Lamentations 4:10

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women ¹ 

cooked their own children,

who became their food, ² 

when my people ³  were destroyed. ⁴ 

Isaiah 22:4

22:4 So I say:

“Don’t look at me! ⁵ 

I am weeping bitterly.

Don’t try ⁶  to console me

concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 8:19--9:1

8:19 I hear my dear people ⁸  crying out ⁹ 

throughout the length and breadth of the land. ¹⁰ 

They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion?

Is her divine King ¹¹  no longer there?’”

The Lord answers, ¹² 

“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,

with their worthless foreign idols?” ¹³ 

8:20 “They cry, ¹⁴  ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over, ¹⁵ 

and still we have not been delivered.’

8:21 My heart is crushed because my dear people ¹⁶  are being crushed. ¹⁷ 

I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay. ¹⁸ 

8:22 There is still medicinal ointment ¹⁹  available in Gilead!

There is still a physician there! ²⁰ 

Why then have my dear people ²¹ 

not been restored to health? ²² 

9:1 (8:23) ²³  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²⁴ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ²⁵  who have been killed.

Jeremiah 14:17

Lament over Present Destruction and Threat of More to Come

14:17 “Tell these people this, Jeremiah: ²⁶ 

‘My eyes overflow with tears

day and night without ceasing. ²⁷ 

For my people, my dear children, ²⁸  have suffered a crushing blow.

They have suffered a serious wound. ²⁹ 

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”

[4:10]  ² tn Heb “eating.” The infinitive construct (from I בָּרָה, barah) is translated as a noun. Three passages employ the verb (2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5,6,10) for eating when ill or in mourning.

[4:10]  ³ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

[22:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “look away from me” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[22:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “don’t hurry” (so NCV).

[22:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.” “Daughter” is here used metaphorically to express the speaker’s emotional attachment to his people, as well as their vulnerability and weakness.

[8:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people.”

[8:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Land of distances, i.e., of wide extent.” For parallel usage cf. Isa 33:17.

[8:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “her King” but this might be misunderstood by some to refer to the Davidic ruler even with the capitalization.

[8:19]  ¹² tn The words, “The Lord would answer” are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. Another option would be to add “And I can just hear the Lord reply.”

[8:19]  ¹³ sn The people’s cry and the Lord’s interruption reflect the same argument that was set forth in the preceding chapter. They have misguided confidence that the Lord is with them regardless of their actions and he responds that their actions have provoked him to the point of judging them. See especially 7:4 and 7:30.

[8:20]  ¹⁴ tn The words “They say” are not in the text; they are supplied in the translation to make clear that the lament of the people begun in v. 19b is continued here after the interruption of the Lord’s words in v. 19c.

[8:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Harvest time has passed, the summer is over.”

[8:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Because of the crushing of the daughter of my people I am crushed.”

[8:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I go about in black [i.e., mourning clothes]. Dismay has seized me.”

[8:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”

[8:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” In this context the questions are rhetorical and expect a positive answer, which is made explicit in the translation.

[8:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:22]  ²² tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”

[9:1]  ²³ sn Beginning with 9:1, the verse numbers through 9:26 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:1 ET = 8:23 HT, 9:2 ET = 9:1 HT, 9:3 ET = 9:2 HT, etc., through 9:26 ET = 9:25 HT. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

[9:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[14:17]  ²⁶ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text but the address is to a second person singular and is a continuation of 14:14 where the quote starts. The word is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ²⁷ tn Many of the English versions and commentaries render this an indirect or third person imperative, “Let my eyes overflow…” because of the particle אַל (’al) which introduces the phrase translated “without ceasing” (אַל־תִּדְמֶינָה, ’al-tidmenah). However, this is undoubtedly an example where the particle introduces an affirmation that something cannot be done (cf. GKC 322 §109.e). Clear examples of this are found in Pss 41:2 (41:3 HT); 50:3; Job 40:32 (41:8). God here is describing again a lamentable situation and giving his response to it. See 14:1-6 above.

[14:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “virgin daughter, my people.” The last noun here is appositional to the first two (genitive of apposition). Hence it is not ‘literally’ “virgin daughter of my people.”

[14:17]  ²⁹ tn This is a poetic personification. To translate with the plural “serious wounds” might mislead some into thinking of literal wounds.