Lamentations 4:9 [They that be] slain with the sword are better than [they that be] slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for [want of] the fruits of the field.
Ver. 9. They that be slain with the sword are better.] They suffer less pain in dying; they are soon despatched. See on Lamentations 4:6. But famine is a hard weapon.
“ Triste genus mortis miseris mortalibus omne:
Est tureen imprimis triste perire fame. ”
For these pine away. ] By a lingering death, as Drusus the Roman, to whom food being denied, he had eaten the stuffings of his bed, saith Suetonius; and our Richard II, who was tantalised and starved to death at Pomfret Castle, where his diet being served in and set before him in the wonted princely manner, he was not suffered either to taste or touch thereof. a
Stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.] Those "precious fruits of the earth," as James the apostle calleth them. Jam 5:7 These as a sword defend us from death; and the want of them, as a sword, runneth us through. In the time of Otho the emperor, there was so great a scarcity of bread grain in Germany for three years together that many thousands died of hunger; in remembrance of which great dearth there is yearly baked at Erfurt a little loaf, such as was then sold for much money. b
a Speed, 766.
b Melanchth.