We close out Lamentations with a quick look at chapter 5. As I wrote in the introduction, it’s 22 verses, not an acrostic, and it’s 1/3 of the length of the other chapters. In 1, 2, and 4, each verse has 3 lines. In chapter 3, each line is a numbered verse for a total of 66 verses. In chapter 5, each verse has only one line.

The chapter describes appalling conditions for those left in Jerusalem after the exile. For example,

Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.

Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.

Women are raped in Zion, young women in the towns of Judah. (Lamentations 5.7 – 11, ESV)

Awful stuff. And so he closes with a prayer:

For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,

for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.

But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.

Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?

Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—

unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. (Lamentations 5.17 – 22, ESV)

Daniel prays the promise of the 70 years because the 70 years were over. Jeremiah does not – he’s still in the middle of it.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes…O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” (Daniel 9.1 – 3, 18, 19, ESV)

Sin will have its consequences, and it continues to give one pause in the US.

Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.” (Matthew 11.20 – 24, ESV, emphasis mine)