Bible Reader

Lamentations 1

¹How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

²She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

³Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

⁴The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

⁵Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

⁶And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

⁷Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

⁸Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

⁹Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

¹⁰The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

¹¹All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

¹²Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

¹³From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.

¹⁴The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

¹⁵The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

¹⁶For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

¹⁷Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.

¹⁸The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

¹⁹I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.

²⁰Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

²¹They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.

²²Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

on Lamentations 1

The Nation’s Disgrace

The plight of the city (vv. 1–11). The Jewish people were proud of the city of Jerusalem, for it was their capital city and the home of their holy temple (Ps. 48; 84; 87; 122; 125; 137). The Jebusites originally controlled Zion, but David and Joab wrested it from them (2 Sam. 5:6–10; 1 Chron. 11:4–9). Though it was called “the city of David” (1 Kings 8:1; 2 Chron. 5:2), it was the Lord who was enthroned on Zion (Ps. 9:11; Isa. 8:18). Zion was “the mountain of the Lord” (Isa. 2:3). For this reason, the Jews thought their city was impregnable, particularly because the Lord’s house was there. But God would rather His city and temple be destroyed by pagans than to have His name disgraced by the wicked lives of His people.

The image is that of a beautiful princess who has been violated and disgraced and left alone to lament her plight. The city is called “the daughter of Zion” (1:6; 2:1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 18), “the daughter of Judah” (1:15; 2:2), and “the daughter of Jerusalem” (2:13, 15). At one time, she cared for a large family, but now she was a lonely widow for whom nobody seemed to care (Ex. 22:22–24; Deut. 24:19–21; Isa. 1:17). Had God forgotten to protect the widows (Deut. 10:18)? She was desolate (vv. 4, 13), a word used to describe Tamar after she had been raped (2 Sam. 13:20). Once she was a princess who had collected tribute from other nations, but now she was a vassal nation herself and forced to give up her treasures (“pleasant things”; vv. 7, 10–11).

Instead of trusting the Lord, Judah had trusted many “lovers” and “friends”—the heathen nations allied with her—but they had failed her, and now she was forsaken. Judah not only turned to other nations for help, but she even worshipped their gods (Jer. 2:36–37; 27:1–11; 37:5–10). The nation had been “married” to Jehovah at Mount Sinai, so the Lord considered her actions the equivalent of adultery. She had rejected the Lord, her allies had abandoned her, and therefore she had no comfort (vv. 2, 9, 16–17, 21). The Lord had set aside the nation of Israel for Himself and she was not “reckoned among the nations” (Num. 23:9), but now she had been taken into captivity and had to dwell with the Babylonians. God had given Israel rest in her own land (Ex. 33:14; Deut. 3:20; Josh. 1:13–15; 21:44), but she would have no rest in Babylon (Deut. 28:65). Year after year, the pilgrims had made their way to the city to celebrate the great feasts (Lev. 23), but now the roads were empty and there was nothing to celebrate. The priests had no temple, the people had no joy, and the virgins wept because

The Nation’s disgrace

there were no men available to marry them.

The people of Judah shouldn’t have been surprised at what happened to the nation and the city, because both Isaiah and Jeremiah had announced the coming invasion of the Babylonian army. In the terms of the covenant (Deut. 28—30), Moses had warned Israel that God would chasten them if they disobeyed. When she was faithful to God, Israel had been the “head,” the chief nation; but now Babylon would be the “head” and Israel the “tail” (v. 5; Deut. 28:44). Israel’s army would be defeated (Deut. 28:25) and the people would go into exile (Deut. 28:32). Why did God chasten Judah? Because of “the multitude of her transgressions” (v. 5; see 8–9, 18–20). Two facts stand out in this book: The nation had sinned and deserved chastening, and God was the one who chastened them (1:12–15,17; 2:1–8,17; 3:1,37–38,43–45; 4:11).

When the enemy broke through the walls, the leaders fled like frightened deer, but they were caught and condemned (Jer. 38:14–28; 39:1–7). Had King Zedekiah listened to Jeremiah, the people, the city, and the temple would have been saved, but the king trusted his allies instead of the Lord (2 Chron. 26:2). Jerusalem became unclean (v. 8) and like a harlot was shamefully exposed (v. 17; Jer. 13:20–27). The people kept on sinning and didn’t consider that their sins would lead to discipline and destruction (Deut. 32:28–29). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). The enemy entered the temple precincts (Deut. 23:3) and took Israel’s sacred treasures, and the people had to use their wealth to buy the bare necessities of life.

The plea of the city for sympathy and help (vv. 12–19). Note the repetition of “the Lord” in this passage. The Lord afflicted Jerusalem (vv. 12–14a); the Lord delivered Jerusalem into enemy hands (v. 14b); the Lord trampled the people under the feet of the enemy (v. 15); the Lord commanded the enemy to attack (v. 17); and “the Lord is righteous” (v. 18). The prophet knew that God was in control of history and that the Babylonian army was serving Him. The enemy showed no mercy as the anger of the Lord was poured out during the invasion (1:12; 2:1, 3, 6, 21; 3:43; 4:11). God’s anger is a holy anger, directed against sin. According to the law of Moses, if a priest’s daughter was guilty of immorality, she was burned to death (Lev. 21:9). Israel was a kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6), but she had betrayed the Lord and consorted with idols.

Along with the image of fire, Jeremiah used other pictures to describe the terrible plight of the people. They were caught in a net like animals (v. 13; Ezek. 12:13) and left desolate and faint. The people who had been freed from bondage by the Lord were now under the yoke of a pagan foreign nation (v. 14). Both Jeremiah (Jer. 27—28) and Moses (Deut. 28:48) had warned them about yokes. Sin always promises freedom but brings bondage. The people were trodden underfoot and crushed, like grapes in a winepress (v. 15; see Rev. 14:17–20). The nation was drinking the cup of judgment as Jeremiah had warned (Jer. 25:15ff.). Their joy was turned into tears (v. 16; 2:11; 3:48), but nobody offered them comfort or dried their tears. Jeremiah had wept copiously because of the sins