Having expressed his faith in God’s eternal rule, the poet now questions God’s faithfulness. Each half of verse 20 consists of a “Why?” question. The first asks God the reason for his failure to remember his people, as though to repeat the appeal made in 5.1. The thought that God was capable of forgetting is expressed elsewhere in the Old Testament. For example, the psalmist asks in Psalm 13.1 “How long, O LORD? Wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” In Psalm 42.9 we read “Why hast thou forgotten me?” and in Psalm 74.1 “O God, why dost thou cast us off for ever?” The poet is afraid that God’s forgetfulness will last indefinitely, so in the agony of his lament he pursues these two parallel questions. Translators will note that Good News Translation has switched the two verbs. Although this is not necessary in English, the Good News Translation wording in the second half gives a greater sense of being forgotten.

Forget us for ever: forget has the sense of neglecting, putting out of mind, ceasing to think about, and so, ceasing to care for. For ever refers to an indefinite future. So long in the second half-line translates “length of days” and refers to a long period of time. Here the reference is most likely to the years of suffering experienced by the people of Jerusalem, and so Moffatt translates “all these years.” Forsake here has the sense of God deserting someone (Israel) who has been formerly under his care and protection, and in some languages this may be translated “Why have you left us like orphaned children?” or “Why have you gone away and left us behind?”

In some languages the first line of Revised Standard Version may be rendered “Why do you go on and on forgetting us?” and the second line as “Why do you go on and on abandoning us?” Since these are so closely parallel, the verse may also be translated “Why do you go on and on forgetting and abandoning us?”

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 .