They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
KJV
Parallel translations
4 additional translations▾
Parallel translations
4 additional translationsThey that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.
Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.
The slain with the sword are happier than the slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
About this book
Old Testament▾
About this book
Old TestamentLamentations — Five poems over the ruin of Jerusalem. The first four are alphabetic acrostics — every letter of the Hebrew alphabet drafted to hold the weight of grief. At the book's centre, mercy renewed every morning.
- Author
- Traditionally Jeremiah (cf. 2 Chron 35:25); the book itself is anonymous
- Date
- Shortly after Jerusalem's fall, c. 586 BC