Single lesson
Lamentations 3: The Prophet’s Afflictions
Lamentations 3:1–18; Lamentations 3:19–36; Lamentations 3:37–66
This poem speaks in the first person about deep suffering. The speaker describes affliction, darkness, pain and lost hope in words that are vivid and heavy, helping readers hear the weight of grief rather than rushing past it. This lesson also brings together The Prophet’s Hope, God’s Justice.
Before you teach
Lamentations 3:1–18 is poetry and song. In these verses, one speaker repeatedly says "he has" and describes suffering in many images: darkness, brokenness, blocked paths, danger, mockery, bitterness and the loss of peace and expectation from Yahweh.
Explain the central teaching of Lamentations 3: The Prophet’s Afflictions, using two details from the reading. This passage gives honest poetic words for intense suffering, including the painful feeling that help, peace and hope have been taken away. This passage shows hope rising in suffering through remembering Yahweh’s mercy, faithfulness and compassion, while also stating what the Lord does not approve. This poem shows that sufferers may confess sin honestly, cry to God from grief, and place justice in his hands.
Welcome: Lamentations 3: The Prophet’s Afflictions
5 minIntroduce “The Prophet’s Afflictions”, “The Prophet’s Hope”, “God’s Justice” and locate Lamentations 3:1–18; Lamentations 3:19–36; Lamentations 3:37–66. This passage gives honest poetic words for intense suffering, including the painful feeling that help, peace and hope have been taken away. Invite each learner to name a detail or question they will listen for.
Lamentations 3:1, Lamentations 3:10, Lamentations 3:18
Read and explain the passage
12 minThe Prophet’s Afflictions (Lamentations 3:1–18): The poem opens with a personal claim: “I am the man who has seen affliction”. The suffering is linked with “the rod of his wrath”, then pictured as walking “in darkness, and not in light”. The repeated “again and again all day long” shows pain that feels constant, not momentary.
The Prophet’s Hope (Lamentations 3:19–36): The poem begins with affliction, misery, wormwood and bitterness. The soul remembers these things and is bowed down. Then a change comes, not because pain is denied, but because the speaker says, “This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.” Hope starts with what is brought back into view.
God’s Justice (Lamentations 3:37–66): The opening asks who can make something happen if the Lord has not commanded it. It also says both evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High. Because people are living under punishment for sins, the poem calls them to examine their ways and turn again to Yahweh.
Read the selected verses together, pausing at “The Prophet’s Afflictions”, “The Prophet’s Hope”, “God’s Justice”. Use the source reading below and check the explanation against the words of the passage.
Lamentations 3:1, Lamentations 3:2, Lamentations 3:3, Lamentations 3:19, Lamentations 3:20, Lamentations 3:21, Lamentations 3:37, Lamentations 3:38, Lamentations 3:39, Lamentations 3:40
Discuss the details and their meaning
8 minUse the three questions below. Begin with “Which repeated images make the suffering feel trapped and inescapable?” and allow time to find the supporting verses. This poem shows that sufferers may confess sin honestly, cry to God from grief, and place justice in his hands. Ask learners to explain which details support their answer and to identify a question they would like to explore further.
Lamentations 3:2, Lamentations 3:7, Lamentations 3:8, Lamentations 3:9, Lamentations 3:22, Lamentations 3:23, Lamentations 3:24, Lamentations 3:48, Lamentations 3:49, Lamentations 3:50, Lamentations 3:55, Lamentations 3:56
Make and respond: Words and images response sheet
12 minWork on “Lamentations 3: The Prophet’s Afflictions: Words and images response sheet”. Follow the materials and steps below, using “The Prophet’s Afflictions”, “The Prophet’s Hope”, “God’s Justice” as reading headings. Each learner should include at least two accurate details and their verse references. Share one observation from the finished sheet and explain how it connects with the central teaching.
Lamentations 3:1, Lamentations 3:34, Lamentations 3:66
Closing: return to God’s Justice
3 minRevisit Lamentations 3:37–66. Invite a learner to summarise what the group has learned about God’s Justice and another to support the summary with a verse. Give learners a moment to complete their response sheet. They can share a question or, if appropriate for the group, join the optional prayer.
Lamentations 3:37, Lamentations 3:52, Lamentations 3:66
Questions to explore
Which repeated images make the suffering feel trapped and inescapable?
Look for words about darkness, walls, chains and blocked ways, and notice how they build the poem’s sense of confinement.
Lamentations 3:2, Lamentations 3:7, Lamentations 3:8, Lamentations 3:9
Which words in verses 22 to 24 explain why the speaker hopes in Yahweh?
Look for the lines about loving kindnesses, mercies, faithfulness and “Yahweh is my portion”.
Lamentations 3:22, Lamentations 3:23, Lamentations 3:24
How does the poem describe grief that keeps praying?
Trace the lines about continual tears, waiting for Yahweh to look down, and calling on him from the lowest dungeon.
Lamentations 3:48, Lamentations 3:49, Lamentations 3:50, Lamentations 3:55, Lamentations 3:56
Make, think or respond
Lamentations 3: The Prophet’s Afflictions: Words and images response sheet
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pencils or pens
- a Bible or the source reading on this page
Try it together
- Fold a sheet into three panels or draw three columns. Label them “A repeated word or image”, “Its verse reference”, “What it expresses”.
- Read Lamentations 3:1–18; Lamentations 3:19–36; Lamentations 3:37–66. Use “The Prophet’s Afflictions”, “The Prophet’s Hope”, “God’s Justice” as your reading headings and add a short quotation or detail with its verse reference to each panel.
- Compare your notes with a partner. Check that every quotation is accurate and every conclusion has support in the passage.
- Choose one image and add a short written response or a simple drawing. Explain how it connects with the passage.
The finished sheet keeps the details of Lamentations 3: The Prophet’s Afflictions connected to their Bible references and gives the group a way to explain what they noticed.
Adapt for your group
- For learners who need more support, prepare the reading headings “The Prophet’s Afflictions”, “The Prophet’s Hope”, “God’s Justice” and let them match short quotations to the correct heading.
- For confident readers, compare two sections of Lamentations 3:1–18; Lamentations 3:19–36; Lamentations 3:37–66. Ask for a written explanation with two supporting references and one question that the text leaves open.
An optional closing prayer
“God, help us listen carefully as we read Lamentations 3:1–18; Lamentations 3:19–36; Lamentations 3:37–66. Help us understand what we have read, ask thoughtful questions and respond with care for others. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Lamentations 3
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
3 Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
7 He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding.
11 He has turned away my path, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
14 I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
17 You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
18 I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.”
19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
22 It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail.
23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24 “Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.”
25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
38 Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39 Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
41 Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
42 “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
43 “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
47 Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
50 until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven.
51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
56 You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
57 You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me,
62 the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
63 You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
64 You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.