Psalms 80:5
in Psalms 80You fed them with the bread of tears and made them drink the full measure of their tears.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in large measure.
KJV
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
⋯
This verse in Psalms 80
Commentary
10 notes on this verseThou feedest them with the bread of tears,.... With tears instead of bread, having none to eat; or their bread is mingled with their tears, "dipped" therein, as the Targum; such was their constant grief, and the occasion of it, that they could not cease from tears while they were eating their meals, and so ate them with them (n): and givest them tears to drink in great measure; or the wine of tears "three fold", as the Targum.
This site's exposition
how long will Your anger smolder
on Psalms 80:4-7
The anger is measured against the prayers of the people, while the neighbors fight and the enemies mock. The bread of tears stands where the grain from heaven stood at Psalm 78:24. Verse 7 repeats the refrain and adds God of Hosts.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"You will feed us with the bread of tears, and wilt give us to drink with tears in measure" [Psalm 80:5]. What is, "in measure"? Hear the Apostle: "Faithful is God, who does not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to bear." [1 Corinthians 10:13] The measure is, according to your powers: the measure is, that you be instructed, not that thou be crushed.
We have said this, brothers, so that you may know that in the Old Testament God's justice orders a year's punishment to make up for the sin of one day. In other words, the people were tormented in the desert for forty years because of …
"You will feed us with the bread of tears, and wilt give us to drink with tears in measure" [Psalm 80:5]. What is, "in measure"? Hear the Apostle: "Faithful is God, who does not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to bear." [1 Corinthians 10:13] The measure is, according to your powers: the measure is, that you be instructed, not that thou be crushed.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
): Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; they eat their meat from day to day in tears; this is the vinegar in which they dipped their morsel, Ps. xlii. They had tears given them to drink, not now and then a taste of that bitter cup, but in great measure. Note, There are many that spend their time in sorrow who yet shall spend their eternity in joy.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
"Thou feedest them with the bread of tears." Their meat is seasoned with brine distilled from weeping eyes. Their meals, which were once such pleasant seasons of social merriment, are now like funeral feasts to which each man contributes his bitter morsel. Thy people ate bread of wheat before, but now they receive from thine own hand no better diet than bread of tears. "And givest them tears to drink in great measure." Tears are both their food and their drink, and that without stint. They swallow tierces of tears, and swim in gulfs of grief, and all this by God's own appointment; not because their enemies have them in their power by force of arms, but because their God refuses to interpose. Tear bread is even more the fruit of the curse than to eat bread in the sweat of one's face, but it shall by divine love be turned into a greater blessing by ministering to our spiritual health.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
"Thou feedest them with the bread of tears." Their meat is seasoned with brine distilled from weeping eyes. Their meals, which were once such pleasant seasons of social merriment, are now like funeral feasts to which each man contributes his bitter morsel. Thy people ate bread of wheat before, but now they receive from thine own hand no better diet than bread of tears. "And givest them tears to drink in great measure." Tears are both their food and their drink, and that without stint.
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears - They have no peace, no comfort, nothing but continual sorrow. In great measure - שליש shalish, threefold. Some think it was a certain measure used by the Chaldeans, the real capacity of which is not known. others think it signifies abundance or abundantly.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears - literally, “Thou causest them to eat the bread of tears,” or of weeping. That is, their food was accompanied with tears; even when they ate, they wept. Their tears seemed to moisten their bread, they flowed so copiously. See the notes at Psa 42:3. And givest them tears to drink - So abundant were their tears that they might constitute their very drink. In great measure - Or rather by measure; that is, abundantly. The word here rendered “great measure” - שׁלישׁ shâlı̂ysh - means properly a third, and is usually applied to a measure for grain - a third part of another measure - as, the third part of an ephah. See the notes at Isa 40:12. Then the word is used for any measure, perhaps because this was the most common measure in use. The idea seems to be, not so much that God gave tears to them in great measure, but that he measured them out to them, as one measures drink to others; that is, the cup, or cask, or bottle in which their drink was served to them was as if filled with tears only.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֶ֭אֱכַלְתָּם | heekhaltom | you have fed them | H398 → | 810 times |
| לֶ֣חֶם | lechem | bread of | H3899 → | 298 times |
| דִּמְעָ֑ה | dimah | tear[s] | H1832 → | 23 times |
| וַ֝תַּשְׁקֵ֗מוֹ | vatashkemov | and you have made drink them | H8248 → | 61 times |
| בִּדְמָע֥וֹת | bidmaot | <in> tears | H1832 → | 23 times |
| שָׁלִֽישׁ׃ | shalish | a third of a measure | H7991 → |
הֶ֭אֱכַלְתָּםyou have fed them
heekhaltomH398 →810 times
לֶ֣חֶםbread of
lechemH3899 →298 times
דִּמְעָ֑הtear[s]
dimahH1832 →23 times
וַ֝תַּשְׁקֵ֗מוֹand you have made drink them
vatashkemovH8248 →61 times
בִּדְמָע֥וֹת<in> tears
bidmaotH1832 →23 times
שָׁלִֽישׁ׃a third of a measure
shalishH7991 →
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 30:20The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 22:27
and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Amos 8:11–12
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words…
- Acts 14:22
strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
- Psalms 127:2
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for bread to eat— for He gives sleep to His beloved.
- 1 Kings 22:27
Through
Psalms 42:3My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
it leads to
- Psalms 79:10
Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.
- Psalms 115:2
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
- Joel 2:17
Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among…
- Psalms 42:10
Like the crushing of my bones, my enemies taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
- Psalms 79:10
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 80; Caesarius of Arles, SERMON 108:4; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.