Lamentations 5:2-12

2 The land we possessed has been passed on to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

3 We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers now are widows.

4 We have to pay to drink our own water; we have to buy our own wood.

5 The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted; we toil to exhaustion but are given no rest.

6 We made pacts with Egypt and Ashur to get enough food.

7 Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist; we bear the weight of their guilt.

8 We are ruled by slaves, and there is no one to save us from their power.

9 We get our food at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the desert.

10 Our skins are as black as a furnace because of the searing blasts of famine.

11 They have raped the women of Tziyon, virgins in the cities of Y'hudah.

12 Princes are hung up by their hands, leaders receive no respect.

Lamentations 5:2-12 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.