Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 4:4
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, [and] no man breaketh [it] unto them.
Verse 4. The tongue of the sucking child] See Clarke on La 2:12.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As the fatness of the mothers milk makes it instead of bread and flesh to the sucking child, so the moisture of it makes it to be as drink to allay its heat; the children wanting this moisture, their mouths were hot and dry. It was a time of famine; the little children, understanding not-the case of the city, were importunate for something to eat, but none had enough for himself, much less for others. See Lam 2:12,13.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. thirstThe mothers have nomilk to give through the famine.
He.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst,…. Through want of the milk of the breast, which is both food and drink unto it:
the young children ask bread; of their parents as usual, not knowing how the case was, that there was a famine in the city; these are such as were more grown, were weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts, and lived on other food, and were capable of asking for it:
[and] no man breaketh [it] unto them: distributes unto them, or gives them a piece of bread; not father, friend, or any other person; it not being in their power to do it, they having none for themselves.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He says that sucking children were so thirsty, that the tongue was as it were fixed to the palate; and it was a dreadful thing; for mothers would willingly pour forth their own blood to feed their infants. When, therefore, the tongue of a child clave to his mouth, it seemed to be in a manner beyond nature. Among other calamities, then, the Prophet names this, that infants pined away with thirst, and also that children sought bread in vain. He speaks not in the latter instance of sucklings, but. of children three or four years old. Then he says that they sought or asked for bread, but that there was no one to give. (210)
He describes here the famine of the city, of which he had predicted, when he declared that it would be better with the slain than with the people remaining alive, for a harder conflict with famine and want would await the living. But this was not believed. Now, then, the Prophet upbraids the Jews with their former perverseness. He afterwards adds, —
(210) The verbs here are in the past tense, and not in the present, as in our version, —
Cleave did the tongue of the suckling To his palate through thirst; Children asked bread, A breaker, none was to them.
—
Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
4. The tongue cleaveth to the roof The most graphic and fearfully expressive feature of the common misery is brought to view in this unnatural conduct of parents, leaving the sucking child and young children to famish for want of proper nutriment.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, [and] no man breaketh [it] unto them.
Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth. ] For want of suck. That was a miracle which is recorded of the old woman of Bolton, in Lancashire, who took up a poor child that lay crying at the breasts of her dead mother – slain, among many others, by Prince Rupert’s party – and laying it to her own dry breasts, that had not yielded suck for above twenty years before, on purpose to still it, had milk came to nourish it, to the admiration and astonishment of all beholders. This and another like example of God’s good providence for the relief of little ones whom their mothers could not relieve, may be read of in Mr Clark’s “Mirror for Saints and Sinners,” edit. 3, fol. 495, 507.
And no man breaketh it unto them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tongue: Psa 22:15, Psa 137:6
the young: Lam 1:11, Lam 2:11, Lam 2:12, Deu 32:24, Mat 7:9-11
Reciprocal: Deu 32:25 – destroy 1Ki 3:21 – give 2Ki 25:3 – the famine Psa 59:15 – for meat Isa 5:13 – honourable men are famished Isa 8:21 – hardly bestead Isa 32:12 – lament Isa 41:17 – their tongue Jer 2:25 – Withhold Jer 37:21 – until Jer 47:3 – the fathers Jer 52:6 – the famine Mat 24:19 – General Mar 13:17 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 4:4, The famine is the subject being considered by the prophet. Having no nourishment due to the dry-breasts of their mothers, the tongues of the babes stuck to the roofs of their mouths. When the other children cried for bread it was not given to them. Instead, the women even consumed their helpless babes as food for themselves, (See chapter 2: 20 and comments for this subject.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Infants in Jerusalem during the siege did not have enough to drink or eat because their parents were looking out for their own needs first (cf. Lam 2:11-12; Lam 2:19).