Lamentations 5:7

7 Our ancestors sinned. Now they are gone, [but] we have to take the punishment for their wickedness.

Lamentations 5:7 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:7

Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not
In the world, as the Targum adds; they were in being, but not on earth; they were departed from hence, and gone into another world; and so were free from the miseries and calamities their children were attended with, and therefore more happy: and we have borne their iniquities;
the punishment of them, or chastisement for them: this is not said by way of complaint, much less as charging God with injustice, in punishing them for their fathers' sins, or to excuse theirs; for they were ready to own that they had consented to them, and were guilty of the same; but to obtain mercy and pity at the hands of God.

Lamentations 5:7 In-Context

5 [Our enemies] are breathing down our necks. We are worn out [and] not permitted to rest.

6 We had to beg Egypt and Assyria for food.

7 Our ancestors sinned. Now they are gone, [but] we have to take the punishment for their wickedness.

8 Slaves rule us. There is no one to rescue us from them.

9 To get our food, we have to risk our lives in the heat of the desert.