The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat 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.
- BSB The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food 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 2:20Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Isa 49:15Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
- 2 Kgs 6:26–29And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
- Jer 19:9And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
- Lam 4:3Even 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 in the wilderness.
- Lam 3:48Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Lev 26:29And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
- Ezek 5:10Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
- Deut 28:53–57And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
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.