Lamentations 5:4

4 We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.

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 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.

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

4 We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.

5 With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.

6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.