Lamentations5
New Living Translation
1Lord, remember what has happened to us. See how we have been disgraced!
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
3We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.
4We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
5Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest.
6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive.
7Our ancestors sinned, but they have died— and we are suffering the punishment they deserved!
8Slaves have now become our masters; there is no one left to rescue us.
9We hunt for food at the risk of our lives, for violence rules the countryside.
10The famine has blackened our skin as though baked in an oven.
11Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.
12Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs, and our elders are treated with contempt.
13Young men are led away to work at millstones, and boys stagger under heavy loads of wood.
14The elders no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing.
15Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
16The garlands have fallen from our heads. Weep for us because we have sinned.
17Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.
18For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals.
19But Lord, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation.
20Why do you continue to forget us? Why have you abandoned us for so long?
21Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!
22Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Lamentations 5.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour. (1-22).
vv1-16
Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknowledge, Woe unto us that we have sinned! All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. Though our sins and God's just displeasure cause our sufferings, we may hope in his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, and his kind providence. But the sins of a man's whole life will be punished with vengeance at last, unless he obtains an interest in Him who bare our sins in his own body on the tree.
vv17-22
The people of God express deep concern for the ruins of the temple, more than for any other of their calamities. But whatever changes there are on earth, God is still the same, and remains for ever wise and holy, just and good; with Him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. They earnestly pray to God for mercy and grace; Turn us to thee, O Lord. God never leaves any till they first leave him; if he turns them to him in a way of duty, no doubt he will quickly return to them in a way of mercy. If God by his grace renew our hearts, he will by his favour renew our days. Troubles may cause our hearts to be faint, and our eyes to be dim, but the way to the mercy-seat of our reconciled God is open. Let us, in all our trials, put our whole trust and confidence in his mercy; let us confess our sins, and pour out our hearts before him. Let us watch against repinings and despondency; for we surely know, that it shall be well in the end with all that trust in, fear, love, and serve the Lord. Are not the Lord's judgments in the earth the same as in Jeremiah's days? Let Zion then be remembered by us in our prayers, and her welfare be sought above every earthly joy. Spare, Lord, spare thy people, and give not thine heritage to reproach, for the heathen to rule over them.
Key Words
זָכַר: properly, to mark (so as to be recognized), i.e. to remember; by implication, to mention; to be male
מָה: properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?); but also exclamation, what! (including how!), or indefinitely what (including whatever, and even relatively, that which); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses
נָבַט: to scan, i.e. look intently at; by implication, to regard with pleasure, favor or care
רָאָה: to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)
חֶרְפָּה: contumely, disgrace, the pudenda
נַחֲלָה: properly, something inherited, i.e. (abstractly) occupancy, or (concretely) an heirloom; generally an estate, patrimony or portion
הָפַךְ: to turn about or over; by implication, to change, overturn, return, pervert
זוּר: to turn aside (especially for lodging); hence to be aforeigner, strange, profane; specifically (active participle) to commit adultery
בַּיִת: a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.)
נׇכְרִי: strange, in a variety of degrees and applications (foreign, non-relative, adulterous, different, wonderful)
Cross References
Lamentations 5The proverbial expression concerning children bearing the consequences and punishment of their fathers' sins.
Supported by JFB
Divine correction of the people's fatalistic misuse of the proverb about fathers' sins.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Ephraim's repentant prayer to be turned and restored by God, matching the plea here.
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Corporate liturgical plea for restoration and the shining of God's face.
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Lament over the heathen invading and possessing God's promised inheritance.
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The custom of 'giving the hand' as a gesture of submission to conquerors.
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Historical fulfillment where foreign servants and subordinate officials ruled over Judah.
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Poetic description of skin turning black under intense physical suffering and disease.
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The physical toll of affliction, compared to a shriveled bottle in the smoke.
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Grinding at the mill as the standard degrading labor forced upon captives.
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The stripping of glory and honor poetically described as a crown taken away.
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The profaning of the covenant crown by casting it to the ground.
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Contrast between earthly ruin and the eternal, unchanging reign of Yahweh.
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The foolish political alliances with Egypt and Assyria for material security.
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