Lamentations 1:8 (KJV)

Passage

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Lamentations 1:7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

Lamentations 1:8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Lamentations 1:9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jerusalem", "hath", "grievously", "sinned", "therefore", "removed", "honoured", and "despise". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jerusalem" and "hath", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 7's "Jerusalem remembered in the days of her..." into verse 9's "Her filthiness is in her skirts she...", so "jerusalem" and "hath" 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 "jerusalem" and "hath" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.