Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025
the Fifth Week after Easter
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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

Lamentations 4:5

The people who once ate the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once wore the finest clothes now search the garbage dumps for food.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Colors;   Famine;   Thompson Chain Reference - Homeless;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Diet of the Jews, the;   Famine;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - War;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Providence of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Dung-Hill;   Scarlet;   Zedekiah;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Dung;   Zedekiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Famine and Drought;   Lamentations, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Acrostic;   Crimson;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Messiah;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Dunghill;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Fuel;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Color;   Delicate;   Dung;   Dunghill;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Color;   ḥiyya Ḳara;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Those who used to eat delicaciesare destitute in the streets;those who were reared in purple garmentshuddle in trash heaps.
Hebrew Names Version
Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
King James Version
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
English Standard Version
Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.
New American Standard Bible
Those who used to eat delicacies Are made to tremble in the streets; Those who were raised in crimson clothing Embrace garbage heaps.
New Century Version
Those who once ate fine foods are now starving in the streets. People who grew up wearing nice clothes now pick through trash piles.
Amplified Bible
Those who feasted on delicacies Are perishing in the streets; Those reared in purple [as nobles] Embrace ash heaps.
World English Bible
Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They that did feede delicately, perish in the streetes: they that were brought vp in skarlet, embrace the dongue.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Those who ate delicacies Are desolate in the streets; Those reared in purple Embrace ash pits.
Legacy Standard Bible
Those who ate delicaciesAre desolate in the streets;Those reared in crimsonEmbrace ash pits.
Berean Standard Bible
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in purple huddle in ash heaps.
Contemporary English Version
All who ate expensive foods lie starving in the streets; those who grew up in luxury now sit on trash heaps.
Complete Jewish Bible
People who once ate only the best lie dying in the streets; those who were raised wearing purple are clawing at piles of garbage.
Darby Translation
They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung-hills.
Easy-to-Read Version
Those who ate rich food are now dying in the streets. Those who grew up wearing nice red clothes now pick through garbage piles.
George Lamsa Translation
Those that fed on delicacies are destitute in the streets; those who were reared in scarlet sleep in dunghills.
Good News Translation
People who once ate the finest foods die starving in the streets; those raised in luxury are pawing through garbage for food.
Lexham English Bible
The ones who eat delicacies, they are ruined in the streets; the ones nurtured in purple lie on piles of trash.
Literal Translation
Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets; those reared on scarlet embrace dunghills.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They that were wonte to fayre delicatly, perishe in the stretes: they that afore were brought vp in purple, make now moch of donge.
American Standard Version
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Bible in Basic English
Those who were used to feasting on delicate food are wasted in the streets: those who as children were dressed in purple are stretched out on the dust.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
They that did feed on dainties are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
King James Version (1611)
They that did feede delicatly, are desolate in the streetes: they that were brought vp in scarlet, embrace dounghilles.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They that were wont to fare delicatelye perishe in the streetes: they that afore were brought vp in purple, make nowe muche of doung.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
HE. They that feed on dainties are desolate in the streets: they that used to be nursed in scarlet have clothed themselves with dung.
English Revised Version
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung-hills.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He. Thei that eeten lustfuli, perischiden in weies; thei that weren nurschid in cradels, biclippiden toordis.
Update Bible Version
Those that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Webster's Bible Translation
They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
New English Translation

ה (He)

Those who once feasted on delicacies are now starving to death in the streets. Those who grew up wearing expensive clothes are now dying amid garbage.
New King James Version
Those who ate delicacies Are desolate in the streets; Those who were brought up in scarlet Embrace ash heaps.
New Life Bible
Those who ate fine foods are dying in the streets. Those who were brought up dressed in purple now lie in ashes.
New Revised Standard
Those who feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple cling to ash heaps.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
They who used to eat delicacies, are deserted in the streets, - They who used to be carried on crimson, have embraced heaps of refuse.
Douay-Rheims Bible
He. They that were fed delicately have died in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet have embraced the dung.
Revised Standard Version
Those who feasted on dainties perish in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie on ash heaps.
Young's Literal Translation
Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.
THE MESSAGE
People used to the finest cuisine forage for food in the streets. People used to the latest in fashions pick through the trash for something to wear.

Contextual Overview

1 How the gold has lost its luster! Even the finest gold has become dull. The sacred gemstones lie scattered in the streets! 2 See how the precious children of Jerusalem, worth their weight in fine gold, are now treated like pots of clay made by a common potter. 3 Even the jackals feed their young, but not my people Israel. They ignore their children's cries, like ostriches in the desert. 4 The parched tongues of their little ones stick to the roofs of their mouths in thirst. The children cry for bread, but no one has any to give them. 5 The people who once ate the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once wore the finest clothes now search the garbage dumps for food. 6 The guilt of my people is greater than that of Sodom, where utter disaster struck in a moment and no hand offered help. 7 Our princes once glowed with health— brighter than snow, whiter than milk. Their faces were as ruddy as rubies, their appearance like fine jewels. 8 But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one recognizes them in the streets. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood. 9 Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger. Starving, they waste away for lack of food from the fields. 10 Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children. They have eaten them to survive the siege.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

that did: Deuteronomy 28:54-56, Isaiah 3:16-26, Isaiah 24:6-12, Isaiah 32:9-14, Jeremiah 6:2, Jeremiah 6:3, Amos 6:3-7, Luke 7:25, 1 Timothy 5:6, Revelation 18:7-9

brought: 2 Samuel 1:24, Proverbs 31:21, Luke 16:19

embrace: Job 24:8, Jeremiah 9:21, Jeremiah 9:22, Luke 15:16

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 18:27 - eat Psalms 44:25 - General Psalms 59:15 - for meat Isaiah 5:13 - honourable men are famished Isaiah 8:21 - hardly bestead Isaiah 47:1 - thou shalt Jeremiah 37:21 - until Lamentations 2:10 - elders Micah 1:16 - thy delicate Revelation 18:3 - her delicacies

Cross-References

Genesis 4:10
But the Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!
Genesis 4:11
Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother's blood.
Genesis 31:2
And Jacob began to notice a change in Laban's attitude toward him.
Genesis 31:5
He said to them, "I have noticed that your father's attitude toward me has changed. But the God of my father has been with me.
Numbers 16:15
Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord , "Do not accept their grain offerings! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, and I have never hurt a single one of them."
Job 5:2
Surely resentment destroys the fool, and jealousy kills the simple.
Psalms 20:3
May he remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. Interlude
Matthew 20:15
Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?'
Acts 13:45
But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.
Hebrews 11:4
It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" o; 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.

o עלי תולע "super coccinum", Pagninus, Montanus; "super coccino", Piscator, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They that were brought up in scarlet - literally, “those that were carried upon scarlet;” young children in arms and of the highest birth now lie on the dirt-heaps of the city.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Lamentations 4:5. Embrace dunghills. — Lie on straw or rubbish, instead of the costly carpets and sofas on which they formerly stretched themselves.


 
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