Lamentations 5:3

3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like 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 befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.

3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.

4 We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.

5 With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.