The complaint is interrupted by Lamentations 1:17. There is a clear distinction between the two parts in which the complaint is made. In Lamentations 1:12–16 the focus is lamenting over misery, and Lamentations 1:18–22, on the other hand, the recognition of God's justice and the plea for mercy comes to the fore. However, it was already in Lamentations 1:14 that sin is referred to as the cause of misery, but in Lamentations 1:18, the confession of God's justice is especially expressed in the misery brought upon Jerusalem.1
18 “The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word; but hear, all you peoples, and see my suffering; my young women and my young men have gone into captivity.