Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Lamentations 1:8 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 8. 8Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse joins confession to degrading exposure, contempt, sighing, and withdrawal.
Read It With
- Lamentations 1:8-11
Read Lamentations 1:8 with 1:8-11. This verse joins confession to degrading exposure, contempt, sighing, and withdrawal. The complete unit establishes this movement: The narrator names Jerusalem's grievous sin while refusing to hide degrading exposure, violated sacred space, and people exchanging treasured possessions for food; the city's voice breaks through twice to ask God to see.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The poem moves from third-person observation into first-person prayer, showing that confession and protest can occupy the same wounded speech. Within that movement, this verse joins confession to degrading exposure, contempt, sighing, and withdrawal.
Follow the Context
- Sin and reversal are named without erasing the contempt inflicted by others.
- A sudden first-person plea asks the LORD to see an enemy's self-exaltation.
- The adversary invades treasures and sanctuary.
- Hunger forces exchange of precious goods, and the voice again asks God to see degradation.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Jerusalem hath grievously sinned”
In plain language: This verse joins confession to degrading exposure, contempt, sighing, and withdrawal.
Acknowledging wrongdoing does not make humiliation or violation deserved.
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 equate exposed nakedness, assault, or bodily shame with deserved moral pollution.
What Remains True
Acknowledging wrongdoing does not make humiliation or violation deserved.
How It Can Shape Life
- Keep accountability distinct from protecting a person's bodily dignity.
Teach It Back
Explain how Lamentations 1:8 contributes to Lamentations 1:8-11. 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 1:8-11 — Shame, Desecration, and Hunger Become PrayerSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The impurity and exposure terms are gendered poetry with multiple proposed nuances.
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 1:8-11, 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.1.8-Lam.1.11
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 1:8-11
Open source ↗