129 matching verse commentaries
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. That is the way to find it;-not lifting your mouth up to defy the Lord, or to murmur at him, nor yet opening your mouth in boastfulness; but putting your mouth in the dust, that is the way to find hope. A humble, penitent, resigned, silent, submissive spirit will soon find hope.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He giveth [his] cheek to him that smiteth him,.... Either to God that afflicts him, and patiently bears it; see Isaiah 9:13; or rather to men. To be smitten on the cheek is always reckoned a very great affront; to turn the cheek to an injurious man is to give him an opportunity and leave to smite, and signifies the taking of it patiently, and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever: Oh, get a grip of that blessed truth! I pray you, O ye sons of trouble, lay hold of it, and never let it go! The Lord may, to all appearance, cast off for a little while, but he will not cast off for ever.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord will not cast off for ever. Which is not to be understood of all his creatures; for there are some he does cast off for ever, as the angels that sinned; reprobate men, profligate and abandoned sinners, that live and die impenitent; and unbelievers, carnal professors, and apostates; but not his own special and peculiar people, the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But though he cause grief,.... As he sometimes does in his own people; by convincing them of sin, and producing in them godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto life, not to be repented of; by correcting and chastising them for it, and by hiding his face from them; all which are grievous to them: yet will he have compassion according to the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, That is not God’s way of acting. Tyrants may do so, but the tender, compassionate God, our gracious, loving Father, will never do...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Now notice in the 55th verse, what came to the prophet after all this sorrow.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For he doth not afflict willingly,.... Or, "from his heart" (e); he does afflict; for all afflictions are from God, but they do not come from the mere motion of his heart, or are the effects of his sovereign will and pleasure, as the good things he bestows upon his people do, without any respect to any cause or occasion in them; but sin is the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. These words, with what follow in Lamentations 3:35; either depend upon the preceding, and are to be connected with them, "he doth not afflict", c. Lamentations 3:33 though he lays his hand on men, he do not crush them under his feet, or break them in pieces, and utterly destroy them, even...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To turn aside the right of a man,.... The Targum is, of a poor man; not to do him justice in a court of judicature; to cause judgment to incline to the wrong side; to give the cause against a man, to give a wrong sentence; this is disapproved of by the Lord, and forbidden by him: before the face of the most High; either before the most high God,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. Again I say, that is not God’s way of acting.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To subvert a man in his cause,.... A poor man, as the Targum, which aggravates it; as by courses and methods taken in an open court, so by secret underhand ways, to get the cause from him, and injure him in his property: the Lord approveth not; or, "seeth not" (g); which some understand as spoken by wicked men, who do the above things, and flatter...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Who [is] he [that] saith, and it cometh to pass?.... Or, "who [that] says [this shall be], and it cometh to pass?" or, "who [is] he [that] saith [this shall] come to pass?" (i) this, or that, or the other thing, he wills and desires, and his heart is set upon: [when] the Lord commandeth [it] not? has not willed and decreed it, but determined the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Out of the mouth of the most High proceed not evil and good?] Certainly they do; they come to pass, both one and the other, as God has pronounced, and his will determined; even "evils", as it is in the plural number; not the evil of sin, or of fault; this comes not out of the mouth of God, but is forbidden and condemned by him; much less is he the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore doth a living man complain?.... Or murmur, or fret and vex, or bemoan himself; all which the word (k) may signify; as the prophet had done in his own person; or as representing the church, Lamentations 3:1; and here checks himself for it; and especially since the mercies and compassions of God never fail, and are daily renewed; and the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let us search and try our ways,.... stead of murmuring and complaining, let us search for something that may support and comfort, teach and instruct, under afflictive providences; let us search into the love of God, which, though it cannot be fully searched out, it will be found to be from everlasting to everlasting; and that all afflictions...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands,.... Lifting up of the hands is a prayer gesture, and is put for prayer itself; see Psalms 141:2; but the heart must go along with it, or it is of no avail; the soul must be lifted up to God; there must be an ascending of that unto him, in earnest desires after him; in affection and love to him; in faith...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
We have transgressed, and have rebelled,.... Here begins the prayer, the sense of which is directed to, though the words are not dictated; and it begins with confession of sin, as prayer should, especially when in such circumstances as the people of the Jews now were; and with confession of it, as a transgression of the law of God; and as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast covered with anger,.... Either himself; not as a tender father, that cannot bear to see the affliction of a child; this does not suit with anger; but rather as one greatly displeased, in whose face anger appears, being covered with it; or who covers his face with it, that he may not be seen, withdrawing his gracious presence; or hast put...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud,.... With wrath and anger, as a cloud; he wrapped up himself in thick darkness, so as not to be seen or come at: sin, when it appears not pardoned, is as a cloud between God and his people; and this causes him to show his anger and displeasure; which is the cloud about him, Or the hiding of his face. The...