| Lamentations 5:1
| Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.
| The prayer, etc. This title is not in Hebrew, Septuagint, etc. Theodoret has passed over the chapter, as if he doubted of its authenticity. It does not follow the order of Hebrew letters like the preceding, and seems to be a form of prayer for those who retired into Egypt. (Calmet) --- Jeremias foresees what would happen, and prays as the people would do. (Worthington)
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| Lamentations 5:2
| Our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers.
| Aliens. The Idumeans seized and kept possession of the southern parts.
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| Lamentations 5:3
| We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.
| Father. Many had none surviving, and all had lost their king. (Worthington)
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| Lamentations 5:4
| We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.
| Water. Even this was not given for nothing.
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| Lamentations 5:5
| We were dragged by the necks, we were weary, and no rest was given us.
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| Lamentations 5:6
| We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the Assyrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.
| Hand; engaged to serve Egyptians, Babylonians, (Calmet) or other nations, to procure sustenance. (Worthington)
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| Lamentations 5:7
| Our fathers have sinned, and are not: and we have borne their iniquities.
| Iniquities. This was the usual complaint of the Jews, (chap. 31:29.) as if they had committed no offence themselves. If any virtuous people were involved in the common ruin, they bore it with resignation, and acknowledged that they had deserved it, 1 Esdras 9:6., and 2 Esdras 1:6., and Esther 14:6., and Daniel 3:29.
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| Lamentations 5:8
| Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.
| Servants. One had command over another, Matthew 24:45. The Chaldeans were like slaves, and the race of Cham was condemned to servitude, Genesis 9:26. (Calmet) --- The Jews had formerly dominion over Edom, etc., who now treated them so cruelly. (Menochius) (Lyranus)
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| Lamentations 5:9
| We fetched our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the desert.
| Sword. Any one might kill us.
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| Lamentations 5:10
| Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.
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| Lamentations 5:11
| They oppressed the women in Sion, and the virgins in the cities of Juda.
| Oppressed. Hebrew, "afflicted." Brutal insolence prevailed. (Calmet)
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| Lamentations 5:12
| The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancients.
| Hand. Thus Leonidas was treated, after his head was cut off, by Xerxes. (Herodotus 7:238.)
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| Lamentations 5:13
| They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.
| Indecently, like the Sodomites. Hebrew, "they made the young men grind" at the mill, in their prison, (Haydock) as Samson (Judges 16:21.) and Sedecias (according to the Septuagint, Lamentations 52:11.) were forced to do. To grind is often used in a bad sense; but it is not necessary to adopt it here. (Calmet) (Amama) --- The Chaldeans treated their captives without pity or shame. (Haydock) --- Wood; burdens, or stumbling-blocks, unless they were crucified; or, "roasted," if we admit a small alteration in the Hebrew, Lamentations 4:10. (Calmet) --- They were forced to grind naked, and were beaten with staves. (Worthington)
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| Lamentations 5:14
| The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.
| Gates, where sentence was usually passed. (Haydock) --- The Jews had judges at Babylon, (Daniel 13:5.) but not at first, nor everywhere.
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| Lamentations 5:15
| The joy of our heart is ceased, our dancing is turned into mourning.
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| Lamentations 5:16
| The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, because we have sinned.
| Crown, used at feasts; (Calmet) or, we have lost the sovereign power. (Worthington)
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| Lamentations 5:17
| Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim.
| Dim, the natural consequence of extreme want, 1 Kings 14:27.
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| Lamentations 5:18
| For Mount Sion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.
| Foxes, which were very common, Judges 15:4. Thus, Horace says: Agros atque lares patrios, habitandaque fana Apris relinquet et edacibus lupis. (Epod. 16.)
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| Lamentations 5:19
| But thou, O Lord, shalt remain for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.
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| Lamentations 5:20
| Why wilt thou forget us for ever? why wilt thou forsake us for a long time?
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| Lamentations 5:21
| Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.
| Convert. Thy grace must work upon our hearts, (Calmet) before we can expect redress, (Haydock) and an end of our banishment. (Tirinus) (Grotius) --- Beginning, when our fathers observed the law. (St. Thomas Aquinas) (Menochius) See Lamentations 31:18.; St. Augustine, City of God ii., and 4:(Worthington)
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| Lamentations 5:22
| But thou hast utterly rejected us, thou art exceedingly angry with us.
| Thou hast. We might read with an interrogation, (Haydock) in Hebrew, "Hast thou?" etc. The Jews superstitiously repeat the last verse, for fear of ending the book in an ominous manner, as they do at the end of Isaias and Malachias. (Calmet) --- Having treated us so severely, stop thy hand. (Worthington) --- But I perceive it will be in vain to beg for redress till the seventy years be expired. (Menochius)
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