1 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach. 2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens. 3 We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows. 4 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us. 5 Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest. 6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities. 8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand. 9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness. 10 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine. 11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah. 12 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored. 13 The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled 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 to us! for we have sinned. 17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim; 18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it. 19 You, Yahweh, remain forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. 20 Why do you forget us forever, (And) forsake us so long time? 21 Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old. 22 But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.
This final chapter Lamentations. 5 consists of the same number of verses as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but they no longer begin with the letters in regular order. Strict care is shown in the form and arrangement of the poem, each verse being compressed into a very brief compass, consisting of two members which answer to one another both in idea and expression. It is mainly occupied with the recapitulation of sufferings Lamentations. 5:2-18, and finally closes with earnest prayer.
This chapter is, as it were, an epiphonema, or conclusion to the four preceding, representing the nation as groaning under their calamities, and humbly supplicating the Divine favor, vv. 1-22.
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, Lamentations 5:1; their great concern for the desolation of the temple in particular is expressed, Lamentations 5:17; 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, Lamentations 5:19.
The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour.
A Prayer to the Lord by the Church, Languishing in Misery, for the Restoration of Her Former State of Grace
1 Remember, O Jahveh, what hath happened to us; consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
3 We are orphans, without a father; our mothers are as widows.
4 Our own water we drink for money, our own wood cometh to us in return for payment.
5 On our necks are we persecuted; we are jaded, - there is no rest for us.
6 [Towards] Egypt we reach our hand, - [towards] Assyria, to satisfy ourselves [with] bread.
7 Our fathers sinned, they are not; we bear their iniquities.
8 Servants rule us; there is none to deliver us out of their hand.
9 At the risk of our life we bring in our bread, because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin gloweth with heat like a furnace, because of the fever-heat of hunger.
11 They have forced women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hand; the face of the elders is not honoured.
13 Young men carry millstones, and lads stagger under [loads of] wood.
14 Elders cease from the gate, young men from their instrumental music.
15 The joy of our heart hath ceased, our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown of our head is fallen; woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17 Because of this our heart became sick; because of these [things] our eyes became dark.
18 Upon Mount Zion, which is laid waste, jackals roam through it.
19 Thou, O Jahveh, dost sit [enthroned] for ever; They throne is for generation and generation.
20 Why dost thou forget us for ever, - forsake us for a length of days?
21 Lead us back, O Jahveh, to thyself, that we may return; renew our days, as of old.
22 Or, hast Thou indeed utterly rejected us? art thou very wroth against us?
This poem begins (Lamentations 5:1) with the request addressed to the Lord, that He would be pleased to think of the disgrace that has befallen Judah, and concludes (Lamentations 5:19-22) with the request that the Lord may not forsake His people for ever, but once more receive them into favour. The main portion of this petition is formed by the description of the disgrace and misery under which the suppliants groan, together with the acknowledgment (Lamentations 5:7 and Lamentations 5:16) that they are compelled to bear the sins of their fathers and their own sins. By this confession, the description given of their misery is divided into two strophes (Lamentations 5:2-7 and Lamentations 5:8-16), which are followed by the request for deliverance (Lamentations 5:19-22), introduced by Lamentations 5:17 and Lamentations 5:18. The author of this prayer speaks throughout in the name of the people, or, to speak more correctly, in the name of the congregation, laying their distress and their supplication before the Lord. The view of Thenius, - that this poem originated among a small company of Jews who had been dispersed, and who, in the mist of constant persecution, sought a place of refuge from the oppression of the Chaldeans, - has been forced upon the text through the arbitrary interpretation of detached figurative expressions.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.