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Lamentations 5
The final poem drops the acrostic and the elaborate imagery: it is a plain communal prayer of twenty-two short lines, beginning "Remember, LORD, what has come on us" (v.1). The survivors catalogue their losses, that inheritance is gone, water and wood must be bought, servants now rule them (vv.2-8). Watch the shift from describing the present misery to a single confession (v.16) and then to a direct question put to God's silence (v.20).
- 1
Remember, 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 must pay for water to drink. 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 in 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, 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, 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.
- 1
ACUÉRDATE, oh Jehová, de lo que nos ha sucedido: ve y mira nuestro oprobio.
- 2
Nuestra heredad se ha vuelto á extraños, nuestras casas á forasteros.
- 3
Huérfanos somos sin padre, nuestras madres como viudas.
- 4
Nuestra agua bebemos por dinero; nuestra leña por precio compramos.
- 5
Persecución padecemos sobre nuestra cerviz: nos cansamos, y no hay para nosotros reposo.
- 6
Al Egipcio y al Asirio dimos la mano, para saciarnos de pan.
- 7
Nuestros padres pecaron, y son muertos; y nosotros llevamos sus castigos.
- 8
Siervos se enseñorearon de nosotros; no hubo quien de su mano nos librase.
- 9
Con peligro de nuestras vidas traíamos nuestro pan delante del cuchillo del desierto.
- 10
Nuestra piel se ennegreció como un horno á causa del ardor del hambre.
- 11
Violaron á las mujeres en Sión, á las vírgenes en las ciudades de Judá.
- 12
A los príncipes colgaron por su mano; no respetaron el rostro de los viejos.
- 13
Llevaron los mozos á moler, y los muchachos desfallecieron en la leña.
- 14
Los ancianos cesaron de la puerta, los mancebos de sus canciones.
- 15
Cesó el gozo de nuestro corazón; nuestro corro se tornó en luto.
- 16
Cayó la corona de nuestra cabeza: ¡ay ahora de nosotros! porque pecamos.
- 17
Por esto fué entristecido nuestro corazón, por esto se entenebrecieron nuestros ojos:
- 18
Por el monte de Sión que está asolado; zorras andan en él.
- 19
Mas tú, Jehová, permanecerás para siempre: tu trono de generación en generación.
- 20
¿Por qué te olvidarás para siempre de nosotros, y nos dejarás por largos días?
- 21
Vuélvenos, oh Jehová, á ti, y nos volveremos: renueva nuestros días como al principio.
- 22
Porque repeliendo nos has desechado; te has airado contra nosotros en gran manera.
An ending left open
Against all the ruin, verse 19 affirms what has not fallen: "You, LORD, remain forever. Your throne is from generation to generation." That eternal throne becomes the ground for the plea of verse 21, to be turned back and renewed as in former days.
But the book does not close on resolution. The last verse admits God has utterly rejected them and is very angry, leaving the prayer of verse 21 hanging unanswered. The lament ends still waiting.
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