Lamentations 1 · Verse 4

Lamentations 1:4

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.

Lamentations 1:4, King James Version

Lamentations 1:4 in other translations

BSB	The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
WEB	The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
ASV	The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; All her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh: Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
YLT	The ways of Zion are mourning, Without any coming at the appointed time, All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, Her virgins are afflicted--and she hath bitterness.
DARBY	The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly: all her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are in grief; and as for her, she is in bitterness.
BBE	The ways of Zion are sad, because no one comes to the holy meeting; all her doorways are made waste, her priests are breathing out sorrow: her virgins are troubled, and it is bitter for her.
Webster	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.

What does Lamentations 1:4 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

4. feasts--the passover, pentecost (or the feast of weeks), and the feast of tabernacles. gates--once the place of concourse. He.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 4 The ways of Zion do mourn - A fine prosopopoeia. The ways in which the people trod coming to the sacred solemnities, being now no longer frequented, are represented as shedding tears; and the gates themselves partake of the general distress. All poets of eminence among the Greeks and Romans have recourse to this image. So Moschus, in his Epitaph on Bion, ver. 1-3: - Αιλινα μοι στροναχειτε ναπαι, και Δωριον ὑδωρ Και ποταμοι κλαιοιτε τον ἱμεροεντα Βιωνα. Νυν φυτα μοι μυρεσθε, και αλσεα νυν γοαοισθε, κ. τ. λ. "Ye winds, with grief your waving summits bow, Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow; From weeping urns your copious sorrows shed, And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead. Ye shady groves, in robes of sable hue, Bewail, ye plants, in pearly drops of dew; Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath, And die with sorrow, at sweet Bion's death." Fawkes. So Virgil, Aen. vii., ver. 759: - Te nemus Anguitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda Te liquidi flevere lacus. "For thee, wide echoing, sighed th' Anguitian woods; For thee, in murmurs, wept thy native floods." And more particularly on the death of Daphnis, Eclog. 5 ver. 24: - Non ulli pastos illis egere diebus Frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina: nulla neque amnem Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam. Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuisse leones Interitum, montesque feri, sylvaeque loquuntur. "The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink Of running waters brought their herds to drink: The thirsty cattle of themselves abstained From water, and their grassy fare disdained. The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore; The Libyan lions hear, and hearing roar." Dryden.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Lamentations 1:1-11

The miserable state of Jerusalem, the just consequences of its sins. (La 1:1-11) Jerusalem represented as a captive female, lamenting, and seeking the mercy of God. (La 1:12-22) Verses 1-11 The prophet sometimes speaks in his own person; at other times Jerusalem, as a distressed female, is the speaker, or some of the Jews. The description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem became a captive and a…

Read the full comment on Lamentations 1:1-11 →

Lamentations 1:4 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

דַּרְכֵ֨יdar.Khei[the] roads ofH1870

צִיּ֜וֹןtzi.YonZionH6726

אֲבֵל֗וֹת'a.ve.Lot[are] mourningH57

מִבְּלִי֙mi.be.Libecause notH1097

בָּאֵ֣יba.'Ei[those who] comeH935

מוֹעֵ֔דmo.'Ed<of> an appointed feastH4150

כָּל\־kol-allH3605

שְׁעָרֶ֙יהָ֙she.'a.Rei.hagates herH8179

שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔יןsho.me.Min[are] desolateH8074

כֹּהֲנֶ֖יהָko.ha.Nei.hapriests herH3548

נֶאֱנָחִ֑יםne.'e.na.Chim[are] groaningH584

בְּתוּלֹתֶ֥יהָbe.tu.lo.Tei.havirgins herH1330

נּוּג֖וֹתnu.Got[are] grievingH3013

וְהִ֥יאve.Hi'and sheH1931

מַר\־mar-it is bitterH4843

לָֽהּ\׃\ \סLahto her

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Lamentations 1:4

Joel 1:8-13
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. …
Jeremiah 9:11
And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Lamentations 2:6-7
And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. 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.
Jeremiah 14:2
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Isaiah 24:4-6
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Jeremiah 10:22
Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
Micah 3:12
Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
Jeremiah 33:10-12
Thus saith the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
Isaiah 32:9-14
Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. …
Lamentations 1:11-12
All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
Lamentations 1:18-20
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. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
Lamentations 5:13
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

ways.
2:6,7; 5:13; Isa 24:4-6; Jer 14:2; Mic 3:12
all her gates.
2:9; Jer 9:11; 10:22; 33:10-12
her priests.
11,12,18-20; 2:10,11,19-21; Isa 32:9-14; Joe 1:8-13

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Lamentations 1:3
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
Lamentations 1:4
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.
Lamentations 1:5
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.

Read all of Lamentations 1

Lamentations 1:4 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Las calzadas de Sión tienen luto, porque no hay quien venga á las solemnidades; todas sus puertas están asoladas, sus sacerdotes gimen, sus vírgenes afligidas, y ella tiene amargura.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Les chemins de Sion mènent deuil de ce qu’il n’y a personne qui vienne aux fêtes; toutes ses portes sont désolées; ses sacrificateurs gémissent, ses vierges sont dans la détresse; elle-même est dans l’amertume.
German Elberfelder 1871	Die Wege Zions trauern, weil niemand zum Feste kommt; alle ihre Tore sind wüst; ihre Priester seufzen; ihre Jungfrauen sind betrübt, und ihr selbst ist es bitter.
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Viæ Sion lugent, eo quod non sint qui veniant ad solemnitatem: omnes portæ ejus destructæ, sacerdotes ejus gementes; virgines ejus squalidæ, et ipsa oppressa amaritudine.