1 Remember, H2142 O LORD, H3068 what is come upon us: consider, H5027 and behold H7200 our reproach. H2781
2 Our inheritance H5159 is turned H2015 to strangers, H2114 our houses H1004 to aliens. H5237
3 We are orphans H3490 and fatherless, H369 H1 our mothers H517 are as widows. H490
4 We have drunken H8354 our water H4325 for money; H3701 our wood H6086 is sold H935 H4242 unto us.
5 Our necks H6677 are under persecution: H7291 we labour, H3021 and have no rest. H5117
6 We have given H5414 the hand H3027 to the Egyptians, H4714 and to the Assyrians, H804 to be satisfied H7646 with bread. H3899
7 Our fathers H1 have sinned, H2398 and are not; H369 and we have borne H5445 their iniquities. H5771
8 Servants H5650 have ruled H4910 over us: there is none that doth deliver H6561 us out of their hand. H3027
9 We gat H935 our bread H3899 with the peril of our lives H5315 because H6440 of the sword H2719 of the wilderness. H4057
10 Our skin H5785 was black H3648 like an oven H8574 because H6440 of the terrible H2152 famine. H7458
11 They ravished H6031 the women H802 in Zion, H6726 and the maids H1330 in the cities H5892 of Judah. H3063
12 Princes H8269 are hanged up H8518 by their hand: H3027 the faces H6440 of elders H2205 were not honoured. H1921
13 They took H5375 the young men H970 to grind, H2911 and the children H5288 fell H3782 under the wood. H6086
14 The elders H2205 have ceased H7673 from the gate, H8179 the young men H970 from their musick. H5058
15 The joy H4885 of our heart H3820 is ceased; H7673 our dance H4234 is turned H2015 into mourning. H60
16 The crown H5850 is fallen H5307 from our head: H7218 woe H188 unto us, that we have sinned! H2398
17 For this our heart H3820 is faint; H1739 for these things our eyes H5869 are dim. H2821
18 Because of the mountain H2022 of Zion, H6726 which is desolate, H8074 the foxes H7776 walk H1980 upon it.
19 Thou, O LORD, H3068 remainest H3427 for ever; H5769 thy throne H3678 from generation H1755 to generation. H1755
20 Wherefore dost thou forget H7911 us for ever, H5331 and forsake H5800 us so long H753 time? H3117
21 Turn H7725 thou us unto thee, O LORD, H3068 and we shall be turned; H7725 renew H2318 our days H3117 as of old. H6924
22 But thou hast utterly H3988 rejected H3988 us; thou art very H3966 wroth H7107 against us.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Lamentations 5
Commentary on Lamentations 5 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 5
La 5:1-22. Epiphonema, or a Closing Recapitulation of the Calamities Treated in the Previous Elegies.
1. (Ps 89:50, 51).
2. Our inheritance—"Thine inheritance" (Ps 79:1). The land given of old to us by Thy gift.
3. fatherless—Our whole land is full of orphans [Calvin]. Or, "we are fatherless," being abandoned by Thee our "Father" (Jer 3:19), [Grotius].
4. water for money—The Jews were compelled to pay the enemy for the water of their own cisterns after the overthrow of Jerusalem; or rather, it refers to their sojourn in Babylon; they had to pay tax for access to the rivers and fountains. Thus, "our" means the water which we need, the commonest necessary of life.
our wood—In Judea each one could get wood without pay; in Babylon, "our wood," the wood we need, must be paid for.
5. Literally, "On our necks we are persecuted"; that is, Men tread on our necks (Ps 66:12; Isa 51:23; compare Jos 10:24). The extremest oppression. The foe not merely galled the Jews face, back, and sides, but their neck. A just retribution, as they had been stiff in neck against the yoke of God (2Ch 30:8, Margin; Ne 9:29; Isa 48:4).
6. given … hand to—in token of submission (see on Jer 50:15).
to … Egyptians—at the death of Josiah (2Ch 36:3, 4).
Assyrians—that is, the Chaldeans who occupied the empire which Assyria had held. So Jer 2:18.
to be satisfied with bread—(De 28:48).
7. (Jer 31:29).
borne their iniquities—that is, the punishment of them. The accumulated sins of our fathers from age to age, as well as our own, are visited on us. They say this as a plea why God should pity them (compare Eze 18:2, &c.).
8. Servants … ruled … us—Servants under the Chaldean governors ruled the Jews (Ne 5:15). Israel, once a "kingdom of priests" (Ex 19:6), is become like Canaan, "a servant of servants," according to the curse (Ge 9:25). The Chaldeans were designed to be "servants" of Shem, being descended from Ham (Ge 9:26). Now through the Jews' sin, their positions are reversed.
9. We gat our bread with … peril—that is, those of us left in the city after its capture by the Chaldeans.
because of … sword of … wilderness—because of the liability to attack by the robber Arabs of the wilderness, through which the Jews had to pass to get "bread" from Egypt (compare La 5:6).
10. As an oven is scorched with too much fire, so our skin with the hot blast of famine (Margin, rightly, "storms," like the hot simoom). Hunger dries up the pores so that the skin becomes like as if it were scorched by the sun (Job 30:30; Ps 119:83).
11. So in just retribution Babylon itself should fare in the end. Jerusalem shall for the last time suffer these woes before her final restoration (Zec 14:2).
12. hanged … by their hand—a piece of wanton cruelty invented by the Chaldeans. Grotius translates, "Princes were hung by the hand of the enemy"; hanging was a usual mode of execution (Ge 40:19).
elders—officials (La 4:16).
13. young men … grind—The work of the lowest female slave was laid on young men (Jud 16:21; Job 31:10).
children fell under … wood—Mere children had to bear burdens of wood so heavy that they sank beneath them.
14. Aged men in the East meet in the open space round the gate to decide judicial trials and to hold social converse (Job 29:7, 8).
16. The crown—all our glory, the kingdom and the priesthood (Job 19:9; Ps 89:39, 44).
17. (La 1:22; 2:11).
18. foxes—They frequent desolate places where they can freely and fearlessly roam.
19. (Ps 102:12). The perpetuity of God's rule over human affairs, however He may seem to let His people be oppressed for a time, is their ground of hope of restoration.
20. for ever—that is, for "so long a time."
21. (Ps 80:3; Jer 31:18). "Restore us to favor with Thee, and so we shall be restored to our old position" [Grotius]. Jeremiah is not speaking of spiritual conversion, but of that outward turning whereby God receives men into His fatherly favor, manifested in bestowing prosperity [Calvin]. Still, as Israel is a type of the Church, temporal goods typify spiritual blessings; and so the sinner may use this prayer for God to convert him.
22. Rather, "Unless haply Thou hast utterly rejected us, and art beyond measure wroth against us," that is, Unless Thou art implacable, which is impossible, hear our prayer [Calvin]. Or, as Margin, "For wouldest Thou utterly reject us?" &c.—No; that cannot be. The Jews, in this book, and in Isaiah and Malachi, to avoid the ill-omen of a mournful closing sentence, repeat the verse immediately preceding the last [Calvin].