Lamentations of Jeremiah

• Chapter 1
• Introduction
• Chapter 3

Chapter 1

Jerusalem in Affliction

¹ How lonely sits the city
That was full of people!
How like a widow is she,
Who was great among the nations!
The princess among the provinces
Has become a slave!

² She weeps bitterly in the night,
Her tears are on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers
She has none to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
They have become her enemies.

³ Judah has gone into captivity,
Under affliction and hard servitude;
She dwells among the nations,
She finds no rest;
All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

⁴ The roads to Zion mourn
Because no one comes to the set feasts.
All her gates are desolate;
Her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted,
And she is in bitterness.

⁵ Her adversaries have become the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

⁶ And from the daughter of Zion
All her splendor has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
That find no pasture,
That flee without strength
Before the pursuer.

⁷ In the days of her affliction and roaming,
Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things
That she had in the days of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the enemy,
With no one to help her,
The adversaries saw her
And mocked at her downfall.

⁸ Jerusalem has sinned gravely,
Therefore she has become vile.
All who honored her despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Yes, she sighs and turns away.

⁹ Her uncleanness is in her skirts;
She did not consider her destiny;
Therefore her collapse was awesome;
She had no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
For the enemy is exalted!”

¹⁰ The adversary has spread his hand
Over all her pleasant things;
For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded
Not to enter Your assembly.

¹¹ All her people sigh,
They seek bread;
They have given their valuables for food to restore life.
“See, O Lord, and consider,
For I am scorned.”

¹² “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Behold and see
If there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which has been brought on me,
Which the Lord has inflicted
In the day of His fierce anger.

¹³ “From above He has sent fire into my bones,
And it overpowered them;
He has spread a net for my feet
And turned me back;
He has made me desolate
And faint all the day.

¹⁴ “The yoke of my transgressions was bound;
They were woven together by His hands,
And thrust upon my neck.
He made my strength fail;
The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

¹⁵ “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst;
He has called an assembly against me
To crush my young men;
The Lord trampled as in a winepress
The virgin daughter of Judah.

¹⁶ “For these things I weep;
My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life,
Is far from me.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy prevailed.”

¹⁷ Zion spreads out her hands,
But no one comforts her;
The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob
That those around him become his adversaries;
Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

¹⁸ “The Lord is righteous,
For I rebelled against His commandment.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my sorrow;
My virgins and my young men
Have gone into captivity.

¹⁹ “I called for my lovers,
But they deceived me;
My priests and my elders
Breathed their last in the city,
While they sought food
To restore their life.

²⁰ “See, O Lord, that I am in distress;
My soul is troubled;
My heart is overturned within me,
For I have been very rebellious.
Outside the sword bereaves,
At home it is like death.

²¹ “They have heard that I sigh,
But no one comforts me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
They are glad that You have done it.
Bring on the day You have announced,
That they may become like me.

²² “Let all their wickedness come before You,
And do to them as You have done to me
For all my transgressions;
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is faint.”

Introduction

Author: Jeremiah the Prophet

• Jeremiah started his service as a youth from a priestly family
• God invited him to prophesy but he was worried 
• Israel had already been made captive to Assyria
  • Jeremiah's prophecies were about "repent so it doesn't happen to you too!"
  • It was revealed to Jeremiah that the Southern Kingdom of Judah would be taken captive by Babylon
• Many kings and the people heard his prophecies, but did not take it seriously.
• Babylonian Captivity
  • Came in several waves
  • In the time of King Zedekiah, they came and seized Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, plundered the gold and the vessels and anything of value in the Temple; and they took captives
  • Jeremiah witnessed all of those things
• Weeping Prophet
  • Prophesied for 40 years before the captivity, and lamented, so he received the nickname "Weeping Prophet"
    
• After the Captivity, some Judean leaders wanted to flee to Egypt and God forbade it by Jeremiah's voice (Jeremiah 43)
  • So they took him and forced him to go to Egypt with them
  • There, he preached that they will be punished
• Tradition tells us that Jeremiah died in Egypt
• Date of Authorship: After witnessing the captivity of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple

Introduction to Lamentations

• The Church arranges for us to read this on the 12th hour of Friday in a mournful tune, because not only did they kill prophets... they killed the Messiah.

Chapter 3

¹ I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

• Jeremiah
  • Even though the Jews tormented him, his family tormented him, the kings wronged him, he was beaten, he was humiliated, he was imprisoned, in the end he says "affliction came upon me with the rod of God's wrath."
  • He doesn't blame the affliction on anyone, doesn't get upset... I am seeing what God permitted to happen to me for my sake - for my good, for my growth, for my adjustment.
• Christ
  • "Surely He has borne our griefs
    And carried our sorrows;
    Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
    Smitten by God, and afflicted.
    But He was wounded for our transgressions,
    He was bruised for our iniquities;
    The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
    And by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)
  • It is an affliction of love - an affliction of the gladness of salvation
• Me
  • To accept something from God's hand, there is surrender involved - surrendering my heart that wants to hate, into the hand of the Lord with the knowledge that this is all part of His plan for me

² He has led me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.

• Jeremiah
  • Jeremiah had a dark life prophesying to Judah... Mud, prison, tears, broken stones
• Christ
  • Christ - the Light of the World - entered into the darkness of Hades to plunder it of the righteous
• Me

³ Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.

• Jeremiah
  • Usually when someone goes through something difficult, they are waiting for it to pass... but with Jeremiah, time and time again throughout the day, problem after problem; hardship after hardship; affliction after affliction; pain after pain.
• Christ
  • This statement of course applies to the Lord Christ - the entire week of Holy Week and especially the last 24 hours are just suffering, pain, the Cross, etc. until the last breath.
  • It would seem to the outsider looking in that Christ was forsaken by God

⁴ He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.

• This is symbolic because Jeremiah's bones were not broken neither was his flesh or skin peeled 
• This is what Christ felt on the cross and this is what Jeremiah felt

⁵ He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

• Christ
  • He accepted bitterness

⁶ He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.

• Jeremiah
  • Hades was known that before the Cross, anyone who died would go there - Paradise was not open yet; it is a dark place
  • And the righteous were there doing what? Waiting for the Lord to come and save them; having the Promise of forgiveness and the promise of eternal life, they were waiting in hope.
  • Jeremiah because of the overwhelming sadness, he feels as if he is in Hades - because he is still on earth but he is just waiting on the Promise of life; waiting in hope for the Lord.
• Christ
  • His body in the tomb now - like the dead
  • His soul is in Hades now - like the dead - except His soul is in Hades to conquer death; to free the righteous from it and take them to Paradise

⁷ He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.

• Jeremiah
• Christ
  • He is in a tomb! With a large stone sealing the door of the tomb! 
  • The chain is the binding to Hades - the devil assumes that the Lord is bound like the rest of mankind, but he could not perceive that the Lord was going there of His own will to liberate us

⁸ Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.

• Jeremiah
• Christ
  • On the Cross, when He cried out in prayer to the Father, He was scoffed by the crucifiers... they said "He is calling to Elijah... let Him save Him now"
• Me
  • We feel this sometimes... here is a prophet - a man of God - who feels this!

⁹ He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

• Christ
  • Again, the evil one assumes that now the path to salvation is thwarted! All the paths are without escape

¹⁰ He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.

• Christ
• Me
  • As if God has become an enemy to me

¹¹ He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
¹² He has bent His bow
And set me up as a target for the arrow.

¹³ He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.
¹⁴ I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.

¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And covered me with ashes.
¹⁷ You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
¹⁸ And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the Lord.”

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.
²⁰ My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.
²¹ This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

²² Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
²⁶ It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

²⁸ Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
³⁰ Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.

³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever.
³² Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
³³ For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

³⁴ To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵ To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
³⁶ Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.

³⁷ Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?
³⁹ Why should a living man complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰ Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
⁴¹ Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.
⁴² We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.

⁴³ You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.
⁴⁴ You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.
⁴⁵ You have made us an offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶ All our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.
⁴⁷ Fear and a snare have come upon us,
Desolation and destruction.
⁴⁸ My eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,
⁵⁰ Till the Lord from heaven
Looks down and sees.
⁵¹ My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

⁵² My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird.
⁵³ They silenced my life in the pit
And threw stones at me.
⁵⁴ The waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”

⁵⁵ I called on Your name, O Lord,
From the lowest pit.
⁵⁶ You have heard my voice:
“Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
⁵⁷ You drew near on the day I called on You,
And said, “Do not fear!”

⁵⁸ O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul;
You have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged;
Judge my case.
⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

⁶¹ You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
All their schemes against me,
⁶² The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.
⁶³ Look at their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.

⁶⁴ Repay them, O Lord,
According to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵ Give them a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!
⁶⁶ In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
From under the heavens of the Lord.