Lamentations 1

How Doth the City Sit Solitary

Jerusalem, emptied and conquered, is a widow with no one to comfort her. The poet describes her, then she speaks for herself, confesses that the Lord is righteous, and asks Him to look.

Last revised October 6, 2026

Lamentations chaptersChapter 1 of 5

After the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, about 586 B.C. The text does not say how long after. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Lamentations is five poems over the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians.

Lamentations is five poems over the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians. The book “was written after the fall of the city about 586 B.C.,” and “some years after” it, by a writer who was an eyewitness. The siege and the capture are told in Jer. 39:1–10 and Jer. 52; these poems assume them and do not retell them.

No author is named in the Hebrew. The book is “traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, who witnessed the events being described,” and the Church's edition calls it “The Lamentations of Jeremiah.” Some modern critics question whether he wrote all of it. The Septuagint, the old Greek translation, opens with a sentence the Hebrew lacks, that Jeremias “sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem.” Later chapters call the speaker “the poet” or “Jeremiah” as the Church's chapter headings do and do not argue the question again.

The poems are acrostics: the verses of chapter 1 begin with the Hebrew letters in order, and the first word of the book, in Hebrew, is “How.” Chapter 1 has two voices, the poet's and the city's. Unlike much of the Old Testament, the book “does not contain any responses from the Lord.” It records the grief itself.

The thread through the chapter

Chapter 1 is built around a refrain: there is no one to comfort Jerusalem.

Chapter 1 is built around a refrain: there is no one to comfort Jerusalem. The word comes five times in 22 verses (Lam. 1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21). The first half looks at the city from outside, a widow, a captive, a woman whose honor and sanctuary have been taken. The second half is the city's own voice, and more and more it is spoken to the Lord: “Behold, O LORD.” The poem says plainly who did it (“the LORD hath afflicted her”) and why (“the multitude of her transgressions”), and her confession in verse 18 (“The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled”) does not stop her from asking for notice and for justice on those who gloat. The chapter ends without an answer.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–7

A widowed city with no comforter

In plain words

The poet asks how the city that was full of people now sits alone, like a widow, once a princess among the provinces and now a forced laborer. She weeps at night; her lovers and friends have become her enemies. Judah has gone into captivity and finds no rest among the nations. The roads to Zion mourn because none come to the feasts; her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted. Her adversaries prosper because the Lord has afflicted her for her many transgressions, and her children have gone into captivity. Her beauty is gone, her princes are like deer without pasture, and in her affliction she remembers the pleasant things of old while her enemies mock her sabbaths.

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!

Language #

A cry, and a city as a woman

The poem opens with a cry, the Hebrew 'eikhah, “alas! how …”, and the same word begins Lam. 2:1 and Lam. 4:1.

The poem opens with a cry, the Hebrew 'eikhah, “alas! how …”, and the same word begins Lam. 2:1 and Lam. 4:1. It is “an expression of complaint mingled with astonishment”: the writer cannot believe the contrast. It is also the Hebrew name of the book.

The city is a woman, and the widow image gets its force from the verse's other pairs. She was “full of people,” a mother of many children; she was “great among the nations,” a princess among the provinces. Now she is likened to “a woman whose husband was dead,” and her sitting alone is “a token of deep sorrow.” The last line makes the fall concrete: the Hebrew word behind “tributary” (mas) is not a payment of tribute but forced labor, used “of conquered populations, subject to forced labour.” She who once ruled peoples “has now fallen into abject servitude.”

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Lamentations, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

2 She 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.

Language #

Five times, no one to comfort her

The refrain “none to comfort her” is the chapter's thread. The Hebrew participle for one who comforts stands in verses 2, 9, 16, 17, and 21, and the same root comes only once more…

The refrain “none to comfort her” is the chapter's thread. The Hebrew participle for one who comforts stands in verses 2, 9, 16, 17, and 21, and the same root comes only once more in the book, as a verb, in Lam. 2:13. The poet says it of her three times (verses 2, 9, 17), and she says it of herself twice (verses 16, 21).

Who are the “lovers” that fail her? They are “the false gods she worshiped,” who “abandoned her to her enemies.” In verse 19, where the city calls for them herself, the false lovers stand beside her “former allies,” and both “deserted her.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

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.

5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

Context #

The poem states the cause, and says who did it

The poem says who afflicted the city and why, in one line, and it repeats both: the Lord did it (Lam. 1:12, Lam. 1:14, Lam. 1:15), and her sin is the cause (Lam. 1:8, Lam. 1:18, Lam. 1:20).

The poem says who afflicted the city and why, in one line, and it repeats both: the Lord did it (Lam. 1:12, Lam. 1:14, Lam. 1:15), and her sin is the cause (Lam. 1:8, Lam. 1:18, Lam. 1:20). What the book holds is “the deep impression made by the destruction of the holy city and temple by Jehovah's own hand” and “the feeling of sin awakened by it.” These are the words of a grieving voice in a poem.

Jeremiah carried the same charge from the Lord: “thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee” (Jer. 30:15). In verse 18 the city confesses it herself: “the LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled.” Only the confession is heard, for the book “does not contain any responses from the Lord.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Lamentations, book of”, Bible Dictionary. Jeremiah 31–33; 36–38; Lamentations 1; 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament.

6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

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.

Verses 8–11

Shame and the sanctuary

In plain words

Jerusalem has sinned grievously and is therefore cast out; those who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness, and she sighs and turns away. Her filthiness is in her skirts, she did not remember her end, and she fell astonishingly with no comforter. She cries, “O LORD, behold my affliction.” The enemy has taken her pleasant things, and has seen the heathen enter the sanctuary that the Lord forbade them to enter. Her people sigh and seek bread, and trade their treasures for food. She cries again for the Lord to see, for she has become vile.

8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Imagery #

Her nakedness seen

“Nakedness” here is read as shame uncovered: it “means her sins and vices that have now come to the light,” so that those who once honored her, her allies, now despise her.

“Nakedness” here is read as shame uncovered: it “means her sins and vices that have now come to the light,” so that those who once honored her, her allies, now despise her. Verse 9 keeps the picture of a woman (“her filthiness is in her skirts”), and the city herself “turns away for shame, … withdraws from the people so that they may no longer look on her.” The word behind “removed” in this verse is taken up in the note on Lam. 1:17.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Lamentations, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

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 thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Context #

Foreigners in the sanctuary

The grief in verse 10 is not only plunder but that foreigners went into the temple, which the Lord had forbidden.

The grief in verse 10 is not only plunder but that foreigners went into the temple, which the Lord had forbidden. The command meant is probably the law that named Ammonites and Moabites: “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deut. 23:3). If such nations could not join the congregation, the enemy's forcing his way into the temple itself is “an unheard of act of sacrilege.”

The “pleasant things” taken are more than the temple vessels: they include “all the precious vessels of the city, i.e., of the palaces and the temple.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Lamentations, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile.

Context #

Bread, and the famine of the siege

Verse 11 is about hunger: the people “have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul,” selling what they valued for food.

Verse 11 is about hunger: the people “have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul,” selling what they valued for food. Jeremiah's account of the siege tells of famine in the city: “in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land” (Jer. 52:6). The poem does not say whether it is remembering the siege or describing the days after it, and the same hunger returns in the death of the priests and elders in verse 19. The poet does not describe the famine at length; it is one more thing the city cries to the Lord to see.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 12–17

“Is it nothing to you?”

In plain words

Jerusalem now speaks. She asks the passers-by whether any sorrow is like hers, which the Lord has inflicted in His fierce anger. She describes it as fire in the bones, a net for the feet, a yoke bound on the neck, strength failing, her mighty men trodden down and her young men crushed, the Lord treading the virgin daughter of Judah as in a winepress. She weeps, because the one who would comfort her is far away and her children are desolate. Zion spreads her hands, and no one comforts her; the Lord has commanded that her neighbors be her adversaries, and Jerusalem is an unclean woman among them.

12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

Context #

Who is speaking now

Verse 12 is where the city begins to speak for herself. The chapter has two speakers, “Jeremiah laments the miserable condition of Jerusalem—Jerusalem herself complains of her…

Verse 12 is where the city begins to speak for herself. The chapter has two speakers, “Jeremiah laments the miserable condition of Jerusalem—Jerusalem herself complains of her deep sorrow,” and up to here the poet speaks of her in the third person, with only two cries from the city breaking in (Lam. 1:9, Lam. 1:11). From here to verse 16 the “I” is Jerusalem. The poet's voice returns for one verse (17), “a suitable pause, that both serves to divide the lamentation into two, and also brings a turn in its contents,” and she speaks again from verse 18.

The “passers-by” are a figure of speech: the address to them “is nothing more than a poetic turn, used to express the boundless magnitude of this her sorrow.” The question is asked of anyone who might look; the verse does not say anyone does.

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.

14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

15 The Lord 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: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

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.

Literary Structure #

The acrostic, and the order of its letters

Verses 15, 16, and 17 begin with samekh, ayin, and pe, the usual order of the Hebrew alphabet.

Verses 15, 16, and 17 begin with samekh, ayin, and pe, the usual order of the Hebrew alphabet. “Chapters 1, 2, and 4 each have 22 verses that begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet,” and chapter 1 is the only poem that keeps the traditional order throughout; in chapters 2, 3, and 4 the pe verse comes before the ayin verse. Why is not known. One explanation sets aside both a copyist's transposition of the verses and the idea that the alphabet's order was not yet fixed, and puts the difference down to “the free use made of such forms by the Hebrew poets.” That is one commentator's judgment, not a settled answer.

What the acrostic does for the poem is clearer. It gives the lament “an air of continuity as well as of exhaustive completeness”: sorrow told from the first letter to the last.

Sources: Jeremiah 31–33; 36–38; Lamentations 1; 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Lamentations, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.

Imagery #

A menstruous woman

The image is of ritual uncleanness, and the Hebrew shows what kind. The word is niddah, “what one should flee from”: the impurity of Lev. 15:19, under which a woman “shall be put…

The image is of ritual uncleanness, and the Hebrew shows what kind. The word is niddah, “what one should flee from”: the impurity of Lev. 15:19, under which a woman “shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.” So the point of the comparison is that Jerusalem is shunned, and why: the imagery “is symbolic, indicating that Jerusalem had become unclean due to the people's wickedness,” and “does not imply that menstruation itself is sinful or shameful.”

The word in verse 8 that the KJV renders “removed” (“therefore she is removed”) is read as a lengthened form of the same word, so that the two verses name the same thing: the uncleanness “is transferred to Jerusalem, personified as such an unclean woman, and therefore shunned.” The neighbors of verse 17, “round about” Judah, are the nations around Israel, and the Lord's command is what puts them there: the verse says He commanded that his adversaries be round about him.

Sources: Jeremiah 31–33; 36–38; Lamentations 1; 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Lamentations, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Verses 18–22

“The LORD is righteous”

In plain words

She says the Lord is righteous, for she has rebelled against His commandment, and asks all people to look at her sorrow, for her young men and virgins are in captivity. Her lovers deceived her, and her priests and elders died in the city seeking food. She tells the Lord she is in distress and has grievously rebelled, and that the sword bereaves abroad and death rules at home. Her enemies are glad that He has done this. She asks that the day He has called come, that they be like her, that their wickedness come before Him, and that He do to them as He has done to her.

18 The LORD 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.

19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.

20 Behold, O LORD; 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.

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 thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.

Context #

A prayer that the Lord will repay her enemies

The chapter ends with the city asking that her enemies receive what she has: “let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me” (verse 22).

The chapter ends with the city asking that her enemies receive what she has: “let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me” (verse 22). The occasion is their gladness at her fall (verse 21). The prayer is made to the Lord and asks Him to act: it is their wickedness that is to “come before thee,” and the measure she asks is the one He has used on her, “for all my transgressions.” She does not claim to be innocent; she asks that the same justice reach those who gloat. The book does not say how He answers; for the prayer against Edom, see Lam. 4:21–22.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Seeing Christ in Lamentations 1

Chapter 1 does not name the Savior, and it says no word of rescue: the book “captures only the suffering and longing that the people felt before the Lord later showed mercy to them.” The LORD to whom the city cries “behold my affliction,” and whom she confesses righteous in verse 18, is Jehovah, and “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ.” The Church's footnotes at verses 2 and 5 lead to two of His later words. Through Jeremiah, to the same city: “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after” (Jer. 30:17). And to Saints afflicted “in consequence of their transgressions” (D&C 101:2): “I will not utterly cast them off; and in the day of wrath I will remember mercy” (D&C 101:9). This book's own word of mercy waits until chapter 3: “It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed” (Lam. 3:22).

Worth exploring next

The siege itself. Jer. 39:1–10 and Jer. 52 tell the fall of the city that these poems remember.
The Lord's words to the wounded city. Jer. 30–31, where He speaks of her wound and of its healing.
The same lament in a different voice. Lam. 2 is the second poem in the same alphabet, where the Lord is the one who has acted.
A lament over a people destroyed. Morm. 6:16–22, Mormon's cry over his own slain people.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Lamentations, Book of”, Guide to the Scriptures.
“Lamentations, book of”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
Jeremiah 31–33; 36–38; Lamentations 1; 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament.
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Lamentations, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

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