Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

5. Appeal for God's Forgiveness

1 Remember, LORD, what has happened to us;
   look, and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
   our homes to foreigners.
3 We have become fatherless,
   our mothers are widows.
4 We must buy the water we drink;
   our wood can be had only at a price.
5 Those who pursue us are at our heels;
   we are weary and find no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria
   to get enough bread.
7 Our ancestors sinned and are no more,
   and we bear their punishment.
8 Slaves rule over us,
   and there is no one to free us from their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives
   because of the sword in the desert.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven,
   feverish from hunger.
11 Women have been violated in Zion,
   and virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
   elders are shown no respect.
13 Young men toil at the millstones;
   boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the city gate;
   the young men have stopped their music.
15 Joy is gone from our hearts;
   our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head.
   Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 Because of this our hearts are faint,
   because of these things our eyes grow dim
18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,
   with jackals prowling over it.

    19 You, LORD, reign forever;
   your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Why do you always forget us?
   Why do you forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return;
   renew our days as of old
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
   and are angry with us beyond measure.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Another circumstance aggravated the calamity of the people, that they came under the power of servants, which is more degrading than when the rich and the eminent in wealth and power make us their servants. For it is no shame to serve a king, or at, least a man who possesses some eminence; for that servitude which is not apparently degrading is deemed tolerable. But when we become the servants of servants, it is a most afflicting degradation, and most grievously wounds our minds.

It is, then, for this indignity that Jeremiah now expostulates, and says that servants ruled over them. There is, indeed, no doubt but that they were driven into exile by some of the lowest; for the Chaldeans thought it right to exercise towards them every kind of cruelty. But it was yet a very mournful thing for God’s children to be the slaves of servants; for they were before a sacerdotal kingdom, and God had so taken them under his protection, that their condition was better and more desirable than that of any other kingdom. As, then, they had been robbed of their liberty, and not only so, but also made subject to servants, the change was sad in the extreme. 229229     See Nehemiah 5:15. — Ed. Therefore the Prophet sought another occasion to plead for mercy, when he said that they were ruled by servants. It now follows, —
VIEWNAME is study