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Geneva Study Bible Commentary

Lamentations 4:3

Even the sea monsters (c) draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people [is become] cruel, like the (d) ostriches in the wilderness.

(c) Though the dragons are cruel, yet they pity their young, and nourish them, which Jerusalem does not do.

(d) The women forsake their children as the ostrich does her eggs, (Job 39:17).

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See also Lamentations 4:3 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Lamentations 4:3. _EVEN THE SEA MONSTERS DRAW OUT THE BREAST_] The _whales_ give suck to their young ones. The word תנין _tannin_, signifies all _large_ and _cruel_ creatures, whether _aquatic_...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    SEA MONSTERS - Rather, jackals. THEIR YOUNG ONES - “Their” whelps. The term is applied only to the young of dogs, lions, and the like....

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 4 THE DEPARTED GLORY AND THE CUP OF SHAME This new lament begins with a description of the former glory of Zion and its present wretchedness; the glory is departed: How is the gold become dim...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    LAMENTATIONS 4. THE FOURTH LAMENT. This has less literary finish than Lamentations 4:3, and it has also less spiritual value. It lacks much of the saints whom one seems to see in Lamentations 4:1, and...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    OSTRICHES. Compare Job 39:13....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _the jackals_ See on Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 51:34. _like the ostriches in the wilderness_ Cp. C.B. (Davidson) on Job 39:15 f. for "the popular belief that the ostrich did not brood but left her eggs...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    SEA-MONSTERS—GIVE SUCK TO THEIR YOUNG ONES— See Job 39:13, and Parkhurst on the word ענה _anah._ We are told by voyagers, that the sea lioness, and other sea-monsters, have dugs with which they give s...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE A RUINED KINGDOM Lamentations 4:1-22 The fourth poem is an alphabetic acrostic like that found in Chapter s 1 and 2 with the exception that the stanzas here have two lines instea...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. EVEN THE SEA MONSTERS DRAW OUT THE BRE...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    ZION'S FORMER GLORY CONTRASTED WITH HER PRESENT HUMILIATION In this fourth dirge the poet describes the miseries of the various classes in the sack of Jerusalem, concluding with a warning to Edom. In...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    THE SEA MONSTERS] RV 'the jackals' (Jeremiah 9:11). The thought is that even wild beasts suckle their young, but the women of Jerusalem are become cruel and take no heed of their children's pitiful cr...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    JEREMIAH WEEPS IN THE DARKNESS LAMENTATIONS _ROY ROHU_ CHAPTER 4 JEREMIAH CONTINUES TO SPEAK. V1 Look! The gold has stopped shining! Look how the best gold has changed! The stones of the *temple...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    EVEN THE SEA MONSTERS... — Better, _jackals._ The Authorised Version is intended apparently to apply to cetaceous mammals; elsewhere (Jeremiah 14:6) the word is rendered “dragons.” “Jackals,” it may b...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    גַּם־_תַּנִּים֙_† חָ֣לְצוּ שַׁ֔ד הֵינִ֖יקוּ גּוּרֵיהֶ֑ן בַּת

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CONTRASTS Lamentations 4:1 IN form the fourth elegy is slightly different from each of its predecessors. Following the characteristic plan of the Book of Lamentations, it is an acrostic of twenty-two...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    The fourth poem is for the most part a dirge of desolation, which nevertheless ends in a song of hope. Jeremiah first described the disaster in Zion, declaring that it all arose as the result of the s...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Sea-monsters. Literally, Lamia. Hebrew Tannim. (Haydock) --- The lamia has a face like a woman, and a body like beasts; and is cruel, yet feeds its young. (Worthington) --- The fabulous lamia is suppo...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they e...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    This verse is harshly explained by many, for they think that the daughter of the people is called cruel, because she acted towards her children as serpents do to their young ones. But this meaning is...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Jeremiah, having now found Jehovah in the affliction, tranquilly measures its whole extent. But this is itself a consolation. For after all Jehovah who changes not is there to comfort the heart. This...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    EVEN THE SEA MONSTERS DRAW OUT THE BREAST,.... Which some interpret of dragons; others of seals, or sea calves; but it is best to understand it of whales, as the word is rendered in Genesis 1:21; and...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people [is become] cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. Ver. 3. _Even the sea monsters._] _a_...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast The very dragons have drawn out the breast:_ so Blaney. Even these fierce and destructive animals are not so unnatural as to neglect the care of their young...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    JERUSALEM'S AFFLICTION A PUNISHMENT FOR HER GUILT...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Even the sea monsters, the great mammalian animals of the ocean, or "the jackals of the desert," DRAW OUT THE BREAST, THEY GIVE SUCK TO THEIR YOUNG ONES, thereby giving some evidence of motherly feeli...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    SEA MONSTERS: Or, sea calves...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-12 What a change is here! Sin tarnishes the beauty of the most exalted powers and the most excellent gifts; but that gold, tried in the fire, which Christ bestows, never will be taken from us; its...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    The learned author of our English Annotations well observeth, that whatever creature is here intended by the word translated sea-monsters, yet our translation is not proper, the text speaking of creat...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Lamentations 4:3 jackals H8577 present H2502 (H8804) breasts H7699 nurse H3243 (H8689) young H1482 daughter H1323

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE SAD CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF JERUSALEM DUE TO THE ANGER OF YHWH (LAMENTATIONS 4:1). Lamentations 4:1 (Aleph) How is the gold become dim! How is the most pure gold changed! The (precious) sto...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Lamentation on the direful effects of calamities of Judah. Sins of the leaders acknowledged. CHARACTERS: God, Jeremiah. CONCLUSION: Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the mea...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Lamentations 4:1. _How is the gold,_ זהב _zahab,_ so called because of its superior lustre to other metals, now _become dim._ Gold does not oxidize, and scarcely receives a tarnish; yet the rulers and...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    LAMENTATIONS—NOTE ON LAMENTATIONS 4:1 How the Gold Has Grown Dim. Chapter Lamentations 4:1 returns to themes in chs....

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    LAMENTATIONS—NOTE ON LAMENTATIONS 4:3 Even wild animals feed their young, but Jerusalem’s mothers cannot feed their children. The siege, famine, and devastation are too severe (see Jeremiah 15:1

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    EXEGETICAL NOTES.— (ג). Lamentations 4:3. Beasts of prey show affection for their brood. EVEN THE JACKALS DRAW OUT—present—THE BREAST; a familiar fact testifying that they were true to their instincts...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    THE SUFFERINGS OF JERUSALEM; NO CLASS IS EXEMPT. EDOM'S TRIUMPHING. EXPOSITION LAMENTATIONS 4:1 HOW IS THE GOLD BECOME DIM!… THE STONES OF THE SANCTUARY, etc. "Alas f

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    The fourth lamentation: How is the gold become dim! the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine go...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    2 Kings 6:26; Deuteronomy 28:52; Ezekiel 5:10; Isaiah 49:15;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Cruel — The Jewish women are become cruel to their children, or forced to appear so, having through the famine no milk to give them, nor any thing to relieve them. Ostriches — Like ostriches that lay...

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