Lamentations 1:19
in Lamentations 1I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, While they sought them food to refresh their souls.
KJV
I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
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This verse in Lamentations 1
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThose that made court to her in her prosperity were shy of her, and strange to her, in her adversity. Happy are those that have made God their friend and keep themselves in his love, for he will not deceive them! Those whose office it was to guide her were disabled from doing her any service.
This site's exposition
Zion stretches out her hands
on Lamentations 1:17-19
“Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her”, the refrain of 1:2, 1:9, 1:16 and 1:21. The Hebrew word behind “an unclean thing” is the Law's term for a woman's ritual impurity in Leviticus 15:19. Zion confesses, “I have rebelled against His command”.
This site's exposition
I called out to my lovers
Adam Clarke names her lovers as her allies, Egypt among them, whose army drew off the Chaldeans for a time, Jeremiah 37:5-7. Her priests and elders perished while they searched for food, and Albert Barnes completes the line: they found none. Matthew Henry notes her comforters had no comfort left.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Here is the consumption of health of those ones killed by the famine during the siege. So, first is indicated deception from friends: "I called to my lovers but they deceived me". That is, just like the Egyptians, since they did not help me, as …
I CALLED FOR MY FRIENDS: the eleventh topic of indignation; the act is committed by them, namely, who had been expected to prevent it if done by another. BUT THEY DECEIVED ME: the fourth topic of complaint. Historical interpretation I CALLED FOR MY FRIENDS: COPH …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
), in which he is justified in their affliction and is humbly solicited to justify himself in their deliverance. The Miseries of Jerusalem; Grief for the Loss of Ordinances.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The famine is sore indeed in the land when there is no bread to the wise, when priests and elders are starved. The priests and elders should have been her comforters; but how should they comfort others when they themselves were comfortless? " They have heard that I sigh, which should have summoned them to my assistance; but there is none to comfort me.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Is it nothing - The prophet speaks in the name of the Jewish church. Fire - A judgment as consuming, and afflictive as fire. Is bound - Put upon my neck on account of my transgressions.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
I called for my lovers, but they deceived me,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I called for my lovers - My allies; the Egyptians and others.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I called for ... - Rather, to “my lovers.” While they sought their meat - literally, “for they sought food for themselves to revive their souls.” Complete the sense by adding, “and found none.”
The words behind it
15 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| קָרָ֤אתִי | karati | I called | H7121 → | 733 times |
| לַֽמְאַהֲבַי֙ | lamahavai | to <the> lovers my | H157 → | |
| הֵ֣מָּה | hemah | they | H1992 → | |
| רִמּ֔וּנִי | rimuni | they deceived me | H7411 → | |
| כֹּהֲנַ֥י | kohanai | priests my | H3548 → | 750 times |
| וּזְקֵנַ֖י | uzekenai | and elders my | H2205 → | 178 times |
| בָּעִ֣יר | bair | in the city | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| גָּוָ֑עוּ | gavau | they perished | H1478 → | |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| בִקְשׁ֥וּ | vikshu | they sought | H1245 → | |
| אֹ֙כֶל֙ | ʾokhel | food | H400 → | |
| לָ֔מוֹ | lamo | for themselves | ||
| וְיָשִׁ֖יבוּ | veyashivu | so they may be restored | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| נַפְשָֽׁם׃ ס | nafsham | life their | H5315 → | 754 times |
קָרָ֤אתִיI called
karatiH7121 →733 times
לַֽמְאַהֲבַי֙to <the> lovers my
lamahavaiH157 →
הֵ֣מָּהthey
hemahH1992 →
רִמּ֔וּנִיthey deceived me
rimuniH7411 →
כֹּהֲנַ֥יpriests my
kohanaiH3548 →750 times
וּזְקֵנַ֖יand elders my
uzekenaiH2205 →178 times
בָּעִ֣ירin the city
bairH5892 →1090 times
גָּוָ֑עוּthey perished
gavauH1478 →
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
בִקְשׁ֥וּthey sought
vikshuH1245 →
אֹ֙כֶל֙food
ʾokhelH400 →
לָ֔מוֹfor themselves
lamo
וְיָשִׁ֖יבוּso they may be restored
veyashivuH7725 →1056 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
נַפְשָֽׁם׃ סlife their
nafshamH5315 →754 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Lamentations 1:11All her people groan as they search for bread. They have traded their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. Look, O LORD, and consider, for I have become despised.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 52:6
By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
- Lamentations 2:12
They cry out to their mothers: “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their…
- Jeremiah 38:9
“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there…
- Jeremiah 52:6
Through
Lamentations 2:20Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
it leads to
- Jeremiah 19:9
I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
- Lamentations 4:10
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Psalms 78:64
His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.
- Jeremiah 19:9
Through
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.
it leads to
- Psalms 6:6
I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
- Micah 7:5
Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.
- Psalms 6:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Lamentations
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; Glossa Ordinaria, Commentary (church-history corpus); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.