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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
Lembra-te, SENHOR, do que nos aconteceu. Olha, e vê a nossa desonra.
- 2
Nossa herança foi entregue a estranhos, nossas casas a estrangeiros.
- 3
Somos órfãos e sem pai. Nossas mães são como viúvas.
- 4
Temos que pagar pela água que bebemos. Nossa lenha nos é vendida.
- 5
Nossos perseguidores estão sobre os nossos pescoços. Estamos exaustos, e não temos descanso.
- 6
Estendemos as mãos aos egípcios, e aos assírios, para nos fartarmos de pão.
- 7
Nossos pais pecaram, e já não existem. Nós carregamos as suas iniquidades.
- 8
Servos dominam sobre nós. Não há ninguém para nos livrar de suas mãos.
- 9
Conseguimos o nosso pão com risco de vida, por causa da espada no deserto.
- 10
Nossa pele é negra como um forno, por causa do calor abrasador da fome.
- 11
Violaram as mulheres em Sião, as virgens nas cidades de Judá.
- 12
Príncipes foram pendurados pelas mãos. Os rostos dos anciãos não foram honrados.
- 13
Os jovens carregam pedras de moinho. Os meninos tropeçaram sob fardos de lenha.
- 14
Os anciãos deixaram a porta da cidade, e os jovens deixaram a sua música.
- 15
A alegria do nosso coração cessou. Nossa dança se transformou em luto.
- 16
A coroa caiu da nossa cabeça. Ai de nós, porque pecamos!
- 17
Por isso o nosso coração está desfalecido. Por essas coisas os nossos olhos se escurecem:
- 18
pelo monte Sião, que está desolado. As raposas andam sobre ele.
- 19
Tu, SENHOR, permaneces para sempre. O teu trono é de geração em geração.
- 20
Por que te esqueces de nós para sempre, e nos desamparas por tanto tempo?
- 21
Faze-nos voltar para ti, SENHOR, e voltaremos. Renova os nossos dias como nos tempos antigos.
- 22
Mas tu nos rejeitaste totalmente. Estás muito irado contra nós.
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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