Lamentations 1:1-2 - Exposition

The fate of Jerusalem is described in language which resembles here and there that used in Isaiah of fallen Babylon ( Isaiah 47:1 , Isaiah 47:8 ). It is probably the finest passage in the whole bock, and has inspired some grand lines in Mr. Swinburne's picture of the republican mater dolorosa—

"Who is she that sits by the way, by the wild wayside,

In a rust-stained garment, the robes of a cast-off bride,

In the dust, in the rainfall, sitting with soiled feet bare,

With the night for a garment upon her, with torn, wet hair," etc.?