How doth the city sit solitary [that] was full of people! She that was great among the nations is become as a widow; the princess among the provinces is become tributary!
The book opens with a cry over a city that has lost everything. Jerusalem was once crowded and honoured. Now she sits alone like a widow, and a princess has become a slave. How did this happen? Where was God in it? Is there anything beyond the tears?
The opening lines set the past against the present. Babylon's armies have taken the city, and the losses pile up.
Her independence is gone. The Chaldeans have thrown down her gates, which the boastful king of Assyria never entered. Zion's roads, once crowded with people, are now in mourning, because no one comes to the appointed feasts. Friendless, bereaved, deserted — how changed she is!
What does "widow" stand for here? One writer traces the image through the prophets.
Widowhood means the loss of God's ownership, protection, and supporting care. The Holy Spirit uses this picture in the prophecies to show the religious and moral poverty of the people of Israel. They had openly joined themselves to the false gods of the nations. So one of the earliest prophets records that the LORD gave up all relationship with His people because they were unfaithful to Him. He said, "She is not my wife, and I am not her husband" (Hosea 2:2).
The ruin had a cause. One writer sets the city's present against what it once was.
To a faithful Israelite it was a sorrowful sight. What joy and gladness had once filled that now deserted city! Those were happy, festive days, when people honoured the law of the land and lifted up His name. How dreadful the change — the terrible result of turning away from God, shown in pride, self-will, and idolatry! How could Jerusalem stay the acknowledged wife of the LORD, when she was so unfaithful and shameless? Sadly, she is left to sit alone in her widow's clothes until the day when God grants repentance.
The blow came from God. Yet God is not distant from the pain.
The affliction of His people does not escape the eye of God. He is afflicted in their affliction. His Spirit takes notice of it. He works in the hearts of those whose mouth He uses, and gives voice to the feelings He has produced there... Nothing moves the heart more than the certainty that God loves the one who suffers. He loves what He must strike, and He must strike what He loves.
Prophecy had already announced the disaster. This book adds something prediction alone could not.
It was good that we should have more than predictions of the deep trouble coming on the house of David and Jerusalem. We also have the outpouring of a godly heart broken with anguish for the people of God — all the more because they deserved everything that fell on them through their enemies at God's hand. We little think what a man like Jeremiah must have felt. He saw the temple destroyed and the holy service stopped. He saw the king and priests and most of Judah carried off by their idolatrous conqueror... These songs of grief were no empty complaints, as we shall see. They spread out the woes of the city and people before a God whose compassion and faithfulness are both infinite.
The same lesson reaches far beyond ancient Judah.
One course, and one alone, would have saved Judah. It was genuine self-judgment and brokenness of spirit before the Lord, which would make the people "tremble at His Word." That is what is needed everywhere today. What blesses and delivers the saints of God is not so much looking for and learning new truth. It is testing our ways by the truth already given to us, and seeking to walk in the reality of it.
The lament is not God's last word to this people.
To this day they remain bereaved and without comfort. But we see from Isaiah, Zechariah and other Scriptures that God has good and comforting words in view for them. Their day of salvation (Isaiah 49) will come, brought by the beautiful feet of Him who announces salvation (Isaiah 52). Then they will break forth into joy, singing that the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
- Empty. A crowded city now sits alone. Her gates are thrown down, her feasts unattended, and a princess has become a slave.
- Why. The loss came from turning away from God — pride, self-will and idolatry. One thing would have saved Judah: honest self-judgment and trembling at His Word.
- Widow. The picture means more than loneliness. It marks the loss of God's ownership, protection and care, as when God said through Hosea that she is not His wife.
- Wept. God did not stand far off. Their affliction does not escape His eye, and He loves what He must strike.
- Hope. She sits alone until the day God grants repentance. Then His people will sing that the LORD has comforted them.
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath no comforter; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
Jerusalem weeps through the night, and the friends she counted on have turned on her. The allies she chose over God now stand among her enemies. So where can comfort come from?
The prophet tells us not only that she weeps, but when. The timing matters, and so does what her ruin now proves.
She weeps bitterly, and this in the night. Darkness and sleep bring relief to others. To her the night brings only a fresh return of grief, less held back, which covers her cheeks with tears. Now her folly is proved, as well as her sin in forsaking Jehovah for others. But among her lovers she has no comforter. All her friends, the allies she counted on, deal treacherously with her, and are but enemies.
Who were these "lovers"? They were the gods and the powers she trusted instead of God.
The false gods she trusted when she broke faith with the covenant of Jehovah cannot ease her present sorrows in any way. The powers she tried to lean on when she forsook the Word of her God are all indifferent to her plight. He, the "eternal Lover" whom she has despised, is the only One who loves her still.
Her loneliness was not bad luck. It came from what she had done.
Then in the next verse we hear her weeping. She weeps all night long. There is no one to comfort her. Her friends have turned against her; they have become her enemies. She was disobedient to her Lord. She rejected His Word. She gave up her holy place as His separated people, and now "she finds no rest." The Lord's hand is upon her because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Knowing that Jerusalem had brought this on herself did not dry the prophet's tears. Two things were true for him at once.
Nothing moves the heart more than this conviction: the one who is suffering is loved by God. He loves what He must strike, and He must strike what He loves. The prophet, while laying open the affliction of Jerusalem, acknowledges that the sin of the people had caused it. Could that lessen the sorrow of his heart? If on one side it was a consolation, on the other it humbled him and made him hide his face.
Her lovers cannot comfort her. So where could comfort be found at all?
The prophet, in chapter 2, asks, "What shall I compare to you?" and still there is no easing of her distress. Where could she find any? Who would comfort her? God, against whom she had sinned, had provided for this. She had treated His messenger badly, yet it is from his experience that comfort and hope can be drawn.
That comfortless state has lasted a long time. But it is not God's last word to this city.
The history of God's earthly people shows very plainly the forlorn and comfortless condition they came into by turning their backs on God. "How lonely sits the city that was full of people! … she has none to comfort her." "A comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit." To this day they remain bereft and comfortless. But we see from Isaiah, Zechariah and other Scriptures that God has good and comforting words in view for them. Their day of salvation will come, brought by the beautiful feet of the One who announces salvation. Then they will break out into joy, singing, "The LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem."
- Choice. She left God for other lovers: false gods and foreign powers.
- Comfortless. Those lovers cannot ease her sorrow. They are indifferent, treacherous, and now her enemies.
- Constant. The One she despised is the only One who still loves her — and He loves what He must strike.
- Concealed. God had already provided comfort. It came through the messenger she had mistreated, not through the lovers she chose.
- Coming. Her comfortless state is real and long, but God has comforting words still in view for her.
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits.
Jeremiah's lament turns from the empty city to the road out of it. Judah is in exile, and the verse raises two questions. What brought God's chosen people to this? And where was God while it happened?
Some have read the sorrow of this chapter as a picture of the cross. One writer answers by looking at the names the chapter keeps repeating.
Even the slightest look at the chapter, and at how often the names Judah, Zion, and Jerusalem come back, will show what the Spirit of God had in view when He spoke through Jeremiah. It was not the cross. It was the ruinous judgments about to fall on the holy city through Nebuchadnezzar. God had borne the grievous sins and rebellion of His people with much patience. But, as the last chapter of Jeremiah shows, wrath without remedy was their portion in the end. Lamentations 1 shows the effect of this... Once that meaning is held fast, the passage may often be applied in other directions, and with profit. There was no sorrow, and never could be any sorrow, like the sorrow of our blessed Lord and Saviour, both in Gethsemane and on the cross. So there is no difficulty in using this passage as an illustration of our Lord's sufferings.
William Kelly weighs what this captivity cost, group by group.
The last hope of the nation was gone. Israel had long been prey to the Assyrian. But now Judah is in captivity, and mourning covers Zion, where crowds once came to the feasts. And no one escapes the affliction: her priests sigh, her young women suffer, and she herself is wholly in bitterness. Her enemies, on the other hand, hold the power and give the orders.
Why can Judah find no resting place? One writer points to the company she kept long before the exile.
In this Judah becomes a warning beacon for God's people of all time. She did not keep the separate place God had called her to. She mixed freely with her neighbours who worshipped idols. So she soon proved, as all do who follow her steps, that "bad company ruins good morals." Walking with idol-worshippers, she learned their ways. As a result God gave her up to wander among the nations until she grew sick of their practices.
Another writer lists what came before that restlessness.
She was disobedient to her Lord. She rejected His Word. She gave up her holy place as His separated people, and now "she finds no resting place." The Lord's hand is upon her for her many sins.
Ironside does not leave the warning with Judah. He traces the same drift through the history of the Church.
Has this not been the repeated history of every group God separated from the world and owned as His people? How soon the Church of the apostles corrupted itself... The movement that began in the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century was spoiled by conformity to the world in even less time. So someone has well asked, "Where is the Church?" and replied, "In the world!" Again, "Where is the world?" and answered, "In the Church."
God brought this judgment. But that is not the whole of His part in it.
Lamentations shows the same blessed fact: Jehovah takes a loving and deep interest in the afflictions His people pass through because of their sins. He who had to discipline His people is still moved with compassion for them. Yes, in their affliction He Himself is afflicted, and He yearns over them.
Kelly draws out what this means for anyone who watches God's people fall.
Grief over God's people is no less because they have dishonoured God and God justly disciplines them.
One writer reads this sorrow forward, to a trouble still to come.
As in the Psalms, we may also see in Lamentations a prophetic preview of the sufferings of the Jewish remnant in the last time of trouble before Christ appears. Jeremiah identified himself with the sad state of the people under God's judgment. In the same way the Lord Jesus will have compassion on Israel's grief.
- Cause. Judah lost her separation first and her land second. She mixed with the nations, and God gave her up to them.
- Loss. The captivity closed the nation's last hope. The affliction spared no one — priests, young women, the city itself.
- Restlessness. She lives among the nations and finds no resting place. She gave up the place God had given her as His separated people.
- Warning. Every group God has separated to Himself has repeated this history. The verse is a warning beacon, not old news.
- Compassion. The God who had to strike is afflicted in their affliction. That same sorrow points ahead to a people still to pass through trouble.
The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly all her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are in grief; and as for her, she is in bitterness.
Jerusalem has fallen. The prophet walks through a city where silence is the loudest sound. The roads that once carried crowds to the feasts are empty. The question is not who broke the walls. It is why the place of Israel's greatest joy became the place of its deepest grief.
The verse works by contrast. Joy has turned to mourning, the sorrow spares no one, and it cut deepest in the godly.
The last hope of the nation was gone. Assyria had preyed on Israel for a long time. But now, in the captivity of Judah, mourning spreads over Zion where the feasts were once crowded. And there is no exception to the rule of affliction: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she as a whole is in bitterness. On the other hand, her adversaries are in power and command over her. How bitter all this was to a Jew! And it was most bitter where the Jew was godly. Besides the grief of nature he might share with his countrymen, he carried an added and sharp sorrow: God's normal witnesses on earth had proved false. He could not see how God would gain glory in spite of Israel's unfaithfulness, and even through it.
One writer sets Jerusalem's old standing beside her state now, then points to the reason behind the change.
Jerusalem once held an enviable position: full of people, great among the nations, princess among the provinces. Now she has become tributary, her independence is gone, and her gates have been thrown down by the Babylonians. Friendless, bereaved, desolate — how changed is her state! Besides all this, her enemies mocked her sabbaths. Really they mocked the ending of all her prosperity and glory. Was this not enough to call out the lament of anyone who loved her? Yet all this had not happened without reason.
Israel's place was unlike any other nation's. One writer sets out the terms God had given His people, and who broke them.
We must keep in mind the special place of Israel and Jerusalem. Otherwise we can never appreciate a book like this... God had set up a direct government in His own land and people, changed from Samuel's days onward by the power of a king, and He guaranteed blessing on obedience. But who could guarantee the obedience? Israel pledged it, but in vain. The people disobeyed, the priests disobeyed, the kings disobeyed.
One writer applies the verse to the days of Jesus.
The gold had become dim. The ways to Zion were still solitary; no one was really coming to the appointed feasts. In spirit the prophet was still weeping... The Lord goes up, it is true, but not in His glory.
Some readers take this chapter as a description of Christ's sufferings on the cross. One writer answers that question, and then leaves room for application.
Look at the chapter, and at how often the names Judah, Zion and Jerusalem come up. It will show what the Spirit of God had in view when He spoke through Jeremiah. It was not the cross, but the devastating judgments God was about to pour out on the holy city through Nebuchadnezzar... In our judgment this is what the scripture means. Hold that firmly, and we may often apply it in other directions, with profit.
Another writer makes such an application, and finds the Spirit of Christ in the prophet's tears:
We see the Spirit of Christ in the prophet of Lamentations. He enters into all the afflictions of Jerusalem, of the temple, and of the people of God. The One who wept over Jerusalem endured such suffering perfectly. He would have gathered them and governed them rightly, but they would not.
One writer names the one thing that would have saved Judah, and turns it into a warning for God's people today.
You cannot avoid such a sad result by whitewashing the problem. That means trying to heal divisions by glossing over the evils that led to them, and so failing to hear the voice of God in them. One course, and one alone, would have saved Judah. That was genuine self-judgment and brokenness of spirit before the Lord, which made the people "tremble at His Word." This is what we need everywhere today. What will bless and deliver the saints of God is not so much looking for and learning new truth. It is testing our ways by the truth already entrusted to us, and seeking to walk in the reality of it.
- Cause. The roads did not empty by accident. All this had not happened without reason.
- Reach. Affliction spares no one — priests, virgins, the whole city — while her enemies hold the upper hand.
- Weight. The grief cut deepest in the godly. God guaranteed blessing on obedience, and people, priests and kings alike broke it.
- Echo. The words still fit in the days of Jesus: the ways to Zion were solitary, and no one was really coming to the feasts.
- Remedy. One thing alone would have saved Judah: genuine self-judgment and brokenness before the Lord. Not new truth, but living out the truth already given.
Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies prosper; for Jehovah hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions her children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
This verse shows Jerusalem's fall in three strokes. Her enemies now rule her. The LORD Himself struck her. Her children are marched away as captives. The verse does not treat the disaster as bad luck. It traces the ruin back to sin. That raises a hard question: how can anyone grieve over people who deserved what came?
The opening line reports a role swap. Those who once served Jerusalem now give her orders. One writer says the affliction spared no one, and hit the godly Jew hardest of all.
No one escapes the affliction. Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and the city as a whole is in bitterness. On the other hand, her adversaries are in power and command over her. How bitter all this was to a Jew! And in a sense it was most bitter where the Jew was godly. Besides the grief of nature he might share with his countrymen, there was an added and sharp sorrow. The normal witnesses of the Lord on earth had proved false. And he could not see how God would still get glory despite Israel's unfaithfulness and through it.
That reversal was never God's plan. One writer traces the long era of rule by the nations back to the same cause this verse names.
God's plan and intention is not that the Gentile should be supreme. We know well all through Scripture that Israel shall be the head and the Gentiles the tail. And in fact it is this alone which enables us to understand the history of the world... God characterises it as a season — a mere interval of time — that has only come in because of the rebellious, apostate sin of Israel.
The middle line looks past the invading army to the God who sent it. One writer weighs what it does to a heart to know that God strikes the people He loves.
Nothing moves the heart more than the conviction that God loves the one who is suffering. He loves what He must strike, and He must strike what He loves. The prophet, while laying open the affliction of Jerusalem, acknowledges that the sin of the people had caused it. Could that lessen the sorrow of his heart? If on one hand it was a consolation, on the other it humbled him and made him hide his face. The enemy is proud, and glad to see the affliction of the one God loves. That gives occasion to plead for compassion on the afflicted, and for judgment on the malice of the enemy.
Some would say that a people who deserved their punishment have no claim on our tears. One writer answers that their sin is a reason for deeper grief, not less.
God might raise up a fresh testimony, as we know He has done. But even while bowing to His sovereign will, every godly, God-fearing Israelite rightly felt unceasing sorrow at the utter ruin of the old witness. And no less so "because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions." Grief is not less over God's people because they have dishonoured God and are righteously chastened.
Judah had a remedy the whole time, and never took it.
One course, and one alone, would have saved Judah. That was genuine self-judgment and brokenness of spirit before the Lord, causing the people to "tremble at His Word." This is what is needed everywhere today. Learning new truth is not the main thing that will bless and deliver the saints of God. What matters more is testing our ways by the truth already given to us, and seeking to walk in the reality of it.
The children carried off before the enemy are not written off. One writer reads the whole book as a grief that still fits the city today, but with a promise attached.
The city still sits alone. The mountain of Zion is still desolate. The crown has fallen, and the joy of the heart is gone... But the Lord will not cast off for ever (Lam. 3:31), and Rachel has been told this: "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy." Jer. 31:16.
- Cause — The enemies' rise is not their own doing. The verse names the LORD as the one who afflicted her, and sin as the reason.
- Reversal — Rule by enemies is the opposite of the place God intended. It lasts only as an interval, brought in by rebellion.
- Sorrow — Deserved punishment deepens the grief instead of excusing us from it. The writer weeps because the chastening is just.
- Remedy — Only honest self-judgment and trembling at God's Word would have spared Judah. Testing our ways by truth we already have matters more than finding new truth.
- Return — The children go into captivity. But the Lord does not cast off for ever, and they will come back from the land of the enemy.