Lamentations 1:21
They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.
Lamentations 1 is twenty-two verses long, and its twenty-first verse stands twenty-first in order because each verse in turn begins with the next letter of the twenty-two-letter Hebrew alphabet in its regular order. That alphabetical order cannot be preserved in English translation, and no effort is made to mark it except in Psalm 119. Why it was written in this way is not known, and its presence in a book of such mental anguish is remarkable, arresting the attention of the careless reader.
The verse belongs to Israel's funeral song, the last song the nation sang in captivity, whose former glory never returned, so that the song became a dirge for a once-mighty nation. It shows the comfortless state of a nation without God that has grievously rebelled and departed from the living God. There is none to comfort her because the comforter that should relieve the soul is far from her, her children are desolate because the enemy prevailed, and she has become vile.
The verse shows that Jerusalem's enemies heard of her distress and were glad that God had brought judgment upon her. It expresses confidence that God would bring the appointed day that He has called, when those enemies would suffer a like fate. This distress, with troubled bowels and turned heart, with strength fallen and mighty men trodden underfoot, is the necessary humbling of the haughty so she will cry to the Lord. Then the Word may enter with welcome to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and the Lord shall arise upon her and the Gentiles shall come to her light.