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Read the Bible

Literal Standard Version

Lamentations 5:3

Orphans we have been—without a father, our mothers [are] as 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.
Good News Translation
Our fathers have been killed by the enemy, and now our mothers are 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

1Remember, O YHWH, what has befallen us, || Look attentively, and see our reproach. 2Our inheritance has been turned to strangers, || Our houses to foreigners. 3Orphans we have been—without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.4We have drunk our water for money, || Our wood comes for a price. 5For our neck we have been pursued, || We have labored—there has been no rest for us. 6[To] Egypt we have given a hand, || [To] Asshur, to be satisfied with bread. 7Our fathers have sinned—they are not, || We have borne their iniquities. 8Servants have ruled over us, || There is no deliverer from their hand. 9With our lives we bring in our bread, || Because of the sword of the wilderness. 10Our skin as an oven has been burning, || Because of the raging of the famine.

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
And Adam again knows his wife, and she bears a son, and calls his name Seth, "for God has appointed for me another seed instead of Abel": for Cain had slain him.
Genesis 5:2
a male and a female He has created them, and He blesses them, and calls their name Man, in the day of their being created.
Genesis 5:3
And Adam lives one hundred and thirty years [[or two hundred and thirty years]], and begets [a son] in his likeness, according to his image, and calls his name Seth.
Genesis 5:14
And all the days of Cainan are nine hundred and ten years, and he dies.
Genesis 5:16
And Mahalaleel lives after his begetting Jared eight hundred and thirty years [[or seven hundred and thirty years]], and begets sons and daughters.
Job 14:4
Who gives a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
Job 25:4
And what? Is man righteous with God? And what? Is he pure—born of a woman?
Psalms 51:5
Behold, I have been brought forth in iniquity, || And my mother conceives me in sin.
Luke 1:35
And the messenger answering said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you, therefore also the holy-begotten thing will be called Son of God;
John 3:6
that which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is 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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