Albert Barnes Commentary Lamentations 5:9

"We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness." — Lamentations 5:9 (ASV)

We gat - Or, We get our bread at the peril of our lives. This verse apparently refers to those who were left in the land, and who in gathering in such fruits as remained, were exposed to incursions of the Bedouin, here called “the sword of the desert.”