The Meaning of Lamentations 5:2 Explained

Lamentations 5:2

KJV: Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

YLT: Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners.

Darby: Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

ASV: Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, Our houses unto aliens.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Our inheritance  is turned  to strangers,  our houses  to aliens. 

What does Lamentations 5:2 Mean?

Verse Meaning

The Promised Land, Yahweh"s inheritance to His people, had passed over to the control of non-Israelites ( Jeremiah 40:10; Jeremiah 41:3). Their homes also had become the property of alien people (cf. Ezekiel 35:10).

Chapter Summary: Lamentations 5

1  A complaint of Zion in prayer unto God

What do the individual words in Lamentations 5:2 mean?

Our inheritance has been turned over to foreigners and our houses to aliens
נַחֲלָתֵ֙נוּ֙ נֶֽהֶפְכָ֣ה לְזָרִ֔ים בָּתֵּ֖ינוּ לְנָכְרִֽים

נַחֲלָתֵ֙נוּ֙  Our  inheritance 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular construct, first person common plural
Root: נַחֲלָה  
Sense: possession, property, inheritance, heritage.
נֶֽהֶפְכָ֣ה  has  been  turned  over 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Perfect, third person feminine singular
Root: הָפַךְ  
Sense: to turn, overthrow, overturn.
לְזָרִ֔ים  to  foreigners 
Parse: Preposition-l, Adjective, masculine plural
Root: זוּר 
Sense: to be strange, be a stranger.
בָּתֵּ֖ינוּ  and  our  houses 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural construct, first person common plural
Root: בַּיִת 
Sense: house.
לְנָכְרִֽים  to  aliens 
Parse: Preposition-l, Adjective, masculine plural
Root: נָכְרִי  
Sense: foreign, alien.