Lamentations chapter 5
Remember us. Restore us.
REMEMBER US
VERSE 1. Remember, LORD, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach.
Remember, LORD. They ask the LORD God to remember their condition.
VERSE 2. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens.
VERSE 3. We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows.
VERSE 4. We have drunken our water for money. Our wood is sold to us.
We have drunken our water for money. That is,
The water we drink we must buy (NAB translation)
VERSE 5. Our pursuers are on our necks. We are weary, and have no rest.
VERSE 6. We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
We have given our hands. For the sake of national security, Judah had pledged allegiance both to Egypt and Assyria.
VERSE 7. Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities.
Our fathers sinned. Judah’s former leaders had shifted their allegiance between Egypt and Assyria.
Their own fickleness destroyed them.
VERSE 8. Servants rule over us. There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
VERSE 9. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.
VERSE 10. Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.
VERSE 11. They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.
VERSE 12. Princes were hanged up by their hands. The faces of elders were not honored.
VERSE 13. The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood.
VERSE 14. The elders have ceased from the gate, and the young men from their music.
VERSE 15. The joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning.
The joy of our heart has ceased. They grieving.
VERSE 16. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
VERSE 17. For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim.
VERSE 18. For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes walk on it.
RESTORE US
VERSE 19. You, LORD, remain forever. Your throne is from generation to generation.
VERSE 20. Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time?
Why do you forget us forever. They ask the LORD God to restore them.
VERSE 21. Turn us to yourself, LORD, and we will be turned. Renew our days as of old.
NAB translation. Lead us back to you, O LORD, that we may be restored: give us anew such days as we had of old.
Lead us back to you, O LORD. This is the ultimate cure for the sinner.
VERSE 22. But you have utterly rejected us. You are very angry against us.
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(Ezekiel chapter 1)
LAMENTATIONS
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.