Read & explore together
How Lonely Lies the City!
Lamentations 1 is a grief-filled poem about Jerusalem after devastating loss. It speaks of the city as a woman who weeps, remembers former honour, admits sin, and cries to Yahweh from deep distress.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
This chapter is written as poetry and song. The speaker describes Jerusalem as lonely, bitter and emptied of comfort. The poem moves from description of the city’s suffering to the city’s own voice, which asks others to look, speaks to Yahweh, and recognises rebellion against his commandment.
Lamentations 1:1–22Main takeaway
This poem teaches that Jerusalem’s suffering is described with honest grief, public shame and a confession that Yahweh is righteous while the city has rebelled.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A city left alone and without comfortThe poem opens with a sharp contrast. The city once full of people now sits solitary, and one once called great has become like a slave.
Explanation
The poem opens with a sharp contrast. The city once full of people now sits solitary, and one once called great has become like a slave. Tears, betrayal and captivity fill the first lines. A repeated pain appears straight away: friends fail, enemies press in, and there is no one to comfort her.
02Public places, leaders and memories all show lossThe grief spreads through the whole city. Roads, gates and priests are pictured as mourning, while children go into captivity and princes lose strength.
Explanation
The grief spreads through the whole city. Roads, gates and priests are pictured as mourning, while children go into captivity and princes lose strength. Jerusalem remembers former pleasant things, which makes present misery sharper. The poem does not only show private sadness. It shows a community brought low and openly mocked.
03Sin named alongside afflictionThe poem explains the humiliation in moral terms. Jerusalem has grievously sinned and become unclean.
Explanation
The poem explains the humiliation in moral terms. Jerusalem has grievously sinned and become unclean. Her shame is exposed, and she cries for Yahweh to see her affliction. The enemy seizes pleasant things and enters the sanctuary. Hunger follows, and the people trade treasured possessions for food to keep themselves alive.
04Jerusalem speaks of unbearable sorrowFrom verse 12 the city speaks more directly. She calls passers-by to look at her sorrow and says Yahweh has afflicted her.
Explanation
From verse 12 the city speaks more directly. She calls passers-by to look at her sorrow and says Yahweh has afflicted her. Images of fire, a net and a yoke describe pain, restraint and weakness. Her tears continue because the comforter is far away, and Zion again stretches out her hands with no one to comfort her.
05Confession, distress and appeal to YahwehNear the end, the poem gives a clear confession: Yahweh is righteous, for Jerusalem has rebelled against his commandment.
Explanation
Near the end, the poem gives a clear confession: Yahweh is righteous, for Jerusalem has rebelled against his commandment. Even so, the city still asks others to hear and Yahweh to look. Her lovers deceived her, leaders perish seeking food, and her final words ask Yahweh to see wickedness and judge justly.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What repeated words or ideas show the depth of Jerusalem’s loneliness in this poem?
Notice how often the poem mentions weeping, betrayal and especially having no comforter.
02How does the poem connect Jerusalem’s suffering with her own actions?
Look for the verses that name sin, transgressions and rebellion, and compare them with the statements about Yahweh’s affliction.
03Where does the speaker turn when human help has failed?
Trace the movement from calling attention from passers-by to directly asking Yahweh to look and see.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Lamentations 1:1–22
1How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave!
2She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.
3Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction and because of great servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtook her in her distress.
4The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
5Her adversaries have become the head. Her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
6All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her. They mocked at her desolations.
8Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs and turns backward.
9Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”
10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
11All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. “Look, Yahweh, and see, for I have become despised.”
12“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.
14“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.
15“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press.
16“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”
17Zion spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
18“Yahweh is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
19“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls.
20“Look, Yahweh; for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart turns over within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad, the sword bereaves. At home, it is like death.
21“They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me.
22“Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.