Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick.
Parallel Translations
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Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick.
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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.
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Their visage is blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin is shrivelled upon their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Lamentations 4:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Lamentations 5:10 Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.
- Job 30:30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
- Psalms 102:3-5 For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
- Job 19:20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Psalms 119:83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don’t forget your statutes.
- Ruth 1:19-20 So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. When they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was excited about them, and they asked, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- Job 2:12 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
- Job 30:17-19 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic. He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
- Job 33:21 His flesh is so consumed away that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.
- Psalms 38:3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
- Psalms 102:11 My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
- Isaiah 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you— his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—
- Lamentations 4:1-2 How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
- Joel 2:6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.
- Nahum 2:10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Now, on the contrary, he says that the Nazarites…
Now, on the contrary, he says that the Nazarites were become withered, that their skin clave to their bones, that, in short, they were so deformed that they could not be known, not only in obscure corners, but even in the open street, hi the middle of the market-place. We hence learn that as the favor of God had before appeared as to the Nazarites, so now also his vengeance might be certainly known, because they had fallen off from their vigor, and were reduced to a degrading deformity.
The Prophet at the same time shews that worship according to the law had in a manner deteriorated on account of the vices of the people; and this is the design of the whole, as I reminded you at the beginning. For there is no doubt but that he wished to rouse the Jews, that they might at length raise up their eyes to God; for they had long grown torpid in their vices, and had been even inflated with diabolical pride; hence was their inveterate obstinacy. As long as the Temple stood, they thought that they satisfied God by the sacrifices they offered. When the Prophet now tells them that the stones of the Temple were thrown down, it hence follows that the Temple was profaned’ whence this profanation? from the wickedness of the people. The Chaldeans, indeed, thought that they brought a great reproach on God when they demolished the Temple; but, as long pollution had preceded, our Prophet now represents to the Jews their sins as in a mirror or a living form; for they had polluted the Temple before the Chaldeans. So also he shews that the worship according to the law was no longer pleasing to God, for they had mocked him with empty specters; for it was only a vain display when there was no integrity within. The Prophet then shews to them what, he could before by no means have persuaded them to believe, that God was in no way pleased with the external worship of the Jews, while they were audaciously violating the whole law. It afterwards follows, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They that were before most in God’s favor, are…
They that were before most in God’s favor, are now in greatest abomination unto him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lam 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal;…
Lam 4:8 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.
Ver. 8. Their visage is blacker than a coal.] Heb., Their visage is more darkened than blackness - scil., With famine, fear, grief, and care; those vultures have so fed upon them that all sightliness and loveliness is lost. Think the same of apostates, God may complain of such. {as Mic 2:8}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They that in the prosperity of the city were…
They that in the prosperity of the city were fair, plump, and ruddy, look now black for want of fit nourishment, and through sorrow and grief; insomuch that those who before knew them by their countenances, garbs, and habits, did not now know them. And by reason of the famine (for he speaketh with relation to the famine during the siege) they are almost starved, their skin is withered and hard, and even sticketh to their bones.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Their visage is blacker than a coal,.... Or, "darker…
Their visage is blacker than a coal,.... Or, "darker than blackness"; or, "dark through blackness" (y); by reason of the famine, and because of grief and trouble for themselves and their friends, which changed their complexions, countenances, and skins; they that looked before as pure as snow, as white as milk, as clear as pearls, as polished as sapphire, now as black as charcoal, as blackness itself:
they are not known in the streets; not taken notice of in a distinguished manner; no respect shown them as they walk the streets, as used to be; nay, their countenances were so altered, and their apparel so sordid, as not to be known by their friends, when they met them in public:
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their skin cleaveth to their bones; have nothing but skin and bone, who used to be plump and fat:
it is withered, it is become like a stick; the skin wrinkled and shrivelled up, the flesh being gone; and the bone became like a stick, or a dry piece of wood, its moisture and marrow being dried up.
(y) "obscurior ipsa nigredine", Tigurine version; "magis quam nigredo vel carbo", Vatablus; "prae caligines", Calvin; "ex nigredine", Piscator.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Not known - So that those who before knew…
Not known - So that those who before knew them, do not know them now.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Their visage ... - Their form (their whole person,…
Their visage ... - Their form (their whole person, see 1Sa 28:14)... as in the margin. See Job 30:30.
It is withered, it is become like a stick - Or, It has become dry like a piece of wood.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Coals. Hebrew, "blackness." Septuagint, "soot." (Haydock) --- The people…
Coals. Hebrew, "blackness." Septuagint, "soot." (Haydock) --- The people were naturally brown. Fasting and distress cause them to turn black, chap. v. 10., and Joel ii. 6. (Calmet) --- They were so changed, that old acquaintances knew not one another. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain blacker than . . . coal--or, "than blackness" itself…
blacker than . . . coal--or, "than blackness" itself (Joe 2:6; Nah 2:10).
like a stick--as withered as a dry stick.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. blacker than a coal] lit. as mg. darker…
8. blacker than a coal] lit. as mg. darker than blackness.
Their skin cleaveth to their bones] Cp. Job_19:20.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) Their visage is blacker . . .—We look,…
(8) Their visage is blacker . . .—We look, as it were, on the two pictures: the bloom and beauty of health, the wan, worn, spectral looks of starvation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Their visage is blacker than a coal; rather, their…
Their visage is blacker than a coal; rather, their appearance is darker than blackness one of the hyperboles which seem to indicate that the poem was not written at the very moment of the calamity described. (comp. Job_30:30) Not known in the streets. Another point of contact with the Book of Job. (Job_2:12) Their skin, etc. Again we must compare the lamentations of Job. (Job_19:20 Job_30:30) Psa_102:5 may also be quoted; for the second half of the verse is toe short unless we insert "to my skin" before "to my flesh."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:8 Skin sticking to bones is symptomatic of the…
4:8 Skin sticking to bones is symptomatic of the final stages of starvation, just before death.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.