They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
aThe Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.
My eye, amy eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those baround him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.
For I brebelled against His commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.
My asoul is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
bOutside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are aglad that You have done it.
Bring on bthe day You have announced,
That they may become like me.
| << Lamentations 1:15 | Lamentations 1:17 >> |
What Does Lamentations 1:16 Mean?
Lamentations 1:10-16
The book of Lamentations opens with Jerusalem being depicted as a princess who had it all, but due to calamity, she is widowed and has become a slave. She is Jerusalem personified, which the armies of Nebuchadnezzar have destroyed. Most of her people are dead, and her life seems to be overwhelmed and consumed by death, particularly the death of her inhabitants.
The reader is expected to know that her sins are what brought on this disaster. Her destruction was a judgment from God because she refused to repent. As a result, all her people are either dead or in Babylonian captivity. She tells us that even the few survivors are starving and miserable. They have nothing because they have bartered it all away for what little food remains in the area.
So Jerusalem is in a deep state of grief. She experiences the kind of mourning that occurs just after a calamity strikes. A person cannot think straight because of the magnitude of what has just happened. Nothing makes sense. No one and nothing can bring comfort because shell shock has set in. She is reeling from the destruction, chaos, and death that has just ruined her world, and her mind cannot piece together the reasons—not at this point. Only later in the book, in chapters 3 and 5, does the author begin to find perspective, tentatively acknowledging the lessons God wants His people to learn.
That is how grief works; that is its pattern. Modern studies have found that grief is a lengthy process. It is not just something that happens and quickly recedes. Instead, it is a process a person must move through in stages, each of which takes time. In this way, a grieving person can get a handle on what he or she is feeling and how it affects daily life. It takes considerable time to come to terms with what has happened. The book of Lamentations illustrates this process.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Those Who Mourn
| << Lamentations 1:15 | Lamentations 1:17 >> |
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