Chapter 1
2024 - Here is an interesting observation. Chapter 1,2,4, and 5 have 22 verses each. 3 has 66 verses...3x22...I wonder what that is telling us?
Per MSB, there are 5 laments in 5 chapters. This first is a lament for Jerusalem's devastation, the second, an explanation of God's anger.
First verse starts like this:
1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people...[Lam 1:1 ESV]
Jerusalem has fallen. She has no allies to help. None came to her rescue. She was and is abandoned by all. This verse:
8 Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away. [Lam 1:8 ESV]
So do we all become filthy when we sin willfully and repeatedly.
Makes it clear the Lord brought about this fall. not random, not Babylon's power. The Lord did it, as stated here:
12 "...on the day of his fierce anger. [Lam 1:12b ESV]
Jerusalem prays that as God has done to her, let Him also do to the evil neighbor nations, who are also evil and deserving of this end.
This phrase showed up several times in Jeremiah and now shows up here: "...the virgin daughter of Israel.."
2024 - This verse:
15 "The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. [Lam 1:15 ESV].
Here again is the picture of the "winepress". It shows up in Revelation also. It seems to me that it is always about God's wrath poured out fully. The winepress might be thought of as an indicator of a harvest, of new wine - a metaphor of blessing and plenty. But that is not how I see it used in the Bible. It seems much more common that the crushing of the grapes is a metaphor for the crushing of nations. Here are a few more examples:
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. [Joe 3:13 ESV].
19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia. [Rev 14:19-20 ESV]
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. [Rev 19:15 ESV]
Not much doubt, when you dig just a little bit, what the point of the winepress metaphor is.
The whole sense of this chapter seems to be abandonment more than devastation. The mourning is not about toppled buildings and stolen treasure, it is about there being no one to care. About enemies being glad that the city has fallen. No friends, no allies, no comforters, no "international aid", no one at all to help. So at the end of the chapter, the appeal is in this verse:
22 "Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint." [Lam 1:22 ESV]
2024 - This whole chapter has been "Jerusalem" crying in her devastation about all that has happened to her. The POV is from a devastated Jerusalem. In the next chapter, God's position in the matter is discussed. First chapter is "what happened", second is "why did it happen".
2024 - It is interesting that this chapter ends with a wish that everyone else also get what they deserve for their evil. There is a sense of "Hey, I'm not the only one, how come they didn't get punished too?" Like being the slowest car on the road but you still get a ticket for 10 over. You were speeding...but so was everyone else. There's this sense of "why me?" I'm not quite sure what to make of that.