New Study: Lamentations 1:1-11

This chapter of Lamentations was written as an acrostic poem, the original verses of which began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

1 How deserted lies the city,

    once so full of people!

How like a widow is she,

    who once was great among the nations!

She who was queen among the provinces

    has now become a slave.

2 Bitterly she weeps at night,

    tears are on her cheeks.

Among all her lovers

    there is no one to comfort her.

All her friends have betrayed her;

    they have become her enemies.

3 After affliction and harsh labor,

    Judah has gone into exile.

She dwells among the nations;

    she finds no resting place.

All who pursue her have overtaken her

    in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,

    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.

All her gateways are desolate,

    her priests groan,

her young women grieve,

    and she is in bitter anguish.

5 Her foes have become her masters;

    her enemies are at ease.

The LORD has brought her grief

    because of her many sins.

Her children have gone into exile,

    captive before the foe.

6 All the splendor has departed

    from Daughter Zion.

Her princes are like deer

    that find no pasture;

in weakness they have fled

    before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and wandering

    Jerusalem remembers all the treasures

    that were hers in days of old.

When her people fell into enemy hands,

    there was no one to help her.

Her enemies looked at her

    and laughed at her destruction.

8 Jerusalem has sinned greatly

    and so has become unclean.

All who honored her despise her,

    for they have all seen her naked;

she herself groans

    and turns away.

9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts;

    she did not consider her future.

Her fall was astounding;

    there was none to comfort her.

“Look, LORD, on my affliction,

    for the enemy has triumphed.”

10 The enemy laid hands

    on all her treasures;

she saw pagan nations

    enter her sanctuary—

those you had forbidden

    to enter your assembly.

11 All her people groan

    as they search for bread;

they barter their treasures for food

    to keep themselves alive.

“Look, LORD, and consider,

    for I am despised.”

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary -- www.christianity.com)

"The prophet sometimes speaks in his own person; at other times Jerusalem, as a distressed female, is the speaker, or some of the Jews. The description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem became a captive and a slave, by reason of the greatness of her sins; and had no rest from suffering. If we allow sin, our greatest adversary, to have dominion over us, justly will other enemies also be suffered to have dominion. The people endured the extremities of famine and distress. In this sad condition Jerusalem acknowledged her sin, and entreated the LORD to look upon her case. This is the only way to make ourselves easy under our burdens; for it is the just anger of the LORD for man's transgressions, that has filled the earth with sorrows, lamentations, sickness, and death."