Lamentations 5:7-17

7 Our ¹fathers sinned, and are no more; It is we who have borne their iniquities.

8 ²Slaves rule over us; There is ³no one to deliver us from their hand.

9 We get our bread at the ⁴risk of our lives Because * of the sword in the wilderness.

10 Our skin has become as ⁵hot as an oven, Because * of the burning heat of famine.

11 They ravished the ⁶women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hung by their hands; ⁷Elders were not respected.

13 Young men ⁸worked at the grinding mill, And youths ⁹stumbled under loads of wood.

14 Elders are gone from the gate, Young men from their ¹⁰music.

15 The joy of our hearts has ¹¹ceased; Our dancing has been turned into mourning.

16 The ¹²crown has fallen from our head; ¹³Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17 Because of this our ¹⁴heart is faint, Because of these things our ¹⁵eyes are dim;

Lamentations 5:7-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 5

In this chapter are reckoned up the various calamities and distresses of the Jews in Babylon, which the Lord is desired to remember and consider, La 5:1-16; their great concern for the desolation of the temple in particular is expressed, La 5:17,18; and the chapter is concluded with a prayer that God would show favour to them, and turn them to him, and renew their prosperity as of old, though he had rejected them, and been wroth with them, La 5:19-22.

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 14:20; Jeremiah 16:12
• 2. Nehemiah 5:15
• 3. Psalms 7:2; Zechariah 11:6
• 4. Jeremiah 40:9-12
• 5. Job 30:30; Lamentations 4:8
• 6. Isaiah 13:16; Zechariah 14:2
• 7. Isaiah 47:6; Lamentations 4:16
• 8. Judges 16:21
• 9. Jeremiah 7:18
• 10. Isaiah 24:8; Jeremiah 7:34
• 11. Jeremiah 25:10; Amos 8:10
• 12. Job 19:9; Psalms 89:39; Jeremiah 13:18
• 13. Isaiah 3:9-11
• 14. Isaiah 1:5
• 15. Job 17:7; Lamentations 2:11

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "with our soul"
• [b] Or "In the face of"
• [c] Or "the ravages of hunger"
• [d] Lit "The faces of elders"
• [e] Lit "carry"
• [f] Lit "have ceased"