"We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert. Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.

Women have been violated in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah. Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect. Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.

You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure."
- Lamentations 5:9-22

Jeremiah’s Visual of the Consequences that Resulted from Rebellion Against the Lord

Food had been scarce during the last several years not only because of the siege, but also because of the famine that had struck the land. The lack of food continued even outside the walls of fallen Jerusalem. Attaining food was not only difficult, but also dangerous because of the raiders who moved freely through the land searching for food.

Dehydration (from lack of food and water) made the bodies of the Jews who remained in the land feverish and discolored.

The people left behind have been abused and continued to be abused:

• Women who endured a two and a half year siege inside the city of Jerusalem were raped
• Virgins from all the remote rural towns in Judah have been taken by Babylonian soldiers and officers.
• Princes, the bodily remains of men from the royal family that did not try to escape with Zedekiah and where not taken back to Babylon are still hanging by their hands on the walls, buildings and trees for birds and wild animals to eat.
• Elders are no longer recognized, in fact in Lamentations 5:8 it indicates that many of these former slave owners are now working mercilessly for their former slaves who had apparently been given some kind of authority by the Babylonians (These elders may have gone into hiding only to reappear after the Babylonian forces had left the land since 2 Kings 24:14 says, “only the poorest people of the land were left” after the 597 BC exile that took Ezekiel and the other craftsmen.)
• Young men were forced to labor like an animal
• Boys have had their childhood stolen from them since they now work like pack animals

Before the Babylonian invasion these people’s lives had been quite different:

• Elders ruled with authority in the city gates
• Young men played music
• Women and young girls where filled with joy as the danced in the glory that came from culture with structure and freedom.

But, all this has changed because of sin.

The ruins of the glorious Temple and its courts on Mount Moriah are now nothing more than hunting grounds for wild jackals who are also scavenging this desolate land for food.

Yet, in this hopeless state Jeremiah ends his book of lamentation seeking the Lord and crying out for mercy. What else can they do? So, now, they wait in hope for their restoration.

I will consider the blessing I have today. I will thank God for the goodness I participate in everyday which include:

• provisions
• order
• safety
• relationships
• hope