Lamentations 5 – A Closing Prayer for Jerusalem
The book's final chapter turns lament into an unanswered prayer for restoration.
Lamentations 5 closes the Lamentations overview's five-part dirge as a communal prayer, listing what the exiles have lost: inherited land, safe water, fair courts, and family life (vv1-14).
Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach.
Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners.
Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers `are' as widows.
Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come.
For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured -- there hath been no rest for us.
`To' Egypt we have given a hand, `To' Asshur, to be satisfied with bread.
Our fathers have sinned -- they are not, We their iniquities have borne.
Servants have ruled over us, A deliverer there is none from their hand.
With our lives we bring in our bread, Because of the sword of the wilderness.
Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine.
Wives in Zion they have humbled, Virgins -- in cities of Judah.
Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.
Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled.
The aged from the gate have ceased, Young men from their song.
Ceased hath the joy of our heart, Turned to mourning hath been our dancing.
Fallen hath the crown `from' our head, Wo `is' now to us, for we have sinned.
For this hath our heart been sick, For these have our eyes been dim.
For the mount of Zion -- that is desolate, Foxes have gone up on it.
Thou, O Jehovah, to the age remainest, Thy throne to generation and generation.
Why for ever dost Thou forget us? Thou forsakest us for length of days!
Turn us back, O Jehovah, unto Thee, And we turn back, renew our days as of old.
For hast Thou utterly rejected us? Thou hast been wroth against us -- exceedingly?