Lamentations 1:18-20

The Voice

The poetic imagery is violently and sexually disturbing. Zion’s captors enter her sacred area and cart off her children. She has been unfaithful to her husband, the Eternal One.

¹⁸Lady Jerusalem: Right and true is the Eternal One.
        I am the one in the wrong: I have rebelled against His law.
    Listen all of you peoples.
        See how much I have suffered;
    My handsome men and my gentle women, unmarried and unprotected,
        have marched away into captivity.

¹⁹    Summoning my lovers brings nothing—
        nothing but pain in their betrayal.
    The old guard, religious and political leaders,
        have died starving here in the city;
    Their search for sustenance failed.

²⁰    Take account, Eternal One, of me; how miserable I am.
        My belly growls and turns;
    My heart is wrung out like a rag; my faults and failings are to blame
        because I have been rebellious.
    Death is everywhere in the homes;
        the sword makes women childless in the streets.