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Lamentations 5
Lamentations 1:1 - 1:11 on the first page of Book of Lamentations in Codex Sinaiticus (AD 330-350).
BookBook of Lamentations
CategoryKetuvim
Christian Bible partOld Testament
Order in the Christian part25

Lamentations 5 is the fifth (and the last) chapter of the Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.[1][2] This chapter contains the elegies of prophet Jeremiah as a humble prayer, presenting to the Lord their great misery, Lamentations 5:1-15, confessing their sins, Lamentations 5:16-18, imploring deliverance, Lamentations 5:19-22.[3] It is a part of the Ketuvim ("Writings").[4][5]

Text

  • The original text is written in Hebrew language.
  • This chapter is divided into 22 verses.
  • The fifth chapter (fifth elegy), though having twenty-two stanzas (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet), just as the first four, yet is not alphabetical; and its lines are shorter than those of the others, which are longer than are found in other Hebrew poems, and contain twelve syllables, marked by a cæsura about the middle, dividing them into two somewhat unequal parts.[3]
  • It serves as an epiphonema, or a closing recapitulation of the calamities treated in the previous chapters/elegies.[3]
  • This chapter is called, in some Greek copies, and in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, "the prayer of Jeremiah".Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).[6]
    • 5Q6 (5QLama): extant: verses 1‑13, 16‑17[7]

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

Structure

This chapter can be grouped into:

Verse 1

Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us:
consider, and behold our reproach.[8]
  • "Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us": It is best to understand it of the Jews in Babylon; representing their sorrowful case, as represented by the prophet; entreating that the Lord would remember the affliction they were under, and deliver them out of it, that which he had determined should come upon them. So the Targum states, "remember, O Lord, what was decreed should be unto us;"and what he had long threatened should come upon them; and which they had reason to fear would come, though they put away the evil day far from them; but now it was come, and it lay heavy upon them; and therefore they desire it might be taken off.[9]

Verse 21

Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord,
and we shall be turned;
renew our days as of old.[10]
  • "Turn thou us": Not "bring us back to thee," i.e. to the sacred land (as Thenius), for it is not a speech of the exiles, but of the Jews left behind, at least for the present, in Judea. "Turn thou us" means "Bring us into a state of reconciliation with thee".[11]
  • "Renew our days as of old": means, "Restore the old happy mode of life, each man with his own vine and his own fig tree, undisturbed by the fear of invasion, and rejoicing in the sense of the favour of Jehovah." The first petition ("turn thou us") has the priority because only on repentance and recovered purity of heart and life can Jerusalem rise from her ashes. Isaiah had said this long ago (Isaiah 1:26, 27), and the elegiac poet repeats it (compare Jeremiah 31:18).[11]

Verse 22

But thou hast utterly rejected us;
thou art very wroth against us.[12]
  • "But thou hast utterly rejected us": Literally, "Unless thou hast utterly rejected us," unless "thou art very wroth against us." This is stated as a virtual impossibility. God's anger can be but temporary Psalm 30:5, and therefore the very supposition is an indirect expression of hope.[13]
  • This verse speaks of the possibility of an utter rejection through God's wrath. Therefore, to remove so painful a thought, and to make the book more suited for public reading, Lamentations 5:21 is repeated in many manuscripts intended for use in the synagogue. The same rule is observed in the synagogue with the two last verses of Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, and Malachi.[13]


See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook: an abbreviated Bible commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
  2. ^ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Robert Jamieson, Andrew Robert Fausset; David Brown. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary On the Whole Bible. 1871.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ J. D. Davis. 1960. A Dictionary of The Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House.
  5. ^ Therodore Hiebert, et.al. 1996. The New Intrepreter's Bible: Volume: VI. Nashville: Abingdon.
  6. ^ Timothy A. J. Jull; Douglas J. Donahue; Magen Broshi; Emanuel Tov (1995). "Radiocarbon Dating of Scrolls and Linen Fragments from the Judean Desert". Radiocarbon. 38 (1): 14. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference thewaytoyahuweh was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Lamentations 5:1
  9. ^ Gill, John. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible. Exposition of the Old and New Testament. Published in 1746-1763.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. ^ Lamentations 5:21
  11. ^ a b Joseph S. Exell; Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones (Editors). The Pulpit Commentary. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  12. ^ Lamentations 5:22
  13. ^ a b Barnes, Albert. Notes on the Old Testament. London, Blackie & Son, 1884. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Jewish

Christian

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