The Desolate City of Jerusalem

Click here to read Lamentations 1.

We have here the first of the alphabets, 22 stanzas', describing a city that was once thriving and beautiful but was now desolate with her people carried of into captivity. Actually Jerusalem was a comparatively small city, less than 1 square mile in size with approx. 12,000 people, yet at one time it dominated the Middle East. A city once filled with laughter now filled with grief. A people once dedicated to God now separated from God and populated with pagans. A people who once lived in honor were now living in dishonor. A people who once kept all the Feast Days to perfection were now observing them no more. A people whose Priests are killed and whose religious places are profaned. A once proud people whose religion was respected all over now find themselves and their religion mocked. The pagans mocked their observance of the Sabbath by saying, "They kept their Sabbaths to their cost, for thus one day in seven was lost."

All this Jeremiah attributed to the Lord as judgment upon Israel for her sins of disobedience, and acknowledges that she deserved this punishment. But Jeremiah hastens to pray that God would soon do to Babylon as he had to Israel.

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