Lamentations 5

General context

A plural voice asks the Lord to remember what has come upon them and to look at their reproach. Their inheritance has gone to strangers and their houses to aliens; they are orphans and fatherless and their mothers are as widows; they buy their own water and their wood is sold to them; their necks are under persecution and they labour without rest; they have given the hand to the Egyptians and the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread. Their fathers sinned and are gone, and they have borne their iniquities. Servants rule over them and none delivers them. They get bread at the peril of their lives because of the sword of the wilderness, and their skin is black like an oven from famine. Women were ravished in Zion and maids in the cities of Judah; princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured; young men were taken to grind and children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate and the young men from their music; the joy of their heart has ceased and their dance is turned to mourning; the crown has fallen from their head, and they cry woe because they have sinned. For this their heart is faint and their eyes dim, because mount Zion is desolate and foxes walk on it. They say the Lord remains for ever and his throne from generation to generation, ask why he forgets and forsakes them so long, and pray that he turn them so they will be turned and renew their days as of old. The last verse says that he has utterly rejected them and is very angry with them.

Cited passages: Lamentations 5:1, Lamentations 5:2, Lamentations 5:3, Lamentations 5:4, Lamentations 5:5, Lamentations 5:6, Lamentations 5:7, Lamentations 5:8, Lamentations 5:9, Lamentations 5:10, Lamentations 5:11, Lamentations 5:12, Lamentations 5:13, Lamentations 5:14, Lamentations 5:15, Lamentations 5:16, Lamentations 5:17, Lamentations 5:18, Lamentations 5:19, Lamentations 5:20, Lamentations 5:21, Lamentations 5:22

Lamentations 5 (KJV)

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

The chapter has twenty-two verses, is spoken throughout by a plural we addressed to the Lord, and names no author or individual speaker. Unlike chapters 1, 2 and 4 it does not open on the word how. The peoples named are the Egyptians and the Assyrians, to whom the speakers say they have given the hand for bread, and the places are Zion, the cities of Judah and the mountain of Zion. The rulers are described only as servants, and those who ravished the women, hanged the princes and took the young men are an unnamed they. The chapter states sexual violence plainly, they ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah, and states forced labour for the young men and children. The phrase princes are hanged up by their hand is printed as it stands and not explained. Guilt is placed in two places: our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities, and later woe unto us, that we have sinned. No date is given for the conditions described, which are present tense, and the request to renew our days as of old points back to the pleasant things of the days of old in chapter 1. The chapter ends on rejection and anger; the text does not add any answer from the Lord.

Cited passages: Lamentations 5:1, Lamentations 5:6, Lamentations 5:18, Lamentations 5:8, Lamentations 5:11, Lamentations 5:13, Lamentations 5:12, Lamentations 5:7, Lamentations 5:16, Lamentations 5:21, Lamentations 1:7, Lamentations 5:22

Literary context

The chapter opens on an imperative, remember, and then lists losses in short two-part lines, most beginning with our or we: inheritance, houses, fathers, mothers, water, wood, necks, bread, skin. The losses are sorted by group, orphans, mothers, women, maids, princes, elders, young men and children, and verses 14 and 15 mark what has stopped with the verb ceased twice and a turn of dance into mourning. Confession moves from the fathers in verse 7 to the speakers themselves in verse 16, where the fallen crown and woe unto us stand in one line. Verse 19 changes address and tense, thou, O Lord, remainest for ever, setting the Lord's permanence against the desolate mountain where foxes walk, and that permanence becomes the ground of a question, wherefore dost thou forget us, and a request, turn thou us. The final verse begins with but and ends the book on rejection and anger, so the plea of verse 21 is left standing without an answer. The skin black like an oven repeats the coal-black faces of chapter 4, and the request for days as of old answers the memory of days of old in chapter 1.

Cited passages: Lamentations 5:1, Lamentations 5:2, Lamentations 5:3, Lamentations 5:14, Lamentations 5:15, Lamentations 5:7, Lamentations 5:16, Lamentations 5:19, Lamentations 5:18, Lamentations 5:20, Lamentations 5:21, Lamentations 5:22, Lamentations 5:10, Lamentations 4:8, Lamentations 1:7

Key moments

1. Remember, O Lord (Lamentations 5:1). The chapter opens with a plural plea that the Lord remember and see their reproach.
2. Orphans and widows (Lamentations 5:3). The speakers call themselves fatherless and their mothers as widows.
3. Our fathers have sinned (Lamentations 5:7). The people say their fathers sinned and are gone, and they bear the iniquities.
4. Women ravished in Zion (Lamentations 5:11). The chapter states that women in Zion and maids in Judah's cities were ravished.
5. The crown is fallen (Lamentations 5:16). Joy has ceased, the crown has fallen, and the speakers confess their own sin.
6. Thou remainest for ever (Lamentations 5:19). The prayer turns to the Lord's lasting throne against the desolate mountain.
7. Turn thou us (Lamentations 5:21). The people ask to be turned and to have their days renewed as of old.
8. Utterly rejected (Lamentations 5:22). The book ends by saying the Lord has utterly rejected them and is very angry.

For reflection

The prayer says the fathers sinned and are gone and that their children bear the iniquities, then a few lines later says woe unto us, that we have sinned. Does the last verse's rejection answer the first claim, the second, or both, and what does the poem leave a reader to decide?

People in this chapter

• Judah