What Does Lamentations 5:6 Mean in the King James?

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Lamentations 5:6 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The price of bread is the hand itself: the people give their agency to ⁨מִצְרַיִם⁩ (Mitzrayim, the two narrows).

THE MEANING

When a community must place its power under those who control food, bread comes at a cost to its agency. The hand is the people’s capacity to act, and ⁨מִצְרַיִם⁩ (Mitzrayim, the two narrows) makes the narrowing of choice visible.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a survival bargain is fully free: when bread is the condition, dependence narrows choice.

THE ROOT

נָתַנּוּ

natannu

GROWS FROM

נתן

⁨נתן⁩ (n-t-n; natan) means to give, set, or place.

The verb ⁨נָתַן⁩ (natan, give or place) takes ⁨יָד⁩ (yad, hand) as what is given. The phrase makes dependence tangible: the people place their capacity to act under another’s power to secure bread.

ALSO GROWS

natan: give, set, place

נָתַן

This is the root form behind ⁨נָתַנּוּ⁩ (natannu, we gave), making the people themselves the ones who transfer the hand.

netinah: giving, the act of giving

נְתִינָה

This noun from ⁨נתן⁩ keeps the act of transfer in view; here what is handed over is the people’s agency.

לִשְׂבֹּעַ

lisboaʿ

GROWS FROM

שׂבע

⁨שׂבע⁩ (s-b-ʿ; savaʿ) means to be full or sated.

“satisfied” in this verse is lisboaʿ. The people’s stated aim is ⁨שֹׂבַע⁩ (sovaʿ, fullness or satiety), not abundance: enough bread to be full. That small measure of survival is what makes the surrender of the hand so stark.

ALSO GROWS

sovaʿ: fullness, satiety

שֹׂבַע

This noun from ⁨שׂבע⁩ names the condition the people seek through the bargain: being full.

saveaʿ: full, satisfied

שָׂבֵעַ

This form from ⁨שׂבע⁩ describes the state reached when hunger is answered, clarifying how modest the verse’s immediate aim is.

THE PATTERN

When access to what sustains life is controlled, people can surrender land, labor, or agency to obtain it.

Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.

Genesis 47:19 · KJVHere the need for bread leads people to offer both their land and their service in exchange for survival.

Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.

Nehemiah 5:3 · KJVHere scarcity makes access to food costly enough that people place their property at risk.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Revelation 13:17 · KJVHere control over buying and selling makes access to necessities a means of binding people’s choices.

THE THREAD

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

Deuteronomy 8:18 · KJV

The word “giveth” here is ⁨נָתַן⁩ (natan, give or place), the same root as “we have given” in this verse. The root opens a contrast between a people giving their hand to powers for bread and the capacity to obtain provision being given to them.

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