ג (Gimel)
4:3 Even the jackals 1 nurse their young
at their breast, 2
but my people 3 are cruel,
like ostriches 4 in the desert.
ד (Dalet)
4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks
to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;
little children beg for bread, 5
but no one gives them even a morsel. 6
י (Yod)
4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women 7
cooked their own children,
who became their food, 8
when my people 9 were destroyed. 10
1 tn The noun תַּנִּין (tannin) means “jackals.” The plural ending ־ִין (-in) is diminutive (GKC 242 §87.e) (e.g., Lam 1:4).
2 tn Heb “draw out the breast and suckle their young.”
3 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”
4 tc The MT Kethib form כִּי עֵנִים (ki ’enim) is by all accounts a textual corruption for כַּיְעֵנִים (kay’enim, “like ostriches”) which is preserved in the Qere and the medieval Hebrew
5 tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” might function as a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for general (= food); however, the following parallel line does indeed focus on the act of breaking bread in two.
6 tn Heb “there is not a divider to them.” The term פָּרַשׂ (paras), Qal active participle ms from פָּרַס (paras, “to divide”) refers to the action of breaking bread in two before giving it to a person to eat (Isa 58:7; Jer 16:7; Lam 4:4). The form פָּרַשׂ (paras) is the alternate spelling of the more common פָּרַס (paras).
7 tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”
8 tn Heb “eating.” The infinitive construct (from I בָּרָה, barah) is translated as a noun. Three passages employ the verb (2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5,6,10) for eating when ill or in mourning.
9 tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”
10 tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”