Lamentations · chapter 1 of 5
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Lamentations 1 is the first lament poem over the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC. The city, once full of people, sits alone like a widow, weeps with no one to comfort her and finds her enemies have become her masters. In the second half Jerusalem herself speaks: she confesses her sin, asks passersby to look at her pain and cries to God to see her affliction.
Lamentations collects five poems about the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by Nebuchadnezzar's armies in 586 BC. The book does not name its author; Jewish and Christian tradition attributes it to Jeremiah. The first chapter is an acrostic poem of twenty-two verses, each beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a way of expressing grief from A to Z.
The poem opens with a question of astonishment: how is it that the city once full of people now sits alone? She who was great among the nations has become like a widow, and the princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor. She weeps in the night, with tears on her cheeks, and among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; her friends have dealt treacherously with her. Judah has gone into exile, the roads to Zion mourn because none come to the festivals and her priests groan.
The narrator explains the cause: the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. All her majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion, and her princes are like deer that find no pasture. Jerusalem sinned grievously, so she is treated with contempt. The enemy stretched out his hand over all her precious things, the nations entered her sanctuary and her people groan as they seek bread.
From verse 12 Zion herself speaks. She asks those who pass by whether it means nothing to them, and asks them to see if there is any sorrow like hers, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his anger. She weeps because the comforter who would restore her life is far away. Zion stretches out her hands and there is no one to comfort her.
The poem ends with a confession and a plea. The Lord is in the right, for she has rebelled against his word. Her lovers deceived her, and her priests and elders perished while seeking food. She asks God to see her distress and to bring on her enemies, who rejoice in her trouble, the day he announced.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
How lonely sits the city that was full of people, like a widow who was great among the nations. The book begins with the cry of lament, and the image of the widow sets the tone of the whole poem.
The Lord afflicted Jerusalem for the multitude of her transgressions. The poet does not hide that the ruin has a moral cause: the people's sin, and not only the might of Babylon.
Zion asks passersby whether it means nothing to them and asks them to look for any sorrow like hers, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his anger. It is one of the best-known lines of the book, which Christian tradition has also read in light of Christ's suffering.
Jerusalem admits that the Lord is righteous because she rebelled against his word, and asks all peoples to look at her pain. Confessing without ceasing to lament is what marks this chapter.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: A widow: the city once full of people now sits alone. — Lamentations 1:1
Answer: They dealt treacherously with her and became her enemies; there is no one to comfort her. — Lamentations 1:2
Answer: For the multitude of her transgressions. — Lamentations 1:5
Answer: The nations, whom the Lord had commanded not to enter his congregation. — Lamentations 1:10
Answer: Whether it means nothing to them, and she asks them to see if there is sorrow like hers. — Lamentations 1:12
Answer: As righteous, because she rebelled against his word. — Lamentations 1:18
Lamentations 1 teaches that we can pray with pain and honesty, without hiding suffering. In church we are sometimes quick to comfort with answers, and the book reminds us of the value of walking with someone who weeps. In a small group you can ask how we accompany someone who has lost everything, so as not to be like the friends who do not comfort.
The chapter also invites us to acknowledge sin without losing hope in God. Jerusalem admits that God is righteous and still asks him to look at her affliction. That mix of confession and cry is a model for the prayer of a believer who is suffering the consequences of their own decisions and those of their community.
Lamentations 1 leaves Jerusalem weeping among the ruins, acknowledging her sin and asking God to look. Chapter 2 will describe more starkly the Lord's hand in the destruction, and the suffering of the people and their children.
The book does not mention its author. Jewish and Christian tradition attributes it to the prophet Jeremiah, who lived through the fall of Jerusalem, and ancient versions place it next to his book. Other scholars think an anonymous witness of the destruction wrote it. Either way, it is an expression of the grief of God's people.
It is a poem in which each verse or group of verses begins with a letter of the alphabet, in order. Hebrew has twenty-two letters, and chapters 1, 2 and 4 of Lamentations have twenty-two verses, one for each letter. The acrostic expresses that grief is spoken in full, from the first letter to the last.
There are two voices. A narrator describes Jerusalem in the third person in verses 1-11, and from verse 12 the city itself, called the daughter of Zion, speaks in the first person, with some interventions from the narrator. That change of voices lets the reader hear first the account and then the cry.