TRV
Translation
King James Version
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.
Complete Jewish Bible
Those slain by the sword are better off than those who are dying from hunger; since these waste away as if pierced through, for lack of food from the fields.
Berean Standard Bible
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.
American Standard Version
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
World English Bible Messianic
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.
Geneva Bible (1599)
They that be slaine with the sword are better, then they that are killed with hunger: for they fade away as they were striken through for the fruites of the fielde.
Young's Literal Translation
Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.
Study This Verse
Commentary on Lamentations 4 verses 1–12
1 ¶ How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 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.
4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
9 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.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
The elegy in this chapter begins with a lamentation of the very sad and doleful change which the judgments of God had made in Jerusalem. The city that was formerly as gold, as the most fine gold, so rich and splendid, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, has become dim, and is changed, has lost its lustre, lost its value, is not what it was; it has become dross. Alas! what an alteration is here!
I. The temple was laid waste, which was the glory of Jerusalem and its protection. it is given up into the hands of the enemy. And some understand the gold spoken of (Lam 4:1) to be the gold of the temple, the fine gold with which it was overlaid (Kg1 6:22); when the temple was burned the gold of it was smoked and sullied, as if it had been of little value. it was thrown among the rubbish; it was changed, converted to common uses and made nothing of. The stones of the sanctuary, which were curiously wrought, were thrown down by the Chaldeans, when they demolished it, or were brought down by the force of the fire, and were poured out, and thrown about in the top of every street; they lay mingled without distinction among the common ruins. When the God of the sanctuary was by sin provoked to withdraw no wonder that the stones of the sanctuary were thus profaned.
II. The princes and priests, who were in a special manner the sons of Zion, were trampled upon and abused, Lam 4:2. Both the house of God and the house of David were in Zion. The sons of both those houses were upon this account precious, that they were heirs to the privileges of those two covenants of priesthood and royalty. They were comparable to fine gold. Israel was more rich in them than in treasures of gold and silver. But now they are esteemed as earthen pitchers; they are broken as earthen pitchers, thrown by as vessels in which there is no pleasure. They have grown poor, and are brought into captivity, and thereby are rendered mean and despicable, and every one treads upon them and insults over them. Note, The contempt put upon God's people ought to be matter of lamentation to us.
III. Little children were starved for want of bread and water, Lam 4:3, Lam 4:4. The nursing-mothers, having no meat for themselves, had no milk for the babes at their breast, so that, though in disposition they were really compassionate, yet in fact they seemed to be cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness, that leave their eggs in the dust (Job 39:14, Job 39:15); having no food for their children, they were forced to neglect them and do what they could to forget them, because it was a pain to them to think of them when they had nothing for them; in this they were worse than the seals, or sea-monsters, or whales (as some render it), for they drew out the breast, and gave suck to their young, which the daughter of my people will not do. Children cannot shift for themselves as grown people can; and therefore it was the more painful to see the tongue of the sucking-child cleave to the roof of his mouth for thirst, because there was not a drop of water to moisten it; and to hear the young children, that could but just speak, ask bread of their parents, who had none to give them, no, nor any friend that could supply them. As doleful as our thoughts are of this case, so thankful should our thoughts be of the great plenty we enjoy, and the food convenient we have for ourselves and for our children, and for those of our own house.
IV. Persons of good rank were reduced to extreme poverty, Lam 4:5. Those who were well-born and well bred, and had been accustomed to the best, both for food and clothing, who had fed delicately, had every thing that was curious and nice (they call it eating well, whereas those only eat well who eat to the glory of God), and fared sumptuously every day; they had not only been advanced to the scarlet, but from their beginning were brought up in scarlet, and were never acquainted with any thing mean or ordinary. They were brought up upon scarlet (so the word is); their foot-cloths, and the carpets they walked on, were scarlet, yet these, being stripped of all by the war, are desolate in the streets, have not a house to put their head in, nor a bed to lie on, nor clothes to cover them, nor fire to warm them. They embrace dunghills; on them they were glad to lie to get a little rest, and perhaps raked in the dunghills for something to eat, as the prodigal son who would fain have filled his belly with the husks. Note, Those who live in the greatest pomp and plenty know not what straits they may be reduced to before they die; as sometimes the needy are raised out of the dunghill. Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread, Sa1 2:5. It is therefore the wisdom of those who have abundance not to use themselves too nicely, for then hardships, when they come, will be doubly hard, Deu 28:56.
V. Persons who were eminent for dignity, nay, perhaps for sanctity, shared with others in the common calamity, Lam 4:7, Lam 4:8. Her Nazarites are extremely charged. Some understand it only of her honourable ones, the young gentlemen, who were very clean, and neat, and well-dressed, washed and perfumed; but I see not why we may not understand it of those devout people among them who separated themselves to the Lord by the Nazarites' vow, Num. 6. 2. That there were such among them in the most degenerate times appears from Amo 2:11, I raised up of your young men for Nazarites. These Nazarites, though they were not to cut their hair, yet by reason of their temperate diet, their frequent washings, and especially the pleasure they had in devoting themselves to God and conversing with him, which made their faces to shine as Moses's, were purer than snow and whiter than milk; drinking no wine nor strong drink, they had a more healthful complexion and cheerful countenance than those who regaled themselves daily with the blood of the grape, as Daniel and his fellows with pulse and water. Or it may denote the great respect and veneration which all good people had for them; though perhaps to the eye they had no form nor comeliness, yet, being separated to the Lord, they were valued as if they had been more ruddy than rubies and their polishing had been of sapphire. But now their visage is marred (as is said of Christ, Isa 52:14); it is blacker than a coal; they look miserably, partly through hunger and partly through grief and perplexity. They are not known in the streets; those who respected them now take no notice of them, and those who had been intimately acquainted with them now scarcely knew them, their countenance was so altered by the miseries that attended the long siege. Their skin cleaves to their bones, their flesh being quite consumed and wasted away; it is withered; it has become like a stick, as dry and hard as a piece of wood. Note, It is a thing to be much lamented that even those who are separated to God are yet, when desolating judgments are abroad, often involved with others in the common calamity.
VI. Jerusalem came down slowly, and died a lingering death; for the famine contributed more to her destruction than any other judgment whatsoever. Upon this account the destruction of Jerusalem was greater than that of Sodom (Lam 4:6), for that was overthrown in a moment; one shower of fire and brimstone dispatched it; no hand staid on her; she did not endure any long siege, as Jerusalem has done; she fell immediately into the hands of the Lord, who strikes home at a blow, and did not fall into the hands of man, who, being weak, is long in doing execution, Jdg 8:21. Jerusalem is kept many months upon the rack, in pain and misery, and dies by inches, dies so as to feel herself die. And, when the iniquity of Jerusalem is more aggravated than that of Sodom, no wonder that the punishment of it is so. Sodom never had the means of grace the Jerusalem had, the oracles of God and his prophets, and therefore the condemnation of Jerusalem will be more intolerable than that of Sodom, Mat 11:23, Mat 11:24. The extremity of the famine is here set forth by two frightful instances of it: - 1. The tedious deaths that it was the cause of (Lam 4:9); many were slain with hunger, were famished to death, their stores being spent, and the public stores so nearly spent that they could not have any relief out of them. They were stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field; those who were starved were as sure to die as if they had been stabbed and stricken through; only their case was much more miserable. Those who are slain with the sword are soon put out of their pain; in a moment they go down to the grave, Job 21:13. They have not the terror of seeing death make its advances towards them, and scarcely feel it when the blow is given; it is but one sharp struggle, and the work is done. And, if we be ready for another world, we need not be afraid of a short passage to it; the quicker the better. But those who die by famine pine away; hunger preys upon their spirits and wastes them gradually; nay, and it frets their spirits, and fills them with vexation, and is as great a torture to the mind as to the body. There are bands in their death, Psa 73:4. 2. The barbarous murders that it was the occasion of (Lam 4:10): The hands of the pitiful women have first slain and then sodden their own children. This was lamented before (Lam 2:20); and it was a thing to be greatly lamented that any should be so wicked as to do it and that they should be brought to such extremities as to be tempted to it. But this horrid effect of long sieges had been threatened in general (Lev 26:29, Deu 28:53), and particularly against Jerusalem in the siege of the Chaldeans, Jer 19:9; Eze 5:10. The case was sad enough that they had not wherewithal to feed their children and make meat for them (Lam 4:4), but much worse that they could find in their hearts to feed upon their children and make meat of them. I know not whether to make it an instance of the power of necessity or of the power of iniquity; but, as the Gentile idolaters were justly given up to vile affections (Rom 1:26), so these Jewish idolaters, and the women particularly, who had made cakes to the queen of heaven and taught their children to do so too, were stripped of natural affection and that to their own children. Being thus left to dishonour their own nature was a righteous judgment upon them for the dishonour they had done to God.
VII. Jerusalem comes down utterly and wonderfully. 1. The destruction of Jerusalem is a complete destruction (Lam 4:11): The Lord has accomplished his fury; he has made thorough work of it, has executed all that he purposed in wrath against Jerusalem, and has remitted no part of the sentence. He has poured out the full vials of his fierce anger, poured them out to the bottom, even the dregs of them. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has not only consumed the houses, and levelled them with the ground, but, beyond what other fires do, has devoured the foundations thereof, as if they were to be no more built upon. 2. It is an amazing destruction, Lam 4:12. It was a surprise to the kings of the earth, who are acquainted with, and inquisitive about, the state of their neighbours; nay, it was so to all the inhabitants of the world who knew Jerusalem, or had ever heard or read of it; they could not have believed that the adversary and enemy would ever enter into the gates of Jerusalem; for, (1.) They knew that Jerusalem was strongly fortified, not only by walls and bulwarks, but by the numbers and strength of its inhabitants; the strong hold of Zion was thought to be impregnable. (2.) They knew that it was the city of the great King, where the Lord of the whole earth had in a more peculiar manner his residence; it was the holy city, and therefore they thought that it was so much under the divine protection that it would be in vain for any of its enemies to make an attack upon it. (3.) They knew that many an attempt made upon it had been baffled, witness that of Sennacherib. They were therefore amazed when they heard of the Chaldeans making themselves masters of it, and concluded that it was certainly by an immediate hand of God that Jerusalem was given up to them; it was by a commission from him that the enemy broke through and entered the gates of Jerusalem.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–12. Public domain.
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Thomas AquinasAD 1274
Here in Verse 9 is considered a comparison. As said: "Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken by want of the fruits of the field." That is, they were cast down, as soon as they were afflicted. As the Book of Sirach says: "Death is better than a miserable life, and eternal rest than chronic sickness" (Sir 30:17).
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Lamentations 4:9 vividly portrays the horrific suffering endured by Jerusalem's inhabitants during the Babylonian siege, asserting that a swift death by the sword was mercifully preferable to the prolonged, agonizing demise caused by starvation. This verse encapsulates the profound despair and the extreme severity of God's judgment, highlighting how the slow, wasting away of the body due to famine inflicted a more torturous and degrading end than immediate violence.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Lamentations 4:9 employs several potent literary devices to convey its harrowing message. Juxtaposition is central, starkly contrasting death by the sword with death by hunger, forcing the reader to confront the horrifying reality that one form of death could be preferable to another. Hyperbole is also present, as the statement that death by sword is "better" is an extreme exaggeration designed to emphasize the unimaginable agony of starvation. It's not literally "good" to die by the sword, but the comparison underscores the ultimate nadir of human suffering. Furthermore, Metaphor is used in "stricken through for want of the fruits of the field," where the absence of food is personified as a weapon that "pierces" or "wounds" the starving, illustrating the internal, consuming nature of famine's assault on the body. The verse also contains a profound sense of Irony, as the very act of living becomes a prolonged torture, making death a form of release, a tragic inversion of the natural human instinct for survival.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Lamentations 4:9 serves as a stark theological commentary on the devastating consequences of covenant disobedience and the nature of divine judgment. It reveals the terrifying extent to which God's warnings against sin, articulated in the Mosaic Law, could be fulfilled. The suffering described is not arbitrary but is understood as a direct result of Israel's persistent rebellion, highlighting God's justice and holiness. Yet, even in this profound despair, the book of Lamentations, and by extension this verse, implicitly points to the enduring hope in God's steadfast love and compassion, which are never fully consumed (Lamentations 3:22-23). The verse forces us to confront the reality of a fallen world where sin brings about immense suffering, while also implicitly calling for a turning back to the source of life and provision.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Lamentations 4:9 is a profoundly unsettling verse, yet it offers vital avenues for reflection and application in our contemporary world. It compels us to confront the raw reality of human suffering, particularly that caused by famine and conflict, which continue to plague many parts of the globe. This verse should cultivate in us a deep sense of empathy and compassion for those who experience such extreme deprivation, moving us beyond mere sympathy to active engagement in alleviating suffering through prayer, advocacy, and practical aid. Furthermore, it serves as a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and the preciousness of basic provisions often taken for granted. The verse, within its broader biblical context, also underscores the severe consequences of spiritual rebellion and the importance of living in faithful obedience to God. It challenges us to examine our own lives for areas of spiritual complacency or disobedience, recognizing that while physical famine may not be our immediate threat, spiritual hunger and a turning away from God can lead to a different, yet equally devastating, form of "pining away." Ultimately, it calls us to gratitude for God's provision and to a renewed commitment to seeking His will and extending His mercy to a broken world.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is death by sword considered "better" than death by hunger in this verse?
Answer: The verse highlights the extreme agony and degradation associated with dying from starvation. Death by the sword, while violent and tragic, is swift and decisive, offering an immediate end to suffering. In contrast, death by hunger is a prolonged, agonizing process where the body slowly wastes away, leading to immense physical pain, mental anguish, and a complete loss of dignity. The comparison underscores the horrific nature of famine during the Babylonian siege, making a quick death appear merciful by comparison. This sentiment reflects the profound despair of the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had reached the absolute limit of human endurance.
Does this verse imply God is cruel or uncaring?
Answer: No, this verse does not imply God is cruel or uncaring. Instead, it vividly portrays the devastating consequences of Israel's persistent disobedience to God's covenant. Throughout the Old Testament, God warned His people that if they turned away from Him, they would face severe judgments, including famine and siege (e.g., Leviticus 26:26 and Deuteronomy 28:48). Lamentations is a lament over the fulfillment of these warnings, acknowledging God's righteous judgment while also expressing profound sorrow and a yearning for His mercy (Lamentations 3:32-33). The suffering is a testament to the gravity of sin and God's holiness, not His indifference.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Lamentations 4:9, with its raw depiction of human suffering and the preference for a swift, violent death over the slow agony of starvation, finds its ultimate and profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The "slain with the sword" can be seen as a foreshadowing of the violent death that Christ, the innocent Lamb of God, willingly endured on the cross, a death that was swift and decisive, yet bore the full weight of humanity's sin (Isaiah 53:5). He was "pierced for our transgressions," taking upon Himself the judgment that should have been ours. More deeply, the "pining away" from hunger, representing the slow, spiritual death caused by separation from God, is overcome by Christ. He declared Himself the Bread of Life, offering Himself as the spiritual sustenance that prevents humanity from "pining away" in spiritual famine. Through His sacrifice, He not only conquered the physical death that the sword brings but also the spiritual death and alienation that lead to the soul's slow decay. His resurrection ensures that those who trust in Him will never truly "pine away," but will have eternal life and abundant provision, ultimately leading to a new heavens and new earth where there will be no more hunger, sorrow, or death (Revelation 21:4).