The litany of losses outlined in Lamentations 5:1–18 reflects a basic biblical principle that sin has consequences, and miserable ones at that. Because of Judah’s sin of idolatry, among other sins, consequences ensue for the whole nation: an eighteen-month siege on Jerusalem that leads to depraved circumstances of mothers’ boiling their own children for food, followed by the destruction of the beloved city and temple as well as every Judahite town in the countryside. The consequences are severe for everyone: men and women, elders and children, prophets, priests, princes, and even the king himself are killed, tortured, hunted, pursued, and imprisoned. No one comes away unscathed. Chapters 1–4 have made this abundantly clear.
However, what chapter 5 makes clear is that the consequences of Judah’s sin have ripple effects for everyone (even the remnant left behind). As 5:7 states, the fathers sin and the next generation bears their iniquities. The exile lasts seventy years, and the remnant languishes terribly in the land for the whole of that time. In short, sin’s miserable consequences last for generations to come. This is seen throughout the Bible. Abraham’s sin with Hagar (Gen. 16:1–6) leads to fighting between Abraham’s and Ishmael’s descendants (cf. Gen. 37:28; 2 Chron. 21:16–17; Amos 1:6). Jacob’s sin in stealing the birthright from Esau (Gen. 25:23–34) leads to tension and fighting between their respective descendants at various points of their national histories, climaxing in Edom’s attack on Judah in the Babylonian invasion (Ps. 137:7). David’s sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) leads to the death of the son conceived by their adulterous affair (2 Sam. 12:14), followed by murder and rape in David’s household (2 Sam. 12:10–12; 16:22). Solomon’s polygamous and idolatrous behavior (1 Kings 11:1–8) leads to the division of the kingdom that creates centuries of problems for God’s people (1 Kings 11:14–2 Kings 25:21). A cursory read of Deuteronomy 28:15–68 shows that God’s people are not without warning that miserable consequences will befall them if they disobey God’s laws in his covenant. However, the good news for Israel is that the same God has also made provision for when they sin and are exiled.
God promises that when the people return to him after they exile, he will restore their fortunes in the land (Deut. 30:1–10, esp. vv. 3–4, 9). When one reviews the devastation in the land at the fall of Jerusalem and through the exilic years as described in Lamentations, the promise of Deuteronomy 30 sparkles even more magnificently. God also makes a similar promise through the prophet Joel, that he will restore the years the locust has eaten (Joel 2:25). And so he does. After the seventy years of exile God brings his people back to the land and resettles them as a nation. He helps them rebuild the temple (Ezra 3; Haggai; Zechariah 1–8) and refortify the capital city (Nehemiah), and then he renews a covenant relationship with them (Ezra 9–10).
However, it does not last. Shortly after the return, corruption among the people through intermarriage (Nehemiah 9; 13) and defilement of cultic worship at the temple (Mal. 1:6–2:16) ensue. Indeed, things deteriorate so badly that God threatens to bring his kherem curse of total devastation on the land unless covenant faithfulness is displayed from one generation to the next (Mal. 4:4–6). The end of Malachi is not dissimilar to that of Lamentations. Will things end in a kherem curse for God’s people (Mal. 4:6)? Will God utterly reject them forever as they live with the consequences of their sin (Lam. 5:22)?
The good news is that God gives an emphatic no to such questions. The glorious restoration of Israel’s fortunes is not fully realized in the postexilic period. However, with the coming of Jesus the restoration of all things begins to break into history. In Jesus’ first coming, through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, the new age of glorious restoration erupts into history. As a result, sinners are now offered “times of refreshing” on condition of their repentance and faith in Jesus (Acts 3:19–20). But the “restoring [of] all the things,” as promised by the OT prophets, must await his second coming (Acts 3:20–21). For now, we live with the consequences of our sin—its practical repercussions, the common curse, and even death itself. But there is coming a day when Jesus will restore all things and reconcile all things to himself (Col. 1:20). On that day sin will be no more, but the consequences of sin will also be no more. As John heard during his vision of the new heavens and the new earth, God has promised to wipe away every consequence of sin: tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain (Rev. 21:4).
What a marvelous restoration that will be! However, it is not yet. As Christians, we live between the already and the not yet. We enjoy forgiveness for our sins now, but we still live with the consequences of our sins. But one day, when Jesus returns and makes all things new, we will live free from our sin and our misery. In the meantime God calls us to live by faith in the one who promised, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).Lamentations 5:1–18
Lamentations 5:19–22
5:1 Chapter 5 begins with a string of three imperatives: “Remember” (v. 1; cf. 3:19), “look, and see” (1:11; 2:20; 3:36 [cf. comment on 3:34–36]). All three are used earlier in the book for Yahweh’s not doing something for Jerusalem-Judah: He “did not remember” his footstool, the temple, in the day of his anger (2:1). He no longer “looked” for his people after scattering them (4:16). And, in a rhetorical question, does Yahweh not see (“approve,” same Hb. verb) the scenarios of injustice (3:36)? The reiteration of the imperatives here, directed to Yahweh, reveals that the people still have a measure of faith as they look to him to remedy their present situation. In a sense these imperatives gather up all the exhortations in the book so far and encapsulate in a nutshell what the people want Yahweh to do. It is a plea for him to act in the light of what he sees. As mentioned in the Introduction, asking God to remember is not an accusation of forgetfulness but rather a call to action (cf. Gen. 8:1; Ex. 2:24). In this case the plea is based on the current state of God’s remnant people, what they “have become”—in a word, their “disgrace.” The word for “disgrace” is used earlier of the “insults” and “taunts” that the people experienced (Lam. 3:30, 61); here, however, it is used to describe everything that has happened to the people. Lamentations 5:2–9 unpacks what the “disgrace” entails, listing a litany of losses from economic oppression.
5:2 The first economic loss concerns the people’s “inheritance” and “homes.” The word “inheritance” is of note, since the term is employed in the OT as a sign of God’s covenant faithfulness. It is used to speak of the mountain on which God would plant his people after he brought them into the Promised Land (cf. Ex. 15:17), as well as more generally for the Promised Land (cf. Num. 16:14; 26:53; Deut. 4:21; Josh. 11:23) or an allotted portion of it (cf. Josh. 24:28, 30; Judg. 2:6). The word for “homes” includes more than the physical building; it consists also of households and possessions. This is heightened by the mention of the new possessors and owners: “strangers” and “foreigners.” With the invasion of Babylon and its devastating destruction of the land, a reversal has occurred: those outside the covenant community have become the inheritors of the Promised Land. The threat that Moses had delivered on the plains of Moab has become a living nightmare for the people on the plains of Judah. The sojourner has become the head; Judahites are now the tail (cf. Deut. 28:43–44).
5:3 The text describes the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion at the familial level. The remnant have become “orphans,” children without a father, presumably because their fathers either died in the siege or were killed as they fled. The impact is felt by their mothers too, who are now widows. In 1:1 the city of Jerusalem was described as a widow, but now it is full of actual widows, women bereaved of their husbands. Alongside foreigners, orphans and widows formed part of the social demographic that God encouraged Israel to care for because he himself executed justice for them (cf. Ex. 22:21–24; Deut. 10:18). The nation’s judgment came in part because of its failure to care for these kinds of people (cf. Isa. 1:17; Amos 2:6–7; Mic. 6:8). Now the remnant has become the very people for whom God encouraged Israel to care.
5:4–6 The text now turns to the basic commodities of life—water, rest, and food—all of which the people must now pay for or barter for with their enemies. The freedom of living in a land that supplied all their needs of water, food, and rest has been removed. Because the land is no longer Israel’s inheritance but that of strangers and foreigners, nothing is free, nothing is easily accessible. Now the people must pay money for water to drink (Lam. 5:4); now they must purchase wood to light a fire to cook (v. 4); now they must negotiate with previous enemies (v. 6). They who were once the head, blessed by God in the covenant (cf. Deut. 28:13), have now become the tail (cf. Deut. 28:44). The terms “water” and “wood” are fronted for emphasis, but so too are the prepositional phrases “for money” (ESV “pay”) and “at a price” (ESV “bought”). That which was previously supplied must now be purchased and bartered. However, this is not all. The people are not only oppressed economically (Lam. 5:4, 6); they are also enslaved physically. Their pursuers, a group so prominent in the siege and slaughter of escapees (1:3, 6; 4:19), have not gone away. They remain oppressors in the land, placing a yoke on the people’s necks, causing them weariness and restlessness (5:5). The complaint of verse 1b remains: whether in exile or in their homeland, the people live without rest. The idyllic image of each man under his vine and fig tree is a picture of the distant past (cf. 1 Kings 4:25).
5:7 The poem interrupts the litany of losses with an acknowledgement that what the people are experiencing is simply part of the consequences of being in covenant relationship with Yahweh. He had warned their fathers that if they disobeyed, they would perish (cf. Deut. 28:63)—and so they have. But more than that, in the great statement of his covenant character to Moses, Yahweh explained that the sins of one generation would be visited on another (Ex. 34:6–7). Here in Lamentations 5:7 the community acknowledges the terms of the covenant without complaint. Of course, thus far in the book the people have already admitted their own contributions to the punishment they have incurred (Lam. 1:5, 8, 14, 18, 20, 22; 2:14; 3:40–42; 4:6, 22), which was also in line with previous covenant stipulations related to individual responsibility (cf. Deut. 24:16), but here the connection with the sins of a previous generation is also affirmed.
5:8 The text returns to a similar theme in Lamentations 5:5, that of oppression by an enemy. However, there is added pain this time: the oppressive rule is conducted by their servants. Those who once served now demand service, and to such an extent that the people are enslaved to them without a deliverer. In chapter 1 the people lacked a comforter; now they lack a deliverer. The capture of King Zedekiah, mentioned in 4:20, has dealt a death blow to any hope of rescue for the remnant, since he lay in a prison in Babylon.
5:9 We now return to the theme of food (cf. vv. 4, 6), only this time the text explains the dangerous circumstances in which food is attained. Not only do the people have to pay or barter for it, they also have to hunt for it in the wilderness at the risk of their own lives (cf. 4:19). The mention of the wilderness is somewhat ironic, since their forefathers had known the divine provision of manna from heaven and water from a rock in the same kind of terrain. Yet not now—the desert has become a place of danger and death.
5:10 The poet picks up the theme of starvation present elsewhere in the book (2:11–12; 4:4, 9) and informs us that the starvation felt in the siege has continued even after the destruction of the city and the exile of her people. As with 4:7–8, this verse describes the physical deterioration that has occurred in the bodies of the remnant because of ongoing famine. The people’s skin burns like an oven in the heat of starvation.
All told, 5:1–10 describe in vivid detail the losses experienced by the people under economic oppression. This is the “disgrace” that has fallen upon the community and the reason it pleads with God to do something about it (v. 1). There is no note of complaint by the people here, as there is in the previous chapters. Indeed, there is an acceptance of the stipulations and parameters of the covenant relationship with Yahweh. However, precisely because they view themselves in covenant with Yahweh, they plead with him to act in light of what he sees.
5:11 The text details the violent abuse of women that occurred even after the destruction of Jerusalem. Women have already been spotlighted as one of the main groups who have suffered in the siege and exile (1:4, 18; 2:10, 12, 20, 21; 3:51; 4:10), but 5:11 is the worst description yet. The main verb in the bicolon (Hb. ʿanah) has a broad meaning; in context here it indicates the violence done to women in the form of rape. The horror of what the women experience is compounded by the extent to which the rape occurs: in both Zion (city) and the cities of Judah (countryside). There is nowhere left safe for Zion-Judah’s women. The mention of Zion is not without some irony, since it was known as a fortress city, with God’s presence serving as her protection (cf. Pss. 46:5; 48:3). However, it now lies so unprotected that women are raped at will within her walls. This act is not just a degradation of the women; it serves also as a humiliation to the men, exposing their inability to protect their wives and virgin daughters. Rape was intended to demean the whole community, not just the women. It also served to corrupt the people’s bloodlines.
5:12 If the rape of women in Lamentations 5:11 implied humiliation for the men, verse 12 states explicitly the form it takes. Judah’s princes—her leaders and fighting men—are humiliated by being hung by their hands. The parts of their bodies used to wield swords against the enemy are dispossessed and impaled. The lack of any metaphors in the context suggests this to be a physical, not symbolic, hanging. While the princes experience some form of torture, the elders suffer disrespect or disgrace, presumably of a public nature. The two groups constitute the nation’s leadership through strength and wisdom, yet each is now divested of both.
5:13 The view broadens to young men in general and to children. The young men are those in the prime of their life, full of energy and vigor, only now such vim is channeled into the grinding mill. The men are not able to serve the nation in harvesting food from their own land or building their own homes; instead, they serve as slaves producing food for their oppressors. The same goes for children: they too are enslaved, carrying wood in the service of the enemy. The verbs in each line convey the oppression: the young men are “compelled” (Hb. “carried”) to grind at the mill, while the young boys “stagger” under the weight of wood. The picture recalls the service of the men of Gibeon who Joshua made into wood cutters after he conquered the land (Josh. 9:21). Yet now an ironic reversal has occurred: the descendants of Joshua have become what the enemy in the land once was.
5:14 The poem returns to the categories of elders and young men but now describes what has ceased for both groups. The gate was the place where the elders of a city would conduct their business (e.g., Ruth 4:1–2), while music was the hobby of young men during their free time. The people have “ceased” (ESV “left”) these activities, a verb from the same root from which the noun “Sabbath” is derived. The verse conveys the complete cessation of normal business and social life in Judah, crowning the litany of losses with silence.
5:15 Here the lament repeats the verb “cease” from Lamentations 5:14, this time applying it to the heart rather than the harp. Not only has the music ceased that the young men would play, but so too has the joy of the people’s hearts. Moreover, their dancing has been exchanged for mourning. There is cessation but also replacement and reversal. Their hearts are emptied of “joy” (v. 15) but then filled with faintness (v. 17).
5:16 Verse 16 continues the reversal theme with the first metaphor in the chapter. The crown on their heads could refer to King Zedekiah, who had fallen captive to the Babylonians, or it could refer to the dignity and status of the nation as a whole on the world stage. Perhaps choosing between the two is a false dichotomy: because Zedekiah had been captured by the enemy, the nation is left humiliated before the surrounding nations. The seriousness of this reversal is such that it gives way to the clearest confession of sin in the whole book. The word “woe” is the same word used by Isaiah when he sees the glory of God in the temple vision (Isa. 6:5). It is also a word used by the prophets in calling God’s people to repentance (e.g., Isa. 3:9; Ezek. 24:9; Hos. 7:13). Now the people are willing to accuse themselves with it and admit without nuance or reservation that they indeed have sinned.
5:17–18 The song now presents a string of three causative statements, each introduced by the word “for.” The first two come in Lamentations 5:17, and the third in verse 18. If the single demonstrative pronoun “this” in the first line of verse 17 points back to the confession of verse 16, the plural demonstrative pronoun “these” in the second line of verse 17 points back to the litany of oppression that the community has experienced (vv. 2–16). For both their sin (v. 16) and their miseries (vv. 2–16) the people’s hearts are faint and their eyes teary. Faintness of heart at the destruction of temple, city, people, and nation has already been expressed (cf. 1:13, 22), as has the people’s tearful eyes (cf. 1:16; 2:11, 18; 3:48, 49). While tears are not mentioned in 5:17, the dimness of the eyes at least suggests that tears are causing the reduced vision. Verse 18 introduces the third causal statement, which serves as the climax of the three. Not only is the community despondent at its own sin and concomitant miseries, but its grief is ultimately compounded by the state to which Mount Zion has descended. Two terse clauses describe Zion’s current condition: it lies desolate (cf. 1:4, 13, 16; 3:11; 4:5), and jackals prowl over it (cf. 4:3). In the OT jackals serve as a symbol of desolation (Ps. 63:10; Ezek. 13:4). Herein lies the final, ironic reversal: jackals have replaced Judahites in the citadel of Zion, the fortress city of God. The city that was once populated by people is now prowled by scavengers.