---
title: "Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 5"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "John Owen"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 68 of 107
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-5/68/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. John Owen, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 5, section 68. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-5/68/"
---

# Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 5

*John Calvin, tr. John Owen*

Calvin on Jeremiah and Lamentations, volume 5 of 5.

## 68. Lamentations 3:5

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-5/68/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-5/68/#p-N

[¶0] Lamentations 3:5 5. He hath builded against me, and encompassed me with gall and travail. 5. Ædificavit contra me, et circumdedit felle et molestia.

[¶1] The words, as translated, may seem harsh, yet they have no common beauty in Hebrew. The Prophet says he was blocked up and straitened as it were by walls; and as we shall see, he repeats this comparison three times; in other words, indeed, but for the same purpose.

[¶2] God, he says, hath built against me, as, when we wish to besiege any one, we build mounds, so that there may be no escape. This, then, is the sort of building of which the Prophet now speaks: God, he says, holds me confined all around, so that there is no way of escape open to me.

[¶3] He then gives a clearer explanation, that he was surrounded by gall or poison and trouble. He mentions poison first, and then, without a figure, he shews what that poison was, even that he was afflicted with many troubles. He afterwards adds, —

### Lamentations 3:6

[¶5] Lamentations 3:6 6. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. 6. In tenebris jacere me fecit tanquam mortuos seculi.

[¶6] Here he amplifies what he had before said of poison and trouble; he says that he was placed in darkness, not that he might be there for a little while, but remain there for a long time; he hath made me, he says, to dwell in darkness. But the comparison which follows more clearly explains the Prophet’s meaning, as the dead of ages. The word עולם, oulam, may refer to future or past time. Some say, as the dead for ever, who are perpetually dead. But the Scripture elsewhere calls those the dead of ages who have been long buried, and have decayed, and whose memory has become nearly extinct. For as long as the dead body retains its form, it seems more like a living being; but when it is reduced to ashes, when no bone appears, when the whole skin and nerves and blood have perished, and no likeness to man remains, there can then be no hope of life. The Scripture then calls those the dead of ages, who have wholly decayed. So also in this place the Prophet says, that he dwelt in darkness, into which he had been cast by God’s hand, and that he dwelt there as though he had been long dead, and his body had become now putrid.

[¶7] This way of speaking appears indeed hyperbolical; but we must always remember what I have reminded you of, that it is not possible sufficiently to set forth the greatness of that sorrow which the faithful feel when terrified by the wrath of God. He then adds, —

### Lamentations 3:7

[¶9] Lamentations 3:7 7. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. 7 Sepsit me, ut non egrediar; aggravavit compedem meum.

[¶10] Here he says, first, that he was held shut up; for גדר, gidar, is to enclose, and גדרה, gidare, means a fence or a mound, or an enclosure of any kind. He then says, that he was shut up as it were by a fence, so that he could not go forth; literally, it is, and I shall not go forth; but the conjunction here is to be taken as denoting the end. He has shut me up, he says, or he has enclosed me, that I might not get out.

[¶11] It then follows, He hath made heavy my fetter. His meaning is, that he was not only bound with fetters, but so bound that he could not raise up his feet, as though he had said, that he not only had fetters, but that they were so heavy that he could not even move his feet.