5:1 O Lord, reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace. 

 

Jeremiah breaks away from his acrostic funeral songs and closed the Book of Lamentations with a prayer for the believing Jewish Remnant. He asked Jehovah to remember and act upon the disgrace of Israel.

 

5:2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes. 

 

The Jewish Remnant lost her property to the Babylonians. Other Gentiles annexed the land of Israel.

 

5:3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows. 

 

The Babylonians killed the parents of the Jewish Remnant, making them orphans. The Babylonians killed the husbands of the wives of the Jewish Remnant, making them widows. In ancient societies, orphans and widows were the most oppressed and defenseless people.

 

5:4 We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price. 

 

The Babylonians forced the Jewish remnant to buy water for drinking and wood for cooking at inflated prices.

 

5:5 We are pursued—they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest. 

 

The Babylonians persecuted the Jewish Remnant. The Jewish Remnant found no rest from their pursuers. Persecution and fear followed their every step.

 

5:6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat.

 

One of the causes of Judah’s calamity was that she did not trust Jehovah to provide for her needs. Instead, she submitted to Egypt and Assyria to provide bread for her families.

 

5:7 Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment. 

 

The forefathers sinned and died. However, they passed instruction to their children. The next generation followed in the way of their forefathers. The sins of the fathers affected future generations.

 

It is important to note that sin is so terrible, that it spreads like a disease to future generations. The one sin of Adam has caused six thousand years of murders, wars, thefts, deaths, famine, and diseases. When the skeptic asks “Why would God cause others to suffer,” then this is a true sign that he is biblically ignorant. Calamity is a result of Adam's sin.

 

Man is totally depraved and evil, meaning that men with free will always chose evil over good and Satan over God. If God does not divinely change the attitude of man, then all men will choose evil and worship Satan. If a man chooses good and worships the one true God, then it is only because God was kind enough to open up that man's eyes and change his godless attitude. Otherwise, this man would be just like the atheists, agnostics, skeptics, homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, evolutionists, and feminists of the satanic world system.

 

5:8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power.

 

Babylon appointed their servants to become cruel taskmasters over the Jewish Remnant.

 

5:9 At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside. 

 

The Jewish Remnant could not go hunting for food, because their were so many gangs of robbers who lurked in the forests. The scarcity of food caused a dangerous environment for the Jewish Remnant.

 

5:10 Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger.

 

The Jews’ skin was hot and feverish because of the scarcity of food.

 

5:11 They raped women in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah. 

 

The Jewish women and virgins were raped by the sadistic Babylonian soldiers.

 

5:12 Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated. 

 

The Jewish nobility were hung by their hands. According to Deuteronomy 21:33-34, this type of execution was a cursed death.

 

5:13 The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor. 

 

Since all of the animals were eaten during the siege, then the young men were forced to perform the menial labor of animals.

 

5:14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music.

 

The elders no longer judged at the city gate. The young men stopped playing their music. The Jews were known all over the ancient world for their joyous music.

 

5:15 Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning. 

 

The joyful dancing and music which Israel was known for had been turned into sadness and mourning.

 

5:16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! 

 

Israel was no longer the head of the nations. She had become the tail of the nations. Her violation of the Mosaic Covenant had caused her to lose her crown.

 

5:17 Because of this, our hearts are sick; because of these things, we can hardly see through our tears. 

 

Jerusalem was mentally depressed over her new condition.

 

5:18 For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate. 

 

Jerusalem was becoming so desolate of people, that wild animals were beginning to prowl over the territory.

 

5:19 But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

 

Although things were bad for Judah, God was still in control. Jehovah was not defeated by the Babylonian gods. Jehovah is the one and only true God. Jehovah allowed Judah to be defeated, because of her violation of the Mosaic Covenant. However, this same sovereign God had the power to bring Israel out of her calamity.

 

5:20 Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?

 

The divine calamity of the Jewish people caused them to ask Jehovah two questions. First, why was God forgetting Israel? Second, why has God forsaken Israel for so long?

 

The first answer is that God is omniscient, so He cannot forget anything.

 

The second answer is that God is holy. He keeps his promises. God abandoned Israel, because they violated the Mosaic Covenant. God must keep His word. Israel became just as evil as Sodom and Gomorrah and just as evil as the Canaanites (whom God vomited out of the land), so Israel was to be removed from her land. However, God did promise Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would make their descendants into a great nation. He did promise that the Messiah would come from the Jewish people. Therefore, the Jewish people were asking God how long it would be before He kept these promises which were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

5:21 Bring us back to yourself, O Lord, so that we may return to you; renew our life as in days before, 5:22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

 

The Jewish Remnant prayed for restoration. God will answer this prayer at the end of the Great Tribulation.

 

Has God rejected His people beyond measure? This question requires a negative answer. God can never neglect and completely destroy His people, because of His promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. Even if Israel kills her own Messiah, then God will still keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

  

It is interesting to note that the modern Jewish rabbi will not read this last verse in their weekly Torah synagogue readings. They also do not read the last verses of Isaiah 66, Malachi 4, and Ecclesiastes 14. They do not like to end a synagogue reading with a curse. These curses remind the Jewish leaders that they rejected their own Messiah.