Lamentations 5

The final chapter is a communal prayer, pleading, “Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace.” The people lay out their sufferings — their inheritance turned over to strangers, their labor and shame, the joy gone from their hearts — and confess, “Woe to us, for we have sinned!” Yet they anchor their hope in God’s eternal reign, “You, O LORD, reign forever,” and end with the great cry of the book, “Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old.”