Lamentations 5:13 “Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.”

Lamentations 5:13

Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

Berean Standard Bible

Other translations

King James Version

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

World English Bible

The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood.

American Standard Version

The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.

Geneva Bible 1599

They tooke the yong men to grinde, and the children fell vnder the wood.

Darby Translation

The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.

Young's Literal Translation

Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled.

Bible in Basic English

The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

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Cross references

“the young”

Judges 16:21 Exodus 11:5 Job 31:10 Isaiah 47:2

Judges 16:21 · BSB

Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.

Exodus 11:5 · BSB

and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.

Job 31:10 · BSB

then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

Isaiah 47:2 · BSB

Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

“fell”

Matthew 23:4 Exodus 1:11 Exodus 2:11 Exodus 23:5 Nehemiah 5:1–5 Isaiah 58:6

Matthew 23:4 · BSB

They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

Exodus 1:11 · BSB

So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

Exodus 2:11 · BSB

One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

Exodus 23:5 · BSB

If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.

Nehemiah 5:1–5 · BSB

About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

Isaiah 58:6 · BSB

Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?

Cross references adapted from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0) and the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

In context

12Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.

14The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

Read Lamentations 5