4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
4 We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.
4 We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.
4 We have to pay to drink our own water. Even our firewood comes at a price.
4 We pay for the water we drink, And our wood comes at a price.
4 We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Lamentations 5:4
Commentary on Lamentations 5:1-16
(Read Lamentations 5:1-16)
Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknowledge, Woe unto us that we have sinned! All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. Though our sins and God's just displeasure cause our sufferings, we may hope in his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, and his kind providence. But the sins of a man's whole life will be punished with vengeance at last, unless he obtains an interest in Him who bare our sins in his own body on the tree.