Lamentations 5:4

4 We must pay for the water we drink; we must buy the wood we need for fuel.

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 property is in the hands of strangers; foreigners are living in our homes.

3 Our fathers have been killed by the enemy, and now our mothers are widows.

4 We must pay for the water we drink; we must buy the wood we need for fuel.

5 Driven hard like donkeys or camels, we are tired, but are allowed no rest.

6 To get food enough to stay alive, we went begging to Egypt and Assyria.