Lamentations 5:3

3 we are become orphans, we have no 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 Lord, what has happened to us: behold, and look on our reproach.

2 Our inheritance has been turned away to aliens, our houses to strangers:

3 we are become orphans, we have no father, our mothers are as widows.

4 We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold to us on our neck:

5 we have been persecuted, we have laboured, we have had no rest.