Verse 1
JERUSALEM; THE GRIEVING WIDOW,[1]
THE THEME OF LAMENTATIONS
"How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people!
She has become as a widow, she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces is become tributary!
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her:
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they are become her enemies.
Judah is gone into captivity,
because of affliction and because of great servitude;
She dwelleth among the nations, she findeth no rest.
All her persecutors overtook her within the straits."
"How doth the city sit solitary" (Lamentations 1:1). "The word `How' is the characteristic introduction to an elegy, or a dirge."[2] The Hebrew text used the word as the title of the book; and it carries the sense, "Behold, how great a tragedy!"
There is no continuity of thought in Lamentations. "It repeats themes in various ways, with numerous descriptions of calamity, along with psychological and emotional reactions of the people."[3]
"She is become as a widow" (Lamentations 1:2). "Many years later, a Roman coin struck by Titus (70 A.D.) depicted a woman sitting under a palm-tree with the inscription `JUDEA CAPTA' (as in Lamentations 1:3)."[4] A grief-stricken woman sitting in misery and poverty represented the common fate of countless widows in antiquity, and this was an apt portrayal of the humiliation of the Chosen People.
"Among all her lovers ... none to comfort her" (Lamentations 1:2). "These lovers were those nations such as Egypt who had wooed her into their alliance against Babylon (Jeremiah 27:3)."[5] Of course, they supported Judea only so long as it served their own selfish interests to do so; and Judah's stupidity in this was most reprehensible because they ignored the urgent and repeated warnings of their holy prophets against such alliances with those false lovers.
"All her friends, ... are become her enemies" (Lamentations 1:2). "The prophecy of Isaiah has come true (Isaiah 39:5-7; 47:8,9)."[6] The mighty Jerusalem, once the great capital of Solomon's extensive empire, to which many nations paid tribute, has now fallen to cruel and arrogant conquerors. Once respected and honored, now hated and despised; once flourishing and prosperous, now forsaken and deserted, her Temple looted and burned, her walls broken down, her population butchered or deported, except for the poorest of the land, her condition was pitiful indeed. "And her plight was made even worse by the pagan environment."[7]
May this terrible disgrace and humiliation of the proudest nation of all antiquity be a lesson for those nations which today are called "super-powers." Let them (including the U.S.A.) remember why it happened to Judea; and as Matthew Henry wrote, "Let no family, no state, no nation, no Babylon, nor any other, proudly boast of their security, saying, `I sit as a queen and shall never sit as a widow' (Isaiah 47:8; Revelation 17:7)."[8] "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Daniel 4:25).
"Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction" (Lamentations 1:3). This was true in two ways. Judah had been forced into captivity by the military arm of Babylon, which resulted in captivity and servitude, but there was also a contingent of Judah, who attempted to escape their bondage by fleeing into Egypt. Jeremiah was probably taken against his will with that group. Cheyne wrote that, "Here the prophet is not thinking of the deportation of the captives, but of the Jews who sought refuge in foreign lands (Jeremiah 40:11)."[9] Dummelow also favored this understanding of Lamentations 1:3. "This means that the Jews sought exile in order to escape the sufferings to which they were exposed in their native land."[10]
"Here persecutors overtook her within the straits" (Lamentations 1:3). This may very well be a reference to Nebuchadnezzar's capture of the fleeing Zedekiah who tried to escape the siege of Jerusalem. Jerusalem's doom was sealed in that capture.
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