Verse 1
THE MISERIES DESCRIBED, Lamentations 1:1-11.
1. As a widow Jerusalem is personified as a desolate woman, deprived of children and husband, neglected by her lovers and betrayed by her friends. It is an interesting fact, that the image of this verse is the one chosen for the coin of Titus, struck to commemorate his triumph over Jerusalem, which shows a woman weeping under a palm tree, and the inscription, “Judea Capta.” The real structure of this first verse is disguised in the English Version, as also in the Masoretic pointing. The reading should be:
How sitteth she alone, the city full of people!
She has become like a widow (that was) great among the nations!
A princess among provinces, she has become a vassal.
The exclamation point in the English Version after “widow” should be removed to stand after nations, and the and introduced by the translators should be returned to the nothingness whence it sprung.
Be the first to react on this!
