Lamentations 4:5

5 Ceux qui mangeaient des viandes délicates périssent dans les rues, et ceux qui étaient nourris sur l'écarlate embrassent le fumier.

Lamentations 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 4:5

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets
That were brought up in the king's palace, or in the houses of noblemen; or, however, born of parents rich and wealthy, and had been used to good living, and had fared sumptuously and deliciously every day, were now wandering about in the streets in the most forlorn and distressed condition, seeking for food of any sort, but could find none to satisfy their hunger; and so, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it, perished in the ways or streets: they that were brought up in scarlet:
in dyed garments, as Jarchi; clothed with scarlet coloured ones, as was the manner of the richer and better sort of people, ( Proverbs 31:21 ) ; or, "brought up upon scarlet" F15; upon scarlet carpets, on which they used to sit and eat their food, as is the custom of the eastern people to this day: these embrace dunghills,
are glad of them, and with the greatest eagerness rake into them, in order to find something to feed upon, though ever so base and vile; or to sit and lie down upon. Aben Ezra interprets it of their being cast here when dead, and there was none to bury them.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 (elwt yle) "super coccinum", Pagninus, Montanus; "super coccino", Piscator, Michaelis.

Lamentations 4:5 In-Context

3 Les chacals mêmes tendent la mamelle, et allaitent leurs petits: mais la fille de mon peuple est devenue cruelle comme les autruches du désert.
4 La langue du nourrisson s'attache à son palais par la soif; les petits enfants demandent du pain, et personne ne leur en distribue.
5 Ceux qui mangeaient des viandes délicates périssent dans les rues, et ceux qui étaient nourris sur l'écarlate embrassent le fumier.
6 Et la peine de l'iniquité de la fille de mon peuple est plus grande que celle du péché de Sodome qui fut renversée, comme en un moment, sans qu'aucune main d'homme fût venue sur elle.
7 Ses princes étaient plus éclatants que la neige, plus blancs que le lait; leur teint était plus vermeil que le corail, leur beauté était celle du saphir.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.