PriestRestoring prayer

Lamentations 5 — Hebrew and Greek compared

Saints Translation: Lamentations 1–5 [V1]

Same 9 Similar 8 Different 2 Divergent 1 Disparate 2

Disparate in this chapter: 5:6, 5:13

Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.

Chapter 5

Hebrew source [BHS5] • Greek source [LXX5]

A communal plea for restoration (5:1–22)

Verse 5:1 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:1] Remember, YHWH, what has happened to us;

look and see our reproach.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:1] Remember, Lord, what has happened to us;

look and see our reproach.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: The closing communal prayer directly appeals to divine memory and sight.

Verse 5:2 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:2] Our inheritance has passed to strangers,

our houses to foreigners.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:2] Our inheritance has passed to outsiders,

our houses to strangers.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: The dispossession imagery agrees.

Verse 5:3 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:3] We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:3] We have become orphans; there is no father;

our mothers are like widows.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: Like widows is preserved rather than replaced with an unqualified demographic claim.

Verse 5:4 Divergent

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:4] We drink our water for money;

our wood comes at a price.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:4] From our days, our wood came in exchange.

Classification & Notes

Divergent. Text: The displayed Greek lacks the water-for-money clause and instead begins with the difficult from our days phrase. It is not expanded from Hebrew or another Greek witness.

Verse 5:5 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:5] We are pursued at our necks;

we are weary and are given no rest.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:5] We were pursued at our neck;

we toiled and did not rest.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: The neck image remains literal; it may suggest pursuit close behind or imposed labor.

Verse 5:6 Disparate

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:6] We gave a hand to Egypt,

to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:6] Egypt gave a hand,

Assyria for their satisfaction.

Classification & Notes

Disparate. Text: Greek makes Egypt the giver, changes the final pronoun and lacks bread. The compressed Assyria clause remains without a supplied political agreement.

Verse 5:7 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:7] Our fathers sinned and are no more;

we bear their iniquities.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:7] Our fathers sinned and no longer exist;

we bore their lawless acts.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: The community describes inherited consequences; no additional theory of transmitted personal guilt is inserted.

Verse 5:8 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:8] Slaves rule over us;

no one rescues us from their hand.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:8] Slaves ruled over us;

there is no one to redeem us from their hand.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: The lament's status reversal is retained without endorsing slavery.

Verse 5:9 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:9] At the risk of our lives we bring in our bread,

because of the sword of the wilderness.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:9] At the risk of our lives we will bring in our bread,

because of the sword of the wilderness.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: At the risk of our lives is a contextual rendering of with our lives in both languages.

Verse 5:10 Different

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:10] Our skin burns like an oven

because of hunger's scorching blasts.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:10] Our skin turned livid like an oven;

they shriveled because of famine's storms.

Classification & Notes

Different. Text: Greek livid and an added plural shrinking clause differ from Hebrew's heating imagery. The shift to they is retained without assigning a new group.

Verse 5:11 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:11] They violated women in Zion,

virgins in Judah's cities.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:11] They humiliated women in Zion,

virgins in Judah's cities.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: In this conquest context the humiliation language denotes sexual violence. The wording is direct without graphic elaboration.

Verse 5:12 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:12] Princes were hung by their hands;

elders were not honored.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:12] Rulers were hung by their hands;

elders were not glorified.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: By their hands may also be construed as by the captors' agency; the physical hanging image is not expanded.

Verse 5:13 Disparate

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:13] Young men carry the millstone,

and boys stumble under wood.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:13] Chosen men took up weeping,

and young men weakened under wood.

Classification & Notes

Disparate. Text: Greek weeping differs from Hebrew grinding or millstone, and chosen men differs from young men. The text is not harmonized to a single forced-labor description.

Verse 5:14 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:14] Elders have ceased from the gate,

young men from their music.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:14] Elders ceased from the gate,

chosen men ceased from their songs.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: Greek again uses chosen men; gate retains the setting of communal public life.

Verse 5:15 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:15] The joy of our heart has ceased;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:15] The joy of our heart ended;

our dancing turned to mourning.

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: The communal reversal agrees.

Verse 5:16 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:16] The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:16] The crown fell from our head;

woe indeed to us, for we sinned!

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: The community's confession is not omitted to remove its tension with 5:7.

Verse 5:17 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:17] For this our heart has become faint;

for these things our eyes have grown dim,

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:17] For this our heart became sorrowful;

for this our eyes grew dim,

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: Both connect inward grief and impaired sight with the ruin described next.

Verse 5:18 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:18] because Mount Zion is desolate;

foxes walk upon it.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:18] because Mount Zion was destroyed;

foxes passed through her.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: Greek retains a feminine pronoun with the personified Zion. The animal identification is traditional and may cover related canids.

Verse 5:19 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:19] You, YHWH, are enthroned forever;

Your throne endures from generation to generation.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:19] But You, Lord, will dwell forever;

Your throne endures from generation to generation.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: Hebrew sit is read royally with the following throne, while Greek dwell is retained. Endures is supplied in both throne clauses.

Verse 5:20 Same

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:20] Why do You forget us forever

and forsake us for so many days?

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:20] Why will You forget us forever

and forsake us for so many days?

Classification & Notes

Same. Text: The prayer's question remains unresolved by an added answer. Rabbinic reception [RASHI5]: Rashi relates the protest about forgetting to God’s continuing existence and enduring oath. The appeal to the oath is commentary rather than an additional clause in this prayer.

Verse 5:21 Similar

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:21] Turn us back to You, YHWH, and we will return;

renew our days as of old.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:21] Turn us back to You, Lord, and we will be turned back;

renew our days as before.

Classification & Notes

Similar. Text: Greek's passive return differs slightly from Hebrew's active return. Both ask for divine initiative.

Verse 5:22 Different

Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)

[5:22] Unless You have utterly rejected us

and are exceedingly angry with us.

Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)

[5:22] For You have utterly rejected us

and have been exceedingly angry with us.

Classification & Notes

Different. Text: Hebrew ki im is provisionally unless; but indeed or for are alternatives. Greek clearly begins because/for. The unresolved ending is retained, and 5:21 is not silently repeated as if it were another source verse. Rabbinic reception [RASHI5]: Rashi explains the repetition of the preceding restoration verse after the rebuking conclusion. The present source table retains the displayed ending; that reading practice is noted without inventing a twenty-third verse.