Lamentations 1:8

8 A sin hath Jerusalem sinned, Therefore impure she hath become, All who honoured her have esteemed her lightly, For they have seen her nakedness, Yea, she herself hath sighed and turneth backward.

Lamentations 1:8 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:8

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned
Or, "hath sinned a sin" {r}; a great sin, as the Targum; the sin of idolatry, according to some; or of covenant breaking, as others; though perhaps no particular sin is meant, but many grievous sins; since she was guilty of a multitude of them, as in ( Lamentations 1:5 ) ; therefore she is removed;
out of her own land, and carried captive into another: or, is "for commotion" F19; for scorn and derision; the head being moved and shook at her by way of contempt: or rather, "for separation" F20; she being like a menstruous woman, defiled and separate from society: all that honoured her despise her;
they that courted her friendship and alliance in the time of her prosperity, as the Egyptians, now neglected her, and treated her with the utmost contempt, being in adversity: because they have seen her nakedness;
being stripped of all her good things she before enjoyed; and both her weakness and her wickedness being exposed to public view. The allusion is either to harlots, or rather to modest women, when taken captive, whose nakedness is uncovered by the brutish and inhuman soldiers: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward;
being covered with shame, because of the ill usage of her, as modest women will, being so used.


FOOTNOTES:

F18 (hajx ajx) "peccatum peccavit", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.
F19 (hdynl) "in commotionem", Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin.
F20 "Ut separata", Grotius; "tanquam ex immunditia separata est", Junius & Tremellius.

Lamentations 1:8 In-Context

6 And go out from the daughter of Zion doth all her honour, Her princes have been as harts -- They have not found pasture, And they go powerless before a pursuer.
7 Remembered hath Jerusalem [In] the days of her affliction and her mournings, all her desirable things that were from the days of old, In the falling of her people into the hand of an adversary, And she hath no helper; Seen her have adversaries, They have laughed at her cessation.
8 A sin hath Jerusalem sinned, Therefore impure she hath become, All who honoured her have esteemed her lightly, For they have seen her nakedness, Yea, she herself hath sighed and turneth backward.
9 Her uncleanness [is] in her skirts, She hath not remembered her latter end, And she cometh down wonderfully, There is no comforter for her. See, O Jehovah, mine affliction, For exerted himself hath an enemy.
10 His hand spread out hath an adversary On all her desirable things, For she hath seen -- Nations have entered her sanctuary, Concerning which Thou didst command, `They do not come into the assembly to thee.'
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.