The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood.
Parallel Translations
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The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood.
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They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
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The young men have borne the mill, and the children have stumbled under the wood.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Lamentations 5:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 16:21 The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of bronze; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
- Matthew 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.
- Exodus 1:11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
- Exodus 2:11 In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
- Exodus 11:5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of livestock.
- Exodus 23:5 If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.
- Nehemiah 5:1-5 Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.” There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
- Job 31:10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.
- Isaiah 47:2 Take the millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs, and wade through the rivers.
- Isaiah 58:6 “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain I cannot proceed farther now.
I cannot proceed farther now.
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 Their slavery was so great, that they were not…
Their slavery was so great, that they were not able to abide it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lam 5:13 They took the young men to grind,…
Lam 5:13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
Ver. 13. They took the young men to grind,] i.e., To do any base and abject business. {Exo 11:5; Exo 12:29} Frustra enim hic Hieronymus et alii Sodomiticum quid cogitant.
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And the children fell under the wood.] Being not able to stand under such unreasonable burdens as were laid upon their backs.
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 Their base, servile condition is expressed by the labour…
Their base, servile condition is expressed by the labour they were put to, which was either grinding in the mill, (an ordinary employment of slaves in those countries,) or carrying millstones; and the younger children in carrying great burdens of wood, under which they fell, as being not able to stand under the burdens laid upon them.
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 They took the young men to grind,.... In the…
They took the young men to grind,.... In the mill, which was laborious service; and which persons were sometimes put to, by way of punishment; and was the punishment of servants; see Jdg 16:21. Some render it, "the young men bore the grist" (x); carried the corn, the meal ground, from place to place. The Targum is,
"the young men carried the millstones;''
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and so Jarchi, they put millstones upon their shoulders, and burdens so as to weary them. Ben Melech, from their Rabbins, relates, that there were no millstones in Babylon; wherefore the Chaldeans put them upon the young men of Israel, to carry them thither. The Vulgate Latin version is,
"they abused the young men in an unchaste manner;''
suggesting something obscene intended by grinding; see Job 31:10; but the context will not admit of such a sense:
and the children fell under the wood; such loads of wood were laid upon them, that they could not bear them, but fell under them. Aben Ezra understands it of moving the wood of the mill, of turning the wooden handle of it; or the wooden post, the rider or runner, by which the upper millstone was turned: this their strength was not equal to, and so failed. The Targum interprets it of a wooden gibbet, or gallows; some wooden engine seems to be had in view, used as a punishment, which was put upon their necks, something like a pillory; which they were not able to stand up under, but fell.
(x) "juvenes farinam portaverunt"; so some in Gataker; "juvenes molam tulerunt", Cocceius; "juvenes ad molendum portant", Junius & Tremellius.
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 Fell - Not being able to stand under the…
Fell - Not being able to stand under the burdens laid upon them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. They took the young men to grind]…
Verse 13. They took the young men to grind] This was the work of female slaves. See Clarke on Isa 47:2.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They took the young men to grind - Or,…
They took the young men to grind - Or, “The young men” have borne the mill, a menial and laborious task usually performed by slaves (compare Isa 47:2).
The children fell under the wood - Or, lads have stumbled under burdens of wood. By lads are meant youths up to the age of military service; another form of menial labor.
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 Indecently, like the Sodomites. Hebrew, "they made the young…
Indecently, like the Sodomites. Hebrew, "they made the young men grind" at the mill, in their prison, (Haydock) as Samson (Judges xvi. 21.) and Sedecias (according to the Septuagint, chap. lii. 11.) were forced to do. To grind is often used in a bad sense; but it is not necessary to adopt it here. (Calmet) (Amama) --- The Chaldeans treated their captives without pity or shame. (Haydock) --- Wood; burdens, or stumbling-blocks, unless they were crucified; or, "roasted," if we admit a small alteration in the Hebrew, chap. iv. 10. (Calmet) --- They were forced to grind naked, and were beaten with staves. (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 young men . . . grind--The work of the…
young men . . . grind--The work of the lowest female slave was laid on young men (Jdg 16:21; Job 31:10).
children fell under . . . wood--Mere children had to bear burdens of wood so heavy that they sank beneath them.
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 13. Tenderness of age did not secure against the…
13. Tenderness of age did not secure against the most oppressive and menial of labours.
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 (13) They took . . .—Better, Young men bear…
(13) They took . . .—Better, Young men bear the mill: i.e., were not only set to grind the handmill, which was itself the work of a menial slave, commonly of women, but were made to carry the mill itself, probably as they marched along with the Chaldæan armies on their way to Babylon. (Comp. Isa_47:2.) So in like manner the next clause describes the sufferings of the striplings, who were made to carry the wood which was used as fuel or other purposes, and who literally “fell” (or staggered) under their burdens.
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 They took the young men to grind; rather, the…
They took the young men to grind; rather, the young men have borne the mill. The lower millstone seems to have been specially hard, and therefore heavy, (see Job_41:24) and to carry it about must have required a more severe exertion even than the constant turning of the mill handle. Dr. Thomson "cannot recall an instance in which men were grinding at the mill" ("The Land and the Book," edit. 1881, p. 108), and Exo_11:5 and Mat_24:41 presuppose that it was women"s work. The conquered Jewish youths, however, share the fate of Samson"Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill with slaves. ("Samson Agonistes," 41.) "Eyeless," indeed, they may some of them have been, as putting out the eyes was a common Oriental punishment. (comp. Jer_39:7) The children. This is, perhaps, too strong. The Hebrew na"ar is applicable, not only to children, but to youths at the age for marriage (Gen_34:19) or war. (1Ki_20:15) The wood; not the wooden handle of the mill, but the wood required for fuel.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Young men are forced
Young men are forced
This can be stated in active form. AT: "They force young men" (See: Active or Passive)
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boys stagger under heavy loads of wood
The boys are forced to carry the loads of wood. AT: "boys stagger because they are forced to carry heavy loads of wood" or "they force the boys to carry heavy loads of wood which make them stagger" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the city gate
This is where the elders would give legal advice, but also where people would meet socially.
the young men have left their music
Playing music was part of the social life at the city gate. This speaks of the men no longer playing their music as if the act of playing music were a place that they left. AT: "the young men have stopped playing their music" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
elder
gate
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.