Lamentations 5:1 · Bible study
Lamentations 5:1 Commentary: Pleading for God to Remember and See
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore Lamentations 5:1: the cry 'Remember, Yahweh, look and see our reproach' reveals the nature of biblical lament and faith.
Research Summary
- Meaning: A communal plea for God to notice and act against the disgrace His people endure.
- Key words: 'Remember' (H2142), covenantal recall; 'Look' (H5027 with he paragogic), compassionate gaze; 'Reproach' (H2781), shame that reflects on God.
- Main debate: Whether the chapter is prayer or complaint; all agree it is a petition.
- Theological theme: Anthropomorphic language invites God's intervention without denying His omniscience.
- Best use: Teaching the purpose of lament, honest lament honors God more than silent despair.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
WEB World English Bible 2000
Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach.
KJV King James Version 1769
Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us: Behold, and see our reproach.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us; consider, and see our reproach.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
ACUÉRDATE, oh Jehová, de lo que nos ha sucedido: ve y mira nuestro oprobio.
Lembra-te, SENHOR, do que tem nos acontecido; presta atenção e olha nossa humilhação.
Souviens-toi, Éternel, de ce qui nous est arrivé!
Gedenke, HERR, wie es uns geht; schaue und siehe an unsre Schmach!
Gedenk, HEERE, wat ons geschied is, aanschouw het, en zie onzen smaad aan.
Ricordati, Eterno, di quello che ci è avvenuto! Guarda e vedi il nostro obbrobrio!
Wspomnij, Panie! na to, co się nam przydało; wejrzyj a obacz pohańbienie nasze.
Вспомни, Господи, что над нами совершилось; призри и посмотри на поругание наше.
耶和華啊，求你記念 我們所遭遇的事，觀 看 我們所受的凌辱。
Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Lamentations 5:1
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across the centuries agree that this verse is a desperate petition, not a statement of God's forgetfulness. Calvin explains that the language fits human perception: we think God ignores our misery, so we ask Him to look. But when He looks, help is already prepared. Clarke adds that the Hebrew verb for 'look' (הביטה, hebitah) often carries a paragogic letter urging God to look down with compassion. Matthew Henry notes that the people pour out their complaint at the footstool of grace, asking God to notice both past threats fulfilled and present suffering. Gill observes that the reproach is tied to God's name; His people's shame reflects on His glory. The consensus: this plea is not about information but about relationship, it moves God to act on behalf of His covenant people.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The verse is a petition for God to act on behalf of His suffering people, using anthropomorphic language to express urgent need and covenantal trust.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropomorphic plea to remember | God does not literally forget; the language is for human benefit, to ask for divine action. | Some (Calvin) emphasize it is a complaint shaped as prayer; others (Matthew Henry) see it as pure petition. All agree it is legitimate prayer. |
| The he paragogic on 'look' | The variant adds intensity to the command to look. | Clarke accepts the paragogic he as authentic and meaningful; Keil & Delitzsch consider it an unnecessary Qeri alteration. |
| Nature of the reproach | It is more than personal shame, it affects God's name and covenant. | Gill emphasizes the reproach as due to their sins; Calvin highlights that the indignity should move God to defend His own honor. |
| Chapter structure | The chapter has 22 verses matching Hebrew alphabet but lacks acrostic form. | Some see this as deliberate abandonment of technique for prayer; Barnes sees it as consistent with the preceding form but with variation. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Lamentations 5 is the closing poem of a book that mourns the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC. Unlike the previous four chapters, this one does not follow an alphabetic acrostic structure. The rhythm shifts to a shorter two-member line, as Cambridge Bible notes. The chapter is headed 'The prayer of Jeremiah' in many ancient translations.
The exiles have lost everything: land, homes, freedom. Verse 1 cries for God to 'remember' not just any suffering, but their reproach, the taunts and disgrace from surrounding nations. In the ancient Near East, a nation's defeat meant its god was shamed. Israel's reproach was therefore also God's reproach. Nehemiah later echoes this same language when he hears that the remnant is 'in great affliction and reproach' (Neh 1:3). Psalms repeatedly link the nation's shame to the enemies' mockery of God (Ps 44:13). This historical backdrop shows that the people's plea is built on covenant theology: they belong to Yahweh, so their dishonor challenges His honor.
The precise terms 'remember,' 'look,' and 'see' are anthropomorphic, but they anchor the prayer in the certainty that God sees and responds. Calvin remarks that God is pleased to help the miserable when their evils come before Him. Lament does not inform God; it invites His intervention.
Textual Notes
The main textual variant noted in the commentaries is the form of the verb 'look' (הביטה). Adam Clarke observes that many manuscripts of Kennicott and his oldest personal copy add the paragogic he (ה), turning the imperative into a more emphatic form: 'look down earnestly with commiseration.' Keil & Delitzsch disagree, calling the Qeri (הבּיטה) an unnecessary alteration after Lamentations 1:11 and 3:63. The standard reading (הביט) appears in the Masoretic Text. This variant does not change the essential meaning of the verse but may heighten the tone of urgency.
Reception History
This verse has been used across Jewish and Christian traditions as a cry in times of national or personal catastrophe. In Judaism, Lamentations 5 is read on Tisha B’Av, the day mourning the destruction of both Temples. The plea 'Remember, O Lord' echoes in synagogues as a collective memory of exile. In Christian tradition, the verse is often included in Holy Week liturgies, especially services that reflect on Christ’s own reproach. The language of looking and seeing has been woven into hymns of lament, though no single hymn is uniquely tied to this verse. Throughout church history, commentators from Calvin to Matthew Henry used it to teach that honest prayer, even when it sounds like complaint, is welcome before God.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Honest inventory: The people name exactly what has come upon them. Lament must start with truth, not denial.
- Appeal to divine attention: 'Remember, look, see', three verbs that ask God to focus on their suffering. This is not unbelief but persistence.
- The reproach factor: They frame the crisis as a disgrace that also affects God's name. Their pain is His concern.
Five-point outline
- Crisis of loss: Everything has been taken, inheritance, homes, dignity.
- Prayer as protest: They cry out, refusing to suffer in silence.
- Anthropomorphic plea: God does not forget, but they ask Him to remember. It is language of intimacy.
- Reproach as theological category: Their shame is covenantal, not just personal.
- Hope in the ask: The very act of praying shows they believe God can act.
Illustration hooks
- Waiting for a response: You send a text explaining a hard situation to a close friend. You wait for them to see it and reply. Their silence feels unbearable. Lament is asking God to see and reply.
- Shame in public: A team loses badly, and fans mock them relentlessly. The coach is shamed along with the players. So it is with God and His people, their defeat is seen as His failure.
- A child hurt at school: A child comes home and tells a parent what happened. The parent's anger and action are stirred by the child's honest telling. Lament gives God the details because He cares.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it okay to tell God He seems to have forgotten us?
- How do we lament without losing faith?
- If God already knows everything, why pray like this?
Leading a Discussion
This verse opens the final chapter of Lamentations, a book written after Jerusalem's fall. The people cry out for God to see their shame. The question is not whether God knows, but whether He will act. This prayer models honesty in suffering, it names the pain and trusts God to respond.
Discussion questions
- What does the people's choice to pray reveal about their relationship with God?
- Why do they highlight 'reproach' specifically instead of just physical suffering?
- Calvin says that asking God to 'look' is for our sake, not His. How does that shape your understanding of lament?
- Read Nehemiah 1:8 and Psalm 44:13. How do these cross-references connect the people's shame to God's honor?
- How is this prayer different from complaint without faith?
- Can you think of a time when you felt like God didn't see your situation? How might this verse help you pray through that?
- What does it look like to bring our reproach to God today?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Nehemiah 1:3 | They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” |
| Nehemiah 1:8 | “Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you trespass, I will scatter you among the peoples; |
| Nehemiah 4:4 | “Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn back their reproach on their own head. Give them up for a plunder in a land of captivity. |
| Job 7:7 | Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good. |
| Job 10:9 | Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again? |
| Psalms 44:13 | You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. |
| Psalms 44:16 | at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger. |
| Psalms 74:10 | How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever? |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
11 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Adam Clarke observes that this final chapter, though having twenty-two verses matching the Hebrew alphabet, abandons the acrostic pattern because a people in agony and distress over sin would not resort to technical poetic form. He notes the Hebrew verb hebitah intensifies the plea for God to look down with earnest commiseration.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes notes that the chapter contains the same number of verses as Hebrew alphabet letters, but the acrostic pattern is dropped. Each verse is carefully compressed into two short clauses that correspond in idea and expression. The content restates the people's sufferings and
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin reads this not as a prayer but as a complaint meant to move God to compassion. Its distinctive plea is that God would simply look on their suffering, since his help is always ready once he turns his gaze. The focus on reproach is deliberate: a people intended for God's glory should suffer disgrace least of all.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Unlike Lamentations' earlier acrostic poems, this final chapter abandons any alphabetical pattern and instead uses rhyme, with many lines ending in an "u" sound. Each verse has two parts rather than three, and the traditional Qinah rhythm is absent, making the poem structurally distinct from its predecessors.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Remember, O Lord, what is come vpon vs: consider, and behold our reproche.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill rejects allegorical interpretations that read this as the Christian church or antichrist, insisting it directly concerns the Jews exiled in Babylon. He sees the plea as a cry for God to notice the heavy affliction and disgrace they now suffer, a judgment He had long threatened but they had ignored.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown identify this final chapter as an epiphonema, a formal recapitulation that gathers the calamities described in all the previous elegies into one closing prayer. They connect the opening plea for remembrance to Psalm 89, where the same cry rises from deep affliction.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch reads Lamentations 5 as a general description of national disgrace and oppression, not as a record of specific historical events. They insist the metaphors of orphanhood and widowhood are comparisons for being unprotected, and that buying water and wood refers to paying heavy duties under enemy control, not literal purchases during a siege or in exile. They reject readings that limit
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues the community speaks directly as "we" rather than through a symbolic female figure, making this poem a raw collective prayer. He insists the chapter is not prose despite lacking the acrostic pattern, but is lyrical poetry with careful parallelisms and rhymes. The 22 verses intentionally mirror the preceding chapters while the simpler form marks a decrescendo of emotion.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry notes that the people are not crying out about future fears but about present, tangible suffering. They bring before God evils already upon them, not imagined ones — what was long threatened has now arrived. Their grief is poured out as a real complaint, not a vague anxiety.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Captivity - Not for thy past sins. Thy sins - By the punishment of them.