Shame, Exposure And Humiliation
Lamentations 1:7–12
Start from here.
Much as I told you the name of the city, this is the first time it is mentioned, right here (1:7). Jerusalem. While in exile, they recall the good old days. Jerusalem remembers all her pleasant things. It was a double tragedy for them. Friends abandoned her, and now the enemies laugh at her.
And again, we are told why they are suffering. Jerusalem has sinned grievously. Except that we are not told exactly the sin, but we can assume it was rebellion against God. The ones who once honored her now loathe her (1:8). Before the people, they made her naked and paraded her. She feels ashamed and turns her face (1:8).
Jerusalem’s sin is described as period blood stuck to her clothes (1:9). She didn’t care about tomorrow and kept sinning, and now she’s been exposed. She did not consider her destiny.
The Babylonians entered the temple and plundered it (1:10). The people are selling their hidden treasures for food to survive (1:11).
And then suddenly, there is a change in the lament. The focus moved from someone being sad about Jerusalem to Jerusalem herself being sad. See, O Lord, and consider, for I am scorned. She has lost everything….
-Her priests are crying (1:4)
-Even the young women (1:4)
-The children are now in exile (1:5)
-Her princes are starving (1:6)
-Her people are in the hands of their enemies (1:7)
And nobody seems to care about her situation. So she says, Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
When others act normal, it makes the pain of hurt people worse.
