Lamentations 1:12-17, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Lamentations 1:12-17
Daughter Zion Names the Assault and Absent Comfort
Passersby are asked to look at unmatched sorrow
Daughter Zion now holds the speech. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. The line may also be heard as a wish that this not happen to the onlooker. Either way, she insists that witnesses look.
Fire into the bones, a net for the feet, a yoke bound on her neck, and strength failing make judgment bodily. These are a sufferer's metaphors, not a complete theory of God and not instructions for human punishment.
Fire, yoke, and winepress describe a body, not a method
The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men; he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these things she weeps; her eye runs down with water because the comforter that should relieve her soul is far from her. Her children are desolate.
Verse 17 briefly views her from outside: Zion spreads forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her. The winepress and yoke must not be aestheticized, and they must not become tools readers imagine themselves authorized to wield.
How this should shape us
Let sufferers describe harm in their own terms. Do not turn unmatched sorrow into a contest that silences other grief, and do not become anyone's fire, net, yoke, or winepress. Comfort here is presence and protection, not a lecture that every calamity proves a victim's guilt.
Teach it back
Explain Lamentations 1:12-17 in your own words. Include its poetic movement, one material uncertainty, one vulnerable person or group centered by the text, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The precise rhetorical force of 1:12 and several grammatical details are debated. The voice's attribution to God should be heard inside lament's testimony and the whole book, not expanded into a claim that every calamity reveals a victim's guilt.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Lamentations 1:12-17, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, alphabet sequence, person and number, repeated vocabulary, and translation questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lam.xml, OSIS Lam.1.12-Lam.1.17
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, syntax, textual, acrostic, literary, historical, and translation notes.
NET Bible Lamentations PDF, printed pp. 1551-1558, translation and notes on 1:12-17
Supports: Five-poem form, historical horizon, voice, judgment, Daughter Zion, chapter 3, famine, hope alternatives, and the unresolved ending.
Joyce, 'Lamentations,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 529-530, discussion of poem 1 and 1:12-17
Supports: Trauma-informed analysis of voice, embodiment, humiliation, divine and human agency, children, famine, resistance, memory, and fragile hope.
Yansen, Daughter Zion's Trauma, printed pp. 154-201 and 203-245 on trauma poetics, Daughter Zion, famine, children, judgment, protest, and resistance; applied to 1:12-17
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Exact location: Lamentations 1:12-17, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Lamentations
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, alphabet sequence, person and number, repeated vocabulary, and translation questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lam.xml, OSIS Lam.1.12-Lam.1.17
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Lamentations with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, syntax, textual, acrostic, literary, historical, and translation notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Lamentations PDF, printed pp. 1551-1558, translation and notes on 1:12-17
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Lamentations
Paul M. Joyce
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Five-poem form, historical horizon, voice, judgment, Daughter Zion, chapter 3, famine, hope alternatives, and the unresolved ending.
Exact location: Joyce, 'Lamentations,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 529-530, discussion of poem 1 and 1:12-17
Open source ↗doctoral dissertation and trauma reading
Daughter Zion's Trauma: Reading Lamentations with Insights from Trauma Studies
James Washington Sydgrave Yansen, Jr.
Boston University School of Theology / OpenBU, 2016
Supports: Trauma-informed analysis of voice, embodiment, humiliation, divine and human agency, children, famine, resistance, memory, and fragile hope.
Exact location: Yansen, Daughter Zion's Trauma, printed pp. 154-201 and 203-245 on trauma poetics, Daughter Zion, famine, children, judgment, protest, and resistance; applied to 1:12-17
Open source ↗