The prophet describes the city’s ruined condition
1
📚How lonely the city sits,she that was full of people!
How she has become like a widow,
she that was great among the nations!
And the princess 📖 among the provinces,
how she has become a forced labourer!
1:1 The prophet expresses his deep grief that Jerusalem, the city of the King of heaven, had fallen into her enemies’ hands and was crushed and deserted.⚜
2 📚She weeps bitterly in the night,
and her tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers she has
no one to comfort her.
All her friends 📖 have dealt
treacherously with her,
they have become her enemies.
3 📚Judah has gone into captivity 📖 under affliction
and under great servitude.
She lives among the nations;
she finds no rest 📖.
All her persecutors have caught up
with her in her distress.
4 📚The roads of Zion mourn,
because no one comes to the solemn feasts 📖.
All her gates are desolate.
Her priests sigh,
her virgins are afflicted,
and she is in bitterness 📖.
5 📚Her adversaries have become the masters,
her enemies prosper.
For the LORD has afflicted her
because of her many transgressions 📖.
Her children have gone into captivity
in the presence of the enemy.
6 📚And all her beauty has departed
from the daughter 📖 of Zion.
Her princes have become like deer
that find no pasture,
and they have gone without strength
before the pursuer.
7 📚In the days of her affliction
and her miseries,
when her people fell into the hands
of the enemy,
Jerusalem remembered all her pleasant things
that she had in the days of old,
but no one helped her 📖.
Her adversaries saw her,
and mocked 📖 at her Sabbaths.
8 📚Jerusalem has grievously sinned;
therefore she has been removed.
All who honoured her despise her,
because they have seen her nakedness.
Yes, she sighs and turns back.
1:8 Verse 5.⚜
9 📚Her filthiness is in her skirts.
She did not consider her future 📖,
therefore her fall was amazing.
She had no comforter. O LORD,
see my affliction 📖,
for the enemy has exalted himself.
10 📚The adversary has spread out his hands
on all her precious things 📖,
for she has seen the nations
enter her sanctuary,
those whom you had forbidden
to enter your congregation.
11 📚All her people sigh;
they seek bread 📖;
they have given their precious things
for food to renew life.
Jerusalem personified laments her condition
See, O LORD,
and consider, for I am despised.
12 📚Is it nothing to you,
all you who pass by?
Look and see if there is any sorrow
like my sorrow,
which has been brought on me,
which the LORD has inflicted on me
in the day of his fierce anger 📖.
1:12 From this verse to the end of the chapter it is as though Jerusalem herself were speaking as an individual. The prophet who is speaking for her has been enabled by God’s Spirit to understand the deep grief that was in the mind of the people and to experience it with them (see Jer 4:19-20; 6:24-25; 9:1, 10).⚜
13 📚He has sent fire 📖 from above into my bones,
and it has prevailed.
He has spread a net 📖 for my feet;
he has turned me back;
he has made me desolate and
faint all day long.
14 📚The yoke 📖 of my transgressions was bound,
woven by his hands.
They have come onto my neck.
He has made my strength fall.
The Lord delivered me into the hands
of those whom I was not able to
withstand.
15 📚The Lord has trampled underfoot
all my mighty men in my midst.
He called an assembly against me
to crush my young men.
The Lord has trampled the virgin,
the daughter 📖 of Judah,
as in a winepress 📖.
16 📚For these things I weep.
My eye, my eye flows with water,
because the comforter who could
relieve my soul is far from me.
My children are desolate,
because the enemy prevailed.
17 📚Zion spreads out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her.
Concerning Jacob the LORD has commanded 📖
that his adversaries should
surround him.
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing
among them.
18 📚The LORD is righteous 📖;
for I have rebelled 📖 against his commandment.
Please listen, all you people,
and see my sorrow.
My virgins and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19 📚I called for my lovers,
but they deceived me.
My priests and my elders expired in the city,
while they sought their food
to renew their lives.
1:19 Verse 7.⚜
20 📚Look, O LORD, for I am in distress.
My inner being is troubled.
My heart turns over inside me;
for I have grievously rebelled.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
at home it is like death.
21 📚They have heard that I sigh.
There is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of
my trouble;
they are glad 📖 that you have done it.
You will bring the day that
you have announced 📖,
and they will become like me.
22 📚Let all their wickedness come before you,
and do to them as you have done
to me for all my transgressions;
for my sighs are many,
and my heart is faint.