Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Lamentations 1:18 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 18. 18The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse lets Zion confess rebellion while asking all peoples to behold captive young women and men.
Read It With
- Lamentations 1:18-22
Read Lamentations 1:18 with 1:18-22. This verse lets Zion confess rebellion while asking all peoples to behold captive young women and men. The complete unit establishes this movement: Zion confesses rebellion without hiding captive youth, failed allies, famine, bodily distress, pervasive death, or enemy delight; she asks God—not the wounded community—to judge enemy wickedness as her sighs continue.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The poem ends without comfort: confession names responsibility, failed relationships and hunger expose other agents, and lament becomes entrusted protest while faintness remains. Within that movement, this verse lets Zion confess rebellion while asking all peoples to behold captive young women and men.
Follow the Context
- Zion confesses rebellion and summons peoples to witness captive young people.
- Failed allies deceive her while priests and elders die seeking food.
- She asks the LORD to see visceral distress as sword outside and death inside leave no safe space.
- Enemies rejoice, so Zion asks God to reckon their wickedness and closes faint, not restored.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“The LORD is righteous”
In plain language: This verse lets Zion confess rebellion while asking all peoples to behold captive young women and men.
Voluntary confession and public witness to captive youth can coexist.
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 transfer a community's confession onto captive young people as proof that they caused their suffering.
What Remains True
Voluntary confession and public witness to captive youth can coexist.
How It Can Shape Life
- Let communities own specific wrongs while prioritizing captives' safety.
Teach It Back
Explain how Lamentations 1:18 contributes to Lamentations 1:18-22. 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 1:18-22 — Confession, Failed Allies, and an Enemy PetitionSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The confession belongs to personified Zion and does not specify each person's culpability.
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 1:18-22, 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 ↗