Lamentations 5:20
in Lamentations 5Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, And forsake us so long time?
KJV
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
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This verse in Lamentations 5
Commentary
3 notes on this verseThen, there is a wondered indignation. As said: "Why dost thou forget us forever, why dost thou so long forsake us?" Just as the prophet Isaiah 49:15 exclaims: "Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should have no compassion on the son of …
This site's exposition
Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever
on Lamentations 5:19-20
Verse 19 turns from the ruined mountain to the throne that cannot fall, thou, O Lord, remainest for ever, thy throne from generation to generation, the one fixed point named in the whole poem. Verse 20 immediately questions the distance between that permanence and the present abandonment, wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time, an honest complaint the bench reads as faith still speaking rather than faith broken.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Wherefore dost thou, forget us for ever,.... Since thou art firm, constant, and unchangeable, and thy love and covenant the same.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Why [then O Eternal] do You forget us. Have You not sworn to us Yourself that just as You exist, so does Your oath exist?
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Adonoy, You. We know that You will remain forever. And because that is so..
Adonoy return us. Because he concludes with words of reproof, he had to repeat the preceding verse again, 14 In order to end on a note of consolation. and so did Yeshayahu, Trei Osor, and Koheles.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָ֤מָּה | lamah | <to> why? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| לָנֶ֙צַח֙ | lanetzach | to perpetuity | H5331 → | |
| תִּשְׁכָּחֵ֔נוּ | tishkachenu | do you forget us | H7911 → | |
| תַּֽעַזְבֵ֖נוּ | taazvenu | do you abandon? us | H5800 → | |
| לְאֹ֥רֶךְ | leorekh | for length of | H753 → | |
| יָמִֽים׃ | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
לָ֤מָּה<to> why?
lamahH4100 →752 times
לָנֶ֙צַח֙to perpetuity
lanetzachH5331 →
תִּשְׁכָּחֵ֔נוּdo you forget us
tishkachenuH7911 →
תַּֽעַזְבֵ֖נוּdo you abandon? us
taazvenuH5800 →
לְאֹ֥רֶךְfor length of
leorekhH753 →
יָמִֽים׃days
yamimH3117 →2304 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 13:1How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
it leads to
- Job 13:24
Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 89:46
How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 94:3–4
How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked exult?
- Psalms 22:1–2
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
- Psalms 80:4
O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
- Job 13:24
Through
Psalms 89:46How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?
it leads to
- Psalms 79:5
How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
- Psalms 79:5
Through
Psalms 79:5How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
it leads to
- Psalms 85:5
Will You be angry with us forever? Will You draw out Your anger to all generations?
- Psalms 74:1
Why have You rejected us forever, O God? Why does Your anger smolder against the sheep of Your pasture?
- Psalms 85:5
Where this verse is studied
No study on the site is anchored to this verse yet.
Also on Lamentations 5: 1 study that walk through this chapter ▾
About Lamentations
This page draws on Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.