Lamentations 4:8

American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

Their visage is blacker than a coal; They are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

חָשַׁ֤ךְ מִשְּׁחוֹר֙ תָּֽאֳרָ֔ם לֹ֥א נִכְּר֖וּ בַּחוּצ֑וֹת צָפַ֤ד עוֹרָם֙ עַל־עַצְמָ֔ם יָבֵ֖שׁ הָיָ֥ה כָעֵֽץ׃

Transliteration

Ḥāšaḵ from šəḥôr their tāʾŏrām, not nikkərû in the ḥûṣôt; ṣāp̄aḏ their ʿôrām on their ʿaṣmām, yāḇēš it is like the ʿēṣ

Grammar Details

• *ḥāšaḵ*: Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - it is dark/black
• *mi-ššəḥôr*: preposition + definite masculine singular noun - from blackness
• *tāʾŏrām*: masculine singular noun with 3rd masculine plural suffix - their appearance/form
• *lōʾ*: negative particle - not
• *nikkərû*: Niphal perfect, 3rd common plural - they are recognized
• *ba-ḥûṣôt*: preposition + definite feminine plural noun - in the streets
• *ṣāp̄aḏ*: Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - it shrivels/clings
• *ʿôrām*: masculine singular noun with 3rd masculine plural suffix - their skin
• *ʿal-ʿaṣmām*: preposition + feminine plural noun with 3rd masculine plural suffix - on their bones
• *yāḇēš*: Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - it is dry
• *hāyâ*: Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - it is/was
• *kā-ʿēṣ*: preposition + definite masculine singular noun - like the wood/tree

Word Meanings

• *ḥāšaḵ*: is dark/is black/is gloomy
• *šəḥôr*: blackness/soot/darkness
• *tāʾŏrām*: their appearance/their form/their visage
• *nikkərû*: are recognized/are known/are distinguished
• *ṣāp̄aḏ*: shrivels/clings/sticks
• *yāḇēš*: is dry/is withered/is parched
• *ʿēṣ*: wood/tree/timber

Referenced Verses

• Job 30:30 : 30 My skin is black, [and falleth] from me, And my bones are burned with heat.
• Ps 102:3-5 : 3 For my days consume away like smoke, And my bones are burned as a firebrand. 4 My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; For I forget to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning My bones cleave to my flesh.
• Lam 5:10 : 10 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
• Ps 119:83 : 83 For I am become like a wine-skin in the smoke; Yet do I not forget thy statutes.
• Job 19:20 : 20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
• Job 30:17-19 : 17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the [pains] that gnaw me take no rest. 18 By [God's] great force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. 19 He hath cast me into the mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.
• Ruth 1:19-20 : 19 So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Beth-lehem, that all the city was moved about them, and [the women] said, Is this Naomi? 20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
• Job 2:12 : 12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his robe, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.
• Job 33:21 : 21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; And his bones that were not seen stick out.
• Ps 32:4 : 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: My moisture was changed [as] with the drought of summer. {H5542}
• Ps 38:3 : 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation; Neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
• Isa 52:14 : 14 Like as many were astonished at thee (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),
• Lam 4:1-2 : 1 How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. 2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
• Ps 102:11 : 11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; And I am withered like grass.
• Joel 2:6 : 6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish; all faces are waxed pale.
• Nah 2:10 : 10 She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale.