Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Lamentations 5:4

We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Famine;   Money;   Patriotism;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Water;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Wells and Springs;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Money;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Drink;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Lamentations, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Money;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Water;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Fuel;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
We must pay for the water we drink;our wood comes at a price.
Hebrew Names Version
We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.
King James Version
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
English Standard Version
We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.
New American Standard Bible
We have to pay for our drinking water, Our wood comes to us at a price.
New Century Version
We have to buy the water we drink; we must pay for the firewood.
Amplified Bible
We have to pay for our drinking water; Our wood comes to us at a price.
World English Bible
We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wee haue drunke our water for money, and our wood is solde vnto vs.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
We have to pay for our drinking water, Our wood comes to us at a price.
Legacy Standard Bible
We drink our water by means of silver;Our wood comes to us at a price.
Berean Standard Bible
We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
Contemporary English Version
The water we drink and the wood we burn cost far too much.
Complete Jewish Bible
We have to pay to drink our own water; we have to buy our own wood.
Darby Translation
Our water have we to drink for money, our wood cometh unto us for a price.
Easy-to-Read Version
We have to buy the water that we drink. We have to pay for the wood that we use.
George Lamsa Translation
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold to us.
Good News Translation
We must pay for the water we drink; we must buy the wood we need for fuel.
Lexham English Bible
We pay for water with money, our wood comes to us at a price.
Literal Translation
We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes for a price.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
We are fayne to drynke oure owne water for moneye, and oure owne wod must we bye with moneye.
American Standard Version
We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold unto us.
Bible in Basic English
We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
We have drunk our water for money; our wood cometh to us for price.
King James Version (1611)
We haue drunken our water for money, our wood is sold vnto vs.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
We are fayne to drinke our owne water for money, and our owne wood must we buy for money.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
We have drunk our water for money; our wood is sold to us for a burden on our neck:
English Revised Version
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
We drunken oure watir for monei, we bouyten oure trees for siluer.
Update Bible Version
We have drank our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.
Webster's Bible Translation
We have drank our water for money; our wood is sold to us.
New King James Version
We pay for the water we drink, And our wood comes at a price.
New Living Translation
We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
New Life Bible
We have to pay for our drinking water, and we must buy our wood.
New Revised Standard
We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Our water - for silver, have we drunk, our wood - for a price, cometh in.
Douay-Rheims Bible
We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.
Revised Standard Version
We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.
Young's Literal Translation
Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come.

Contextual Overview

1 O Lord , reflect on what has happened to us; consider and look at our disgrace. 2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers; foreigners now occupy our homes. 3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows. 4 We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price. 5 We are pursued—they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest. 6 We have submitted to Egypt and Assyria in order to buy food to eat. 7 Our forefathers sinned and are dead, but we suffer their punishment. 8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their power. 9 At the risk of our lives we get our food because robbers lurk in the countryside. 10 Our skin is hot as an oven due to a fever from hunger.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

have: Deuteronomy 28:48, Isaiah 3:1, Ezekiel 4:9-17

is sold: Heb. cometh for price

Reciprocal: Judges 5:11 - the noise

Cross-References

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground."
Genesis 5:1
This is the record of the family line of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:3
When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:7
Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:10
Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:13
Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:19
Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:22
After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:26
Methuselah lived 782 years after he became the father of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:30
Lamech lived 595 years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" r; 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.

r במחיר יבאו "in pretio venerunt", Pagninus, Montanus; "caro nobis pretio veniunt", Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Better as in the margin cometh to us for price. The rendering of the the King James Version spoils the carefully studied rhythm of the original. The bitterness of the complaint lies in this, that it was their own property which they had to buy.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Lamentations 5:4. We have drunken our water for money — I suppose the meaning of this is, that every thing was taxed by the Chaldeans, and that they kept the management in their own hands, so that wood and water were both sold, the people not being permitted to help themselves. They were now so lowly reduced by servitude, that they were obliged to pay dearly for those things which formerly were common and of no price. A poor Hindoo in the country never buys fire-wood, but when he comes to the city he is obliged to purchase his fuel, and considers it as a matter of great hardship.


 
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