Lamentations 1 · Grade 5

No One to Comfort

Name Date

Read and Think

Lamentations contains five poems mourning the fall of Jerusalem. The book itself does not name its author. Chapters 1 to 4 are acrostics built on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and chapter 5 has twenty-two verses but is not an acrostic. The careful structure gives shape to overwhelming grief.

The first poem has two voices. In verses 1 to 11, a narrator describes Jerusalem as a widow, once a princess among the provinces and now a forced laborer. How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! The refrain is that she has no one to comfort her. Her lovers, the nations she trusted, had become her enemies.

In verses 12 to 22, Zion speaks for herself. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? She confesses that the disaster came because of her own rebellion, and she calls on God to see. The poem does not rush to a happy ending. It models lament: bringing pain, guilt, and questions honestly before the God who is righteous.

Show What You Know

Does the book name its author?
How many verses does chapter 5 have?
Who were Jerusalem's lovers?
What does the poem model?

Crossword

Across

There is no one to ____ her.

Down

Look, Yahweh, and see, for I have ____ despised.
All majesty has departed from the daughter of ____.
How the ____ sits solitary, that was full of people.
Jerusalem is ____ them as an unclean thing.

Think About It

How is lament different from complaining?
Why might the poem refuse to rush to a happy ending?

Memory Verse

“Yahweh is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

Lamentations 1:18 (WEB)

Copy It

Prayer

Dear God, thank You for listening to me. Help me . Amen.

Take It Home

For families: talk about these together.

When have you felt alone?
How can sad prayers be prayers of faith?
What is one way you could live out this chapter this week?