Lamentations 5:6-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 5:6 tn Heb “we have given the hand”; cf. NRSV “We have made a pact.” This is a Semitic idiom meaning “to make a treaty with” someone, placing oneself in a subservient position as vassal. The prophets criticized these treaties.
2. Lamentations 5:6 tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” is a synecdoche of the specific (= bread) for the general (= food).
3. Lamentations 5:7 tn Heb “fathers,” but here the term also refers to “forefathers,” i.e., more distant ancestors.
4. Lamentations 5:7 tn Heb “and are no more.”
5. Lamentations 5:7 tc The Kethib is written אֲנַחְנוּ (ʾanakhnu, “we”), but the Qere reads וַאֲנַחְנוּ (vaʾanakhnu, “but we”). The Qere is supported by many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as most of the ancient versions (Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate). The ו (vav) prefixed to וַאֲנַחְנוּ (vaʾanakhnu) functions either in a disjunctive sense (“but”) or resultant sense (“so”).
6. Lamentations 5:7 tn Heb “so we bear.”
7. Lamentations 5:7 tn Heb “their iniquities.” The noun עָוֹן (ʿavon) has a broad range of meanings, including: (1) iniquity, (2) guilt of iniquity, and (3) consequence or punishment for iniquity (cause-effect metonymical relation). The context suggests that “punishment for sin” is most appropriate here (e.g., Gen 4:13; 19:15; Exod 28:38, 43; Lev 5:1, 17; 7:18; 10:17; 16:22; 17:16; 19:8; 20:17, 19; 22:16; 26:39, 41, 43; Num 5:31; 14:34; 18:1, 23; 30:15; 1 Sam 25:24; 28:10; 2 Sam 14:9; 2 Kgs 7:9; Job 10:14; Pss 31:11; 69:28; 106:43; Prov 5:22; Isa 5:18; 30:13; 40:2; 53:6, 11; 64:5, 6; Jer 51:6; Lam 4:22; 5:7; Ezek 4:4-6, 17; 7:16; 14:10; 18:19-20; 21:25, 34 HT [21:25, 29 ET]; 24:23; 32:27; 35:5; 39:23; 44:10, 12).
8. Lamentations 5:8 tn Heb “slaves.” While indicating that social structures are awry, the expression “slaves rule over us” might be an idiom for “tyrants rule over us.” This might find its counterpart in the gnomic truth that the most ruthless rulers are made of former slaves: “Under three things the earth quakes, under four it cannot bear up: under a slave when he becomes king” (Prov 30:21-22a).
9. Lamentations 5:8 tn Heb “hand.”