We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
Parallel Translations
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We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
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We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
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We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to have bread enough;
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Lamentations 5:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hosea 9:3 They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
- Hosea 12:1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- Genesis 24:2 Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh.
- Jeremiah 2:18 Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
- Jeremiah 2:36 Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.
- Hosea 5:13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.
- Hosea 7:11 “Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
- 2 Kings 10:15 When he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?” Jehonadab answered, “It is.” “If it is, give me your hand.” He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.
- Isaiah 30:1-6 “Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.” The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.
- Isaiah 31:1-3 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh! Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
- Isaiah 57:9 You went to the king with oil, increased your perfumes, sent your ambassadors far off, and degraded yourself even to Sheol.
- Jeremiah 44:12-14 I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. They will fall in the land of Egypt. They will be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They will die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine. They will be an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will escape or be left to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there; for no one will return except those who will escape.’ ”
- Jeremiah 50:15 Shout against her all around. She has submitted herself. Her bulwarks have fallen. Her walls have been thrown down, for it is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do to her.
- Ezekiel 17:18 For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things. He won’t escape.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He speaks here of the mendicity of the people,…
He speaks here of the mendicity of the people, that they sought bread from every quarter. To give the hand, is explained in three ways: some say that it means humbly to ask; others, to make an agreement; and others, to extend it in token of misery, as he who cannot ask for help, intimates his wants by extending his hand. But the Prophet seems simply to mean that the people were so distressed by want, that they begged bread. I then take the expression, to give the hand, as meaning that they asked bread, as beggars usually do.
He now says that they gave or extended the hand both to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians, which was a most unworthy and disgraceful thing; for the Egyptians had been their most troublesome enemies, and the Assyrians afterwards followed their example. At that time, indeed, the Egyptians pretended to be the friends of the chosen people, and made a treaty with them; but the Jews were held in contempt by them as they deserved, for they had prostituted as it were themselves like harlots. As, then, they had been despised by the Egyptians, it was a disgrace and reproach the most bitter, when they were compelled to beg bread in Egypt, and then in Assyria; for this might have been turned to the bitterest taunts.
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We now, then, perceive the meaning of the Prophet; even this reward also God justly rendered to them. He had promised them a fruitful land, in which he was ready to support them to the full. How often is mention made by Moses of corn, wine, and oil; and why? in order that God might shew that that land exceeded every other in fertility. It was, then, an evidence of an extreme curse when the people were compelled to beg bread here and there, while yet the abundance of all things ought to have been sufficient to supply even aliens,
“Thou shalt lend to others, but thou shalt not borrow.” (Deuteronomy 15:6.)
They then who ought to have fed others by their plenty, were so reduced that their want forced them to undergo this disgrace, to beg bread of the Egyptians and Assyrians. It 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 We are joined in league and amity with them,…
We are joined in league and amity with them, or have submitted ourselves unto them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lam 5:6 We have given the hand [to] the…
Lam 5:6 We have given the hand [to] the Egyptians, [and to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
Ver. 6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians.] Enemies to the Chaldeans, no less than they were to us; but hard hunger, that driveth the wolf out of the wood, hath made us glad to be beholden to them for bread; so ill have the cruel Chaldees relieved and rewarded us for our work.
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 The ten tribes were all carried captives into Assyria,…
The ten tribes were all carried captives into Assyria, many of the kingdom of Judah, as we have heard, fled into Egypt after the taking of Jerusalem.
Giving the hand may either signify working with their hands, and labouring for them; or yielding up themselves to their power, or lifting up the hands as supplicants to them, or striking hands and making covenants with them, or lending them their hand, to help them, and all to get any thing to live upon.
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 We have given our hand to the Egyptians,.... Either…
We have given our hand to the Egyptians,.... Either by way of supplication, to beg bread of them; or by way of covenant and agreement; or to testify subjection to them, in order to be supplied with food: many of the Jews went into Egypt upon the taking of the city, Jer 43:5;
and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread; among whom many of the captives were dispersed; since from hence they are said to be returned, as well as from Egypt, Isa 11:16.
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 We - The ten tribes were all carried captives…
We - The ten tribes were all carried captives into Assyria, and many of the kingdom of Judah fled into Egypt. Giving the hand may signify labouring for them: or, yielding up themselves to their power.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. We have given the hand to the…
Verse 6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians] We have sought alliances both with the Egyptians and Assyrians, and made covenants with them in order to get the necessaries of life. Or, wherever we are now driven, we are obliged to submit to the people of the countries in order to the preservation of our lives.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain “To give the hand” means to submit oneself. Absolutely…
“To give the hand” means to submit oneself. Absolutely it was Babylon that had just destroyed their national existence, but Jeremiah means that all feelings of patriotism were crushed, and the sole care that remained was the desire for personal preservation. To secure this the people would readily have submitted to the yoke either of Egypt or Assyria, the great powers from which in their past history they had so often suffered.
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 Hand; engaged to serve Egyptians, Babylonians, (Calmet) or other…
Hand; engaged to serve Egyptians, Babylonians, (Calmet) or other nations, to procure sustenance. (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 given . . . hand to--in token of submission…
given . . . hand to--in token of submission (see on Jer 50:15).
to . . . Egyptians--at the death of Josiah (Ch2 36:3-4).
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Assyrians--that is, the Chaldeans who occupied the empire which Assyria had held. So Jer 2:18.
to be satisfied with bread-- (Deu 28:48).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. We have given the hand — Namely, as…
6. We have given the hand — Namely, as a sign of submission and subjection, in order to procure bread.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. Not only are they subject to privations at…
6. Not only are they subject to privations at home, but they have been driven by them into servitude abroad. Hos_7:11 also combines Egypt and Assyria. The distance of the latter has caused it to be suspected here. Ball, with some slight changes in MT., eliminates both the proper names, and renders, To adversaries we submitted, Saying we shall be satisfied with bread. He also transposes this with Lam_5:5.
the Assyrians] As the traditional foes of Israel, their name survives in this passage, although their Empire had been succeeded by that of Babylon. Cp. Ezr_6:22 for this use of the word Assyria even in Persian times. For “we have given the hand” see mg. of Jer_50:15.
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 (6) We have given the hand.—The recognised phrase for…
(6) We have given the hand.—The recognised phrase for submission (Jer_1:15). “Assyria,” as in Jer_2:18; Ezr_6:22, stands for “Babylon.” The people had been forced by sheer pressure of hunger to submit to one or other of these princes. “Egypt” refers, probably, to the fugitives who had sought a home in that country (Jer_42:14).
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 We have given the hand, etc. Starvation awaits the…
We have given the hand, etc. Starvation awaits the Jews unless they submit to one or the other of their hereditary foes. Some escape to Egypt and "give the hand" (i.e. surrender, Jer_1:15) to the lords of the fertile Nile valley; others acquiesce in the fate of the majority, and sue for the alms of the Babylonians.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Lam_5:6. Judæa was on the verge of famine through…
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—
Lam_5:6. Judæa was on the verge of famine through the foragings of the invaders, and, under the ominous shadow of starvation, To Egypt we have given the hand, i.e., imploring supplies of food, as is signified by the parallel clause, to Assyria to be satisfied with bread. The people appealed to a supposed friendly and to an openly hostile government; for the Babylonian empire, even in the height of its power, was occasionally spoken of as Assyria (Jer_2:18), into whose dominion it had entered.
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Lam_5:7. Our fathers have sinned; they are not in the land of the living. The hour of punishment had not come in their time. The measure of iniquity was not yet full; but the consequences of their doings, which were not good, had not been buried with them. The disruption of civil and religious order, by which we have so fearfully suffered, results from the guilt which was incurred by preceding generations. We have borne their iniquities. This truth is stated again and again in the Old Testament Scriptures (Exo_20:5; Num_14:18; 2Ki_23:25-26); it is, however, only half a truth, and becomes an error if understood to say that the descendants were not also guilty. This other half was beginning to dawn upon Israel. It is noted in Lam_5:16, and was boldly announced by the prophets of this period, Jeremiah (Jer_31:29-30) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18). Yet God strikes the sins of forefathers with penal judgments on their children only when the children persist in sin, as their predecessors did. But such vicarious suffering placed them in a position like sin-bearers, and becomes ground of appeal for the exercise of Divine compassion.
Lam_5:8. Servants have ruled over us. Who they were may be uncertain. It is a farfetched supposition that they were the conquering chiefs, because “the Babylonians in general might be called slaves in comparison with the kingdom of priests and sons of Jehovah.” The suggestion rather is that the galling yoke was made doubly galling by the insolence and brutality of menials, “dressed in the brief authority of office,” slaves in Oriental countries often rising to places of power. A parallel is mentioned by Nehemiah, who says (chap. Lam_5:5), Even their (i.e., the governor’s) servants bare rule over them; there was no deliverer from their hands.
Lam_5:9. With our lives we get our bread—they jeopardised their lives when going to gather a scanty harvest, or to take from provisions which had been stowed away—because of the sword of the desert, wielded by the predatory Bedawin, who would plunder and even kill those who were in possession of food. So Gideon had to get his wheat in secret, lest the Midianites should seize it (Jdg_6:11); and the ten men who bought their lives from the robbers and murderers of Gedaliah (Jer_41:8) drew from concealed stores of victuals.
HOMILETICS
HUMILIATING SUBJECTION
(Lam_5:6-9)
I. Personal liberty is surrendered for a livelihood. “We have given the hand to the Egyptian and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread” (Lam_5:6). Absolutely it was Babylon that had just destroyed their national existence, but Jeremiah means that all feelings of patriotism were crushed, and the sole care that remained was the selfish desire for personal preservation. To secure this the people would readily have submitted to the yoke either of Egypt or Assyria, the great powers from which in their past history they had so often suffered (Speaker’s Commentary). Life is sweet, and it is appalling to think how many there are ready to sell their conscience, their souls, their friends, their country for bread! The sting of want demoralises the soul. It is matter for unspeakable thankfulness when men are lifted above the degrading temptations of poverty.
II. The penalty of continuance in sin. “Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities” (Lam_5:7). It is a frequent practice of the unfortunate to blame the past. Here the sufferers complain that their predecessors, who commenced the national apostasy, had died before the punishment began, and that they are left to bear alone the fatal consequences which previous transgressors had escaped. It was some time before the truth dawned upon their minds that they had adopted and continued with aggravated obstinacy the sins of their forefathers, and that there was quite sufficient guilt in their own iniquity to merit the chastisement they suffered. The course of sin is downward, ever downward, and plunges its victims into the most humiliating subjection.
III. A painful experience to a high-spirited people when domineered over by inferiors. “Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hands” (Lam_5:8). Among the things for which “the earth is disquieted and which it cannot bear,” the proverb saith, “For a servant when he reigneth” (Pro_30:21-22). In Oriental countries slaves often rose to high office, and there were no doubt such in the Chaldean army. The rule of such is often maintained with unnecessary rigour. They seem to think that they can gain respect and reverence only by severity. The Jews fretted and chafed under the petty tyranny of men whom they regarded as in every respect their inferiors except in their cruel bondage. Virgil has said—
“Since slaves so insolent are grown,
What may not masters do?”
The Jews had rebelled against the wise and gentle rule of Jehovah and His servants the prophets. Now they are ruled by the tyranny of their enemies and of their slaves. The sinner cannot escape the operation of law. He only exchanges rulers.
IV. The victims are compelled to snatch their food at the peril of their lives. “We gat our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness” (Lam_5:9). Though they were willing to surrender their liberty for food, its supply was very uncertain and precarious. “This verse apparently refers to those who were left as delvers and vine-dressers in the land, and who, in gathering in such fruits as remained, were exposed to incursions of the Bedaween, here called the sword of the desert.” Every morsel of food they ate was snatched as from the mouths of wild beasts. The next forage for food may cost them, not only their independence, but their lives. They had indeed to eat their bread with quaking and carefulness, as it had been predicted (Eze_12:18-19). There is no advantage in selling our souls for bread; it is a bad bargain. Honour is more precious than food, or than life itself.
LESSONS.—
1. War imposes great degradations on the conquered.
2. Sin is at the root of all humiliation and suffering.
3. Subjection is intolerable to those who have tasted the sweets of freedom.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam_5:6; Lam_5:8-9. The intense love of freedom for food (Lam_5:6).
2. Subjects life:
1. Tempts men to barter their to the oppressive tyranny of inferiors (Lam_5:8).
3. Will run great risks in the struggle for maintenance (Lam_5:9).
Lam_5:7. Sin and punishment:
1. Are closely linked together.
2. The sins, like the virtues, of one generation pass on in their consequence to the next.
3. Suffering on account of others is taken into account in God’s dealing with individuals and with nations.
4. Every offender is punished only according to his own sin.
ILLUSTRATIONS.—Mistaken views of life. Two old men, amateur naturalists, who had devoted their whole lives, one to ferns and the other to orchids, travelled together for many hours. At the end of their journey he who had cultivated ferns said to his companion with a sigh, “I have wasted my life: if I had it to live over again, I should devote it to orchids.”
Life divinely ordered. Our life is a web woven by the hand of God, the thread reaching from our birth to our death. The woof is trouble, but still runs with it a weft of interwoven comforts.—Adams.
Sin in man. In man there will be a layer of fierce hyena or of timid deer running through the nature in the most uncertain and tortuous manner. Nero is sensitive to poetry and music, but not to human suffering. Marcus Aurelius is tolerant and good to all men but Christians. The Tlascalans of Mexico loved, and even worshipped flowers, but they were cruel to excess, and sacrificed human victims with savage delight. The good and the evil lie close together, the virtues and the vices alternate, so is human power accumulated; alternately the metal and the rags, a terrible voltaic pile. In the well-bred animal the claw is nicely cushioned; the old Adam is presentable.—A. F. Russell.
Humiliation. It is with us as with the reeds which grow by the river-side; when the waters overflow, the reed bows its head and bends down, and the flood passes over without breaking it; after which it uplifts its head and stands erect in all its vigour, rejoicing in renewed life. So is it with us; we also must sometimes be bowed down to the earth and humbled, and then arise with renewed joy and trust.
Submission. Let us not charge God over-hastily with the untoward incidents of life. In the main we are the manufacturers of our own life-material. If you give the weaver none but dark threads, he can only fashion a sombre pattern.—Halsey.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.