1 Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.
You have made us to be looked down on by our neighbours, we are laughed at and shamed by those who are round about us. Our name is a word of shame among the nations, a sign for the shaking of heads among the peoples. My downfall is ever before me, and I am covered with the shame of my face; Because of the voice of him who says sharp and bitter words; because of the hater and him who is the instrument of punishment.
Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me;
And he said, Jesus, keep me in mind when you come in your kingdom.
O Lord, word of you has come to my ears; I have seen your work, O Lord; when the years come near make it clear; in wrath keep mercy in mind.
Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord?
All who go by make a noise with their hands at you; they make hisses, shaking their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, and saying, Is this the town which was the crown of everything beautiful, the joy of all the earth?
O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come to my help, and give their right reward to those who are attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry: see how I have undergone shame because of you from all those who make little of your word;
They said to me, The small band of Jews now living there in the land are in great trouble and shame: the wall of Jerusalem has been broken down, and its doorways burned with fire.
And give punishment seven times over into the breast of our neighbours for the bitter words which they have said against you, O Lord.
We are looked down on by our neighbours, we are laughed at and made sport of by those who are round us.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Lamentations 5
Commentary on Lamentations 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 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,
Some ancient versions call this chapter, "The Prayer of Jeremiah.'
Lam 5:1-16
Is any afflicted? let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God, and make known before him his trouble. The people of God do so here; being overwhelmed with grief, they give vent to their sorrows at the footstool of the throne of grace, and so give themselves ease. They complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt: "Remember what has come upon us, v. 1. What was of old threatened against us, and was long in the coming, has now at length come upon us, and we are ready to sink under it. Remember what is past, consider and behold what is present, and let not all the trouble we are in seem little to thee, and not worth taking notice of,' Neh. 9:32. Note, As it is a great comfort to us, so it ought to be a sufficient one, in our troubles, that God sees, and considers, and remembers, all that has come upon us; and in our prayers we need only to recommend our case to his gracious and compassionate consideration. The one word in which all their grievances are summer up is reproach: Consider, and behold our reproach. The troubles they were in compared with their former dignity and plenty, were a greater reproach to them than they would have been to any other people, especially considering their relation to God and dependence upon him, and his former appearances for them; and therefore this they complain of very sensibly, because, as it was a reproach, it reflected upon the name and honour of that God who had owned them for his people. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
Lam 5:17-22
Here,