King James Version
Lamentations 5
22 verses with commentary
A Prayer for Restoration
Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
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KJV Study Commentary
Chapter 5 is a communal prayer: "Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach" (<em>zechor YHWH meh-hayah lanu habitah ure'eh et-kherpatenu</em>, זְכֹר יְהוָה מֶה־הָיָה לָנוּ הַבִּיטָה וּרְאֵה אֶת־חֶרְפָּתֵנוּ). The verb <em>zakhar</em> (זָכַר, "remember") is crucial. It's not that God forgets—His memory is perfect. But biblical "remembering" means acting on relationsh...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
V.
(1) **Remember, O Lord.**—The fact that the number of verses is, as in Lamentations 1, 2, 4, the same as that of the Hebrew alphabet suggests the inference that this chapter also, though not actually alphabetic, was intended to have been so, and that we have the last of the five elegies in a half-finished state. It would seem as if Jeremiah first wrote freely what was in his mind, and then set ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. your dreams which ye caused to be dreamed--**The Latin adage says, "The people wish to be deceived, so let them be deceived." Not mere credulity misleads men, but their own perverse "love of darkness rather than light." It was not priests who originated priestcraft, but the people's own morbid appetite to be deceived; for example, Aaron and the golden calf (Ex 32:1-4). So the Jews caused or m...
Read full commentary →Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
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KJV Study Commentary
Inheritance turned to strangers, houses to aliens. Loss of covenant land—ultimate curse. Leviticus 26:32-33.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Turned.**—Used here as in the sense of *transferred.*
**Houses.**—In Jer. Iii. 13, the Chaldæans are said to have burnt the houses of Jerusalem, and those of the great men elsewhere; here, therefore, the “houses” spoken of are those of the farmers and peasants in the country.
We are orphans and fatherless , our mothers are as widows.
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KJV Study Commentary
Fatherless and widows—most vulnerable in society. War creates orphans/widows whom God commands we protect.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Our mothers are as widows**—*i.e.,* their husbands, though living, were carried into exile, and they were as destitute as though they had been deprived of them by death. The Chaldee paraphrase gives the same meaning to the last clause also, “We are like orphans.”
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
10. (See on Jr 25:11; Jr 25:12; Da 9:2). This proves that the seventy years date from Jeconiah's captivity, not from the last captivity. The specification of time was to curb the impatience of the Jews lest they should hasten before God's time.
**good word--**promise of a return.
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. is: Heb. cometh for price
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KJV Study Commentary
Paying for water and wood—basic necessities commodified. In own land, forced to buy what should be free.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Our water . . . our wood.**—The point of the complaint lies in the possessive pronoun. The Chaldæan conquerors were in possession of the country, and the very necessaries of life, which had been looked on as the common property of all, were only to be had for money. In the Hebrew of the first clause the fact appears yet more emphatically: *Our water comes to us for money. *The words have bee...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. I know--**I alone; not the false prophets who know nothing of My purposes, though they pretend to know.
**thoughts ... I think--**(Is 55:9). Glancing at the Jews who had no "thoughts of peace," but only of "evil" (misfortune), because they could not conceive how deliverance could come to them. The moral malady of man is twofold--at one time vain confidence; then, when that is disappointed,...
Read full commentary →Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. Our: Heb. On our necks are we persecuted
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Yoke on necks, persecuted, no rest. Slavery imagery. Egypt redux. Circular judgment.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Our necks are under persecution.**—Better, *were under pursuit: i.e., *the enemies were pressing close on them, always, as in our English phrase, at their very heels.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
12. Fulfilled (Da 9:3, &c.). When God designs mercy, He puts it into the hearts of His people to pray for the mercy designed. When such a spirit of prayer is poured out, it is a sure sign of coming mercy.
**go--**to the temple and other places of prayer: contrasted with their previous sloth as to going to seek God.
We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
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Submitting to Egypt and Assyria for bread. Seeking help from former enemies. Desperate alliances.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **We have given the hand.**—The recognised phrase for submission (Jeremiah 1:15). “Assyria,” as in Jeremiah 2:18; Ezra 6:22, stands for “Babylon.” The people had been forced by sheer pressure of hunger to submit to one or other of these princes. “Egypt” refers, probably, to the fugitives who had sought a home in that country (Jeremiah 42:14).
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
13. (Le 26:40-42, 44, 45).
Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
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KJV Study Commentary
A troubling complaint: "Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities" (<em>avoteinu khatu einam anakhnu avonoteihem savalnu</em>, אֲבֹתֵינוּ חָטְאוּ אֵינָם אֲנַחְנוּ עֲוֺנֹתֵיהֶם סָבָלְנוּ). This became a popular proverb, quoted in Ezekiel 18:2: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." The complaint suggests injustice—we're sufferi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **We have borne their iniquities.**—The words seem at first parallel to the proverb of the “sour grapes” in Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18:2. Here, however, it is followed in Lamentations 5:16 by a confession of personal guilt, and the complaint is simply that the former generation of offenders had passed away without the punishment which now fell upon their descendants, who thus had to bear, as i...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**14. to be found--**(Psa 32:6; Is 55:6).
**turn ... captivity--**play upon sounds, shabti ... shebith.
Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
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KJV Study Commentary
Slaves rule over us, none delivers. Ultimate indignity—ruled by those who should be servants.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **Servants have ruled over us.**—The Chaldæans, it would seem, added insult to injury, sending as rulers those who had filled menial offices in the courts of their kings. (Comp. Jeremiah 39:3.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**15. Because--**referring not to the preceding words, but to Jr 29:10, 11, "Jehovah saith this to you" (that is, the prophecy of the continuance of the captivity seventy years), "because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon," namely, foretelling our speedy deliverance (this their prophecy is supposed, not expressed; accordingly, Jr 29:16-19 contradict this false hope again...
Read full commentary →We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
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Getting bread with peril of lives, swords in wilderness. Daily survival life-threatening. No security.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **The sword of the wilderness.**—Another element of suffering is hinted at. Those who were left in the land were attacked, as they gathered in their scanty harvest, by the nomad tribes of the wilderness. Amalekites, Midianites, and others. (Comp. Jeremiah 40:14.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**16. people ... in this city ... not gone forth--**So far from your returning to Jerusalem soon, even your brethren still left dwelling there shall themselves also be cast into exile. He mentions "the throne of David," lest they should think that, because David's kingdom was to be perpetual, no severe, though temporary, chastisements could interpose (Psa 89:29-36).
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. terrible: or, terrors, or, storms
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KJV Study Commentary
Skin black like oven from famine. Malnutrition visible effects. Bodies showing souls distress.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **Our skin was black . . .**-Better, *fiery red, *and for “terrible famine,” *the fever-blast of famine. *The words paint the hot fever of hunger rather than the livid paleness of exhaustion.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. vile figs--**Hebrew, "horrible," or nauseous, from a root, "to regard with loathing" (see Jr 24:8, 10).
They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
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Women ravished in Zion, maids in Judah cities. Sexual violence in conquest—ultimate violation and humiliation.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. removed to all ... kingdoms--**(Jr 15:4; De 28:25).
**curse, &c.--**(Jr 29:6; 18:16; 19:8).
Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The Degradation of Leaders</strong><br><br>This verse depicts the horrific humiliation of Jerusalem's leadership following the Babylonian conquest. The phrase "princes are hanged up by their hand" (<em>sarim be-yadam talu</em>) describes public execution or display of bodies—a practice used by conquerors to demonstrate total subjugation. The Hebrew <em>talah</em> (תָּלָה, "to hang") often ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **Princes are hanged . . .**—The words point to the shameless exposure of the bodies of the dead. (Comp. the treatment of Saul and his sons in 1Samuel 31:10-12.) This was the common practice of the Assyrian kings (*Records of the Past, i.* 38). Neither age nor dignity (both are implied in the word “elders”) was any safeguard against atrocities, either in life or death.
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
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KJV Study Commentary
Young men bear millstones, children fall under wood. Forced labor of youth—stealing future.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **They took . . .**—Better, *Young men bear the mill: i.e.,* were not only set to grind the handmill, which was itself the work of a menial slave, commonly of women, but were made to carry the mill itself, probably as they marched along with the Chaldæan armies on their way to Babylon. (Comp. Isaiah 47:2.) So in like manner the next clause describes the sufferings of the striplings, who were ...
Read full commentary →The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
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Elders cease from gate, young men from music. Normal social functions end—no justice, joy, or culture.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **Have ceased from the gate.**—The gate in an Eastern city was the natural place of meeting for the elder citizens as for counsel and judgment (Ruth 4:1; Joshua 20:4), and also for social converse (Job 29:7; Proverbs 31:23). The “music” of this verse and the “dancing” of the next point to a like interruption of the social joys of the young.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. Zedekiah--**brother of Zephaniah (Jr 29:25), both being sons of Maaseiah; probably of the same family as the false prophet under Ahab in Israel (1Ki 22:11, 24).
The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
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KJV Study Commentary
The emotional toll: "The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning" (<em>shavat mesos libeinu nehefakh le-evel mecholenu</em>, שָׁבַת מְשׂוֹשׂ לִבֵּנוּ נֶהְפַּךְ לְאֵבֶל מְחֹלֵנוּ). The verb <em>shavat</em> (שָׁבַת, "ceased") is the same root as sabbath—rest from joy, silence of celebration. "Joy of our heart" (<em>mesos libeinu</em>) refers to inner gladness, not mere external...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. shall be taken ... a curse--**that is, a formula of imprecation.
**Lord make thee like Zedekiah--**(Compare Ge 48:20; Is 65:15).
**roasted in the fire--**a Chaldean punishment (Da 3:6).
The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! The: Heb. The crown of our head is fallen
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KJV Study Commentary
Personal responsibility acknowledged: "The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!" (<em>naflah ateret roshenu oi-na lanu ki chatanu</em>, נָפְלָה עֲטֶרֶת רֹאשֵׁנוּ אוֹי־נָא לָנוּ כִּי חָטָאנוּ). The "crown" (<em>ateret</em>, עֲטֶרֶת) symbolizes glory, honor, dignity—all that Israel possessed as God's chosen people. Its fall represents complete loss of status. Deuteronomy ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **The crown is fallen.**—The phrase is naturally symbolic of degradation, and need not be restricted to the destruction of the Temple or the devastation of Jerusalem.
**We have sinned!**—The confession of personal sinfulness produced by the contemplation of the miseries of the people contrasts, as has been already noticed, with the half-complaining tone of Lamentations 5:7.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**23. villainy--**literally, "sinful folly" (Is 32:6).
For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
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KJV Study Commentary
Heart is faint, eyes are dim. Physical manifestation of spiritual/emotional exhaustion. Comprehensive suffering.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **For this . . . for these things.**—The first clause refers to the loss of national honour indicated in Lamentations 5:16; the latter, to all the horrors named in Lamentations 5:8-15.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
**Nehelamite--**a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreame...
Read full commentary →Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
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Mount Zion desolate, foxes walk there. Wild animals inhabit holy mountain. Reversal of civilization.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **Foxes.**—Better, *jackals, *who are thought of as haunting the ruins of Jerusalem. (Comp. Psalm 63:10.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
**Nehelamite--**a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreame...
Read full commentary →Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever</strong> (אַתָּה יְהוָה לְעוֹלָם תֵּשֵׁב, atah YHWH le'olam teshev)—'Remainest' or 'sittest' (yashav) evokes God's enthronement—stable, unchanging, eternal. <strong>Thy throne from generation to generation</strong> (כִּסְאֲךָ לְדֹר וָדֹר, kis'akha ledor vador)—while earthly kingdoms rise and fall (including David's throne in Jerusalem), God's reign is trans...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **Thou, O Lord, remainest.**—Literally, *Thou sittest: i.e., *as the next clause shows, upon a throne. The lamentation is drawing to its close, and the mourner finds comfort in the thought of the eternity of God (Psalm 102:12), and therefore the unchangeableness of His purpose of love towards His people.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
**Nehelamite--**a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreame...
Read full commentary →Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? so: Heb. for length of days?
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KJV Study Commentary
A painful question: "Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever? why dost thou forsake us so long time?" (<em>lamah la-netsakh tishkachenu ta'azvenu le-orekh yamim</em>, לָמָּה לָנֶצַח תִּשְׁכָּחֵנוּ תַּעַזְבֵנוּ לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים). The phrase "for ever" (<em>la-netsakh</em>, לָנֶצַח) doesn't necessarily mean eternal duration but indefinite, seemingly endless time. "Long time" (<em>le-orekh yamim</em>, ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Wherefore dost thou forget . . .**—This was the problem of the mystery of suffering then, as it has been at all times. Jehovah had seemed forgetful of His people, indifferent to their miseries.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
**Nehelamite--**a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreame...
Read full commentary →Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned</strong> (הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה, hashivenu YHWH elekha venashuvah)—The plea for God to 'turn us' before we can 'be turned' acknowledges human inability to repent apart from divine initiative. This is proto-Augustinian theology: conversion requires God's prevenient grace. The wordplay on 'shuv' (turn/return) emphasizes ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **Turn thou us . . . O Lord . . .**—The answer to the problem was found in man’s submission and in prayer. He could not turn himself, and so re-establish the old filial relation. He could ask God to turn him, and he felt that the prayer would not be asked in vain.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
**Nehelamite--**a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreame...
Read full commentary →But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us. But: or, For wilt thou utterly reject us?
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KJV Study Commentary
The book's troubling conclusion: "But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us" (<em>ki im-ma'os me'astanu katsafta aleinu ad-me'od</em>, כִּי אִם־מָאֹס מְאַסְתָּנוּ קָצַפְתָּ עָלֵינוּ עַד־מְאֹד). The phrase <em>ma'os me'astanu</em> uses emphatic construction: "rejecting, you have rejected us"—complete repudiation. "Very wroth" (<em>katsafta...ad-me'od</em>, קָצַפְתָּ...עַד־מְ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **But thou hast . . .**—The Authorised version represents the mourner as falling back from the hopeful prayer into the depths of despair. For “but” we should, however, read *unless. *The hypothesis of utter rejection is just stated as the only thing that could prevent renewal and restoration, and it is stated as *per impossible; *God has not rejected, and therefore He will renew.
It may be no...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
**Nehelamite--**a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreame...
Read full commentary →