LAMENTATIONS
“To Cry Aloud”
By Jeremiah
In the Hebrew Bible these Elegies of Jeremiah, five in number, are placed among the Chetuvim, or "Holy Writings" ("the Psalms," &c., Luke 24:44 of compositions it belongs to the Chetuvim, it probably followed the prophecies of Jeremiah originally. For thus alone can we account for the prophetical books being enumerated by JOSEPHUS [Against Apion, 1.1.8] as thirteen: he must have reckoned Jeremiah and Lamentations as one book, as also Judges and Ruth, the two books of Samuel, &c., Ezra and Nehemiah. The Lamentations naturally follow the book which sets forth the circumstances forming the subject of the Elegies. Similar lamentations occur in 2 Samuel 1:19 The Jews read it in their synagogues on the ninth of the month Ab, which is a fast for the destruction of their holy city. As in 2 Chronicles 35:25 "lamentations" are said to have been "written" by Jeremiah on the death of Josiah.
In the first three Elegies the stanzas consist of triplets of lines (excepting Lamentations 1:7 ; 2:19 each beginning with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in regular order (twenty-two in number). In three instances ( Lamentations 2:16 Lamentations 2:17 ; 3:46-51 ; Lamentations 4:16 Lamentations 4:17 third Elegy, each line of the three forming every stanza begins with the same letter. The stanzas in the fourth and fifth Elegies consist of two lines each. The fifth Elegy, though having twenty-two stanzas (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet), just as the first four, yet is not alphabetical; and its lines are shorter than those of the others, which are longer than are found in other Hebrew poems, and contain twelve syllables, marked by a cæsura about the middle, dividing them into two somewhat unequal parts. The alphabetical arrangement was adopted originally to assist the memory.
(Jamieson)
The book does not name the author, but traditions names Jeremiah. The Greek translation says it is Jeremiah and I am going with this here. (585 BC).
The Writings-Lamentations 1
Aleph-Tau Each verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew Alphabet:
1 How is she (the city of Jerusalem) that was great among the nations just to become as a widow! (how) she who was princess among the provinces.
2 She cries bitterly at night with tears running down her cheeks. Out of all those who love the city, no one offers comfort to her. All of her friends have betrayed it and become its enemies.
3 Judah (the Jews) has been led away into captivity, stricken and enslaved. She lives among aliens and has no place of rest. Her enemies have chased her down, and she has nowhere to turn.
This happened in Jeremiah's day – but may again foreshadow WWII and even the End Times.
4 The roads to Zion mourn Because no one comes to her appointed annual feasts. No one passes through any of its gates. Her priest cry aloud. Her young women are raped. She is bitter.
5 Her adversaries have become the master, Her enemies prosper; For the LORD (Jesus) has afflicted her Because of the multitude of her sins. Her children have gone into captivity and taken away to distant lands by their enemies.
6 All the beauty and majesty of Jerusalem (or the church of God) are gone. Her princes are like starving deer searching for pasture, too weak to run from the pursuing enemy.
7 And now in the midst of her sadness and wandering, Jerusalem remembers her ancient splendor. But then she fell to her enemy, and there was no one to help her. Her enemies saw her and mocked at her downfall.
8 Jerusalem has sinned immensely. Everyone who used to honor her, despises her! They've seen her nakedness. She groans and hides her face.
9 Her uncleanness is in her clothing; She did not consider her destiny; So her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. "O LORD (Jesus), behold my affliction, For the enemy is so happy!"
10 Her enemy has plundered her totally, taking everything that she owns. She has seen aliens violate her sanctuary (The Temple), the place the LORD (Jesus) had forbidden them to enter.
11 All the people are groaning, begging for food. They trade their wealth for food to keep themselves alive. 'O LORD (Jesus), look and see how despised I am!'"
12 “Is it nothing to you, all you gawkers? Look around and see if there is any suffering like mine, which the LORD (Jesus) brought on me in the day of his fierce anger.”
“Her-she” is now “I – my – me - mine.”
13 “He sent fire from above. He made it go deep into my bones. He spread a net for my feet. He made me turn back. He has left me devastated. He has made me sick all day long.”
14 “My sinful acts are upon me. The LORD (Jesus) sapped my strength and gave me to my enemies; I am helpless in their hands.”
15 “The Lord (Adonay or “The Almighty”) has treated all the warriors inside my [walls] with contempt. He called an army to defeat my young men. The LORD (Jesus) trampled the people of Judah in a winepress.”
16 “I'm crying because of [all] these things. My eyes--my eyes flow with tears. No one is here to comfort me; any who might encourage me are far away. My children have no future, for the enemy has conquered us.”
17 Zion (Jerusalem) holds out her hands. No one offers to comfort her. The LORD (Jesus) has given this order about Jacob (England and America): His own neighbors will become his opponents. Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.
This is definitely an END TIME look. America's own neighbors are her enemies. The same applies to England and the EU.
18 “The LORD (Jesus) is right in what he did to me, because I rebelled against his Commandments (Law). Please listen, all you people, and look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.”
19 “I called for those who love me, but they betrayed me. My priests and leaders died in the city, looking for food to keep themselves alive.
20 “O LORD, see the pain I'm in! My stomach is churning. My heart is exploding because I've been rebellious. In the streets swords kill my children. Inside the houses it's like death.
21 “All my enemies have heard that I am groaning in pain. No one wants to comfort me. All my enemies have heard about my calamity. They are happy that you did it. You have allowed the day to come, the one that you had announced. Let my enemies be like me now.
22 Recall all of their wickedness. Then deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my sinful acts. I groan so much and feel destroyed.”
Writings-Lamentations 2
Aleph-Tau Each verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew Alphabet (22 letters-verses):
1 The LORD (Jesus) has covered His people of Zion (the church) with the cloud of his anger! He has thrown Israel (America) away from heaven to the earth- And didn't remember His footstool on the day of His anger.
End Times
2 The LORD (Jesus) swallowed up all of the pastures of Jacob (America/Great Britain)without any pity. He tore down the fortified cities of Judah in His anger. He brought them and her leaders down to the ground in dishonor.
3 In His burning anger, He cut off all of the strength of Israel (America/Great Britain). He withdrew his right hand when they faced their enemy. He burned in anger like a raging fire in Jacob, destroying everything around them.
4 Like an enemy he bent his bow. Like an opponent his right hand held the arrow steady. He killed all the beautiful people. He poured out his fury like fire on the tabernacle of Zion's (the churchs') members.
5 The LORD (Jesus) became their enemy. He swallowed up the land of Israel (America) . He swallowed up all of her federal buildings and forts. He made the people of Judah mourn and cry out in grief.
6 He stripped his own Tabernacle as if it were a garden and destroyed His own Annual Feast Days (Sabbaths). The LORD (Jesus) wiped out the memory of Feasts and Sabbaths in Zion (her churches). He expelled politicians and priests because of His fierce anger.
God allowed his Sabbaths and Feasts days to be polluted and turns against them in the End Days. This does not mean that God does not want us to follow these days (as we know they are coming back) it is because of the churches uncleanliness that God does this.
7 The LORD (Jesus) rejected his own altar and disowned His Holy Place (Temple) . He handed the walls of the churches palaces over to her enemies. They have made a noise in the house (the Church) of the LORD (Jesus) As on the day of a set annual feast day.
8 The LORD (Jesus) planned to destroy this false church. He marked it off with a line. He didn't take his hand away until he had swallowed it up. He made the towers and walls mourn. They are completely rejected.
9 The gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and shattered its bars. Its king and influential people are [scattered] among the gentile nations. The Law has been abolished by the people! Its prophets can find no visions from the LORD (Jesus).
10 The respected leaders of the church sit silently on the ground. They throw dirt on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out with tears. My stomach aches. My heart is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people. Little children and infants faint in the city streets.
12 They're asking their mothers for some bread and wine as they faint like wounded people in the city streets. Their lives dwindle away in their mothers' arms.
13 How shall I console you? To what shall I compare you too? O My daughter – Jerusalem! Oh that I may comfort you again, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
FALSE PROPHETS and MINISTERS:
14 Your prophets have seen for you False and deceptive visions; They have not told you of your sins, They gave you false prophecies that misled you.
The ministers have not given the church what sin is. The breaking of the Law, because modern Christianity is against God's Laws and teach they have been abolished by Christ on the Cross. So here, God calls them to task for lying and misleading His flock.
15 All who pass by taunt you. They hiss and shake their heads at all the people of Jerusalem and say: 'Is this the city they used to call absolutely beautiful, the joy of the whole world?'
16 All your enemies gawk at you. They hiss and grit their teeth. They say, 'We've swallowed it up. Yes, this is the day we've been waiting for. At last we have seen it!'
17 The LORD (Jesus) has accomplished what he had planned to do. He carried out the threat he announced long ago. He tore you down without any pity, His city. He made your enemies gloat over you. He raised the weapons of your opponents.
18 The hearts of Jerusalem's people cried out to the LORD (Jesus), the wall of Zion's people. Let your tears run down like a river day and night. Don't let them stop. Don't let your eyes rest.
19 Get up! Cry out at night, every hour on the hour. Pour your heart out like water in the presence of the LORD (Jesus). Pray to Him! Yes, pray for the life of your little children who faint from hunger at every street corner.
20 O LORD (Jesus), consider this: Have you ever treated anyone else like us? Should women eat their own children, the children they have nursed? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord's Temple?
21 Young and old lie on the ground in the streets. My young women and men are cut down by weapons. You killed them on the day of your anger. You slaughtered them without any pity.
22 You have invited those who terrorize me on every side, as though they were invited to a Feast Day. No one escaped or survived on the day of the LORD's (Jesus') anger. My enemy has murdered the children I nursed and raised.
Writings-Lamentations 3
Jeremiah's Lament:
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has brought me into deep darkness, shutting out all light.
3 He has turned against me. Day and night his hand is against me.
4 He has made me grow old. He has broken my bones.
5 He has attacked me and surrounded me with anguish and distress.
6 He has buried me in a dark place, like a person long dead.
7 He has hedged me in, so I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains.
8 Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my path with a high stone wall. He has twisted the path before me with many detours.
10 He hid like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me.
11 He dragged me off the path and tore me with His claws, leaving me helpless and desolate.
12 He bent his bow and aimed it right at me.
13 He shot His arrows into my chest.
14 My own people mock me. All day long they sing their taunting songs.
15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has given me a cup of deep sorrow to drink.
16 He has also broken my teeth, and covered me with ashes.
17 Peace has been removed from the land, and I have forgotten what 'good times' and prosperity are.
18 I cry aloud, "My hope is gone! Everything I had prayed for from the LORD (Jesus) is lost!"
19 Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul still remembers And sinks within me.
21 Yet I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope:
22 The unfailing love of the LORD (Jesus) never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction.
23 It is new every morning. His faithfulness is great.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD (Jesus) is my hope; therefore, I will hope in Him!"
25 The LORD (Jesus) is wonderfully good to those who depend upon Him and seek Him.
26 So it is good to wait patiently for salvation from the LORD (Jesus).
27 It's good for the young to endure their burdens when they're young.
28 Let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD (Jesus)'s burdens.
29 Let them lie face down in the dust; then there may yet be hope.
30 Let him turn the other cheek to those who strike him. Let him accept the insults of his enemies.
31 For the LORD (Jesus) will not reject His people forever.
32 Even if He makes us suffer, He will have compassion in His mercy.
33 For He does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.
34 But the leaders of his people trampled prisoners underfoot.
35 They deny people their rights in the presence of the Most High,
36 or perverted justice in the courts. Do they think the LORD (Jesus) is blind?
37 Can anything happen without the LORD (Jesus) ordering it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
39 Then why should we complain when we are punished for our sins?
40 Instead, let us examine our ways. Let us turn again in repentance to the LORD (Jesus).
41 Let us lift our hearts and hands to God (The Godhead-Elohim) in heaven.
42 "We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.
43 "You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down, and slaughtered us without mercy.
44 You have hidden yourself in a cloud so our prayers cannot reach you.
45 You have discarded us as refuse and garbage among the nations.
46 "All our enemies have spoken out against us.
47 We are filled with fear, for we are trapped, desolate, and ruined."
48 My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My tears flow down endlessly. They will not stop
50 til the LORD (Jesus) looks down from heaven and sees.
51 My heart is breaking over the fate of all the daughters in my city.
52 My enemies, without cause, chased me like a bird.
53 They threw me into a pit and threw stones on me.
54 The water flowed above my head, and I cried out, "It is finished!"
What Jesus said on the cross
55 But I called on your name, LORD (Jesus), from deep within the pit,
56 and you heard me! You listened to my pleading; you heard my weeping!
57 Yes, you came at my despairing cry and told me, "Do not fear."
58 LORD (Jesus), my defender! Plead my case! For you have redeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong they have done to me, LORD (Jesus). Judge my case.
60 You have seen the plots my enemies have laid against me.
61 Listen to their insults, all their plots against me.
62 The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.
63 Look at them! In all their activities, they constantly taunt me with their songs.
64 Pay them back, LORD (Jesus), for all the evil they have done.
65 Make them stubborn, and then let your curse fall upon them!
66 Chase them down in your anger, destroying them from beneath the LORD (Jesus)'s heavens.
Writings-Lamentations 4
THE SAD CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM
1 How the gold has lost its luster! The fine gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered At the head of every street.
2 See how the precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in gold, are now treated like pots of clay.
3 Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the women of my people are as cruel as wild ostriches.
4 The parched tongues of their little ones stick with thirst to the roofs of their mouths. The children cry for bread, but no one has any to give them.
5 The people who once ate only the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once lived in palaces now search the garbage pits for food.
6 The punishment for my people's sins has been more severe than the punishment for the sins of Sodom. Sodom was destroyed instantly, without one human hand touching it.
7 Our princes were once glowing with health; they were as clean as snow and as elegant as jewels.
8 Now their faces are blacker than soot. No one can recognize them. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood.
9 Those killed by weapons are far better off than those who die of hunger, wasting away for lack of food.
Cannibalism:
10 Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children and eaten them in order to survive the siege.
11 The LORD (Jesus) is satisfied. His anger has now been poured out. He started a fire in Jerusalem that burned the city to its foundations.
12 Not a king in all the earth -- no one in all the world -- would have believed an enemy could march through the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets and priests, who defiled the city by shedding innocent blood.
14 They wandered blind in the streets; They have defiled themselves with blood, So that no one would touch their garments.
15 They cried out to them, "Go away, unclean! Go away, go away, Do not touch us!" When they fled and wandered, Those among the nations said, "They shall no longer dwell here."
16 The LORD (Jesus) himself has scattered them, and he no longer helps them. The priests and leaders are no longer honored and respected.
17 We looked in vain for our allies to come and save us, but we were looking to nations that could offer no help at all.
18 We couldn't go into the streets without danger to our lives. Our end was near; our days were numbered. We were doomed!
19 Our enemies were swifter than the eagles. If we fled to the mountains, they found us. If we hid in the wilderness, they were waiting for us there.
20 Our king, the LORD (Jesus)'s anointed, who is the breath of our life, was caught in their pits. We had thought that we would live in our king's shadow among the nations.
21 Are you rejoicing in the land of Uz, O people of Edom? But you, too, must drink from the cup of the LORD (Jesus)'s anger. You, too, will be stripped naked in your drunkenness.
22 O Jerusalem, your punishment will end; you will soon return from exile. But Edom, your punishment is just beginning; soon your many sins will be revealed.
Writings-Lamentations 5
PLEADINGS:
1 Remember O LORD (Jesus), everything that has happened to us. See our sorrows!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans and fatherless. Our mothers have become widows.
4 We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
Paying for bottled water!!! Yes, things have changed!
5 They pursue at our heels; We are tired and have no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria [Germany} to get enough food to survive.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, But we bear their sins.
8 Slaves rule over us; There is none to deliver us from their hand.
9 We must hunt for food in the heat of the wilderness at the risk of our lives.
10 Because of the famine, our skin has been blackened as though baked in an oven.
11 Our skin is as hot as an oven from the burning heat of starvation
12 Princes are being hanged by their hands, and the old men were not respected.
13 Young men work at the mill, and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.
14 The old men no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing.
15 The joy of our hearts has ended; our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our heads. Disaster has fallen upon us because we have sinned.
17 Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.
18 Because Mount Zion is desolate and foxes wandering about the city.
19 O LORD (Jesus), you remain forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation.
20 Why do you continue to forget us? Why have you forsaken us for so long?
21 Turn us back to You, O LORD (Jesus)! Give us back the life we had long ago,
22 or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?
How Sad!
