Book of Lamentations - Introduction

Lamentations Chapter 1 portrays Jerusalem as a desolate widow, overwhelmed by the afflictions and captivity brought on by her sins. This poetic lament mourns the city's once bustling streets now silent, her people taken into exile, and her sacred temple desecrated. The chapter is structured as an acrostic poem, adding a layer of artistic complexity to the profound grief expressed. It vividly describes Jerusalem's former splendor contrasted with her current desolation, portraying her as a queen brought down to servitude. The chapter emphasizes that her downfall is a result of her own transgressions and the abandonment of her allies, culminating in a desperate plea for the Lord's attention to her sorrowful state.

Verses from Lamentations Chapter 1 (KJV):

1. How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
2. She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
3. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
4. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
5. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
9. Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
10. The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
11. All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile.
12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fail; the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.
15. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.
16. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
17. Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.
18. The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
19. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
20. Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
21. They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
22. Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

-Lamentations Chapter 3 shifts from communal grief to a deeply personal lament, with the poet expressing his own anguish and suffering. Despite his affliction, he reflects on God’s unfailing compassion and faithfulness, offering hope amid despair. This chapter stands out for its emphasis on God’s mercy and the promise of restoration, even in the midst of judgment and sorrow. The poet encourages turning to God in repentance and prayer, trusting in His ultimate goodness.

Lamentations 3:41, where the people are encouraged to lift up their hearts and hands to God in prayer: “Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens.” This verse embodies a call to surrender and heartfelt devotion, as the people seek God’s mercy and guidance in times 

1. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
2. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
5. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
6. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
7. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
8. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
9. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
10. He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
11. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
12. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
13. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
14. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
15. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
16. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
17. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:
18. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
19. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
20. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
21. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
22. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
23. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
24. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
25. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
26. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
27. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
28. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
29. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
30. For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
31. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
32. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
33. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
34. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
35. To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
36. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
37. Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
38. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
39. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
40. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
41. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
42. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
43. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
44. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
45. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
46. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
47. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
48. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
49. Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.
50. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
51. Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
52. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
53. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
54. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
55. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
56. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
57. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
58. O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
59. Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
60. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me;
61. The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
62. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
63. Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
64. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
65. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.
66. 
    

Lamentations Chapter 5 serves as a communal prayer, crying out to God for mercy and restoration. The chapter reflects on the suffering and humiliation of the people, who have lost their land, freedom, and dignity due to their sins. The poet appeals to God’s compassion, acknowledging their guilt and asking Him to remember their plight. It ends on a somber yet hopeful note, trusting in God’s eternal reign but pleading for His intervention to restore His people.

1. Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4. We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5. Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7. Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
9. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10. Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12. Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13. They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.
15. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17. For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19. Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21. Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

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En aibibleimagemuseum7.com, capturamos los momentos más especiales de tu vida. Nuestro equipo de fotógrafos profesionales está dedicado a ofrecerte imágenes de alta calidad que cuentan una historia. Ya sea una boda, un cumpleaños, o una sesión familiar, estamos aquí para hacer que cada instante sea inolvidable. Con un enfoque creativo y atención al detalle, transformamos tus recuerdos en arte visual. Descubre cómo podemos ayudarte a preservar tus momentos más preciados.

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