Lamentations · 22 verses
Lamentations 5
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Mount Zion lies desolate, and foxes patrol it; then the lament turns from the ruined holy place to the LORD’s everlasting throne and asks why He has forgotten them forever.
A city emptied of its ordinary lifevv. 1–18
The speakers ask the LORD to look upon their disgrace: inheritance and houses have passed to strangers, families are bereaved, water and wood cost money, and pursuit leaves no rest. They submit to Egypt and Assyria for bread, while the sins of fathers weigh upon those who remain. Slaves rule, bread is fetched at the peril of life, hunger burns the skin, and the violence spreads through Zion and the cities of Judah: women ravished, princes hung by their hands, elders dishonoured, young men bent over millstones, and boys staggering beneath wood. The elders have left the gate, the young men their music, joy has become mourning, and the crown has fallen. At the end of this long inventory of human ruin comes the chapter’s most disconcertingly commonplace image: Mount Zion is desolate, with foxes on patrol.
The everlasting throne and the unanswered questionvv. 19–22
The LORD’s reign and throne are declared everlasting, generation after generation. Beside that permanence stands the bewildered question of abandonment: why has He forgotten and forsaken them for so long? The prayer asks for restoration and renewed days, but its final word is an unresolved qualification—unless rejection is total and the anger lasts beyond measure.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Lam 5:1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
Lam 5:2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
Lam 5:3We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
Lam 5:4We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
Lam 5:5We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.
Lam 5:6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
Lam 5:7Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
Lam 5:8Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
Lam 5:9We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.
Lam 5:10Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
Lam 5:11Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
Lam 5:12Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.
Lam 5:13Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
Lam 5:14The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
Lam 5:15Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
Lam 5:16The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Lam 5:17Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
Lam 5:18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
Lam 5:19You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.
Lam 5:20Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?
Lam 5:21Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
Lam 5:22unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 234 passages were voted onto 22 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 21Psalms 80:3Restore us, O God, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- 7Jeremiah 16:12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.
- 7Jeremiah 31:29“In those days, it will no longer be said: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’
- 21Psalms 80:7Restore us, O God of Hosts, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- 7Ezekiel 18:2“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?
- 19Psalms 102:12But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.
- 7Jeremiah 14:20We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.
- 21Psalms 85:4Restore us, O God of our salvation, and put away Your displeasure toward us.
- 7Exodus 20:5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- 21Jeremiah 31:18I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.
- 21Psalms 80:19Restore us, O LORD God of Hosts; cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- 10Lamentations 4:8But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- 19Hebrews 1:8–12But about the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
- 19Psalms 45:6Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
- 16Psalms 89:39You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust.
- 19Psalms 145:13Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful in all His words and kind in all His actions.
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