Lamentations 5:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Douay-RheimsHebrew (Masoretic text)

Our inheritance is turned to aliens: our houses to strangers.
Douay-Rheims

נַחֲלָתֵ֙נוּ֙ נֶֽהֶפְכָ֣ה לְזָרִ֔ים בָּתֵּ֖ינוּ לְנָכְרִֽים׃
Hebrew (Masoretic text)

The Church Fathers on this verse

One Church Father comments on this verse

Macarius the Egyptian

4th centuryChurch Father

So, dear friends, let each of us recognize what has been lost, and let us echo the sorrow of the prophet: indeed, our inheritance has been taken by outsiders, and our homes belong to others, as we have turned away from the divine commandments, indulging our desires and reveling in unholy thoughts. When the mind strays from the commandments, it becomes consumed with the wicked thoughts that seize it, immersing itself in them.

Cross references

Passages read together with this verse.

Zeph 1:13And their strength shall become a booty, and their houses as a desert: and they shall build houses, and shall not dwell in them: and they shall plant vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.
Isa 1:7Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies.
Ps 79 (78):1
Ps 79 (78):2
Deut 28:30Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.
Deut 28:68The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
Isa 63:18They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary.
Ezek 7:21And I will give it into the hands of strangers for spoil, and to the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they shall defile it.