What Jerusalem Has Become (Lamentations 1:8-11).
Having outlined what Jerusalem had lost the prophet now turns his thoughts to what she has become. She has become like a menstrual woman whose situation is visibly revealed to the world, a suggestive picture that would have brought horror to men and women alike. Menstruation was seen as something to be kept hidden and to be ashamed of. And menstruation was seen as especially horrific in Judah/Israel for it was a means by which people were rendered ritually ‘unclean' (Leviticus 15:19 ff). Furthermore, what was worse, as a result of her failure unqualified strangers had entered into God's holy place, stealing its treasures and rendering it unclean by their presence. One uncleanness leads to another. And meanwhile her people had had to trade their own personal treasures simply in order to obtain the food that enabled them to survive.
(Cheth) Jerusalem has grievously sinned,
Therefore she is become as an unclean thing,
All who honoured her despise her,
Because they have seen her nakedness,
Yes, she sighs,
And turns backward.
Note the emphasis on the fact that all this was because ‘Jerusalem has grievously sinned'. And by sin is meant breaches of the covenant, both ritual and moral. They had played havoc with God's covenant by murder, adultery, theft, perjury and covetousness, they had wallowed in idolatry (Jeremiah 7:9; Jeremiah 17:1-2), and all this had been exposed to the world, revealing her as a religious harlot. It was because of their sin that they had become like a menstrual woman whose nakedness was revealed. This would have literally occurred at the taking of Jerusalem with the enemy soldiers taking great delight in seizing menstruating women, ripping their clothes, and exposing them to the world. But it was also true metaphorically of Jerusalem as her sins and idolatry were also revealed to the world, causing her who had once been honoured, to be despised. She had defiled the religion of YHWH. She is then depicted as sighing deeply in her misery and shame at her exposure, and desperately and hopelessly trying to hide her condition by turning her back, hoping to hide herself from prying eyes, a totally useless enterprise, but it was all that she could do. She was unable to remove her sin. Indeed her means for doing so (the Temple ritual) had been destroyed.
(Teth) Her filthiness was in her skirts,
She did not remember what would follow for her later (her latter end/future),
Therefore is she come down spectacularly (wonderfully),
She has no comforter,
Behold, O YHWH, my affliction,
For the enemy has magnified himself.
She had not been concerned about the fact that she was defiling herself, and so she had wallowed in her dirt, because she had failed to consider what the final result might be. She had gloried in her uncleanness. Her collapse when it came was therefore both total and spectacular, with no one to turn to for comfort. Jerusalem now lay in ruins, with no one concerned about her of all her erstwhile allies, whilst her God also seemed far away.
We live today in times when uncleanness and immorality are being openly exposed to the world with no sense of shame. We too should recognise that our nations are heading for a spectacular fall.
The picture was so awful to the prophet's mind that he cried out to YHWH even as he wrote. For he saw the affliction of Jerusalem as his own affliction. He shared in her misery. (We do not therefore need to choose between seeing this prayer as that of the prophet or that of a stricken Jerusalem. It was both). And he sought to draw YHWH's attention to how their enemy was magnifying himself, and that included magnifying his gods. And by it the enemy were therefore deriding YHWH (‘the God of Israel'). Let God act therefore to defend His Name. It is a reminder that we too should identify ourselves with the sins of our nations, and should weep as the prophet wept, concerned for the honour of our God.
(Yod) The adversary has spread out his hand,
On all her pleasant things,
For she has seen that the nations,
Are entered into her sanctuary,
Concerning whom you commanded,
That they should not enter into your assembly.
The thought of the uncleanness of the nation now reminded the writer of what he saw as the most dreadful thing of all. The picture of the defiled, menstrual woman drew his attention to an even worse situation, the defilement of God's sanctuary that had resulted from it. As always happens the defilement had spread to God's house. The enemy had not hesitated to spread out his hands and gather in all Jerusalem's treasures (Jeremiah 52:17-23), and in order to do so had trespassed on both the area of the sanctuary reserved only for the priests, and on the area especially which no man could enter because the Ark of YHWH was there. Foreign feet, which should not even have been allowed to become a part of the festal gathering (assembly), had trampled God's Holy Place, where none but the especially sanctified could enter. And they had even entered the Holiest of All. And this was due to Jerusalem's sins. The writer was horrified at the thought.
We also need to remember that when we sin we defile God's Name and, if it is unrepented of, we carry our sin with us into the gathering of God's people. We do not therefore just defile ourselves, we defile God's holy Temple, His people.
(Kaph) All her people sigh,
They seek bread,
They have given their pleasant things,
For food to refresh the life within them (‘to cause life to return'),
See, O YHWH, and behold,
For I am become abject.
One of the consequences of all that had happened was that the people were now in extreme poverty. They were sighing at the miseries that had come on them, and they were so desperate to obtain food for themselves and their families, that in order to obtain it they were selling off their last remaining treasured possessions, even their children (for a reminder of the shortage of food during the sieges see 2 Kings 6:25-29; Jeremiah 37:21; Jeremiah 38:9; Jeremiah 52:6, but their hapless condition would continue afterwards, for they would not be well looked after by their captors). For even the richest was poor now. They had truly become an object of pity. And pity was what the writer felt as he looked on the situation. Once again it turns him to prayer as he identifies himself with his people and calls on YHWH to see his and their abject state.
It is a reminder that we also should be aware of, and pray about, the miseries of others when they are caught up in catastrophe, entering into their experience with them.