Lamentations 1:8

8 HETH. Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore has she come into tribulation, all that used to honour her have afflicted her, for they have seen her shame: yea, she herself groaned, and turned 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.

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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 VAU. And all her beauty has been taken away from the daughter of Sion: her princes were as rams finding no pasture, and are gone in weakness before the face of the pursuer.

7 ZAIN. Jerusalem remembered the days of her affliction, and her rejection; all her desirable things which were from the days of old, when her people fell into the hands of the oppressor, and there was none to help her: when her enemies saw they laughed at her habitation.

8 HETH. Jerusalem has sinned a sin; therefore has she come into tribulation, all that used to honour her have afflicted her, for they have seen her shame: yea, she herself groaned, and turned backward.

9 TETH. Her uncleanness is before her feet; she remembered not her last end; she has lowered her boasting , there is none to comfort her. Behold, O Lord, my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself.

10 JOD. The oppressor has stretched out his hand on all her desirable things: for she has seen the Gentiles entering into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.