51 Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach. 2 Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners. 3 Orphans we have been—without a father, our mothers 'are' as widows. 4 Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come. 5 For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured—there hath been no rest for us. 6 'To' Egypt we have given a hand, 'To' Asshur, to be satisfied with bread. 7 Our fathers have sinned—they are not, We their iniquities have borne. 8 Servants have ruled over us, A deliverer there is none from their hand. 9 With our lives we bring in our bread, Because of the sword of the wilderness. 10 Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine. 11 Wives in Zion they have humbled, Virgins—in cities of Judah. 12 Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured. 13 Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled. 14 The aged from the gate have ceased, Young men from their song. 15 Ceased hath the joy of our heart, Turned to mourning hath been our dancing. 16 Fallen hath the crown 'from' our head, Wo 'is' now to us, for we have 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.