Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
Parallel translations
- WEB Servants rule over us: There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.
- KJV Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
- NKJV Servants rule over us; There is none to deliver us from their hand.
- NASB Slaves rule over us; There is no one to rescue us from their hand.
- NLT Slaves have now become our masters; there is no one left to rescue us.
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
Slaves now rule over them, and there is no one to rescue them from their power.
Overview
In a bitter reversal, mere servants of the Babylonian empire now lord it over God's people, with no deliverer in sight. This humiliation underscores their helplessness apart from God. The cry 'no one to deliver us' voices the deep human need that is answered only in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who saves those none other could rescue (Ps. 142:4; Heb. 7:25).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Neh 5:15The governors before me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them bread and wine plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also oppressed the people, but I did not do this because of my fear of God.
- Prov 30:22a servant who becomes king, a fool who is filled with food,
- Zech 11:6For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”
- Ps 7:2or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
- Job 5:4His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- Deut 28:43The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower.
- Gen 9:25he said, “Cursed be Canaan! A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
- Neh 2:19But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
- Job 10:7though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?
- Hos 2:10And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.
- Isa 43:13Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 5:8 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.