Lamentations 3:13

He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) The arrows of his quiver.—Literally, children. The other side of the analogy appears in Psalm 127:5.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-20 The prophet relates the more gloomy and discouraging part of his experience, and how he found support and relief. In the time of his trial the Lord had become terrible to him. It was an affliction that was misery itself; for sin makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. The struggle between unbelief and faith is often very severe. But the weakest believer is wrong, if he thinks that his strength and hope are perished from the Lord.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This new simile arises out of the former one, the idea of a hunter being suggested by that of the bear and lion. When the hunter comes, it is not to save him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13-15. arrows—literally, "sons" of His quiver (compare Job 6:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That is, he hath made his judgments to pierce the most inward parts of the nation; or, he hath mortally wounded me. In the Hebrew it is,

the daughters of his quiver, a way of speaking very usual in Hebrew, to express any thing that comes from another as the effect either of a natural or moral cause; so sparks are called the sons of the quick coal, Job 5:7, and corn the son of the floor, &c.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He hath caused the arrows of his quiver,.... Or, "the sons of his quiver" (i); an usual Hebraism; the quiver is compared, as Aben Ezra observes, to a pregnant woman; and Horace has a like expression, "venenatis gravidam sagittis pharetram" (k); the judgments of God are often signified by this metaphor, even his four sore ones, sword, famine, pestilence, and noisome beast, Deuteronomy 32:23; these, says the prophet, he caused

to enter into my reins; that is, into the midst of his land and people, or into the city of Jerusalem; or these affected his mind and heart as if so many arrows had stuck in him, the poison of which drank up his spirits, Job 6:4.

(i) "filios pharetrae suae", Montanus, Munster, Cocceius, Michaelis. (k) L. 1. Ode 22.

Geneva Study Bible

He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. shafts] lit. as mg. the more poetical sons.

reins] See on Jeremiah 12:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - This verse seems strangely short - it consists of only four words in the Hebrew, Probably something like "his weapons," or "the weapons of death" (Psalm 7:13), has fallen out. Restore them, and the verse becomes a two-membered one, like its companions. To enter into my reins. So Job (Job 16:12), "He cleaveth my reins asunder." "Reins," equivalent to "inward parts," like "heart," with which it is often combined; e.g. Jeremiah 11:20; Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 20:12. Lamentations 3:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"He hath bent His bow," as in Lamentations 2:4. The second member, "He hath made me the mark for His arrows," is taken almost verbatim from Job 16:12. The arrows are the ills and sorrows appointed by God; cf. Deuteronomy 32:23; Psalm 38:3; Job 6:4.