Lamentations 1:2

2 She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one's left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her.

Lamentations 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:2

She weepeth sore in the night
Or, "weeping weeps" ^F9; two weepings, one for the first, the other for the second temples ^F11; and while others are taking their sleep and rest; a season fit for mourners, when they can give their grief the greater vent, without any interruption from others; and it being now a night of affliction with her, which occasioned this sore weeping. Jarchi observes, that it was in the night that the temple was burnt: and her tears [are] on her cheeks;
continue there, being always flowing, and never wholly dried up; which shows how great her grief was, and that her weeping was without intermission; or otherwise tears do not lie long, but are soon dried up, or wiped off: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort [her];
as the Assyrians formerly were, ( Ezekiel 23:5 Ezekiel 23:9 Ezekiel 23:12 ) ; and more lately the Egyptians her allies and confederates, in whom she trusted; but these gave her no assistance; nor yielded her any relief in her distress; nor so much as spoke one word of comfort to her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her
enemies;
those who pretended great friendship to her, and were in strict alliance with her, acted the treacherous part, and withdrew from her, leaving her to the common enemy; and not only so, but behaved towards her in a hostile manner themselves; for "the children of Noph and Tahapanes", places in Egypt confederate with the Jews, are said to "have broken the crown of their head", ( Jeremiah 2:16 ) . The Targum interprets the "lovers" of the "idols" she loved to follow, who now could be of no use unto her by way of comfort.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F9 (hkbt hkb) "plorando plorat", Vatablus; "plorando plorabit", Pagninus, Montanus.
F11 T. Sanhedr. ib. col. 2.

Lamentations 1:2 In-Context

1 Oh, oh, oh . . . How empty the city, once teeming with people. A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations, once queen of the ball, she's now a drudge in the kitchen.

2 She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow. No one's left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand. Her friends have all dumped her.

3 After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile. She camps out among the nations, never feels at home. Hunted by all, she's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

4 Zion's roads weep, empty of pilgrims headed to the feasts. All her city gates are deserted, her priests in despair. Her virgins are sad. How bitter her fate.

5 Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions. Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile.