Lamentations 4:10

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
hands	יְדֵ֗י ye.Dei	H3027	a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders dual construct
pitiful	רַחֲמָ֣נִיּ֔וֹת ra.cha.Ma.ni.Yot	H7362	compassionate · adjective, feminine plural absolute
women	נָשִׁים֙ na.Shim	H802	a woman · noun, common masculine plural absolute
sodden	בִּשְּׁל֖וּ bi.she.Lu	H1310	properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural
children	יַלְדֵיהֶ֑ן yal.dei.Hen	H3206	something born · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
meat	לְבָרוֹת֙ le.va.rOt	H1262	to select · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
destruction	בְּשֶׁ֖בֶר be.She.ver	H7667	a fracture · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
daughter	בַּת bat-	H1323	a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular construct
people	עַמִּֽי 'a.Mi	H5971	a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

2 Kings 6:26-29 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
Isaiah 49:15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forge…
Lamentations 2:20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and…
Jeremiah 19:9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend…
Leviticus 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Lamentations 3:48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lamentations 4:3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches…
Ezekiel 5:10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, a…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Lamentations 4:1-12

The elegy in this chapter begins with a lamentation of the very sad and doleful change which the judgments of God had made in Jerusalem. The city that was formerly as gold, as the most fine gold, so rich and splendid, the perfection of beauty and the joy of the whole earth, has become dim, and is changed, has lost its lustre, lost its value, is not what it was; it has become dross. Alas! what an alteration is here! I. The temple was laid waste, which was the glory of Jerusalem and its protection. it is given up into the hands of the enemy. And some understand the gold spoken of (Lam 4:1) to be the gold of the temple, the fine gold with which it was overlaid (Kg1 6:22); when the temple was bu…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 4:10

(Lam 2:20; Deu 28:56-57). pitiful--naturally at other times compassionate (Isa 49:15). JOSEPHUS describes the unnatural act as it took place in the siege under Titus. sodden--boiled.

Adam Clarke on Lamentations 4:10

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children - See on Lam 2:20 (note). But here there is a reference to mothers eating their own children; and this was done, not by mothers cruel and brutal, but by נשים רחמניות nashim rachmaniyoth, the compassionate, the tender-hearted mothers. From these horrible scenes it is well to pass with as hasty a step as possible.

John Gill on Lamentations 4:10

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children,.... Such as were naturally, and agreeably to their sex, pitiful and compassionate; merciful to the poor, as the Targum; and especially tenderhearted to their own offspring; yet, by reason of the soreness of the famine, became so cruel and hardhearted, as to take their own children, and slay them with their own hands, cut them to pieces, put them into a pot of water, and make a fire and boil them, and then eat them, as follows: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people: at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. This strange and unnatural action was foretold by Moses, Deuteronomy 28:56; and though we…

The Church Fathers

What were Israel's sufferings in Palestine, famines, pestilences, wars, captivities, under the Babylonians, and under the Assyrians, and their miseries from the Macedonians, and those under Hadrian and Vespasian? I have something that I wish, beloved, to relate to thee; nay, do not run away! Or rather I will tell thee another thing before it. There was once a famine, it says, and the king was walking upon the wall; then a woman came to him and uttered these words: "O king, this woman said to me, Let us roast thy son to-day, and eat him—to-morrow mine. And we roasted and ate, and now she does not give me hers." What can be more dreadful than this calamity? Again, in another place the Prophet says, "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children." The Jews then suffered such punishment, and shall we not much rather suffer? Would you also hear other calamities of theirs? Read over Josephus, and you will learn that whole tragedy, if perchance we may persuade you from these things, that there is a hell. For consider, if they were punished, why are we not punished? or how is it reasonable that we are not now punished, who sin more grievously than they? Is it not manifest that it is, because the punishment is kept in store for us?
— John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON 1 THESSALONIANS 8

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Zedekiah — Righteousness of Jehovah. (1.) The last king of Judah. He was the third son of Josiah, and his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and hence he was the brother of Jehoahaz…
Cannibalism · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Famine · 5:17;14:1-6;48:33; — 5:17;14:1-6;48:33;
Woman · Characterised as: Tender and constant to her offspring — Characterised as: Tender and constant to her offspring

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Lamentations 4:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Lamentations 4:1-12

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 4:10

Adam Clarke on Lamentations 4:10

John Gill on Lamentations 4:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Lamentations 4:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Lamentations 4:1-12

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 4:10

Adam Clarke on Lamentations 4:10

John Gill on Lamentations 4:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Lamentations 4:10

Keil & Delitzsch on Lamentations 4:1-11

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Lamentations 4:9

Rashi on Lamentations 4:10