Bible Commentaries
Lamentations 1

Verse 1

1:1 How doth {a} the city sit desolate, [that was] full of people! [how] is she become as a widow! she [that was] great among the nations, {b} [and] princess among the provinces, [how] is she become a slave!

(a) The prophet wonders at the great judgment of God, seeing Jerusalem, which was so strong and so full of people, to be now destroyed and desolate.

(b) Who had chief rule over many provinces and countries.

Verse 2

1:2 She weepeth bitterly in the {c} night, and her tears [are] on her cheeks: among all her {d} lovers she hath none to comfort [her]: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

(c) So that she takes no rest.

(d) Meaning the Egyptians and Assyrians who promised help.

Verse 3

1:3 Judah is gone into captivity because {e} of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her in the midst of distress.

(e) For her cruelty toward the poor and oppression of servants, Jeremiah 34:11 .

Verse 4

1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come {f} to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in bitterness.

(f) As they used to come up with mirth and joy, Psalms 42:4 .

Verse 5

1:5 Her adversaries {g} are the head, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

(g) That is, have rule over her, De 28:41 .

Verse 6

1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty hath departed: her princes are become {h} like harts [that] find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

(h) As men pined away with sorrow and that have no courage.

Verse 7

1:7 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 {i} fell into the hand of the enemy, and none helped her: the adversaries saw her, [and] mocked at her {k} sabbaths.

(i) In her misery she considered the great benefits and commodities that she had lost.

(k) At her religion and serving of God, which was the greatest grief to the godly.

Verse 9

1:9 {l} Her filthiness [is] in her skirts; she remembereth not her latter end; therefore she hath been wonderfully abased: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified [himself].

(l) She is not ashamed of her sin, although it is revealed.

Verse 10

1:10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen [that] the nations entered into her sanctuary, whom {m} thou didst command [that] they should not enter into thy congregation.

(m) God forbids the Ammonites and Moabites to enter into the congregation of the Lord, and under them he comprehends all enemies, De 23:3 .

Verse 12

1:12 [Is it] nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there is any {n} sorrow like my sorrow, which hath fallen upon me, with which the LORD hath afflicted [me] in the day of his fierce anger.

(n) Thus Jerusalem laments moving others to pity her and to learn by her example.

Verse 13

1:13 From above hath {o} 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.

(o) This declares that we should acknowledge God to be the author of all our afflictions to the intent that we might seek him for remedy.

Verse 14

1:14 The {p} yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are knit together, [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.

(p) My heavy sins are continually before his eyes as he that ties a thing to his hand for a reminder.

Verse 15

1:15 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 {q} winepress.

(q) He has trodden them underfoot as they tread grapes in the winepress.

Verse 17

1:17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, [and there is] none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, [that] his adversaries [should be] around him: Jerusalem is {r} as a menstruous woman among them.

(r) Who because of her pollution was separate from her husband, Leviticus 15:19 and was abhorred for the time.

Verse 19

1:19 I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived me: my priests and my elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they {s} sought their food to relieve their souls.

(s) That is, they died for hunger.

Verse 22

1:22 {t} Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do to them, as thou hast done to me for all my transgressions: for my sighs [are] many, and my heart [is] faint.

(t) Of desiring vengeance against the enemy, See Geneva "Jeremiah 11:20" and See Geneva "Jeremiah 18:21"