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1. Jerusalem's Misery

¹ This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.How deserted lies the city,
   once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
   who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
   has now become a slave.

    ² Bitterly she weeps at night,
   tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
   there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
   they have become her enemies.

    ³ After affliction and harsh labor,
   Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
   she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
   in the midst of her distress.

    ⁴ The roads to Zion mourn,
   for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
   her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
   and she is in bitter anguish.

    ⁵ Her foes have become her masters;
   her enemies are at ease.
The LORD has brought her grief
   because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
   captive before the foe.

    ⁶ All the splendor has departed
   from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
   that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
   before the pursuer.

    ⁷ In the days of her affliction and wandering
   Jerusalem remembers all the treasures
   that were hers in days of old.
When her people fell into enemy hands,
   there was no one to help her.
Her enemies looked at her
   and laughed at her destruction.

    ⁸ Jerusalem has sinned greatly
   and so has become unclean.
All who honored her despise her,
   for they have all seen her naked;
she herself groans
   and turns away.

    ⁹ Her filthiness clung to her skirts;
   she did not consider her future.
Her fall was astounding;
   there was none to comfort her.
“Look, LORD, on my affliction,
   for the enemy has triumphed.”

    ¹⁰ The enemy laid hands
   on all her treasures;
she saw pagan nations
   enter her sanctuary—
those you had forbidden
   to enter your assembly.

    ¹¹ All her people groan
   as they search for bread;
they barter their treasures for food
   to keep themselves alive.
“Look, LORD, and consider,
   for I am despised.”

    ¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
   Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
   that was inflicted on me,
that the LORD brought on me
   in the day of his fierce anger?

    ¹³ “From on high he sent fire,
   sent it down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
   and turned me back.
He made me desolate,
   faint all the day long.

    ¹⁴ “My sins have been bound into a yoke Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint He kept watch over my sins;
   by his hands they were woven together.
They have been hung on my neck,
   and the Lord has sapped my strength.
He has given me into the hands
   of those I cannot withstand.

    ¹⁵ “The Lord has rejected
   all the warriors in my midst;
he has summoned an army against me
   to Or has set a time for me / when he will crush my young men.
In his winepress the Lord has trampled
   Virgin Daughter Judah.

    ¹⁶ “This is why I weep
   and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me,
   no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute
   because the enemy has prevailed.”

    ¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,
   but there is no one to comfort her.
The LORD has decreed for Jacob
   that his neighbors become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
   an unclean thing among them.

    ¹⁸ “The LORD is righteous,
   yet I rebelled against his command.
Listen, all you peoples;
   look on my suffering.
My young men and young women
   have gone into exile.

    ¹⁹ “I called to my allies
   but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders
   perished in the city
while they searched for food
   to keep themselves alive.

    ²⁰ “See, LORD, how distressed I am!
   I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
   for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
   inside, there is only death.

    ²¹ “People have heard my groaning,
   but there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my distress;
   they rejoice at what you have done.
May you bring the day you have announced
   so they may become like me.

    ²² “Let all their wickedness come before you;
   deal with them
as you have dealt with me
   because of all my sins.
My groans are many
   and my heart is faint.”

Jeremiah refers here to another cause of sorrow, that the worship of God had ceased, it having been interrupted; nay, it seemed to have become extinct for ever. He then says that the ways of Sion mourned, because none came to the feasts. The words are figurative, for we know that feelings belong not to ways; but the Prophet ascribes feeling to what is inanimate. And this sort of personification is more emphatical than if he had introduced the people as mourning. But when the Jews saw that God’s worship had fallen, it was more grievous than to find themselves bereaved of children or of wives, or plundered of all their goods; for the more precious God’s worship was to them, and the more religion was thought of, in which consisted the eternal salvation of their souls, the more severe and mournful was it to see the Church, so scattered, that God could no longer be worshipped and invoked.

It is indeed true that God’s worship was not tied to ceremonies; for Daniel never ceased to pray, and he was heard no less in his exile than if he came to the sacrifices with great solemnity to make an offering in the Temple. This is no doubt true; but as God had not in vain instituted these duties and rites of religion, the Prophet exhibits the thing itself by its symbols. As, then, feasts were testimonies of God’s grace, it was the same as though the Jews were called together by a standard being lifted up, and as though God appeared in the midst of them. Hence the Prophet, referring to these external symbols, shews that the worship of God had in a manner ceased.

Her gates are solitary, or desolate; her priests are in mourning, her virgins in afflictions; she is in bitterness. ¹²⁵¹²⁵     Participles are used throughout this verse, which express the present state of things, —
   The ways of Sion are mourning, for none are coming to the feasts;
All her gates are made desolate, her priests are sighing;
Her virgins are afflicted, and she, bitterness is to her.
    — Ed. Now this passage reminds us, that when God afflicts his Church, however grievous it may be to see innocent men slain, blood shed promiscuously, the sexes, men and women, killed indiscriminately; and though it be a sad spectacle to see houses robbed and plundered, fields laid waste, and al! things in a confusion, yet when all these things are compared with the abolition of God’s worship, this passage reminds us that all these things ought to appear light to us. Though David greatly deplored his condition, because he was banished from the Temple, and did not as usual lead thither the assembly, when he was not the only one ejected from the sanctuary of God; yet when the sanctuary itself was destroyed, together with the altar, when there were no sacrifices, no thanksgiving, no praises; in short, no prayer, it was surely much more bitter.

This lamentation of the Prophet ought then to be carefully noticed, when he says, that the ways of Sion mourned, that no one went up to the feasts. What follows I pass over; I shall hereafter dwell more on these things when we advance towards the end of the narrative.