Man of Affliction: Chapter 3 constitutes a new and complete poem. Like the two chapters that precede it, it is marked by a complete acrostic. Unlike the previous chapters where each verse started with a successive letter of the alphabet, in chapter 3 each letter repeats at the start of three verses before going on to the next letter. Thus, there are sixty-six verses, not twenty-two verses. However, since the verses are shorter in chapter 3, the overall length of the chapters is approximately the same.

The new poem also has a new speaker. So far we have heard the voice of the poet/narrator and the voice of Zion personified as a woman. Chapter 3 begins, I am the man who has seen affliction. The first person speech continues through verse 39, where it shifts to first person plural. It reverts …