The Meaning of Lamentations 5:7 Explained

Lamentations 5:7

KJV: Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

YLT: Our fathers have sinned -- they are not, We their iniquities have borne.

Darby: Our fathers have sinned, and they are not; and we bear their iniquities.

ASV: Our fathers sinned, and are not; And we have borne their iniquities.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Our fathers  have sinned,  [and are] not;  and we have borne  their iniquities. 

What does Lamentations 5:7 Mean?

Verse Meaning

The present generation of Judeans was bearing the punishment for the sins that their fathers, who had long since died, had initiated. They had continued and increased the sins of their fathers. Jeremiah rejected the idea that God was punishing his generation solely because of the sins of former generations ( Jeremiah 31:29-30). His contemporaries had brought the apostasy of earlier generations to its worst level, and now they were reaping its results.

Chapter Summary: Lamentations 5

1  A complaint of Zion in prayer unto God

What do the individual words in Lamentations 5:7 mean?

Our fathers sinned - [and [are] no more we but we their iniquities bear
אֲבֹתֵ֤ינוּ חָֽטְאוּ֙ [אינם] (וְאֵינָ֔ם) [אנחנו] (וַאֲנַ֖חְנוּ) עֲוֺנֹתֵיהֶ֥ם סָבָֽלְנוּ

אֲבֹתֵ֤ינוּ  Our  fathers 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, first person common plural
Root: אָב  
Sense: father of an individual.
חָֽטְאוּ֙  sinned 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person common plural
Root: חָטָא 
Sense: to sin, miss, miss the way, go wrong, incur guilt, forfeit, purify from uncleanness.
[אינם]  - 
Parse: Adverb, third person masculine plural
(וְאֵינָ֔ם)  [and  [are]  no  more 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Adverb, third person masculine plural
Root: אַיִן 
Sense: nothing, not, nought n.
(וַאֲנַ֖חְנוּ)  but  we 
Parse: Conjunctive waw, Pronoun, first person common plural
Root: אֲנַחְנוּ  
Sense: we (first pers.
עֲוֺנֹתֵיהֶ֥ם  their  iniquities 
Parse: Noun, common plural construct, third person masculine plural
Root: עָוֹן  
Sense: perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity.
סָבָֽלְנוּ  bear 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, first person common plural
Root: סָבַל  
Sense: to bear, bear a load, drag oneself along.