Lamentations 5
BSB
A Prayer for Restoration
1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us.
Look and see our disgrace!
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to foreigners.
3We have become fatherless orphans;
our mothers are widows.
4We must buy the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
5We are closely pursued;
we are weary and find no rest.
6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7Our fathers sinned and are no more,
but we bear their punishment.
8Slaves rule over us;
there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
9We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10Our skin is as hot as an oven
with fever from our hunger.
11Women have been ravished in Zion,
virgins in the cities of Judah.
12Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders receive no respect.
13Young men toil at millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14The elders have left the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15Joy has left our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17Because of this, our hearts are faint;
because of these, our eyes grow dim—
18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
patrolled by foxes.
19You, O LORD, reign forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20Why have You forgotten us forever?
Why have You forsaken us for so long?
21Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return;
renew our days as of old,
22unless You have utterly rejected us
and remain angry with us beyond measure.
Introduction
Lamentations 5
This chapter, though it has the same number of verses with the 1st, 2nd, and 4th, is not alphabetical, as they were, but the scope of it is the same with that of all the foregoing elegies. We have in it, I. A representation of the present calamitous state of God's people in their captivity (v. 1-16). II. A protestation of their concern for God's sanctuary, as that which lay nearer their heart than any secular interest of their own (Lam 5:17, Lam 5:18). III. A humble supplication to God and expostulation with him, for the returns of mercy (Lam 5:19-22); for those that lament and do not pray sin in their lamentations. Some ancient versions call this chapter, "The Prayer of Jeremiah."
Cross-references: Lam 5:17 · Lam 5:18 · Lam 5:19