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Lamentations 1:10-16

(10) The adversary has spread his hand
Over all her pleasant things;
For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
Not to enter Your assembly.
(11) All her people sigh,
They seek bread;
They have given their valuables for food to restore life.
“ See, O LORD, and consider,
For I am scorned.”
(12) “ Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Behold and see
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the LORD has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.
(13) “ From above He has sent fire into my bones,
And it overpowered them;
He has spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.
(14) “ The yoke of my transgressions was bound;
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.
(15) “ The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.
(16) “ For these things I weep;
My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”

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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

To learn more, see:
Those Who Mourn