did he die in the dungeon, Jarchi's sense seems best, and agrees with what follows; and is confirmed by the version of others, who render it, "they shut up my life in the dungeon" and cast a stone upon me; to see if he was dead, or to prevent him from rising. The allusion is to the putting of stones at the mouths of dens and dungeons, caves and graves, to keep in those there put: or they stoned me, as the Targum; that is, they endeavoured to do it: or the Jews in captivity were like persons stoned to death, or like dead men covered with a heap of stones; for that Jeremiah was stoned to death there is no reason to believe. Copyright Statement Bibliography Geneva Study BibleThey have cut off my life y in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.(y) Read (Jeremiah 37:16) how he was in the miry dungeon. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bibledungeon — (Jeremiah 37:16).stone — usually put at the mouth of a dungeon to secure the prisoners (Joshua 10:18; Daniel 6:17; Matthew 27:60). Copyright Statement Bibliography Wesley's Explanatory NotesThey have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Dungeon — Dungeon seems here to be taken for the lowest condition of misery. Copyright Statement Bibliography Calvin's Commentary on the BibleHe now employs other comparisons. Some improperly confine this to Jeremiah himself, as though he explained here before God the wrongs done to himself: but there is no doubt but that he undertakes the cause of the whole people; and his object was to encourage by his own example the faithful to lament their state so that they might obtain pardon from God. He then compares himself to a man half-dead, cast into a pit, and there left for lost. Then some improperly interpret the words, “they cast stones;” for stoning was not in the mind of the Prophet; but having said that he was fast bound in a pit or dungeon, he adds that a stone was laid over him, that lie might not come forth, as we know was the case with Daniel. (Daniel 6:16.) Daniel was cast into the den of lions, and then a stone was put on the mouth of the den. So also the Prophet says, that he was bound fast in the pit, and not only that, but that a stone was laid over him, that there might be no hope of coming out; and thus the pit was like a grave. Here, then, he means that lie was reduced to the last extremity, because he had not only been taken by his enemies, but had also been cast into a pit. And, as it is well known, it is a metaphorical expression or a similitude. He adds, — Copyright Statement Bibliography John Trapp Complete CommentaryLamentations 3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Ver. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon.] Where I led a lifeless life; such as did Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, in King Stephen’s time, who sustained such miseries in prison, ut vivere noluerit, mori nescierit, that live he would not, and yet die he could not.
And cast a stone upon me.] As they did upon the mouths of dens, dungeons, or sepulchres, to make sure work. The Chaldee hath it, They stoned me. Copyright Statement Bibliography Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy BibleDungeon seemeth not to be here taken literally, for the lowest and nastiest place in prisons, which probably was the portion but of a few of the Jews; but metaphorically, for the lowest and saddest condition of misery. Their enemies had brought them into the deepest miseries, to the cutting off of their lives; and as men use to roll great stones upon the mouths of dens and pits, where they have shut up persons, to make them sure from escaping out, so their enemies had dealt with them, doing what lay in them to make their condition remediless and desperate. Copyright Statement Bibliography Whedon's Commentary on the Bible53. Cast a stone, etc. — They covered the pit in which the prophet was confined with a stone, to make escape hopeless. Copyright Statement Bibliography George Haydock's Catholic Bible CommentaryOver me, as if I were buried. (Haydock) --- Jeremias was in prison (chap. xxxviii. 6.) when he prayed, ver. 54., and chap. xx. 7. (Calmet) Copyright Statement Bibliography E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notesdungeon = pit. Compare Jeremiah 38:6; and Psalms 88:6. Copyright Statement Bibliography Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(53) Cast a stone upon me.—The words admit of two meanings: (1) that they cast stones at him; (2) that they placed a stone over the opening of his dungeon so as to prevent escape. Copyright Statement Bibliography Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeThey have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
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