Lamentations 5:1

1 Lord, have thou mind what befell to us (Lord, remember what hath happened to us); see thou, and behold our shame.

Lamentations 5:1 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:1

Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us
This chapter is called, in some Greek copies, and in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, "the prayer of Jeremiah". Cocceius interprets the whole of the state of the Christian church after the last destruction of Jerusalem; and of what happened to the disciples of Christ in the first times of the Gospel; and of what Christians have endured under antichrist down to the present times: but it is best to understand it of the Jews in Babylon; representing their sorrowful case, as represented by the prophet; entreating that the Lord would remember the affliction they were under, and deliver them out of it, that which he had determined should come upon them. So the Targum,

``remember, O Lord, what was decreed should be unto us;''
and what he had long threatened should come upon them; and which they had reason to fear would come, though they put away the evil day far from them; but now it was come, and it lay heavy upon them; and therefore they desire it might be taken off: consider, and behold our reproach:
cast upon them by their enemies; and the rather the Lord is entreated to look upon and consider that, since his name was concerned in it, and it was for his sake, and because of the true religion they professed; also the disgrace they were in, being carried into a foreign country for their sins; and so were in contempt by all the nations around.

Lamentations 5:1 In-Context

1 Lord, have thou mind what befell to us (Lord, remember what hath happened to us); see thou, and behold our shame.
2 Our heritage is turned to aliens, our houses be turned to strangers. (Our inheritance is turned, or given, over to foreigners, our houses be turned over to strangers.)
3 We be made fatherless children without (a) father; our mothers be as widows (our mothers be like widows).
4 We drank our water for money, we bought our wood for silver. (We must buy our water to drink with money, and we must buy our wood to burn with silver.)
5 We were driven by our heads, and rest was not given to faint men. (The yoke is upon our necks, and rest is not given to the weary.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.