Lamentations 4:5
What does Lamentations 4:5 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 4:5 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 4:5 means
Those who once dined delicately and dressed in “scarlet” now lie desolate and sift through refuse heaps. The verse underscores the total social reversal. Privilege offered no shield against judgment; those groomed for comfort now face the same filth as the poorest. This humiliation exposes how fragile human status is when God removes His protection. The collapse is not only material but symbolic: luxuries that once marked blessing now mock their former owners. The scene urges sober reflection on the fleeting nature of wealth and honor. In the ruins, all stand equal: needy, humbled, and confronted by the reality that sin brings down even the most pampered.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
KJV
King James Version · 1611They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Those 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.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752He. They that were fed delicately have died in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet have embraced the dung.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung-hills.
Context
The movement from starving children (verse 4) to fallen nobility (verse 5) shows that the siege reversed every social expectation. By highlighting those “brought up in scarlet,” the lament reaches the extremes of society, proving no one escaped the disaster. This prepares for verse 6’s theological evaluation, which declares Judah’s guilt and misery greater than Sodom’s in degree and duration. The next verses (7–9) will revisit the nobles’ former splendor and present gauntness, deepening the contrast before the account reaches its awful climax in verse 10 and the explicit statement of God’s wrath in verse 11.
v.4The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
v.5This passage
v.6For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Job 24:8
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
- Luke 15:16
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
- Isaiah 24:6
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
- Deuteronomy 28:54
The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he hath remaining;
- Amos 6:3
—ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
- Proverbs 31:21
She is not afraid of the snow for her household; For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
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