Bible Strands
Lamentations 1:10
The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The poet addresses the LORD, describing Jerusalem’s immediate post-conquest desolation when the city’s defenses have collapsed and its inhabitants face starvation.
The words — צָ֔ר (Tzar) identifies the hostile opponent who has spread out his hand over every precious thing, while רָאֲתָה (ra'atah) records the city’s direct witness to foreign nations crossing into the sanctuary.
The thread — The breach of sacred boundaries mirrors the Torah’s exclusion of Ammonites and Moabites from the assembly of the LORD (Deuteronomy 23:3) and aligns with Jeremiah’s record of foreigners entering the holy place (Jeremiah 51:51).
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant protections were lifted and that the city’s moral blindness preceded its physical desecration.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.
- Jeremiah 51:51 “We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.”
- Nehemiah 13:1 At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,
- Psalms 74:4 Your foes have roared within Your meeting place; they have unfurled their banners as signs,
- Isaiah 64:10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.
- Lamentations 1:7 In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands she received no help. Her enemies looked upon her, laughing at her downfall.
- Psalms 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
- Isaiah 5:13 Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
- Isaiah 63:18 For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.
- Jeremiah 15:13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.