Lamentations 4:5

5 People used to the finest cuisine forage for food in the streets. People used to the latest in fashions pick through the trash for something to wear.

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 wild jackals nurture their babies, give them their breasts to suckle. But my people have turned cruel to their babies, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
4 Babies have nothing to drink. Their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths. Little children ask for bread but no one gives them so much as a crust.
5 People used to the finest cuisine forage for food in the streets. People used to the latest in fashions pick through the trash for something to wear.
6 The evil guilt of my dear people was worse than the sin of Sodom - The city was destroyed in a flash, and no one around to help.
7 The splendid and sacred nobles once glowed with health. Their bodies were robust and ruddy, their beards like carved stone.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.