Lamentations Chapter 5 (ASV)

Read Lamentations chapter 5 online with LogosAI Bible study tools, highlights, and cross references.

Lamentations 5 is part of “Prayer for Restoration” (5) in the outline of Lamentations.

Lamentations 5 summary

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."

Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706–21; Romans–Revelation completed by Nonconformist ministers). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).

1. 1 Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us: Behold, and see our reproach.
2. 2 Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, Our houses unto aliens.
3. 3 We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
4. 4 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold unto us.
5. 5 Our pursuers are upon our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.
6. 6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7. 7 Our fathers sinned, and are not; And we have borne their iniquities.
8. 8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
9. 9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.
10. 10 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
11. 11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
12. 12 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
13. 13 The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.
14. 14 The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.
15. 15 The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.
16. 16 The crown is fallen from our head: Woe unto us! for we have sinned.
17. 17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;
18. 18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk upon it.
19. 19 Thou, O Jehovah, abidest for ever; Thy throne is from generation to generation.
20. 20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [And] forsake us so long time?
21. 21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Jehovah, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old.
22. 22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us.