Lamentations 5:3

3 We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers now are 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, ADONAI, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.

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.