Lamentations 5:9
in Lamentations 5We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.
KJV
We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
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This verse in Lamentations 5
Commentary
7 notes on this verseWe gat our bread with the peril of our lives,.... This seems to refer to the time of the siege when they privately went out of the city to get in some provision, but went in danger of their lives: because of the sword of the wilderness: or, "of the plain" (t); because of the, word of the Chaldean army, which lay in the plain about Jerusalem into whose hand there was danger of falling, and of being cut to pieces. (t) מפני חרב המדבר "propter gladium in deserto, sive plano", Gataker.
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”.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Here is viewed the affliction of hunger. First is shown the people's want; "at the peril of our lives", That is, at a danger to our soul, to our very life. Also, while fleeing into the desert from the face of the sword of Babylon. …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Those are brought into slavery who were a free people, and not only their own masters, but masters of all about them, and this is as much as any thing their reproach (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
We gat - Or, We get “our bread at the peril of our lives.” This verse apparently refers to those who were left in the land, and who in gathering in such fruits as remained, were exposed to incursions of the Bedouin, here called “the sword of the desert.”
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
We gat our bread with . . . peril--that is, those of us left in the city after its capture by the Chaldeans. because of . . . sword of . . . wilderness--because of the liability to attack by the robber Arabs of the wilderness, through which the Jews had to pass to get "bread" from Egypt (compare La 5:6).
We gat our bread with the peril of our lives - They could not go into the wilderness to feed their cattle, or to get the necessaries of life, without being harassed and plundered by marauding parties, and by these were often exposed to the peril of their lives. This was predicted by Moses, Deu 28:31.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּנַפְשֵׁ֙נוּ֙ | benafshenu | with life our | H5315 → | 754 times |
| נָבִ֣יא | navi' | we bring | H935 → | 2568 times |
| לַחְמֵ֔נוּ | lachmenu | bread our | H3899 → | 298 times |
| מִפְּנֵ֖י | mipenei | <from> because of | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| חֶ֥רֶב | cherev | [the] sword of | H2719 → | 413 times |
| הַמִּדְבָּֽר׃ | hamidbar | the wilderness | H4057 → | 270 times |
בְּנַפְשֵׁ֙נוּ֙with life our
benafshenuH5315 →754 times
נָבִ֣יאwe bring
navi'H935 →2568 times
לַחְמֵ֔נוּbread our
lachmenuH3899 →298 times
מִפְּנֵ֖י<from> because of
mipeneiH6440 →2123 times
חֶ֥רֶב[the] sword of
cherevH2719 →413 times
הַמִּדְבָּֽר׃the wilderness
hamidbarH4057 →270 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
2 Samuel 23:17saying, “Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this! Is this not the blood of the men who risked their lives?” So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of…
it leads to
- Leviticus 17:10
If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.
- Psalms 72:14
He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their blood is precious in his sight.
- Judges 5:18
Zebulun was a people who risked their lives; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the battlefield.
- 1 Corinthians 15:30
And why do we endanger ourselves every hour?
- Matthew 26:28
This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
- Leviticus 17:10
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 (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.