Lamentations 1:11

11 All the people are groaning as they beg for bread. They trade their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. 'O LORD, look and see how despised I am!'"

Lamentations 1:11 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:11

All her people sigh
Not her priests only, ( Lamentations 1:4 ) ; but all the common people, because of their affliction, particularly for want of bread. So the Targum,

``all the people of Jerusalem sigh because of the famine;''

for it follows: they seek bread;
to eat, as the Targum; inquire where it is to be had, but in vain: they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul:
or, "to cause the soul to return" ^F24; to fetch it back when fainting and swooning away through famine; and therefore would give anything for food; part with their rich clothes, jewels, and precious stones; with whatsoever they had that was valuable in their cabinets or coffers, that they might have meat to keep from fainting and dying; to refresh and recruit their spirits spent with hunger: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile;
mean, base, and contemptible, in the eyes of men, through penury and want of food; through poverty, affliction, and distress; and therefore desires the Lord would consider her case, and look with pity and compassion on her.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 (vpn byvhl) "ad reducendum animam", Montanus, Piscator.

Lamentations 1:11 In-Context

9 Jerusalem's own filth [covers] its clothes. It gave no thought to its future. Its downfall was shocking. No one offers it comfort. 'O LORD, look at my suffering, because my enemies have triumphed.'

10 The enemies laid their hands on all of the city's treasures. Jerusalem has seen the nations enter the holy place. 'O Lord, they are the same people you have forbidden to enter your congregation.'

11 All the people are groaning as they beg for bread. They trade their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. 'O LORD, look and see how despised I am!'"

12 "Doesn't this affect all of you who pass by? Look and see if there's any pain like the pain that the LORD has caused me, like the pain that he has made me suffer on the day of his fierce anger.

13 He sent fire from above. He made it go deep into my bones. He spread a net for my feet. He made me turn back. He has left me devastated. He has made me sick all day long.