9Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.


In Context

6 And greater is the iniquity of the daughter of my people, Than the sin of Sodom, That was overturned as in a moment, And no hands were stayed on her.

7 Purer were her Nazarites than snow, Whiter than milk, ruddier of body than rubies, Of sapphire their form.

8 Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered — it hath been as wood.

9 Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.

10 The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 Completed hath Jehovah His fury, He hath poured out the fierceness of His anger, And he kindleth a fire in Zion, And it devoureth her foundations.

Lamentations 4:9 in Other Translations

The King James Version of the Holy Bible

4:9[They that be] slain with the sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field.

The New International Version of the Holy Bible

4:9Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.

The Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible

4:9Teth. It was better with them that were slain by the sword, than with them that died with hunger: for these pined away being consumed for want of the fruits of the earth.

The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible

4:9They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

The Darby Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

4:9The slain with the sword are happier than the slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

The English Revised Version of the Holy Bible

4:9They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

The Webster Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

4:9They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

The World English Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

4:9Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

The American King James Version of the Holy Bible

4:9They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.