In the second line of Lamentations 1:5 it is explicitly stated that all the misery has been caused by God: because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
It was God’s hand that caused all of this because of her many sins. God warned his people beforehand through Moses that he will bring this misery upon them if they constantly sin against him. The covenantal warnings of God in Deuteronomy 28:1–68 have become reality for Judah.
The Hebrew particle translated by the word because
indicates that God made Jerusalem grieve. It not only gives the reason for Jerusalem’s pain, but also places all authority for the people’s life under God’s hands. It also connects the grieving (Lamentations 1:4) to the cause of the grief (Lamentations 1:5). When God’s hand is stated as the reason for the grief, it also foreshadows the need to confess sin that is mentioned throughout the book.1 Above all, it reveals God’s absolute sovereignty over his people and over the universe.
5 Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.