Introduction

Name

In Hebrew, the book is called Ekah, which means “How”, and this is so because the book begins with this word (Lam 1:1; Lam 2:1; Lam 4:1). The book is the third of the five “scrolls” or Megilloth – the others being, in the order in which they are listed therein, Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes and Esther – which are read in the synagogue on special days. The book of Lamentations is read on the ninth day of the fifth month, the month Ab, the day of mourning over the two destructions of the Temple and the failed Bar Kochba revolt (135 AD).

Author

Both Jewish and Christian tradition have assumed Jeremiah to be the author of the book. Lamentations is apparently written by an eyewitness to the destruction of the city. It is someone who strongly identifies himself with the fate of the city and people. Who else could this be but Jeremiah? It is plausible that he penned these Lamentations in one piece in or near the destroyed Jerusalem, under the immediate impression of the tragedy.

Form

The five chapters the book contains are actually five separate poems. Lamentations 1, 2, 4, and 5 each have twenty-two verses. The contents of Lamentations 1, 2, and 4 are arranged alphabetically according to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Lamentations 3 has sixty-six verses, which is three times twenty-two. That chapter is also arranged alphabetically. The first three verses each begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the next three begin with the second letter, and so on. Lamentations 5 also has twenty-two verses, but has no alphabetical order.

The first three poems, Lamentations 1-3, contain, except for Lam 1:7 and Lam 2:19, three lines of poetry per verse. Lamentations 4 contains two lines of poetry per verse. Lamentations 5 has one line of poetry per verse.

The Holy Spirit does not just use the alphabetical order. Therein lies a deep thought. Various interpreters have said: Just as these poems encompass all the letters of the alphabet and thus the whole of human language, so the book expresses all human suffering in its fullness, from A to Z. No aspect of it is left out. Every detail of human tragedy is accurately described and expressed.

A common reaction to suffering that someone undergoes is to cheer him up and quickly start talking about something else. The book of Lamentations is written in a structure that does not allow for such levity.

In a general sense, the use of all those letters shows the importance of each letter and word. The Lord Jesus is the Word of God. He calls Himself “the Alpha and the Omega”, the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet (Rev 1:8; Rev 21:6; Rev 22:13). He is the perfect revelation of God. His sufferings are also seen in this book.

Theme

The subject of the book is Jeremiah’s lament about the disasters brought by the LORD upon sinful Judah and the lamentable destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians, in 587 BC. The city that should have been an example and guide for all nations has instead become a mockery and an object of ridicule. The book of Jeremiah contains warnings of the judgments that would come on the city if she persisted in disobedience. The book of Lamentations contains deep expressions of mourning over the judgment that had come on Jerusalem.

Embedded in the prophet’s lament is an urgent appeal to the severely chastened people. That call implies that they acknowledge that God’s judgments on them are just. This call also means that, with repentance and confession, they entrust themselves again to the mercy of God, Who will not ultimately forsake His people. At the same time, the prophet sees how bad the mind and the behavior have been of those who destroyed the city and the temple. That is why he asks that the judgment come down on them.

Jeremiah’s lament is so intense that the book of Lamentations is one of the two most tragic books of the Bible. The other book is the book of Job. That book also has suffering as its main theme. The difference is that the book of Lamentations deals with the suffering of an entire people, while the book of Job deals with the suffering of one person.

Both books deal with the problem of God’s justice on the one hand and His love on the other, God’s sovereignty on the one hand and man’s responsibility on the other. God is sovereign, that is, He is above everyone and everything and governs everything. Everything is subject to Him and dependent on Him. He Himself is dependent on no one (Rom 11:33-36). At the same time, man himself is responsible for the choices he makes, the deeds he does and the words he speaks. This is a contrast or also a merging of two things, both of which are perfectly true, but which cannot be reconciled by us.

By the way, this book is more about the LORD than it is about man. In this book we see primarily His pain and His sorrow that because of the unfaithfulness of His people He had to act in this way. Jeremiah sees the destruction of Jerusalem and the judgment on the Judeans more as a Divine judgment and not so much as the result of the invasion of the Babylonians.

This we hear in the words
“Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was severely dealt out to me,
Which the LORD inflicted on the day of His fierce anger” (Lam 1:12).

This connects to what the LORD Himself says: “I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation” (Jer 21:5).

Purpose

The Jews read the book of Lamentations during the annual fast in remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem (Zec 7:3; 5; Zec 8:19). Its purpose seems to be to recall that God is faithful to His covenant when He brings judgments on His people when His people are unfaithful to that same covenant (Deu 28:45-68). The book teaches later generations the importance of faithfulness to the covenant and also that God is faithful to it. The book holds the serious teaching that sin, despite all its enticements, brings with it a tremendous burden of sorrow, misery, desolation, barrenness, and pain.

For us Christians, there is also a message in this book. The book also holds up to us the consequences of sin: that sin destroys our lives and causes only misery, sorrow and pain. In times of personal, national and international crises, the book is a call to repentance and confession of sins in order to rededicate ourselves to God, Who is love. Although that love is always there and goes out to people, a holy and righteous God must always judge unrepentant sinners, for God is also light.

Practical significance

The book of Lamentations has a practical meaning for us.

1. The book gives place within the inspired Word of God, together with the book of Job, to the most intense human sorrow. This is of immediate practical value to every believer today who reads these books of the Bible in his sorrow. He then discovers that he is not the first to go through thick darkness, before light breaks through again. Thus the believer experiences that God takes note of the pain and sorrow of His own, yes, that He records their tears in His book (Psa 56:8). The detailed description of misery in this book is a remarkable proof that God sees and notices the misery of His own.

As mentioned above under the heading Form, four of the five poems are given in alphabetical order, using all the letters of the alphabet. This is to indicate that all human language is needed to express the misery in which the believer may be. In other cases, too, all the letters are sometimes used, as in some psalms. There it is mostly a matter of giving expression to worship.

All this happens under the guidance of God’s Spirit. That God expressed Himself in this way shows that He, Who is unlimited, expresses Himself in limited human language. Language has its limits. The Hebrew language is limited to twenty-two letters.

2. This book – unlike the book of Job – shows how the good suffer with the wicked. The judgment on Judah and Jerusalem is a national judgment, it affects the whole nation. The righteous must also bear the consequences of this judgment, even though they have no part in the appalling sins of Judah. As stated above, the book of Job deals with the suffering of one righteous person; the book of Lamentations deals with the suffering of a whole people.

Prophetic Meaning

The book of Lamentations also has a prophetic meaning.

1. Prophetically, both the book of Job and the book of Lamentations refer to the suffering of the remnant of Israel in the end time. At the first siege of Jerusalem in the future, the king of the north will take the city and largely destroy it (Zec 14:2). This destruction will again be the result of the sins of Judah. At the same time, there is a righteous remnant in the city who will suffer along with the wicked (Zep 3:12; Zec 12:8). Prophetically, this remnant will be able to unite itself with the laments expressed in this book, on the one hand by confessing the guilt of the entire people as their guilt (cf. Dan 9:4-19), and on the other hand, by pleading with God for their own innocence.

2. The grievous question of Job in his book and of the righteous in the book of Lamentations as to why they should suffer innocently is not in fact answered by God. Limited man cannot fathom the ways of God. God’s love and justice are evident enough from His words and actions. However, there are times in our lives when God’s actions seem to contradict His love and justice.

In this book, as so often in the book of Psalms, the Spirit of Christ makes Himself one with the faithful remnant of Israel. Wherever the righteous express their lament, we always hear, as it were, the lament of the Righteous One resounding.

We see Christ in type most clearly in this book where the prophet speaks of his own feelings and experiences as a righteous man in the midst of an unjust people. What is worked in Jeremiah is done by the Spirit of God, although we also notice shortcomings in the expression of his feelings and experiences. This is not the case with Christ. In Lamentations 3 we see Jeremiah as a type of Christ in the expression of his feelings. See for example when he speaks of what the people have done to him (Lam 3:14) and when he speaks of what the LORD has done to him (Lam 3:1-13; 15-18).

Jeremiah must suffer with the wicked. The wrath of the LORD (cf. Lam 3:1) also comes down on him, the innocent. See, for example, when he laments about those who are hostile to him “without cause” (Lam 3:52; cf. Psa 69:4; Jn 15:25). This clearly points to Christ, the Righteous One, Who innocently suffers on the part of His people. With Him it goes much further. He not only suffers with the people, especially with the remnant in the future, but He suffers thereupon alone and vicariously for the people.

We see this latter form of Christ’s suffering only in the three hours of darkness on the cross. Then and only there He is forsaken by God and made sin by Him. Then He undergoes the judgment for the sins of and dies the atoning death for all who believe.

The book is an expression of lamentation, repentance and supplication. Lamentation occurs over misery; awareness of the cause of misery brings about repentance before God for sins; this is followed by supplicating for restoration for oneself and for judgment on one’s enemies.

Division of the book

As already noted, the book consists of five poems.

1. First poem (Lamentations 1): Jerusalem is devastated and desolate. The prophet vividly describes her wretched condition. Jerusalem weeps bitterly like a bereft widow. He recalls her former glories and laments her ruin. In Lamentations 1:11b-22 (except Lam 1:17) the I-figure is the city herself. She calls on all to pity her (Lam 1:12) and begs God for vengeance on her enemies (Lam 1:22).

2. Second poem (Lamentations 2): This poem describes the reasons for God’s anger on the city and the ruin that results (Lamb 2:1-12). The prophet argues that repentance and conversion are her only hope (Lam 2:13-19). The city responds (Lam 2:20-22).

3. Third poem (Lamentations 3): Here we hear the lament of the people as a whole through the mouth of the righteous one in that people – Jeremiah himself – about
a. the tragedy that has struck him (Lam 3:1-20);
b. his trust in God when he remembers His past mercies (Lam 3:21-39);
c. a call to the people to examine and probe their ways and return to the LORD (Lam 3:40-54).
d. After acknowledging that God has heard their cry, the nation begs Him to exercise vengeance on its enemies (Lam 3:55-66).

4. Fourth poem (Lamentations 4): Here Zion’s former glory is compared to her present misery.
1. The horrors of the siege are described (Lam 4:1-11),
2. but also the sins of the people, especially those of their priests and prophets (Lam 4:12-16).
3. All their hopes has become vain (Lam 4:17-20).
4. But it is also announced that the sin of Zion is hereby blotted out, and that the woe of Edom shall descend upon its own head (Lam 4:21-22).

5. Fifth poem (Lamentations 5): The repentant people beg the LORD to remember their misery (Lam 5:1-18) and entrust themselves to His mercy to be restored (Lam 5:19-22). The entire chapter is a prayer and therefore has no alphabetical order. In a supplication, a heart pours itself out before the LORD without regard to any particular word choice or order.

Introduction

This chapter has two parts: Lam 1:1-11 and Lam 1:12-22. In Lam 1:1-11 we have a general description of the misery after the destruction of Jerusalem. It describes life in the land after the destruction. It is the condition of the few who remained in the land. The verses are written in the third person singular, recorded from the mouth of an observer and at the same time one directly affected.

In Lam 1:12-22 we hear Zion’s lament about what the LORD has done. These verses are written in the first person singular, recorded from the mouth of the prophet who is expressing the feelings of the suffering city. It is someone who is overwhelmed with sadness, grief and pain. But there is no rebellion, for one’s own guilt is confessed as the cause of this misery.

A division into smaller units or pericopes is difficult. The poet, guided by the Spirit, by using the alphabet has made a division that actually makes each verse a separate pericope. We can, however, cautiously try to discover whether there is a certain connection between certain verses after all, creating pericopes larger than those indicated by the alphabet. The following classification is therefore no more than a suggestion that hopefully will help to better understand the coherence of this book.

City and Land in Deep Sorrow

In Lam 1:1 we see a characteristic of the book of Lamentations, namely the contrast between the brilliant past and the desolate present. The city is described in the change that took place. It has changed in terms of population (Lam 1:1a) and in economic (Lam 1:1b) and social (Lam 1:1c) terms.

1. Lam 1:1a. The once populous city, in which there were also many pilgrims during the great feasts, is now “lonely”. It has been robbed of most of its inhabitants through battle and deportation.

2. Lam 1:1b. Once the city was great among the nations. She was so because of the God Who she had and by kings whom He gave. This was especially so in the days of David and Solomon (cf. Psa 48:2). Now she is without protection and help, she no longer has a husband, but is a vulnerable widow. She experiences it this way, that God has been taken away from her.

3. Lam 1:1c. She used to be a princess, great in esteem in her surroundings. She, who has ruled over others, is now a slave of the king of Babylon.

In the night, sorrow is most strongly felt and expressed (Lam 1:2). There is no moment of rest in the night, which serves to sleep and rest. It is also night in her entire existence. Incessantly, grief is felt and tears flow. Her cheeks are permanently covered with them. It is not that she cries herself to sleep. A strong burst of crying can be a relief. That is not the case here.

Tears that usually dry quickly do not get the chance to do so, because they continue to flow, making them stick to the cheeks as it were. There is no one to dry them either. She weeps not only because of her suffering, but more so because she has been betrayed by her “lovers” and “friends” (cf. Jer 4:30c).

The grief is aggravated because there is no comforter (cf. Ecc 4:1). That she is without a comforter, that is, without God as her Comforter (Lam 1:16), runs like a thread – perhaps better: sounds with the regularity of the striking of a death bell – through this chapter (Lam 1:9; 16; 17; 21).

The issue is not so much that some treasonous act was committed by Judah’s allies, but more that the people are ashamed in their reliance on those allies. They should have trusted in the LORD for their safety. However, they did not, for they sought their help from the nations around them (Hos 8:9-10; 1Kgs 15:16-20).

The prophets have always warned that such covenants lead to apostasy (Hos 5:13; Hos 8:8; 11; Hos 14:3). But both the leaders of the northern ten tribes realm and those of the southern two tribes realm would not listen. Jerusalem had to learn that such friends are a broken reed (Eze 29:6-7). This is a lesson that all of us also need to learn more often in our lives.

The most difficult thing for lamenting people is to find comfort in someone who really understands something of the grief and helps to bear it. In any case, the former lovers of Jerusalem, with whom she dealt adulterously and with whom she made alliances, cannot give that comfort. But her former friends do not give comfort either; on the contrary, they treat her as an enemy. She sought love and friendship from others than from the LORD. Such love and friendship always disappoint.

From Jerusalem, Jeremiah now turns to Judah (Lam 1:3). The people of Judah are no longer in the land. She has been led into exile, where she is in misery and harsh servitude. She lives outside the land, among the nations. She is a displaced person, away from the place of rest and therefore restless. The true rest, that of the realm of peace, is far away. Enemies control the place of rest. Zedekiah and some soldiers did try to escape the exile by fleeing, but they were overtaken by the enemy (Jer 39:4-5).

The City, Formerly Full of Feast and Joy

In these verses the prophet looks back to earlier, better days. Against that backdrop, the present misery comes out all the more poignant. The roads of Zion, that is, the roads that lead to Zion, used to be full of those who come “to the appointed feasts” (Lam 1:4). Now they lie desolate, for no one goes up to Zion anymore, nor can they, for the people are in exile.

To emphasize the desolation, the roads are represented as persons who “are in mourning” because of the desolation. Three times a year the feasting people covered the roads with song as they went up to Jerusalem for the feasts of the LORD. Now these roads mourn because no one goes up to Jerusalem for the feast anymore. There are no more people.

The gates of the city are in ruins, and when the gates are in ruins, the city is also in ruins. It is an open city; anyone who wants to can walk right in. The gates are the places where justice was spoken (Rth 4:1). But there is no more justice. The gates were also places where social intercourse took place and markets were held. It was the meeting place between the pilgrim and the city (Psa 122:2). All that is over.

The priests who were leading the people in idolatry see the result of their false pursuits and sigh. The few faithful priests can no longer enter the temple, for it has been destroyed. The few young women who are still there, who sang at the great feasts (Psa 68:25; Jer 31:13), who also imagined life so totally different, are saddened. For herself, that is the city, the society in it, everything is bitter.

Zion has been surrendered into the hand of her adversaries who are now her masters (Lam 1:5; cf. Deu 28:13; 44b-45). These now finally prosper (cf. Job 12:6). The thorn in their side, Jerusalem, has been destroyed. It is painful to be humiliated. It is extra painful to find that the enemy finds satisfaction in it.

Who really did it is the LORD. He has had to bring this sorrow upon her and to do so “because of the multitude of her transgressions”. Here, for the first time, the occasion of the misery is mentioned. It is the first statement – from the poet and not yet from Jerusalem itself – about the city’s transgressions and that the LORD therefore had to execute judgment. More of such statements follow (Lam 1:8; 14; 18; 20; 22). The people must come to this confession and seek the cause of judgment in themselves.

Immediately after this expression of faith, the poet again sees the prevailing distress and is again seized by it. He describes until the end of Lam 1:6 what Jerusalem has lost. First he mentions the little children, the toddlers, the children of the covenant. It shows in a very penetrating way that the LORD has abandoned His people.

Several times in this book the children are mentioned (Lam 2:20; Lam 4:4; cf. Jer 9:21). For them especially, the consequences are disastrous. They are the greatest victims of the unfaithfulness of a people or parents. They are chased into captivity before the adversary, torn away from their parents and from brothers and sisters. Little children must be eliminated so that they cannot grow up and in their adulthood become a danger to the occupying forces.

Of the splendor that the city, the “daughter Zion”, once possessed because of the glorious sanctuary in which the LORD dwelt (Psa 96:6), nothing remains, it has disappeared (Lam 1:6). The princes, the people who ruled the city, have become hunted deer with nowhere to rest and pasture. The siege of the city has left them starving and powerless. They can’t even flee anymore, but are driven out like slaughter cattle before the persecutors.

Reflection

Jerusalem – here the name of the city is mentioned for the first time – is in affliction and homelessness (Lam 1:7). As for the past, there are only memories of what she possessed then in many precious things. This only makes the situation sadder. When she was in possession of all those precious things, the enemy came and she fell into the hand of the adversary. Again and again she must think of that terrible moment.

There was no helper, which makes it even more dramatic. It is dramatic to be without a helper in the power of a ruthless enemy. It is in this condition that a people or a human being ends up when God is rejected as Helper (Hos 13:9). Then it also becomes apparent that such a situation, instead of arousing pity, gives gloating to the adversary, who rejoices at her downfall. This laughter is a hateful, evil, devilish laughter.

This change of situation is the result of her grievous sins, the guilt of which became greater and greater because those sins were repeated incessantly (Lam 1:8). As a result, Jerusalem has become disgraced and stripped of all value and honor, while she now lies ‘naked’, that is without any means of protection, open to her enemies. Her nakedness is the punishment for her unfaithfulness to the LORD. We see here again the contrast between past and present. All those who used to revere her, with whom she had made covenants, and who now see her, despise her.

The city is always seen as a woman. In Lam 1:1 she is a widow and here she is an unclean woman because of her monthly uncleanness, but she is also a naked woman. All she does is sigh and turn away, turn backwards. She has developed an aversion to herself. She does not want to see herself or know what others see of her.

The Present Condition as a Lament to God

The poet compares the city to a woman in whom menstruation has stained her skirts, which is seen by everyone and evokes horror in everyone (Lam 1:9). This refers to her idolatry by which she has become unclean, an uncleanness that clings to her whole walk. She has not thought at all about the consequences of her idolatry, what the end of it is, where it would end up and what it has ended up in now (cf. Deu 32:29; Isa 47:7). She did not consider that the LORD would intervene, although He had often warned her of this through His prophets.

The depth of misery into which the city sank because of her unfaithfulness was “astonishingly” (cf. Deu 28:43). She had never imagined this. “Astonishingly” means that God has acted in an astonishing way with her, causing her to sink into an unimaginable depth of misery. The depth into which the city sank has a supernatural origin in the eyes of the prophet. Following on from this, we read for the second time that she has no comforter, an observation that shows her misery even more emphatically.

In the last part of Lam 1:9 we hear for the first time the city herself speak of her, “my”, affliction. Jeremiah here identifies himself with the city. He puts the words in the mouth of the city. The exclamation “see, O LORD” occurs two more times in this chapter (Lam 1:11; 20). The purpose of the exclamation is to point out to the LORD her affliction, so that when He sees it, surely this will arouse in Him compassion for her. She points out to Him that by humbling her the enemy magnifies himself. Surely He, Who alone is truly to be “magnified”, cannot let that go unpunished.

The adversary not only disgraced Jerusalem, but he also reached out his hand to the valuables of the temple (Lam 1:10; 2Chr 36:10; Jer 52:17-23). That nations have entered the sanctuary is a shocking thing and intolerable to a Jew (Psa 79:1; cf. Deu 23:3-4).

Foreigners were forbidden to enter the temple (Eze 44:7). People who were not even allowed to join the congregation of Israel had entered the sanctuary. That it could happen is because Jerusalem did not keep the sanctuary of her heart free from the destruction of the enemy of the soul. She has allowed the enemy to rob her spiritual treasures because she has become involved with the enemy and started serving his gods.

After the destruction of the city – and not during the siege – “all her people”, that is, the remaining population, sigh and are desperate for food (Lam 1:11). The desperation is general. They have given all their valuables just to get some food. This revived them for a while and extended their lives (cf. Jdg 15:19; 1Sam 30:12). Now there is nothing left to give. Starvation is their future.

For the second time we read “see, O LORD” (Lam 1:11; Lam 1:9). It comes from the depths of her soul. It is not about calling His attention to the scorn as such, but to the depth and extent of it. She hopes this will move the LORD to compassion.

The LORD Has Done It, For the Sake of Sin

After the lament about Jerusalem in Lam 1:1-11, in the second part of this chapter we hear the lament of Jerusalem (Lam 1:12-22). That lament is not directed to the LORD, as in Lam 1:11, but to those “who pass this way”, the nations around her who are represented as travelers passing along the roads of ruined Judah (Lam 1:12).

Jeremiah, identifying himself with the city and speaking on her behalf, appeals to the passers-by to see if it does not affect them when they see the misery in which he, the city, finds himself. He urges them to look carefully and consider whether there is any suffering anywhere in the world comparable to the suffering that has been inflicted on her. He adds that he is aware that this suffering is from the LORD and not from the enemies. The LORD has grieved her, but it is because His fierce anger had to come upon the guilty city.

The “day of His fierce anger” is the day of the LORD, the day announced as a day of judgment by Him through His prophets. This day will dawn in its fullness in the end time, when the LORD intervenes acting and judgingly in world events for the benefit of the remnant of His people who are suffering terribly, with the end result being the realm of peace. The day of the fall of Jerusalem is connected to the suffering in the end time.

Behind this speaking of Jeremiah about the misery in which he and the city find themselves, we also hear the Lord Jesus speaking. He has uniquely been in God’s fierce anger. This was not because of His sins – He did not do or know sin – but because of the sins He took upon Himself of those who believe in Him. He is the true Man of sorrows, Who as no other has felt the unfaithfulness of His people. What makes Him infinitely greater than Jeremiah is that He has removed the deepest cause of this and will bring about a new situation that is completely in accordance with God’s will.

In Lam 1:13 we have three pictures by which judgment is described. The pictures are quite different and show no connection between them. This reinforces the impression of desperation.

The first picture is that of a “fire” that penetrates the bones, that is, it goes to the deepest interior and is total. It is the expression of intense, unbearable suffering (Psa 102:3; Job 30:30). Jeremiah feels so identified with the destroyed city that he feels in his bones the fire of the judgment that the LORD has sent and that He rules over it. He experiences the LORD as an adversary Who kindled in anger against His people and His city.

The second is “a net”. This refers to the suddenness of the judgment. Judgment overwhelmed Jerusalem, just as a wild animal unexpectedly finds itself in a net that a hunter has spread, into which it becomes entangled and from which it cannot free itself (cf. Psa 10:9; Hos 7:12; Eze 12:13; Eze 19:8). Jeremiah sees before his feet a net by which he is caught. That net has been put there by the LORD (cf. Job 19:6). Jeremiah feels himself in the power of the hunter who forces him to turn backward.

The third picture is that of being “faint” as a result of judgment. He feels the desolation to which he has been given by the LORD. It makes him faint “all day long”, not knowing a moment’s relief from the pains and despair that plague him.

Here we hear a man deeply concerned with the suffering that has befallen the city. He has announced that suffering for many years and in many ways (Jer 11:16; Jer 15:14; Jer 17:4; 27; Jer 21:10; 12; 14; Jer 22:7; Jer 34:2; 22; Jer 37:8; 10; Jer 38:23), with the purpose that Jerusalem would repent and she would be spared this suffering. Then, when it has come, he does not say reproachfully that he has said it all along anyway and that now she will get her due. No, he grieves deeply over the fulfillment of God’s judgment.

The yoke of transgressions weighs heavily on the city, on Jeremiah (Lam 1:14). On the one hand, the city has woven this yoke itself through her sins. But it is also the LORD Who has done it and is putting it on her neck as a disciplinary measure. Sin pressing down on a man robs him of strength and causes him to stumble.

For Jeremiah, the discipline by the enemies comes from “the Lord”, Adonai, his sovereign Lord and Master. He is delivered by Him into the hands of the enemies. The acceptance of this ensures that the discipline has a complete effect. He cannot get up to go his own way. No form of resistance is possible. All freedom of movement is gone.

The People of Jerusalem

The strong men of the city are gone. They have been rejected by the Lord (Lam 1:15). Jeremiah, or rather Jeremiah who identifies with Jerusalem, calls them “my strong men”. They have been rejected from the midst of the city. This is based on a decision of God. He has called an appointed time for that. It is a terrible appointed time. It is not an appointed time for the LORD, but for the enemies. The enemies have crushed the strength of the young men. In a picture of a virgin that immediately follows, the daughter of Judah is seen in a wine press being stepped on by the Lord. He judges her.

Wine belongs to a feast. The joy of wine is obtained by the treading of the grapes in the winepress, which is a picture of judgment (Isa 63:3; Joel 3:13; Rev 14:19). There is irony in the used pictures of feast and wine press. They arouse the thought of joy, jubilation, when it is a question of the judgment that has come in all its horror upon Jerusalem, “the virgin daughter of Judah”.

All this misery causes the prophet intense grief and a flood of tears (Lam 1:16). He feels without comfort. The LORD, Who is his only Comforter, is so far away. And if He doesn’t comfort, who will? His sons, who are the children of His people, are appalled at the power of the enemy who can exercise it undisturbed over the city.

In Lam 1:17, Jeremiah is again a spectator. He no longer speaks of ‘I’, but of ‘her’, which is Zion. He sees Zion stretching out her hands to heaven, but having no comforter. Heaven is silent. Throughout this book we hear no answer from God. Jeremiah expresses the certainty that whatever befalls the people is commanded by the LORD. All suffering comes from Him. He has caused the bystanders to become opponents and Jerusalem to find support in no one. She has been given up by the LORD, abandoned, because she has become “an unclean thing”. She owes this to her own unfaithfulness to Him.

Reflection

In these verses Jeremiah or the city speaks again, that is, the faithful remnant (Lam 1:18). They are innocent, but bow their heads under judgment. It is precisely they who complain and bow down. The unbelieving multitude does not complain, but curses and rebels. The remnant makes itself one with the condition of the multitude.

He declares the LORD to be righteous in His dealings with the city (Jer 12:1) and with him, for he also knows himself to be guilty. Here, knowing God and knowing himself go hand in hand. He is no better than the masses. Yet because of his confession he can call the nations to look at his suffering (Lam 1:12). That suffering is that the flower of the nation, “my virgins and my young men”, the hope of the future, has gone into captivity.

The city had put her hope in those who had an intimate relationship with her because of the profit they derived from her, with whom she had made an alliance (Lam 1:19). But she has been deceived by it. In need, they all turned out to fail.

It was sinful to have lovers, for the LORD Himself was her Lover. Moreover, it was sinful to cry out to those lovers in distress instead of to the LORD. The prophet’s need to make himself one with the city is so great here that he takes both the first – the surrounding peoples as lovers – and the second – crying out to those lovers in their distress – for his account.

Even in the city, there is no help from people she first relied on, the priests and the elders. They also thought only of themselves and their own needs. There was no life left in them. They tried to get food in order to thereby “restore their strength”, that is, to revive themselves (Lam 1:11). In doing so, these leaders did not remain alive. They expired and perished.

Prayer

For the third time the cry “see, O LORD” is heard (Lam 1:20; Lam 1:9; 11). Now this is no longer to focus attention on the misery or the enemies, but on himself. His spirit is afraid and he is full of turmoil inside. His heart is overturned within him. He is consumed with guilt over his disobedience which he fully acknowledges. Jeremiah is here again the voice of the city. He sees death everywhere. The children, by whom are meant here the inhabitants of the city, have been killed by the sword outside the house. As a result, the house is like dead now.

The enemy is always out to kill our children. He does this especially when they are outside the safe sphere of the home, when they need to be outside, in the world. He has also succeeded in penetrating the safe atmosphere of the homes of believers and sows death and destruction there as well.

The city is aware that the enemy hears her sighs of misery (Lam 1:21). Her groaning is primarily that there is no comforter. The enemies perceive the city’s calamity and rejoice in it. They see that the hand of the LORD has smitten His people. The judgment that was to strike the people from the hand of enemies came from the hand of the LORD. That is what the enemies are saying here.

The people acknowledge that the LORD is indeed the Executor of judgment. He has caused the day to come that He has announced (Jer 4:9; Jer 7:32-34; Jer 17:16-18). The people also say that this judgment will also come on the enemies because of their wickedness. The enemies have carried out God’s judgment, but they have done it in a wicked, selfish way and therefore the LORD will judge them as well.

Jeremiah reminds the LORD of all the evil that the enemies have done to him, that is the city of Jerusalem (Lam 1:22). For this he asks the LORD that He will justly repay them in the same way that the LORD has done to him because of all his transgressions (cf. Jer 51:35). He is able to ask this because numerous sighs are uttered by him, indicating that he is bowing deeply under the discipline that has come upon him. His heart is thereby exhausted and deeply depressed. He no longer boasts of anything.