Lamentations 5:8-10

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. 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).
2. Lamentations 5:8 tn Heb “hand.”
3. Lamentations 5:9 tn Heb “at the cost of our lives.” The preposition ב (bet) here denotes purchase price paid (e.g., Gen 30:16; Exod 34:20; 2 Sam 3:14; 24:24) (BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3.a). The expression בְּנַפְשֵׁנוּ (b^enafshenu) means “at the risk of our lives.” Similar expressions include בְנַפְשׁוֹ (b^enafsho, “at the cost of his life,” 1 Kgs 2:23; Prov 7:23) and בְּנַפְשׁוֹתָם (b^enafshotam, “at peril of their lives,” 2 Sam 23:17).
4. Lamentations 5:9 tn Heb “our soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) is used as a metonymy of association (soul = life) (e.g., Gen 44:30; Exod 21:23; 2 Sam 14:7; Jon 1:14).
5. Lamentations 5:9 tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” is a synecdoche of the specific (= bread) for the general (= food).
6. Lamentations 5:9 tn Heb “because of the sword.” The term “sword” is a metonymy of instrument (= sword) for the persons who use the instrument (= murderers or marauders).
7. Lamentations 5:10 tn Heb “because of the burning heat of famine.”