Lamentations 5:3
What does Lamentations 5:3 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 5:3 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 5:3 means
The community describes itself as “orphans and fatherless,” with mothers “as widows.” Many men have died or been taken, leaving families exposed and unsupported. In ancient society, the loss of father and husband meant legal, economic, and social fragility. The verse highlights the human cost of judgment: real people with empty chairs at their tables, homes without protectors, and children without guidance. It is not self-pity but sober witness to what sin and siege produce. By saying this to Jehovah, they imply that He sees the vulnerable and is the ultimate defender of widows and orphans, even when earthly structures have failed.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
KJV
King James Version · 1611We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Orphans we have been--without a father, our mothers <FI>are<Fi> as widows.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Context
After naming the loss of land, the prayer moves to the loss of family stability. Verse 3 shows how national disaster becomes personal deprivation. What follows will detail how even the basics of life—water and firewood—now require payment and hardship. This progression helps the reader feel the comprehensive nature of the ruin, preparing for the confession of sin later and the appeal for God’s restorative mercy.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Exodus 22:24
and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- Jeremiah 18:21
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten of the sword in battle.
- Jeremiah 15:8
Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly.
- Hosea 14:3
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods; for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
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