Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Lamentations 1:15 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 15. 15The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses assembly and winepress images for crushed warriors, young men, and Daughter Judah.
Read It With
- Lamentations 1:12-17
Read Lamentations 1:15 with 1:12-17. This verse uses assembly and winepress images for crushed warriors, young men, and Daughter Judah. The complete unit establishes this movement: Daughter Zion asks witnesses to look at unmatched sorrow and describes divine judgment through bodily images of fire, trapping, burden, collapse, crushed young people, and a winepress; tears and outstretched hands receive no comfort.
Why This Verse Appears Here
After two brief appeals for God to see, the personified sufferer now controls the description and insists that onlookers see what theological shorthand can conceal. Within that movement, this verse uses assembly and winepress images for crushed warriors, young men, and Daughter Judah.
Follow the Context
- Passersby are summoned to compare and witness sorrow.
- Fire, net, and yoke make judgment bodily and inescapable.
- The assembly and winepress images portray young people crushed.
- Tears and outstretched hands continue because comfort is distant and children are desolate.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“The Lord hath trodden under foot all my”
In plain language: This verse uses assembly and winepress images for crushed warriors, young men, and Daughter Judah.
Judgment language must be read at the scale of crushed young lives.
Why it matters: The wording carries textual, theological, ethical, or pastoral risk requiring its complete unit and stated limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not turn the winepress into a command for human violence or treat crushed young people as expendable.
What Remains True
Judgment language must be read at the scale of crushed young lives.
How It Can Shape Life
- Name the human cost of war and do not aestheticize crushing imagery.
Teach It Back
Explain how Lamentations 1:15 contributes to Lamentations 1:12-17. Include the surrounding alphabet stanza, the stated uncertainty, and what this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Lamentations 1:12-17 — Daughter Zion Names the Assault and Absent ComfortSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The grim 'assembly' may denote an appointed gathering against the city rather than worship.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 ↗