Lamentations 1--How Lonely Sits the City

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.”

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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.