Lamentations 4:10

Lamentations 4:10 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
• New International Version (NIV)With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed.
• English Standard Version (ESV)The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
• New King James Version (NKJV)The hands of the compassionate women Have cooked their own children; They became food for them In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Context of Lamentations 4:10

8Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 9They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of the tenderhearted women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 11The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured its foundations. 12The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

Lamentations 4:10 word by word

יְדֵ֗י נָשִׁים֙ רַחֲמָ֣נִיּ֔וֹת בִּשְּׁל֖וּ יַלְדֵיהֶ֑ן הָי֤וּ לְבָרוֹת֙ לָ֔מוֹ בְּשֶׁ֖בֶר בַּת־עַמִּֽי׃ סRead the interlinear

• handsיָדyâd · handH3027
• tenderheartedרַחֲמָנִיrachmânîy · compassionateH7362
• womenאִשָּׁה'ishshâh nâshîym · womanH802
• boiledבָּשַׁלbâshal · to boilH1310
• childrenיֶ֫לֶדyeled · youthH3206
• foodבָּרָהbârâh · to eatH1262
• destructionשֶׁ֫בֶרsheber shêber · breakingH7667
• daughterבַּתbath · daughterH1323
• peopleעַם‛am · peopleH5971

Cross-references for Lamentations 4:10

• Lamentations 4:3Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
• Lamentations 2:20Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
• 2 Kings 6:26And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman to him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
• Isaiah 49:15Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee.
• Lamentations 3:48My eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
• Deuteronomy 28:56The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
• 2 Kings 6:29So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

Commentaries on Lamentations 4:10

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 10The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children - See on Lamentations 2:20; (note). But here there is a reference to mothers eating their own children; and this was done, not by mothers cruel and brutal, but by רחמניות נשים nashim rachmaniyoth, the compassionate, the tender-hearted mothers. From these horrible scenes it is well to pass with as hasty a step as possible.Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 10Pitiful - i. e. tender-hearted, compassionate. meat is used for food Psalm 69:21. What is here stated actually occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus.Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-22Although God’s people still experience his judgment, they will soon experience restoration.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1010. (La 2:20; De 28:56, 57). pitiful--naturally at other times compassionate (Is 49:15). Josephus describes the unnatural act as it took place in the siege under Titus. sodden--boiled. Caph.Read the comment

Topics related to Lamentations 4:10

• Cannibalism
• Famine
• Prophecy
• Women

In the dictionaries

• Comparable
• Dim
• Poetry
• Zedekiah
• Acrostic
• Alphabet
• Lamentations, Book of
• Pitiful
• Poetry, Hebrew
• Proverbs, the Book of

Commentaries on Lamentations 4

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings