Lamentations 5:20

20 Why shalt thou forget us [into] without end, shalt thou forsake us into [the] length of days? (Why hast thou forgotten us for so long, shalt thou abandon us forever?)

Lamentations 5:20 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:20

Wherefore dost thou, forget us for ever
Since thou art firm, constant, and unchangeable, and thy love and covenant the same. God seems to forget his people when he afflicts them, or suffers them to be oppressed, and does not arise immediately for their help; which being deferred some time, looks like an eternity to them, or they fear it will ever be so; at least this they say to express their eager desire after his gracious presence, and to show how much they prize it:

[and] forsake us so long time?
or, "to length of days" ^F4? so long as the seventy years' captivity; which to be forsaken of God, or to seem to be forsaken of him, was with them a long time.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F4 (Mymy Kral) "in longitudinem dierum", Pagninus, Montanus.

Lamentations 5:20 In-Context

18 For the hill of Zion, for it perished; foxes went in it. (For Mount Zion, for it hath perished; and now foxes run all over it.)

19 But thou, Lord, shalt dwell without end; thy seat shall dwell in generation and into generation. (But thou, Lord, shalt live forever; thy throne shall remain for all generations.)

20 Why shalt thou forget us [into] without end, shalt thou forsake us into [the] length of days? (Why hast thou forgotten us for so long, shalt thou abandon us forever?)

21 Lord, convert thou us to thee, and we shall be converted; make thou new our days, as at the beginning. (Lord, turn thou us back to thee, and we shall come back to thee; renew thou our days, like at the beginning.)

22 But thou casting away hast cast away us; thou art wroth against us greatly. (But thou casting away hath cast us away; thou still hath great anger against us.)