Lamentations 1
22 verses
Lamentations opens with Jerusalem's desolation following the Babylonian destruction, employing an acrostic structure where the alphabetical arrangement paradoxically contains chaos within order. The personified city sits in solitude and mourning, bereft of her former glory and reduced to servitude under foreign rulers, her plea "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?" expressing profound isolation and abandonment. The chapter establishes the theological framework of divine judgment executed upon Jerusalem for her unfaithfulness, yet even in this raw grief, the poet acknowledges that "the Lord is righteous; I have rebelled against his command." The acrostic form itself becomes a vehicle for processing trauma systematically, suggesting that even devastation can be contained within theological order. This opening sets the tone for a lament that oscillates between accusation, confession, and supplication, reflecting the complex emotional responses to covenant violation and national catastrophe. The chapter's theology insists that God's justice, though severing and merciless in appearance, remains fundamentally connected to Israel's own infidelity.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
How 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!
0 1Open verse page →
2
She 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.
0 0Open verse page →
3
Judah 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.
0 1Open verse page →
4
The 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.
0 0Open verse page →
God is faithful in every circumstance.. The imagery here is agricultural — the original audience would have immediately ...
5
Her 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.
2 1Open verse page →
6
And 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.
0 1Open verse page →
7
Jerusalem 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.
0 1Open verse page →
8
Jerusalem 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.
0 0Open verse page →
9
Her 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.
0 2Open verse page →
10
The 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.
0 2Open verse page →
The thread of covenant runs through every book of the Bible.. God is faithful in every circumstance.. My grandmother use...
11
All 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.
1 1Open verse page →
The early church would have heard this very differently than we do today. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God is...
12
Is 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.
2 1Open verse page →
13
From 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.
0 0Open verse page →
14
The 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.
0 1Open verse page →
This is one of those passages that reads differently in every season of life. The early church would have heard this ver...
15
The 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.
1 1Open verse page →
16
For 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.
0 0Open verse page →
17
Zion 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.
0 1Open verse page →
18
The 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.
0 1Open verse page →
I love how this passage doesn't shy away from the difficulty of obedience. God is faithful in every circumstance.. God m...
19
I 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.
1 0Open verse page →
20
Behold, 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.
0 0Open verse page →
21
They 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.
0 0Open verse page →
22
Let 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.
0 1Open verse page →
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
No notes on this chapter yet. Be the first to write one!