Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
- KJV 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 in the wilderness.
- NKJV Even the jackals present their breasts To nurse their young; But the daughter of my people is cruel, Like ostriches in the wilderness.
- NASB Even jackals offer the breast, They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has proved herself cruel, Like ostriches in the wilderness.
- NLT Even the jackals feed their young, but not my people Israel. They ignore their children’s cries, like ostriches in the desert.
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
Even wild jackals nurse their young, but the famine has made the people cruel to their children.
Overview
The siege famine has so hardened mothers that they neglect their own children, unlike even wild animals that nurse their young. The comparison to ostriches, thought to be careless of their offspring, heightens the horror. This depicts how severe judgment unravels the most basic bonds of compassion, the bitter fruit of sin (Deut. 28:53-57).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 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.’
- Luke 23:28–29But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
- Lam 4:10The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- 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?
- 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.’
- Lev 26:29You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- Job 39:13–16The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.
- Deut 28:52–57They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.
- Rom 1:31They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
- 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!
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 4:3 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.