John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 1:11

"All her people sigh, they seek bread; They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul: See, O Jehovah, and behold; for I am become abject." — Lamentations 1:11 (ASV)

The Prophet here complains that all the citizens of Jerusalem were constantly groaning because of lack and famine. He first says that all were sighing. The word “people” is collective, and therefore he uses the plural number, נאנחים, nanechim. Then he says that they were all sighing; but he also expresses the reason: because they were seeking bread. To seek bread is indeed common to all; but by this word, he intimates extreme need, as though he had said that they begged their bread. He then compares them to beggars, who go about here and there to seek bread.

He also says that they gave the most precious things for meat, to recover the soul. Here he refers more clearly to famine, for he says that in a way they suffered need. Others translate the last clause as “to refresh the soul,” which is not unsuitable. But the Prophet no doubt meant to denote a deficiency in the support of life when he said that they gave whatever precious thing they had to restore their souls, as it were, from death to life.

A prayer follows: See, Jehovah, and look, for I am become vile. We said yesterday that the complaints which humbled the faithful and, at the same time, raised them to a good hope, and also opened the door to prayers, were dictated by the Spirit of God. Otherwise, when people indulge in grief and torment themselves, they become exasperated; and then to be inflamed by this irritation is a kind of madness. The Prophet, therefore, in order to moderate the intensity of sorrow and the raging of impatience, again recalls the faithful to prayer. And when Jerusalem asks God to see and to look, there is an emphasis intended in using the two words; and the reason given also more fully shows this, because she had become vile; so that the Church set nothing else before God to turn him to mercy but her own miseries. She did not, then, bring forward her own services, but only deplored her own miseries, in order that she might obtain the favor of God.