CHAPTER 1. A HEART-CRY OVER WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO JERUSALEM. Chapter 1 is a heart cry over what has happened to Jerusalem. It divides up into two equal sections. The first eleven verses depict the heart cry of the prophet as he looks at what has happened to Jerusalem. The next eleven verses depict t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PROPHET PINES OVER WHAT JERUSALEM HAS LOST (LAMENTATIONS 1:1). In these opening verses (Lamentations 1:1) Jerusalem is pictured by the writer in terms of how it now was, an empty city, a widow and forced-labourer (helpless people subject to the winds of fortune), one who was despised by the nat... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STATE OF THE ONE-TIME GREAT CITY OF JERUSALEM IS DESCRIBED (LAMENTATIONS 1:1). The prophet here commences by bewailing the state of Jerusalem. He pines over what it has lost, and describes it in terms which bring out how much it has lost. From the political point of view it had lost its autonom... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT JERUSALEM HAS BECOME (LAMENTATIONS 1:8). Having outlined what Jerusalem had lost the prophet now turns his thoughts to what she has become. She has become like a menstrual woman whose situation is visibly revealed to the world, a suggestive picture that would have brought horror to men and wome... [ Continue Reading ]
JERUSALEM CALLS ON THE WORLD TO BEHOLD HER PITIABLE STATE (LAMENTATIONS 1:12). Lamentations 1:12 (Lamed) Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold, and see, If there be any sorrow like to my sorrow, Which is brought upon me, With which YHWH has afflicted, In the day of his fierce ange... [ Continue Reading ]
JERUSALEM CALLS ON THE WORLD, AND THEN ON YHWH, TO BEHOLD HER CONDITION AND CRIES TO HIM FOR VENGEANCE (LAMENTATIONS 1:12). This passage can be divided up into two parts, the first in which Jerusalem calls on the world to behold her pitiable state (Lamentations 1:12), and the second in which she cal... [ Continue Reading ]
RECOGNISING THE DEPTHS OF HER OWN SIN JERUSALEM CALLS ON YHWH TO DO THE SAME TO HER ENEMIES WHO ARE GLOATING OVER HER AS HE HAS DONE TO HER, FOR THEY ARE EQUALLY SINFUL. AND SHE CALLS ON HIM TO AVENGE HER IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT HE HAS PROMISED THROUGH JEREMIAH (LAMENTATIONS 1:20). It is a sign of... [ Continue Reading ]