Orphans and widows were traditionally looked upon in Israel as the members of society who were most in need of protection. Here the poet emphasizes the lack of protection for the people living in Jerusalem. The men have either been killed in battle or been taken away into captivity. So those left behind are orphans in the sense that they have lost their fathers.

Good News Translation and others expand what is in Hebrew “no fathers” to a statement which explains the reason for their being orphans: “Our fathers have been killed….” Bible en français courant is better because it retains orphans: “Our fathers are no longer there, and so we are orphans.”

In some languages the word orphan does not apply to a child who has lost only the father—both parents are understood to be dead. In other languages a child is called an orphan only until he or she reaches a certain age. In cases where there is no term at all for orphan, it will often be necessary to say, for example, “We are children without a father,” or “We are children without fathers because the enemy killed them,” or “… the enemy has taken them away.”

This restructuring also gives the reason for the mothers being widows. However, the expression like widows raises the question whether the husbands have been killed (as in Good News Translation) or are no longer there (as in Bible en français courant). Some interpreters take like widows to mean that perhaps the husbands and fathers are still living but are in exile, and so the women are left without the help and protection of their men. However, the Hebrew preposition used here probably has the same function as in 1.20, where it means not “like death” but “there is death.”

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 .