Lamentations 5:4

4 We have to pay to drink our own water; we have to buy our own wood.

Lamentations 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:4

We have drunken our water for money
They who in their own land, which was a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, had wells of water of their own, and water freely and in abundance, now were obliged to pay for it, for drink, and other uses: our wood is sold unto us;
or, "comes to us by a price" ^F18; and a dear one; in their own land they could have wood out of the forest, for cutting down and bringing home; but now they were forced to give a large price for it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 (waby ryxmb) "in pretio venerunt", Pagninus, Montanus; "caro nobis pretio veniunt", Michaelis.

Lamentations 5:4 In-Context

2 The land we possessed has been passed on to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

3 We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers now are widows.

4 We have to pay to drink our own water; we have to buy our own wood.

5 The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted; we toil to exhaustion but are given no rest.

6 We made pacts with Egypt and Ashur to get enough food.