Lamentations 5:1-22

The final poem is an appeal out of sorrow to Jehovah. Speaking on behalf of the whole nation, the prophet called on Jehovah to remember. He described the actual desolation, telling of the affliction of all classes of the people-the women, the maidens, the princes, the elders, the young men, the children, and of the consequently prevalent sorrow, recognizing that all this was the result of sin.

Then, in a last brief and yet forceful word, he prayed Jehovah to turn the people unto Himself. This he introduced by a declaration of his confidence in the perpetual enthronement of Jehovah. It was a cry which recognized the last helplessness of man, namely, his inability even to repent. "Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned."

The final word of the Lamentations was a wail out of the then existing distress. "But Thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us."