Bible Strands
Lamentations 5:1
Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses Yahweh on behalf of Judah immediately following the city's destruction. The plea occurs as the community faces foreign occupation of their land and homes.
The words — זְכֹר (ze.khor) issues a direct command for God to remember, while חֶרְפָּתֵנוּ (cherpa.ten.u) identifies the object as our reproach. The paired imperatives הַבִּיטָה (ha.bitah) and רְאֵה (re'eh) intensify the demand for direct observation.
The thread — The shared theme of national reproach appears in Psalms 44:13, Psalms 89:50, and Nehemiah 4:4, where similar language describes Israel facing mockery and scorn from surrounding nations.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate divine attention to a documented historical disgrace before any appeal for intervention. It requires the reader to acknowledge concrete national suffering as the factual basis for prayer.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
Cross-references
- Psalms 44:13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- Psalms 89:50 Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people—
- Nehemiah 4:4 Hear us, O God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn back upon their own heads, and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity.
- Psalms 74:10 How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
- Psalms 79:4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
- Psalms 79:12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors sevenfold the reproach they hurled at You, O Lord.
- Psalms 123:3 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.
- Jeremiah 15:15 You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.