Lamentations 4:5

5 Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps.

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 the jackals give the breast and suckle their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the nursling cleaves to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the children beg for food, but no one gives to them.
5 Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps.
6 For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, no hand being laid on it.
7 Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.