Lamentations 4:4

4 The tongue of the nursling cleaves to its palate in thirst. Children beg [for] food, {no one lays it out before them}.

Lamentations 4:4 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 4:4

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his
mouth for thirst
Through want of the milk of the breast, which is both food and drink unto it: the young children ask bread;
of their parents as usual, not knowing how the case was, that there was a famine in the city; these are such as were more grown, were weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts, and lived on other food, and were capable of asking for it: [and] no man breaketh [it] unto them:
distributes unto them, or gives them a piece of bread; not father, friend, or any other person; it not being in their power to do it, they having none for themselves.

Lamentations 4:4 In-Context

2 The precious sons of Zion weighed against fine gold, how they are thought of as earthen vessels of clay, the work of the potter's hands.

3 Even the jackal bears the beast and nurses their cubs; [but] the daughter of my people has become ruthless, like ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the nursling cleaves to its palate in thirst. Children beg [for] food, {no one lays it out before them}.

5 The ones who eat delicacies, they are ruined in the streets; the ones nurtured in purple lie [on] piles of trash.

6 The iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom; it was overthrown in a moment and no hands were laid on her.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "nothing spreads to them"