Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
The Prophet confirms the same thing, but the words are different. He again repeats the word to cover; but, that the metaphor might be clearer and more fully explained, he says, with a cloud. He simply intimates, that a cloud interposed, that God might more unrestrainedly punish the Jews, as they had deserved.
It is easier to chide ourselves for complaining than to chide ourselves out of it. The Prophet owns his sin and calls it rebellion, laying the load upon himself; yet the wound bleeds afresh when he considers that his sins are confessed but not pardoned, his case pitiable but unpitied. In sharp trials we must think and speak kindly of God even when our souls are cast down.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 3:42-54
Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not,.... From weeping, as the Targum: the prophet was continually weeping; the distresses of his people were always uppermost in his mind; and which so affected him, that it drew tears from his eyes, which constantly trickled down his cheeks: without any intermission; or, "without intermissions" (n); there were no stops or pauses in his grief, and in the...