Lamentations 1:11 (GNV)

Passage

All her people sigh and seeke their bread: they haue giuen their pleasant thinges for meate to refresh the soule: see, O Lord, and consider: for I am become vile.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 1:9 Her filthinesse is in her skirts: she remembred not her last ende, therefore she came downe wonderfully: she had no comforter: O Lord, behold mine affliction: for the enemie is proud.

Lamentations 1:10 The enemie hath stretched out his hande vpon al her pleasant things: for she hath seene the heathen enter into her Sanctuarie, whom thou diddest commande, that they shoulde not enter into thy Church.

Lamentations 1:11 All her people sigh and seeke their bread: they haue giuen their pleasant thinges for meate to refresh the soule: see, O Lord, and consider: for I am become vile.

Lamentations 1:12 Haue ye no regarde, all yee that passe by this way? behold, and see, if there be any sorowe like vnto my sorowe, which is done vnto mee, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath.

Lamentations 1:13 From aboue hath hee sent fire into my bones, which preuaile against them: he hath spred a net for my feete, and turned me backe: hee hath made me desolate, and daily in heauinesse.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "people", "sigh", "seeke", "bread", "haue", "giuen", "pleasant", and "thinges". 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 enemie hath stretched out his hande..." into verse 12's "Haue ye no regarde all yee that...", 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.