Lamentations 1 King James Version (KJV)
1 How 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!
2 She 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.
3 Judah 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.
4 The 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.
5 Her 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.
6 And 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.
7 Jerusalem 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.
8 Jerusalem 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.
9 Her 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.
10 The 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.
11 All 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.
12 Is 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.
13 From 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.
14 The 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.
15 The 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.
16 For 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.
17 Zion 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.
18 The 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.
19 I 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.
20 Behold, 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.
21 They 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.
22 Let 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.
Commentary
The word ‘lamentations’, though not used as much today as in former times, is an ordinary English word that denotes expressions of sorrow, grief or distress. The biblical book of Lamentations is a collection of five poems that express the writer’s sorrow over the fall of Jerusalem to the armies of Babylon in 587 BC. (For details of the events of that time see the section ‘Historical Background’ in the introductory notes to the book of Jeremiah.)
| Lamentations Comentary | Lamentations Comentary |
|---|---|
| Lamentations 1 Commentary | Lamentations 4 Commentary |
| Lamentations 2 Commentary | Lamentations 5 Commentary |
| Lamentations 3 Commentary | Lamentations KJV |
A poet and his poems
There is no statement in the book of Lamentations to inform us who wrote it, though the popular view is that the author was Jeremiah. Whoever the author was, he must have lived in Jerusalem during the final siege and ultimate collapse of the city. He witnessed the horror of those days and had first-hand knowledge of the hardships that the survivors in Judah experienced.
Clearly the author of the book was a person of considerable literary skill and spiritual insight. His poems arouse feelings of pity and sympathy in the reader, but they also show the firmness of his faith. In the depressing circumstances about which he writes, he still took his troubles to God.
Each of the five poems represents one chapter in the English Bible. By his arrangement of the poems, the author has provided a sharp contrast between despair and hope. The central poem, which has 66 verses, deals with certain basic issues of people’s relationship with God, such as faith and doubt, punishment and salvation, justice and mercy, repentance and forgiveness. The other four poems, which have 22 verses each, deal with the sufferings of those who lived in Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside, and are arranged equally either side of the central poem.
A further feature of the poems has specifically to do with the original language and therefore is not evident in English. In the Hebrew of the poems of Chapters 1, 2 and 4, each verse begins with a different letter of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet, the order of letters being from the first letter of the alphabet to the last. In the 66-verse poem of Chapter 3, there are 22 sets of three verses each. All three verses in each set begin with the same letter, and the initial letters of each set again follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet. The poem of Chapter 5, though having 22 verses, does not maintain the alphabetical arrangement.