Lamentations 3:52-57

צ (Tsade)

3:52 For no good reason ¹  my enemies

hunted me down ²  like a bird.

3:53 They shut me ³  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ⁴  I was about to die. ⁵ 

ק (Qof)

3:55 I have called on your name, O Lord,

from the deepest pit. ⁶ 

3:56 You heard ⁷  my plea: ⁸ 

“Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!” ⁹ 

3:57 You came near ¹⁰  on the day I called to you;

you said, ¹¹  “Do not fear!”

[3:52]  ¹ tn Heb “without cause.”

[3:52]  ² tn The construction צוֹד צָדוּנִי (tsod tsaduni, “they have hunted me down”) is emphatic: Qal infinitive absolute of the same root of Qal perfect 3rd person common plural + 1st person common singular suffix.

[3:53]  ³ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ⁵ tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ⁶ tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).

[3:55]  ⁷ tn Heb “from a pit of lowest places.”

[3:56]  ⁹ tn The verb could be understood as a precative, “hear my plea,” parallel to the following volitive verb, “do not close.”

[3:56]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my voice.”

[3:56]  ¹¹ tn The preposition ל (lamed) continues syntactically from “my plea” in the previous line (e.g. Ex 5:2; Josh 22:2; 1 Sam 8:7; 12:1; Jer 43:4).

[3:57]  ¹¹ tn The verb could be understood as a precative (“Draw near”). The perspective of the poem seems to be that of prayer during distress rather than a testimony that God has delivered.

[3:57]  ¹² tn The verb could be understood as a precative (“Say”).