Lam 1:12-22 | KingComments | STEP | After the lament about Jerusalem in , in the second part of this chapter we hear the lament of Jerusalem ( ). That lament is not directed to the LORD, as in , but to those “who pass this way”, the nations around her who are represented as travelers passing along the roads of ruined Judah ( ). Jeremiah, identifying himself with the city and speaking on her behalf, appeals to the passers-by to see if it does not affect them when they see the misery in which he, the city, finds himself. He urges them to look carefully and consider whether there is any suffering anywhere in the world comparable to the suffering that has been inflicted on her. He adds that he is aware that this suffering is from the LORD and not from the enemies. The LORD has grieved her, but it is because His fierce anger had to come upon the guilty city. The “day of His fierce anger” is the day of the LORD, the day announced as a day of judgment by Him through His prophets. This day will dawn in its fullness in the end time, when the LORD intervenes acting and judgingly in world events for the benefit of the remnant of His people who are suffering terribly, with the end result being the realm of peace. The day of the fall of Jerusalem is connected to the suffering in the end time. Behind this speaking of Jeremiah about the misery in which he and the city find themselves, we also hear the Lord Jesus speaking. He has uniquely been in God’s fierce anger. This was not because of His sins – He did not do or know sin – but because of the sins He took upon Himself of those who believe in Him. He is the true Man of sorrows, Who as no other has felt the unfaithfulness of His people. What makes Him infinitely greater than Jeremiah is that He has removed the deepest cause of this and will bring about a new situation that is completely in accordance with God’s will. In we have three pictures by which judgment is described. The pictures are quite different and show no connection between them. This reinforces the impression of desperation. The first picture is that of a “fire” that penetrates the bones, that is, it goes to the deepest interior and is total. It is the expression of intense, unbearable suffering ( ; ). Jeremiah feels so identified with the destroyed city that he feels in his bones the fire of the judgment that the LORD has sent and that He rules over it. He experiences the LORD as an adversary Who kindled in anger against His people and His city. The second is “a net”. This refers to the suddenness of the judgment. Judgment overwhelmed Jerusalem, just as a wild animal unexpectedly finds itself in a net that a hunter has spread, into which it becomes entangled and from which it cannot free itself (cf. ; ; ). Jeremiah sees before his feet a net by which he is caught. That net has been put there by the LORD (cf. ). Jeremiah feels himself in the power of the hunter who forces him to turn backward. The third picture is that of being “faint” as a result of judgment. He feels the desolation to which he has been given by the LORD. It makes him faint “all day long”, not knowing a moment’s relief from the pains and despair that plague him. Here we hear a man deeply concerned with the suffering that has befallen the city. He has announced that suffering for many years and in many ways ( ), with the purpose that Jerusalem would repent and she would be spared this suffering. Then, when it has come, he does not say reproachfully that he has said it all along anyway and that now she will get her due. No, he grieves deeply over the fulfillment of God’s judgment. The yoke of transgressions weighs heavily on the city, on Jeremiah ( ). On the one hand, the city has woven this yoke itself through her sins. But it is also the LORD Who has done it and is putting it on her neck as a disciplinary measure. Sin pressing down on a man robs him of strength and causes him to stumble. For Jeremiah, the discipline by the enemies comes from “the Lord”, Adonai , his sovereign Lord and Master. He is delivered by Him into the hands of the enemies. The acceptance of this ensures that the discipline has a complete effect. He cannot get up to go his own way. No form of resistance is possible. All freedom of movement is gone.

‏ Lamentations 1:12-22

The LORD Has Done It, For the Sake of Sin

After the lament about Jerusalem in Lam 1:1-11, in the second part of this chapter we hear the lament of Jerusalem (Lam 1:12-22). That lament is not directed to the LORD, as in Lam 1:11, but to those “who pass this way”, the nations around her who are represented as travelers passing along the roads of ruined Judah (Lam 1:12).

Jeremiah, identifying himself with the city and speaking on her behalf, appeals to the passers-by to see if it does not affect them when they see the misery in which he, the city, finds himself. He urges them to look carefully and consider whether there is any suffering anywhere in the world comparable to the suffering that has been inflicted on her. He adds that he is aware that this suffering is from the LORD and not from the enemies. The LORD has grieved her, but it is because His fierce anger had to come upon the guilty city.

The “day of His fierce anger” is the day of the LORD, the day announced as a day of judgment by Him through His prophets. This day will dawn in its fullness in the end time, when the LORD intervenes acting and judgingly in world events for the benefit of the remnant of His people who are suffering terribly, with the end result being the realm of peace. The day of the fall of Jerusalem is connected to the suffering in the end time.

Behind this speaking of Jeremiah about the misery in which he and the city find themselves, we also hear the Lord Jesus speaking. He has uniquely been in God’s fierce anger. This was not because of His sins – He did not do or know sin – but because of the sins He took upon Himself of those who believe in Him. He is the true Man of sorrows, Who as no other has felt the unfaithfulness of His people. What makes Him infinitely greater than Jeremiah is that He has removed the deepest cause of this and will bring about a new situation that is completely in accordance with God’s will.

In Lam 1:13 we have three pictures by which judgment is described. The pictures are quite different and show no connection between them. This reinforces the impression of desperation.

The first picture is that of a “fire” that penetrates the bones, that is, it goes to the deepest interior and is total. It is the expression of intense, unbearable suffering (Psa 102:3; Job 30:30). Jeremiah feels so identified with the destroyed city that he feels in his bones the fire of the judgment that the LORD has sent and that He rules over it. He experiences the LORD as an adversary Who kindled in anger against His people and His city.

The second is “a net”. This refers to the suddenness of the judgment. Judgment overwhelmed Jerusalem, just as a wild animal unexpectedly finds itself in a net that a hunter has spread, into which it becomes entangled and from which it cannot free itself (cf. Psa 10:9; Hos 7:12; Eze 12:13 ; Eze 19:8). Jeremiah sees before his feet a net by which he is caught. That net has been put there by the LORD (cf. Job 19:6). Jeremiah feels himself in the power of the hunter who forces him to turn backward.

The third picture is that of being “faint” as a result of judgment. He feels the desolation to which he has been given by the LORD. It makes him faint “all day long”, not knowing a moment’s relief from the pains and despair that plague him.

Here we hear a man deeply concerned with the suffering that has befallen the city. He has announced that suffering for many years and in many ways (Jer 11:16 ; Jer 15:14 ; Jer 17:4 ; 27 ; Jer 21:10 ; 12 ; 14 ; Jer 22:7 ; Jer 34:2 ; 22 ; Jer 37:8 ; 10 ; Jer 38:23), with the purpose that Jerusalem would repent and she would be spared this suffering. Then, when it has come, he does not say reproachfully that he has said it all along anyway and that now she will get her due. No, he grieves deeply over the fulfillment of God’s judgment.

The yoke of transgressions weighs heavily on the city, on Jeremiah (Lam 1:14). On the one hand, the city has woven this yoke itself through her sins. But it is also the LORD Who has done it and is putting it on her neck as a disciplinary measure. Sin pressing down on a man robs him of strength and causes him to stumble.

For Jeremiah, the discipline by the enemies comes from “the Lord”, Adonai, his sovereign Lord and Master. He is delivered by Him into the hands of the enemies. The acceptance of this ensures that the discipline has a complete effect. He cannot get up to go his own way. No form of resistance is possible. All freedom of movement is gone.

The People of Jerusalem

The strong men of the city are gone. They have been rejected by the Lord (Lam 1:15). Jeremiah, or rather Jeremiah who identifies with Jerusalem, calls them “my strong men”. They have been rejected from the midst of the city. This is based on a decision of God. He has called an appointed time for that. It is a terrible appointed time. It is not an appointed time for the LORD, but for the enemies. The enemies have crushed the strength of the young men. In a picture of a virgin that immediately follows, the daughter of Judah is seen in a wine press being stepped on by the Lord. He judges her.

Wine belongs to a feast. The joy of wine is obtained by the treading of the grapes in the winepress, which is a picture of judgment (Isa 63:3; Joel 3:13; Rev 14:19). There is irony in the used pictures of feast and wine press. They arouse the thought of joy, jubilation, when it is a question of the judgment that has come in all its horror upon Jerusalem, “the virgin daughter of Judah”.

All this misery causes the prophet intense grief and a flood of tears (Lam 1:16). He feels without comfort. The LORD, Who is his only Comforter, is so far away. And if He doesn’t comfort, who will? His sons, who are the children of His people, are appalled at the power of the enemy who can exercise it undisturbed over the city.

In Lam 1:17, Jeremiah is again a spectator. He no longer speaks of ‘I’, but of ‘her’, which is Zion. He sees Zion stretching out her hands to heaven, but having no comforter. Heaven is silent. Throughout this book we hear no answer from God. Jeremiah expresses the certainty that whatever befalls the people is commanded by the LORD. All suffering comes from Him. He has caused the bystanders to become opponents and Jerusalem to find support in no one. She has been given up by the LORD, abandoned, because she has become “an unclean thing”. She owes this to her own unfaithfulness to Him.

Reflection

In these verses Jeremiah or the city speaks again, that is, the faithful remnant (Lam 1:18). They are innocent, but bow their heads under judgment. It is precisely they who complain and bow down. The unbelieving multitude does not complain, but curses and rebels. The remnant makes itself one with the condition of the multitude.

He declares the LORD to be righteous in His dealings with the city (Jer 12:1) and with him, for he also knows himself to be guilty. Here, knowing God and knowing himself go hand in hand. He is no better than the masses. Yet because of his confession he can call the nations to look at his suffering (Lam 1:12). That suffering is that the flower of the nation, “my virgins and my young men”, the hope of the future, has gone into captivity.

The city had put her hope in those who had an intimate relationship with her because of the profit they derived from her, with whom she had made an alliance (Lam 1:19). But she has been deceived by it. In need, they all turned out to fail.

It was sinful to have lovers, for the LORD Himself was her Lover. Moreover, it was sinful to cry out to those lovers in distress instead of to the LORD. The prophet’s need to make himself one with the city is so great here that he takes both the first – the surrounding peoples as lovers – and the second – crying out to those lovers in their distress – for his account.

Even in the city, there is no help from people she first relied on, the priests and the elders. They also thought only of themselves and their own needs. There was no life left in them. They tried to get food in order to thereby “restore their strength”, that is, to revive themselves (Lam 1:11). In doing so, these leaders did not remain alive. They expired and perished.

Prayer

For the third time the cry “see, O LORD” is heard (Lam 1:20; Lam 1:9 ; 11). Now this is no longer to focus attention on the misery or the enemies, but on himself. His spirit is afraid and he is full of turmoil inside. His heart is overturned within him. He is consumed with guilt over his disobedience which he fully acknowledges. Jeremiah is here again the voice of the city. He sees death everywhere. The children, by whom are meant here the inhabitants of the city, have been killed by the sword outside the house. As a result, the house is like dead now.

The enemy is always out to kill our children. He does this especially when they are outside the safe sphere of the home, when they need to be outside, in the world. He has also succeeded in penetrating the safe atmosphere of the homes of believers and sows death and destruction there as well.

The city is aware that the enemy hears her sighs of misery (Lam 1:21). Her groaning is primarily that there is no comforter. The enemies perceive the city’s calamity and rejoice in it. They see that the hand of the LORD has smitten His people. The judgment that was to strike the people from the hand of enemies came from the hand of the LORD. That is what the enemies are saying here.

The people acknowledge that the LORD is indeed the Executor of judgment. He has caused the day to come that He has announced (Jer 4:9 ; Jer 7:32-34 ; Jer 17:16-18). The people also say that this judgment will also come on the enemies because of their wickedness. The enemies have carried out God’s judgment, but they have done it in a wicked, selfish way and therefore the LORD will judge them as well.

Jeremiah reminds the LORD of all the evil that the enemies have done to him, that is the city of Jerusalem (Lam 1:22). For this he asks the LORD that He will justly repay them in the same way that the LORD has done to him because of all his transgressions (cf. Jer 51:35). He is able to ask this because numerous sighs are uttered by him, indicating that he is bowing deeply under the discipline that has come upon him. His heart is thereby exhausted and deeply depressed. He no longer boasts of anything.