Lamentations 1 - Introduction

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 the heart cry of the city itself as it contemplates what has happened to it, a passage opened with the immortal words, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by, look and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow' (Lamentations 1:12). In neither section is there any positive request for YHWH to respond to their cry with deliverance, and the chapter ends rather with the plea that Jerusalem's betrayers might suffer the same fate as she has. It is thus a cry for justice against her enemies so that they might share her fate, demonstrating the blackness of her despair.

Noteworthy is the emphasis the chapter places on the fact that it is YHWH Who has brought it about. It only comes out once in the first 11 verses which are spoken by the prophet, where it is related to her sins, ‘YHWH has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgression' (Lamentations 1:5), but it is more prominent in the second 11 verses, which are spoken by Jerusalem, both as to ‘the Sovereign Lord' (three times in Lamentations 1:14) and to ‘YHWH' (Lamentations 1:12; Lamentations 1:17). Note that the specific interference in the state of things is by ‘the Sovereign Lord' (delivering her into the hands of their enemies, setting at nought her prime warriors, treading her in a winepress). YHWH acts less specifically (He afflicts her, He commands concerning her). Appeal is also addressed to YHWH in both sections to ‘behold' the situation (Lamentations 1:9; Lamentations 1:11; Lamentations 1:20) demonstrating that faith is not totally dead. And in the midst of all this Jerusalem acknowledges that YHWH is truly righteous in His dealings with her, because she has rebelled against what He has commanded (Lamentations 1:18).