In this verse we are to understand that God is the one who has caused Our inheritance to be turned over to strangers. Inheritance generally means inherited property, or property and possessions that are passed on to a dead person’s survivors. However, the word is often used in the Old Testament as referring to the land promised to Abraham and his descendants (Deut 26.1): “the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.” In Jeremiah 2.7 “heritage” is used in parallel with “land” (of Israel); see the same usage in Jeremiah 3.18. Many translators use inheritance or “heritage” in this half-line, but “our land” is more likely to be the meaning here and is a more suitable translation. It is also possible to use, for example, “country” or “nation,” meaning the land of Judah.

In some languages the passive has been turned over must be reworded as active; for example, “The land you gave us you have now given to foreigners” or “You have taken our country from us and given it to foreigners.”

The second part of the verse has no verb, and has been turned over serves for both halves. The more general Our inheritance in the first half is matched in the second by our homes as a particular example of the inheritance, a poetic device that calls attention to the matching pair of words.

The two Hebrew words translated as strangers and aliens are virtually identical in meaning. Strangers probably refers not to the Babylonians but to the people from neighboring countries such as Edom. In some languages distinctions are made between those who are native to the community and those who have become incorporated into it, but were originally from another tribe or area. Another distinction is between members of the community and the group of outsiders who are totally alien to the community in question. It is this second distinction which is referred to here; and sometimes it is helpful to say, for example, “people from other tribes are living in our houses” or “people who do not belong to us have taken over our houses.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .