THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 39 – ORPHANS AND WIDOWS ADRIFT – EXTORTION FOR BASICS - CHAPTER 5:3-5
[3]. SET ADRIFT WITHOUT FAMILY STABILITY
{{Lamentations 5:3 “We have become ORPHANS without a father. Our mothers are like WIDOWS.”}}
This whole chapter is a great lament, more so than previously in the book. Some might consider it a chapter of complaints. One after another is adversity. Just to be alive is difficult, as we have been seeing many times in Chapter 4.
Huge disruptions have shattered the Judean society with family units gone. I am trying to “think into” the situation like this and can not appreciate what it means to have the kind of trouble these people are having. It is one of these situations, “You can’t appreciatively know unless you are there.”
It is very possible that the prophet is not being specific about orphans and widows but expressing the social disruption that is so bad, it has caused fracturing in all family units and people are set adrift, stunned, isolated, hungry, and dying. Some of the refugee conditions are like that today. In the Babylonian onslaught mothers lost sons, fathers have died and husbands have been killed.
The two words Jeremiah chose are special words to God. Orphans and widows are especially mentioned in both Old and New Testaments for special care. These two classes the Lord has His eye upon.
In this verse God is shown as stepping in for justice for these disadvantaged people who had no means of support. Remember that in the days of the Old Testament there was no social security as we know it, but the Lord implemented the way to care for orphans and widows. {{Deuteronomy 10:18 “He executes justice for THE ORPHAN AND THE WIDOW, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing.”}}. Included also is the stranger, and care was demanded by God also for the stranger (or the alien as some translations have) who was in the land.
In this verse following we have set out before the people, the demands of the Law of Moses that God gave directly. This was paramount with no equivocation, so it was stressed by God that this be sanctioned. It is the lowest of individuals that will take advantage of the weaker person, and widows and orphans were in this class, sometimes becoming the prey for extortionists. Some would prey on them and God strictly forbade that happening. {{Exodus 22:22 “You shall not afflict ANY WIDOW OR ORPHAN.”}}
Jeremiah spoke a few times in his prophesy about widows and orphans, for before the fall of Judah, they were oppressed. On one occasion Jeremiah was told by God to go to the king’s house and speak with him words of warning because of the state of the nation, and that the nation had to repent for what it was doing. It was oppressing the disadvantaged. However the wicked king did not listen and they went into judgment. {{Jeremiah 22:3 Thus says the LORD, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also DO NOT MISTREAT OR DO VIOLENCE TO THE STRANGER, THE ORPHAN, OR THE WIDOW, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”}}
One other means God implemented for the care of the widow, orphan and stranger was a provision in the fields at the time of harvest. {{Deuteronomy 24:19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for THE ALIEN, FOR THE ORPHAN, AND FOR THE WIDOW, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”}}. Remember the time in Ruth when she was gleaning in Boaz’s field? God provided for that.
The New Testament is just as careful about the widows and orphans – {{James 1:27 “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to VISIT ORPHANS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR DISTRESS, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”}}
The following quote is taken from “BibleHub Historical and Cultural Illustrations,” and shows this care in operation among early Christians:-
[[“Throughout early Christian history, believers established charitable institutions to care for orphans even when surrounding cultures often saw them as burdens. Roman historian Tacitus and early church historians confirm instances of Christians practicing radical hospitality - taking in children left abandoned on doorsteps, raising them as their own. These historical cases illustrate how the church has been at the forefront of social assistance, guided by biblical commands.
Additionally, archaeological discoveries of first-century Christian burial inscriptions show words like “cared for by brethren,” indicating orphaned children were integrated into the communal life. Such material and textual evidences corroborate Scripture’s instructions with real historical practice.”]]
Displaced in their own nation was the lot of these people who were idol worshippers and God rejecters. There is nothing like harsh calamity to bring reality and we can only hope that these people in their dire distress turned to the LORD in repentance. God works in these ways.
[4]. EXTORTION OF THE UNDER-PRIVILEGED
{{Lamentations 5:4 “We have to pay for our DRINKING WATER. Our WOOD comes to us at a price.”}}
This is a horrible world where injustice has flown out the door and the so-called law of the jungle operates. We are seeing that increasingly now in some western nations, and it certainly operates in Asia very strongly. It is the survival of the fittest in an economy divorced from God’s children.
Before Judah’s overthrow, Jeremiah often addressed the nation exposing their sins and calling for repentance. However the people took no notice. Here is one of these calls to the nation -
{{Jeremiah 6:13-14 “for from the least of them even to the greatest of them, EVERYONE IS GREEDY FOR GAIN, and from the prophet even to the priest, EVERYONE DEALS FALSELY. They have healed THE BROKENNESS OF MY PEOPLE superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.”}}
Those verses are very revealing. Greed ran the nation. People chased mammon and not God. When everyone is greedy for gain, then there is no consideration for the poor and disadvantaged. When EVERYONE deals falsely then there is no justice. Making people pay for drinking water, and for wood used as fuel and for heating, is extortion of people who are so deprived to start with. That’s how it was for the survivors of Judah, but I feel the same way about all these greedy tech companies of Silicone Valley and so many institutions in my own nation. We have to pay about $140 an hour for a plumber in my city, and a little less for a mechanic.
When the people were in the land before their overthrow Jeremiah warned them of the outcome of continuing in their sin and this is a preceding verse for the same passage we looked at – {{Jeremiah 6:12 “Their houses shall be turned over to others. Their fields and their wives together, for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD.”}}. It is sad that the nation ignored Jeremiah and often persecuted him. What God promised for continual apostasy, came to pass.
Is it any different today? Do people seek God? No they don’t – {{Romans 3:11-12 “There is none who understands. THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD. There is not even one.”}} That is what we face. Judgement is coming upon this world very soon but people go about their business oblivious to that because they don’t want to know. The media has a lot to answer for and they will one day. God is not mocked. Unless this world repents it will likewise perish as did Sodom and the people of Noah’s time. Christians have the blessed hope of the Lord’s return (the Rapture) but many Christians give little thought to that. Be alert and ever watchful!
A little more insight here is given by a couple of commentators – [[“The bitterness of their captive state is shown by the fact that they, the rightful owners, were compelled to buy from the enemy who had come into possession the commonest necessaries of life.”]] (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)
AND [[“And not merely are the inhabitants of Judah without land and property, and deprived of all protection, like orphans and widows; they are also living in penury and want, and (Lamentations 5:5) under severe oppression and persecution. Water and wood are mentioned in Lamentations 5:4 as the greatest necessities of life, without which it is impossible to exist. Both of these they must buy for themselves, because the country, with its waters and forests, is in the possession of the enemy. The emphasis lies on "our water .... our wood." What they formerly had for nothing, as their own property, they must now purchase.”]] (Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament)
Something I wish to say about our current world is twofold.
(1). We have a similar situation in the Middle East where the satanic terrorist group known as Hamas is confiscating the aid from the world relief organisations, and even from Israel, and selling it to the Gazans at inflated prices. Many can’t afford to pay and some are starving. Then Hamas propaganda blames Israel and the world press is only too keen to condemn Israel, as is the United Nations. This injustice will continue in the world and only when the Lord returns at the Second Coming will all be put right. I write that as at August 2025.
(2). The great hoax of climate change, or global warming as it used to be, has declared war on fossil fuels in the name of environmentalism, but there is no proof of warming or of destruction – it is a great delusion. Many western nations have fallen for this and are almost going broke installing windmills and great solar farms. The Press and Media is radicalised by greenies and far left agitators but it will not change. A great delusion is falling on the earth. Did you see where President Trump exposed this hoax of climate change in his address at the United Nations in September 2025?
In my nation some people can’t afford the necessities because a lot of services and food prices have tripled in price in the past 3 years because of electricity costs and stupidity with this global warming hoax. The whole point is God has given us coal, gas, uranium and oil to use for mankind’s benefit but socialist humanism denies the people this right and extorts them in huge electricity prices and consequential food prices. MEANWHILE China adds about 100 coal-fired power plants each year and India is much the same.
Australia is recklessly charging towards the UN mandate of net zero in a hatred for fossil fuels. The Labor Government refuses to use fossil fuels except for a few ageing power stations and is flooding the nation with windmills which is the most expensive way to generate electricity. These windmills, thousands upon thousands of them, keep coming from China, growing fat on Australian stupidity. The hypocrisy of it all is that all these windmills are made in China using coal from Australia while Australia can’t use its own coal. Only an idiot can’t reason that out.
[5]. CHASED TO EXHAUSTION
{{Lamentations 5:5 “Our pursuers are at our necks. We are worn out. There is no rest for us.”}}
This is a compounded grief for the people. Not only are they extorted in necessities in their meaningless existence, but they are hounded and worn out.
In England in days past the rich used to engage fox hunting. I don’t know if this is banned these days or not in England. The chase used to be done on horseback with a large pack of hounds (dogs) barking away to scare a fox into running and the men would then chase after the fox to hunt it down and kill it. You can imagine how terrified the fox would be, hunted to exhaustion. So too, the survivors with Jeremiah.
These survivors through Jeremiah, are telling of their condition. We need to consider a few things here.
(1). “OUR PURSUERS ARE AT OUR NECK”. This expression is a bit difficult, but synthesising it from opinions, the commentators have - A yoke of hard servitude and bondage was put upon their necks, to which they were forced to submit. That means freedom was extinguished. The AV uses “Our necks are under persecution” but that expression is not the proper translation. The people were hunted down and made slaves in their own nation. The enemy pursued them, at their heels to overcome them.
I quote Gill here – [[“Aben Ezra explains thus, in connection with the Lamentations 5:4; if we carry water or wood upon our necks, the enemy pursues us; that is, to take it away from us. The Targum relates a fable here, that when Nebuchadnezzar saw the ungodly rulers of the children of Israel, who went empty, he ordered to sew up the books of the law, and make bags or wallets of them, and fill them with the stones on the banks of the Euphrates, and loaded them on their necks.”}}
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown- [[“Men tread on our necks (Psalm 66:12; Isaiah 51:23; compare Joshua 10:24). The extremest oppression. The foe not merely galled the Jews face, back, and sides, but their neck. A just retribution, as they had been stiff in neck against the yoke of God (2 Chronicles 30:8, Margin; Nehemiah 9:29; Isaiah 48:4).”]]. Here is {{2 Chronicles 30:8 – “Now DO NOT STIFFEN YOUR NECK like your fathers, but yield to the LORD and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that HIS BURNING ANGER MAY TURN AWAY FROM YOU.”}}
(2). “WE ARE WORN OUT. THERE IS NO REST FOR US.” They were slaves without consideration. All this was because of their idolatrous sin. Sin is a hard taskmaster, cruel, and from the devil himself. These people labored away under extreme conditions, and take into account what was said in the previous chapter about their physical condition and the eating of their own children. The Babylonians were a merciless disgrace and is part of the reason God punished them some decades later.
They labored with metaphorical heavy yokes on their necks and had no rest whatever, not even on the Sabbath day. They were pushed to the limits of endurance and even then were not allowed to rest.
