Lamentations 4:19-21
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
19 Our pursuers were swifter
than eagles in the sky,
In the mountains they were hot on our trail,
they ambushed us in the wilderness.(A)
20 The Lord’s anointed—our very lifebreath!—[a]
was caught in their snares,
He in whose shade we thought
to live among the nations.(B)
21 Rejoice and gloat, daughter Edom,
dwelling in the land of Uz,[b]
The cup will pass to you as well;
you shall become drunk and strip yourself naked!(C)
Footnotes
- 4:20 Our very lifebreath: lit., “the breath of our nostrils,” that is, the king. This expression occurs in Egyptian texts of the late second millennium B.C., and may have survived as a royal epithet in the Jerusalem court. After the disaster of 598 B.C. (2 Kgs 24:1–17), Jerusalem could have hoped to live in peace amidst her neighbors; but they (vv. 21–22) as well as Babylon turned against her to ensure her total devastation in 587 B.C.
- 4:21 Rejoice: the address is sarcastic, since Edom (where Uz may have been located) ravaged the land after the fall of Jerusalem (cf. Ps 137).
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