Lamentations 5:4

4 We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.

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 foreigners.

3 We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.

4 We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.

5 Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest.

6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive.