Lamentation 1

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Lamentations 1:1-22 (KJV) 

1 How doth the city sit solitary, [that was] full of people! [how] is she become as a widow! she [that was] great among the nations, [and] princess among the provinces, [how] is she become tributary!

Imagine the city morning for the people who once lived on the land.

 2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears [are] on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort [her]: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. 

The lands wept because of the loneliness of being without the people God prepared it for.

The people who once love the land are not there to show the land how much they enjoyed having her around. 

Although the land was a friend of the people, the people did not treat the land the way it should have been treated.

3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

The people who once lived on the land were put off of the land because of disobedience and now they have hard times and they have become slaves: they have to submit to people who do not know God, they are restless and they can not get away.

 4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she [is] in bitterness. 

Zion is hurt because there is no convocation, no one is coming through: the priest is tired, and the virgins are hurt physically a cannot get around, and are unhappy.

5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

Her enemies run their lives.  All of this happened because the people the land was created for refused to obey God.

6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts [that] find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. 

The beautiful city of Zion is no longer beautiful: the leaders are seeking safety and running quickly from those who are seeking to ruin their lives.

7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, [and] did mock at her sabbaths. 

Jerusalem remembers the day the enemy moved in and took all of the things that were sacred to her. She remembers how she cried out for help and no one came to rescue her. Now those who captivated her tease and mock her about the days that were holy.

8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. 

Jerusalem turned their backs on God and now she is getting what God told her would happen to her if she did not turn from her wicked ways.

9 Her filthiness [is] in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified [himself].

God's people have sinned with so many sexual partners until she forgot the last person they committed fornication with. When she fell she had no one to comfort her.  She then cried OH Lord it hurts: now her enemies make fun of her failures.

10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen [that] the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command [that] they should not enter into thy congregation. 

Babylon came into God's house, and that had never been done before.  The things we give God mean nothing if we do not give ourselves.  Solomon built the temple for God, but the people of God turned against God, and the things made for God, He allowed the enemy to destroy or take away.

11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. 

Now the people of God are in distress because things are not the same.  They cry out to God to consider how they are suffering; their lives are pathetic.

12 [Is it] nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted [me] in the day of his fierce anger. 

Do you see me and you don't feel sorry that I am in the condition I am in? God put this pain on us because our ways made Him extremely angry.

13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate [and] faint all the day. 

God allowed my bones to be set on fire, and the fire was too much for me to put out:  He set a trap and I could not go forward: He took everything I was used to, and I am sick all day long.

14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, [and] come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into [their] hands, [from whom] I am not able to rise up. 

The Lord has put a yoke upon my neck that covers my neck entirely, and he has allowed my enemies to take hold of me and I am too weak to defend myself.

15 The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty [men] in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, [as] in a winepress. 

The Lord has taken the strength of strong men and called for young men to further my hurt:  The Lord has cast down His people like grapes in the vineyard.

16 For these [things] I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. 

I cry because God kept His promise when He said He would punish my iniquities.

17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, [and there is] none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, [that] his adversaries [should be] round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. 

The people of God cry out to God and He does not listen.  The people are like filthy rags that no one wants to touch.

18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. 

God's judgments are right;  I did wrong when I did not trust His Word.  My brother and sister are locked up.

19 I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. 

I called on the idols and they did not help me.  The priests are dead from trying to save themselves by looking for food.

20 Behold, O LORD; for I [am] in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home [there is] as death. 

Lord, I understand what I did wrong and I am sick of troubles.  Everywhere I look, there is death.

21 They have heard that I sigh: [there is] none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done [it]: thou wilt bring the day [that] thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 

People know that I am suffering and they are glad about it.  One day they will feel the same pain I am suffering.

22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs [are] many, and my heart [is] faint.

Treat them the way they have treated me.  I am speaking of my foes. Let the hurt they cause to others be the hurt they bring on themselves.