Lamentations 1:11 (LSB)

Passage

All her people are sighing, seeking bread; They have given their desirable things for food To restore their souls. “See, O Yahweh, and look, For I am despised.”

Nearby Context

Lamentations 1:9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; She did not remember her future. Therefore she has gone down astonishingly; She has no comforter. “See, O Yahweh, my affliction, For the enemy has magnified himself!”

Lamentations 1:10 The adversary has stretched out his hand Over all her desirable things, For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, The ones whom You commanded That they should not enter into Your assembly.

Lamentations 1:11 All her people are sighing, seeking bread; They have given their desirable things for food To restore their souls. “See, O Yahweh, and look, For I am despised.”

Lamentations 1:12 “Is it nothing to all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain Which was dealt severely to me, Which Yahweh grieved me with on the day of His burning anger.

Lamentations 1:13 From on high He sent fire into my bones, And it dominated them. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me desolate, Faint all day long.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "The adversary has stretched out his hand..." into verse 12's "Is it nothing to all you who...", so "people" and "sighing" 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 "sighing" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.