We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
The “we” places Jeremiah alongside his people in prayer, asking the Lord to remember and look upon their disgrace instead of charging the wicked with having brought ruin on themselves through stubbornness and sin. He feels deeply for the orphan, the fatherless, and the widow, joining his voice to theirs. The lament mourns dispossession in which inheritance has passed to strangers and houses to outsiders. Even water and wood, resources ordinarily necessary and once freely available, now have to be bought and paid for, marking the loss of free access to them.
Under the curse, the very necessities meant to sustain life must be paid for. That condition portrays the hardship of earning a living in a world scarred by sin, where people toil for basic needs amid drought, failed crops, and danger.
The “we” places Jeremiah alongside his people in prayer, asking the Lord to remember and look upon their disgrace instead of charging the wicked with having brought ruin on themselves through stubbornness and sin. He feels deeply for the orphan, the fatherless, and the widow, joining his voice to theirs. The lament mourns dispossession in which inheritance has passed to strangers and houses to outsiders. Even water and wood, resources ordinarily necessary and once freely available, now have to be bought and paid for, marking the loss of free access to them.
Under the curse, the very necessities meant to sustain life must be paid for. That condition portrays the hardship of earning a living in a world scarred by sin, where people toil for basic needs amid drought, failed crops, and danger.