Those slain by the sword are better off Than those who die of hunger; For these pine away, Stricken for lack of the fruits of the field.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
- KJV They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
- BSB Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.
- NASB Better off are those killed by the sword Than those killed by hunger; For they waste away, stricken By the lack of the produce of the field.
- NLT Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger. Starving, they waste away for lack of food from the fields.
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
Those slain by the sword are better off than those who slowly waste away from hunger.
Overview
The poet judges a quick death in battle preferable to the lingering torment of starvation. The prolonged agony of famine is portrayed as a fate worse than the sword. This grim assessment conveys the depth of suffering under judgment and intensifies the cry for deliverance that finds its answer in the gospel (Lam. 4:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Jer 16:4“They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.”
- Ezek 24:23Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.
- Lev 26:39Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.
- Ezek 33:10You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?
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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 4:9 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.