Bible Strands
Lamentations 4:5
Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the devastation following Jerusalem’s fall, contrasting the starvation of infants and begging children in the preceding verse with the fallen condition of the city’s former elite.
The words — The text highlights `ha./'e.mu.Nim` (the ones brought up) and `tola'` (crimson) to describe those who previously lived in luxury but now huddle in ash heaps.
The thread — This contrast between past privilege and present ruin echoes the rich man dressed in purple and fine linen at Luke 16:19, the household clothed in scarlet at Proverbs 31:21, and the warning against dismissing calamity in Amos 6:3.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that social status offers no protection from judgment, requiring readers to take the reality of divine discipline seriously without relying on past privilege.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Cross-references
- Luke 16:19 Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
- Proverbs 31:21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for they are all clothed in scarlet.
- Amos 6:3 You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.
- Luke 15:16 He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.
- Deuteronomy 28:54 The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived,
- 2 Samuel 1:24 O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and luxury, who decked your garments with ornaments of gold.
- Isaiah 24:6 Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.
- Luke 7:25 Otherwise, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who wear elegant clothing and live in luxury are found in palaces.
- 1 Timothy 5:6 But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive.
- Revelation 18:7 As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’