"solitary" does not mean "into solitude", but "deserted by her inhabitants" (the same word as in the first clause of : the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken in the Revised Standard Version). "Great among the nations": one that "ruled over many nations" and, in the times of David and Solomon, received tribute from the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Syrians, but later was forced to pay tribute herself, e.g. to Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, then, in the times of Jehoiakim until Zedekiah, to the king of Babylon. "Tributary" has the sense of "personal labor" . Verse 7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. Mockery at her "sabbaths" reflects the wording in the Vulgate: deriserunt sabbata ejus. "Mocking over her downfall" is the standard translation in modern English versions. There is an alternative reading in 4QLam (4Q111), which reads: Remember O YHWH [al]l our pains that existed from days of old. When her [people] fell in/by the hand of a foe and there was no helper, her foes laughed about [ ] her ruins. Verse 9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. “O Lord, behold my affliction, For the enemy is exalted!” This verses introduces a transition to the first person, similarly in verse 11b. "Such movement from one grammatical person to another, found throughout the book, is not at all unusual in Hebrew poetry". Uses Music The King James Version of verse 12 from this chapter are cited as texts in the English-language oratorio "Messiah" by George Frideric Handel (HWV 56). Edward Gibbons adapted some of the text in his verse anthem How hath ye City sate solitary. See also Jacob Judah Jerusalem Zion Related Bible parts: 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36, Jeremiah 39, Jeremiah 52, Ezekiel 24 Notes References Further reading Kotzé, Gideon. "The Qumran Manuscripts of Lamentations: A Text-Critical Study". Studia Semitica Neerlandica BRILL, 2013. Sources External links Jewish Lamentations 1 Hebrew with Parallel English Lamentations 1 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary Christian Lamentations 1 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate 01