Lamentations 1
Five poems or songs lamenting the capture of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah are collected in the Book of Lamentations.
“Dirge poetry of the kind exemplified by Lamentations was by no means uncommon in Near Eastern antiquity. The author of Lamentations stood therefore in a long and respectable literary tradition when he bewailed the destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judah in 587 BC.” (R.K. Harrison).Lamentations is a remarkable written work, because the first four of the five poems are written as acrostics. The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used in succession to begin the lines and sections of those songs.
“The use of the alphabet symbolizes that the completeness—‘the A to Z’—of grief is being expressed.” (H.L. Ellison).Lamentations both reflected and gave words to the deliberate choice of the Jewish people to remember and mourn their fallen city and kingdom. “For as far back as tradition reaches, Lamentations has been read on Tisha b’Av; and it is not unreasonable to assume that it was intended for this purpose from the first.” (H.L. Ellison)
1. (1-2) Lamenting an abandoned city.
a. How desolate the city is: Jeremiah, who wrote after the tragedy of Jerusalem’s defeat, considered the difference between the joyful, affluent Jerusalem of his day and the desolate, empty city that had been overrun by the Babylonians. She used to be crowded with people, but now she is empty. She was once renowned throughout the countries, but today she resembles a slave.
I. Although Jeremiah isn’t credited as the author of Lamentations, it is plausible to assume that he is given to long-standing custom and the book’s striking similarities to Jeremiah. He most likely composed this collection of five poems after the Babylonians took control of Jerusalem but before he was forcibly transferred to Egypt (Jeremiah 43). Other laments are particularly credited to Jeremiah as their author (2 Chronicles 35:25).
ii. The words “And it came to pass after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem was become desolate, that Jeremiah sat weeping: and he lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem” can be found as part of the text in all copies of the Septuagint, whether of the Roman or Alexandrian editions.
iii. The coin that Vespasian produced to commemorate the conquest of Jerusalem, on the obverse of which is a palm tree, the emblem of Judea, and underneath it is a lady, the emblem of Jerusalem, sitting and leaning as previously mentioned, with the legend Judea capta, exemplifies this expression.
iv. Who among the nations was great? “So was Athens, once the glory of Greece, for both arts and arms, now a dog hole in contrast,” he said. The only thing Sparta, the other eye of Greece, has to brag about is its reputation and memories of her former splendor. It is now a little burrow named Misithra.
b. Jeremiah imagined Jerusalem as the widow princess brought down, sobbing hysterically in the night with no one to console her. He did this with poetic skill. Jeremiah’s anguish is profound and
obvious; despite the fact that Jerusalem’s conquest was confirmed by Jeremiah’s numerous prophesies, he doesn’t feel triumphant or like he was right all along.
i. The author employs the image of a woman who has lost her husband and children, passionately bemoaning her current miserable position in sorrow and dread, to heighten the tragedy of destruction.
ii. “The man’s spirit is startlingly portrayed in this little Book of Lamentation. The fulfillment of his prophecies is not met with joy, and throughout there is a dual loyalty that is evident, first to God in the admission of sin and then to his people in the expressing of their sorrow.
c. All of her close friends have betrayed her: In better times, Jerusalem had dependable allies. She developed adversaries out of those former allies.
i. Israel was constantly forced to make a decision. For protection from external violence, she may either rely on God or seek out both powerful and insignificant allies.
2. (3-6) Affected by the LORD’s anguish.
a. After the beautiful imagery of the first few verses, Jeremiah simply stated that Judah had been taken captive. Judah was captured and taken prisoner. Previously active city entrances appeared vacant (all of her gates are deserted), and everyone connected to Jerusalem is discouraged; they groan and are saddened. Judah’s adversaries are fortunate because they prosper and rule over them.
i. The paths to Jerusalem, formerly thronged with visitors ascending to the Temple to partake in festal rites, are now virtually abandoned. Nobody attends the
b. Because of the LORD’s affliction on her, Jeremiah recognized that this tragedy was not the result of fate, the cruelties of people, or the blind cycles of history. Judah’s sins were so extensive and pervasive that it was God’s will to punish her severely. It was as a result of her numerous offenses.
i. “Though pesa is commonly translated as “transgression,” it is primarily a secular term meaning “rebellion”—a word that brings forth more completely its meaning in this type of setting. The number of her transgressions.”
ii. “For the magnitude of our sins, directly opposite to His promise in case of obedience Not only our young and elderly men, but the little ones, have been driven like sheep before the enemy into a wretched captivity,” she says of the adversary’s enslavement of her children.
c. Jeremiah’s pain increased as he recalled how Jerusalem once appeared in all its magnificence. Jerusalem’s inhabitants and its surroundings were now forlorn and vanquished.
d. Her princes have changed into deer: Jerusalem has lost both hope and leadership. The princes attempted to flee like deer but were unsuccessful (that flee without strength before the pursuer).
i. The circumstance described in Psalm 23 contrasts dramatically with the image of pastureless deer (Harrison)
3. (7) Thinking back on enjoyable times.
a. Jerusalem recalls all her wonderful memories: Considering how much better things used to be, the tragedy of Jerusalem’s collapse was much greater. In the days of her illness and wandering, the thought of happier times hurt.
b. When the enemy attacked Jerusalem, she was all by herself and had no one to turn to for assistance. The assistance that many had thought would come from Egypt never materialized. As a result, her enemies observed her and laughed at her failure.
4. The cause of Jerusalem’s discomfort (8–11).
a. As Jeremiah portrayed the tragedy of Jerusalem’s fall, one may understandably wonder why Jerusalem has sinned so badly and thus turned filthy. The simple explanation was that the city’s residents had committed a serious sin over many generations.
i. “Confessions of her guilt are interspersed with the tale of her misery. She declares loudly that no grief could equal to her own before admitting that not a single pain or suffering had surpassed her fault.
b. They have witnessed her bareness, leaving the formerly proud city exposed and degraded. She sighs, removing her royal robes like a queen, and walks away.
i. Here, she is contrasted to a debased, slatternly prostitute who exposes her nakedness with little regard for the traces of menstrual blood.
ii. Her skirts reveal her uncleanliness: “She prefers to glory in her immorality, rather than be even slightly ashamed of it, a metaphor from a menstruating woman who is impolite”.
c. She failed to think about her future: Like a fool, Jerusalem never considered where her road of sin and rebellion would take her. Her breakdown was amazing because she hadn’t planned beforehand.
d. O LORD, see my affliction: The narrative of anguish is interrupted by a prayer that sounds as though it were coming from the city that is suffering. All Jerusalem could do was call out to the God she had rejected because she lacked a comforter to turn to when the enemy elevated himself.
i. She had witnessed outsiders entering her place of worship: “Now those very strangers who had been forbidden from entering the assembly of the Israelites were savagely defiling the holy place”
e. Another prayer is rising from Jerusalem, pleading for assistance from the famished city, so look at it, O LORD, and give it some thought for I am despised (they seek bread).
5. (12) Unfathomable grief
Is it insignificant to you, passersby?
a. It means nothing to you, passersby? Jerusalem’s suffering was dismissed by an indifferent world as nothing. She possessed zero comforters (Lamentations 1:9). The embodiment of Jerusalem was perplexed by the lack of empathy.
b. Is there any anguish like mine? Jerusalem experienced what many victims do, believing that her suffering was unique and unexplainable. This is true in a certain sense, but it is true for everyone who goes through a protracted period of hardship. Very few people, if any at all, can truly understand their sorrow.
i. “This city and its residents saw devastation and anguish unlike anything else. God’s cumulative mercies must be punished specifically and exemplaryly when they are excessively misused
c. Jeremiah (and Jerusalem personified) understood the true cause of their grief when the LORD inflicted it. The LORD had brought about this destruction, not the Babylonians.
B. The disaster in Jerusalem was caused by God.
1. What the LORD did to Jerusalem (verses 13–15).
a. He has hurled fire into my bones from above: In the context, this fire represented God’s judgment on Jerusalem. The verdict was delivered by God (from above). Although it is obvious from the context that this is Jerusalem personified speaking, Jeremiah employed the same metaphor of “fire into my bones” in Jeremiah 20:9 to describe his own prophetic calling.
i. God had imprisoned the city, bringing an inevitable and degrading end to it, not the city’s foes.
b. He has been causing me to feel hopeless and dizzy all day: Jerusalem resembled an imprisoned, obstructed, depleted, and worn-out enemy.
c. Jeremiah described Jerusalem as being yoked like a ferocious ox, yet the yoke was made from their own faults. “The yoke of my iniquities was tied; they were knit together by His hands,” Jeremiah said. It was connected to them by strings created by God.
i. The chain of my crimes has now tied me down and bound me; it is so wrapped, doubled, and twisted around me that I am unable to untangle it. The suffering of a penitent soul, which thinks that nothing but the pitifulness of God’s mercy can free it, is well depicted.
d. Jeremiah used image after image to describe the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, but each image believed it to be the work of God. The Lord crushed the virgin daughter of Judah as in a winepress.
i. God trampled on the Jews in the same way that people used to crush grapes in a wine press to get the juice before tossing the useless husks onto dunghills. These are but a few examples of the many ways in which God had punished this people for their crimes .
2. (16–17) Lamenting helplessly.
a. Jeremiah is sometimes referred to be the prophet who weeps, and he would concur with the description. Lamentations was written with overflowing eyes, not dry eyes.
b. Because the one who should bring me solace is far away, Jerusalem’s suffering was worse than the calamity itself. It was that they felt little to no consolation or assistance from God during the calamity. He appeared to be far away from them.
c. Zion stretches out her hands in supplication, but no one consoles her; neither did man or God console Jerusalem. By God’s intention (as instructed by the LORD), all of her neighbors had turned against her and thought of her as an unclean thing.
i. “God is here presented as the righteous judge who has finally punished His recalcitrant people for their long-standing rebellion,” the LORD has commanded.
ii. Jerusalem has become filthy as a result of the commandment found in Leviticus 15:19–27: “Jerusalem is like a menstruating woman, to whom none dared to approach, either to help or comfort.”
3. (18–19) Admitting Jerusalem’s sin and God’s righteousness.
a. The city of Jerusalem personified admitted her sin and declared the righteousness of God. The LORD is righteous because I disobeyed His order. She was a rebel against God, which is why she was in grief and imprisonment.
i. “Again, there is the confession that acknowledges God’s superiority. Most of the time, admitting this is difficult. Even when the people make confession, one can sense the pain that is squeezed out.
b. I have called for my loves, but they betrayed me: Jerusalem cried out for her lovers, or the people she trusted and loved instead of Yahweh. They misled Jerusalem and offered no assistance as the city went hungry.
4. (20–22) A cry for justice born of sorrow.
a. All that Jerusalem could do was cry out to the God she had rejected, “See, O LORD, that I am in agony.” Nobody else could or would offer assistance. Death was brought about by war and destruction both abroad and at home.
b. The neighbors and adversaries of Judah said, “They are happy that You have done it.” Knowing this, the prophet begged for their impending judgment to arrive quickly (do to them as You have done to me).
i. They are happy because: “It must have given the Israelites’ enemies some satisfaction to know that God, who in earlier times had wreaked such havoc on the enemies of the Chosen People, had now retreated in punishing wrath upon His own.”
ii. “We may lawfully pray for such evils to the implacable enemies of the church and people of God, as may restrain and weaken their hands, and put them out of a capacity to waste the Lord’s heritage. We are only obliged by it to wish well for their souls, and to desire no evil against them out of private revenge or malice, but only out of love for God, and zeal for his glory.”
iii. The hope expressed in the final two verses is that God will make His righteousness known to other nations. Others also require the experience of judgement if Judah needed to face judgment in order for her to come to repentance.
c. We see Jerusalem almost gone, and all she can muster are a string of sighs and a wobbly heart. Therefore, I sigh a lot, and I feel weak.