USB ~ Lamentations 5

The Community’s Lament to the Lord

1 Remember, LORD, what has happened to us, pay attention, and see our disgrace:

2 Our heritage is turned over to strangers, our homes, to foreigners. a

3 We have become orphans, without fathers; our mothers are like widows.

4 We pay money to drink our own water, our own wood comes at a price.

5 With a yoke on our necks, we are driven; we are worn out, but allowed no rest.

6 We extended a hand to Egypt and Assyria, to satisfy our need of bread.†

7 Our ancestors, who sinned, are no more; but now we bear their guilt.

8 Servants† rule over us, with no one to tear us from their hands.

9 We risk our lives just to get bread, exposed to the desert heat; b

10 Our skin heats up like an oven, from the searing blasts of famine. c

11 Women are raped in Zion, young women in the cities of Judah; d

12 Princes have been hanged by them, elders shown no respect. e

13 Young men carry millstones, boys stagger under loads of wood;

14 The elders have abandoned the gate,† the young men their music.

15 The joy of our hearts has ceased, dancing has turned into mourning; f

16 The crown has fallen from our head: woe to us that we sinned!

17 Because of this our hearts grow sick, at this our eyes grow dim:

18 Because of Mount Zion, lying desolate, and the jackals roaming there!

19 But you, LORD, are enthroned forever; your throne stands from age to age. g

20 † Why have you utterly forgotten us, forsaken us for so long? h

21 Bring us back to you, LORD, that we may return: renew our days as of old. i

22 For now you have indeed rejected us and utterly turned your wrath against us. j

Footnotes

†. 5:6 Extended a hand: that is, made an alliance. In its state of abjection, Judah was forced to depend on the major powers to the west and the east for subsistence.

†. 5:8 Servants: the Hebrew word for “servant” is also the word used for an official of relatively high status (servant of the ruler; cf. 2 Kgs 25:24, where the term is used to refer to Babylonian rulers over occupied Jerusalem); the author doubtless intends the double meaning here.

†. 5:14 The gate: a place of assembly, where city decisions were made and judgment given by the elders and other community leaders; see note on Ru 4:1.

†. 5:20-22 Unlike most of the laments found in the Book of Psalms, the Book of Lamentations never moves from lament to thanksgiving. It ends with this question still unanswered by God: “Why have you utterly forgotten us?”

5:2 Ps 79:1.
5:9 Lam 1:11.
5:10 Lam 4:8.
5:11 Zec 14:2.
5:12 Lam 4:16.
5:15 Jer 16:9; 25:10; Am 8:10.
5:19 Ps 9:8; 45:7; 102:13, 27.
5:20 Ps 13:2; 42:10; Is 49:14.
5:21 Ps 80:19-20.
5:22 Jer 14:19.