Lamentations 5:1-8

1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.

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

4 We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.

5 With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.

6 We have made a pact with Egypt and Assyria, to get enough bread.

7 Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear their iniquities.

8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hand.

Lamentations 5:1-8 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Symmachus: Heb lacks [With a yoke]
• [b]. Heb [have given the hand to]