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 ]