Now their visage is blacker than soot: Revised Standard Version and most others make the contrast between the appearance of these men in verse 7 and their appearance in verse 8 with Now or “But now.” Visage in English normally refers to the human face, but it can also refer to the more general appearance. Translators are divided between those who take the word in its more limited sense as “face” and those who give it the wider meaning of “they appear.” Soot translates a word which also means “blackness.” Soot is the black carbon formed by burning and is usually found on chimneys, stones used for fire places, and cooking pots that are exposed to flames. We may translate, for example, “But now their faces are black as soot,” “Now, however, they are black as soot,” “But now they appear black as soot.” Moffatt translates “now they look more darksome than the night,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “But now they look darker than the darkness (of night).”

Soot is known everywhere, but it is not necessarily used in a figurative expression for comparing something with blackness. Translators should use the expression that is most natural and widely used in their own language.

Good News Translation has reversed the first two printed lines of Revised Standard Version, so that the reason for the princes being unrecognizable is placed in the second line. This tends to obscure the contrast with “whiter than milk” in verse 7.

Good News Translation understands these people to be dead bodies with “faces blackened in death”; but most modern versions take them to be alive, because they are not recognized in the streets suggests that the people are still walking about. For in the streets see 2.11.

Their skin has shriveled upon their bones: the skin of the victims has no flesh between it and the bones, nor does it have any healthy moisture.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .