Lamentations 1 Study Notes

1:1-22 This chapter is an alphabetic acrostic where each verse begins with a successive letter of the twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet.

1:1-7 In this section the poet uses the third person as he speaks on behalf of Jerusalem. It is her loneliness that strikes the poet as the losses mount up: loss of abundance (v. 1), loss of allies (v. 2), loss of a resting place (v. 3), loss of happiness (v. 4), loss of prestige (v. 5), loss of courage (v. 6), and loss of worship (v. 7; Walter Kaiser).

1:1 The poet begins with an exclamatory word How—a word used in biblical texts for laments and funerals. It is much like the Jewish oiee Vaah! Three contrasts of status are listed. Jerusalem was once populous, great among the nations, the queen of the cities; now she is solitary, a widow, and a tributary slave.

1:2 Not a single comforter among all the city’s former suitors remains; they have all turned traitors and enemy oppressors.

1:3 The afflictions of war and famine, the heavy tribute paid to Pharaoh Neco and King Nebuchadnezzar, plus their bitter exile, meant Judah now had no place to rest. Pursuers had caught Judah in narrow places, and they had fallen as easy prey.

1:4 The tragedy that had overtaken the nation had now overtaken the center of their religious life—Zion. Gone were all the appointed festivals as everything was left deserted.

1:5 Now for the first time the Lord is introduced as the one who had made Judah suffer because of her many transgressions.

1:6 Like stags stumbling away from hunters, leaving no one to defend the herd, so Judah’s leaders had abandoned the nation (2Kg 24:1,12; Dn 1:2)—as did King Zedekiah when he fled for his life during the siege of Jerusalem (2Kg 25:4).

1:7 This verse summarizes the whole section with the name of Jerusalem appearing for the first time. The worst of it all was the laughing of the adversaries.

1:8-11 This section explores some of the sources of Judah’s grief. Notable are its shame (v. 8), its defilement (v. 9), its desecration (v. 10), and famine (v. 11).

1:8 It was most humiliating to be stripped of all clothing. This act was usually reserved for the punishment of prostitutes (Ezk 16:35-39; 23:29) or for exiles being marched off into captivity.

1:9 Judah never considered her end, nor did she believe that God would fulfill his threats against his people (Dt 28:15-68). Thus, her downfall was astonishing to her.

1:10 Judah lost the most outstanding of all her glorious possessions—the temple of God. The sanctuary was off limits to Gentiles previously, but now the nations tramped through it with disregard.

1:11 In order to stay alive, the people bartered their precious belongings for food. Valuables such as jewels were exchanged for meager foodstuffs.

1:12-17 The second half of this first lament intensifies as the plan and purpose of God are unveiled.

1:12 A plea for pity goes out to the nations to see if there is any pain like Judah’s. It is another day of the Lord, this day of his burning anger.

1:13-15 Four strong metaphors depict the sufferings that Jerusalem endured: (1) fire from on high, (2) a hunter’s net for her feet, (3) an animal yoke on her neck, and (4) being trampled and crushed like grapes in a winepress. Each figure depicted the dies irae, the “day of wrath” belonging to the Lord. The fire from on high was nothing less than fire from God (Gn 19:24; Ps 11:6). So was the net from God, because it came as a check on one’s lifestyle (Ps 94:13; Jr 50:24; Ezk 12:13; 17:20; 32:3; Hs 7:12). The yoke recalled Jeremiah’s encounter with the false prophet Hananiah (Jr 28). Likewise, the winepress was a symbol of the final judgment (Is 63:1-4; Jr 6:9; Jl 3:13; Rv 14:18-20; 19:13-15).

1:16 The heartbreak was wrenching to the core of Jeremiah’s being because the enemy had prevailed.

1:17 Once again, for the fourth time in this chapter, the mournful words fall: there is no one to comfort her.

1:18-22 After structuring his first poem around the first seventeen letters of the Hebrew alphabet, describing all the while Israel’s bitter response to her suffering, with the eighteenth letter Jeremiah begins a brief interlude in which Judah confesses that the Lord is in the right and asks him to deal with them [Judah’s enemies] as you have dealt with me.

1:18 Judah’s confession begins with the Lord is just; the people of Judah had rebelled against his command.

1:19 Judah’s professed lovers ended up being her betrayers, and they themselves had perished in the city while searching for food.

1:20-21 Two requests are issued in these verses: (1) for the Lord to witness the enormous mental and emotional distress Judah was experiencing, and (2) for the Lord to pay back the jeering nations.

1:22 Jeremiah’s request for the day of wrath to fall on the nations as it had fallen on Judah need not make us blush even though Jesus told us to “love [our] enemies” (Mt 5:44). The kind of love Jesus had in mind was required even of OT believers such as Jeremiah, but it does not conflict with what Jeremiah says here. There are two types of enemies. First, there are those who simply bear ill will toward us. These we must love, commending them to God in prayer. Second, some enemies do more than bear ill will toward us. They maliciously rage against us and our God, threatening our very lives. If they persist in this despite our sincere efforts to make peace, we are justified in turning them over to God for his sentencing and judgment (Ps 139:19).