Ark of the Covenant - Bible History Online
Bible History
Picture Study Bible with Maps and Background Information

Lamentations 5

1 - Remember, The LORD, what has come on us.Look, and see our reproach.
2 - Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,our houses to aliens.
3 - We are orphans and fatherless.Our mothers are as widows.
4 - We have drunken our water for money.Our wood is sold to us.
5 - Our pursuers are on our necks.We are weary, and have no rest.
6 - We have given our hands to the Egyptians,and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 - Our fathers sinned, and are no more.We have borne their iniquities.
8 - Servants rule over us.There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
9 - We get our bread at the peril of our lives,because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 - Our skin is black like an oven,because of the burning heat of famine.
11 - They ravished the women in Zion,the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 - Princes were hanged up by their hands.The faces of elders were not honored.
13 - The young men carry millstones.The children stumbled under loads of wood.
14 - The elders have ceased from the gate,and the young men from their music.
15 - The joy of our heart has ceased.Our dance is turned into mourning.
16 - The crown has fallen from our head.Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 - For this our heart is faint.For these things our eyes are dim.
18 - For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate.The foxes walk on it.
19 - You, The LORD, remain forever.Your throne is from generation to generation.
20 - Why do you forget us forever,and forsake us for so long a time?
21 - Turn us to yourself, The LORD, and we will be turned.Renew our days as of old.
22 - But you have utterly rejected us.You are very angry against us.
Lamentations Images and Notes

The Book of Lamentations

Lamentations 2:5 - The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

Lamentations 5:19-22 - Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and] forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

The Old Testament - A Brief Overview

Bible Survey - Lamentations
Hebrew Name - Eikah "How"
Greek Name - Threnos "Lament"
Author - Jeremiah (According to Tradition)
Date - 588 BC Approximately
Theme - 5 Poetic laments over the destruction of Jerusalem
Types and Shadows - In Lamentations Jesus is the weeping prophet

The First Day. Light.

Summary of The Book of Lamentations

In the Hebrew the word for the name of the book of Lamentations is "Eikah" which means "How." The book of  Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah according to Jewish tradition. The book contains five poems that depict the condition of the forsaken city of Jerusalem which had been burnt to the ground and utterly demolished by the Babylonians on the ninth of Av in the Jewish calendar in 586 BC, in contrast to the magnificent splendor that it once possessed. The reason for God's chastisement on the people of Judah and on the city of Jerusalem are spelled out in the form of an appeal made to God to remember the great suffering of his people and to take vengeance upon the conquerors of His city and the people of Judah.

The first four poems are arranged in an acrostic form with each containing 22 verses which correspond with the 22 consonants of the Hebrew alphabet. In chapter 3 each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is allotted 3 of the 66 verses which comprise the poem. Some conclude that the reason for this was because Israel had sinned from beginning to end (A-Z, or in the Hebrew aleph-tav).

Jeremiah, who wrote the lamentations was an eyewitness of the events, and this brought him great sorrow for he knew the people, he knew the city, he knew the children, and he knew the festivities that existed among the people of Judah.

Interesting note: The Jewish translators of the Septuagint (LXX) attribute Jeremiah as the author of the Lamentations, and so do other ancient translations: The Aramaic Targum, the Latin Vulgate, and the Syriac Peshitta, and the Babylonian Talmud.

Outline of the Book of Lamentations

The five lament poems are outlined here:

Lamentations 1 - Jerusalem's desolation is lamented
Lamentations 2 - God's wrath against the city of Jerusalem
Lamentations 3 - God's faithfulness is acknowledged
Lamentations 4 - God's faithfulness is viewed as chastisement
Lamentations 5 - God's faithfulness is worthy of trust

The First Day. Light.

Lamentations Resources

The Divided Kingdom
The Northern Kingdom of Israel
The Southern Kingdom of Judah
The Assyrian Captivity
The Babylonian Captivity
The Return From Babylon
The Prophets
The Messiah

The Book of Lamentations

More About the Book of Lamentations
Lamentations in the Picture Study Bible
Timeline of the Ancient World
Back to the Old Testament
Back to Bible History Online