Lamentations Chapter 5 verse 13 Holy Bible
The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.
read chapter 5 in ASV
The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.
read chapter 5 in BBE
The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.
read chapter 5 in DARBY
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
read chapter 5 in KJV
read chapter 5 in WBT
The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood.
read chapter 5 in WEB
Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled.
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 13. - They took the young men to grind; rather, the young men have borne the mill. The lower millstone seems to have been specially hard, and therefore heavy (see Job 41:24), and to carry it about must have required a more severe exertion even than the constant turning of the mill handle. Dr. Thomson "cannot recall an instance in which men were grinding at the mill" ('The Land and the Book,' edit. 1881, p. 108), and both Exodus 11:5 and Matthew 24:41 presuppose that it was women's work. The conquered Jewish youths, however, share the fate of Samson - "Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill with slaves."(Samson Agonistes,' 41.) Eyeless, indeed, they may some of them have been, as putting out the eyes was a common Oriental punishment (comp. Jeremiah 39:7). The children. This is, perhaps, too strong. The Hebrew na'ar is applicable, not only to children, but to youths at the age for marriage (Genesis 34:19) or war (1 Kings 20:15). The wood; not the wooden handle of the mill, but the wood required for fuel.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) They took . . .--Better, Young men bear the mill: i.e., were not only set to grind the handmill, which was itself the work of a menial slave, commonly of women, but were made to carry the mill itself, probably as they marched along with the Chaldaean armies on their way to Babylon. (Comp. Isaiah 47:2.) So in like manner the next clause describes the sufferings of the striplings, who were made to carry the wood which was used as fuel or other purposes, and who literally "fell" (or staggered) under their burdens.
