Lamentations 5

1-22 Plea for Mercy

Note: Although it has 22 verses, Chapter 5 is not in the form of an acrostic, according to Easton's Bible Dictionary. Since Jeremiah is one of those left behind in Jerusalem, it speaks of their conditions as a besieged city.

1 Remember us, O LORD, and see our disgrace!

2-5 1) Our inheritance and our homes are gone; 2) we have become orphans and widows; 3) we must buy water and wood; 4) we are slaves; 5) we get no rest. A list of results of their punishment

6-7 1) We made a pact with Egypt and Assyria for bread; 2) we bear the punishments of our ancestors, who are no longer here.

8-18 More evidence of their punishment:

1. Slaves rule over us, and we have no deliverer;
2. getting bread is perilous (they had to sneak outside the city to get it);
3. our skin is black from working in the sun;
4. our women are raped, our princes hung up by their hands;
5. young men and boys are subject to hard labor;
6. old men no longer sit at the gate, young men no longer play their music;
7. our dancing has turned to mourning;
8. our crowns have fallen from our heads;
9. our hearts are sick, our eyes are dim;
10. jackals prowl over Mt. Zion.

19-20 But you, O LORD, you live forever. Why have you forgotten us completely?

21-22 Restore us, O LORD, unless you have rejected us completely.

Jeremiah ends on that note of dejection and utter sense of abandonment.