Lamentations 4:3
New International Version
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert.

New Living Translation
Even the jackals feed their young, but not my people Israel. They ignore their children’s cries, like ostriches in the desert.

English Standard Version
Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Berean Standard Bible
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

King James Bible
Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

New King James Version
Even the jackals present their breasts To nurse their young; But the daughter of my people is cruel, Like ostriches in the wilderness.

New American Standard Bible
Even jackals offer the breast, They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has proved herself cruel, Like ostriches in the wilderness.

NASB 1995
Even jackals offer the breast, They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness.

NASB 1977
Even jackals offer the breast, They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness.

Legacy Standard Bible
Even jackals offer the breast; They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness.

Amplified Bible
Even the jackals offer the breast, They nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel Like ostriches in the wilderness [that desert their young].

Christian Standard Bible
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my dear people have become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my dear people have become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

American Standard Version
Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Gimel They show their breasts like jackals and they nurse their whelps. The daughter of my people has become a disease for which there is no remedy, and like an ostrich in the wilderness

Brenton Septuagint Translation
GIMEL. Nay, serpents have drawn out the breasts, they give suck to their young, the daughters of my people are incurably cruel, as an ostrich in a desert.

Contemporary English Version
Even jackals nurse their young, but my people are like ostriches that abandon their own.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Ghimel. Even the sea monsters have drawn out the breast, they have given suck to their young: the daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostrich in the desert.

English Revised Version
Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the women of my people are as cruel as wild ostriches.

Good News Translation
Even a mother wolf will nurse her cubs, but my people are like ostriches, cruel to their young.

International Standard Version
Even wild animals nurse, suckling their young; but the women of my people are cruel, like ostriches in the wilderness.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Even the jackals draw out the breast, They give suck to their young ones; The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Literal Standard Version
Even dragons have drawn out the breast, | They have suckled their young ones, | The daughter of my people has become cruel, | Like the ostriches in a wilderness.

Majority Standard Bible
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

New American Bible
Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young; But the daughter of my people is as cruel as the ostrich in the wilderness.

NET Bible
Even the jackals nurse their young at their breast, but my people are cruel, like ostriches in the desert.

New Revised Standard Version
Even the jackals offer the breast and nurse their young, but my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

New Heart English Bible
Even the jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young ones, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Webster's Bible Translation
Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they nurse their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

World English Bible
Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Young's Literal Translation
Even dragons have drawn out the breast, They have suckled their young ones, The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in a wilderness.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Distress of Zion
2How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands! 3Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness. 4The nursing infant’s tongue clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth. Little children beg for bread, but no one gives them any.…

Cross References
Job 39:14
For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.

Job 39:16
She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

Isaiah 13:22
Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon's time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

Isaiah 34:13
Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.

Isaiah 49:15
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!

Ezekiel 5:10
As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.'


Treasury of Scripture

Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

sea monsters.

Lamentations 2:20
Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Lamentations 4:10
The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Leviticus 26:29
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

like

Job 39:13-16
Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich? …

Romans 1:31
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Jump to Previous
Beasts Breast Breasts Cruel Daughter Dragons Draw Drawn Full Heartless Jackals Monsters Nurse Offer Ones Ostriches Sea Sea-Monsters Suck Suckle Waste Wilderness Young
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Beasts Breast Breasts Cruel Daughter Dragons Draw Drawn Full Heartless Jackals Monsters Nurse Offer Ones Ostriches Sea Sea-Monsters Suck Suckle Waste Wilderness Young
Lamentations 4
1. Zion bewails her pitiful estate
13. She confesses her sins
21. Edom is threatened and Zion comforted.














(3) Even the sea monsters . . .--Better, jackals. The Authorised Version is intended apparently to apply to cetaceous mammals; elsewhere (Jeremiah 14:6) the word is rendered "dragons." "Jackals," it may be noted, are combined with "owls" or "ostriches," as they are here, in Job 30:29; Isaiah 13:21. A like reference to the seeming want of maternal instinct in the ostrich is found in Job 39:16. The comparison was obviously suggested by facts like those referred to in Lamentations 2:20.

Verse 3. - The sea monsters; rather, the jackals (tannin, the Aramaic form of the plural for tannim). Cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. So in Job (Job 39:14-16) it is said of the ostrich that she "leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers." The description is literally true, if we add a detail not mentioned by the sacred poet. The eggs destined for hatching are deposited in a nest hole scratched in the sand, but there are other eggs laid, not in the sand, but near it, to all appearance forsaken. These eggs, however, are not exposed in simple stupidity, though they do often fall victims to violence. "They are intended for the nourishment of the newly hatched young ones, which in barren districts would at first find difficulty in procuring food" (Houghton, 'Natural History of the Ancients,' p. 198).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Even
גַּם־ (gam-)
Conjunction
Strong's 1571: Assemblage, also, even, yea, though, both, and

jackals
תַּנִּים֙ (tan·nîm)
Noun - common plural
Strong's 8568: A female jackal

offer
חָ֣לְצוּ (ḥā·lə·ṣū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 2502: To pull off, to strip, to depart, to deliver, equip, present, strengthen

their breasts
שַׁ֔ד (šaḏ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7699: The breast of a, woman, animal

to nurse
הֵינִ֖יקוּ (hê·nî·qū)
Verb - Hifil - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 3243: To suck, to give milk

their young,
גּוּרֵיהֶ֑ן (gū·rê·hen)
Noun - masculine plural construct | third person feminine plural
Strong's 1482: A cub, of the lion

[but] the daughter
בַּת־ (baṯ-)
Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 1323: A daughter

of my people
עַמִּ֣י (‘am·mî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

has become cruel,
לְאַכְזָ֔ר (lə·’aḵ·zār)
Preposition-l | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 393: Violent, deadly, brave

like an ostrich
כי (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3283: The ostrich

in the wilderness.
בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ (bam·miḏ·bār)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4057: A pasture, a desert, speech


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OT Prophets: Lamentations 4:3 Even the jackals draw out the breast (Lam. La Lm)
Lamentations 4:2
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