We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
Parallel translations
- WEB We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.
- KJV We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
- NKJV We pay for the water we drink, And our wood comes at a price.
- NASB We have to pay for our drinking water, Our wood comes to us at a price.
- NLT We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
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
They must now pay even for their own water and firewood.
Overview
Conquered and dispossessed, the people are forced to buy basic necessities that were once freely theirs. This depicts the humiliation and deprivation of life under foreign domination. Such bondage and want sharpen the longing for the freedom and provision God gives, and for the living water Christ offers without cost (Isa. 55:1; John 4:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Isa 3:1For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,
- Deut 28:48you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
- Ezek 4:9–17But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.
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 5:4 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.