ವ್ಯಾಖ್ಯಾನ ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾತ್ರ ಲಭ್ಯವಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ ಪ್ರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿದೆ.
Lamentations 5 — Turn Thou Us Unto Thee
The fifth poem breaks the acrostic pattern — grief no longer has a shape. Twenty-two verses (the number of Hebrew letters) of plain prayer. The prophet rehearses the indignities — strangers in the inheritance, orphans, servants ruling, joy gone — and asks for mercy. The book ends not with resolution but with the great question: wilt thou utterly reject us? And one of the most plaintive prayers in all Scripture: Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned.
“Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.”
— Lamentations 5:21
- v.1-18 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us
- v.19-20 The throne abides — wherefore dost thou forget us?
- v.21-22 Turn us — unless thou hast utterly rejected us
A theologically careful verse. Children do bear the consequences of fathers' sins (Exodus 20:5), yet remain responsible for their own. Both are biblically true. The verse is sober about inherited brokenness without claiming personal innocence.
Compare Ezekiel 18:2-4 for the balancing truth: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
The closing of every public happiness — feasts, weddings, harvest songs. Mourning has replaced dance. It is the precise inversion of Psalm 30:11 (thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing) — and longing for it.
The prophetic answer comes later in the same prophet: I will turn their mourning into joy (Jeremiah 31:13).
The crown — covenant honor, royal dignity, priestly position — is on the ground. The reason is not concealed: we have sinned. The chapter cannot end with mere lament; it must include confession.
The chapter's pivot. After eighteen verses of catalogued ruin, the eyes lift. Thou remainest. Whatever has fallen, the Throne has not.
The verse is the foundation on which all later petition can rest. If God's throne stood, the city could be rebuilt.
One of the deepest prayers in the Bible. The repentance the prophet asks for is itself God's gift. Turn us, and we shall be turned — the doctrine of irresistible grace prayed by an Old Testament saint.
Renew our days as of old — not nostalgia. A plea that the LORD restore the kind of communion Israel had before the long drift.
The book ends not with hallelujah but with this question — unless (Hebrew can read but thou hast as or hast thou). The Hebrew Bible in some traditions repeats v.21 here so as not to end the book on a note of rejection. But the inspired text lets the question hang.
Lamentations teaches faith to live with unresolved questions before God's face. Sometimes the right ending is not the answer but the asking.
Memorize verse 21 and pray it. Most of us cannot turn ourselves; the prayer is honest. Turn me, Lord, and I will be turned. Hold the chapter's final question without rushing to answer it: God is not insulted by sufferers who pray with question marks. He gives the question and provides, in His own time, the answer.
The plea turn us finds its answer in the Son who came so we might be turned. The eternal Throne of verse 19 is occupied by the slain Lamb. Jeremiah's open question receives its closed-circuit answer in the empty tomb: no, He has not utterly rejected us. The book that ends with a question is finished in the gospel.
Remember — the prophet does not ask God to know what He already knows. He asks God to act on what He sees, which is the biblical sense of remembering.
The whole chapter is summarized in this verse: see, then act.