Lamentations 5
English Standard Version

Restore Us to Yourself, O LORD
5 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us;
    look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
    our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless;
    our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink;
    the wood we get must be bought.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks;
    we are weary; we are given no rest.
6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria,
    to get bread enough.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
    and we bear their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us;
    there is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives,
    because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven
    with the burning heat of famine.
11 Women are raped in Zion,
    young women in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands;
    no respect is shown to the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
    and boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The old men have left the city gate,
    the young men their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
    our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head;
    woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart has become sick,
    for these things our eyes have grown dim,
18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
    jackals prowl over it.
19 But you, O LORD, reign forever;
    your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why do you forget us forever,
    why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
    Renew our days as of old--
22 unless you have utterly rejected us,
    and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

This brings us to the end of the writings of Jeremiah, who is considered one of the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets.  When Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I am?," one of the answers was that He had to be Jeremiah or one of the other prophets come back from the dead.  Jeremiah's last words that we have recorded here are a cry to the LORD for restoration.  Judgment is coming, but it will not last forever, and then the LORD will need to remember His people and restore them because of His great love that He has for them.

It would appear from the outside like they have been cast out and abandoned (many make similar arguments now forgetting that the LORD promises an even better restoration for the nation of Israel that is yet to come).  They currently are without land, food, water, or shelter.  They struggle for any of their basic needs to be met.  They are captives of a pagan culture.  They have made deals with evil nations for food and now they do whatever is necessary, even putting their own lives in peril to get food.

They used to be the head, but they are now the tail.  Slaves rule over them.  Those who were once their princes are now common laborers or have been executed.  They lack vision or hope of a better future.  The old men who have survived no longer conduct business and share wisdom at the city gate.  The young men no longer make and play music.  There is no laughter--only mourning and weeping.  No joy--only sorrow.

The people who were once first among all the nations have had the crown fall from their heads.  They have sinned against the LORD and are under the curse of the Law.  Their hearts are sick and where there was once light, there is now nothing but darkness.  The place that was the The City of the Great King is now in ruins a place for jackals.  There is nothing beautiful about The Beautiful Land anymore.  We'll see in the book of Ezekiel that the glory of the LORD departs from that place (not because He abandons His people, but because He makes the journey with them into Exile--He dwells among His people wherever they go).  The glory of the LORD may have departed Jerusalem and the Temple, but one day He would return as the Word made flesh who "tabernacled" among us, and He lives with us today by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah may feel in the moment like the LORD's people are abandoned and forgotten forever, but He has a plan to restore and renew them that would cost Him His own Son.  He would be the one that would be utterly rejected for us.  He would take the anger and wrath upon Himself so that we might have the blessings that only He deserved.  Jeremiah can't quite see the whole picture yet, but God is already going to give a better answer to Jeremiah than he could have ever anticipated when the timing is perfect.  It just isn't time yet, so we continue to wait in anticipation as we come to the end of another book of the Old Testament that points us towards the needs for something better that is fulfilled in the New Testament in the person and work of Jesus.

Lamentations 4
English Standard Version

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered
4 How the gold has grown dim,
    how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
    at the head of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion,
    worth their weight in fine gold,
how they are regarded as earthen pots,
    the work of a potter's hands!

3 Even jackals offer the breast;
    they nurse their young;
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
    like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursing infant sticks
    to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
    but no one gives to them.

5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
    perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
    embrace ash heaps.

6 For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater
    than the punishment of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
    and no hands were wrung for her.

7 Her princes were purer than snow,
    whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
    the beauty of their form was like sapphire.

8 Now their face is blacker than soot;
    they are not recognized in the streets;
their skin has shriveled on their bones;
    it has become as dry as wood.

9 Happier were the victims of the sword
    than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
    by lack of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of compassionate women
    have boiled their own children;
they became their food
    during the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The LORD gave full vent to his wrath;
    he poured out his hot anger,
and he kindled a fire in Zion
    that consumed its foundations.

12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
    nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
    the gates of Jerusalem.

13 This was for the sins of her prophets
    and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
    the blood of the righteous.

14 They wandered, blind, through the streets;
    they were so defiled with blood
that no one was able to touch
    their garments.

15 “Away! Unclean!” people cried at them.
    “Away! Away! Do not touch!”
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
    people said among the nations,
    “They shall stay with us no longer.”

16 The LORD himself has scattered them;
    he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
    no favor to the elders.

17 Our eyes failed, ever watching
    vainly for help;
in our watching we watched
    for a nation which could not save.

18 They dogged our steps
    so that we could not walk in our streets;
our end drew near; our days were numbered,
    for our end had come.

19 Our pursuers were swifter
    than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains;
    they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed,
    was captured in their pits,
of whom we said, “Under his shadow
    we shall live among the nations.”

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
    you who dwell in the land of Uz;
but to you also the cup shall pass;
    you shall become drunk and strip yourself bare.

22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
    he will keep you in exile no longer;
but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
    he will uncover your sins.

Jeremiah looks at the destruction of the Temple and the splendor that was once there that is all gone now.  More precious than the precious stones or the gold or the silver though are the people who have been taken away.  The physical state of the Temple building is symbolic of the spiritual state of the nation--once great, but now broken and decimated.  It is a heap of ruble that people pass by and laugh and jeer at.

The parents have become more cruel than the unclean animals who desert their young and compete with them for food.  In many cases, the children have become food or even commodities because there is not enough food to feed everyone, so the people of turned to eating their young.

Socio-economic barriers are broken.  Everyone is poor is destitute now.  There is no one left who is rich or powerful.  Jeremiah wishes the punishment of Jerusalem had been like the punishment of Sodom--at least their punishment was over in the blink of an eye.  Instead, there are living left to mourn for the dead, yet not enough left to bury all the dead bodies, so they just lay there.  In many ways, it was better in Jeremiah's opinion to be one of the people who died quickly in war than to be one of the people that died slowly by pestilence or famine.

The LORD Himself did what no king on earth thought was possible--tear down the walls of Jerusalem and allow the Temple to be torn down and destroyed.  Why?  Because of the wickedness of the people that demanded a response.  Though they were once white and pure, they are now black and filthy.  All the life has been taken out of them like a dried piece of wood that will quickly burn when exposed to the heat and flame of His judgment.

He tried to warn the people through the prophets, priests, and kings, but they eventually became part of the problem.  If the LORD was going to do something, He was going to have to do something Himself.  They stopped looking to the LORD for help and looked instead to the gods of other nations and to those other nations to be their saviors.  The LORD showed them time and again they could not count on anyone else other than Him, but they would not listen.  They did not want a relationship with the LORD because that meant binding themselves to the Law, and they did not love the Law, because they did not love the LORD.

The LORD allowed the Gentile nations to attack and pursue the children of Israel and have victory.  The LORD showed favor to the Assyrians and the Chaldeans and Babylonians for a time, but all these kingdoms would come to an end and be replaced by other kingdoms as the LORD's plans for the Messiah to come forth at just the right time marched forward.

The people would one day return to Jerusalem, the Temple would be rebuilt and the people would see their Messiah (though He would not be the kind of Savior they would expect--they would want a military victory over the Gentiles, but they would have victory over their greatest enemies of Sin and the Curse).

Lamentations 3:19-39
English Standard Version

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

28 Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust--
    there may yet be hope;
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
    and let him be filled with insults.

31 For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
32 for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

34 To crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to deny a man justice
    in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
    the Lord does not approve.

37 Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
39 Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

In this part of this passage, Jeremiah is confronted with the contrast in the nature of God and the nature of Man.  God is holy, loving, and good, and therefore, even His wrath is holy, loving and good.  Nothing that God does can violate His nature.  However, we are not good.  We are sinful, and therefore, we have no place to complain about our just punishment when we receive it.

Jeremiah still asks though for the LORD to see and hear him, much like David does in the Psalms.  He needs to know know that hid suffering has not gone unnoticed, for he feels the LORD has turned His face away and no longer even notices the suffering of His people.  He feels that if the LORD just looked towards them, He would have compassion on them once again as has always happened in the past.

Jeremiah then rehearses for himself the song of the steadfast love of the LORD--His covenant love.  Its mercies are new every morning and makes Jeremiah sing, "Great is They Faithfulness!" (See Psalm 57 and Psalm 108).  There is something familiar and yet something new about these words that Jeremiah is singing.  They are based in the Psalms, but the Spirit is giving him just the right words for this moment.

Though Jeremiah is hungry and hopeless, the Sprit responds with, "The LORD is my portion, therefore, I will hope in Him."  There is a gentle rebuke when the Spirit tells Jeremiah and all of Judah, "It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."  The people are making much noise as if the LORD is one of the pagan gods that needs a show to attract His attention.  The LORD's response is "Be still" and "Wait, and see."  They are to trust in the nature of the LORD and the fact that He is the Savior of His people, though only a remnant may be saved, and they may have to pass through the fire to be saved.

The one who has been raging at the LORD should sit in silence and stop hurling his insults.  The LORD is good to those who wait on Him, to the soul that seeks Him.  That is the real problem here--the heart of the people is in rebellion.  They want to complain that God will not save them, but do they really want God to save them?  Not really, because they do not want a covenant relationship with God where He gives them commandments and statutes and precepts (see Psalm 119).  I am glad we are no longer waiting for the salvation that came from Jesus dying on the cross, yet there is still a kind of "salvation" that we are waiting for when He will return as the Conquering King and will defeat sin and death 

We now have the change in focus in Jeremiah from the "right now" to the "yet to come" and that sometimes the LORD's salvation is something that will be ultimately provided in eternity.  One day, He will gather all His people together.  he will no longer cast them away.  His steadfast love will cause Him to once again have compassion on His people and save them.  It is not in His nature to be malevolent, but He desires good things for His children whom He loves.

In order to bless His children though, there will be a day when all of the enemies of God must be crushed.  Right now, everything seems backwards as it seems like Babylon should be an enemy and Judah should protected as part of His family.  In the end it will be clear who is friend and who is foe.  The LORD will also deal with all the false prophets that spoke presumptuously thinking they knew the future and that they could divine His will apart from His Word and His Spirit.  Jeremiah, like Job long before him, learns that we must accept the "good" and "bad" that comes from the hand of the LORD and that the LORD gives and the LORD takes away.  Blessed be the Name of the LORD! Jeremiah realizes He is in position to challenge the LORD because he is sinful and deserving of everything that he is receiving, and so much more.

Lamentations 3:1-18
English Standard Version

Great Is Your Faithfulness
3 I am the man who has seen affliction
    under the rod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
    into darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
    again and again the whole day long.

4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
    he has broken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me
    with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me dwell in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has made my chains heavy;
8 though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
    he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me,
    a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
    he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me
    as a target for his arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys
    the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
    the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the LORD.”

I'm going to break this chapter up as there's a pretty clear change in tone towards the middle as Jeremiah starts to quote the Psalms that talks about the never-ending, unfailing covenant love of the LORD and how to find joy in the midst of horrible circumstances.  We'll probably get to that part tomorrow, but for now, we have more lament over how things are really bad.

Jeremiah isn't just a prophets that is talking about the coming wrath of God.  He has seen and experienced the wrath of God all around him.  He is skin and bones and even that isn't holding up too well these days as Jeremiah says some of his bones are broken and his flesh is wasting away.

Jeremiah feels just as besieged and enveloped as the city of Jerusalem.  Only, it is not with siegeworks that He has been surrounded, but with bitterness and tribulation on all sides.  Again, Jeremiah talks about dwelling in darkness as opposed to dwelling in the light.  This is probably literal because of the lack of light sources but probably also because of of the sadness and gloom and depression and agony that all around him.

The LORD gave His people no way of escape.  They were to to surrender and go into exile or they were to die trying to resist.  The sooner they gave up, the better it would be for them.  The LORD is also lying in wait for any who try to escape.  For those who might escape the hand of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, they will not escape the long arm of the LORD.  This is a lesson that the people should have known from back when the LORD set them free from their slavery in Egypt for they worship with a refrain of "with a mighty hand an outstretched arm" and the often mentioned how the arm of the LORD was not too short to save them.  That same power that was mighty to save them is the same power they are foolishly trying to fight against.  They cannot win.

The LORD has delivered the kill-shot (Jeremiah described an arrow to the kidneys).  Just imagine a person who is going to be in the lake of fire and utter judgment they are going to be in if this is the kind of wrath that was poured out on His people here on earth.  We have just a taste here of what the wrath of the LORD looks like, and we don't want to taste it.  This is the cup of the LORD's wrath that Jesus drank to its dregs for us.  Jeremiah feels he is without hope, but He will remember the songs they sang in the Temple and hope will return to him.

Lamentations 2
English Standard Version

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity
2 How the Lord in his anger
    has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth
    the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
    in the day of his anger.

2 The Lord has swallowed up without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
    the kingdom and its rulers.

3 He has cut down in fierce anger
    all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

4 He has bent his bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes;
    in the tent of the daughter of Zion,
he has poured out his fury like fire.

5 The Lord has become like an enemy;
    he has swallowed up Israel;
he has swallowed up all its palaces;
    he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    mourning and lamentation.

6 He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
    laid in ruins his meeting place;
the LORD has made Zion forget
    festival and Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

7 The LORD has scorned his altar,
    disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD
    as on the day of festival.

8 The LORD determined to lay in ruins
    the wall of the daughter of Zion;
he stretched out the measuring line;
    he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
    they languished together.

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and her prophets find
    no vision from the LORD.

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
    and put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.

11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
    my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out to the ground
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babies faint
    in the streets of the city.

12 They cry to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded man
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers' bosom.

13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea;
    who can heal you?

14 Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
    to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
    that are false and misleading.

15 All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
    the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of all the earth?”

16 All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; we see it!”

17 The LORD has done what he purposed;
    he has carried out his word,
which he commanded long ago;
    he has thrown down without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
    and exalted the might of your foes.

18 Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
    day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!

19 “Arise, cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.”

20 Look, O LORD, and see!
    With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
    the children of their tender care?
Should priest and prophet be killed
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

21 In the dust of the streets
    lie the young and the old;
my young women and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
you have killed them in the day of your anger,
    slaughtering without pity.

22 You summoned as if to a festival day
    my terrors on every side,
and on the day of the anger of the LORD
    no one escaped or survived;
those whom I held and raised
    my enemy destroyed.

Being "under a cloud" used to be a symbol of God's love and care for His people as they wandered through the wilderness, but now Jeremiah uses it as an expression of being under the LORD's judgment.  These are storm clouds that Jeremiah is thinking of and the people have no shelter or refuge from this storm.  All the strongholds and places they would go to for refuge and defense are destroyed.

Everything that they thought gave them might and strength and security has been taken away from them.  No longer is He protecting and defending them.  Instead, He is making war against them.  The beautiful places have been destroyed and the people no longer remember to festivals or Sabbaths.  All the days run together for them, and they don't feel like celebrating or worshiping the LORD.  Neither priest nor king was spared from the LORD's judgment.

​The walls, gates and defenses are all broken.  The kings and princes have been taken away into exile and the strong men of the army have been killed or captured.  If only the people did not listen to their false prophets who gave them false hope.  These false prophets told them they did not need to repent from sin, that God would continue to love them for who they were in their sin, and that He would continue to bless them as He always had.  The Holy Spirit through Jeremiah seems to lay the blame squarely at the feet of these false prophets for leading this rebellion that has ended in the destruction of the Temple, the City and the People.

The LORD has done what He purposed and give the victory to their enemies--a nation He has chosen to be His agents to accomplish His purposes when His people would not.  Though they were wicked and ignorant of His plan, they were still useful in accomplishing His purposes.  This is seen throughout Scripture that the LORD can use nations even if they seem hostile towards Him and His people to accomplish His perfect plans.

The situation is so desperate that women are eating their children to stay alive (just like the LORD said would happen).  Jeremiah cries out for mercy, but his cries fall on deaf ears, for this is exactly what the LORD promised would happen to them if they broke His covenant and became like the nations around them.  They wanted to be just like the other nations, so now they will be judged like all the other nations.  So many had fallen dead that the streets are littered with bodies that no one is able to bury.  The LORD did not destroy everyone, but He had gone farther than Jeremiah is comfortable with, and I think that's the point.  He finally has the attention of His people.  Those who remain are ready to listen and repent so that this will never happen again.

Lamentations 1
English Standard Version

How Lonely Sits the City
1 How lonely sits the city
    that was full of people!
How like a widow has she become,
    she who was great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the provinces
    has become a slave.

2 She weeps bitterly in the night,
    with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
    she has none to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
    they have become her enemies.

3 Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
    and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations,
    but finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,
    for none come to the festival;
all her gates are desolate;
    her priests groan;
her virgins have been afflicted,
    and she herself suffers bitterly.

5 Her foes have become the head;
    her enemies prosper,
because the LORD has afflicted her
    for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
    captives before the foe.

6 From the daughter of Zion
    all her majesty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
    that find no pasture;
they fled without strength
    before the pursuer.

7 Jerusalem remembers
    in the days of her affliction and wandering
all the precious things
    that were hers from days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
    and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
    they mocked at her downfall.

8 Jerusalem sinned grievously;
    therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
    and turns her face away.

9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
    she took no thought of her future;
therefore her fall is terrible;
    she has no comforter.
“O LORD, behold my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed!”

10 The enemy has stretched out his hands
    over all her precious things;
for she has seen the nations
    enter her sanctuary,
those whom you forbade
    to enter your congregation.

11 All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
    to revive their strength.
“Look, O LORD, and see,
    for I am despised.”

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
    Look and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
    which was brought upon me,
which the LORD inflicted
    on the day of his fierce anger.

13 “From on high he sent fire;
    into my bones he made it descend;
he spread a net for my feet;
    he turned me back;
he has left me stunned,
    faint all the day long.

14 “My transgressions were bound into a yoke;
    by his hand they were fastened together;
they were set upon my neck;
    he caused my strength to fail;
the Lord gave me into the hands
    of those whom I cannot withstand.

15 “The Lord rejected
    all my mighty men in my midst;
he summoned an assembly against me
    to crush my young men;
the Lord has trodden as in a winepress
    the virgin daughter of Judah.

16 “For these things I weep;
    my eyes flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
    one to revive my spirit;
my children are desolate,
    for the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is none to comfort her;
the LORD has commanded against Jacob
    that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    a filthy thing among them.

18 “The LORD is in the right,
    for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
    and see my suffering;
my young women and my young men
    have gone into captivity.

19 “I called to my lovers,
    but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
    perished in the city,
while they sought food
    to revive their strength.

20 “Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;
    my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
    because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
    in the house it is like death.

21 “They heard my groaning,
    yet there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
    they are glad that you have done it.
You have brought the day you announced;
    now let them be as I am.

22 “Let all their evildoing come before you,
    and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
    because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many,
    and my heart is faint.”

For an introduction to the book of Lamentations, here's a link to the introduction from ESV.org. Introduction to Lamentations | ESV.org.  The book provides Jeremiah's lament in poetic form as he sees the city of Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed.  He starts by noting how lonely the city is that was once full of people.  He compares her now to a widow, though she was once great and a slave though she was once a princess.

The city that was once full of joy and laughter is now full of bitterness and tears.  People weep for their loved ones, yet there is no one to comfort them because everyone else is also grieving their losses.  very few are left to grieve for the many who have died.  The people of the Land now live among the nations.  The people that were once free now are slaves and committed to hard labor.

The place that was once the center of the trade routes for the world is now desolate.  No one is coming to see the Temple or to learn the wisdom of God's Law.  No one is coming to see the Beautiful Land, because it is no longer beautiful.  The natural question may be "Why?"  If we did not read the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and the books of History to know why this is happening, it would require a bit of explanation and Jeremiah is going to give it.

Judah, Jerusalem the royal family and the priesthood have given into idolatry and everything that goes along with paganism.  Jeremiah says the people have become filthy and unclean.  There is no way they can wash their garments to make them clean again.  They are in need of new garments, for she is now naked and ashamed.  Where the LORD once defended her from enemies, she now turns away from the LORD and rejects the Word of the LORD sent by His prophets.

Therefore, the LORD has rejected all of their mighty men of battle.  None of them will have victory in the face of their enemy--the "enemy" that the LORD has appointed to bring judgment and discipline upon His own people.  He must put down their rebellion.  The enemy has taken or burned everything of value and those who remain in the city thinking the wall will save them are under a blockade so that the embargo is causing a great famine.  everyone is struggling to find food.  Jeremiah knows this is a direct result of the people's sin and disobedience.

Those who pass by on their way somewhere else are unconcerned and don't offer any aid.  They don't give a second thought to the people who are losing their home.  Do they even understand that the LORD Himself is punishing His people?  Probably not.  They probably just see an empire expanding and conquering a smaller, weaker people.  They are probably either thinking, "I'm glad that's not us" or "Maybe we're next."  However, they are probably giving little thought to this place and this people.

​There is no one to come to Jerusalem's defense.  Jeremiah also makes sure to say that the LORD is right in all that He does.  No one should see this and impugn His character or try to bring any charge against Him.  It is His people who have done what is evil and rebellious.  The people that we might imagine the LORD would preserve (the young people, the women, and the priests) are dead too.  They died in battle or they have died of pestilence or from hunger.  No one is safe from the wrath of God because they all have likewise rebelled together against the LORD and rejected His Word.

Jeremiah calls out to the LORD for help being the LORD's prophet, and it does not appear that the LORD immediately answers him (at least, not in the way he wants).  Jeremiah is going to have to watch everyone die.  Jeremiah will eventually die too, but he will see the word of the LORD come to pass.  Until he dies, he will have much to see and much to grieve.  This book will be the book of his laments for all that he sees and experiences as everyone and everything he loves is destroyed or taken away into Exile.