Bird's-eye view
In this verse, the prophet Jeremiah, speaking as the personified city of Jerusalem, paints a grim picture of covenant judgment. The consequences of sin are not abstract theological concepts; they are visceral, tangible, and gut wrenching. The people are starving, not just for physical food, but for true spiritual substance. In their desperation, they make a fool's bargain, trading away their treasures for temporary relief. This is the economy of sin, always selling the eternal for the ephemeral. The verse culminates in a raw cry to God, an appeal for Him to see their degraded state. This turn from description to supplication is the beginning of all true repentance: acknowledging the depth of the degradation and looking to the only one who can restore.
Outline
- 1. The Consequence of Covenant Breaking (v. 11a)
- a. The Groaning of a Starving People
- b. The Fool's Bargain
- 2. The Cry of a Despised City (v. 11b)
- a. An Appeal to God's Attention
- b. An Admission of Shame
Context In Lamentations
Lamentations 1 is a dirge over the fallen city of Jerusalem. The city is personified as a widow, a princess brought into slavery, utterly desolate. The surrounding verses detail the abandonment by her "lovers" (allies) and the triumph of her enemies. This is all set within the framework of God's righteous judgment. Yahweh Himself has brought this calamity upon His people because of their transgressions (Lam. 1:5). Verse 11 is the heart of this lament, moving from a third person description of the suffering to a first person cry directly to God. It marks a pivot from observing the disaster to owning it and pleading from within it.
Clause-by-Clause Commentary
11a All her people are sighing, seeking bread;
The sighing here is the sound of a curse being fulfilled. This is not a mere poetic flourish; it is the audible result of covenant rebellion. When a people forsakes the Lord of the harvest, the harvest fails. When they turn from the Bread of Life, they are reduced to a desperate, all consuming search for literal bread. This is a physical picture of a spiritual reality. A soul that rejects God is a soul that is perpetually starving, always seeking, never satisfied. The sighing is the groan of a people discovering that the cisterns they hewed for themselves hold no water. The judgment of God is always fitting. They sought satisfaction in created things, and now they are reduced to the most basic, creaturely desperation.
11b They have given their desirable things for food
Here we see the fundamental transaction of sin. Sin always demands that you trade your treasure for trash. What are these "desirable things"? They are the heirlooms, the precious vessels, the symbols of their inheritance and identity. These were likely the very things they trusted in, the idols of their security and prosperity. Now, in the crucible of judgment, they trade them all away for a crust of bread. This is Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of stew, writ large over an entire nation. Covetousness is idolatry, the apostle tells us. Jerusalem coveted the gods and practices of the nations, and now she must sell off everything that made her distinct to stave off starvation for one more day. This is the end game of all idolatry: you sacrifice your treasures on the altar of your appetite, only to find yourself still empty.
11c To restore their souls.
The Hebrew word is nephesh, which can mean life, or the person himself. They are trying to keep body and soul together. But the spiritual irony is thick. They are attempting to restore their souls with that which cannot satisfy. Only God can restore the soul (Ps. 23:3). They are applying a physical solution to a spiritual catastrophe. Their empty bellies are a symptom, not the disease. The disease is their empty relationship with Yahweh, brought on by their sin. They think, "If only we had bread, our souls would be restored." This is the lie of materialism that our own culture has swallowed whole. We think the solution to our deep spiritual malaise is one more purchase, one more experience, one more distraction. But you cannot feed the soul with bread alone; it requires every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
11d "See, O Yahweh, and look,
The lament now shifts from a description of the people's plight to a direct address to God. This is the beginning of wisdom. In the depths of their self inflicted misery, they finally look up. The cry for God to "see" is not to inform Him of a situation He is unaware of. He is the author of this judgment. Rather, it is a plea for Him to look upon them with covenant mercy. It is the cry of a child who, having received a deserved spanking, now looks to his father's face, hoping to see not just justice, but the beginnings of compassion. It is an appeal to God's character as a merciful Father, even in the midst of His discipline.
11e For I am despised."
The personified city speaks. "I am despised." This is the inevitable result of covenant unfaithfulness. God had set Israel on a hill to be a light to the nations, a treasured possession. By abandoning their calling, they became an object of scorn, a byword among the peoples. Their testimony was shattered. There is a lesson here for the Church. When the Church compromises with the world, when she adopts its lusts and its priorities, she does not win the world's respect. She earns its contempt. The world knows a fraud when it sees one. But this shame, rightly felt, is also the doorway to restoration. And ultimately, this cry finds its true fulfillment in the Lord Jesus. He was despised and rejected of men, not for His own sin, but for ours. He took upon Himself the contempt we deserved so that we, His bride, might be cleansed of our shame and presented without blemish.
Application
This verse forces us to confront the economy of our own lives. What are our "desirable things"? What are the treasures we are tempted to trade for the "bread" of temporary comfort, security, or approval? Every act of compromise is a transaction where we sell a piece of our birthright for a bowl of the world's thin soup. Sin reduces us, makes us desperate, and leaves us starving.
The people of Jerusalem were trying to restore their souls with food, a fool's errand. We do the same. We try to fix our spiritual emptiness with worldly solutions, and it never works. The only true restoration for the soul is found in repentance and faith in the one who is the Bread of Life. The ache in our souls is a God given hunger, designed to drive us to Him.
Finally, the only proper response to our sin and its consequences is to cry out to God. "See, O Yahweh, and look." We must not hide our shame or pretend we are not despised. We must bring our degradation to Him, confessing that we have earned it, and plead for Him to look upon us not as we are in our sin, but as we are in Christ. He bore our contempt on the cross. He was despised so that we might be accepted. Therefore, we can come to God in our lowest state, knowing that in Christ, He sees not a despised city, but a beloved child.