Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 5:6
We have given the hand [to] the Egyptians, [and to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. given . . . hand tointoken of submission (see on Jer 50:15).
to . . . Egyptiansatthe death of Josiah (2Ch 36:3;2Ch 36:4).
Assyriansthat is, theChaldeans who occupied the empire which Assyria had held. So Jer2:18.
to be satisfied with bread(De 28:48).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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.
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.” (Deu 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, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EXEGETICAL NOTES.
Lam. 5:6. Juda 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.
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 governors) servants bare rule over them; there was no deliverer from their hands.
Lam. 5:9. With our lives we get our breadthey jeopardised their lives when going to gather a scanty harvest, or to take from provisions which had been stowed awaybecause 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 (Speakers 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 Gods 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.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(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).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. We have given the hand Namely, as a sign of submission and subjection, in order to procure bread.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
We have given the hand to the Egyptians,
And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
In view of the mention of the Assyrians some see this as looking back to the past when they had had to come to an agreement with either Egypt or Assyria in order to be satisfied with bread, rather than looking wholly to YHWH. But the term ‘Assyria’ is elsewhere used to refer to countries in the north, Assyria being the first port of call when crossing ‘the River’. Babylonians would come via Assyria. For definite examples of this usage see for example Ezr 6:22; Jer 2:18. Thus this could equally apply to the prophet’s time with some being beholden to Egypt and others to Babylon via Assyria. This may indicate that the Babylonians were tightly controlling the food supply. It was an ignominious position to be in.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lam 5:6. We have given the hand We have submitted.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
The Prophet harps upon this string of the enemies’ oppression, knowing, that God’s jealousy for his people would be justly excited thereby. The Prophet knew, that Jehovah had himself declared, in instances that were past, that he would have scattered his people into corners, had it not been that the enemy would have triumphed. And as this restrained the Lord’s hand then, he pleaded this with an hope, that the same cause would work now. See Deu 32:26-27 . Reader! mark this scripture; and take it with thee to the throne in times of oppression. Jesus’s cause is his people’s cause; and our foes are his foes.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
given the hand. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of the Adjunct), App-6, for voluntary submission.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
given: Gen 24:2, 2Ki 10:15, Jer 50:15, Eze 17:18
to the Egyptians: Isa 30:1-6, Isa 31:1-3, Isa 57:9, Jer 2:18, Jer 2:36, Jer 44:12-14, Hos 5:13, Hos 7:11, Hos 9:3, Hos 12:1
Reciprocal: Gen 47:19 – buy us Ezr 10:19 – gave their hands Job 15:23 – wandereth Psa 107:12 – he brought
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:6 We have given the {c} hand [to] the Egyptians, [and to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
(c) We are joined in league and amity with them, or have submitted ourselves to them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Even to get enough food to live, the people had to appeal to Egypt and Assyria for help. This may refer to Judah’s earlier alliances with these nations that proved futile (cf. Eze 16:26-28; Eze 23:12; Eze 23:21). But probably the writer used Assyria as a surrogate for Babylonia (cf. Jer 2:18). Judah could no longer provide for herself but had to beg for help from her Gentile enemies.