He adds here a conclusion; for he has hitherto been relating, as I have said, the
JOHN CALVIN
He adds, I am become a song He again sets before God his reproach, east upon him by the ungodly. For that indignity also availed much to lead God not to suffer his people to be unworthily treated. It now follows, ---
Lamentations 3:64
64. Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
64. Repende illis mercedem, Jehova, secundum opus manuum suarum
He adds here a conclusion; for he has hitherto been relating, as I have said, the evils which he suffered, and also the reproaches and unjust oppressions, in order that; he might have God propitious to him; for this is the way of conciliating favor when we are wrongfully dealt with; for it cannot be but that God will sustain our cause. He indeed testifies that he is ready to help the miserable; it is his own peculiar work to deliver captives from prison, to illuminate the blind, to succor the miserable and the oppressed. This is the reason, then, why the Prophet now confidently asks
God to render to his enemies their reward, according to the work of their hands
Were any one to object, and say, that another rule is prescribed to us, even to pray for our enemies, even when they oppress us; the answer is this, that the faithful, when they prayed thus, did not bring any violent feelings of their own, but pure zeal, and rightly formed; for the Prophet here did not pray for evil indiscriminately on all, but on the reprobate, who were perpetually the enemies of God and of his Church. He might then with sincerity of heart have asked God to render to them their just reward.
And whenever the saints broke forth thus against their enemies, and asked God to become an avenger, this principle must be ever borne in mind, that they did not indulge their own wishes, but were so guided by the Holy Spirit --- that moderation was connected with that fervid zeal to which I have referred. The Prophet, then, as he speaks here of the Chaldeans, confidently asked God to destroy them, as we shall again presently see. We find also in the Psalms the same imprecations, especially on Babylon, --- ``Happy he who shall render to thee what thou hast brought on us, who shall dash thy children against a stone.'' (Psalm 137:8, 9.) It follows, ---
Lamentations 3:65
65. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
65. Des illis impedimentum cordis (alii, obstinationem,) maledictionem tuam illis
(vel maledictio tua illis.)
He expresses what the vengeance was to be, even that God would give them up to a reprobate mind; for by {}לב-{,}מגנתmeganet-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. 565
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,
565The word meant "covering, as rendered by the Sept.; the Syr. Has "sorrow," and the Vulg. "shield," which has no meaning. What is no doubt meant is hardness or blindness — Give them blindness of heart: Thy curse be to them. — Ed