The two countries Egypt and Assyria are named in the two parallel half-lines of this verse; but this does not mean that the content of the first half-line applies only to Egypt and that of the second only to Assyria. Instead the statements in both half-lines apply to both countries, as in Good News Translation.

In the past Israel’s rulers had made treaties with Egypt and Assyria, not only for military protection but also for material gain. At the time of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, the Assyrian empire had already been destroyed. The poet is therefore thinking chiefly in terms of the political activities of a previous generation, as the next verse suggests. But the present generation cannot consider itself entirely free of blame for the sins of earlier generations, as the poet suggests by the use of the first person plural here.

We have given the hand is interpreted in various ways. One sense is seen by comparing this expression with that in 2 Kings 10.15, in which Jehu makes a pact with Jehonadab by “giving his hand.” In this case the two men make a pact with each other as equals. A different sense of the same expression is found in Jeremiah 50.15, which speaks of the fall of Babylon. Here “give her hand” is translated by both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation as “surrendered.” The context of verse 6 makes clear that Jerusalem is in need of food and therefore is reaching out to a foreign nation for help or, as Good News Translation says, “went begging.” New International Version has “We submitted to Egypt and Assyria,” Moffatt “we surrendered to the foe.”

In translation it is important to use an expression which shows that one party to the agreement is under pressure (in this case forced by starvation) to submit or make concessions in order to gain its objective. For example, we may say “In order to get food from them we bowed down to the…,” “… we agreed to their demands,” “… we promised to call them ‘boss,’ ” “We laid our necks out for them (to chop off),” or “We tied our hands and feet for them.”

For bread see comments on 1.11.

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 .