Lamentations 5:9 (DBY)

Passage

We have to get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 5:7 Our fathers have sinned, [and] they are not; and we bear their iniquities.

Lamentations 5:8 Bondmen rule over us: there is no deliverer out of their hand.

Lamentations 5:9 We have to get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

Lamentations 5:10 Our skin gloweth like an oven, because of the burning heat of the famine.

Lamentations 5:11 They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "bread", "risk", "lives", "sword", and "wilderness". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "bread" and "risk", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "Bondmen rule over us there is no..." into verse 10's "Our skin gloweth like an oven because...", so "bread" and "risk" belong inside that flow. In Lamentations context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "bread" and "risk" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.