Lamentations 4:9

Better have been the pierced of a sword || Than the pierced of famine, || For these flow away, pierced through, || Without the increase of the field.

Literal Standard Version

In The King James Version

They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

In Context

8Their face has been darker than blackness, || They have not been known in out-places, || Their skin has cleaved to their bone, || It has withered—it has been as wood.

10The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, || They have been for food to them, || In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Read all of Lamentations 4

Cross References

Deuteronomy 28:51and it has eaten the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; which does not leave to you grain, new wine, and oil, the increase of your oxen, and the wealth of your flock, until it has destroyed you.

Jeremiah 16:4“They die painful deaths, || They are not lamented, nor are they buried, || For they are dung on the face of the ground, || And are consumed by sword and by famine, || And their carcass has been for food || To the bird of the heavens, || And to the beast of the earth.”

Ezekiel 7:15The sword [is] outside, || And the pestilence and the famine within, || He who is in a field dies by sword, || And he who is in a city—Famine and pestilence devour him.

Ezekiel 33:10And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: You have spoken correctly, saying, || Surely our transgressions and our sins [are] on us, || And we are wasting away in them, || How, then, do we live?

Matthew Henry on Lamentations 4:2-13

Desolate Condition of Jerusalem; Effects of Famine in Jerusalem; Destruction of Jerusalem. ( b. c. 588.) 1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. 2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 3 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… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Lamentations 4:9