Reading: Lament 1 (Video Slides)

#31 Lament 1: The Woman Jerusalem Mourns

The Lamentations (of Jeremiah?)

• Traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah: hence their location in biblical literature immediately following Jeremiah
• Four acrostic laments (1-4) plus another lament (5)
  -  1 (22 X 3 couplets, only the first of which begins with the successive letter): Jerusalem is like a lonely widow suffering from many oppressions
  - 2 (22 X 3 couplets, only the first of which begins with the successive letter): Yahweh’s covenant anger and the resulting judgment
  - 3 (22 X 3 lines, each of which begins with the successive letter): Personalized pain because of Yahweh’s judgment, coupled with an expectation of restoration
  - 4 (22 X 2 couplets, only the first of which begins with the successive letter): the pain of Jerusalem’s ruin personalized
  - 5 (22 couplets, not acrostic): a prayer of repentance, seeking Yahweh’s deliverance

Lamentations 1

¹ How deserted lies the city,
    once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
    who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
    has now become a slave.

² Bitterly she weeps at night,
    tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
    there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
    they have become her enemies.

³ After affliction and harsh labor,
    Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
    she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
    her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
    and she is in bitter anguish.

⁵ Her foes have become her masters;
    her enemies are at ease.
The Lord has brought her grief
    because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
    captive before the foe.

⁶ All the splendor has departed
    from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
    that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
    before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and wandering
    Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
    that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
    there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
    and laughed at her destruction.

⁸ Jerusalem has sinned greatly
    and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
    for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
    and turns away.

⁹ Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
    she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
    there was none to comfort her.
“Look, Lord, on my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed.”

¹⁰ The enemy laid hands
    on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
    enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
    to enter your assembly.

¹¹ All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
    to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Lord, and consider,
    for I am despised.”

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
    Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
    that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
    in the day of his fierce anger?

¹³ “From on high he sent fire,
    sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
    and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
    faint all the day long.

¹⁴ “My sins have been bound into a yoke;
    by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
    and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands
    of those I cannot withstand.

¹⁵ “The Lord has rejected
    all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
    to crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
    Virgin Daughter Judah.

¹⁶ “This is why I weep
    and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
    no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
    because the enemy has prevailed.”

¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
    that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸ “The Lord is righteous,
    yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
    look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
    have gone into exile.

¹⁹ “I called to my allies
    but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
    perished in the city
while they searched for food
    to keep themselves alive.

²⁰ “See, Lord, how distressed I am!
    I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
    for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
    inside, there is only death.

²¹ “People have heard my groaning,
    but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
    they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
    so they may become like me.

²² “Let all their wickedness come before you;
    deal with them
as you have dealt with me
    because of all my sins.
My groans are many
    and my heart is faint.”

Reflections on Lament 1

• Jerusalem is pictured as a forlorn widow whose children have all died or have been taken away.
• The woman acknowledges that, while other nations have done this, it is Yahweh who is behind it all.
• The reason for Yahweh’s judgment is the woman’s own sinfulness, so Yahweh is justified in these actions that have resulted in torture and pain and loneliness and helplessness.
• These things are all a result of the curses of the Sinai Covenant coming to pass.