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Commentary on Lamentations 5 verses 1–16
Is any afflicted? let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God, and make known before him his trouble. The people of God do so here; being overwhelmed with grief, they give vent to their sorrows at the footstool of the throne of grace, and so give themselves ease. They complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt: "Remember what has come upon us, Lam 5:1. What was of old threatened against us, and was long in the coming, has now at length come upon us, and we are ready to sink under it. Remember what is past, consider and behold what is present, and let not all the trouble we are in seem little to thee, and not worth taking notice of," Neh 9:32. Note, As it is a great comfort to us, so it ought to be a sufficient one, in our troubles, that God sees, and considers, and remembers, all that has come upon us; and in our prayers we need only to recommend our case to his gracious and compassionate consideration. The one word in which all their grievances are summer up is reproach: Consider, and behold our reproach. The troubles they were in compared with their former dignity and plenty, were a greater reproach to them than they would have been to any other people, especially considering their relation to God and dependence upon him, and his former appearances for them; and therefore this they complain of very sensibly, because, as it was a reproach, it reflected upon the name and honour of that God who had owned them for his people. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
I. They acknowledge the reproach of sin which they bear, the reproach of their youth (which Ephraim bemoans himself for, Jer 31:19), of the early days of their nation. This comes in in the midst of their complaints (Lam 5:7), but may well be put in the front of them: Our fathers have sinned and are not; they are dead and gone, but we have borne their iniquities. This is not here a peevish complaint, nor an imputation of unrighteousness to God, like that which we have, Jer 31:29, Eze 18:2. The fathers did eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge, and therefore the ways of the Lord are not equal. But it is a penitent confession of the sins of their ancestors, which they themselves also had persisted in, for which they now justly suffered; the judgments God brought upon them were so very great that it appeared that God had in them an eye to the sins of their ancestors (because they had not been remarkably punished in this world) as well as to their own sins; and thus God was justified both in his connivance at their ancestors (he laid up their iniquity for their children) and in his severity with them, on whom he visited that iniquity, Mat 23:35, Mat 23:36. Thus they do here, 1. Submit themselves to the divine justice: "Lord, thou art just in all that is brought upon us, for we are a seed of evil doers, children of wrath, and heirs of the curse; we are sinful, and we have it by kind." Note, The sins which God looks back upon in punishing we must look back upon in repenting, and must take notice of all that which will help to justify God in correcting us. 2. They refer themselves to the divine pity: "Lord, our fathers have sinned, and we justly smart for their sins; but they are not; they were taken away from the evil to come; they lived not to see and share in these miseries that have come upon us, and we are left to bear their iniquities. Now, though herein God is righteous, yet it must be owned that our case is pitiable, and worthy of compassion." Note, If we be penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that he who punishes will pity, and will soon return in mercy to us.
II. They represent the reproach of trouble which they bear, in divers particulars, which tend much to their disgrace.
1.They are disseised of that good land which God gave them, and their enemies have got possession of it, Lam 5:2. Canaan was their inheritance; it was theirs by promise. God gave it to them and their seed, and they held it by grant from his crown, (Psa 136:21, Psa 136:22); but now, "It is turned to strangers; those possess it who have no right to it, who are strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and aliens from the covenants of promise; they dwell in the houses that we built, and this is our reproach." It is the happiness of all God's spiritual Israel that the heavenly Canaan is an inheritance that they cannot be disseised of, that shall never be turned to strangers.
2.Their state and nation are brought into a condition like that of widows and orphans (Lam 5:3): "We are fatherless (that is, helpless); we have none to protect us, to provide for us, to take any care of us. Our king, who is the father of the country, is cut off; nay, God our Father seems to have forsaken us and cast us off; our mothers, our cities, that were as fruitful mothers in Israel, are now as widows, are as wives whose husbands are dead, destitute of comfort, and exposed to wrong and injury, and this is our reproach; for we who made a figure are now looked on with contempt."
3.They are put hard to it to provide necessaries for themselves and their families, whereas once they lived in abundance and had plenty of every thing. Water used to be free and easily come by, but now (Lam 5:4), We have drunk our water for money, and the saying is no longer true, Usus communis aquarum - Water is free to all. So hardly did their oppressors use them that they could not have a draught of fair water but they must purchase it either with money or with work. Formerly they had fuel too for the fetching; but now, "Our wood is sold to us, and we pay dearly for every faggot." Now were they punished for employing their children to gather wood for fire with which to bake cakes for the queen of heaven, Jer 7:18. They were perfectly proscribed by their oppressors, were forbidden the use both of fire and water, according to the ancient form, Interdico tibi aqua et igni - I forbid thee the use of water and fire. But what must they do for bread? Truly that was as hard to come at as any thing, for (1.) Some of them sold their liberty for it (Lam 5:6): "We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians, have made the best bargain we could with them, to serve them, that we might be satisfied with bread. We were glad to submit to the meanest employment, upon the hardest terms, to get a sorry livelihood; we have yielded ourselves to be their vassals, have parted with all to them, as the Egyptians did to Pharaoh in the years of famine, that we might have something for ourselves and families to subsist on." The neighbouring nations used to trade with Judah for wheat (Eze 27:17), for it was a fruitful land; but now it eats up the inhabitants, and they are glad to make court to the Egyptians and Assyrians. (2.) Others of them ventured their lives for it (Lam 5:9): We got our bread with the peril of our lives; when, being straitened by the siege and all provisions cut off, they either sallied or stole out of the city, to fetch in some supply, they were in danger of falling into the hands of the besiegers and being put to the sword, the sword of the wilderness it is called, or of the plain (for so the word signifies), the besiegers lying dispersed every where in the plains that were about the city. Let us take occasion hence to bless God for the plenty that we enjoy, that we get our bread so easily, scarcely with the sweat of our face, much less with the peril of our lives; and for the peace we enjoy, that we can go out, and enjoy not only the necessary productions, but the pleasures of the country, without any fear of the sword of the wilderness.
4.Those are brought into slavery who were a free people, and not only their own masters, but masters of all about them, and this is as much as any thing their reproach (Lam 5:5): Our necks are under the grievous and intolerable yoke of persecution (the iron yoke which Jeremiah foretold should be laid upon them, Jer 28:14); we are used like beasts in the yoke, that wholly serve their owners, and are at the command of their drivers. That which aggravated the servitude was, (1.) That their labours were incessant, like those of Israel in Egypt, who were daily tasked, nay, overtasked: We labour and have no rest, neither leave nor leisure to rest. The oxen in the yoke are unyoked at night and have rest; so they have, by a particular provision of the law, on the sabbath day; but the poor captives in Babylon, who were compelled to work for their living, laboured and had no rest, no night's rest, no sabbath-rest; they were quite tired out with continual toil. (2.) That their masters were insufferable (Lam 5:8): Servants have ruled over us; and nothing is more vexatious than a servant when he reigns, Pro 30:22. They were not only the great men of the Chaldeans that commanded them, but even the meanest of their servants abused them at pleasure, and insulted over them; and they must be at their beck too. The curse of Canaan had now become the doom of Judah: A servant of servants shall he be. They would not be ruled by their God, and by his servants the prophets, whose rule was gentle and gracious, and therefore justly are they ruled with rigour by their enemies and their servants. (3.) That they saw no probable way for the redress of their grievances: "There is none that doth deliver us out of their hand; not only none to rescue us out of our captivity, but none to check and restrain the insolence of the servants that abuse us and trample upon us," which one would think their masters should have done, because it was a usurpation of their authority; but, it should seem, they connived at it and encouraged it, and, as if they were not worthy of the correction of gentlemen, they are turned over to the footmen to be spurned by them. Well might they pray, Lord, consider and behold our reproach.
5.Those who used to be feasted are now famished (Lam 5:10): Our skin was black like an oven, dried and parched too, because of the terrible famine, the storms of famine (so the word is); for, though famine comes gradually upon a people, yet it comes violently, and bears down all before it, and there is no resisting it; and this also is their disgrace; hence we read of the reproach of famine, which in captivity their received among the heathen, Eze 36:30.
6.All sorts of people, even those whose persons and characters were most inviolable, were abused and dishonoured. (1.) The women were ravished, even the women in Zion, that holy mountain, Lam 5:11. The committing of such abominable wickednesses there is very justly and sadly complained of. (2.) The great men were not only put to death, but put to ignominious deaths. Princes were hanged, as if they had been slaves, by the hands of the Chaldeans (Lam 5:12), who took a pride in doing this barbarous execution with their own hands. Some think that the dead bodies of the princes, after they were slain with the sword, were hung up, as the bodies of Saul's sons, in disgrace to them, and as it were to expiate the nation's guilt. (3.) No respect was shown to magistrates and those in authority: The faces of elders, elders in age, elders in office, were not honoured. This will be particularly remembered against the Chaldeans another day. Isa 47:6, Upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. (4.) The tenderness of youth was no more considered than the gravity of old age (Lam 5:13): They took the young men to grind at the hand-mills, nay, perhaps at the horse-mills. The young men have carried the grist (so some), have carried the mill, or mill-stones, so others. They loaded them as if they had been beasts of burden, and so broke their backs while they were young, and made the rest of their lives the more miserable. Nay, they made the little children carry their wood home for fuel, and laid such burdens upon them that they fell down under them, so very inhuman were these cruel taskmasters!
7.An end was put to all their gladness, and their joy was quite extinguished (Lam 5:14): The young men, who used to be disposed to mirth, have ceased from their music, have hung their harps upon the willow-trees. It does indeed well become old men to cease from their music; it is time to lay it by with a gracious contempt when all the daughters of music are brought low; but it speaks some great calamity upon a people when their young men are made to cease from it. It was so with the body of the people (Lam 5:15): The joy of their heart ceased; they never knew what joy was since the enemy came in upon them like a flood, for ever since deep called unto deep, and one wave flowed in upon the neck of another, so that they were quite overwhelmed: Our dance is turned into mourning, instead of leaping for joy, as formerly, we sink and lie down in sorrow. This may refer especially to the joy of their solemn feasts, and the dancing used in them (Jdg 21:21), which was not only modest, but sacred, dancing; this was turned into mourning, which was doubled on their festival days, in remembrance of their former pleasant things.
8.An end was put to all their glory. (1.) The public administration of justice was their glory, but that was gone: The elders have ceased from the gate (Lam 5:14); the course of justice, which used to run down like a river, is now stopped; the courts of justice, which used to be kept with so much solemnity, are put down; for the judges are slain, or carried captive. (2.) The royal dignity was their glory, but that also was gone: The crown has fallen from our head, not only the king himself fallen into disgrace, but the crown; he has no successor; the regalia are all lost. Note, Earthly crowns are fading falling things; but, blessed be God, there is a crown of glory that fades not away, that never falls, a kingdom that cannot be moved. Upon this complaint, but with reference to all the foregoing complaints, they make that penitent acknowledgment, "Woe unto us that we have sinned! Alas for us! Our case is very deplorable, and it is all owing to ourselves; we are undone, and, which aggravates the matter, we are undone by our own hands. God is righteous, for we have sinned." Note, All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. If the crown of our head be fallen (for so the words run), if we lose our excellency and become mean, we may thank ourselves, we have by our own iniquity profaned our crown and laid our honour in the dust.
Here is viewed the affliction of hunger. First is shown the people's want; "at the peril of our lives", That is, at a danger to our soul, to our very life. Also, while fleeing into the desert from the face of the sword of Babylon. Or, because, due to loading themselves with foods, they exposed themselves to dangers. As a result, their enemies pursuing them into the desert, would make them flee. As Isaiah 21:14 records: "to the thirsty bring water, meet the fugitive with bread, O inhabitants of the land of Tema."
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SUMMARY
Lamentations 5:9 vividly portrays the extreme desperation and constant peril faced by the remnant of Judah following the destruction of Jerusalem. It describes a reality where the most fundamental necessity—food—could only be obtained at the risk of one's very life, due to the pervasive threat of violence and lawlessness in the desolated land. This verse encapsulates the profound suffering, insecurity, and abject poverty that characterized life in the aftermath of divine judgment.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Lamentations 5:9 employs several powerful literary devices to convey the depth of suffering. Imagery is central, painting a vivid picture of desperate individuals risking their lives for bread in a desolate, dangerous landscape. The phrase "sword of the wilderness" is a potent example of Metonymy, where "sword" stands in for the armed violence and marauders themselves, and "wilderness" represents the lawless, dangerous environment. This also functions as Symbolism, with the "wilderness" symbolizing the complete breakdown of societal order and the return to a primal, dangerous state. The entire statement carries an element of Hyperbole, not necessarily an exaggeration of fact, but an intensification of reality to emphasize the extreme and constant nature of the threat, highlighting that every single act of acquiring food was fraught with the highest possible danger.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Lamentations 5:9 serves as a profound theological statement on the consequences of covenant disobedience and the severity of divine judgment. It illustrates how the withdrawal of God's protective hand, due to persistent sin, can lead to a complete societal breakdown where even basic human needs are met with extreme peril. This verse implicitly highlights the preciousness of peace, security, and abundant provision, blessings often taken for granted. It also underscores the brokenness of a world marred by sin, where human depravity can lead to such lawlessness and suffering. The desperation for "bread" at the cost of "lives" points to a fundamental human vulnerability and dependence, ultimately on God's sustaining grace.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Lamentations 5:9 is a sobering mirror reflecting the fragility of human existence and the devastating impact of societal collapse and war. It compels us to cultivate a profound sense of gratitude for the peace, security, and daily provisions that many in the world, and certainly in our own contexts, often take for granted. This verse fosters empathy for those in contemporary war zones, famine-stricken regions, or areas plagued by lawlessness, where the struggle for basic survival remains a daily, life-threatening reality. It challenges us to consider our responsibility to advocate for justice, peace, and the well-being of the vulnerable. Furthermore, it serves as a stark reminder that when a society or individuals stray from divine principles, the consequences can be dire, leading to circumstances where life's most basic needs are met with extreme peril, a stark contrast to God's desire for human flourishing.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "the sword of the wilderness" specifically refer to?
Answer: "The sword of the wilderness" refers to the pervasive threat of armed marauders, bandits, or remnant military forces that roamed the desolate and lawless countryside of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem. The "wilderness" here doesn't necessarily mean a barren desert, but rather an uncultivated, ungoverned, and dangerous territory where there was no central authority to maintain order or protect the populace. These groups would prey upon anyone venturing out, making the simple act of acquiring food a life-threatening endeavor. It symbolizes the complete breakdown of civil society and the constant, violent peril faced by the survivors, as opposed to the relative safety of a structured society.
How does this verse relate to God's judgment on Judah?
Answer: Lamentations 5:9, like much of the book, is understood within the theological framework of divine judgment. The suffering described—the famine, the insecurity, the constant threat of violence—is presented as a direct consequence of Judah's persistent disobedience and rebellion against God's covenant. Prophets like Jeremiah had warned for centuries that if the people turned away from the Lord, they would face severe curses, including famine, war, and exile, as outlined in Deuteronomy 28. Thus, the verse is a tangible manifestation of God's righteous discipline, a fulfillment of His warnings, demonstrating that He holds nations accountable for their sin.
Is there any hope in Lamentations despite such a bleak picture?
Answer: While Lamentations is characterized by profound grief and despair, it is not without hope. The central pivot of the book occurs in Lamentations 3, particularly verses 21-23, where the prophet shifts from lament to a declaration of hope rooted in God's unfailing love, mercies, and faithfulness. Even amidst the suffering, the people continue to cry out to God, acknowledging His justice and appealing to His compassion. The very act of lamenting to God is an expression of hope—a belief that He hears, that He is just, and that He is capable of restoring His people, even from the depths of their despair.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Lamentations 5:9, in its stark portrayal of desperate humanity risking life for bread in a world consumed by the "sword," finds its ultimate fulfillment and answer in Jesus Christ. The physical hunger and peril described in Lamentations point to a deeper spiritual famine and the pervasive threat of sin and death that afflicts all humanity. While the people of Judah risked their lives for perishable bread, Jesus declared Himself to be the Bread of Life, offering eternal sustenance that requires no perilous journey but only faith. He is the one who willingly faced the ultimate "sword"—not of the wilderness, but the sword of divine judgment against sin—on the cross, as foreshadowed in passages like Isaiah 53:5. Through His sacrifice, Christ absorbed the consequences of humanity's rebellion, providing not just temporary relief but true and lasting peace, security, and life. He conquered the ultimate threat of death, freeing those who were held in its bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15), and promises a future where physical hunger, the sword, and all tears will be no more (Revelation 21:4). Thus, the desperation for bread and the fear of the sword in Lamentations are profoundly resolved in the person and work of Christ, who offers the true bread of life and ultimate victory over all threats.