Compare Lamentations 1:5 with Deuteronomy 28:15. What similarities do you find? The covenant backdrop - Deuteronomy 28 sets out blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. - Lamentations 1 is written after Jerusalem has fallen, showing those curses playing out in real time. Direct link between the two verses - Deuteronomy 28:15 warns, “all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” if Israel does not obey. - Lamentations 1:5 records, “the LORD has brought her grief because of her many transgressions,” confirming the curses have indeed overtaken her. Shared themes and wording • Cause-and-effect language – Deuteronomy 28: “if you do not obey…” – Lamentations 1: “because of her many transgressions…” • Divine initiation – Deuteronomy 28:15 stresses the LORD sending curses. – Lamentations 1:5 says “the LORD has brought her grief.” • Enemy domination – Deuteronomy 28:25, 32–33 predict defeat and foreign rule. – Lamentations 1:5: “Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease.” • Captivity of children – Deuteronomy 28:41, 32 foretell sons and daughters taken captive. – Lamentations 1:5: “Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.” • Comprehensive, unavoidable judgment – Deuteronomy 28:15: curses will “overtake you.” – Lamentations 1:5 shows the overtaking realized—grief, captivity, foreign dominance. Echoes from the wider curse section - Deuteronomy 28:36–37 speaks of exile; Lamentations 1 narrates that exile. - Deuteronomy 28:48 threatens servitude “in hunger and thirst”; Lamentations 1:11, 19 describe people searching for food. - Deuteronomy 28:52 warns of siege; Lamentations 2 and Lamentations 4 detail those sieges. Take-home observations • God’s word is exact: what He promised in Deuteronomy is fulfilled in Lamentations. • Sin’s consequences are corporate as well as personal; the whole nation suffers. • Covenant faithfulness matters: obedience brings blessing (Deuteronomy 28:1–14), disobedience brings curse (Deuteronomy 28:15–68). • Lamentations proves that judgment, though severe, is still within God’s redemptive plan (Lamentations 3:22–23; Jeremiah 29:11). |
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