Lamentations 2:12

12 They ask their mothers, "Where is the grain and wine?" They faint like wounded soldiers in the streets of the city and die in their mothers' arms.

Lamentations 2:12 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:12

They say to their mothers, where [is] corn and wine?
&c.] Not the sucklings who could not speak, nor were used to corn and wine, but the children more grown; both are before spoken of, but these are meant, even the young men of Israel, as the Targum; and such as had been brought up in the best manner, had been used to wine, and not water, and therefore ask for that as well as corn; both take in all the necessaries of life; and which they ask of their mothers, who had been used to feed them, and were most tender of them; but now not seeing and having their usual provisions, and not knowing what was the reason of it, inquire after them, being pressed with hunger: when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city;
having no food given them, though they asked for it time after time, they fainted away, and died a lingering death; as wounded persons do who are not killed at once, which is the more distressing: when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom;
meaning not the desires of their souls for food, expressed in moving and melting language as they sat in their mothers' laps, and lay in their bosoms; which must be piercing unto them, if no more was designed; but their souls or lives themselves, which they gave up through famine, as the Targum; expiring in their mothers' arms.

Lamentations 2:12 In-Context

10 The older leaders of Jerusalem sit on the ground in silence. They throw dust on their heads and put on rough cloth to show their sadness. bow their heads to the ground in sorrow.

11 My eyes have no more tears, and I am sick to my stomach. I feel empty inside, because my people have been destroyed. Children and babies are fainting in the streets of the city.

12 They ask their mothers, "Where is the grain and wine?" They faint like wounded soldiers in the streets of the city and die in their mothers' arms.

13 What can I say about you, Jerusalem? What can I compare you to? What can I say you are like? How can I comfort you, Jerusalem? Your ruin is as deep as the sea. No one can heal you.

14 Your prophets saw visions, but they were false and worth nothing. They did not point out your sins to keep you from being captured. They preached what was false and led you wrongly.