Lamentations 3
Ezekiel 3 shows how Ezekiel receives a call from God and, as a prophet, carries out his commission in earnest. God commands Ezekiel to eat the scroll and entrusts him with the message he must deliver to the people of Israel. This chapter deeply explores the prophet Ezekiel’s calling, the responsibility of delivering God’s word, and the prophet’s anguish and preparation process.
1verseI am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2verseHe has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3verseSurely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
4verseHe has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
5verseHe has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6verseHe has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
7verseHe has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
8verseYes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9verseHe has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
10verseHe is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11verseHe has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12verseHe has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13verseHe has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14verseI have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
15verseHe has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
16verseHe has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
17verseYou have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
18verseI said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”
19verseRemember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20verseMy soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21verseThis I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
22verseIt is because of the LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail.
23verseThey are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24verse“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
25verseThe LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26verseIt is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
27verseIt is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28verseLet him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29verseLet him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
30verseLet him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
31verseFor the Lord will not cast off forever.
32verseFor though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33verseFor he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34verseTo crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35verseto turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36verseto subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37verseWho is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38verseDoesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39verseWhy should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40verseLet us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
41verseLet’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42verse“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43verse“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44verseYou have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45verseYou have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46verse“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47verseTerror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48verseMy eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49verseMy eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50verseuntil the LORD looks down, and sees from heaven.
51verseMy eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52verseThey have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53verseThey have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54verseWaters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55verseI called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.
56verseYou heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57verseYou came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58verseLord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59verseLORD, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60verseYou have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61verseYou have heard their reproach, LORD, and all their plans against me,
62versethe lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63verseYou see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64verseYou will pay them back, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
65verseYou will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66verseYou will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.
The Flow and Structure of the Text
- Verses 1-3: This is the scene where Ezekiel eats the scroll. Even though the scroll contains something bitter, it feels sweet in his mouth, which symbolizes the essence of God’s word.
- Verses 4-11: God tells Ezekiel that he is being sent to the people of Israel—indeed, to a rebellious people. What stands out is that God has chosen his own people as his target, not Gentile nations.
- Verses 12-15: Led by the Spirit, Ezekiel comes to dwell among his own people. He feels great agitation in his heart and waits for the words God will give him in silence.
- Verses 16-21: Ezekiel is given the role of watchman. The text explains the responsibility involved in warning the wicked and the righteous and the accountability when he fails to carry out that duty.
- Verses 22-27: Ezekiel experiences God’s presence again, and he will have his speech bound for a time, yet he is told that he will speak only at God’s appointed time.
Key Messages and Symbolism
In chapter 3, what is emphasized repeatedly is the weight and seriousness that those entrusted with God’s word must bear. It contains both aspects of life as a prophet—happiness and suffering—the people’s responses when the message is delivered, and the purity of those who receive the word. In particular, the symbolic act of eating the scroll shows that the prophet fully accepts God’s word into his own life and cannot separate that word from his very being.
Points to Ponder
- Am I truly receiving God’s word into my life with sincerity?
- What do I think about the responsibility of a watchman who must proclaim the truth in every situation?
- How am I interpreting God’s guidance and times of silence in my life?
Apply It to Me
- I reflect on whether I have the courage to speak the right words in the community or family I belong to.
- I also check whether I have the wisdom to sometimes be silent, endure patiently, and wait for God’s will.
- I pursue a way of life that embeds God’s word not only as knowledge but deeply in my life and puts it into practice.
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