Lamentations - 5:13

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  3. 5
  4. 13
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13 The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Lamentations 5:13.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
They abused the young men indecently: and the children fell under the wood.
The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.
Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled.
The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.
The young men have borne the mill, And the children have stumbled under the wood.
The young men grind at the mill; the boys stagger under loads of wood.
They have sexually abused the adolescents, and the children were corrupted in the wood.
Adolescentes ad molam sumpserunt, et pueri in ligno ceciderunt (vel, impegerunt)

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

I cannot proceed farther now.

They took the young men to grind - Or, "The young men" have borne the mill, a menial and laborious task usually performed by slaves (compare Isaiah 47:2).
The children fell under the wood - Or, lads have stumbled under burdens of wood. By lads are meant youths up to the age of military service; another form of menial labor.

They took the young men to grind - This was the work of female slaves. See the note on Isaiah 47:2.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under (g) the wood.
(g) Their slavery was so great, that they were not able to abide it.

They took the young men to grind,.... In the mill, which was laborious service; and which persons were sometimes put to, by way of punishment; and was the punishment of servants; see Judges 16:21. Some render it, "the young men bore the grist" (x); carried the corn, the meal ground, from place to place. The Targum is,
"the young men carried the millstones;''
and so Jarchi, they put millstones upon their shoulders, and burdens so as to weary them. Ben Melech, from their Rabbins, relates, that there were no millstones in Babylon; wherefore the Chaldeans put them upon the young men of Israel, to carry them thither. The Vulgate Latin version is,
"they abused the young men in an unchaste manner;''
suggesting something obscene intended by grinding; see Job 31:10; but the context will not admit of such a sense:
and the children fell under the wood; such loads of wood were laid upon them, that they could not bear them, but fell under them. Aben Ezra understands it of moving the wood of the mill, of turning the wooden handle of it; or the wooden post, the rider or runner, by which the upper millstone was turned: this their strength was not equal to, and so failed. The Targum interprets it of a wooden gibbet, or gallows; some wooden engine seems to be had in view, used as a punishment, which was put upon their necks, something like a pillory; which they were not able to stand up under, but fell.
(x) "juvenes farinam portaverunt"; so some in Gataker; "juvenes molam tulerunt", Cocceius; "juvenes ad molendum portant", Junius & Tremellius.

young men . . . grind--The work of the lowest female slave was laid on young men (Judges 16:21; Job 31:10).
children fell under . . . wood--Mere children had to bear burdens of wood so heavy that they sank beneath them.

Fell - Not being able to stand under the burdens laid upon them.

*More commentary available at chapter level.

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