Lamentations 5:8
in Lamentations 5Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
KJV
Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
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This verse in Lamentations 5
Commentary
4 notes on this verseServants have ruled over us - To be subject to such is the most painful and dishonorable bondage: - Quio domini faciant, audent cum talia fures? Virg. Ecl. 3:16. “Since slaves so insolent are grown, What may not masters do?” Perhaps he here alludes to the Chaldean soldiers, whose will the wretched Jews were obliged to obey.
This site's exposition
Our fathers have sinned, and are not
on Lamentations 5:7-8
Verse 7 states generational consequence honestly, our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities, the fathers dead and the children left carrying what they began, read by the bench alongside Jeremiah 31:29-30's repeal of the same proverb rather than against it, present suffering held with future personal accountability. Verse 8 completes the humiliation, servants have ruled over us, there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand, the covenant people governed by those they once governed.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The curse of Canaan had now become the doom of Judah: A servant of servants shall he be. They would not be ruled by their God, and by his servants the prophets, whose rule was gentle and gracious, and therefore justly are they ruled with rigour by their enemies and their servants.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Israel, once a "kingdom of priests" (Ex 19:6), is become like Canaan, "a servant of servants," according to the curse (Ge 9:25). The Chaldeans were designed to be "servants" of Shem, being descended from Ham (Ge 9:26). Now through the Jews' sin, their positions are reversed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עֲבָדִים֙ | ʾavadim | slaves | H5650 → | |
| מָ֣שְׁלוּ | mashelu | they have ruled | H4910 → | |
| בָ֔נוּ | vanu | over us | ||
| פֹּרֵ֖ק | porek | [is one who] rescues | H6561 → | |
| אֵ֥ין | ʾein | there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| מִיָּדָֽם׃ | miyadam | from hand their | H3027 → | 1618 times |
עֲבָדִים֙slaves
ʾavadimH5650 →
מָ֣שְׁלוּthey have ruled
masheluH4910 →
בָ֔נוּover us
vanu
פֹּרֵ֖ק[is one who] rescues
porekH6561 →
אֵ֥יןthere not
ʾeinH369 →789 times
מִיָּדָֽם׃from hand their
miyadamH3027 →1618 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
Nehemiah 5:15The governors before me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them bread and wine plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also oppressed the people, but I did not do this because of…
it leads to
- Nehemiah 5:9
So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies?
- Proverbs 16:6
By loving devotion and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns aside from evil.
- Isaiah 50:10
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him…
- Nehemiah 5:9
Through
Nehemiah 2:19But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the…
it leads to
- Nehemiah 6:6
that read: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem agrees—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and this is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to…
- Nehemiah 6:1–2
When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left—though to that time I had not yet installed the…
- Nehemiah 6:6
Through
Psalms 7:2or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
it leads to
- Psalms 50:22
Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- 2 Timothy 4:17
But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of…
- Isaiah 38:13
I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
- Psalms 50:22
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.