Lamentations 5:4

4 We have to pay to drink our own water. Even our firewood comes at 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.

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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 precious land has been given to outsiders, our homes to strangers.

3 Orphans we are, not a father in sight, and our mothers no better than widows.

4 We have to pay to drink our own water. Even our firewood comes at a price.

5 We're nothing but slaves, bullied and bowed, worn out and without any rest.

6 We sold ourselves to Assyria and Egypt just to get something to eat.