Lamentations 1:17-19

The Voice

¹⁷Quietly, Zion spreads out her hands, pleading for comfort.
    But no one comes. The Lord forbids it.
God has commanded Jacob’s enemies
    to surround her.
Jerusalem has become their foe;
    she is an impurity among them.

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.