Charles Ellicott 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)

The sword of the wilderness. —Another element of suffering is hinted at. Those who were left in the land were attacked, as they gathered in their scanty harvest, by the nomad tribes of the wilderness—Amalekites, Midianites, and others. (Compare to Jeremiah 40:14.)