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Lamentations 1:18-22, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Lamentations 1:18-22
Confession, Failed Allies, and an Enemy Petition
She confesses, and still names what allies and famine did
The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. She summons peoples to hear and to behold her sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. She called for her lovers, and they deceived her. Priests and elders gave up the ghost in the city while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
Rebellion is admitted. Captive youth, failed allies, and leaders dying for food remain other agents in the same speech. The poem will not let confession hide famine or betrayal.
The last petition hands the enemy to God, then stays faint
Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me. Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. Enemies have heard of her trouble and are glad. She asks that the day thou hast called will bring their wickedness before God as her transgressions were brought, and that they may become as she is.
The requested day is not dated. The petition is prayer, not a commission for revenge, harassment, or collective punishment. The first poem ends with sighs and a faint heart. No comforter arrives.
How this should shape us
Give anger a safe, nonviolent form before God and in accountable justice. Do not pressure traumatized people to sound reconciled while harm is still unaddressed, and do not use this enemy language against a modern people.
Teach it back
Explain Lamentations 1:18-22 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 relation between confession, a future day, and reciprocal judgment remains debated. Prayer language can entrust rage to God without making every requested outcome an ethical instruction for readers.
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 1:18-22, 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.1.18-Lam.1.22
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, syntax, textual, acrostic, literary, historical, and translation notes.
NET Bible Lamentations PDF, printed pp. 1551-1558, translation and notes on 1:18-22
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 1:18-22
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 1:18-22
Supports: A hopeful linear alternative concerning poem endings, prayer, 3:22-33, enemy petitions, chapter 5, and the limits of despair-centered readings.
Muriwo, 'Hope from a Linear Reading of Lamentations,' journal pp. 4-6 on the first poem's ending; applied to 1:18-22
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 1:18-22, 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.1.18-Lam.1.22
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 1:18-22
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 1:18-22
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 1:18-22
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Hope from a Linear Reading of Lamentations
Golden Muriwo
Scriptura 124.1, 2025
Supports: A hopeful linear alternative concerning poem endings, prayer, 3:22-33, enemy petitions, chapter 5, and the limits of despair-centered readings.
Exact location: Muriwo, 'Hope from a Linear Reading of Lamentations,' journal pp. 4-6 on the first poem's ending; applied to 1:18-22
Open source ↗