Lamentations 3:65

(65) Sorrow of heart—Literally, covering, with a sense like that of the “veil upon the heart” of 2Co_3:15, and so signifying the blindness of obstinacy. The imperatives in both Lam_3:65-66 are better rendered as futures—Thou shalt give; Thou shalt persecute.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lam 3:65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

Ver. 65. Give them sorrow of heart.] In place of their mad mirth and sinful music; turn their psalm - as the Vulgate rendereth the word music in the foregoing verse - into a black santis, as they call it, ferale carmen, a doleful ditty. Dabis eis scutum cordis, saith the Vulgate. And, indeed, the word rendered sorrow signifieth a shield or cover. It noteth, saith one, the cardiaca passio, {a} whereby the heart is so oppressed, and there is such a stopping, that it is as it were covered sicut scute, as with a shield; there is a lid, as it were, put over the heart to keep off the most refreshing cordials, and so the heart is suffocated with sorrow. {b} It is as if he should say, Put them into such a condition that no creature may yield them the least refreshment. Spira was in this condition.

Thy curse upon them.] All the curses written and unwritten in thy book. This is not more a prayer than a prophecy. How effectual Christ’s curse is, may be seen in the withered fig tree in the Gospel, presently dried up by the roots.

{a} A Lapide.

{b} Mr Burrough’s Hos. Operculum cordis, vel apostema cordis.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, an obstinate heart.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

sorrow--rather, blindness or hardness; literally, "a veil" covering their heart, so that they may rush on to their own ruin (Isa 6:10; Co2 3:14-15).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 65. Give them sorrow of heart] They shall have a callous heart, covered with obstinacy, and thy execration. The former is their state, the latter their fate. This is the consequence of their hardening their hearts from thy fear. Blayney translates, "Thou wilt give with a hearty concordance thy curse unto them." That is, Thou wilt give it to them freely, and without reserve; intimating that God felt no longer any bowels of compassion for them. Formerly he inflicted punishments with reluctance, while there was any hope of amendment: but, in the instance before us, the case was so hopeless, that God acts according to the simple principle of vindictive justice. The prophet therefore considers them on the utmost verge of final reprobation: another plunge, and they are lost for ever.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He expresses what the vengeance was to be, even that God would give them up to a reprobate mind; for by מגנת-לב, meganet-leb, he no doubt meant the blindness of the heart, and at the same time included stupidity, as though he had said, “O Lord, so oppress them with evils, that they may become stupified.” For it is an extremity of evil, when we are so overpowered as not to be as it were ourselves, and when our evils do not drive us to prayer.

We now then perceive what the Prophet meant by asking God to give to his enemies the impediment of heart, even that he might take away a sound mind, and smite them with blindness and madness, as it is said elsewhere. — I run on quickly, that I may finish, lest the hour should prevent us. The last verse of this triple alphabet follows, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

65. hardness] or, as mg. blindness, Heb. covering. Cp. 2Co_3:15.

thy curse unto them] dependent on “wilt give,” or meaning, thy curse shall be unto them. Either of these explanations is more in accordance with the context than to make the clause an imprecation, May thy curse be upon them!

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Buckler, to cover all the body. They shall be surrounded with misery, (Psalm cviii. 29.) while God will protect his servants, Psalm v. 13. (Calmet) --- Let sorrow pierce their heart, as thy enemies are treated. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The word translated

sorrow of heart is found no where else in holy writ, which makes a certain particular explication of it to be difficult, and hath given interpreters a strange liberty in translating it shield, sorrow, and grief, obstinacy or hardness of heart, perplexity, abjection or breaking of heart; the best guides we have to direct us in the sense of it are,

1. The other things joined with it; persecution, destruction, a recompence according to their works, so that some afflictive evil of a heavy nature is certainly signified by it.

2. The analogy of faith, which restraineth us from wishing or praying for spiritual or eternal evils against our worst enemies; it therefore probably signifies such perplexity and breakings of mind as commonly attend a state of great affliction.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Sorrow of heart; rather, a covering of the heart; spiritual blindness, like the "veil upon the heart" in 2Co_3:15. Thy curse unto them. This should rather form a separate interjectional clause, "Thy curse upon them!"

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Give them a weakness of heart Heb. מְגִנַת לֵב, a breaking of the heart, as Scripture says: (Hosea 11:8): “I shall break you (אֲמַגֶנְךָ), O Israel”; (Gen. 14:20): “who broke (מִגֵן) your adversaries in your hand.” Another explanation: מְגִנַתלֵב, stopping up of the heart, trouble and sighing, which are like a shield against the heart. But he who explains it as an expression of grief (תּוּגָה וְיָגוֹן) is in error, for there is no “nun” in this word, for the “nun” in יָגוֹן is not a radical, but is like the “nun” of הָמוֹן from the root of הָמוּ גוֹיִם and like קָלוֹן from the root of נִקְלֶה, and like the “nun” of צִיוֹן from the root of צִיָה and so the “nun” of שִּׁבְרוֹן from the root of שֶּׁבֶר (and like the “nun” of שִּׁגָעוֹן, שְּׁמָמוֹן. It appears to me that this is the correct reading, and this is easy to understand.)

Your curse An expression of (Isa. 19: 13): נוֹאֲלוּ שָׂרֵי צֹעַן, “The princes of Zoan have become foolish.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.