Psalm 80:5

Psalm 80:5, in plain English

Instead of bread and water, God has been feeding them tears—meaning their sustenance has become suffering and sorrow. This is poetic language describing how completely the crisis has consumed their lives.

Why it's here

The people aren't just struggling militarily or politically; they're emotionally devastated. They're living on heartbreak. The image is vivid: imagine having nothing to eat but your own tears. That's how the psalmist is describing the depth of their grief.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, painting a portrait of the people's suffering.

Where it sits in the story

This connects to the broader biblical pattern where God sometimes allows His people to suffer in order to call them back to Himself or to refine their faith. It's not punishment without purpose, but it's still incredibly painful.

The scholarly reading

God has made the people's sustenance itself a source of grief, replacing physical nourishment with emotional anguish.

Language and setting

The metaphor is visceral: instead of bread for strength, God has given 'bread of tears' (לֶחֶם דִּמְעוֹת, 'lechem dim'ot'); instead of drink for refreshment, the 'full measure' or 'shekel' of weeping. This inverts the language of covenant blessing (Deuteronomy 28)—where obedience brings abundance—into curse language where even basic sustenance becomes contaminated by sorrow. Medieval commentators like Ibn Ezra and Maimonides noted that this suggests protracted suffering, not a single catastrophic moment.

Voice

The psalmist continues the lament, now moving from petition to description of experienced reality—the community's actual condition.

Significance

This echoes Job's complaints and prefigures Christ's identification with suffering humanity. It also invokes the wilderness tradition where God fed Israel with manna—a provision now reimagined as seasoned with tears, suggesting divine care paradoxically combined with divine judgment.

3Restore us, O God, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.

4O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?

5You fed them with the bread of tears and made them drink the full measure of their tears.

6You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.

7Restore us, O God of Hosts, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.

Read all of Psalm 80 — Israel is a vine God brought out of Egypt. Now its walls are broken and strangers pluck its fruit. Shine Your face on us, and we shall be saved.