Lamentations

Look how the city sits all alone, the city that was once full of people! She has become like a widow. She was great among the nations, a princess among the provinces, and now she is forced to serve and pay tribute.

1How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

NoteLamentations is a set of funeral poems over Jerusalem after the Babylonian army broke into the city, burned it and its temple, and deported much of the population in 587/586 BC. This chapter is an acrostic: its twenty-two verses begin with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order, a pattern that cannot be carried into English. Throughout, the city is spoken about as a woman. A widow in this society lost her legal protector and her standing, and was often left destitute: that is the force of the image. Tribute was the forced payment a conquered people owed its conqueror year by year; the Hebrew word can also mean gangs of forced laborers.

2She cries hard through the night, and her cheeks are wet with tears. Out of all the lovers she had, not one comforts her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have turned into her enemies.

2She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

NoteIn the prophets, a city's 'lovers' are normally the foreign nations it courted as allies with treaties, gifts and payments. Talking about alliances in the language of courtship and infidelity was a standard convention, not a description of anyone's private life.

3Judah has been carried away, worn down by suffering and hard slavery. She lives among the nations now and finds no place to rest. All who chased her caught her in narrow places, with no way out.

3Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

NoteJudah was the southern of the two Israelite kingdoms, with Jerusalem as its capital. Being 'carried away' means deportation: conquering empires moved defeated populations far from home to break any further resistance.

4The roads to Zion are in mourning, because no one comes to the appointed festivals anymore. All her gates stand empty. Her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she herself is filled with bitterness.

4The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

NoteZion was first the name of the ridge Jerusalem stood on, then a name for the city itself. Israelite men were expected to travel to Jerusalem three times a year for the appointed festivals (Passover, Weeks and Booths), so these roads would normally have been crowded with pilgrims. The open ground just inside a city's gates was its marketplace and its courtroom, the busiest spot in town; empty gates mean a dead city.

5Her enemies are on top now; those who fought her are doing well. The LORD brought this pain on her because she broke his law again and again. Her children have been marched away as prisoners, ahead of the enemy.

5Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

6Every bit of beauty has left the daughter of Zion. Her princes are like deer that can find nothing to eat; they have no strength left to run from the hunter.

6And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Note'Daughter of Zion' is a Hebrew way of naming the city itself, not a person living in it, something like 'poor Zion'. The same construction gives 'daughter of Judah' in verse 15.

7In her days of suffering and homelessness, Jerusalem remembers all the good things that were hers long ago. When her people fell into enemy hands, no one came to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed.

7Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind 'homelessness' is uncertain; it may mean wandering, or restlessness. The last line is disputed as well: the Hebrew word for her downfall closely resembles the word for 'sabbaths', which is why the King James Version has the enemies mocking at her sabbaths.

8Jerusalem sinned badly, and so she has become something people spit at. Everyone who once honored her now looks down on her, because they have seen her stripped bare. She groans and turns her face away.

8Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

NoteA captured city was routinely pictured as a woman stripped in public, and public stripping was also a shaming penalty. Seeing someone's nakedness was a stock image for total, irreversible disgrace rather than a charge about anything sexual.

9Her filth clings to the hem of her skirts; she never thought about how this would end. So she fell, and the fall was shocking, and there was no one to comfort her. "LORD, look at how I suffer, because the enemy has won."

9Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

NoteUnder Israel's purity laws, menstrual blood on a woman's clothes left her ritually unclean and untouchable for a set time, a temporary state, not a crime. The poem borrows that image for the city. From the last sentence of this verse the city herself starts speaking; the chapter alternates between an onlooker's voice and hers.

10The enemy has reached out his hand and taken everything she valued. She watched foreign nations walk right into her holy place, the very people you had commanded must never enter your assembly.

10The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

NoteThe 'holy place' is the temple in Jerusalem, which ordinary Israelites could only enter to a set point and foreigners not at all. The law in Deuteronomy 23 barred certain neighboring peoples even from the public assembly of Israel; the shock here is that those same outsiders have now walked into the temple itself.

11All her people groan as they hunt for bread. They have traded away their treasures for food, just to stay alive. "Look, LORD, and see, because I have become worthless in people's eyes."

11All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

NoteThe 'treasures' are household valuables of any kind, sold off for food. This reflects the long Babylonian siege, during which the city was sealed off and starving.

12Does this mean nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is there any pain like the pain done to me, the pain the LORD laid on me on the day of his burning anger?

12Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

NoteThe speaker is calling out to travelers on the road past the ruins. Addressing passers-by this way was a normal device in ancient laments and in the inscriptions carved on tombs.

13He sent fire down from above into my bones, and it beat them down. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He left me ruined and weak all day long.

13From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.

14My sins have been tied into a yoke by his hand; they are braided together and hung on my neck. He has made my strength give way. The Lord has handed me over to people I cannot stand up against.

14The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the LORD hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

NoteA yoke was the wooden bar strapped across the necks of oxen to harness them to a plow or a cart. It was the ordinary image for being under another's control.

15The Lord has trampled every strong man inside my walls. He called an appointed assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trampled the young daughter of Judah, the way grapes are trampled in a winepress.

15The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

NoteThe word translated 'called out an army' is the same one used for summoning people to the appointed festivals in verse 4; the poem uses it bitterly, since this is the gathering Jerusalem now gets. A winepress was a basin cut into rock where grapes were crushed underfoot, the juice running out red, which made treading a winepress a standard image for slaughter.

16This is why I cry. My eyes, my eyes pour down water, because the one who could comfort me and bring me back to life is far away. My children have nothing left, because the enemy won.

16For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

17Zion reaches out her hands, and there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has given the order about Jacob that the nations around him become his enemies. Among them, Jerusalem is treated as an unclean thing.

17Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.

NoteHolding out the hands, palms up, was the usual posture for prayer and for begging. 'Jacob' is an ancestor's name used for the whole nation descended from him. Calling Jerusalem an unclean thing is again the vocabulary of ritual impurity: something others must keep their distance from.

18The LORD is right in what he has done, because I refused to obey his command. Listen, all you peoples, and look at my pain. My young women and my young men have been taken away as prisoners.

18The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.

19I called out to my lovers, but they let me down. My priests and my elders died inside the city while they were searching for food to keep themselves alive.

19I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.

NoteElders were the senior men who governed a town and settled its legal disputes, meeting in the open area at the city gate.

20Look at me, LORD, for I am in deep trouble. I am churning inside; my heart turns over within me, because I rebelled so badly. Out in the street the sword bereaves; inside the house it is like death.

20Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

NoteHebrew places strong emotion in the inner organs where English uses the heart or the stomach. The last line describes life under siege: enemy soldiers kill anyone out in the streets, while starvation and disease kill those who stay inside.

21People have heard me groaning, and there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard about my trouble, and they are glad you did this to me. You will bring the day you announced, and then they will be like me.

21They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.

NoteThe prophets spoke of a coming 'day of the LORD', a day of reckoning announced in advance against the surrounding nations as well as against Jerusalem. That announced day is what is being invoked here.

22Let all the evil they have done come up before you, and deal with them the way you have dealt with me for all my sins. My groans are many, and my heart is weak.

22Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.