See, LORD, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the sword bereaves, inside there is death.

The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, without pity.

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.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.