Lamentations 5:1

Prayer for Restoration

1 Yahweh, remember what has happened to us. Look, and see our disgrace![a]

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 Yahweh, remember what has happened to us. Look, and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
5 We are closely pursued; we are tired, and no one offers us rest.

Footnotes 1

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