Lamentations 2:12
in Lamentations 2They cry out to their mothers: “Where is the grain and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives fade away in the arms of their mothers.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, When their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
KJV
They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
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This verse in Lamentations 2
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThe order of death is here exposed, as it excites mercy. First is a prayer to mothers as said: "They cry to their mothers, 'Where is bread and wine?'". As if wine is lacking, so give to us bread. For Lamentations 4:4 claims: "the children …
This site's exposition
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence
on Lamentations 2:10-12
“The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence”, men whose place was speech at the city gate. The young women bow beside them, so the grief crosses every rank. The famine is then stated plainly: children “cry out to their mothers” for grain and wine.
This site's exposition
They cry out to their mothers
Albert Barnes reads the verb as a cry repeated again and again, even as the children die. Grain and wine were the covenant blessing of Deuteronomy 7:13. Adam Clarke pictures infants dying at the breasts of their exhausted mothers.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
They say to their mothers, where is corn and wine?....
They lie a great while crying to their poor mothers for corn to feed them and wine to refresh them, for they are such as had been bred up to the use of wine and wanted it now; but there is none for them, so that at length their soul is poured into their mothers' bosom, and there they breathe their last.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
When their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom - When, in endeavoring to draw nourishment from the breasts of their exhausted mothers, they breathed their last in their bosoms! How dreadfully afflicting was this!
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They say - Or, “They keep saying:” it was an oft-repeated cry, even while expiring upon their mother’s bosom.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Shriveled. Regrezilerent [shriveled up] in O.F. Intestines— when a person casts them into a fire— shrivel up and burn.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
What testimony can I offer you, to what can I compare you. To say to you, “Why do you wonder about your destruction?
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְאִמֹּתָם֙ | leimotam | to mothers their | H517 → | 220 times |
| יֹֽאמְר֔וּ | yomeru | they say | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אַיֵּ֖ה | ʾaiyeh | where? | H346 → | |
| דָּגָ֣ן | dagan | [are] grain | H1715 → | |
| וָיָ֑יִן | vayayin | and wine | H3196 → | |
| בְּהִֽתְעַטְּפָ֤ם | behitatefam | when faint away they | H5848 → | 15 times |
| כֶּֽחָלָל֙ | kechalal | like <the> [one] fatally wounded | H2491 → | 94 times |
| בִּרְחֹב֣וֹת | birchovot | in [the] open places of | H7339 → | 43 times |
| עִ֔יר | ʾir | a city | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| בְּהִשְׁתַּפֵּ֣ךְ | behishtapekh | when pours itself out | H8210 → | 114 times |
| נַפְשָׁ֔ם | nafsham | life their | H5315 → | 754 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| חֵ֖יק | cheik | [the] bosom of | H2436 → | |
| אִמֹּתָֽם׃ ס | ʾimotam | mothers their | H517 → | 220 times |
לְאִמֹּתָם֙to mothers their
leimotamH517 →220 times
יֹֽאמְר֔וּthey say
yomeruH559 →5305 times
אַיֵּ֖הwhere?
ʾaiyehH346 →
דָּגָ֣ן[are] grain
daganH1715 →
וָיָ֑יִןand wine
vayayinH3196 →
בְּהִֽתְעַטְּפָ֤םwhen faint away they
behitatefamH5848 →15 times
כֶּֽחָלָל֙like <the> [one] fatally wounded
kechalalH2491 →94 times
בִּרְחֹב֣וֹתin [the] open places of
birchovotH7339 →43 times
עִ֔ירa city
ʾirH5892 →1090 times
בְּהִשְׁתַּפֵּ֣ךְwhen pours itself out
behishtapekhH8210 →114 times
נַפְשָׁ֔םlife their
nafshamH5315 →754 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
חֵ֖יק[the] bosom of
cheikH2436 →
אִמֹּתָֽם׃ סmothers their
ʾimotamH517 →220 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 53:12Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the…
it leads to
- Luke 22:37
For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.”
- Hebrews 9:28
so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.
- Mark 15:27
Along with Jesus, they crucified two robbers, one on His right and one on His left.
- Luke 23:32–34
Two others, who were criminals, were also led away to be executed with Jesus.
- Colossians 1:13–14
He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,
- Luke 22:37
Through
Ezekiel 30:24I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king and place My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, who will groan before him like a mortally wounded man.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 30:25
I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king, but Pharaoh’s arms will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I place My sword in the hand of Babylon’s king,…
- Zephaniah 2:12
“You too, O Cushites, will be slain by My sword.”
- Isaiah 45:5
I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,
- Ezekiel 30:25
Where this verse is studied
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.