Parallel Verses
Bible in Basic English
Those who have been put to the sword are better off than those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field.
New American Standard Bible
Than those
For they
For lack of the fruits of
King James Version
They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
Holman Bible
ט Tet
than those slain by hunger,
who waste away, pierced with pain
because the fields lack produce.
International Standard Version
Those who die by the sword are better off than those who die from starvation, who slowly waste away like those pierced through for lack of food from the fields.
A Conservative Version
Those who are slain with the sword are better than those who are slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
American Standard Version
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
Amplified
Those killed with the sword
Are more fortunate than those killed with hunger;
For the hungry pine and ebb away,
For the lack of the fruits of the field.
Darby Translation
The slain with the sword are happier than the slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
Julia Smith Translation
Those wounded by the sword were good above those wounded by famine: these will flow away, being thrust through from the produce of the field.
King James 2000
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for lack of the fruits of the field.
Lexham Expanded Bible
Happier were [the] victims of [the] sword than the victims of famine; they have pined away, very hungry for the crops of my field.
Modern King James verseion
Better are the ones slain by the sword than the ones slain by hunger; those who pine away, pierced because the fruits of my fields failed.
Modern Spelling Tyndale-Coverdale
{Tet} They that be slain with the sword, are happier than such as die of hunger, and perish away famishing for the fruits of the field.
NET Bible
(Tet) Those who died by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger, those who waste away, struck down from lack of food.
New Heart English Bible
Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; those who waste away, pierced through, for lack of the fruits of the field.
The Emphasized Bible
Better are the slain of the sword, than the slain of the famine, - for, these, pine away, stricken through, wanting the produce of the field.
Webster
They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
World English Bible
Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
Youngs Literal Translation
Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.
Themes
Interlinear
Towb
hem
References
Fausets
Word Count of 20 Translations in Lamentations 4:9
Verse Info
Context Readings
Zion Is Punished
8 Their face is blacker than night; in the streets no one has knowledge of them: their skin is hanging on their bones, they are dry, they have become like wood. 9 Those who have been put to the sword are better off than those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field. 10 The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling their children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Cross References
Leviticus 26:39
And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away.
Ezekiel 24:23
And your head-dresses will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet: there will be no sorrow or weeping; but you will be wasting away in the punishment of your evil-doing, and you will be looking at one another in wonder.
Jeremiah 16:4
Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.
Ezekiel 33:10
And you, son of man, say to the children of Israel, You say, Our wrongdoing and our sins are on us and we are wasting away in them; how then may we have life?