Lamentations 1:11
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11 All her people groan
as they search for bread;
they trade their treasures for food
to revive their lives.
Look, O Lord, and see
how worthless I have become.(A)
Jeremiah 52:6
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6 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.(A)
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Jeremiah 38:9
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9 “My lord king, these men have acted wickedly in all they did to the prophet Jeremiah by throwing him into the cistern to die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.”(A)
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Lamentations 2:12
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12 They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosoms.(A)
Deuteronomy 28:52-57
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52 It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.(A) 53 In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.(B) 54 Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, 55 giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. 56 She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter,(C) 57 begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.
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Ezekiel 5:16-17
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16 when I loose against you[a] my deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will let loose to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.[b](A) 17 I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children; pestilence and bloodshed shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”(B)
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Ezekiel 4:15-17
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15 Then he said to me, “See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”
16 Then he said to me, “Mortal, I am going to cut off the supply of bread[a] in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.(A) 17 Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay and waste away under their punishment.(B)
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- 4.16 Heb staff of bread
Lamentations 4:4-10
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4 The tongue of the infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
but there is nothing for them.(A)
5 Those who feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
cling to ash heaps.
6 For the chastisement of my people has been greater
than the punishment of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
though no hand was laid on it.[a](B)
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
their form cut like sapphire.[b](C)
8 Now their visage is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.(D)
9 Happier were those pierced by the sword
than those pierced by hunger,
whose life drains away, deprived
of the produce of the field.(E)
10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
in the destruction of my people.(F)
Lamentations 2:20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
20 Look, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have you done this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have borne?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?(A)
Lamentations 1:19-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
19 I called to my lovers,
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city
while seeking food
to revive their lives.(A)
20 Look, O Lord, at how distressed I am;
my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me
because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.(B)
Lamentations 1:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
she took no thought of her future;
her downfall was appalling,
with none to comfort her.
Look, O Lord, at my affliction,
for the enemy has triumphed!(A)
Jeremiah 19:9
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9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.(A)
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Psalm 25:15-19
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15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.(A)
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.(B)
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me[a] out of my distress.(C)
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.(D)
19 Consider how many are my foes
and with what violent hatred they hate me.(E)
Footnotes
- 25.17 Or The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me
Job 40:4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.(A)
2 Kings 6:25
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25 As the siege continued, famine in Samaria became so great that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and one-fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.
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1 Samuel 30:11-12
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11 In the open country they found an Egyptian and brought him to David. They gave him bread, and he ate; they gave him water to drink; 12 they also gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.(A)
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