Ratapan 5:4

5:4 We must pay money ¹  for our own water; ² 

we must buy our own wood at a steep price. ³ 

Yehezkiel 5:16

5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, ⁴  destructive ⁵  arrows of famine, ⁶  which I will shoot to destroy you. ⁷  I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. ⁸ 

[5:4]  ¹ tn Heb “silver.” The term “silver” is a synecdoche of species (= silver) for general (= money).

[5:4]  ² tn Heb “We drink our water for silver.”

[5:4]  ³ tn Heb “our wood comes for a price.”

[5:16]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious,” but when used of weapons has the nuance “deadly” (see Ps 144:10).

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “which are/were to destroy.”

[5:16]  ⁶ tn The language of this verse may have been influenced by Deut 32:23.

[5:16]  ⁷ tn Or “which were to destroy those whom I will send to destroy you” (cf. NASB).

[5:16]  ⁸ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support. See 4:16, as well as the covenant curse in Lev 26:26.