John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 5:2

"Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, Our houses unto aliens." — Lamentations 5:2 (ASV)

The Prophet now provides a catalogue of many calamities, and as I have reminded you, he does this so that he may obtain God’s favor for himself and for the whole people.

It was by no means right that the inheritance of the elect people should be given to foreigners; for we know that the land had been promised to Abraham four hundred years before his descendants possessed it. We also know that this promise had been often repeated: This land shall be to you for an inheritance.

For although God sustained all nations, He was still pleased to take special care of His people. In short, no land has ever been given to men in such a unique way as the land of Canaan was given to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, since this inheritance had been possessed by the chosen people for so many ages, Jeremiah does not complain without reason that it was turned over to foreigners.

In the second clause, he repeats the same thing, but he shows that the Jews had not only been robbed of their fields but had also been cast out of their houses—a more grievous and disgraceful thing.

For it sometimes happens that when someone loses his farm, fields, and vineyards, his house remains untouched. But the Prophet here amplifies the misery of his own nation, showing that they were not only deprived of their fields and possessions but were also ejected from their own houses, and others took possession of them.

For it is a sight considered distressing even among pagans when someone unworthy of any honor succeeds to the place of another who is eminent in wealth and dignity. Well known are these words:

O house of Aucus!
How ruled by an unequal master!

Just as when Tarquinius had succeeded and taken possession of the kingdom, the pagan poet reproachfully said that the house of Ancus had passed to those who were at first exiles and fugitives but afterwards became proud and cruel tyrants. So also in this passage, Jeremiah says that foreigners lived in the houses of the people.