Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 5:3
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows.
3. orphans and fatherless ] the fathers being in exile and the mothers thus “as widows,” without protection.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Our mothers are as widows – The particle as suggests that the whole verse is metaphorical. Our distress and desolation is comparable only to that of fatherless orphans or wives just bereaved of their husbands.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
We are all of us without a king, (who is the common father of the country,) we are deprived of thy fatherly care and protection, many young children amongst us are left without an earthly parent.
Our mothers are as widows; either our great cities are like widows, wanting magistrates; or, our women that were married are left widows.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. fatherlessOur whole landis full of orphans [CALVIN].Or, “we are fatherless,” being abandoned by Thee our”Father” (Jer 3:19),[GROTIUS].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We are orphans and fatherless,…. In every sense; in a natural sense, their fathers having been cut off by the sword, famine, or pestilence; in a civil sense, their king being taken from them; and in a religious sense, God having forsaken them for their sins:
our mothers [are] as widows; either really so, their husbands being dead; or were as if they had no husbands, they not being able to provide for them, protect and deferred them. The Targum adds,
“whose husbands are gone to the cities of the sea, and it is doubtful whether they are alive.”
Some understand this politically, of their cities being desolate and defenceless.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here the Prophet not only speaks in the person of the whole people, but utters also the groans and complaints of each; for this could not have been suitable to the whole Church, as he speaks of fathers and mothers. We hence see that this verse does not apply to the whole body, but to individual members, though every one of the people might have said that widows and orphans were everywhere seen.
Now, this usually happens when a nation is consumed either by pestilence or by war; for in one battle all do not so fall that a whole country becomes full of orphans. But the Prophet sets forth here the orphanage and widowhood occasioned through the continued vengeance of God, for he had not ceased to afflict the people until by degrees they were exhausted. It was, indeed, a sad spectacle to see among the chosen people so many widows, and also so many children deprived of their fathers. It follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Our mothers are as widowsi.e., their husbands, though living, were carried into exile, and they were as destitute as though they had been deprived of them by death. The Chaldee paraphrase gives the same meaning to the last clause also, We are like orphans.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Fatherless Without a father. Many expositors find here a specific meaning, and understand by the term father, king; and others understand by mothers, the cities of Judah. But this is unnecessary, not to say puerile.
The meaning simply is: We are desolate and bereaved, like children without parents, or a wife mourning the loss of her husband.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
We are orphans and fatherless,
Our mothers are as widows.
They were orphans and fatherless, and their mothers were as widows because the menfolk had been carried off to Babylon, or had been drafted in for slave labour. There is an irony here in that they themselves had been guilty of neglecting the widows and orphans, and now it had rebounded on their own heads. They had become like the people that they had ignored.
But because of the stress YHWH places on watching over widows and orphans (Exo 22:22; Deu 10:18; Deu 14:29; Psa 68:5; Psa 146:9; Isa 1:17; Jer 49:11) the prophet clearly sees this as an important argument to put to YHWH on their behalf. Let him now watch over the newly made ‘widows and orphans’ as He had declared that He would.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lam 5:3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows.
Ver. 3. We are orphans and fatherless. ] And so are become thy clients, just objects of thy pity. Hos 14:3
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 22:24, Jer 18:21, Hos 14:3
Reciprocal: Psa 109:9 – General Jer 6:12 – And their Joh 14:18 – comfortless
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 5:3. These complaints were lit-eral, for the men had been slain in tbe conflict.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Because the Lord no longer protected and provided for the people, they had become virtual orphans. They had lost their rights as well as their property. Jewish men had become defenseless, and Jewish mothers had become as vulnerable as widows having lost their protection.