As in verses 1-11, the speaker in verse 17 is again the poet and not Jerusalem. Therefore the point of view is shifted to the third person. Good News Translation has kept the first person point of view in order not to interrupt the sequence which began with verse 12. In order to show that verse 17 does not fit the structure of the neighboring verses, Bible en français courant places added white space and an asterisk before and after verse 17. Such a practice is not recommended unless the majority of readers are entirely familiar with it.
Zion stretches out her hands: stretches translates the same Hebrew verb used in verse 10, where the expression meant “to rob” when used with the preposition “over.” Here the sense is “to beg for help,” as is made clear in the next half-line. Nevertheless it is sometimes necessary to say in the first half-line “Zion stretches…,” “Jerusalem stretches…,” or “I stretch out my hands and beg for help” or “I need help and so I stretch out my hands.” If translators prefer to retain Zion or Jerusalem as the subject, it may be necessary to use a simile and say, for example, “Zion is like a beggar who stretches out her hands for help.”
None to comfort her is nearly the same expression as used in verse 9. See there for comments.
The LORD has commanded against Jacob: for LORD see comments on the same name of God in verse 5. Jacob introduces a third name for the city and its inhabitants. Here Jacob may be taken to mean all of Israel, and so Bible en français courant translates “Israel.” In this half-line and what follows, it is clear that the poet recognizes the present situation to be the result of orders given by God. These orders are taken by Revised Standard Version to be given to the neighbors who then became Israel’s enemies. The word translated his neighbors is literally “around him,” thus “around him should be his foes,” and Good News Translation, which is only slightly different, translates the expression as “from every side.” And so it is the LORD who calls these neighboring tribes to become Israel’s enemies. Bible en français courant is similar to Revised Standard Version and provides a good translation model: “On the command of the LORD, the neighbors of Israel became her enemies.” This may also be expressed, for example, “The LORD orders Israel’s neighbors to become her enemies” or “The LORD commands those who live near Israel to attack her.”
Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them: filthy thing translates the same Hebrew word used in verse 8. See there for comments. Surrounded by her enemies, Jerusalem has become an object of disgust, or as New English Bible says, “a filthy rag.” Jerusalem has, as it were, been degraded in the eyes of her enemies from the status of a woman to that of something which represents a woman’s impurity. A translation of filthy thing should not suggest merely being dirty. The meaning is that of taboo or defilement, and this can be rendered in some languages as “My enemies treat me like a tabooed thing and will not touch me” or “My enemies stay away and will not touch me because I am defiled.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .