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Lamentations 4:9

7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

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Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB
Those slain by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, who waste away, pierced with pain because the fields lack produce.
KJV
They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
WEB
Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through, for lack of the fruits of the field.
ASV
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
DARBY
The slain with the sword are happier than the slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
BLB
Better are those slain by the sword than those dying of hunger, who waste away from the piercing of produce the field.
ÅB
Lykkeligere var de som ble drept ved sverd, enn de som ble drept ved hunger, de som tærtes bort og gikk til grunne av mangel på brød.
OTB
Bedre er de som ble drept med sverd enn de som dør av sult; de visner bort, slått av mangel på markens grøde.
B1930
Lykkeligere var de som blev drept ved sverd, enn de som blev drept ved hunger, de som tærtes bort og gikk til grunne av mangel på brød.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Jeremiah 16:4

    They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

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  • Ezekiel 24:23

    And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

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  • Leviticus 26:39

    And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

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  • Ezekiel 33:10

    Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

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