Lamentations 5:6-16

6 We have submitted * to 1Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
7 Our 2fathers sinned, and are no more; It is we who have borne their iniquities.
8 3Slaves rule over us; There is 4no one to deliver us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the 5risk of our lives Because * of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin has become as 6hot as an oven, Because * of the burning heat of famine.
11 They ravished the 7women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hung by their hands; 8Elders were not respected.
13 Young men 9worked at the grinding mill, And youths 10stumbled under loads of wood.
14 Elders are gone from the gate, Young men from their 11music.
15 The joy of our hearts has 12ceased; Our dancing has been turned into mourning.
16 The 13crown has fallen from our head; 14Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Lamentations 5:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 5

In this chapter are reckoned up the various calamities and distresses of the Jews in Babylon, which the Lord is desired to remember and consider, La 5:1-16; their great concern for the desolation of the temple in particular is expressed, La 5:17,18; and the chapter is concluded with a prayer that God would show favour to them, and turn them to him, and renew their prosperity as of old, though he had rejected them, and been wroth with them, La 5:19-22.

Cross References 14

  • 1. Hosea 9:3; Hosea 12:1
  • 2. Jeremiah 14:20; Jeremiah 16:12
  • 3. Nehemiah 5:15
  • 4. Psalms 7:2; Zechariah 11:6
  • 5. Jeremiah 40:9-12
  • 6. Job 30:30; Lamentations 4:8
  • 7. Isaiah 13:16; Zechariah 14:2
  • 8. Isaiah 47:6; Lamentations 4:16
  • 9. Judges 16:21
  • 10. Jeremiah 7:18
  • 11. Isaiah 24:8; Jeremiah 7:34
  • 12. Jeremiah 25:10; Amos 8:10
  • 13. Job 19:9; Psalms 89:39; Jeremiah 13:18
  • 14. Isaiah 3:9-11

Footnotes 8

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