Introduction
I. THE DESTRUCTION AND MISERY OF JERUSALEM (THE FIRST LAMENT) CH. 1
This acrostic lament contains a variety of similar statements describing the destruction and the consequent misery of Jerusalem. Thus, the two section titles that follow describe a slight shift in viewpoint, rather than a major division of the chapter into two distinct segments. In the first part (Lamentations 1:1-11), the prophet described the desolate city primarily from the viewpoint of an observer. In the second part (Lamentations 1:12-22), he personified Jerusalem bewailing her own desolate condition.
"Jeremiah’s first dirge established the book’s theme-the sorrow of sin." [Note: Dyer, "Lamentations," p. 1211.]
All the dirges in Lamentations express the grief of the defeated Jerusalemites. But the miserable condition of the city is most prominent in this first one, not so much what she had undergone as what she had become.
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