Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
The Prophet says that from the mouth of the most High proceed good and evil By “mouth” he means his decree. God indeed does not always declare that he is a judge; he has often executed punishment on the wicked, as it were, in silence; for there were no prophets among the heathens to proclaim the judgments he brought on them.
No design of man comes to pass unless God ordains it; the Chaldeans said they would destroy Jerusalem, but it happened because God commanded it. Men are tools in God's hands, managing themselves as He pleases, and nothing they contrive succeeds unless His counsel determined it beforehand.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 3:37-41
We have transgressed, and have rebelled,.... Here begins the prayer, the sense of which is directed to, though the words are not dictated; and it begins with confession of sin, as prayer should, especially when in such circumstances as the people of the Jews now were; and with confession of it, as a transgression of the law of God; and as rebellion against him, as...