Lamentations 5:13
Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
BSB
ASV
The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.
KJV
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
They took the young men to grind,.... In the mill, which was laborious service; and which persons were sometimes put to, by way of punishment; and was the punishment of servants; see Jdg 16:21. Some render it, "the young men bore the grist" (x); carried the corn, the meal ground, from place to place. The Targum is, "the young men carried the millstones;'' and so Jarchi, they put millstones upon their shoulders, and burdens so as to weary them.
They took the young men to grind - Or, “The young men” have borne the mill, a menial and laborious task usually performed by slaves (compare Isa 47:2). The children fell under the wood - Or, lads have stumbled under burdens of wood. By lads are meant youths up to the age of military service; another form of menial labor.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Matthew 23:4They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
leads to
“Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “You weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.
Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
For the circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
Through
Exodus 2:11One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
leads to
By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
Through
Exodus 23:5If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.
leads to
If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.
Through
Judges 16:21Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
leads to
None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.