Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
Parallel translations
- WEB Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities.
- KJV Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
- NKJV Our fathers sinned and are no more, But we bear their iniquities.
- NASB Our fathers sinned, and are gone; It is we who have been burdened with the punishment for their wrongdoings.
- NLT Our ancestors sinned, but they have died— and we are suffering the punishment they deserved!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They confess bearing the consequences of their fathers' sins, now that those fathers are gone.
Overview
The people acknowledge suffering for the accumulated iniquity of previous generations, who have died. This recognizes the corporate and generational reach of sin's consequences, though Scripture also affirms each person answers for his own sin (Ezek. 18:20). The verse honestly owns the weight of inherited guilt, which points to the one Mediator who bears sin's full burden for His people (Rom. 5:18-19).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jer 16:12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.
- Jer 31:29“In those days, it will no longer be said: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’
- Ezek 18:2“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?
- Jer 14:20We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.
- Exod 20:5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- Jer 31:15This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
- Gen 42:36Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!”
- Matt 23:32–36Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.
- Job 7:21Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the dust; You will seek me, but I will be no more.”
- Job 7:8The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.
- Zech 1:5Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
- Gen 42:13But they answered, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 5:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.