Lamentations 2:12 Meaning and Explanation
“They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Starving children cry to their mothers for food and faint like the wounded, breathing out their lives in their mothers' arms.
What Does Lamentations 2:12 Mean?
The children's question is heartbreaking in its simplicity: 'Where is corn and wine?' They ask only for bread and drink, the ordinary things every child trusts a parent to provide. But there is none to give. The mothers can only hold them and have nothing to offer but their arms.
'Their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom' describes the children dying in their mothers' embrace, their little lives ebbing away against the very breast that nursed them. The poem dwells here, in the most intimate and devastating loss imaginable, because famine's cruelty falls hardest on the innocent. Scripture does not look away from this, and neither should we. The weight of judgment is measured most truly in the bodies of children.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lamentations 2:12
What does Lamentations 2:12 mean?
Starving children cry to their mothers for food and faint like the wounded, breathing out their lives in their mothers' arms.