Lamentations 5 - Introduction

RECAPITULATION OF ZION’S CALAMITIES AND PRAYER

THE verses of this chapter are not arranged according to the order of the alphabet, yet their number corresponds to its number. More distinctly than the preceding Chapter s this one shows the “parallelism” of Hebrew poetry, in which one clause of a verse is closely related by sentiment and construction to the other. The contents suggest that the circumstances of the writer impelled him to take a retrospect of what had befallen his fellow-countrymen, and to found, on the variety and intensity of their sorrows, a hope that their iniquities would be pardoned, and that they would receive from the Lord’s hand tokens of His restored favour, according to the days wherein He had afflicted them.