Lamentations 3:22

Mercies. Heb. chasadim (see Additional Note on Psalm 36). The plural form of the word here suggests the manifestations of God’s love, which are innumerable in variety and never failing.

Verses 22-41 form the center and climax, not only of this poem, but of the whole five chapters of Lamentations. Here is revealed the sublime truth of the Lord’s real intentions toward His afflicted people. These verses answer in unequivocal positives the many negative questions that may arise from a reading of the chapters that open and close the book. Here Jehovah is revealed as a God who, though He punishes, “doth not afflict willingly” (v. 33), and whose “compassions fail not” (v. 22).