Lamentations 1:19

19 I called for those who love me, but they betrayed me. My priests and leaders breathed their last breath in the city, looking for food to keep themselves alive.

Lamentations 1:19 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:19

I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived me
Either her idols, with whom she had committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; but these could not answer her expectations, and help her: or the Egyptians, that courted her friendship, and with whom she was in alliance, and in whom she trusted; and these, in the times of her distress, she called upon to make good their engagements, but they disappointed her, and stood not to their covenant and promises, but left her to stand and fall by herself; this Jerusalem said, according to the Targum, when she was delivered into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar; but these words, "they deceived me", it makes to be the Romans, that came with Titus and Vespasian, and built bulwarks against Jerusalem: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city;
or died in the city of Jerusalem; not by the sword of the enemy, but through famine; and so, in the Arabic language, the word <arabic> ^F9 signifies to labour under famine, and want of food, and perish through it; and if this was the case of their priests that officiated in holy things, and of their elders or civil magistrates, what must be the case of the common people? while they sought their meat to relieve their souls;
or "fetch ^F11 [them] back"; which were just fainting and dying away through hunger; and who did expire while they were begging their bread, or inquiring in one place after another where they could get any, either freely or for money.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 <arabic> "esurivit et fame ac inedia laboravit", Golius, col. 556.
F11 (Mvpn ta wbyvyw) "et reducerent animam suam", Montanus.

Lamentations 1:19 In-Context

17 Zion holds out its hands. No one offers it comfort. The LORD has given this order about Jacob: His own neighbors will become his opponents. Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

18 "The LORD is right in what he did, because I rebelled against his word. Please listen, all you people, and look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.

19 I called for those who love me, but they betrayed me. My priests and leaders breathed their last breath in the city, looking for food to keep themselves alive.

20 "O LORD, see the distress I'm in! My stomach is churning. My heart is pounding because I've been very bitter. In the streets swords kill my children. Inside the houses it's like death.

21 "All my enemies have heard that I am groaning. No one offers me comfort. All my enemies have heard about my disaster. They are happy that you did it. You have allowed the day to come, the one that you had announced. Let my enemies be like me now.