CHAPTER 1
1. How solitary sits the city [that was so] full of people! She has become like a widow! She who was great [among the] nations, my princess among the provinces, has turned into a forced laborer! 
(S)
(S)Forced laborer: serf, or one who pays tribute.
2. She weeps bitterly at night with her tears on her cheeks; among all who love her she has no one to comfort her. All of her friends have dealt treacherously with her and become her enemies!
Despite his knowledge that YHWH’s judgment had to come on His people and that it was for a limited, albeit long, time, ponder the emotional impact this would have on a spokesman for YHWH: His visible dwelling place is no longer intact! The “place where He has set His name” is in ruins! The showcase of His holiness seems to have been conquered by a pagan ruler, which, in people’s minds, meant that pagan ruler’s elohim was/were greater than that of the conquered nation’s Elohim.
3. Yehudah has gone into exile because of [the] agony; more than [just] harsh servitude, she dwells among the Gentiles. She finds no rest; her pursuers overtook her between the straits.
Exile: or captivity, but the term really means being removed or uncovered. Straits: without the vowels points, it is spelled just like “Mitzrayim” (Egypt), one of the false hopes on which Yehudah had relied rather than turning back to YHWH.
4. The roads to Tzion mourn, because no one comes to the Appointments; all her gates are desolate. Her priests groan; her virgins are tormented, and she is greatly distressed for this.
Appointments: YHWH’s prescribed festivals.
5. Her oppressors have become the head; her enemies find it easy to succeed, because YHWH is [the One who has] afflicted because of the tremendous number of her transgressions. Infant children have gone into captivity before an oppressor!
Transgressions: crossings of a line, trespasses, going beyond the boundaries He set.
6. All her splendor has departed from the daughter of Tzion; her princes have become like deer who find no place to graze. They have walked with no strength in front of a pursuer.
Daughter of Tzion: one of the hills or suburbs surrounding Yerushalayim, probably the actual Temple Mount. Walked: unable to run, they are an easy target.
7. In the days of her misery and her homeless wandering, Yerushalayim remembered all her precious things, which she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of an oppressor, and there was no one to help her, oppressors saw [it]; they laughed over her ceasing [to exist].
8. Yerushalayim has grievously sinner; that is why she has been rendered off-limits. All who [once] honored her [now] despise her because they have seen her nakedness. Even she herself sighs and turns her back.
9. There is contamination on her skirts; she cannot remember her last [condition], and she came down astonishingly; she had no one to bring comfort. Oh, YHWH! Look on my affliction, because an enemy has become huge!
Yeshua may be alluding to this when he tells the congregation at Efesos, “Remember from where you have fallen, and repent!” (Rev. 2:5)
More coming soon.
THE
Lamentations
OF YIRMEYAHU
INTRODUCTION: This book of the heart-felt anguish of one of YHWH’s most prolific prophets is traditionally read on the 9th of Av, the day both Temples were destroyed (656 years apart) because it speaks firsthand of the first such occasion, which the author himself witnessed.
