# Lamentations of Jeremiah # 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! ²She 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. ³Judah 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. ⁴The 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. ⁵Her 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. ⁶And 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. ⁷In 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. ⁸Jerusalem 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. ⁹Her 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!” ¹⁰The 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. ¹¹All 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.” ¹⁷Zion 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 ¹I *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 ²He 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 ³Surely 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 ⁴He 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 ⁵He has besieged me And surrounded *me* with bitterness and woe. - Christ - He accepted bitterness ⁶He 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 ⁷He 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 ⁸Even 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! ⁹He 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 ¹⁰He *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 ¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate. ¹²He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow. ¹³He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins. ¹⁴I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day. ¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood. ¹⁶He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes. ¹⁷You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity. ¹⁸And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.” ¹⁹Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. ²⁰My soul still remembers And sinks within me. ²¹This 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!” ²⁵The 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. ²⁸Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because *God* has laid *it* on him; ²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope. ³⁰Let him give *his* cheek to the one who strikes him, *And* be full of reproach. ³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever. ³²Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies. ³³For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men. ³⁴To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth, ³⁵To turn aside the justice *due* a man Before the face of the Most High, ³⁶Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve. ³⁷Who *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? ³⁹Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? ⁴⁰Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; ⁴¹Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven. ⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned. ⁴³You have covered *Yourself* with anger And pursued us; You have slain *and* not pitied. ⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through. ⁴⁵You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples. ⁴⁶All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us. ⁴⁷Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction. ⁴⁸My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people. ⁴⁹My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption, ⁵⁰Till the Lord from heaven Looks down and sees. ⁵¹My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city. ⁵²My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird. ⁵³They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me. ⁵⁴The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!” ⁵⁵I called on Your name, O Lord, From the lowest pit. ⁵⁶You have heard my voice: “Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help.” ⁵⁷You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!” ⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life. ⁵⁹O Lord, You have seen *how* I am wronged; Judge my case. ⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me. ⁶¹You have heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me, ⁶²The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day. ⁶³Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I *am* their taunting song. ⁶⁴Repay them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands. ⁶⁵Give them a veiled heart; Your curse *be* upon them! ⁶⁶In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord.