This poem, unlike the four before it, is not an acrostic, though it has twenty-two lines, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The prayer reviews the distressing circumstances subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem and pleads for the Lord to grant restoration. In form the poem is a communal lament with an address to God, the listing of reasons for the lament, and a request to God for help.

5:1–9 · Refugees in one’s homeland: Jerusalem has been sacked and there is chaos. A large part of the tragedy is the loss…