Lamentations 1:8
Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
It belongs to a lament commemorating the suffering of apostate Jerusalem. That lament is Israel's funeral dirge sung in a strange land. It is the nation's final song, sung after its former glory had passed and never returned.
Grievous sin causes removal. Departing from the living God is suicidal for a nation as well as for an individual. A nation's doom is therefore fixed by internal causes and not only by the diplomacy and military strength of greater powers. A people that has grievously sinned becomes tottering and unstable, destined to become vassal, tributary and partitioned. Those who once honored such a people come to despise it once its nakedness is seen.