Lamentations 5
New International Reader's Version
5 Lord, think about what has happened to us.
Look at the shame our enemies have brought on us.
2 The land you gave us has been turned over to outsiders.
Our homes have been given to strangers.
3 Our fathers have been killed.
Our mothers don’t have husbands.
4 We have to buy the water we drink.
We have to pay for the wood we use.
5 Those who chase us are right behind us.
We’re tired and can’t get any rest.
6 We put ourselves under the control of Egypt and Assyria
just to get enough bread.
7 Our people of long ago sinned.
And they are now dead.
We are being punished because of their sins.
8 Slaves rule over us.
No one can set us free
from their power.
9 We put our lives in danger just to get some bread to eat.
Robbers in the desert might kill us with their swords.
10 Our skin is as hot as an oven.
We are so hungry we’re burning up with fever.
11 Our women have been treated badly in Zion.
Our virgins have been treated badly in the towns of Judah.
12 Our princes have been hung up by their hands.
No one shows our elders any respect.
13 Our young men are forced to grind grain at the mill.
Our boys almost fall down
as they carry heavy loads of wood.
14 Our elders don’t go to the city gate anymore.
Our young men have stopped playing their music.
15 There isn’t any joy in our hearts.
Our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 All of our honor is gone.
How terrible it is for us because we have sinned!
17 So our hearts are weak.
Our eyes can’t see very clearly.
18 Mount Zion has been deserted.
Wild dogs are prowling all around on it.
19 Lord, you rule forever.
Your throne will last for all time to come.
20 Why do you always forget us?
Why have you deserted us for so long?
21 Lord, please bring us back to you.
Then we can return.
Make our lives like new again.
22 Or have you completely turned away from us?
Are you really that angry with us?
Lamentations 5
1599 Geneva Bible
5 The prayer of Jeremiah.
1 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: [a]consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to the strangers, our houses to the aliens.
3 We are fatherless, even without father, and our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunk our [b]water for money, and our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we are weary, and have no rest.
6 We have given our [c]hands to the Egyptians, and to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not, and we have borne [d]their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us, none would deliver us out of their hands.
9 We got our bread with the peril of our lives, because of the sword [e]of the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like as an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 They defiled the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 The princes are hanged up by [f]their hand: the faces of the Elders were not had in honor.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under [g]the wood.
14 The Elders have ceased from the [h]gate and the young men from their songs.
15 The joy of our heart is gone, our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown of our head is fallen: woe now unto us, that we have sinned.
17 Therefore our heart is heavy for these things, our [i]eyes are dim,
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: the foxes run upon it.
19 But thou, O Lord, remainest [j]forever: thy throne is from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time?
21 [k]Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned: renew our days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us: thou art exceedingly angry against us.
Footnotes
- Lamentations 5:1 This prayer as is thought, was made when some of the people were carried away captive, others, as the poorest remained, and some went into Egypt, and other places for succor: albeit it seemeth that the Prophet foreseeing their miseries to come, thus prayed.
- Lamentations 5:4 Meaning, their extreme servitude and bondage.
- Lamentations 5:6 We are joined in league and amity with them, or have submitted ourselves unto them.
- Lamentations 5:7 As our fathers have been punished for their sins: so we that are culpable of the same sins, are punished.
- Lamentations 5:9 Because of the enemy that came from the wilderness, and would not suffer us to go and seek our necessary food.
- Lamentations 5:12 That is, by the enemy’s hand.
- Lamentations 5:13 Their slavery was so great, that they were not able to abide it.
- Lamentations 5:14 There were no more laws nor form of commonwealth.
- Lamentations 5:17 With weeping.
- Lamentations 5:19 And therefore thy covenant and mercies can never fail.
- Lamentations 5:21 Whereby is declared that it is not in man’s power to turn to God, but is only his work to convert us, and thus God worketh in us before we can turn to him, Jer. 31:18.
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