Chapter Five

1–10. The prayer of the prophet Jeremiah, in which he first depicts the calamitous state of Zion, 11–18. and then asks God to have mercy on the long-suffering Jewish people.

(Lam 5:1-18.) The condition of Judea is extremely sorrowful. Foreigners have taken possession of the land of Judea and the Jewish people has become like orphans. It must turn to either the Egyptians or the Assyrians for a piece of bread. For the sins of their fathers, the Jews must endure all kinds of torments and humiliations, and there are no longer any signs of life in Zion.

Lamentations 5:4. We drink our water for a price; we must pay for our wood. Our own water, from rivers and reservoirs belonging to us, we must pay a certain fee to our conquerors. Similarly, we are not allowed to cut wood without paying a certain fee.

Lamentations 5:6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, to the Assyrians, to get bread enough. We must save ourselves from starvation either from the Egyptians, who were not averse to accepting Jews, or else go into captivity to Assyria, that is, to Babylon, even if our conquerors were to leave us in Palestine. Here, in our land, death by starvation threatens us.

Lamentations 5:8. Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand. “Slaves,” that is, the Chaldeans, who ought to serve us as slaves (cf. Ps 71:11).

Lamentations 5:9. We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness. More correctly to translate: “we obtain our bread at the risk of our lives, full of terror before the sword and the plague.”

Lamentations 5:13. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood. The millstones were heavy stones that it was very difficult to manage for young men. (Lam 5:19-22.) The prophet is perplexed about the fact that the Lord has abandoned his people, and he beseeches God to turn the hearts of the Jews back to himself again.

Lamentations 5:19. You, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. By pointing to the unchangeableness of Jehovah, the prophet evidently wishes to say that God’s mercy toward Israel should also be unchangeable.

Lamentations 5:21. Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old. A person only turns with all his heart to God when God calls him to do so. Cf. Jer 30:21.