Lamentations 1:4

Lamentations 1:4 Meaning and Explanation

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

King James Version (KJV)

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Even the roads to Zion mourn because no pilgrims travel them to the feasts; the whole city is steeped in bitterness.

What Does Lamentations 1:4 Mean?

The poet imagines the very roads grieving. They were made to carry crowds of pilgrims up to the festivals, ringing with songs of ascent. Now they lie empty, and their emptiness becomes a kind of mourning. The gates where elders once gathered stand desolate, and the priests who led worship can only sigh.

What is lost here is not only safety but joy before God. The feasts were the heartbeat of the nation's life with the LORD, seasons of gladness and gathering. Their silence is the silence of a house where the family no longer comes home. The bitterness is comprehensive, reaching from the youngest to the oldest.

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What does Lamentations 1:4 mean?

Even the roads to Zion mourn because no pilgrims travel them to the feasts; the whole city is steeped in bitterness.

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