Lamentations 5:3

3 We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.

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.
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Lamentations 5:3 In-Context

1 LORD, remember what has happened to us. See how we have been disgraced!
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
3 We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.
4 We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.