Lamentations 1: 1 – 22
The Lonely City
1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! 2 She weeps bitterly in the night; her tears are on her cheeks; Among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies. 3 Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits. 4 The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate; Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. 5 Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; For the LORD has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. 6 And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture, that flee without strength before the pursuer. 7 In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, with no one to help her, the adversaries saw her and mocked at her downfall. 8 Jerusalem has sinned gravely, therefore, she has become vile. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away. 9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore, her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. “O LORD behold my affliction, for the enemy is exalted!” 10 The adversary has spread his hand over all her pleasant things; For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom You commanded not to enter Your assembly. 11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; They have given their valuables for food to restore life. “See, O LORD, and consider, for I am scorned.” 12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the LORD has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger. 13 “From above He has sent fire into my bones, and it overpowered them; He has spread a net for my feet and turned me back; He has made me desolate and faint all the day. 14 “The yoke of my transgressions was bound; They were woven together by His hands, and thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand. 15 “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me to crush my young men; The Lord trampled as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. 16 “For these things I weep; My eye, my eye overflows with water; Because the comforter, who should restore my life, is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed.” 17 Zion spreads out her hands, but no one comforts her; The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob that those around him become his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them. 18 “The LORD is righteous, for I rebelled against His commandment. Hear now, all peoples, and behold 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 breathed their last in the city, while they sought food to restore their life. 20 “See, O LORD, that I am in distress; My soul is troubled; My heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves, at home it is like death. 21 “They have heard that I sigh, but no one comforts me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; They are glad that You have done it. Bring on the day You have announced, that they may become like me. 22 “Let all their wickedness come before You and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions; For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.”
The Lonely City: Adventures in being alone is today’s topic.
Loneliness is difficult to confess; difficult too to categories. Like depression, a state with which it often intersects, it can run deep in the fabric of a person.
You can live is a large city and be the loneliest person on the face of the earth.
You are born alone. You die alone. The value of the space in between is trust and love in the God Who created us and grated us forgiveness in the Sacrificial Blood of His Holy Lamb, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today we are going to go over the emotions of Jeremiah who stands in the ruins of Jerusalem lonely and heartbroken. The city where our Holy Father God willing place His Holy Name sits destroyed and empty. It is an emotional journey we are about to take yet we benefit in understanding the Righteousness of our Holy Master, Ruler, and God El Shaddai.
This is a book of laments concerning the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, written by one who was almost certainly an eyewitness to the events. These lamentations are often called ‘the lamentations of Jeremiah’, and were such in Jewish tradition.
It is important to recognize the background to the lament. Jerusalem, the Holy City, lay in ruins, still inhabited by the poor, but with its status wholly diminished and itself unimportant. The Temple, of which Judah had believed that God would never allow it to be defiled, and which was intended to be a beacon to the world of God’s truth, was now a burnt-out mass, with the holy hill empty and bleak. While worship was probably still carried on there, it would have been of a very limited kind, on a makeshift altar beneath the open sky. But all on which Judah/Israel had laid such store was gone. YHWH had fulfilled the curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 to the letter.
But one important point brought out by the writer is that it was not that YHWH had failed to protect His Temple. It was that He Himself had determined on its desolation and had brought it about. For outsiders it was just an event in history, the consequence of the greed of empires, and of the fact that Jerusalem had offended her God. But for believers it was a just act of God. He had warned them of what would happen if they disobeyed His covenant. And now it had happened. As a center of the worship of YHWH Jerusalem was no more.
And the reason why the writer was reminding his people of this was to bring them to repentance. He wanted them to recognize the deep significance of what had happened. That is one purpose of a lamentation. It not only allows people to release their grief, but also brings home the lesson to be learned from the cause of lamentation. In a similar way it should be for us a reminder that when God warns us of coming judgment we need to take it seriously. Most of us are far too glib about our sins and about coming judgment, just as Judah/Israel had been. We need to remember that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and that a day of reckoning for our failures is coming, even on those of us who are His redeemed.
One of the abiding lessons of Lamentations is, of course, that God is working out His purposes through history, and that sometimes the very lowest point is reached, and that God allows it. It is bringing out that God is sovereign in history. Many Christians have known times when they were almost in total despair and have wondered why God did not do something. It was so with the prophet, and with Jerusalem. It appeared to be the end. But we need to learn from Lamentations to remember the bigger picture. We are to see that what we experience is in fact rather the chastening of a God Who is concerned to root out sin, and Whose ways are not understandable to us. One day Jerusalem would rise again, and it would become the city where the ultimate Sacrifice was offered to God and from which the Good News of salvation would go out to the world. And once that was accomplished, while its usefulness would be over, the Temple would be replaced by the living Temple of Christ and His people. And Jerusalem would be replaced by a heavenly Jerusalem. In that sense Jerusalem was eternal.
One further point should be made. If we find the theology of Lamentations difficult to handle it is because our view of God is superficial. For there is no avoiding the fact that such things do happen, and that God allows them. Any view of God that we take which does not take these things into account is unrealistic. It is a constant reminder of the fact that ‘the wages of sin is death’. It is true that God is love, but He is also pure light. And that light exposes and hates sin. His love can thus finally only be experienced by those who respond to His light by recognizing their sinfulness and throwing themselves on His mercy. Then they will discover that He is love indeed.
It is when taken all together that the book offers hope. Chapter 1 is full of deep despair and brings out the sad condition of Jerusalem after the Babylonian invasion, both from the prophet’s point of view, while acknowledging that they are receiving what their sin deserves. Chapter 2 continues the despair but emphasizes that what has happened to them is due to the wrath, anger, fury of YHWH. However, in chapter 3, although the gloom continues, light breaks through.
Thus in 3.21-42, which are literally central to the whole book, we find a series of statements about God’s goodness and faithfulness, together with a cry that He will act in due time. In their adversity believers must keep their trust firmly in God, for ‘great is His faithfulness’ (verse 23). His compassions do not fail (verse 22), and while He has punished severely He has not done it willingly (verse 33). Furthermore, He has not forgotten those who are truly His own. Thus, they can wait patiently for Him to act in ‘salvation’ (verse 26), for He will not cast off for ever (verse 31). They must recognize that both ‘good and bad’ come from His hands, simply because as a just God He must punish men for their sins. They must therefore not complain at what is happening to them (verse 39) but must lift their hands up to Him in expectation (verse 40-41), while acknowledging their present situation (verse 42).
From then on in chapter 3, and again in chapter 4, the book reverts to its gloomy outlook, and chapter 4 closes with a warning to Edom that it too will suffer for what it has done (verses 21-22). But it does at the same time assure Judah/Israel that their sufferings have reached their height, with no more to come (verse 22). Chapter 5 continues the gloom, but it has a note of hope near the end. ‘YHWH abides forever and His throne is from generation to generation.’ The inference is that the sufferings of the present time will yet turn into future blessing, and that they can therefore call on Him to turn them to Himself once their period of punishment is over (verses 19-21). But that must not mean that they overlook the fact that for the present they are still rejected and aware of His anger against them (verse 22).
Chapter 1 is a heart cry over what has happened to Jerusalem. It divides up into two equal sections. The first eleven verses depict the heart cry of the prophet as he looks at what has happened to Jerusalem. The next eleven verses depict the heart cry of the city itself as it contemplates what has happened to it, a passage opened with the immortal words, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by, look and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow’ (1.12). In neither section is there any positive request for YHWH to respond to their cry with deliverance, and the chapter ends rather with the plea that Jerusalem’s betrayers might suffer the same fate as she has. It is thus a cry for justice against her enemies so that they might share her fate, demonstrating the blackness of her despair.
Noteworthy is the emphasis the chapter places on the fact that it is YHWH Who has brought it about. It only comes out once in the first 11 verses which are spoken by the prophet, where it is related to her sins, ‘YHWH has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgression’ (verse 5).
The prophet here commences by bewailing the state of Jerusalem. He pines over what it has lost, and describes it in terms which bring out how much it has lost. From the political point of view, it had lost its autonomy and was no longer semi-independently ruled, having become but part of a Babylonian province. From the religious point of view it had lost its status as the center for the worship of YHWH.
In these opening verses (1.1-7) Jerusalem is pictured by the writer in terms of how it now was, an empty city, a widow and forced-laborer (helpless people subject to the winds of fortune), one who was despised by the nations, her people in exile, her worship non-existent, ruled over by her enemies, her treasures all gone, and all because she had turned from the Lord and from His covenant, and had done it so often that in the end He had had enough.
The verses bring out a few deliberate contrasts:
. She had been full of people, a busy thriving city, but now she was empty (verse 1).
. She had been great among the nations, but now she had become a helpless and undefended widow (the most unheeded of people) grieving the loss of her husband, indeed even a forced-laborer, one of the riff-raff caught up by fate and respected by none (verse 1).
. She had had many friends and lovers among her allies, who had honored and respected her, but now they despised her and have become her enemies (verse 2).
. She who had been at rest and well established as the capital of a nation had now been taken into captivity, scattered and dwelling among the nations, finding no rest (verse 3).
. She who had been a thriving worship center, was now deserted. None came to her to enjoy her festivals (verse 4).
. Those who had been kept in check by her as her regional enemies, were now instead head over her (verse 5).
. She had been full of treasures (pleasant things), but now those treasures were but a memory. They had gone (verse 7).
We can understand from this the cry from the prophet’s heart. Jerusalem had lost everything. Whilst the city would not be literally empty, and some of the poorest of the land would still be living there amidst its ruins, she was an empty, broken-down shell. The eternal city was no more. It is a picture of a city and nation which, because it had lost its soul, had therefore now lost everything.
We cannot fail to recognize in all this what can happen to the church of Jesus Christ (and has happened through the ages) when it falls short in its witness and life and becomes superficial. Its congregations can begin to dwindle. It can lose respect. It can find itself deserted. It can lose its spiritual riches and its first love. It has happened to much of the church in England. It is happening in the US. And it all arises through disobedience and neglect, through self-praise and self-gratification, through self-satisfaction, and through an attitude that worships other things than God. It is something that can also happen in the individual. It is a picture of the consequences when the world has crept in and has gradually taken over, it is a picture of the consequences of backsliding, of a spiritually bankrupt life.
1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave!
As the writer surveys what remains of Jerusalem his heart is moved to cry out. He could remember how it had once been a teeming city, full of bustle and noise, its streets filled with people. But now it was empty. Those who did still dwell there were despondent and discouraged as they crept around its ruined streets, ruled over by outsiders. It was a city which had lost its heart.
It had become like a widow, one who wept because she had lost her protector and provider, one who often lived on the edge of poverty, who was ignored by all, and was an irrelevance to all, with no one to take up her cause. Life had passed her by.
Jerusalem/Judah had once been great among the local nations, highly regarded, and looked up to as a royal city, ‘a princess’. But now it had become a forced laborer, one set to the task force, at the beck and call of its taskmasters.
Looking back to the times when surrounding nations had been subject to Jerusalem in the times of Hezekiah, and earlier. Then she had been like a princess among them. The word for ‘provinces’ indicates a nation or nations subject to another nation.
2 She weeps bitterly in the night; her tears are on her cheeks; Among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.
Jerusalem in her desolation had become like a deserted lover, weeping bitterly in the night, tears running down her cheeks, her lovers no longer there to comfort her because they have treacherously entered relationship with her enemies. She had been deserted. All the nations that she had relied on had turned from her, making terms with the Babylonians and acting against her. She has been left alone to face her destiny.
In the past she had looked to those others for sustenance instead of to her Lord and now those others had failed her and she was left robbed. Not one could be relied on. It is a reminder that we also need to beware of too much reliance on people, instead of relying on our Lord. He is the only One Who will never let us down.
3 Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.
One of the great promises to God’s people had been that they would find rest. But from now on there would be no rest, for those who were the heart of the nation had been carried away into captivity. Some were suffering great affliction, others were facing great servitude. Like the Israelites who had wandered in the wilderness under Moses, they too would wander among the nations, unable to find rest. And of those who had not gone into captivity large numbers had sought refuge in Egypt, equally becoming exiles. For them the future was just as bleak as Jeremiah makes clear. Meanwhile her own land had been invaded and settled by other neighboring nations (the Edomites in the south) who had acted against her in her abandoned state.
It is noteworthy that later in the book ‘the daughter of Zion’ is promised that she will no more be carried into captivity once the punishment of her iniquity is accomplished (4.22). The book is therefore an assurance that this is only a temporary experience.
This picture of a people unable to find rest is taken up by the writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 3-4, as he warns a group of Jewish Christians of the dangers of falling back into Judaism. It is a warning to us also lest we fall back into apathy or think that we can be ‘believers’ without making a genuine response in our lives.
4 The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate; Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
Despite its extravagant seeking after false gods Jerusalem had taken great pride in being the center of Yahwism, the place to which people flocked at the times of the great feasts, singing as they came. It was the place where many gathered to worship the true God. But now the roads along which they had travelled mourned because no one travelled along them, no one came for the feasts. Jerusalem’s very gates were unused and desolate, no pilgrims flocked through them. Her priests sighed, either because no one made use of their services (the context may be suggesting that these are minor priests left in Jerusalem), or because having been carried off into a far country they could no longer serve. Her virgins were afflicted, and no longer took part in the festivals partly because there were no prospects of marriage for them as a result of the slaughter, and partly possibly because they had been repeatedly raped by the invading forces and had lost their virginity. Meanwhile the whole of Jerusalem, instead of being festive, was in deep bitterness.
Many today can look back to the past and see what once was, remembering past days of blessing which have been lost. And it is all too often because of the sin of God’s people who have failed in their responsibility, indeed, bringing it closer to home, it is because of our sin. We have only to think of past revivals to ask ourselves, why have the places in which there was once such rejoicing and worship, become places which are spiritually barren and fruitless?
5 Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; For the LORD has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
Grievous to the prophet was the sight of Jerusalem and Judah ruled over by foreigners. Babylon now ruled them by direct rule through her appointees, stationed elsewhere than Jerusalem. Initially it was by Gedaliah, no doubt watched over by Babylonian advisers, and then by whoever replaced him. But the authority to rule had been taken away from Jerusalem.
The neighboring nations were no longer subject to Judah’s hand upon them, and instead prospered at her expense. And all this was because YHWH had afflicted her. It was YHWH’s doing.
And that is why her people, and even her young children, had gone into exile, either forcefully or voluntarily. (‘Before the adversary’ could indicate that they had been driven as captors, or that they had fled from their vengeance). It was because of their transgressions against the covenant with YHWH, which included the ten words/commandments. So, the message is that it is YHWH Who has done it because of their disobedience to His requirements. This is the explanation of the catastrophe. This emphasis on the fact that it was YHWH Who was responsible for what had happened, and Who had brought this catastrophe on them, is a theme of the book. It was a message that enabled a broken and disheartened people to make sense of what had happened. It enabled them to recognise that if only they would respond to Him truly they were still His people. For we must remember that however deep our sin, God will always provide us with a way back through true repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
6 And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture, that flee without strength before the pursuer.
YHWH had made her majestic in the eyes of the nations, partly because of her unique faith and her unique God, but now that majesty has departed. Instead of standing proud among the nations her princes had become like deer without pasture which become weak and feeble and lose their strength. ‘Before their pursuer’ suggests here a special reference to the way in which Zedekiah and his princes and advisers had fled ignominiously by night seeking to escape from those who surrounded Jerusalem. But they had lacked the strength and stamina to escape because of the starvation rations that they had been living on and had been overtaken at the Arabah.
7 In the days of her affliction and roaming, Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy, with no one to help her, the adversaries saw her and mocked at her downfall.
The prophet pictures Jerusalem in her poverty and desolation as remembering the treasures that she had lost, the treasures which had made her such a desirable city, and especially the treasures of the Temple removed by Nebuchadnezzar. Then she had been admired and honored. But now her treasures were gone, for she had fallen into the hands of the adversary, and none had helped her. Her adversaries now saw her desolations and mocked at her. She was a laughingstock among her neighbors.
Having outlined what Jerusalem had lost the prophet now turns his thoughts to what she has become. She has become like a menstrual woman whose situation is visibly revealed to the world, a suggestive picture that would have brought horror to men and women alike. Menstruation was something to be kept hidden and to be ashamed of. And menstruation was especially horrific in Judah/Israel for it was a means by which people were rendered ritually ‘unclean’ (Leviticus 15.19). Furthermore, what was worse, because of her failure unqualified strangers had entered into God’s holy place, stealing its treasures and rendering it unclean by their presence. One uncleanness leads to another. And meanwhile her people had had to trade their own personal treasures simply to obtain the food that enabled them to survive.
8 Jerusalem has sinned gravely, therefore, she has become vile. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness; Yes, she sighs and turns away.
Note the emphasis on the fact that all this was because ‘Jerusalem has grievously sinned’. And by sin is meant breaches of the covenant, both ritual and moral. They had played havoc with God’s covenant by murder, adultery, theft, perjury and covetousness, they had wallowed in idolatry (Jeremiah 7.9; 17.1-2), and all this had been exposed to the world, revealing her as a religious harlot. It was because of their sin that they had become like a menstrual woman whose nakedness was revealed. This would have literally occurred at the taking of Jerusalem with the enemy soldiers taking great delight in seizing menstruating women, ripping their clothes, and exposing them to the world. But it was also true metaphorically of Jerusalem as her sins and idolatry were also revealed to the world, causing her who had once been honored, to be despised. She had defiled the religion of YHWH. She is then depicted as sighing deeply in her misery and shame at her exposure, and desperately and hopelessly trying to hide her condition by turning her back, hoping to hide herself from prying eyes, a totally useless enterprise, but it was all that she could do. She was unable to remove her sin. Indeed, her means for doing so (the Temple ritual) had been destroyed.
9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore, her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. “O LORD behold my affliction, for the enemy is exalted!”
She had not been concerned about the fact that she was defiling herself, and so she had wallowed in her dirt, because she had failed to consider what the result might be. She had gloried in her uncleanness. Her collapse when it came was therefore both total and spectacular, with no one to turn to for comfort. Jerusalem now lay in ruins, with no one concerned about her of all her erstwhile allies, whilst her God also seemed far away.
We live today in times when uncleanness and immorality are being openly exposed to the world with no sense of shame. We too should recognize that our nations are heading for a spectacular fall.
The picture was so awful to the prophet’s mind that he cried out to YHWH even as he wrote. For he saw the affliction of Jerusalem as his own affliction. He shared in her misery. (We do not therefore need to choose between seeing this prayer as that of the prophet or that of a stricken Jerusalem. It was both). And he sought to draw YHWH’s attention to how their enemy was magnifying himself, and that included magnifying his gods. And by it the enemy were therefore deriding YHWH (‘the God of Israel’). Let God act therefore to defend His Name. It is a reminder that we too should identify ourselves with the sins of our nations, and should weep as the prophet wept, concerned for the honor of our God.
10 The adversary has spread his hand over all her pleasant things; For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom You commanded not to enter Your assembly.
The thought of the uncleanness of the nation now reminded the writer of what he saw as the most dreadful thing of all. The picture of the defiled, menstrual woman drew his attention to an even worse situation, the defilement of God’s sanctuary that had resulted from it. As always happens the defilement had spread to God’s house. The enemy had not hesitated to spread out his hands and gather in all Jerusalem’s treasures, and to do so had trespassed on both the area of the sanctuary reserved only for the priests, and on the area especially which no man could enter because the Ark of YHWH was there. Foreign feet, which should not even have been allowed to become a part of the festal gathering (assembly), had trampled God’s Holy Place, where none but the especially sanctified could enter. And they had even entered the Holiest of All. And this was due to Jerusalem’s sins. The writer was horrified at the thought.
We also need to remember that when we sin we defile God’s Name and, if it is unrepented of, we carry our sin with us into the gathering of God’s people. We do not therefore just defile ourselves, we defile God’s holy Temple, His people.
11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; They have given their valuables for food to restore life. “See, O LORD, and consider, for I am scorned.”
One of the consequences of all that had happened was that the people were now in extreme poverty. They were sighing at the miseries that had come on them, and they were so desperate to obtain food for themselves and their families, that in order to obtain it they were selling off their last remaining treasured possessions, even their children (for a reminder of the shortage of food during the sieges, but their hapless condition would continue afterwards, for they would not be well looked after by their captors). For even the richest was poor now. They had truly become an object of pity. And pity was what the writer felt as he looked on the situation. Once again it turns him to prayer as he identifies himself with his people and calls on YHWH to see his and their abject state.
It is a reminder that we also should be aware of, and pray about, the miseries of others when they are caught up in catastrophe, entering into their experience with them.
This passage can be divided up into two parts, the first in which Jerusalem calls on the world to behold her pitiable state (verses 12-19), and the second in which she calls on YHWH to do the same and to avenge her in accordance with what He has promised (verses 20-22).
12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the LORD has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger.
In words that have moved the hearts of people in many generations Jerusalem calls on the world to pause as they pass by the ruined city and behold her sorrows and afflictions. And then he explains their cause. They are because YHWH has afflicted them because He is severely angry with them. YHWH’s anger is not of course to be seen as like our anger. It is rather descriptive of His antipathy to sin, and His reaction against it. God’s holiness results in God’s wrath against sin.
The words remind us of Another Who hung on a cross as our representative and substitute, bearing for us the wrath of God against sin. He too could say to those who passed by, ‘Is it nothing to you all you who pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow -- with which God has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.’ It reminds us that we can be spared the wrath of God because He bore it in our place, being made sin for us, and taking on Himself ‘the wrath of God’ (the necessity in God, because of what He is, to justly punish sin).
13 “From above He has sent fire into my bones, and it overpowered them; He has spread a net for my feet and turned me back; He has made me desolate and faint all the day.
Jerusalem then speaks of three ways in which YHWH has dealt with her:
. He has sent the destructive fire that had come from on high which has burned her to her very bones. That fire was figurative, descriptive of God’s wrath, but it resulted in real fires as the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, systematically burning it.
. He has ensnared them in a net spread in order to catch their feet in it. Note the implication that YHWH had intended to ensnare them, it was, however, only because they were walking in rejection of Him. And in the end it was an act of love, for He intended to restore them if and when they repented and came back to Him. The ‘turning back’ may refer to the hunter’s ploy by which he ensures that his trap is filled, turning the frightened animals back so that they are caught in his net. In other words, Jerusalem was like an animal driven towards a trap, caught in the snare and awaiting its fate.
. He has made them desolate and faint. The idea is of the desolation of their hearts in the face of what has happened to them, and of the faintness that resulted from lack of food. All their sufferings are to be at the hand of YHWH.
All this is a reminder to us that God is Light (1 John 1.5) as well as Love (1 John 4.8). Though He may bear long with us He will not allow sin unrepented of to go unpunished in the end.
We need not think that we are exempt. We too may be called on to experience His destructive fire, to be caught in His snare, and to end up in a state of desolation at what is happening to us, as many an individual has discovered, and as the church has often experienced through the centuries when it has been unfaithful to Him. Paradoxical though it may seem it is often a sign of His love. It is His way of bringing back to Himself those who are truly His, and yet have strayed for a while, and punishing those whose profession is merely formal.
14 “The yoke of my transgressions was bound; They were woven together by His hands, and thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.
Under the guidance of the prophets they recognize that YHWH has taken their transgressions and woven them together to make a heavy yoke on their necks, similar to the wooden yoke that oxen wore over their necks when they pulled the plough. And under that heavy yoke their strength fails, and they are not able to stand. For that heavy yoke is the victorious enemy who have come against them, against whom they have no hope. It is a cry of despair, a cry of recognition of deserved judgment, and yet it is also in the end a cry of hope. For the very reason for making this lament is the hope that God will hear and respond to their cry, as history reveals that He does. It will, however, only be through a hard and difficult path.
Take note here of the change from ‘YHWH’ to ‘the Lord (Adonai)’. It is the sovereign Judge Who Is now acting.
15 “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me to crush my young men; The Lord trampled as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.
‘The Sovereign Lord’ continues to act. He has rendered powerless the warriors of Judah/Israel, He has made them ‘as nothing’ (to be treated with contempt), by the very size and ferocity of the forces that have come against them.
The idea of ‘calling a solemn assembly’ usually has worship and joy in mind. So the gathering here is seen by God as for a religious purpose. But the joy will be that of the conquerors, not of Judah. For here the religious purpose is the judgment of Jerusalem. It is seeing what happens as something which has religious intent and contributes to the praise of YHWH, because Judah/Israel are getting their deserts.
The idea is of one who had once been pure, but is now helpless, and brought down to shame. The virgin has been raped.
16 “For these things I weep; My eye, my eye overflows with water; Because the comforter, who should restore my life, is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed.”
The destruction of the Temple had been a shattering blow for Israel, and for their faith. Up to that point they had believed that YHWH’s hand would protect it, that somehow He would not deal so severely with His people. Now they had been proved wrong, and the ruins of the Temple indicated to them that YHWH had in a sense deserted them, that He was ‘far from them’. The One Who alone could have comforted them and refreshed their souls was no longer near. Or at least that was how it appeared to them at that moment. (In their exiles the prophets would encourage them to demonstrate that YHWH still had a purpose for them. But that was not how they saw it at this moment).
So ‘Jerusalem’ wept copious tears, tears streaming down the faces of her people. For as they looked at the total desolation, and the victorious enemy, they were aware that they had no one to turn to. The repetition of ‘my eye’ emphasizes the point. They felt utterly forsaken.
Many of us experience times in our lives when we feel that God has forsaken us because we cannot understand what is happening to us. For His ways are not our ways, and sometimes He leads us through the valley of thick darkness. But we should comfort ourselves with the thought that it is in the end so that we might be purified, as Israel was being purified.
17 Zion spreads out her hands, but no one comforts her; The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob that those around him become his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
Zion is here the equivalent of Jerusalem. Here she cries out in her sad condition. The spreading forth of the hands while standing up to pray was a common method of praying. Thus here Jerusalem is depicted as calling on God to hear her in her distress. But it appears to her to be in vain. No one acts on her behalf. No one comforts her. The One Who would have been her Comforter has turned against her because of her many sins, and even her erstwhile allies have become her enemies because they now see her as ‘unclean’, deserted by the gods and by men. And Jerusalem recognises that this also is due to the hand of YHWH. It is He Who has commanded it. Here people have been brought to a full stop in order that they may face up to how much they have offended God.
There is a reminder to us here that if our trust is in the world it will always let us down in the end. And a reminder that we should treat our sin more seriously.
18 “The LORD is righteous, for I rebelled against His commandment. Hear now, all peoples, and behold my sorrow; My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
Jerusalem acknowledges the fact that what has happened has not called into question the righteousness of YHWH. Rather it has underlined it. For it has happened precisely because her people had rebelled against the commandments of the Righteous One. This was initially, of course, the prophet’s viewpoint speaking on behalf of Jerusalem, but it would gradually become a part of the thinking of the whole people because of the prophetic endeavors, and this lament.
Then Jerusalem calls on ‘all you peoples’ to behold her sorrow, in that the prime of her youth, her virgins and young men, have gone into captivity.
19 “I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city, while they sought food to restore their life.
Jerusalem admits that she has been failed by both her allies, and by her own leadership. Her ‘lovers’ are those that she has cozied up to among the neighboring countries. But when called on to fulfil their promises they had deceived her. Egypt, for example, on whom she had greatly relied, had made great promises, but had been unable to live up to them). And in some cases, her neighbors had rather assisted her enemies (although sometimes having no alternative). Meanwhile her own leadership, the priests and elders (secular statesmen) whom she had looked up to, and on whom she had depended, had given up any effort to help the people because they had been too involved in their own self-preservation. Indeed, many of them had actually perished as they searched for food.
It is a sign of the depths of Jerusalem’s despair that her desire is not for mercy for herself, for she apparently sees that she does not warrant it, but that YHWH will also punish those who are gloating over her and yet are just as sinful in the same way as He has her. Their gloating has bitten deep into her soul. She wants equal justice for all, not mercy.
20 “See, O LORD, that I am in distress; My soul is troubled; My heart is overturned within me, for I have been very rebellious. Outside the sword bereaves, at home it is like death.
She calls on YHWH to behold her in her present state. But this is a recognition of her confidence that YHWH will still hear her. She does not feel totally forsaken. It is a dim glimmer of light in the darkness.
But for the present she is in distress, her heart is troubled and torn within her, and she recognizes the depths of her own sin. She has ‘grievously rebelled’, a verb which means ‘to behave obstinately’. That is why, both at home and abroad, her people are still dying.
21 “They have heard that I sigh, but no one comforts me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; They are glad that You have done it. Bring on the day You have announced, that they may become like me.
‘They’ includes her enemies among her neighbors. And what hurts worse than all else is that while she sighs with none to comfort her, her enemies are gloating over what has happened to her. They are glad that YHWH has done this to her. But even in her misery Jerusalem is confident that He will fulfil his prophecies against the nations in Jeremiah 46-49. He will bring the day that He has proclaimed, and in that day her enemies will find themselves in the same distressing conditions that she is suffering now.
We cannot see this as an attitude to be encouraged, it is contrary to the teaching of Christ, but it was at least an indication that Jerusalem had not lost her belief in the justice and fairness of God, and that she saw all that was happening as firmly within His control. She was trusting God in the dark, believing Him to be concerned about her even in her present situation.
22 “Let all their wickedness come before You and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions; For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.”
Her prayer does, however, arise from her consciousness that her enemies are as wicked as she is. She is not calling for adversity to fall on the innocent. All are seen as equally deserving of punishment. She is now suffering because of all her transgressions, and she sees it as right that those who have sinned as much as she has should be punished in the same way. ‘Do to them as You have done to me.’ God must at least reveal Himself as fair and just.
She closes by summarizing her position in the words, ‘my sighs are many and my heart is faint’. It is the cry of a burnt-out shell of a city grieving over her condition whilst her sufferings are deeply imbedded in her mind, somehow clinging on to her faith in God (which is why she prays).
