Lamentations 5:6-16

6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned and are dead; and we have borne their chastisements.

8 Slaves have ruled over us: there was no one to deliver us out of their hand.

9 We got our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin became black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

11 They ravished the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged up by their hand; the countenance of the elders was not honoured.

13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

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

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

16 The crown is fallen from our head; woe now unto us, for we have sinned!

Lamentations 5:6-16 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.