Matthew Poole and continuators on Lamentations 3:37

37 ¶ Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the LORD commandeth it not .

The sense of these words is doubted by none. That nothing cometh to pass in the World, but by the disposal of Divine Providence either effecting it by an immediate influence, but to what end these words are brought in this place is not so generally agreed. Some think they are brought in to check the Blasphemy of some that spake of what had befallen the Iews as a thing which God had no hand in. Others think they are brought in as expounding that term that went before, The Lord seeth not. Though God doth not approve of sinful actions, nor incline any mans Heart or Will to them, yet God hath an hand in the permission of the most cruel and unjust actions, which he could easily hinder. I should rather incline to interpret them as an argument brought by the Prophet in the name of the People of God, arguing themselves into a quiet submission to the afflictive Providences under which they laboured from the consideration of the Superior hand of God in them, as Christ told Pilate, Thou couldst not have had any power against me, if it had not been given thee from above: Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it, Amos 3.6.

Marginal references: Psal. 33.9.