KJV King James Version
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
VERSE STUDY • KJV
Lamentations 4:8
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
Read it in 5 translations
BSB Berean Standard Bible
But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
WEB World English Bible
Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a stick.
ASV American Standard Version
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
YLT Young’s Literal Translation
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.
Surrounding context — Lamentations 4
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing [was] of sapphire:
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
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.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
Topics connected to this verse
Original-language word links
These Hebrew/Greek tokens are linked by Strong's number. Click one for its lexicon definition and other occurrences.
חָשַׁ֤ךְH2821 · cha.shakhto darkenמִשְּׁחוֹר֙H7815 · she.chorblacknessתָּֽאֳרָ֔םH8389 · to.arappearanceלֹ֥אH3808 · lonotנִכְּר֖וּH5234 · na.kharto recognizeבַּחוּצ֑וֹתH2351 · chutsoutsideצָפַ֤דH6821 · tsa.phadto shrivelעוֹרָם֙H5785 · orskinעַל־H5921 · aluponעַצְמָ֔םH6106 · e.tsemboneיָבֵ֖שׁH3002 · ya.veshdryהָיָ֥הH1961 · ha.yahto beכָעֵֽץ׃ סH6086 · etstree: wood
Cross-references
Lamentations 5:10Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.Job 30:30My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.Psalm 102:3-5For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.Psalm 119:83For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; [yet] do I not forget thy statutes.Job 19:20My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.Nahum 2:10She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain [is] in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.Psalm 32:4For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.Psalm 38:3[There is] no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither [is there any] rest in my bones because of my sin.Joel 2:6Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.Job 30:17-19My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.Job 33:21His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones [that] were not seen stick out.Ruth 1:19-20So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, [Is] this Naomi?Psalm 102:11My days [are] like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.Isaiah 52:14As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:Job 2:12And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.Lamentations 4:1-2How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION
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