One in Messiah Congregation

 

The words below can be applied exactly to our day - 2009

 

Consider...

 

 

We are in captivity

 

We dwell among the heathen (nations)

 

None come to the solemn feasts

 

 The Sabbaths are mocked

 

The heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

 

All have transgressed and rebelled against His commandment

 

He hath violently taken away his tabernacle (His Presense is gone)

 

The law (Torah) is no more

 

Prophets find no vision from the LORD

 

The prophets have seen vain and foolish things

 

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her

 

They (we) have polluted themselves with blood

 

Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not

 

Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities

 

Woe unto us that we have sinned!

 

Thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

 

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Lam. 1

 

[3] ... captivity גָּלְתָה

 

and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest:

 

[4] The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: מוֹעֵד

 

[5] Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions:

 

her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

 

[7] Jerusalem 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.

H4868  משׁבּת mishbâth - mish-bawth' - From H7673; cessation - Sabbath

 

[10] The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

 

[18] The 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.

 

Lam. 2

 

[6] And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle

 

[7] The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. כְּיוֹם מוֹעֵד

 

 

[9] Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and

 

her princes are among the Gentiles:

 

the law (torah) is no more; אֵין תּוֹרָה

 

 

her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

 

 

[14] Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

 

Lam. 3

 

[22] It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
[23] They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
[24] The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
[25] The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
[26] It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
[27] It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
[28] He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
[29] He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
[30] He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
[31] For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
[32] But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
[33] For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
[34] To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
[35] To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
[36] To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
[37] Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
[38] Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
[39] Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
[40] Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
[41] Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

[42] We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
[43] Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
[44] Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
[45] Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
[46] All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
[47] Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
[48] Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
[49] Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
[50] Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

[51] Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
[52] Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
[53] They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
[54] Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

[55] I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
[56] Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.
[57] Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
[58] O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
[59] O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
[60] Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
[61] Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
[62] The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
[63] Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
[64] Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
[65] Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.
[66] Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

Lam. 4

 

[12] The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

[13] For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

[14] They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

[15] They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean טָמֵא ; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

 

Lam. 5

 

[7] Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

 

[16] ... woe unto us, that we have sinned!

 

[19] Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
[20] Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
[21] Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

 

[22] But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.