51 "Remember, God, all we've been through. Study our plight, the black mark we've made in history. 2 Our precious land has been given to outsiders, our homes to strangers. 3 Orphans we are, not a father in sight, and our mothers no better than widows. 4 We have to pay to drink our own water. Even our firewood comes at a price. 5 We're nothing but slaves, bullied and bowed, worn out and without any rest. 6 We sold ourselves to Assyria and Egypt just to get something to eat. 7 Our parents sinned and are no more, and now we're paying for the wrongs they did. 8 Slaves rule over us; there's no escape from their grip. 9 We risk our lives to gather food in the bandit-infested desert. 10 Our skin has turned black as an oven, dried out like old leather from the famine. 11 Our wives were raped in the streets in Zion, and our virgins in the cities of Judah. 12 They hanged our princes by their hands, dishonored our elders. 13 Strapping young men were put to women's work, mere boys forced to do men's work. 14 The city gate is empty of wise elders. Music from the young is heard no more. 15 All the joy is gone from our hearts. Our dances have turned into dirges. 16 The crown of glory has toppled from our head. Woe! Woe! Would that we'd never sinned!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Lamentations 5:1-16
Commentary on Lamentations 5:1-16
(Read Lamentations 5:1-16)
Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknowledge, Woe unto us that we have sinned! All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. Though our sins and God's just displeasure cause our sufferings, we may hope in his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, and his kind providence. But the sins of a man's whole life will be punished with vengeance at last, unless he obtains an interest in Him who bare our sins in his own body on the tree.