Lamentations 5:1

This final poem, although its vv. are equal in number with the letters of the Heb. alphabet, yet does not, like its predecessors, adhere to any rule as to the initial letters. "Rhyme takes the place of the alphabetical structure, the poem having not less than 45 words ending in the sound u. Cp. Psalms 124 " (Dummelow). Like ch. 4, as against ch. 3, each v. is made up of two, not three, members. Neither is it written in the Ḳinah rhythm. For the question of its date see Intr., p. 326. The poet (Lamentations 5:1) calls upon Jehovah to regard the ignominy which has befallen His people, describes (Lamentations 5:2) the misery which exists in the land, and (Lamentations 5:5) the persecutions inflicted on them from without. He tells (Lamentations 5:7) of the privations endured by his people, and (Lamentations 5:11) of the indignities perpetrated at and after the capture of the city, and, as the last element in the picture (Lamentations 5:15), the universal and hopeless depression. The description terminates (Lamentations 5:19) in an appeal for Jehovah's help, grounded upon the thought of His abiding omnipotence.