Lamentations 5:1-17

1 Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us; Look, and behold our reproach!

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, And our houses to foreigners.

3 We have become orphans and waifs, Our mothers are like widows.

4 We pay for the water we drink, And our wood comes at a price.

5 They pursue at our heels; We labor and have no rest.

6 We have given our hand to the Egyptians And the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, But we bear their iniquities.

8 Servants rule over us; There is none to deliver us from their hand.

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

10 Our skin is hot as an oven, Because of the fever of famine.

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

12 Princes were hung up by their hands, And elders were not respected.

13 Young men ground at the millstones; Boys staggered under loads of wood.

14 The elders have ceased gathering at the gate, And the young men from their music.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning.

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

17 Because of this our heart is faint; Because of these things our eyes grow dim;

Lamentations 5:1-17 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.