Lamentations 5:4

4 We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 (waby ryxmb) "in pretio venerunt", Pagninus, Montanus; "caro nobis pretio veniunt", Michaelis.

Lamentations 5:4 In-Context

2 Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

3 We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

4 We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

5 Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.