Lamentations 1:6

6 Daughter Zion lost all her glory. Her officials are like deer that can't find pasture. They have gone away, frail, before the hunter.

Lamentations 1:6 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:6

And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed
The kingdom removed; the priesthood ceased; the temple, their beautiful house, burnt; the palaces of their king and nobles demolished; and everything in church and state that was glorious were now no more: her princes are become like harts [that] find no pasture;
that are heartless and without courage, fearful and timorous, as harts are, especially when destitute of food. The Targum is

``her princes run about for food, as harts run about in the wilderness, and find no place fit for pasture:''

and they are gone without strength before the pursuer;
having no spirit nor courage to oppose the enemy, nor strength to flee from him, they fell into his hands, and so were carried captive; see ( Jeremiah 52:8-10 ) . Jarchi observes, that the word for "pursuer" has here all its letters, and nowhere else; and so denotes the full pursuit of the enemy, and the complete victory obtained by him.

Lamentations 1:6 In-Context

4 Zion's roads are in mourning; no one comes to the festivals. All her gates are deserted. Her priests are groaning, her young women grieving. She is bitter.

5 Her adversaries have become rulers; her enemies relax. Certainly the LORD caused her grief because of her many wrong acts. Her children have gone away, captive before the enemy.

6 Daughter Zion lost all her glory. Her officials are like deer that can't find pasture. They have gone away, frail, before the hunter.

7 While suffering and homeless, Jerusalem remembers all her treasures from days long past. When her people fell by the enemy's hand, there was no one to help her. Enemies saw her, laughed at her defeat.

8 Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore, she's become a joke. All who honored her now detest her, for they've seen her naked. Even she groans and turns away.