Lamentations 5:3

3 Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.

Lamentations 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:3

We are orphans and fatherless
In every sense; in a natural sense, their fathers having been cut off by the sword, famine, or pestilence; in a civil sense, their king being taken from them; and in a religious sense, God having forsaken them for their sins: our mothers [are] as widows;
either really so, their husbands being dead; or were as if they had no husbands, they not being able to provide for them, protect and deferred them. The Targum adds,

``whose husbands are gone to the cities of the sea, and it is doubtful whether they are alive.''

Some understand this politically, of their cities being desolate and defenceless.

Lamentations 5:3 In-Context

1 Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners.

3 Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.

4 Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come.

5 For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured -- there hath been no rest for us.