What is the purpose of the prayer in Lamentations 1:11?
Lamentations 1:11 (ESV)
11All her people groan as they search for bread;they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. “Look, O LORD, and see, for I am despised.”
There are a few purposes:
Jerusalem, still personified, is praying with the purpose of drawing the eye of the Lord to her deep reproach, thus to arouse His compassion.1
To signal an introduction to a change of speaker.2
To signal transition to the lament and request of Jerusalem, which forms the second half of the poem.3
11 All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. “Look, O LORD, and see, for I am despised.”