A Prayer for Restoration
1Remember, O Yahweh, what has happened to us.
Look and see our disgrace!
- LAM 5:1[NOTE]NO ALPHABET. Chapter 5 has 22 verses like the alphabet, but the letters are gone. It is a prayer of the whole people, we and us.
2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our houses to foreigners.
3We have become fatherless orphans;
our mothers are widows.
4We must buy the water we drink;
our wood comes at a price.
5We are closely pursued;
we are weary and find no rest.
6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
to get enough bread.
7Our fathers sinned and are no more,
but we bear their punishment.
- LAM 5:7[NOTE]OUR FATHERS SINNED. The people felt they were paying for their parents' sins. In 5:16 they also say: we have sinned. Ezekiel 18 talks about this.
8Slaves rule over us;
there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
9We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the wilderness.
10Our skin is as hot as an oven
with fever from our hunger.
11Women have been ravished in Zion,
virgins in the cities of Judah.
- LAM 5:11[NOTE]THE WOMEN OF ZION. War brought cruel harm to the women of the city. The Bible names it so we know God sees it, and does not tell more.
12Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders receive no respect.
13Young men toil at millstones;
boys stagger under loads of wood.
14The elders have left the city gate;
the young men have stopped their music.
15Joy has left our hearts;
our dancing has turned to mourning.
16The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17Because of this, our hearts are faint;
because of these, our eyes grow dim—
18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
patrolled by foxes.
19You, O Yahweh, reign forever;
Your throne endures from generation to generation.
- LAM 5:19[NOTABLE]When everything has fallen, God's throne has not. The way back starts with asking Him to bring us back.
20Why have You forgotten us forever?
Why have You forsaken us for so long?
21Restore us to Yourself, O Yahweh, so we may return;
renew our days as of old,
22unless You have utterly rejected us
and remain angry with us beyond measure.
- LAM 5:22[NOTE]THE LAST LINE. The book ends with an open question. When Jews read it in the synagogue, they read 5:21 again after 5:22, so the reading ends with hope: Restore us.