Lamentations 4:3
in Lamentations 4Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
KJV
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
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This verse in Lamentations 4
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Sea monsters - Rather, jackals. Their young ones - “Their” whelps. The term is applied only to the young of dogs, lions, and the like.
This site's exposition
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young
on Lamentations 4:3-6
Where the King James reads sea monsters, the Berean reads jackals: “Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young”. The daughter of my people “has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness”, the bird Job 39:13-16 names for leaving her eggs.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Here is set forth the peoples' misery in parts. First is viewed the affliction of the siege, as to their famine, second, as to the capture and destruction of their city. As said in Verse 11: "The Lord gave full vent to his wrath, he …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Cruel - The Jewish women are become cruel to their children, or forced to appear so, having through the famine no milk to give them, nor any thing to relieve them.
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast,....
As doleful as our thoughts are of this case, so thankful should our thoughts be of the great plenty we enjoy, and the food convenient we have for ourselves and for our children, and for those of our own house.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
sea monsters . . . breast--Whales and other cetaceous monsters are mammalian. Even they suckle their young; but the Jewish women in the siege, so desperate was their misery, ate theirs (La 4:10; Others translate, "jackals." ostriches--see on Job 39:14;
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1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast - The whales give suck to their young ones. The word תנין tannin, signifies all large and cruel creatures, whether aquatic or terrestrial; and need not here be restrained to the former sort. My Old MS. Bible translates curiously: Not and the cruel bestis that ben clepid Lamya, and thei nakeden ther tetis, geve ther whelpis souken. Like the ostriches in the wilderness - For her carelessness about her eggs, and her inattention to her young, the ostrich is proverbial.
The words behind it
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גַּם־ | gam- | also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| תַּנִּים֙ | tanin | jackals | H8577 → | |
| חָ֣לְצוּ | chaltzu | they draw out | H2502 → | |
| שַׁ֔ד | shad | a breast | H7699 → | |
| הֵינִ֖יקוּ | heiniku | they suckle | H3243 → | 33 times |
| גּוּרֵיהֶ֑ן | gureihen | young their | H1482 → | |
| בַּת־ | bat- | [the] daughter of | H1323 → | 588 times |
| עַמִּ֣י | ʾami | people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| לְאַכְזָ֔ר | leakhzar | [has become] <into> cruel | H393 → | |
| כַּיְעֵנִ֖ים | kaenim | like <the> ostriches | H3283 → | |
| בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ ס | bamidbar | in the wilderness | H4057 → | 270 times |
גַּם־also
gam-H1571 →769 times
תַּנִּים֙jackals
taninH8577 →
חָ֣לְצוּthey draw out
chaltzuH2502 →
שַׁ֔דa breast
shadH7699 →
הֵינִ֖יקוּthey suckle
heinikuH3243 →33 times
גּוּרֵיהֶ֑ןyoung their
gureihenH1482 →
בַּת־[the] daughter of
bat-H1323 →588 times
עַמִּ֣יpeople my
ʾamiH5971 →1873 times
לְאַכְזָ֔ר[has become] <into> cruel
leakhzarH393 →
כַּיְעֵנִ֖יםlike <the> ostriches
kaenimH3283 →
בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ סin the wilderness
bamidbarH4057 →270 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
Lamentations 2:20Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
it leads to
- Jeremiah 19:9
I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 4:10
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Jeremiah 19:9
Through
Ezekiel 5:10As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
it leads to
- Zechariah 2:6
“Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 28:64
Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you…
- Leviticus 26:29
You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- Zechariah 2:6
Through
Lamentations 4:10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
it leads to
- Lamentations 2:20
Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- 2 Kings 6:26–29
As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
- Isaiah 49:15
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
- Lamentations 2:20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.