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Lamentations 1:16

in Lamentations 1

For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water; Because the comforter that should refresh my soul is far from me: My children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed.

KJV

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.

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This verse in Lamentations 1

Commentary

2 notes on this verse
For these things I weep,.... The congregation of Judah, the godly among them, particularly Jeremiah, who represented them, wept for the sins the people had been guilty of, and for the punishment inflicted on them, or the sore calamities that were brought upon them.

This site's exposition

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by

on Lamentations 1:12-16

The chapter's most quoted line addresses every passerby directly, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. In the poem's own setting the cry is Jerusalem's over her own ruin, fire sent into the bones, a net for the feet, the Lord treading the virgin daughter of Judah as in a winepress. A long line of Christian reading, carried into Good Friday's own liturgy, has heard the verse again on the lips of Christ; the bench names the reading as devotional application rather than the text's original address, both stated without erasing either.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Trampled. He trampled and trod, an expression of, “pave, pave סֹלּוּ the road.” 51 Yeshayahuu:10.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Lamentations 1:15:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • אֵ֣לֶּה׀these [things]

    ʾelehH428 →

  • אֲנִ֣יI

    ʾaniH589 →874 times

  • בוֹכִיָּ֗ה[am] weeping

    vokhiyahH1058 →114 times

  • עֵינִ֤י׀eye my

    ʾeiniH5869 →887 times

  • עֵינִי֙eye my

    ʾeiniH5869 →887 times

  • יֹ֣רְדָה[is] going down

    yoredahH3381 →381 times

  • מַּ֔יִםwater

    mayimH4325 →581 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • רָחַ֥קhe is far

    rachakH7368 →

  • מִמֶּ֛נִּיfrom me

    mimeniH4480 →

  • מְנַחֵ֖םa comforter

    menachemH5162 →108 times

  • מֵשִׁ֣יב[one who] restores

    meshivH7725 →1056 times

  • נַפְשִׁ֑יlife my

    nafshiH5315 →754 times

  • הָי֤וּthey are

    hayuH1961 →3559 times

  • בָנַי֙children my

    vanaiH1121 →4930 times

  • שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔יםdesolate

    shomemimH8074 →86 times

  • כִּ֥יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • גָבַ֖רhe has prevailed

    gavarH1396 →

  • אוֹיֵֽב׃ ס[the] enemy

    ʾoyevH341 →282 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Lamentations 1:2She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.5 worksPsalms 119:136My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.5 worksJohn 11:35Jesus wept.5 worksLuke 13:34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!5 worksLamentations 2:18The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.5 worksLamentations 2:11My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.5 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Jeremiah 13:17But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.4 worksLamentations 3:48–49Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.4 worksJeremiah 14:17You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.4 worksLamentations 1:21People have heard my groaning, but there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have caused it. May You bring the day You have announced, so that they may become like me.4 worksJob 16:16My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;4 worksPsalms 6:6I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.3 worksLamentations 1:17Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has decreed against Jacob that his neighbors become his foes. Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.3 worksLamentations 3:17My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.3 worksPsalms 13:4lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall.3 worksPsalms 137:1By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.3 worksJoel 1:9Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.3 worksLamentations 4:2–10How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 119:136

    My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 9:1

      Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

      Reached by 4 separate paths from here.

    • Jeremiah 14:17

      You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow,…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 9:4

      “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”

    • 1 Samuel 15:11

      “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all…

    • Psalms 119:158

      I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.

  • Through

    Lamentations 2:18

    The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 119:145

      I call with all my heart; answer me, O LORD! I will obey Your statutes.

    • Lamentations 2:8

      The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together…

  • Through

    Jeremiah 13:17

    But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

    it leads to

    • Malachi 2:2

      If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse…

Where this verse is studied

2 studies on this verse

About Lamentations

People Mourn over the Destruction of Jerusalem — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
People Mourn over the Destruction of Jerusalem — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Lamentations: the study guide →Read Lamentations 1 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Lamentations 1 →