Lamentations 1
1
Chapter 1
The prophet speaks about Jerusalem
1Look! The city at one time was full of people.
But now it is completely alone.
She was a famous city among the nations of the world.
But now she is alone, like a widow.
She ruled other countries like a queen.
But now she has become a slave. #1:1 The writer talks about Jerusalem as if the city is a woman. God made Jerusalem great, like an important lady. But he will cause her to become poor and alone, like a widow.
2She weeps aloud in the night.
There are tears on her face.
She had many lovers.
But now there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have turned away from her.
They have become her enemies.
3Judah's enemies have taken her people away as prisoners. #1:3 Judah was the land that belonged to the Israelite tribe of Judah. When the nation of Israel divided into two kingdoms, Judah was the name of the kingdom in the south. Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah.
The people suffer as slaves of cruel enemies.
Judah's people live among foreign nations.
They have nowhere to rest safely.
Their enemies chased them and they caught them.
Judah's people could not escape.
4The roads to Zion are sad places now.
Nobody travels along them to come to the festivals.
No people meet at the city gates.
The priests are sad.
The young women weep.
The people of Zion are very upset.
5Jerusalem's enemies now rule her people.
They live an easy life.
The Lord has caused Jerusalem to suffer
because of the many sins of her people. #1:5 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there.
Enemies have taken her children away
as their prisoners.
6Zion is not a beautiful city any more.
Her leaders are like deer
that can find no food to eat.
They are too weak to escape
from the people who are chasing them.
7Jerusalem's people are suffering
and they have no homes to live in.
So they remember how great their city was,
and the valuable things that they had long ago.
When their enemies took the city for themselves,
nobody came to help them.
Jerusalem's enemies laughed
while they destroyed the city.
8Jerusalem's sins are very bad.
That is why it has become an unclean place.
At one time, people gave her honour.
But now they do not respect her.
They have seen her great shame.
Jerusalem's people are upset.
They hide their faces because they are ashamed.
9Everyone can see that Jerusalem has become an unclean place.
The people did not think about their sins.
They did not worry about what would happen.
But a terrible thing happened when enemies destroyed their city.
There was nobody who could comfort them.
Jerusalem's people call for help
They called to God for help,
‘Lord, see our trouble!
Our enemies are boasting
that they have won against us!’
10Enemies have taken all Jerusalem's valuable things for themselves.
Her people watched
as foreigners went into the holy temple.
But the Lord himself had said,
‘Foreign people must not go into that special place.’ #1:10 See Deuteronomy 23:3.
11All Jerusalem's people cry
as they look for a bit of food to eat.
They have to sell their valuable things
to buy enough food to keep them alive.
The people say, ‘Lord, look at us!
Nobody respects us!’
12They say to those who go past the city,
‘Will you do nothing to help us?
Look at us!
See that we are suffering very much.
The Lord has caused us to suffer
because he is very angry with us.
13He has sent down fire from above to hurt us.
It has destroyed our strength.
He has prepared a trap to catch our feet,
so that we have to turn back. #1:13 The fire and the trap are pictures of God's punishment.
He has left us weak and alone.
We have pain all day, every day.
14Our sins seem to be like a yoke around our necks.
The Lord himself has tied that heavy load on us.
We were strong,
but he has caused us to become weak.
He has put us under the power of our enemies.
We can do nothing to stop them.
15The Lord God has removed all the strong fighters
who were ready to fight for us.
He brought a big army to fight against us,
and to destroy our young men.
The Lord God has stamped on us, the people of Judah,
like people stamp on grapes to make wine. #1:15 This means that God has punished his people.
16We weep because these things have happened to us.
Tears pour out of our eyes.
There is nobody here who can comfort us.
Nobody can make us strong and brave.
Our enemies have won against us,
so our children have no hope.’
God is punishing Jerusalem's people
17 Zion's people call out for help,
but there is nobody to comfort them.
The Lord has decided to punish Jacob's descendants. #1:17 Jacob was Abraham's grandson. God gave Jacob a new name, ‘Israel’. The 12 tribes of Israel were descendants of Jacob's 12 sons.
The nations around Judah have become her enemies.
Jerusalem has become like a heap of dirty rubbish
among the other nations.
Jerusalem's people agree that they are wrong
18‘The Lord is right to punish us!
We have refused to obey his commands.
Listen to us, all you nations.
See how much we are suffering.
Enemies have taken away our young women and our young men
as their prisoners.
19We called to our lovers to help us.
But they refused to help us.
Our priests and our leaders died in the city's streets.
They were looking for food to keep themselves alive.
20 Lord, see how much we are suffering!
We are very upset.
We have turned against you
and now we are sad deep inside ourselves.
In the streets, our enemies attack us and they kill us.
In our homes, there is also death.
21People have heard that we are crying,
but nobody comes to comfort us.
Our enemies know about our great trouble.
They are happy to see that you have punished us.
Please now make our enemies suffer as we have suffered.
You have promised to do that. Please do it soon!
22Remember all the wicked things that they have done.
Punish them as you have punished us for all our sins.
Now we are very sad and we cry a lot.
We have no hope.’
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