Lenten Study Lamentations Ch 5
This marks the end of Jeremiah’s lament over the punishment of Jerusalem. This tale does not have a happy ending. It is not a poetic song that leaves us with an upbeat ending. It is the sad conclusion to a sad chapter in the lives of the people of God. It is a watchword. It is a cautionary tale for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
"Michelangelo, Jeremiah lamenting the fall of Jerusalem, detail of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1508-12" by Prof. Mortel is marked with CC BY 2.0.
1 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; Look, and see our reproach!
Lamentations 5:1 (NASB)
This is a statement for people, not for God. God cannot forget things like humans. This is a statement to make sure we humans keep what is said in the lines that follow in context.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, Our houses to aliens.
Lamentations 5:2 (NASB)
Physical possession of the land by a family marked what they had. They walked the boundaries regularly, plowed the fields, maintained the walls, and kept the buildings repaired. Their activity inside the boundaries of their lands made that land their possession. That is all gone now. The people have either died or been driven off save for very few who remain and those who are slaves or homeless.
3 We have become orphans without a father, Our mothers are like widows.
Lamentations 5:3 (NASB)
The people left have lost a war. That means almost all of the men of fighting age are dead. The wives and mothers of those men mourn for their loss and are in despair if they are still alive. They’ve lost everything. This is not the world we know after a storm, with insurance companies writing checks and newscasters assuring the people outside the region, “They will rebuild.” These people have lost everything, and no one cares if they survive to see another day right now.
4 We have to pay for our drinking water, Our wood comes to us at a price.
Lamentations 5:4 (NASB)
Access to wells that once were free is now taxed, as are any common fords or spots at rivers where the banks are easy to get to the water if they are allowed to move around at all. Fuel for their fires to make food or keep warm is gathered by other people, or the inhabitants aren’t physically capable of cutting wood themselves.
5 Our pursuers are at our necks; We are worn out, there is no rest for us.
Lamentations 5:5 (NASB)
The people looking to do them harm are inside the walls, living in their houses, or next door. They cannot get away from the people who want to harm them or are mean to them. Each morning is a new worry about getting simple things done and simply surviving by avoiding the people they cannot avoid.
6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
Lamentations 5:6 (NASB)
The people of Jerusalem that are left cannot do the work of planting and harvesting. Those who can do not have the supplies or seed to do the work. They must go to their neighbors to get food. When they go to those neighbors, they have nothing to give them to accept themselves, so they are now slaves to those who are feeding them, beholden to obey whatever they want of them.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; It is we who have borne their iniquities.
Lamentations 5:7 (NASB)
Other people’s sins cause the problems for many who remain in Jerusalem. In Jeremiah’s case, he was not at fault, and he even is not guilty of the sin of sitting by in silence and allowing it to happen. Still, Jeremiah suffers along with the rest, and he is not the only one like this who survives in Jerusalem.
8 Slaves rule over us; There is no one to deliver us from their hand.
Lamentations 5:8 (NASB)
This statement classes all who are left behind as the lowest social status left. Slaves were at the bottom of the social ladder, and those who survived the siege were lower than even the slaves serving the people who conquered them.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives Because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin has become as hot as an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
Lamentations 5:9-10 (NASB)
Stepping outside whatever structure the people left in Jerusalem called home put themselves at risk. It would not be called murder for the conquerors to kill one of the conquered inhabitants simply. They were recently at war and are still viewed as less than people by those who won the battles.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were hung by their hands; Elders were not respected.
13 Young men worked at the grinding mill, And youths stumbled under loads of wood.
Lamentations 5:11-13 (NASB)
To the victor goes the spoils is the old saying about war. Part of the spoils is making the laws. Rarely if ever, were the conquered people considered to have any rights. Raping women, murdering the leaders of a conquered city, putting their people to work doing the menial tasks, and simply disrespecting those people as a whole were commonplace. War in ancient times was brutal for those in battle and those after. While today it is still an atrocity to be avoided, it was inescapable for those it touched in Jeremiah’s day.
14 Elders are gone from the gate, Young men from their music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased; Our dancing has been turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head; Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Lamentations 5:14-16 (NASB)
There is no simple leisure time now. Everything is a fight just to survive, eat, and stay warm. Nothing comes simply or easily for anyone.
17 Because of this our heart is faint, Because of these things our eyes are dim;
18 Because of Mount Zion which lies desolate, Foxes prowl in it.
Lamentations 5:17-18 (NASB)
Jerusalem is built on a hill surrounded by taller hills and mountains. Much of the city is now desolate and destroyed as the city’s enemies occupy the best places and those left intact. What remains is taken back by nature, with wild animals now moving about the streets of Man freely.
19 You, O LORD, rule forever; Your throne is from generation to generation.
20 Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to You, O LORD, that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old,
22 Unless You have utterly rejected us And are exceedingly angry with us.
Lamentations 5:19-22 (NASB)
Those people who remain in and around Jerusalem must have felt abandoned by God. The fall, destruction, occupation, and subjugation of the city’s people was just punishment by God. They earned their chastisement. Those who remain in the aftermath wonder, “how long?” Is this final to our end? Do we suffer now for the rest of our lives? Has God abandoned us? Is there no chance for redemption and repentance? I cannot answer that. These are the final verses of the Book of Lamentations.
What is known is that within roughly 900 years, the city is once again thriving. It is rebuilt even more splendidly than before and is a cultural gem for the Jews once again. It is also the setting, once again, where an entire people reject God, and it will be destroyed utterly before another forty years pass. This time, the city of the Jews won’t return as such for almost two thousand years.