Harmljóðin 3:43

Heilögum Biblíunni

43 þú hefir hulið þig í reiði og ofsótt oss, myrt vægðarlaust,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

covered: Lamentations 2:1, Psalms 44:19

persecuted: Lamentations 3:66, Psalms 83:15

thou hast slain: Lamentations 2:2, Lamentations 2:17, Lamentations 2:21, 2 Chronicles 36:16, 2 Chronicles 36:17, Ezekiel 7:9, Ezekiel 8:18, Ezekiel 9:10

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thou hast covered with anger,.... Either himself; not as a tender father, that cannot bear to see the affliction of a child; this does not suit with anger; but rather as one greatly displeased, in whose face anger appears, being covered with it; or who covers his face with it, that he may not be seen, withdrawing his gracious presence; or hast put anger as a wall between thee and us, as Jarchi: so that there was no coming nigh to him: or else it means covering his people with it; so the Targum,

"thou hast covered "us" with anger;''

denoting the largeness and abundance of afflictions upon them; they were as it were covered with them, as tokens of the divine displeasure; one wave and billow after another passing over them. Sanctius thinks the allusion is to the covering of the faces of condemned malefactors, as a token of their being guilty:

and persecuted us; the Targum adds, in captivity; that is, pursued and followed us with fresh instances of anger and resentment; to have men to be persecutors is bad, but to have God to be a persecutor is dreadful:

thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied; had suffered them to be stain by the sword of the enemy, and had shown no compassion to them;

:-; here, and in some following verses, the prophet, or the people he represents, are got to complaining again; though before he had checked himself for it; so hard it is under afflictions to put in practice what should be done by ourselves and others.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In verses 43-66, far from pardoning, God is still actively punishing His people.

Rather, “Thou hast covered” Thyself “with wrath and pursued (Lamentations 1:3 note) us.” The covering (here and in Lamentations 3:44) is that of clothing and enwrapping.