Lamentations
Chapter 1
A1How forlorn the city lies, once teeming with people!How much like a widow she is, once mistress of the nations!A princess among the cities, she has now turned into a slave.
B2She spends her nights weeping, drenching her cheeks with tears.Who is there to comfort her among all her lovers?All her friends have betrayed her and turned against her.
G3Humiliated, exhausted, Judah has gone into exilebut she finds no rest among the nations where she sojourns;her pursuers have overtaken her, leaving her with no way of escape.
D4All roads to Zion are in mourning; no one comes to her feasts.Her gates are deserted, her priests groan, her virgins grieve.What bitter anguish she suffers!
H5She is at the mercy of her foes, who enjoy prosperity and power.The Lord himself has made her suffer for all her iniquity.Her children, driven into captivity, take the lonely road to exile.
W6Gone from the daughter of Zion is all her majestic splendor.Her rulers, like harts that find no pasture, have fled helplessly before the oppressors.
Z7Jerusalem recalls her days of wandering and affliction,her people fell into the hands of her foes, and there was no help.Haters gloated over her downfall and laughed at her destruction.
H8Greatly has Jerusalem sinned; she has become as a thing unclean. Honored before, but now despised by those who have seen her naked,she herself groans in dismay and turns her face away.
T9Her filth clings to her skirt. She gave no thought to her doom,and so her fall came suddenly, with no one to offer comfort.“Look, O Lord, upon my misery, for my enemy has overcome me.”
Y10She has seen how the enemy has laid hands on her treasures.She has seen how the nations have defiled her Sanctuary—those people you have not allowed to come into your assembly.
K11All her people groan as they search for bread;just to keep themselves alive, they give their jewels for food.Look, Lord, and mark how I have been despised.
L12All you who pass by, look and see. Is there any calamity like this, inflicted on me by the Lord on the day of his burning anger.
M13From above he sent a fire down into my very bones, he ensnared my feet and threw me down, and left me in pain the whole day long.
N14He bound my sins into a yoke and fastened them together, then set them upon my neck and caused my strength to fail. The Lord gave me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.
S15The Lord has spurned the bravest of my fighters; he has summoned an army to crush my young warriors. The Lord has trodden in his winepress Judah’s virgin daughter.
This is what I weep about, what makes my tears well up.No one is near to restore my spirit, no one at hand to console me.My children are desolate, for the enemy has triumphed.
P17Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to give comfort.The Lord has decreed for Jacob that his neighbors become his foes. As an unclean thing among them has Jerusalem become.
S18The Lord acts justly, for I have defied his order.Listen, all you peoples, and see how I suffer.My young men and maidens have all gone into exile.
Q19I cried for help to my lovers, but they betrayed me.My priests and my elders perished in the city they sought anything to eat, but finally, they had to die.
R20Look, Lord, upon my distress: all within me is in anguish. My heart recoils within me: I know that I have been rebellious. See, outside, the sword that kills, and within, a death that stalks.
S21People have heard my moaning but no one comes to comfort me. My foes have known of my suffering, they rejoice at what you have done. Hasten the day you have proclaimed, that they may be even as I am.
T22Let their evil come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me on account of my sins. Great indeed is my groaning. How sick at heart I am!
Commentaries
First Lament.
In this first lament, everything revolves around the pain caused by Jerusalem’s fall. At first, the poet speaks in the third person (1-11); then Jerusalem, portrayed as a lonely and destitute widow, shares her sorrow in the first person (12-22)—a common image in the Old Testament symbolizing God’s relationship with His people (Hos 2:4, 7).
The author fills his poem with a steady and monotonous tone of sorrow, as if he has ingrained in his mind not only the horror he contemplates but also the reason behind it: the city’s sins have provoked God’s punishment through his people’s enemies.
The “day of the Lord” has arrived, the proclaimed “day of his burning anger” against people’s sins, as well as extermination of the nations—an idea that will later crystalize into the final day of judgment (cf. Am 5:18; Joel 3:4).