Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, December 21st, 2025
the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Lamentations 5:3

Our fathers have been killed by the enemy, and now our mothers are widows.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Orphan;   Patriotism;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Fatherless;   Widows;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Orphan;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Orphans;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Fatherless;   Lamentations, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fatherless;   Orphan;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
We have become orphans, fatherless;our mothers are widows.
Hebrew Names Version
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
King James Version
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
English Standard Version
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
New American Standard Bible
We have become orphans, without a father; Our mothers are like widows.
New Century Version
We are like orphans with no father; our mothers are like widows.
Amplified Bible
We have become orphans without a father; Our mothers are like widows.
World English Bible
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Geneva Bible (1587)
We are fatherles, euen without father, and our mothers are as widowes.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
We have become orphans without a father, Our mothers are like widows.
Legacy Standard Bible
We have become orphans without a father;Our mothers are like widows.
Berean Standard Bible
We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
Contemporary English Version
We are like children whose mothers are widows.
Complete Jewish Bible
We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers now are widows.
Darby Translation
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Easy-to-Read Version
We have become orphans. We have no father. Our mothers have become like widows.
George Lamsa Translation
We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Lexham English Bible
We have become orphans, fatherless, our mothers are like widows.
Literal Translation
We are orphans. There is no father; our mothers are like widows.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
We are become carefull and fatherlesse, and oure mothers are as the wydowes.
American Standard Version
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Bible in Basic English
We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
We are become orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
King James Version (1611)
We are orphanes and fatherlesse, our mothers are as widowes.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
We are become carefull and fatherlesse, and our mothers are as the wydowes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
we are become orphans, we have no father, our mothers are as widows.
English Revised Version
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
We ben maad fadirles children with out fadir; oure modris ben as widewis.
Update Bible Version
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Webster's Bible Translation
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows.
New English Translation
We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows.
New King James Version
We have become orphans and waifs, Our mothers are like widows.
New Living Translation
We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.
New Life Bible
We have lost our fathers. Our mothers are like those who have lost their husbands.
New Revised Standard
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Orphans, have we become, and fatherless, our mothers, are widows indeed.
Douay-Rheims Bible
We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.
Revised Standard Version
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
Young's Literal Translation
Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.

Contextual Overview

1 Remember, O Lord , what has happened to us. Look at us, and see our disgrace. 2 Our property is in the hands of strangers; foreigners are living in our homes. 3 Our fathers have been killed by the enemy, and now our mothers are widows. 4 We must pay for the water we drink; we must buy the wood we need for fuel. 5 Driven hard like donkeys or camels, we are tired, but are allowed no rest. 6 To get food enough to stay alive, we went begging to Egypt and Assyria. 7 Our ancestors sinned, but now they are gone, and we are suffering for their sins. 8 Our rulers are no better than slaves, and no one can save us from their power. 9 Murderers roam through the countryside; we risk our lives when we look for food. 10 Hunger has made us burn with fever until our skin is as hot as an oven.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 22:24, Jeremiah 18:21, Hosea 14:3

Reciprocal: Psalms 109:9 - General Jeremiah 6:12 - And their John 14:18 - comfortless

Cross-References

Genesis 4:25
Adam and his wife had another son. She said, "God has given me a son to replace Abel, whom Cain killed." So she named him Seth.
Genesis 5:2
He created them male and female, blessed them, and named them "Human Beings.")
Genesis 5:3
When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was like him, and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:14
and died at the age of 910.
Genesis 5:16
and then lived another 830 years. He had other children
Job 14:4
Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.
Job 25:4
Can anyone be righteous or pure in God's sight?
Psalms 51:5
I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.
Luke 1:35
The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God.
John 3:6
A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.

Gill's Notes on the 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.


 
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