Lamentations 5:7

7 Our fathers sinned, and be not, and we bare the wickednesses of them (Our forefathers sinned, and be not, and we carry their wickednesses.)

Lamentations 5:7 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:7

Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not
In the world, as the Targum adds; they were in being, but not on earth; they were departed from hence, and gone into another world; and so were free from the miseries and calamities their children were attended with, and therefore more happy: and we have borne their iniquities;
the punishment of them, or chastisement for them: this is not said by way of complaint, much less as charging God with injustice, in punishing them for their fathers' sins, or to excuse theirs; for they were ready to own that they had consented to them, and were guilty of the same; but to obtain mercy and pity at the hands of God.

Lamentations 5:7 In-Context

5 We were driven by our heads, and rest was not given to faint men. (The yoke is upon our necks, and rest is not given to the weary.)

6 We gave (the) hand to Egypt, and to Assyrians, that we should be [ful]filled with bread. (We put forth our hands to Egypt, and to Assyria, for food to eat.)

7 Our fathers sinned, and be not, and we bare the wickednesses of them (Our forefathers sinned, and be not, and we carry their wickednesses.)

8 Servants were lords of us, and none was, that again-bought from the hand of them. (Servants be our lords, and there is no one who can rescue us from their hands.)

9 In our lives we brought bread to us, from the face of [the] sword in desert. (Risking our lives, we brought in food for us, from the face of the sword in the wilderness.)