Lamentations 5:6

5:6 We have submitted ¹  to Egypt and Assyria

in order to buy food to eat. ² 

[5:6]  ¹ tn Heb “we have given the hand”; cf. NRSV “We have made a pact.” This is a Semitic idiom meaning “to make a treaty with” someone, placing oneself in a subservient position as vassal. The prophets criticized these treaties.

[5:6]  ² tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” is a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for the general (= food).