The big picture
Lamentations 5 opens in verse 1 with “Remember, O LORD , what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.”, reaches its middle movement near verse 11 with “They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.”, and closes in verse 22 with “But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.” Repeated or prominent terms include hand, LORD, turned, bread, ceased. Together, those details trace this chapter’s own movement from its opening to its conclusion.
Scripture beside the summary
Lamentations · King James Version · 22Lamentations 5:1-8
1–8: Remember, O LORD , what is come upon us: consider, and behold our…
Lamentations 5:1–8 opens with “Remember, O LORD , what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.” and reaches “Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.” by its final verse. That movement develops the focus on Survivors gathered in prayer, naming their losses and asking the Lord to turn and restore them, with particular weight carried by hand, aliens, Assyrians.
Context that brings the passage to life
“Remember, O LORD , what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.” Naming Remember keeps the account rooted in particular people or places. Follow where the name returns and what changes around it.
Lamentations 5:1-8
King James Version1Remember, O LORD , what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
Lamentations 5:9-16
9–16: We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the…
Lamentations 5:9–16 opens with “We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.” and reaches “The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!” by its final verse. That movement develops the focus on Survivors gathered in prayer, naming their losses and asking the Lord to turn and restore them, with particular weight carried by ceased, elders, young.
Context that brings the passage to life
“We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.” The line’s distinctive content terms include bread, lives, peril. Its relationship to verses 10 shows what work it does in this passage.
Lamentations 5:9-16
King James Version9We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
15The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
Lamentations 5:17-22
17–22: For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
Lamentations 5:17–22 opens with “For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.” and reaches “But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.” by its final verse. That movement develops the focus on Survivors gathered in prayer, naming their losses and asking the Lord to turn and restore them, with particular weight carried by generation, LORD, days.
Context that brings the passage to life
This block contains 1 explicit questions. They are more than punctuation: they reveal where a voice is searching, challenging, afraid, or trying to understand.
Lamentations 5:17-22
King James Version17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19Thou, O LORD , remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD , and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Lamentations 5:1 begins with “Remember, O LORD , what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.”
Where the chapter turns
Lamentations 5:20 forms a natural hinge: “Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?”
The final note
Lamentations 5:22 leaves the reader with “But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words hand, LORD, turned, bread, ceased, elders help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
What does the repeated ending make readers feel?
Death becomes the chapter's persistent refrain, even as generation follows generation.
What two interruptions offer hope?
Enoch's walk with God and Lamech's hope attached to Noah.
KJV words made clear
- behold
- look, or pay close attention
- unto
- to
- thee
- you
- thou
- you
- thy
- your
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.