Lamentations 1:11 (DBY)

Passage

All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their precious things for food to revive [their] soul. See, Jehovah, and consider, for I am become vile.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 1:9 Her impurity was in her skirts, she remembered not her latter end; and she came down wonderfully: she hath no comforter. Jehovah, behold my affliction; for the enemy hath magnified himself.

Lamentations 1:10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her precious things; for she hath seen the nations enter into her sanctuary, concerning whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Lamentations 1:11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their precious things for food to revive [their] soul. See, Jehovah, and consider, for I am become vile.

Lamentations 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, whom Jehovah hath afflicted in the day of his fierce anger.

Lamentations 1:13 From on high hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them; he hath spread a net for my feet; he hath turned me back; he hath made me desolate [and] faint all the day.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "people", "sigh", "seek", "bread", "given", "precious", "things", and "food". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "people" and "sigh", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "The adversary hath spread out his hand..." into verse 12's "Is it nothing to you all ye...", so "people" and "sigh" belong inside that flow. In Lamentations context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "people" and "sigh" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.