Lamentations 1:17 (LSB)

Passage

Zion stretches out her hands; There is no one to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob That the ones round about him should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 1:15 The Lord has rejected all my mighty men In my midst; He has called an appointed time against me To break my young men; The Lord has trodden as in a wine press The virgin daughter of Judah.

Lamentations 1:16 For these things I am weeping; My eyes run down with water; Because far from me is a comforter, One who restores my soul. My children are desolate Because the enemy has prevailed.”

Lamentations 1:17 Zion stretches out her hands; There is no one to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob That the ones round about him should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become an impure thing among them.

Lamentations 1:18 “Yahweh is righteous; For I have rebelled against His command; Hear now, all peoples, And behold my pain; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity.

Lamentations 1:19 I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; My priests and my elders breathed their last in the city While they sought food for themselves in order to restore their souls.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "zion", "stretches", "hands", "comfort", "yahweh", "commanded", "concerning", and "jacob". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "zion" and "stretches", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "For these things I am weeping My..." into verse 18's "Yahweh is righteous For I have rebelled...", so "zion" and "stretches" 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 "zion" and "stretches" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.