He has set me in dark places, like they that are long dead.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 3:6 Go To Lamentations 3
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
Verse 4 views the effect of divine blows. It is like a livid spot on a person's body, the effect from a rod inflicting blows. So, about this are three more views.
First is the weakening of powers of an entire people. For: "He has made my flesh": 'by which people eternally existing: ftand my skin waste away": in which are delicate bones. Also: "my bones": in which are a strong warrior people. So, the Book of Baruch 3:10 says: "Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies that you are growing old in a foreign country?"
Second is the siege of those people already weakening. Since Verse 5 reports: "He has besieged and enveloped me," Namely, the besieging army: "with bitterness and trubulation." That is, by an army that inflicts labor and bitterness on me. As Job 7:12 asks: "Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that thou settest a guard over me?"
Third, the imprisonment of those persons captured is considered. As expressed in Verse 6: "He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago." And Psalm 143 (l42):3 says: "he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead."
Thus, these ideas canbe referred to the prophet Jeremiah himself. Since, he himself has been confined by many obstacles, and also against his own body, and hidden in a prison.
