Neville Goddard on Lamentations 1:1-9 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Lamentations 1 in context

Scripture Focus

1How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

2She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

3Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

4The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

5Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

6And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

7Jerusalem 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.

8Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

9Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

Lamentations 1:1-9

Biblical Context

Jerusalem is depicted as a city stripped of its people and comfort, symbolizing a consciousness that feels isolated and in exile. It speaks of loss, betrayal, and the call to return to the Lord.

Neville's Inner Vision

Viewed through Neville’s lens, the city is your inner state of awareness. The solitude, the weeping at night, the "lovers" who fail, and the enemies who overtake the gates all point to thoughts and feelings that pretend to stand outside God but are really movements of your own consciousness. When the LORD afflicts because of transgressions, it is the mind’s misalignment—fear, guilt, and attachment—that dim the awareness of the I AM within. The princes, the captains, the beauty departed—these are inner faculties deprived of nourishment when you identify with limitation. Yet none of this proves you are abandoned; it reveals the precise beliefs you must revise. In Neville’s practice, you do not battle the outer events; you revise from the level of consciousness. Assume the feeling that the city is once more attended by divine presence; dwell in the sense, 'I am the I AM, and this I AM never leaves.' Let imagination role-play the restoration: the gates open, the feasts return, and Jerusalem remembers its pleasant things as a present reality of awareness.

Practice This Now

Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and affirm, 'I am the I AM; this city is restored in me.' Then imagine Jerusalem bright and whole, feeling the truth as real in your inner life.