For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Passage:  Lam 1:1-5

 1 How deserted lies the city,
    once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
    who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
    has now become a slave.

2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
    tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
    there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
    they have become her enemies.

3 After affliction and harsh labor,
    Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
    she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
    her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
    and she is in bitter anguish.

5 Her foes have become her masters;
    her enemies are at ease.
The Lord has brought her grief
    because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
    captive before the foe.

A. Find Out

• 1. How does the writer personify Jerusalem? v.1
• 2. What does he think of her doing and why? v.2
• 3. What has happened to Judah? v.3
• 4. How does he think of the roads to Jerusalem? v.4
• 5. What is the reason for all this? v.5

B. Think:

• 1. What was Jerusalem once like?
• 2. What is it like now?
• 3. Why had this happened?

C. Comment:

The writer uses constant personification to create a sense of woe about the city. ‘She’ is empty, deserted, and desolate. He imagines her as a widow, left all alone. Once she had been like a queen (v.1), surrounded by lovers and friends (v.2), a picture of glorious society. Now all that is gone and she’s more like a slave (v.1).

Why a slave? Because she’s been taken by an enemy (v.5). All her people have been carried into exile (v.3) and the few who are left groan and grieve (v.4). She’s been made a nothing, a nobody!  All those who had close relationships with her have abandoned her, have given her up and have even become her enemies (v.2)

The roads to Jerusalem, once busy with pilgrims coming to the regular feasts, are now empty (v.4). In every way there is portrayed this emptiness, this desolation. Why is it like that? Because God has finally brought His judgement upon the sins of this people (v.5) and taken the people off into exile in Babylon. Just a remnant is left to see this terrible picture.

In these ways the writer opens this poem describing the awfulness of what is left of Jerusalem. Without these pictures we will never fully grasp something of the awfulness of what happened in 586BC when Jerusalem fell and was burnt and the people taken. This is a most terrible event in the history of Israel, possibly the worst.

D. Application:

• 1.  God does bring judgement on constant sins.
• 2.  That judgement only comes after continual warnings.

Passage:  Lam 1:6-11

6 All the splendor has departed
    from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
    that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
    before the pursuer.

7 In the days of her affliction and wandering
    Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
    that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
    there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
    and laughed at her destruction.

8 Jerusalem has sinned greatly
    and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
    for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
    and turns away.

9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
    she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
    there was none to comfort her.
“Look, Lord, on my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed.”

10 The enemy laid hands
    on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
    enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
    to enter your assembly.

11 All her people groan
    as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
    to keep themselves alive.
“Look, Lord, and consider,
    for I am despised.”

A. Find Out

• 1. What happened to the royalty of Jerusalem? v.6
• 2. What does Jerusalem remember & what had happened? v.7
• 3. What had Jerusalem done, and what is her state now? v.8
• 4. Why was she surprised? v.9
• 5. Who had done what? v.10
• 6. What’s now the state of the remaining people? v.11

B. Think:

• 1. Of what has Jerusalem been stripped?
• 2. What is therefore her present state?
• 3. And why has that all happened?

C. Comment:

The earlier verses focus on the emptiness of the city and that is now expanded upon in the form of considering how she has been stripped. The writer continues to use personification and speaks of Jerusalem as ‘her’. Let’s consider what has been stripped away.

First there are the rulers (v.6) and the splendour that goes with them. Long gone are the days of the rulers who knew God’s blessing that came in the form of great riches and splendour.

Second, there are her treasures (v.7). As we just said, the days of riches and affluence are long gone. The enemy came and there was no one to withstand him. It is all gone.

Third, specifically the treasures of the temple have gone (v.10) as the enemy came in without fear and plundered the temple. The immense riches of the past are gone. It is empty.

Fourth, supplies are gone (v.11). The economy is non-existent and there is virtually no food available.

The result of all this is that the people groan (v.8,11), they look back and wonder how it had all happened so quickly (v.9). They had been committing spiritual adultery (v.8,9) and felt secure in it, but suddenly it is all gone. This is the fifth and perhaps most important thing that has been stripped away, at the heart of God’s activity here!

D. Application:

• 1. Affluence breeds complacency and carelessness and sin.
• 2. The Lord in His love sometimes removes that affluence.

Passage:  Lam 1:12-17

12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
    Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
    that was inflicted on me,
that the Lord brought on me
    in the day of his fierce anger?

13 “From on high he sent fire,
    sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
    and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
    faint all the day long.

14 “My sins have been bound into a yoke;
    by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
    and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands
    of those I cannot withstand.

15 “The Lord has rejected
    all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
    to crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
    Virgin Daughter Judah.

16 “This is why I weep
    and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
    no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
    because the enemy has prevailed.”

17 Zion stretches out her hands,
    but there is no one to comfort her.
The Lord has decreed for Jacob
    that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
    an unclean thing among them.

A. Find Out

• 1. Who does ‘Jerusalem’ appeal to? v.12a
• 2. What had the Lord done? v.12b,13
• 3. What happened to her sins? v.14
• 4. What happened to her warriors? v.15
• 5. So what is the state of her children now? v.16
• 6. What is her own state and why? v.17

B. Think:

• 1. What had the Lord done physically?
• 2. What had He done spiritually?
• 3. What is the end result?

C. Comment:

The plea of Jerusalem, coming through the prophet-writer, is first of all to those travellers who pass by Jerusalem and who seem not to care. He says, take note of this, because you’ll not find anything like this anywhere else!  It’s brought about by God, very specifically by God!

God, he goes on, sent fire to burn up the city (v.13a). God intervened in my life like a hunter with a net bringing down its prey (v.13b). The sins that Jerusalem (v.14) had been committing were taken by the Lord, put all together and dumped as one big load on Jerusalem bringing her to a place of weakness where she was vulnerable and easily taken by the enemy. The strength of Jerusalem, her army (v.15), was easily crushed.

What is the result? ‘She’ is left in a state of mourning, in tears (v.16) yet there is no one to comfort her as is normally the case where there is mourning. She is left in a place of destitution, and this is particularly observed in respect of her children, the younger generation who have nothing, no future, and no present. They are destitute.

She stretches out her hands in supplication like a needy beggar but there is no one to respond. Even her neighbours have turned on her. She is utterly destitute, with nothing left and no one to help. This is the terrible extent of the Lord’s work!

D. Application:

• 1. When the Lord disciplines, it IS painful (Heb 12:11)
• 2. The Lord disciplines to bring forth something more glorious.

Passage:  Lam 1:18-22

18 “The Lord is righteous,
    yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
    look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
    have gone into exile.

19 “I called to my allies
    but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
    perished in the city
while they searched for food
    to keep themselves alive.

20 “See, Lord, how distressed I am!
    I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
    for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
    inside, there is only death.

21 “People have heard my groaning,
    but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
    they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
    so they may become like me.

22 “Let all their wickedness come before you;
    deal with them
as you have dealt with me
    because of all my sins.
My groans are many
    and my heart is faint.”

A. Find Out

• 1. What had Jerusalem done and what had happened? v.18
• 2. Who betrayed her and who died how?  v.19
• 3. What is she left feeling? v.20
• 4. How do people respond to her now? v.21a,b
• 5. What does she want to happen? v.21c
• 6. How does she more fully express that? v.22

B. Think:

• 1. How does she acknowledge her sin?
• 2. What specific things that happened are mentioned?
• 3. What does she now want?

C. Comment:

          In the last part of this chapter, ‘Jerusalem’ continues ‘her’ lament with three things standing out.

First there is the acknowledgement of her sin. She has rebelled against God (v.18,20). That is the reason that these things have happened to her. This is no “poor old me” lament. When a prophet speaks out he speaks truth and acknowledges sin. Again and again the Lord had called to Jerusalem and again and again they had turned their backs on Him. The fact that He is their King means this is rebellion!

Second, there are continuing descriptions of what has happened to her. The young men and women, who would have been her future hope, have been taken away, carried off into exile in Babylon (v.18). The very people of authority, the priests and elders (v.19), died of starvation before the final destruction. In those final hours, anyone outside was killed by the sword while inside they were dying from starvation (v.20).

Finally there is a call to God for justice. Other nations look on and do nothing. Their enemies gloat over what had happened, yet they are also unrighteous and so there will come a day of accounting for them as well (21c,22). This is all accompanied by emotional distress (v.20-22) in the terrible awareness of both her folly and what has happened.

D. Application:

• 1. Ongoing Sin brings a day of accounting. We need a saviour.
• 2. Confessing the Sin is the first step to coming back to God.