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Lamentations 5:4-6
New English Translation
Lamentations 5:4-6
New English Translation
4 We must pay money[a] for our own water;[b]
we must buy our own wood at a steep price.[c]
5 We are pursued—they are breathing down our necks;[d]
we are weary and have no rest.[e]
6 We have submitted[f] to Egypt and Assyria
in order to buy food to eat.[g]
Footnotes
- Lamentations 5:4 tn Heb “silver.” The term “silver” is a synecdoche of the particular (= silver) for the general (= money).
- Lamentations 5:4 tn Heb “We drink our water for silver.”
- Lamentations 5:4 tn Heb “our wood comes for a price.”
- Lamentations 5:5 tn Heb “We are hard-driven on our necks.”
- Lamentations 5:5 sn For the theological allusion that goes beyond physical rest, see, e.g., Deut 12:10; 25:19; Josh 1:13; 11:23; 2 Sam 7:1, 11; 1 Chron 22:18; 2 Chron 14:6-7.
- Lamentations 5:6 tn Heb “we have given the hand”; cf. NRSV “We have made a pact.” This is a Semitic idiom meaning “to make a treaty with” someone, placing oneself in a subservient position as vassal. The prophets criticized these treaties.
- Lamentations 5:6 tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” is a synecdoche of the specific (= bread) for the general (= food).
New English Translation (NET)
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