1:12 The vertical appeal to God in verse 11 is matched by a horizontal appeal to mankind in verse 12, also in the form of a double imperative. In verse 11 the appeal to Yahweh was made because of what the enemy had done to Lady Jerusalem: “For I am despised” (cf. v. 8). Now in verse 12 the appeal to mankind is made because of what Yahweh has done to her: “if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, . . . which the Lord inflicted.” The opening bicolon constitutes a rhetorical question addressed to the passersby. The change in addressee suggests that the desperate woman is unsure that Yahweh will hear her plea, and so she appeals to everyone and anyone, hoping that someone might help. Of course, in the grand scheme it is a misstep, given that Yahweh alone holds the only hope for restoration. By the end of the book the community acknowledges this in its own double command to Yahweh to restore and renew it (5:21–22), but for now the city cries in desperation to anyone who will listen.

Her double command, like the one directed to Yahweh, is followed by a statement of extreme: Is there any sorrow like my sorrow? At first sight the words sound exaggerated, given that Jerusalem is not the only recipient of Babylon’s ruthless destructive campaign. However, two factors in the text suggest that they may not be so hyperbolic after all. Structurally, the words are located in the middle colon of the tricolon, which itself is nestled between two bicola. Thus they form the very center of verse 12, which, along with verse 11, forms the center of the poem. Given the acrostic and chiastic nature of the poem, this observation alone indicates their importance. Theologically, this sorrow of all sorrows has been inflicted on her by God himself. The indefinite subject in the final line of the tricolon (“which was brought upon me”; cf. v. 22; 2:20; 3:51) is identified in the final bicolon as Yahweh. Although the verb changes (“torment, grieve”), the semantic domain of causing grief is similar. This provides a reasonable case that the central words of 1:12 are not hyperbolic. There is no sorrow like Lady Jerusalem’s sorrow because the invasion of the city was not merely another destructive campaign by the same ruthless Babylonian army—it was the “day of [Yahweh’s] fierce anger.” Babylon was simply a pawn in the process; Yahweh was the ruthless warrior that day, as verses 13–16 will state. This, in a sense, is why there is no comforter for her, as the refrain frequently reminds: the God who was Jerusalem’s helper (Pss. 54:4; 121:1–2; Isa. 41:10) and comforter (Isa. 40:1–2) became her judge on the day of his wrath.

1:13–16 Lamentations 1:12 introduces a turning point in the chapter. In the first half, while Yahweh is acknowledged to be the main cause of Jerusalem’s affliction (v. 5), the nations are more prominent as the intermediate agent in that affliction (vv. 3, 7–10). In the second half, however, the attention shifts to Yahweh as the ultimate agent. There is also a distinct shift from third-person narration to first-person experience. The poem now takes on a more personal nature, first with Jerusalem’s lament at Yahweh’s actions against her (vv. 13–16) and second with a prayer of confession for her sins against Yahweh (vv. 18–22). The narrator intrudes only once more, in verse 17, with a sympathetic acknowledgment of Jerusalem’s present predicament.

The active role of God in the judgment on Jerusalem is reflected in his being the relentless subject of eleven verbs in three verses (vv. 13–15). Verse 13 begins with an emphatic statement of the divine origin of the judgment: it was sent “from on high” (v. 13). This prepositional phrase not only reminds the reader of where Yahweh conducts his sovereign control of world affairs but also alludes to God’s sending fire to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:23–29). The allusion indicates that Jerusalem is now viewed by God as being in the same category as the most wicked cities in the OT. The picture of “fire into my bones” conveys the personal intensity of the judgment (cf. Jer. 20:9). The image of “a net [spread] for my feet” indicates that even under such painful judgment there was nowhere to flee: “he [has] turned me back” from trying to escape (Lam. 1:13). The metaphor is shocking, given that in the OT it is generally used of an enemy’s making a snare for the righteous, from which Yahweh rescues the righteous (e.g., Ps. 31:4). Here Yahweh has set the net so that his people cannot escape his judgment. The God who had promised to be for his people is now against them. The final colon completes the picture of a city left desolate and faint in the face of inescapable fire (Lam. 1:13c). Fortress Zion has become faint Zion.

Verse 14 changes the images from a fire and a net to a yoke placed on a person’s neck. The intimate involvement of Yahweh is seen in his hands’ personally knitting the yoke together. The yoke is a yoke of transgressions. Jerusalem and her people are placed under bondage by their sin; that is, they are weighed down by God’s judgment for it. The mention of a yoke evokes a prophecy from Jeremiah, who predicted that God would place Judah “under the yoke of the king of Babylon” (Jer. 27:8). In the hands of an angry God, Babylon was to Jerusalem a fire, a net, and a yoke. Under this “God-fashioned, sin-forged, Babylon-produced yoke”41 Jerusalem exclaims that her strength failed and that she was unable to withstand her enemies (Lam. 1:14). The result is unsurprising given her burnt bones, trapped feet, and burdened neck. Yet this is not simply the “natural consequence” following the invasion by the Babylonians. Yahweh has been behind it all. His active involvement in Jerusalem’s woes is seen in the causative sense of the verb “fail” in verse 14 (lit., “caused me to stumble/stagger”), as well as in the shift from God’s covenant name (“Lord”) to his sovereign title (“Lord”).

Verse 15 explains why Jerusalem was not able to withstand her enemies. She had “mighty men” and “young men” able and ready to fight, so why was she not able to gain victory, as in the days of David, or to resist, as in the days of Hezekiah? It is for one simple reason: the sovereign Lord was actively at work against her. He did three things: rejected the mighty men in her midst, called a solemn assembly to crush the young men, and trod the virgin daughter of Judah like grapes in a winepress. The Hebrew verb for “reject” is rare in the OT, occurring in only three other places. It concerns the process of evaluation either positively, weighing up valuable material such as gold (Job 28:16, 19), or negatively, weighing up something to reject (Ps. 119:18). The latter meaning is intended in Lamentations 1:15: the Lord weighed up the army of Judah and found them wanting; he scorned them.

Not only that, but the Lord summoned an army against them: “an assembly” (Lam. 1:15). The irony is deliberate, since this term is used in the OT for God’s calling of “appointed feasts” (cf. Leviticus 23), in which Israel would present its various offerings before the Lord (Lev. 23:37). Now the Lord has called for a festival of the nations in Jerusalem to destroy the choicest of his young men in a kind of “sacrificial meal” (cf. Zeph. 1:7–8). The irony is thick indeed, especially since Lamentations 1:4 indicated that no one comes to the festivals in Zion anymore. Yet when the Lord summoned guests for this “festival of judgment,” the nations came. The image of the winepress does not transition away from the festival image; rather, the treading of the virgin daughter of Zion provides wine for the invited guests. The picture is gruesome: the blood squeezed out of the human bodies will provide the red wine for the feast.42 The reference to the “virgin daughter of Judah” expands the judgment from the capital city to the whole land. What the city of Zion experienced is now for the land of Judah to experience. The addition of the word “virgin” to the previously mentioned “daughter of Zion” (v. 6) adds poignancy to God’s actions. He did this to his virgin daughter! Well may we sympathize, then, with her cry in verse 12: “Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.”

Verse 16 provides Lady Zion’s emphatic response to the Lord’s judgment: she weeps, her eyes (lit., “my eyes, my eyes”) running down with tears. The description recalls sentiments from verse 2, if not exact terminology,43 along with a near identical reason for her inconsolable state: “For a comforter is far from me” (v. 16; cf. v. 2). The freshly worded refrain should not be read as suggesting a glimmer of hope on the speaker’s part, as if she believed that there were a comforter who could refresh her soul, just not one nearby at present. Such a reading is ruled out by the more consistent refrain reappearing in verses 17, 21, that there is none to comfort. Rather, what is new is that she has abandoned all hope of finding a comforter from among her lovers or friends (cf. v. 2). Perhaps this is the beginning of eventually turning back to her covenant Lord. In any case the woman takes on a motherly figure in her sorrow as she considers her situation from the perspective of her children: they are desolate, as are her gates (v. 4). The reason is the same as when she first spoke in verse 9: “for the enemy has prevailed” (v. 16). In the first case the enemy had become “great” (ESV “has triumphed”; v. 9); in the second they have become “strong” (ESV “has prevailed”; v. 16)—but Zion herself has become “faint” (v. 13).

1:17 The narrator intrudes his own commentary between Lady Zion’s two speeches, confirming what Zion said in verses 12–16. He reiterates the lack of a comforter for the tear-soaked city, using an image reminiscent of the adversary’s actions. In verse 10, the enemy “stretched out” his hand on her “precious things”; now Zion stretches out her hands as a sorrowful woman—perhaps to the passersby of verse 12—begging for help but finding none to comfort. The physical gesture is pointless because her enemies, though once her neighbors, have become such by divine ordination. The sovereign activity of God in Zion’s desolation is affirmed again, only this time the covenant name of God returns and remains present to the end of the chapter. The change is theological. If the sovereign Lord has brought the desolation, then the only hope is to turn back to him for comfort—but such comfort may only be found in Yahweh, the covenant Lord. The covenant is the only context in which God will hear his people’s prayer of repentance. But for now Jerusalem’s situation has not changed: she has become a filthy thing among the nations (cf. v. 8).

1:18–22 After a short interlude Zion speaks again in the form of a prayer directed to Yahweh. Lady Zion’s prayer begins with a straightforward admission: the Lord is right, and she is guilty (v. 18). The statement about Yahweh’s righteousness is doubly emphatic (Hb. “The Lord himself is righteous”), affirming that Yahweh’s judgment against Jerusalem has been just. The explanatory clause provides the reason, putting the focus on the Word of God. The Word that Jerusalem and Judah have rebelled against is not specified, though it would most likely entail the covenant exhortations of Moses (Deuteronomy 28), as well as subsequent commands from prophets to king and nation (e.g., 1 Sam. 12:14–15; 1 Kings 2:1–4; 9:4–9). This interpretation is supported by reference to young men and young women going into captivity (cf. Lam. 1:5, 15), a direct allusion to the covenant curses stipulated by Moses (Deut. 28:41). However, observing the literal wording of the text closely (“I have rebelled against his mouth”) suggests that the more immediate Word Jerusalem and Judah have rebelled against is that of her faithful prophets, who served as God’s mouthpieces—men such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, who forewarned Israel and Judah of imminent judgment for their disobedience. The address to all peoples to “hear” and “see” the suffering is an implicit warning that the same judgment will soon be coming their way (cf. Lam. 1:21–22; cf. 3:60–66; 4:21–22; cf. Mic. 1:2). As Amos and Jeremiah predict, the day of the Lord will visit all nations, not only Judah (Amos 1:2–2:16; Jeremiah 46–51).

Lamentations 1:19 restates Zion’s desperate situation, with no one to help her. She called to her lovers, but they deceived her.44 These lovers were her former allies (the surrounding nations, such as Edom and Egypt), whom she believed could deliver her from the Babylonian invasion. But they deceived her, betraying her into the hands of Babylon (e.g., Ps. 137:7; Ezek. 35:5). The term “lovers” is pejorative and speaks to the adulterous nature of Judah’s alliances and associations with other nations (cf. Jer. 22:20, 22; 30:14; Ezek. 16:33, 36, 37; 23:5, 9, 22). If her allies could not help her, perhaps her own leaders, cultic and civil, could—the priests and the elders? But no. They themselves perished in the city as they sought food to revive their languishing bodies (Lam. 1:19). With none to help, outside or inside Judah, Zion is forced to turn to the only person who can help her: Yahweh himself.

Verse 20 commences with the same imperatival address given in verse 11, when the city asked Yahweh to “see and look” at her despised state. Now she makes the same request, only she changes her state to one of “distress.” In so doing, more body parts are employed to convey the anxious turmoil in which she finds herself. Her cheeks not only flow with tears from her eyes, but her “stomach churns” and her “heart is wrung” within her. The stomach here denotes the inner being, while the heart may denote “feelings,” such as sadness or grief.45 The reason for this internal grief is explained by her grievous rebellion. The cause of her distress is not solely her rebellion but also the consequences that follow. Internally, sin is always miserable; externally, it always creates misery—in this case, the misery of death. Whether outside in the street or inside in the home, the great reaper is present. This is the chief end of sin (cf. Rom. 6:23).

Lamentations 1:21 draws together sentiments affirmed earlier, only this time for a different purpose. The main idea conveyed in the verse is that of the nations’ “hearing” (twice) of Jerusalem’s emphatic groaning and trouble and responding accordingly. The word “groaning” has been mentioned three times already (vv. 4, 8, 11), but the word “trouble” appears for the first time and occurs only once more, in verse 22, where it is translated “evildoing.” In response to Jerusalem’s groaning the nations say nothing, and hence the refrain returns here for the seventh and last time: “There is no one to comfort me” (v. 21). In response to the trouble that has befallen her the nations rejoice at God’s hand in it—every single one of them. Given statements made elsewhere (cf. v. 7), the “rejoicing” here by the nations is of a gloating, rather than godly, kind. Indeed, it is this that serves as the basis for the plea of retributive justice: “Now let them be as I am” (v. 21). Such a request creates a tension. While Zion has affirmed Yahweh’s righteous judgment for her rebellion against the mouth of God (v. 18), nevertheless what she suffered in her destruction is still counted as an “evil”—a calamity, as some translations read (e.g., NASB). Indeed, while Zion acknowledges that Yahweh has brought the day of the Lord that he announced through his prophets (v. 12; cf. Isa. 2:12; Amos 5:18; Zeph. 1:14–18), she nevertheless asks for judicial equity for her enemies (Lam. 1:21; 3:60–66; 4:21–22). She has had her day of the Lord, and now she wants the nations to have theirs.

Lamentations 1:22 continues the imprecation begun in verse 21, as it brings the poem to a close. The “trouble” that was Zion’s is given new owners (“their evildoing”), since it came upon Zion by the nations. The retributive justice (lex talionis) is so important that the earnest plea overrides the Hebrew parallelism, traversing across the end of the first bicolon and into the beginning of the second: “And deal with them as you have dealt with me.” Such imprecatory prayers are commonplace in the Psalms (e.g., Psalm 137). The verb “deal” is the same as “inflict” in Lamentations 1:12, which captures the like-for-like justice that Zion is requesting from Yahweh. What she has received from the nations, she now demands that they receive. However, Zion’s acceptance of her own guilt does not dissipate with the request. She continues to admit that Yahweh’s infliction of her is more than justified: he dealt with her because of her own transgressions (v. 22).

The chapter ends with a final mention of Zion’s “groaning,” expressed in the lonely voice of the lady city. The word “many” is emphatic, highlighting that the city’s groaning is not one-dimensional or minimal. The use here matches the same Hebrew word in verse 1 (“full”), forming a lexical inclusio to the whole poem: the city was once “full of people” (v. 1), but now she is full of groaning (v. 22). Reference to her faint heart recalls the feelings of faintness and internal turmoil stated earlier (vv. 13, 20). The parallel lines in the final bicolon form a coherent unit to capture in summary the cumulative experience of the city after her affliction from God: she is full of groaning and faint of heart. However, most importantly, the function of the words in the logic of the verse should not be missed. They provide the reason behind the plea for God to judge the nations: Jerusalem wants the nations to receive retributive justice for their evildoing because (“for”) her groans are many and her heart is faint. In other words, Jerusalem’s affliction may end only when the nations’ affliction begins. Until then, Jerusalem’s groaning and faintness will remain. While the day of the Lord will be a day of judgment for the nations, it will be a day of salvation for Zion and her people—but only because the city has first undergone her own day of judgment.