Lamentations 1:7
What does Lamentations 1:7 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 1:7 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 1:7 means
In suffering, Jerusalem remembers her former “pleasant things”—the blessings, securities, and joys of former days. Memory becomes a bitter companion, sharpening present pain. When she fell into adversaries’ hands and help failed, enemies watched and mocked. Public derision exposes how far the city has fallen; those who once respected her now treat her downfall as a spectacle. The verse captures the cruelty of defeat: not only loss, but scorn. The act of remembering is double-edged—it honors God’s past mercies even as it magnifies the grief of losing them. The city’s isolation is thus complete: without aid, without honor, and without the comforts that once filled her life.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Jerusalem remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her, The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her desolations.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Jerusalem remembereth in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her, The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her desolations.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Jerusalem keeps in mind, in the days of her sorrow and of her wanderings, all the desired things which were hers in days gone by; when her people came into the power of her hater and she had no helper, her attackers saw their desire effected on her and made sport of her destruction.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Remembered hath Jerusalem <FI>In<Fi> the days of her affliction and her mournings, all her desirable things that were from the days of old, In the falling of her people into the hand of an adversary, And she hath no helper; Seen her have adversaries, They have laughed at her cessation.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Zain. Jerusalem hath remembered the days of her affliction, and prevarication of all her desirable things which she had from the days of old, when her people fell in the enemy's hand, and there was no helper; the enemies have seen her, and have mocked at her sabbaths.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890In the days of her affliction and of her wanderings, since her people fell into the hand of an adversary, and none did help her, Jerusalem remembereth all her precious things which she had in the days of old: the adversaries have seen her, they mock at her ruin.
Context
After describing leadership collapse, the lament turns inward to memory and outward to mockery. Verse 7 bridges past and present: recollection of good times intensifies the sorrow of current desolation. This prepares for verse 8’s blunt statement of cause—Jerusalem’s grievous sin—and the resulting shame. The chapter’s pattern continues: facts of devastation, taunts from enemies, and theological interpretation. These movements draw the reader to acknowledge both the depth of loss and the righteousness of God’s judgment, themes that come to a head in verses 8–9 and will return in the confessions and pleas later in the chapter.
v.6And from the daughter of Zion all her majesty is departed: Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, And they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
v.7This passage
v.8Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: Yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Deuteronomy 4:7
For what great nation is there, that hath a god so nigh unto them, as Jehovah our God is whensoever we call upon him?
- Lamentations 4:17
Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
- Psalms 77:5
I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times.
- Jeremiah 37:7
Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
- Luke 15:17
But when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger!
- Isaiah 5:1
Let me sing for my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
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