HolyStudy
Bible IndexRead BibleNotesChurchesMissionPrivacyTermsContact
© 2026 HolyStudy
HomeRead BibleBible NotesChurchesSign in
HolyStudy
HomeRead BibleBible NotesChurches
Sign in

Lamentations 5

1

Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

2
2

Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

3

We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

1
1
4

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

5

Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

2
6

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7

Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

1
8

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

9

We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

1
10

Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

2
11

They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

1
12

Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

13

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

2
14

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

2
15

The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16

The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

1
17

For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

2
3
18

Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

2
3
19

Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

1
20

Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

21

Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

22

But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

1
2
← Previous ChapterNext Chapter →

Lamentations 5:7

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.”

Study Summary

Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, but we bear the punishment for their iniquities—the verse presents an interesting theological claim: the current generation is suffering for the sins of ancestors. This raises the question of justice: should children be punished for parents' transgressions? Theologically, the verse acknowledges that sin has intergenerational consequences; covenant violation in one generation affects the next. Yet it also suggests a form of injustice: the current generation bears punishment even though the ancestors "are no more." The verse reflects on the historical reality that judgment came generations after sin, or that current suffering derives from ancestral failures. This raises the theodicy question: is intergenerational punishment just? Yet the verse accepts this as reality and makes petition based on it.

Community Reflections

1
Alice Morgan (test user)7h ago
Strength in weakness — Lamentations 5

God is faithful in every circumstance.. The Hebrew word used here carries a richness that English can't fully capture. This is one of those passages that reads differently in every season of life. The promise here is not conditional on our strength but on His character.. My grandmother used to quote this verse every morning. God is faithful in every circumstance.. The contrast between human weakness and divine strength is so vivid in this passage. What a reminder that God's ways are not our ways. Reading the Psalms alongside this gives a fuller picture of what the author was experiencing — both the anguish and the hope.. The early church would have heard this very differently than we do today. Reading the Psalms alongside this gives a fuller picture of what the author was experiencing — both the anguish and the hope.. Their context of persecution gives these words a…

Read the note →

Lamentations 5:7

“Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.”

Study Summary

Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, but we bear the punishment for their iniquities—the verse presents an interesting theological claim: the current generation is suffering for the sins of ancestors. This raises the question of justice: should children be punished for parents' transgressions? Theologically, the verse acknowledges that sin has intergenerational consequences; covenant violation in one generation affects the next. Yet it also suggests a form of injustice: the current generation bears punishment even though the ancestors "are no more." The verse reflects on the historical reality that judgment came generations after sin, or that current suffering derives from ancestral failures. This raises the theodicy question: is intergenerational punishment just? Yet the verse accepts this as reality and makes petition based on it.

Community Reflections

1
Alice Morgan (test user)7h ago
Strength in weakness — Lamentations 5

God is faithful in every circumstance.. The Hebrew word used here carries a richness that English can't fully capture. This is one of those passages that reads differently in every season of life. The promise here is not conditional on our strength but on His character.. My grandmother used to quote this verse every morning. God is faithful in every circumstance.. The contrast between human weakness and divine strength is so vivid in this passage. What a reminder that God's ways are not our ways. Reading the Psalms alongside this gives a fuller picture of what the author was experiencing — both the anguish and the hope.. The early church would have heard this very differently than we do today. Reading the Psalms alongside this gives a fuller picture of what the author was experiencing — both the anguish and the hope.. Their context of persecution gives these words a…

Read the note →

Lamentations 5:7

Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, but we bear the punishment for their iniquities—the verse presents an interesting theological claim: the current generation is suffering for the sins of ancestors. This raises the question of justice: should children be punished for parents' transgressions? Theologically, the verse acknowledges that sin has intergenerational consequences; covenant violation in one generation affects the next. Yet it also suggests a form of injustice: the current generation bears punishment even though the ancestors "are no more." The verse reflects on the historical reality that judgment came generations after sin, or that current suffering derives from ancestral failures. This raises the theodicy question: is intergenerational punishment just? Yet the verse accepts this as reality and makes petition based on it.