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Text -- Lamentations 5:7 (NET)

Strongs On/Off
Context
5:7 Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment.
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Dictionary Themes and Topics: War | Sin | Punishment | Poetry | Patriotism | Parents | Nation | LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF | Doubting | Church | Afflictions and Adversities | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Haydock , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Keil-Delitzsch , Constable

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Lam 5:7 - -- The punishment of them.

The punishment of them.

JFB: Lam 5:7 - -- (Jer 31:29).

JFB: Lam 5:7 - -- That is, the punishment of them. The accumulated sins of our fathers from age to age, as well as our own, are visited on us. They say this as a plea w...

That is, the punishment of them. The accumulated sins of our fathers from age to age, as well as our own, are visited on us. They say this as a plea why God should pity them (compare Eze 18:2, &c.).

Clarke: Lam 5:7 - -- Our fathers have sinned, and are not - Nations, as such, cannot be punished in the other world; therefore national judgments are to be looked for on...

Our fathers have sinned, and are not - Nations, as such, cannot be punished in the other world; therefore national judgments are to be looked for only in this life. The punishment which the Jewish nation had been meriting for a series of years came now upon them, because they copied and increased the sins of their fathers, and the cup of their iniquity was full. Thus the children might be said to bear the sins of the fathers, that is, in temporal punishment, for in no other way does God visit these upon the children. See Eze 18:1, etc.

Calvin: Lam 5:7 - -- The Prophet seems here to contend with God, and to utter that blasphemy mentioned by Ezekiel. For when God severely chastised the people, that prover...

The Prophet seems here to contend with God, and to utter that blasphemy mentioned by Ezekiel. For when God severely chastised the people, that proverb was commonly used by them,

“Our fathers did eat a sour grape, and our teeth are blunted.” (Eze 18:2.)

Thus they intimated that they were unjustly and cruelly treated, because they suffered the punishment of others, when they themselves were innocent. So the Prophet seems to quarrel with God when he says that the fathers who sinned were no more; but as we shall presently see, the Prophet confesses also the sins of those who were yet alive. As, then, an ingenuous confession is made by the Prophet, he no doubt abstained here from that blasphemy which is so severely reproved by Ezekiel. Jeremiah had nothing farther from his purpose than to free the people from all blame, as though God had dealt cruelly with them, according to what is said by a heathen poet, —

“For the sins of the fathers thou undeservedly sufferest, O Roman!” 226

Another says, —

“Enough already by our blood
Have we suffered for the perjuries of Laomedonian Troy.”
227

They mean that the people of their age were wholly innocent, and seek in Asia and beyond the sea the cause of evils, as though they never had a sin at Rome. But the meaning of Jeremiah was not this, but he simply intended to say that the people who had been long rebellious against God were already dead, and that it was therefore a suitable time for God to regard the miseries of their posterity. The faithful, then, do not allege here their own innocency before God, as though they were blameless; but only mention that their fathers underwent a just punishment, for that whole generation had perished. Daniel speaks more fully when he says,

“We have sinned, and our fathers, and our kings.”
(Dan 9:8.)

He involved in the same condemnation both the fathers and their children.

But our Prophet’s object was different, even to turn God to mercy, as it has been stated; and to attain this object he says, “O Lord, thou indeed hast hitherto executed just punishment, because our fathers had very long abused thy goodness and forbearance; but now the time is come for thee to try and prove whether we are like our fathers: as, then, they have perished as they deserved, receive us now into favor.” We hence see that thus no quarrel or contention is carried on with God, but only that the miserable exiles ask God to look on them, since their fathers who had provoked God and had experienced his dreadful vengeance, were already dead. 228

And when he says that the sons bore the iniquity of the fathers, though it be a strong expression, yet its meaning is not as though God had without reason punished their children and not their fathers; for unalterable is that declaration,

“The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father the iniquity of the son; but the soul that sinneth it shall die.”
(Eze 18:20.)

It may yet be said that children are loaded with the sins of their fathers, because God, as he declares by Moses, extends his vengeance to the third and fourth generation. (Exo 20:5.) And he says also in another place,

“I will return into the bosom of children the iniquity of their fathers.”
(Jer 32:18.)

God then continued his vengeance to their posterity. But yet there is no doubt but that the children who had been so severely punished, bore also the punishment of their own iniquity, for they deserved a hundred deaths. But these two things well agree together, that God returns the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children, and yet that the children are chastised for their own sins.

TSK: Lam 5:7 - -- fathers : Exo 20:5; Jer 16:12, Jer 31:29; Eze 18:2; Mat 23:32-36 and are : Gen 42:13, Gen 42:36; Job 7:8, Job 7:21; Jer 31:15; Zec 1:5

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Lam 5:7 - -- And are not; and we ... - Or, they are not; "we have borne their iniquities."Our fathers who began this national apostasy died before the hour ...

And are not; and we ... - Or, they are not; "we have borne their iniquities."Our fathers who began this national apostasy died before the hour of punishment.

Poole: Lam 5:7 - -- We must not understand this in the same sense as Eze 18:2 , where God reflecteth upon them for using a proverb to this sense. It is the prophet who ...

We must not understand this in the same sense as Eze 18:2 , where God reflecteth upon them for using a proverb to this sense. It is the prophet who here speaketh, and in the name of the godly Jews, who would not excuse themselves as if they suffered merely for their forefathers’ sins. But the prophet confesseth and bewaileth that God had punished their iniquities and the iniquities of their forefathers together; and it was better with their forefathers who had sinned, and were dead and gone, than with them, upon whom the punishment of their iniquity did abide, and was like so to do a long time.

Haydock: Lam 5:7 - -- Iniquities. This was the usual complaint of the Jews, (chap. xxxi. 29.) as if they had committed no offence themselves. If any virtuous people were...

Iniquities. This was the usual complaint of the Jews, (chap. xxxi. 29.) as if they had committed no offence themselves. If any virtuous people were involved in common ruin, they bore it with resignation, and acknowledged that they had deserved it, 1 Esdras ix. 6., and 2 Esdras i. 6., and Esther xiv. 6., and Daniel iii. 29.

Gill: Lam 5:7 - -- Our fathers have sinned, and are not,.... In the world, as the Targum adds; they were in being, but not on earth; they were departed from hence, and ...

Our fathers have sinned, and are not,.... In the world, as the Targum adds; they were in being, but not on earth; they were departed from hence, and gone into another world; and so were free from the miseries and calamities their children were attended with, and therefore more happy:

and we have borne their iniquities; the punishment of them, or chastisement for them: this is not said by way of complaint, much less as charging God with injustice, in punishing them for their fathers' sins, or to excuse theirs; for they were ready to own that they had consented to them, and were guilty of the same; but to obtain mercy and pity at the hands of God.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Lam 5:7 Heb “their iniquities.” The noun עָוֹן (’avon) has a broad range of meanings, including: (1) iniquity,...

Geneva Bible: Lam 5:7 Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not; and we have borne ( d ) their iniquities. ( d ) As our fathers have been punished for their sins: so we that ...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Lam 5:1-22 - --1 A pitiful complaint of Zion in prayer unto God.

MHCC: Lam 5:1-16 - --Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, ...

Matthew Henry: Lam 5:1-16 - -- Is any afflicted? let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God, and make known before him his trouble. The people of God do s...

Keil-Delitzsch: Lam 5:1-7 - -- Supplication and statement regarding the distress. The quest made in Lam 5:1 refers to the oppression depicted in what follows. The words, "Remember...

Constable: Lam 5:1-22 - --V. The response of the godly (the fifth lament) ch. 5 This poem, like the one in chapter 3, contains verses of o...

Constable: Lam 5:1-18 - --A. A plea for remembrance 5:1-18 5:1 Jeremiah called on Yahweh to remember the calamity that had befallen His people and to consider the reproach in w...

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Introduction / Outline

JFB: Lamentations (Book Introduction) In the Hebrew Bible these Elegies of Jeremiah, five in number, are placed among the Chetuvim, or "Holy Writings" ("the Psalms," &c., Luk 24:44), betwe...

JFB: Lamentations (Outline) THE SAD CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, THE HOPE OF RESTORATION, AND THE RETRIBUTION AWAITING IDUMEA FOR JOINING BABYLON AGAINST JUDEA. (Lam. 4:1-22) EPIPHONEM...

TSK: Lamentations 5 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Lam 5:1, A pitiful complaint of Zion in prayer unto God.

Poole: Lamentations (Book Introduction) LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH THE ARGUMENT This book in Greek, Latin, and English hath its name from the subject matter of it, which is lamentation; s...

Poole: Lamentations 5 (Chapter Introduction) CHAPTER 5 A humble prayer, presenting to the Lord their great misery, Lam 5:1-15 , confessing their sins, Lam 5:16-18 , imploring deliverance, Lam ...

MHCC: Lamentations (Book Introduction) It is evident that Jeremiah was the author of the Lamentations which bear his name. The book was not written till after the destruction of Jerusalem b...

MHCC: Lamentations 5 (Chapter Introduction) The Jewish nation supplicating the Divine favour.

Matthew Henry: Lamentations (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Lamentations of Jeremiah Since what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the worl...

Matthew Henry: Lamentations 5 (Chapter Introduction) This chapter, though it has the same number of verses with the 1st, 2nd, and 4th, is not alphabetical, as they were, but the scope of it is the sam...

Constable: Lamentations (Book Introduction) Introduction Title and Position The English title of this book comes from the Talmud (...

Constable: Lamentations (Outline) Outline I. The destruction and misery of Jerusalem (the first lament) ch. 1 A. An observer's...

Constable: Lamentations Lamentations Bibliography Archer, Gleason L., Jr. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Revised ed. Chicago: ...

Haydock: Lamentations (Book Introduction) THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAS. INTRODUCTION. In these Jeremias laments in a most pathetic manner the miseries of his people, and the destructio...

Gill: Lamentations (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS This book very properly follows the prophecy of Jeremiah, not only because wrote by him, but because of the subject ma...

Gill: Lamentations 5 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO LAMENTATIONS 5 In this chapter are reckoned up the various calamities and distresses of the Jews in Babylon, which the Lord is desi...

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