Lamentations 5:21 is a plea for restoration. The people of Judah, devastated after Jerusalem’s fall, ask God to bring them back to himself and to renew their lives as they once were. The verse is a prayer spoken by the community, a collective cry from the ruins of the city and the temple.
The book of Lamentations is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, and the speakers are the surviving people of Jerusalem who watched their home destroyed by Babylon. The prayer is addressed directly to the LORD.
Turn us to yourself, the LORD, and we will be turned. Renew our days as of old.
Lamentations 5:21 (WEB)
What Lamentations 5:21 Means
The first request, “Turn us to yourself,” asks God to act. The people recognize that they cannot first repair their own hearts and then approach God. They ask him to turn them, which places the initiative in his hands. Their longing to return depends on his drawing them back.
The second half, “and we will be turned,” describes the result they hope for: a real change of direction, a willing return. The wording is a little unusual because the people use the same verb in both clauses, asking God to turn them and then promising that they will turn. Their response is shaped by what he has first done.
The final line, “Renew our days as of old,” asks for a return to the life they had before the disaster. It is not a demand for something new or unknown. It is a request for the familiar goodness of an earlier time. The verse does not promise that God will grant it immediately or on the people’s terms. It voices a hope rooted in his character, and the verses that follow show that the sorrow is not yet over.
The Context of Lamentations 5:21
Lamentations is a set of five poems mourning the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The city’s walls, houses and temple lie in ruins, and the people have been carried into exile or left to suffer under occupation. Verses 18 and 19 describe Zion as desolate, with foxes roaming where worship once happened, yet they also affirm that the LORD remains forever and his throne endures through every generation.
Verses 20 and 22 are the emotional center of the passage. The people ask why God seems to have forgotten them and why he has so utterly rejected them. Against that honest complaint, verse 21 stands as a turning point. It is not a cheerful resolution but a desperate appeal that holds onto God’s enduring rule, which was affirmed just before. The prayer makes sense because the speakers still believe the one who has allowed their suffering is also the only one who can restore them.
Key Phrases in Lamentations 5:21
Jeremiah 31:18
“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are the LORD my God.
(WEB)
This verse comes from the same prophetic tradition and records Ephraim praying to be turned back, echoing the plea of Lamentations 5:21. Reading the two together shows that the desire for restoration runs through the prophetic books as a shared confession.
Psalm 80:3
Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
(WEB)
Psalm 80 repeats the cry for God to restore his people and make his face shine upon them. It shows that Israel’s prayers for return were often sung and prayed as a refrain, giving voice to the same hope found in Lamentations.
A Short Prayer From Lamentations 5:21
Lord, you remain forever, and your throne stands from one generation to the next. We have walked far from you and feel the weight of what that distance has cost us. Turn us to yourself. Do the work in our hearts that we cannot do on our own, and let us be turned by your hand. Renew our days as you did in the years we remember with gratitude. We trust that you have not forgotten us, even when we feel forgotten. Amen.
