Lamentations 4:5

5 People who once ate the finest foods die starving in the streets; those raised in luxury are pawing through garbage for food.

Lamentations 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 4:5

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets
That were brought up in the king's palace, or in the houses of noblemen; or, however, born of parents rich and wealthy, and had been used to good living, and had fared sumptuously and deliciously every day, were now wandering about in the streets in the most forlorn and distressed condition, seeking for food of any sort, but could find none to satisfy their hunger; and so, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, perished in the ways or streets: they that were brought up in scarlet:
in dyed garments, as Jarchi; clothed with scarlet coloured ones, as was the manner of the richer and better sort of people, ( Proverbs 31:21 ) ; or, "brought up upon scarlet" F15; upon scarlet carpets, on which they used to sit and eat their food, as is the custom of the eastern people to this day: these embrace dunghills,
are glad of them, and with the greatest eagerness rake into them, in order to find something to feed upon, though ever so base and vile; or to sit and lie down upon. Aben Ezra interprets it of their being cast here when dead, and there was none to bury them.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 (elwt yle) "super coccinum", Pagninus, Montanus; "super coccino", Piscator, Michaelis.

Lamentations 4:5 In-Context

3 Even a mother wolf will nurse her cubs, but my people are like ostriches, cruel to their young.
4 They let their babies die of hunger and thirst; children are begging for food that no one will give them.
5 People who once ate the finest foods die starving in the streets; those raised in luxury are pawing through garbage for food.
6 My people have been punished even more than the inhabitants of Sodom, which met a sudden downfall at the hands of God.
7 Our princes were undefiled and pure as snow, vigorous and strong, glowing with health.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.