What Does Lamentations 5:6 Mean?
We have given our hand to Egypt and to Assyria, to be filled with bread.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.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.
“given our hand” in this verse is natannu. 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.
“filled” 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.
Why should we die before your eyes, we and also our ground? Buy us and our ground for bread, and we and our ground will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the ground not be emptied.Some also said, We have lodged our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in pledge, that we might buy grain because of the hunger.And so that no one is able to buy or sell, except the one who has the engraving, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.THE THREAD
But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to make strength, so that he may raise up his covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.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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