Lamentations 4:3

ג (Gimel)

4:3 Even the jackals nurse their young

at their breast,

but my people are cruel,

like ostriches in the desert.


tn The noun תַּנִּין (tannin) means “jackals.” The plural ending ־ִין (-in) is diminutive (GKC 242 §87.e) (e.g., Lam 1:4).

tn Heb “draw out the breast and suckle their young.”

tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

tc The MT Kethib form כִּי עֵנִים (kienim) is by all accounts a textual corruption for כַּיְעֵנִים (kayenim, “like ostriches”) which is preserved in the Qere and the medieval Hebrew mss, and reflected in the LXX.