The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Parallel translations
- WEB The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- 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.
- 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.
- NASB The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Due to the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- NLT Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children. They have eaten them to survive the siege.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The famine drove even compassionate mothers to the unthinkable horror of eating their own children.
Overview
This verse records the most terrible result of the siege, fulfilling the covenant warnings of Deuteronomy 28:56-57. Even tenderhearted women were reduced to cannibalism to survive. It stands as a stark testimony to the catastrophic consequences of persistent sin and the desperate need for a Savior to redeem from such ruin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Lam 2:20Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Isa 49:15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
- 2 Kgs 6:26–29As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
- Jer 19:9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
- Lam 4:3Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
- Lam 3:48Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Lev 26:29You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- Ezek 5:10As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
- Deut 28:53–57Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 4:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.