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Lamentations 1

1 - How the city sits solitary,that was full of people!She has become as a widow,who was great among the nations!She who was a princess among the provinceshas become a slave!
2 - She weeps bitterly in the night.Her tears are on her cheeks.Among all her loversshe has no one to comfort her.All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.They have become her enemies.
3 - Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction,and because of great servitude.She dwells among the nations.She finds no rest.All her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
4 - The roads to Zion mourn,because no one comes to the solemn assembly.All her gates are desolate.Her priests sigh.Her virgins are afflicted,and she herself is in bitterness.
5 - Her adversaries have become the head.Her enemies prosper;for The LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
6 - All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture.They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
7 - Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseriesall her pleasant things that were from the days of old;when her people fell into the hand of the adversary,and no one helped her.The adversaries saw her.They mocked at her desolations.
8 - Jerusalem has grievously sinned.Therefore she has become unclean.All who honored her despise her,because they have seen her nakedness.Yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
9 - Her filthiness was in her skirts.She didn't remember her latter end.Therefore she has come down astoundingly.She has no comforter."See, The LORD, my affliction;for the enemy has magnified himself."
10 - The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
11 - All her people sigh.They seek bread.They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul."Look, The LORD, and see;for I have become despised."
12 - "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,which is brought on me,with which the LORD has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13 - "From on high has he sent fire into my bones,and it prevails against them.He has spread a net for my feet.He has turned me back.He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.
14 - "The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.They are knit together.They have come up on my neck.He made my strength fail.The Lord has delivered me into their hands,against whom I am not able to stand.
15 - "The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me.He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men.The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.
16 - "For these things I weep.My eye, my eye runs down with water,because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me.My children are desolate,because the enemy has prevailed."
17 - Zion spreads out her hands.There is no one to comfort her.The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob,that those who are around him should be his adversaries.Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
18 - "The LORD is righteous;for I have rebelled against his commandment.Please hear all you peoples,and see my sorrow.My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 - "I called for my lovers,but they deceived me.My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city,while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
20 - "Look, The LORD; for I am in distress.My heart is troubled.My heart turns over within me,for I have grievously rebelled.Abroad, the sword bereaves.At home, it is like death.
21 - "They have heard that I sigh.There is no one to comfort me.All my enemies have heard of my trouble.They are glad that you have done it.You will bring the day that you have proclaimed,and they will be like me.
22 - "Let all their wickedness come before you.Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions.For my sighs are many,and my heart is faint.

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Lamentations Images and Notes

The Book of Lamentations

Lamentations 2:5 - The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

Lamentations 5:19-22 - Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and] forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

The Old Testament - A Brief Overview

Bible Survey - Lamentations
Hebrew Name - Eikah "How"
Greek Name - Threnos "Lament"
Author - Jeremiah (According to Tradition)
Date - 588 BC Approximately
Theme - 5 Poetic laments over the destruction of Jerusalem
Types and Shadows - In Lamentations Jesus is the weeping prophet

The First Day. Light.

Summary of The Book of Lamentations

In the Hebrew the word for the name of the book of Lamentations is "Eikah" which means "How." The book of  Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah according to Jewish tradition. The book contains five poems that depict the condition of the forsaken city of Jerusalem which had been burnt to the ground and utterly demolished by the Babylonians on the ninth of Av in the Jewish calendar in 586 BC, in contrast to the magnificent splendor that it once possessed. The reason for God's chastisement on the people of Judah and on the city of Jerusalem are spelled out in the form of an appeal made to God to remember the great suffering of his people and to take vengeance upon the conquerors of His city and the people of Judah.

The first four poems are arranged in an acrostic form with each containing 22 verses which correspond with the 22 consonants of the Hebrew alphabet. In chapter 3 each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is allotted 3 of the 66 verses which comprise the poem. Some conclude that the reason for this was because Israel had sinned from beginning to end (A-Z, or in the Hebrew aleph-tav).

Jeremiah, who wrote the lamentations was an eyewitness of the events, and this brought him great sorrow for he knew the people, he knew the city, he knew the children, and he knew the festivities that existed among the people of Judah.

Interesting note: The Jewish translators of the Septuagint (LXX) attribute Jeremiah as the author of the Lamentations, and so do other ancient translations: The Aramaic Targum, the Latin Vulgate, and the Syriac Peshitta, and the Babylonian Talmud.

Outline of the Book of Lamentations

The five lament poems are outlined here:

Lamentations 1 - Jerusalem's desolation is lamented
Lamentations 2 - God's wrath against the city of Jerusalem
Lamentations 3 - God's faithfulness is acknowledged
Lamentations 4 - God's faithfulness is viewed as chastisement
Lamentations 5 - God's faithfulness is worthy of trust

The First Day. Light.

Lamentations Resources

The Divided Kingdom
The Northern Kingdom of Israel
The Southern Kingdom of Judah
The Assyrian Captivity
The Babylonian Captivity
The Return From Babylon
The Prophets
The Messiah

The Book of Lamentations

More About the Book of Lamentations
Lamentations in the Picture Study Bible
Timeline of the Ancient World
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