LAMENTATIONS
Lamenting of the suffering and judgment of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem
Written by Jeremiah
It is a collection of five poems; the subject, of which, is the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
It is not certain that Jeremiah wrote all these five chapters, but the Septuagint definitely ascribes the first chapter to Jeremiah.
His laments are interspersed with supplications and prayers for forgiveness and restoration.
Jeremiah had experienced the horrors of warfare, that he had seen his land over-run by it's conquerors, and had witnessed the utter desolation of his beloved Jerusalem. In this first chapter we read the despairing words 'Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by?'. These words, so well known, are mostly used in connection with the sufferings of Christ on the cross.
Six centuries after Jeremiah had sat and wept over Jerusalem, Yahshua Christ stood and wept over the same city and the same blindness of the people.
These five chapters which make up this book can best be remembered by the use of five key words:
Fact – 'Judah is gone into captivity.' Lam 1:3,8
Sorrow – 'Mine eyes do fail with tears.' Lam 2:11;3:48-49
Hope – 'His compassions fail not...Yahweh will not cast off for ever.' Lam 3:22-24,31
Prophecy – The iniquities of her priests have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her (Jerusalem).
Here is a fearful fore-shadowing of the enmity of the priestly (Jew) faction in Jerusalem, who compelled Pilate to condemn Christ, whom Pilate himself called 'this just person'.
Concerning Edom (the Canaanite and Edomite Jews-Pharisees)- 'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: the cup also shall pass through unto you; you shalt be drunken, and shalt make yourself naked.' Lam 4:13; Matt 27:20-24; Lam 4:21-22; Obad 4:15-18
Faith – 'Thou, O Yahweh remainest for ever'. Lam 5:19
Faith is simply allegiance, loyalty, moral conviction. Faith is proven by action and practice.
Jeremiah in Hebrew is Yirmeyahu.
The first 4 chapters are poems and each verse is a stanza. Chapter 5 is written in prose.
Lamentations 1:1 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 (forced labor)!
We have become in debt.
Baruch 4:12 Let no man rejoice over me, a widow, and forsaken of many, who for the sins of my children am left desolate; because they departed from the law of God.
1:2 She (Jerusalem, America) 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.
All those we have supported (the other races) hate us.
1:3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen (nations), she findeth no rest: all her persecutors (pursuers) overtook her between the straits.
The Septuagint ends as: “...all her pursuers have overtaken her between her oppressors.”
1:4 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.
We are still to keep the feast days.
1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her (hated) enemies prosper; for Yahweh hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the face of the enemy.
Jews make up most of our politicians, the stranger (non kinsmen) is our president (Obama), aliens are consuming our resources. We have become slaves of usury.
Deuteronomy 28:43 The stranger (non kinsmen) that is within you shall get up above you very high; and you shalt come down very low.
Jeremiah 30:14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased.
Daniel 9:7 O Yahweh, righteousness belongeth unto You, but unto us confusion of faces (race mixed), as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither You hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against You.
1:6 And from the daughter of Zion (Jerusalem) all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts (deer) that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
1:7 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.
Commerce and usury continued 7 days a week. Land sabbaths ignored. The merchants (Jews) strive.
The Hebrew ends verse 7 as: “...they mocked at her destruction (ruin).”
Sabbaths in verse 7 is H4868 and means cessation, annihilation.
The sabbath (rest) is H7676.
1:8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore (upon which) she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
1Kings 8:46 If they sin against You, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and You be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
Jeremiah 13:22 And if you say in your heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts discovered, and your heels made bare.
Ezekiel 16:37 Behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you hast taken pleasure, and all them that you hast loved, with all them that you hast hated; I will even gather them round about against you, and will discover your nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness.
1:9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O Yahweh, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
1:10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom You didst command that they should not enter into Your congregation. (Deut 23:2)
In the OT the number is H1471 (Goy). The KJV translates all the words: nation(s), Gentiles, heathen, and sometimes people with this word (Goy, goyim).
In the NT the number is G1484 (ethnos). The KJV translates all the words: nation(s), Gentiles, heathen, sometimes people, and even Greeks with this word (ethnos).
'Gentiles' means only: a nation(s), or a race of people. It does not mean non-Jew, this definition was added, as is evident by the above uses. The word Gentile is a stumbling block set before us to deceive us into believing we are heathen, when we are indeed of the nations of Jacob Israel. The Jews are the nations of the Canaanites and Edomites.
The other races (nations) are forbidden to enter the congregation (sanctuary) of the children of Israel.
Jeremiah 51:51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh's house.
1:11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Yahweh, and consider; for I am become vile.
Jerusalem had been under seige and they ran out of food.
1:12 Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith Yahweh hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.
1:13 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.
1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand: they are wreathed (intertwined), and come up upon my neck: He hath made my strength to fall, Yahweh hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.
1:15 Yahweh 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: Yahweh hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.
The fenced cities and villages in the territory of Judah.
Isaiah 63:3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment.
Revelation 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
1:16 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.
Jeremiah 13:17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Yahweh's flock is carried away captive.
1:17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: Yahweh hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.
Jeremiah 4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
1:18 Yahweh 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.
Daniel 9:7,14
7 O Yahweh, righteousness belongeth unto You, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither You hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against You. Race mixing, race mixed children, unrecognizable.
14 Therefore hath Yahweh watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for Yahweh our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice.
1:19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost (expired) in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
Starved to death during the seige.
Jeremiah 30:14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased.
1:20 Behold, O Yahweh; 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.
1:21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You hast done it: You wilt bring the day that You hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
The other races (nations) are glad at our troubles, Jeremiah prays for their judgment for it. He prays Yahweh acts severely unto them as He is unto Jerusalem.
1:22 Let all their wickedness come before You; and do (act severely) unto them, as You hast done (acted severely) unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
Psalm 109:15 Let them be before Yahweh continually, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Lamentations 2:1 How hath Yahweh covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger, and cast down from heaven (the sky) unto the earth (ground) the beauty of Israel, and remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger!
The phrase 'daughter of Zion' is a reference to the city, Jerusalem.
Matthew 11:23 And you, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
2Samuel 1:19 The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places: how are the mighty fallen!
2:2 Yahweh hath swallowed up all the habitations (pastures) of Jacob, and hath not pitied: He hath thrown down in His wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; He hath brought them down to the ground: He hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
The 'daughter of Judah' would be the cities and the villages of the land of Judah. They were already taken in mid 700 BC by the Assyrians.
2:3 He hath cut off (broken) in His fierce anger all the horn (power) of Israel: He hath drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.
2:4 He hath bent His bow like an (opposing) enemy: He stood with His right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: He poured out His fury like fire.
2:5 Yahweh was as an (hated) enemy: He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces: He hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
The Septuagint: 5 Yahweh is become as an enemy: He has overwhelmed Israel as in the sea, He has overwhelmed her palaces: He has destroyed her strong-holds, and has multiplied the afflicted and humbled ones to the daughter of Judah.
This happened to the house of Israel and many of Judah during the Assyrian invasion starting in 745 BC.
2:6 And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: He hath destroyed His places of the assembly: Yahweh hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest.
The Septuagint begins as: 6 “And He has scattered His tabernacle as a vine,...”
Psalm 80:12 Why hast You then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
2:7 Yahweh hath cast off His altar, He hath abhorred His sanctuary, He hath given up into the hand of the (hated) enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of Yahweh, as in the day of a solemn feast.
2:8 Yahweh hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: He hath stretched out a line (measuring line), He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying: therefore He made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
Septuagint ends as: “...and the wall was weakened with it.”
Geneva ends as: “...they were destroyed together.”
2Kings 21:13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria (the measure of Israel), and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
Isaiah 34:11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion (measure of desolation, vanity), and the stones of emptiness (stones-root word: to build)
What was built after it was turned upside down? Desolation, vanity, worthlessness, empty stones. The children of Israel never returned after Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. The serpent seed Jews have occupied that desolate, cursed sandbox since.
2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles (nations): the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from Yahweh.
2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
2:11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled (my inards are reddened), my liver is poured upon the earth (ground), for the destruction of the daughter of my people (Jerusalem); because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
2:12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn (grain) and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
2:13 What thing shall I take to witness for you? what thing shall I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? for your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you?
Daniel 9:12 And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole sky hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
2:14 Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you: and they have not discovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but have seen for you false burdens and causes of banishment.
Read about the false prophets of Jeremiah chapters 28 and 29. Hananiah, Kolaiah and Shemaiah.
2:15 All that pass by clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth (land)?
2:16 All your (hated) enemies have opened their mouth against you: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
2:17 Yahweh hath done that which He had devised; He hath fulfilled His word that He had commanded in the days of old: He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and He hath caused your (hated) enemy to rejoice over you, He hath set up the horn of your adversaries.
Psalm 38:16 For I (David) said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
Days of old- Dueteronomy 28 Leviticus 26 the curses and the blessings.
2:18 Their heart cried unto Yahweh, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give yourself no rest; let not the apple (daughter) of your eye cease.
2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out your heart like water before the face of Yahweh: lift up your hands toward Him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.
Psalm 62:8 Trust in Him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
2:20 Behold, O Yahweh, and consider to whom You hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of Yahweh?
The Septuagint gives it clearer: 20 Behold, O Yahweh, and see for whom You has gathered thus. Shall the women eat the fruit of their womb? the cook has made a gathering: shall the infants sucking at the breasts be slain? wilt You slay the priest and prophet in the sanctuary of Yahweh?
2:21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; You hast slain them in the day of Your anger; You hast killed, and not pitied.
2Chronicles 36:17 Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: He gave them all into his hand.
2:22 You hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of Yahweh's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine (hated) enemy consumed.
Lamentations 3:1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
3:2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3:3 Surely against me is He turned; He turneth His hand against me all the day.
3:4 My flesh and my skin hath He made old; He hath broken my bones.
Job 16:8 And You hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
Psalm 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You hast broken may rejoice.
3:5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
3:6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
Psalm 88:5-6
5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom You rememberest no more: and they are cut off from Your hand.
6 You hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
3:7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He hath made my chain heavy.
Hosea 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
3:8 Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer.
3:9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, He hath made my paths crooked (twisted).
3:10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
Isaiah 38:13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt you make an end of me.
Hosea 5:14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
3:11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: He hath made me desolate.
3:12 He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Job 7:20 I have sinned; what shall I do unto You, O You preserver of men? why hast You set me as a mark against You, so that I am a burden to myself?
Psalm 38:2 For Your arrows stick fast in me, and Your hand presseth me sore.
3:13 He hath caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins.
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
3:14 I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
Jeremiah 20:7 O Yahweh, You hast deceived me, and I was deceived: You art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Job 30:9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
Psalm 69:12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
3:15 He hath filled me with bitterness, He hath made me drunken with wormwood.
3:16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, He hath covered me with ashes.
3:17 And You hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
3:18 And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from Yahweh:
Psalm 31:22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Your eyes: nevertheless You heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto You.
3:19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
3:20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
3:21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
3:22 It is of Yahweh's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
Malachi 3:6 For I am Yahweh, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
But the Jews and the “churches” teach that the tribes of Jacob disappeared. Yahweh says different.
3:23 They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness.
Isaiah 33:2 O Yahweh, be gracious unto us; we have waited for You: be You their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3:24 Yahweh is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him.
Psalm 16:5 Yahweh is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: You maintainest my lot.
3:25 Yahweh is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.
Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will Yahweh wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for Yahweh is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.
3:26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
Psalm 37:7 Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for Him: fret not yourself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
3:28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because He hath borne it upon him.
3:29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
3:30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
3:31 For Yahweh will not cast off for ever:
Psalm 94:14 For Yahweh will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance.
Speaking of both houses, Judah and Israel.
3:32 But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.
3:33 For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, As I live, saith Yahweh GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?
3:34 To crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth (land),
3:35 To turn aside the right (justice) of a man before the face of the most High,
3:36 To subvert a man (Adam) in his cause, Yahweh approveth not.
Habakkuk 1:13 You art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest You upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest Your tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
3:37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when Yahweh commandeth it not?
3:38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil (calamity) and good?
Amos 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and Yahweh hath not done it?
3:39 Wherefore doth a living man (Adam) complain, a (mighty) man for the punishment of his sins?
3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens (skies).
Psalm 86:4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant: for unto You, O Yahweh, do I lift up my soul.
3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: You hast not pardoned.
Daniel 9:5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and from Your judgments:
3:43 You hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: You hast slain, You hast not pitied.
3:44 You hast covered Yourself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
3:45 You hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
3:46 All our (hated) enemies have opened their mouths against us.
3:47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
Isaiah 24:17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isaiah 51:19 These two things are come unto you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
3:48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
3:49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
3:50 Till Yahweh look down, and behold from heaven (the sky).
3:51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
Surrounding villages.
3:52 Mine (hated) enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
Psalm 35:7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
Jeremiah 37:16 When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;
3:54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.
3:55 I called upon Your name, O Yahweh, out of the low dungeon.
Psalm 130:1 Out of the depths have I cried unto You, O Yahweh.
3:56 You hast heard my voice: hide not Your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Psalm 3:4 I cried unto Yahweh with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. Selah.
3:57 You drewest near in the day that I called upon You: You saidst, Fear not.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.
3:58 O Yahweh, You hast pleaded the causes of my soul; You hast redeemed my life.
Psalm 35:1 Plead my cause, O Yahweh, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
3:59 O Yahweh, You hast seen my wrong: judge You my cause.
Psalm 9:4 For You hast maintained my right and my cause; You satest in the throne judging right.
3:60 You hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
Jeremiah 11:19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
3:61 You hast heard their reproach, O Yahweh, and all their imaginations against me;
3:62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
3:63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick (mocking song).
3:64 Render unto them a recompence, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
3:65 Give them sorrow (covering- as a hard shell) of heart, Your curse unto them.
3:66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens (skies) of Yahweh.
Punishment of Zion
Lamentations 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
4:2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Isaiah 30:14 And He shall break it (iniquity) as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; He shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
4:3 Even the sea monsters (jackals) draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Job 39:14-15
14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
Famine due to the seige.
4:5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
The Septuagint: 5 They that feed on dainties are desolate in the streets: they that used to be nursed in scarlet have clothed themselves with dung.
Searching for undigested grain in dung for food.
Job 24:8 They are wet with the drops of the mountains: they have embraced the rock, because they had no shelter.
4:6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. (Gen 19:25)
Sodom was overthrown instantly, not like Jerusalem which was punished by a siege first.
4:7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
Verse 7 is just one of many verses that describe our people, white!
The next verse is what they have become.
4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
The Septuagint starts as: 8 “Their countenance is become blacker than smoke;...”
Joel 2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
BLACK'NESS, n. darkness; atrociousness or enormity in wickedness.
Nahum 2:10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
4:9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Deuteronomy 28:57 and against her seed which comes out from between her feet, and her children whom she bears, for she eats them in secret for lack of all, in the siege and distress with which your enemy distresses you in all your gates.
Ezekiel 5:10 Therefore fathers are going to eat their sons in your midst, and sons eat their fathers. And I shall execute judgments among you and scatter all your remnant to all the winds.
4:11 Yahweh hath accomplished His fury; He hath poured out His fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore thus saith Yahweh GOD; Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
Jeremiah 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
The phrase 'polluted themselves with blood' is a reference to race mixing.
Jeremiah 2:34 Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
4:15 They cried unto them, Depart you; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen (nations), They shall no more sojourn there.
4:16 The anger (presence) of Yahweh hath divided them; He will no more regard them: they respected not the persons (stature) of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
4:17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching (watch tower) we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
Our politicians can't save us.
4:18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven (sky): they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
The anointed of Yahweh is a reference to Israel. It also is a reference to Jeremiah and Yahshua.
4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto you: you shalt be drunken, and shalt make yourself naked.
Idumea was the territory of Edom.
The phrase 'and shalt make yourself naked' is a prophecy that they will be exposed. They are Mystery Babylon, they are those who say they are Jews (correctly, Judah) and are not, they are Edom, they are descendants of Cain and Esau Edom, they are impostors, they are the serpent seed of Genesis 3:15. They are our mortal enemies. They are the Jews. They will drink of the cup of Yahweh's wrath. Read Obadiah for detail of their fate.
4:22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; He will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will discover your sins.
Isaiah 40:2 Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins.
Psalm 137:7 Remember, O Yahweh, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
Chapter 5 is not a poem with stanzas, it is prose.
Prayer for mercy
Lamentations 5:1 Remember, O Yahweh, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
5:2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
As then Jerusalem, now here in America, the aliens have surrounded us and are consuming us. Read about this in the book of Joel. These aliens (other races) are the symbolic insects of Joel.
Psalm 79:1 O God, the heathen (nations, other races) are come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
5:3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Fighting Jew agitated wars, our men are killed. Millions since the Civil War. All wars are bankers wars.
5:4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5:5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
Taxes, regulations, religious freedoms under attack, taxes, regulations, taxes, and more taxes.
Jeremiah 28:14 For thus saith Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
5:6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
Hosea 12:1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
5:7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
Jeremiah 31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape (race mixed), and the children's teeth are set on edge.
5:8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
The other races are sitting in our seats of authority.
5:9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
5:10 Our skin was black (hot) like an oven because of the terrible famine.
We have been evil so long and didn't turn, we are burnt as a cake not turned.
Hosea 7:8 Ephraim (Israel), he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
A cake not turned is half black.
5:11 They (our enemies) ravished (defiled) the women in Zion, and the maids (virgins) in the cities of Judah.
5:12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
5:13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
The Septuagint reads: 13 The chosen men lifted up the voice in weeping, and the youths fainted under the wood.
5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
5:15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
5:16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
Psalm 89:39 You hast made void the covenant of Your servant: You hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
Septuagint: 39 You hast overthrown the covenant of Your servant; You has profaned his sanctuary, casting it to the ground.
By race mixing, the DNA (Spirit) is profaned and worthless. A broken cistern.
5:17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
Psalm 6:7 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
5:18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
The Jews are referred to as foxes, among other things, dogs, clouds without water, twice dead, broken cisterns, etc.
Luke 13:32 And He (Christ) said unto them (Pharisees), Go you, and tell that fox (Herod), Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
5:19 You, O Yahweh, remainest for ever; Your throne from generation to generation.
Psalm 9:7 But Yahweh shall endure for ever: He hath prepared His throne for judgment.
5:20 Wherefore dost You forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
Psalm 13:1 How long wilt You forget me, O Yahweh? for ever? how long wilt You hide Your face from me?
5:21 Turn You us unto You, O Yahweh, and we shall be turned (repent and turn back from our apostasy); renew our days as of old.
5:22 But You hast utterly rejected us; You art very wroth against us.
LAMENTATIONS – CHURCH DOCTRINE VS. SCRIPTURE
Below are 3 sources of what the modern churches preach today about the book of Lamentations.
The purpose is to expose the apostasy and perversion of the scriptures, and to educate our people about the truth of our heritage. That we, the anglo-saxon race who are the descendants of ancient Israel, are the people of Abraham's seed and therefore the heirs of the promises of Yahweh. Not the Jews who distort and pervert the scriptures and teach the 'traditions of men'.
Biblehub.com
The book of Lamentations is book of sorrowful songs or poems. The name implies that the topic is expressing grief over something (to lament). Jeremiah, also known as the “weeping prophet” writes this after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. It was written soon after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.; he was an eyewitness. He predicted this destruction (as did others), watched it take place, and now in this book he is sadly reflecting on it. Key personalities are the prophet Jeremiah and the people of Jerusalem.
Its purpose was to express despair and teach God’s people that disobedience to the Lord results in immense suffering and distress. Jeremiah pours out his emotions in compassion, and empathy for God’s nation, as he watches them inhabit a foreign land.
• In chapter 1, Jeremiah mourns for Jerusalem and Judea as it lays in ruin by the raid and destruction of Babylon, “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! She has become like a widow who was once great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a forced laborer!” (1:1).
• Chapter 2, He described the anger of the Lord who brought judgment to the wicked land (as God had warned), “In fierce anger He has cut off all the strength of Israel; He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy...” (2:3).
• Chapter 3, we see Jeremiah expressing his troubled spirit and suffering in gloom. He too is afflicted, as his homeland has been pillaged. On the other hand, he reminds us in verses 19-23, that God is faithful and will restore and bring His promise to pass, “The LORD’S loving-kindness indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail” (3:22).
• Finally, in chapter 4, we read that God has brought justice and ruled mightily. During the siege, the city of Jerusalem suffered incredibly. Starvation was so bad and widespread that the Israelites resorted to eating their own children. The nation was warned about their sin and disobedience and the penalty of the coming judgment of God, and in verse 11 we read, “The LORD has accomplished His wrath..”.
Biblestudytools.com
Title
The Hebrew title of the book is 'ekah ("How . . . !"), the first word not only in 1:1 but also in 2:1; 4:1. Because of its subject matter, the book is also referred to in Jewish tradition as qinot, "Lamentations," a title taken over by the Septuagint (the pre-Christian Greek translation of the OT) and by the fourth-century Latin Vulgate.
The Bible is not Jewish tradition. The Jews are descendants of Cain and Esau. Canaanites and Edomites. The children of Jacob Israel are the true Israelites and this is our heritage. The word Jew in the Bible should always be Judah, Judahite, which are always Isrealites, or Judaean, which depending on context could be any resident of Judaea, being either a Canaanite, Edomite, Isrealite or mix. Just as An American used to be white, now blacks, Asians, and Mexicans are Americans.
Author and Date
Lamentations is anonymous, although ancient and early Christian traditions ascribe it to Jeremiah. These traditions are based in part on 2Ch 35:25 (though the "Laments" referred to there are not to be identified with the OT book of Lamentations); in part on such texts as Jer 7:29; 8:21; 9:1,10,20; and in part on the similarity of vocabulary and style between Lamentations and the prophecies of Jeremiah. Moreover, such an ascription gains a measure of plausibility from the fact that Jeremiah was an eyewitness to the divine judgment on Jerusalem in 586 b.c., which is so vividly portrayed here. Nevertheless, we cannot be certain who authored these carefully crafted poems or who is responsible for putting them together into a single scroll. Lamentations poignantly expresses the people's overwhelming sense of loss that accompanied the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple as well as the exile of Judah's inhabitants from the land Yahweh had covenanted to give Israel as a perpetual national homeland.
The earliest possible date for the book is 586 b.c., and the latest is 516 (when the rebuilt Jerusalem temple was dedicated). The graphic immediacy of Lamentations argues for an earlier date, probably before 575.
Insight.org
Who wrote the book?
While the author of Lamentations remains nameless within the book, strong evidence from both inside and outside the text points to the prophet Jeremiah as the author. Both Jewish and Christian tradition ascribe authorship to Jeremiah, and the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Old Testament—even adds a note asserting Jeremiah as the writer of the book. Jewish tradition is satanic, Christian tradition is true Israel's heritage. The Jews (Canaanites/Edomites, are opposite of Israel, 12 tribes of Jacob, the white nations of the world). In addition, when the early Christian church father Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, he added a note claiming Jeremiah as the author of Lamentations.
The original name of the book in Hebrew, ekah, can be translated “Alas!” or “How,” giving the sense of weeping or lamenting over some sad event. Later readers and translators substituted in the title “Lamentations” because of its clearer and more evocative meaning. It’s this idea of lamenting that, for many, links Jeremiah to the book. Not only does the author of the book witness the results of the recent destruction of Jerusalem, he seems to have witnessed the invasion itself (Lamentations 1:13–15). Jeremiah was present for both events.
Where are we?
“How lonely sits the city / That was full of people!” (Lamentations 1:1), so goes the beginning of Lamentations. The city in question was none other than Jerusalem. Jeremiah walked through the streets and alleys of the Holy City and saw nothing but pain, suffering, and destruction in the wake of the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC. It also makes sense to date the book as close to the invasion as possible, meaning late 586 BC or early 585 BC, due to the raw emotion Jeremiah expresses throughout its pages.
Why is Lamentations so important?
Like the book of Job, Lamentations pictures a man of God puzzling over the results of evil and suffering in the world. However, while Job dealt with unexplained evil, Jeremiah lamented a tragedy entirely of Jerusalem’s making. The people of this once great city experienced the judgment of the holy God, and the results were devastating. But at the heart of this book, at the center of this lament over the effects of sin in the world, sit a few verses devoted to hope in the Lord (Lamentations 3:22–25). This statement of faith standing strong in the midst of the surrounding darkness shines as a beacon to all those suffering under the consequences of their own sin and disobedience.
What's the big idea?
As the verses of Lamentations accumulate, readers cannot help but wonder how many different ways Jeremiah could describe the desolation of the once proud city of Jerusalem. Children begged food from their mothers (Lamentations 2:12), young men and women were cut down by swords (2:21), and formerly compassionate mothers used their children for food (4:10). Even the city’s roads mourned over its condition (1:4)! Jeremiah could not help but acknowledge the abject state of this city, piled with rubble.
The pain so evident in Jeremiah’s reaction to this devastation clearly communicates the significance of the terrible condition in Jerusalem. Speaking in the first person, Jeremiah pictured himself captured in a besieged city, without anyone to hear his prayers, and as a target for the arrows of the enemy (3:7–8, 12). Yet even in this seemingly hopeless situation, he somehow found hope in the Lord (3:21–24).
How do I apply this?
Lamentations reminds us of the importance not only of mourning over our sin but of asking the Lord for His forgiveness when we fail Him. Much of Jeremiah’s poetry concerns itself with the fallen bricks and cracking mortar of the overrun city. Do you see any of that destroyed city in your own life? Are you mourning over the sin that’s brought you to this point? Do you feel overrun by an alien power; are you in need of some hope from the Lord? Turn to Lamentations 3:17–26, where you’ll find someone aware of sin’s consequences and saddened by the results but who has placed his hope and his trust in the Lord.