| Geneva Study Bible I am the man that hath seen {a} affliction by the rod of his wrath. (a) The prophet complains of the punishments and afflictions that he endured by the false prophets and hypocrites when he declared the destruction of Jerusalem, as in Jer 20:1,2. Wesley's Notes 3:1 I am the man - It seems, this is spoken in the name of the people, who were before set out under the notion of a woman. Scofield Reference Notes [1] Chapter 3 The literary form of Lamentations is necessarily obscured in the translation. It is an acrostic dirge, the line arranged in couplets or triplet, each of which begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the third Lament, which consists of sixty-six stanzas instead of twenty-two, each line of each triplet begins with the same letter, so that the entire sixty six verses are required to give the twenty-two letters of the alphabet. Thus verses 1-3 or our version form but three lines of the original, each line beginning with A, etc. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary CHAPTER (ELEGY) 3 La 3:1-66. Jeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural (La 3:22, 40-47). The stanzas consist of three lines, each of which begins with the same Hebrew letter. Aleph. 1-3. seen affliction-his own in the dungeon of Malchiah (Jer 38:6); that of his countrymen also in the siege. Both were types of that of Christ. 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. | 
