Lamentations 4:10
What does Lamentations 4:10 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 4:10 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 4:10 means
In the most shocking image, even compassionate women have boiled their own children for food during the city’s destruction. This is not a lurid tale but a lament of how siege conditions drove people beyond nature and conscience. Scripture had warned that covenant infidelity could lead to such extremes under judgment. Here that tragic warning is realized. The verse underscores that the disaster is not merely political defeat but a moral and spiritual catastrophe. When the nurture that defines motherhood is consumed by hunger, the community has reached the lowest point, and only God’s mercy can raise it. The enormity of sin is seen in the enormity of its consequences.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling their children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Jod. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their meat in the ruin of the daughter of my people.
Context
Verse 10 is the nadir of the chapter’s lament, the ultimate proof of how devastating the siege has been. It comes immediately before verse 11, where the prophet steps back from the horrors to declare that Jehovah has accomplished His wrath. Together they insist that these are not random wartime cruelties but the outworking of divine judgment. After this theological pivot, verses 12–16 will reflect on how unexpected Jerusalem’s fall was and lay blame at the feet of her corrupt spiritual leaders, showing that misguidance from prophets and priests helped lead the people into ruin.
v.9They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
v.10This passage
v.11Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger; And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 49:15
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee.
- Lamentations 4:3
Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
- 2 Kings 6:26
And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
- Lamentations 2:20
See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- 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, in the siege and in the distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall distress them.
- Lamentations 3:48
Mine eye runneth down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
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