LAMENTATIONS 5

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Lamentations 5:1-22 (KJV) 

1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. 

To remember God in bad times is a lesson learned.  Approaching God the right way to honor Him for being the all-knowing God is counted as righteousness. 

2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

What you gave us now belongs to people unknown to who You are. 

3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows. 

Many men are dead and now they realize that You gave strong men as a valuable resource to mankind.  Realizing that some had neither mother nor father is devastating in the time of God's wrath.

4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. 

We pay someone else for water that belongs to us and we buy our own wood.

5 Our necks [are] under persecution: we labour, [and] have no rest.

We have become slaves.

 6 We have given the hand [to] the Egyptians, [and to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 

We have made the Egyptians and Assyrians comfortable.

7 Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not; and we have borne their iniquities. 

Our fathers are dead and we are suffering because of their sins.

8 Servants have ruled over us: [there is] none that doth deliver [us] out of their hand. 

The servants of others now tell us what to do.

9 We gat our bread with [the peril of] our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. 

When we find food, it is a struggle to get it.

10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

Our skin is burned from its natural color because things are so hard to find.

 11 They ravished the women in Zion, [and] the maids in the cities of Judah. 

The enemy rapes the women of Judah.

12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. 

The leaders are hanged by their hands and the older people are not given any slack.

13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. 

Young men had to grind or work extremely hard, and the children fell under a load of lumber.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. 

Nothing is the same.  What was ordinary is no longer heard.  The older people sat and talk in Jerusalem and the young men enjoyed playing music.

15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

Fun is a thing of the past.  Now we cry all the time.

 16 The crown is fallen [from] our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! 

We were recognized as kings and queens, look at us we admit we did not listen to Your Word.

17 For this our heart is faint; for these [things] our eyes are dim. 

Because we sinned we are weak, and we can barely see.

18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. 

Everything you spoke we see now.  The empty land where we had joy is inhabited by wild animals.

19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

We recognize you are God.

 20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and] forsake us so long time? 

Have you forgotten us because it has been a long time since we heard from You?

21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Give us another chance and we will obey.

 22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

They now forgot what God said, just because you will be punished, I will allow you to come back to Me.  Yes, God was angry but His anger does not last forever.  We have to learn, just as we are serious about what belongs to us and we do not want anyone to destroy what is our, so it is with God.  His anger is justified at all times.  Judah has learned a very valuable lesson.  God means every Word He Said.