Absolute Agony
Lamentations 1:1-22
The city suffers all alone. The city weeps. The city lies abandoned. The city is restless. The city lies in bitter anguish. The city’s religious celebrations have ceased. The city has been violated. The city starves. The city is in absolute agony. The first poem of Lamentations paints this bleak picture of once glorious Jerusalem. In order to do so, the poet uses two poetic devises: personification and anaphora.
Personification applies life-like qualities to an inanimate object. In Lamentations 1, the poet represents Jerusalem as a woman. In doing this, the poet utilizes the city-lament genre. This literary motif was primarily used in Mesopotamia. Poems that use this genre depict the destruction of particular cities by the chief god. Often the players in these laments are the chief god and the city’s goddess.[1] The poet of Lamentations adapts this genre, directly personifying Jerusalem rather than voicing the city’s anguish through a goddess. This adaptation comes about because the people of Israel did not assign various gods and goddesses to their cities. They believe in Yahweh as the one true God. No other gods could direct the fate of the people or the land in which they lived.
The use of this poetic devise encourages the readers to hear, understand, and experience the absolute agony of the city. The imagery of a suffering female is used to great effect throughout the poem. As the lady begins her lament, she announces her widowhood, emphasizing her bereft reality at the loss of her one true love. The imagery of a queen turned slave further declares the city’s bereft nature. She has lost all royalty and honor. Instead, her captors abuse and destroy her. Lovers and friends have betrayed her. In fact, the poem uses sexual imagery to emphasize the violence done against the city. In verse 8, the city experiences shame as others observe her nakedness. Then in verse 9, her filthiness clings to her skirts, perhaps revealing a situation of sexual violation. Finally, the image of the enemy laying hands upon her treasures in verse 10 further emphasizes the vile violation against the city. Verse 11, continues the image of the suffering city as the people groan in hunger, trading their treasures for bread.
The agony of the personified city does not end at verse 11. As the poem continues, the lady speaks her mind, announcing the suffering afflicted upon her by the Lord. Through images of burning bones, enforced servitude, the crushing actions of enemy armies, and destitute children, we can come to understand the absolute agony experienced by this city.
Throughout this personification, the poet masterfully weaves another poetic device, that of the structure of intensification or anaphora. Hebrew poetry typically uses this device as a magnifying glass. As a word, phrase, or concept gets repeated throughout the poem, the idea behind that word, phrase, or concept becomes more intense. The greater frequency implies greater importance within the poem.[2] The first chapter of Lamentations weaves many of these intensifications throughout the text in order to emphasize the absolute agony of the personified city.
The word “all” is repeated 16 times. This repetition emphasizes the totality of the city’s agony.[3] All her lovers fail to offer comfort. All who pursue her have overtaken her. All her gateways are desolate. All her splendor has departed. All who honored her despise her. This sampling of the use of this word emphasizes the absoluteness of the agony experienced by the city. Jerusalem suffers completely.
In the midst of the suffering, another repetition compounds the pain: no one will comfort. This idea, repeated 5 times throughout the chapter, sets the tone for the city’s misery.[4] In the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the groaning, and in the midst of violation, no one comes beside her. No one cares. All the lovers fail to offer comfort. There is none to comfort as she falls through foreign violation. No one is near to comfort or restore her spirit. Even as she reaches out her hands, no one offers comfort. Even though people hear her groaning, no one offers comfort. Not only does the city lie in complete agony, but she does so alone. To be denied comfort compounds the pain.[5]
The poet uses the personification of the city and anaphora in order to help the audience, both Israel and those who read the poem in the future, to realize truth. Yes, sometimes agony is absolute, but we need to consider the cause of such agony. Throughout the poem the narrator and the personified city hint at the ultimate cause, but it is not until verse 18 that truth comes fully to the forefront. On the journey to the truths revealed in verse 18, the narrator and the city place blame either on the Lord or upon the enemies. As the words wrestle through the agony, verse 18 finally reveals truth through the city’s voice, “The Lord is righteous, yet I rebelled against His command.” The confession reveals God’s just and right actions. God remains faithful to the covenant. The confession also reveals that Israel has betrayed the covenant.
However, this truth does not come easily for the city.[6] Pain still consumes. Agony still overwhelms. She still expresses longing for reprieve and punishment toward the enemies who have inflicted the pain. In the midst of this, the people need to face reality. If there is only one true God and that God is truly sovereign, He has brought this pain. Yet, it is to that God to whom the people must turn and seek comfort, reprieve from the pain, and ultimately reconciliation. Those who suffer live in this paradox.
Not all pain is caused by personal sin. In the case of Israel, the personified city, the corporate sin of rebellion against the covenant brought about God’s just punishment. Sometimes individuals face consequences brought on by the rebellion of many. Sometimes, individuals face the consequences brought on by the fact that we live in a world broken by human acts of rebellion and injustice. Yet, in this, it remains true that none are innocent. All people rebel and in God’s right justice, God must bring about consequences, no matter how agonizing those consequences are for both the people and God. Thanks be to God that the ultimate consequence is taken on by Jesus Christ upon the cross so that people might find restoration to God.
Like the personified city, the people of Israel, we all must live in the paradox when faced with agony. In this existence, we need to cry out to God and beg Him to notice our absolute agony. But in the same thought, we must seek out our own complicity in this pain, our acts of injustice and idolatry as a society. Exile finds its cause in rebellion against God’s righteousness and shalom. Exile finds hope in the midst of agony through confession and reconciliation as we seek after God. This seeking is made all the more possible through Christ Jesus our Lord!
Prayer: Righteous Lord, you are just and you call us to be a people of justice. Too often we betray you and your call to righteous living. This brings about agony within our world and our lives. Lord, we ask that you will heal our world! Please cease suffering! Please enable your people to become a people of righteousness. Please guide us to become comforters in the midst of the pain. Lord, as we deal with the fallout of our own rebellion, heal us, forgive us, and draw us into deeper relationship with you! We pray this through the reconciling grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen!
[1] F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Interpretation: Lamentations. (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2002), 7.
[2] Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry. (Basic Books, 1985), 62-63.
[3] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Lamentations. (Downers Grove: IVP, 2015), www.scribd.com edition, 73.
[4] Walter C. Kaiser, A Biblical Approach to Personal Suffering. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1982), 45.
[5] Wright, 73.
[6] Barry G. Webb, Five Festal Garments. (Downers Grove: IVP, 2000), 64.
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