Lamentations — Chapter 1
Synopsis: First elegiac alphabet (each verse beginning with a successive Hebrew letter, aleph to taw). Jeremiah laments the desolation of Jerusalem after the final Chaldean destruction under Zedekiah: the city sits like a widow, abandoned by lovers, weeping through the night. God's anger was the ultimate cause (v.5: 'the Lord hath spoken for the multitude of her iniquities'). Christ allegorically wept in the same way over Jerusalem's future Roman devastation (Luke 19:41).
Verse 1
How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is the mistress of nations become as a widow, the princess of provinces made tributary! The striking opening word 'Eichah!' (How!) = the book's Hebrew title. The five contrasts: full/empty, mistress/tributary, princess/widow, beloved/deserted, joyful/weeping. Lapide: the lament is simultaneously historical (Babylon) and typological (Rome's destruction of Jerusalem for killing Christ). Applied to the soul stripped of grace: 'How doth the soul sit solitary that was full of God's presence!'
Verse 2
She weepeth bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all them that were dear to her, she hath none to comfort her. The night-weeping of the desolate soul with none to comfort — one of the most moving images of desolation in Scripture. Lapide: all human comforters fail the truly afflicted soul; only God can give true consolation. Applied to the death-agony and to souls in purgatory (who weep in their night of purification without earthly comforters).
Verse 5
Her enemies are become her lords: her enemies are enriched: because the Lord hath spoken against her for the multitude of her iniquities. The enemies' dominion over Jerusalem = God's permitted punishment for Israel's sins. Lapide: sin always reverses the proper order — those who should be subjects become lords, and those who should reign become tributaries. The 'little children are led into captivity' = the innocent suffer with the guilty as a consequence of national sin.
Verse 12
O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow: for he hath made a vintage of me, as the Lord spoke in the day of his fierce anger. Applied by the Fathers primarily to Christ's lament on the Cross: 'Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow?' Lapide: this is the traditional Passion devotion verse. The Church applies it to Christ's suffering exceeding all other human pain in intensity (soul's separation from God's consolation) and in extent (bearing the sins of all humanity).
Verse 18
The Lord is just; for I have provoked his mouth to wrath: hear, I pray you, all people, and see my sorrow. Jerusalem confesses God's justice in punishing her: this is the right disposition of the afflicted — not complaint against God but acknowledgment of one's own guilt. Lapide: this confession of God's justice is the beginning of restoration (cf. Luke 15:18: 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee').