Lamentations 1:11 (WEB)

Passage

All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. “Look, Yahweh, and see; for I have become despised.”

Nearby Context

Lamentations 1:9 Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

Lamentations 1:10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.

Lamentations 1:11 All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. “Look, Yahweh, and see; for I have become despised.”

Lamentations 1:12 “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

Lamentations 1:13 “From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "people", "sigh", "seek", "bread", "given", "pleasant", "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 has spread out his hand..." into verse 12's "Is it nothing to you all you...", 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.