Lamentations 5:21

21 Lord, convert thou us to thee, and we shall be converted; make thou new our days, as at the beginning. (Lord, turn thou us back to thee, and we shall come back to thee; renew thou our days, like at the beginning.)

Lamentations 5:21 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:21

Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned
This prayer expresses the sense they had of their backslidings from God, and distance from him; of their inability to turn themselves to the Lord, or convert themselves; and of their need of divine grace, and of the efficacy of that to effect it; see ( Jeremiah 31:18 ) ; for this is to be understood not only of returning them to their own land, and to the external worship of God in it; but of turning them to the Lord by true and perfect repentance, as the Targum; of the conversion of their hearts and the reformation of their lives:

renew our days as of old;
for good, as the Targum adds. The request is, that their good days might be renewed; that they might enjoy the same peace and prosperity, and all good things in their own land, as they had done in days and years past: first they pray for repentance; then restoration.

Lamentations 5:21 In-Context

19 But thou, Lord, shalt dwell without end; thy seat shall dwell in generation and into generation. (But thou, Lord, shalt live forever; thy throne shall remain for all generations.)

20 Why shalt thou forget us [into] without end, shalt thou forsake us into [the] length of days? (Why hast thou forgotten us for so long, shalt thou abandon us forever?)

21 Lord, convert thou us to thee, and we shall be converted; make thou new our days, as at the beginning. (Lord, turn thou us back to thee, and we shall come back to thee; renew thou our days, like at the beginning.)

22 But thou casting away hast cast away us; thou art wroth against us greatly. (But thou casting away hath cast us away; thou still hath great anger against us.)