Here is another image of Jerusalem’s shame: she is like a woman whose menstrual blood can be seen on her clothes. God had made visible to everyone the shame of Jerusalem’s sin. Even a Babylonian commander could see that this disaster came over Jerusalem because of their sin (see Jeremiah 40:1–3).
Jerusalem’s fall was “terrible.” She had continued in sin for centuries, without listening to God’s warnings in Leviticus 26:1–46 and Deuteronomy 28:1–68, and by his prophets. Now that her fall has come, it is worse than anything that anyone could imagine. And there is no one to comfort her—not even Egypt, from whom she always expected help (see Isaiah 31:1–9).
From this hopeless darkness, Jeremiah now lets Jerusalem speak for herself. She says, “O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!” That is all that Jerusalem can ask of God: “Behold!” God does not owe her anything. It is only fair that he judge her like this. But pleading for his grace, she asks that he will look at what her enemies had done to her.
9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. “O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”