Lamentations 5:10
in Lamentations 5Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
KJV
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
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This verse in Lamentations 5
Commentary
7 notes on this verseOur skin was black - because of the terrible famine - Because of the searching winds that burnt up every green thing, destroying vegetation, and in consequence producing a famine.
This site's exposition
We get our bread at the risk of our lives
on Lamentations 5:9-10
Verse 9 puts a price on daily bread: “We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness”. Verse 10 reads the famine on the body, “Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger”.
This site's exposition
hot as an oven
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare the fever of hunger to the hot desert wind, which leaves skin as dry as an oven. Lamentations 4:8 had already shown this skin shriveled on the bone.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Then is considered in Verse 10 the effects of famine. As stated: "our skin is hot as an oven." That is, dried up by hunger. And: "with the burning heat of famine." As if being obsessed, and fleeing the famine, the people suffered a long …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
As an oven is scorched with too much fire, so our skin with the hot blast of famine (Margin, rightly, "storms," like the hot simoom). Hunger dries up the pores so that the skin becomes like as if it were scorched by the sun (Job 30:30;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Our skin ... - Or, is fiery red like an oven because of the fever-blast “of famine.”
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עוֹרֵ֙נוּ֙ | orenu | skin our | H5785 → | 99 times |
| כְּתַנּ֣וּר | ketanur | like an oven | H8574 → | |
| נִכְמָ֔רוּ | nikhmaru | they have grown hot | H3648 → | |
| מִפְּנֵ֖י | mipenei | <from> because of | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| זַלְעֲפ֥וֹת | zalafot | [the] burning heat of | H2152 → | |
| רָעָֽב׃ | raav | hunger | H7458 → | 101 times |
עוֹרֵ֙נוּ֙skin our
orenuH5785 →99 times
כְּתַנּ֣וּרlike an oven
ketanurH8574 →
נִכְמָ֔רוּthey have grown hot
nikhmaruH3648 →
מִפְּנֵ֖י<from> because of
mipeneiH6440 →2123 times
זַלְעֲפ֥וֹת[the] burning heat of
zalafotH2152 →
רָעָֽב׃hunger
raavH7458 →101 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
Psalms 119:83Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.
it leads to
- Job 30:30
My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 119:176
I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
- Job 30:30
Through
Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
it leads to
- Psalms 119:83
Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 4:8
But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Psalms 102:3
For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
- Psalms 119:83
Through
Lamentations 3:4He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
it leads to
- Psalms 51:8
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.
- Isaiah 38:13
I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
- Psalms 51:8
Through
Lamentations 4:8But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
it leads to
- Psalms 102:3–5
For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
- Psalms 102:3–5
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); 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) and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.