Lectionary Calendar
Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

New American Standard Bible

Lamentations 4:10

The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Due to the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Cannibalism;   Famine;   Prophecy;   Women;   Thompson Chain Reference - Cannibalism;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Woman;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Zedekiah;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Sea Monster;   Zedekiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Afterbirth;   Famine and Drought;   Lamentations, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Acrostic;   Famine;   Mercy, Merciful;   Seethe;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Messiah;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Pitiful;   Seethe;   Siege;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Famine;   Poetry;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The hands of compassionate womenhave cooked their own children;they became their foodduring the destruction of my dear people.
Hebrew Names Version
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
King James Version
The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
English Standard Version
The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
New Century Version
With their own hands kind women cook their own children. They became food when my people were destroyed.
Amplified Bible
The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].
World English Bible
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Geneva Bible (1587)
The hands of the pitifull women haue sodden their owne children, which were their meate in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Legacy Standard Bible
The hands of compassionate womenBoiled their own children;They became food for themBecause of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Berean Standard Bible
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Contemporary English Version
Life in the city is so bad that loving mothers have boiled and eaten their own children.
Complete Jewish Bible
With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children; their children became their food when the daughter of my people was destroyed.
Darby Translation
The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their meat in the ruin of the daughter of my people.
Easy-to-Read Version
Then even nice women cooked their own children. The children were food for their mothers. This happened when my people were destroyed.
George Lamsa Translation
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Good News Translation
The disaster that came to my people brought horror; loving mothers boiled their own children for food.
Lexham English Bible
The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Literal Translation
The hands of the compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became food to them in the ruin of the daughter of my people.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The wome (which of nature are pitefull) haue sodden their owne children with their hondes: that they might be their meate, in ye miserable destruccion of the doughter of my people.
American Standard Version
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Bible in Basic English
The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling their children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The hands of women full of compassion have sodden their own children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
King James Version (1611)
The hands of the pitifull women haue sodden their owne children, they were their meate in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The women (whiche of nature are pitifull) haue sodden their owne chyldren with their hands, that they might be their meate in the miserable destruction of the daughter of my people.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
JOD. The hands of tender-hearted women have sodden their own children: they became meat for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
English Revised Version
The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Joth. The hondis of merciful wymmen sethiden her children; thei weren maad the metis of tho wymmen in the sorewe of the douyter of my puple.
Update Bible Version
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Webster's Bible Translation
The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
New English Translation

י (Yod)

The hands of tenderhearted women cooked their own children, who became their food, when my people were destroyed.
New King James Version
The hands of the compassionate women Have cooked their own children; They became food for them In the destruction of the daughter of my people.
New Living Translation
Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children. They have eaten them to survive the siege.
New Life Bible
Women who had shown loving-kindness have boiled their own children for food, because my people are destroyed.
New Revised Standard
The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The hands of compassionate women, have cooked their own children, - they have served as nourishment to them, in the grievous injury of the daughter of my people.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Jod. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Revised Standard Version
The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Young's Literal Translation
The 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.
THE MESSAGE
Nice and kindly women boiled their own children for supper. This was the only food in town when my dear people were broken.

Contextual Overview

1 How dark the gold has become, How the pure gold has changed! The sacred stones are spilled out At the corner of every street. 2 The precious sons of Zion, Weighed against pure gold, How they are regarded as earthenware jars, The work of a potter's hands! 3 Even jackals offer the breast, They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has proved herself cruel, Like ostriches in the wilderness. 4 The tongue of the infant clings To the roof of its mouth because of thirst; The children ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them. 5 Those who used to eat delicacies Are made to tremble in the streets; Those who were raised in crimson clothing Embrace garbage heaps. 6 For the wrongdoing of the daughter of my people Is greater than the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown as in a moment, And no hands were turned toward her. 7 Her consecrated ones were purer than snow, They shined more than milk; They were more ruddy in body than pearls of coral, Their form was like lapis lazuli. 8 Their appearance is darker than soot, They are not recognized in the streets; Their skin is shriveled on their bones, It is dry, it has become like wood. 9 Better off are those killed by the sword Than those killed by hunger; For they waste away, stricken By the lack of the produce of the field. 10 The hands of compassionate women Boiled their own children; They became food for them Due to the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

hands: Lamentations 4:3, Lamentations 2:20, 2 Kings 6:26-29

pitiful: Isaiah 49:15

in: Lamentations 3:48, Deuteronomy 28:56, Deuteronomy 28:57, 2 Kings 6:29

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:29 - General Deuteronomy 28:53 - the fruit 2 Kings 6:28 - Give thy son Psalms 59:15 - for meat Isaiah 8:21 - hardly bestead Isaiah 9:20 - And he Isaiah 22:2 - thy slain Isaiah 36:12 - that they may Jeremiah 4:11 - daughter Jeremiah 6:26 - daughter Jeremiah 15:9 - She that hath Jeremiah 19:9 - eat the Jeremiah 37:21 - until Lamentations 1:20 - abroad Lamentations 2:11 - for Ezekiel 4:16 - eat Ezekiel 5:10 - the fathers Ezekiel 14:13 - break Ezekiel 16:5 - eye Matthew 24:19 - General Mark 13:17 - General Luke 21:23 - woe

Cross-References

Genesis 3:13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Genesis 4:9
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Genesis 4:10
Then He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to Me from the ground.
Genesis 9:5
"I certainly will require your lifeblood; from every animal I will require it. And from every person, from every man as his brother I will require the life of a person.
Genesis 18:20
And the LORD said, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.
Exodus 3:7
And the LORD said, "I have certainly seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.
Numbers 35:33
'So you shall not defile the land in which you live; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Joshua 7:19
Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me."
2 Kings 9:26
'I have certainly seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' declares the LORD, 'and I will repay you on this property,' declares the LORD. Now then, pick him up and throw him on the property, in accordance with the word of the LORD."
Job 16:18
"Earth, do not cover my blood, And may there be no resting place for my cry.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 have no particular instance of it on record, as done at the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, yet no doubt there was, as may be concluded from the words: and at the siege of it by the Romans, when many things here spoken of had a fuller accomplishment, we have a remarkable instance of it, which Josephus a relates; an illustrious woman, named Mary, pressed with the famine, slew her own son, a sucking child, boiled him, and ate part of him, and laid up the rest; which was found by the seditious party that broke into her house, which struck them with the utmost horror; Deuteronomy 28:56- :.

a De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Pitiful - i. e. tender-hearted, compassionate. meat is used for food Psalms 69:21. What is here stated actually occurred during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 10. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own childrenLamentations 2:20. 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.


 
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