Read
Psalm 80:5
You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
3Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
4LORD God of Armies, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
5You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
6You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves.
7Turn us again, God of Armies. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.
Notice
Bread and drink become tears in this prayer, where God's people name him as the giver of sorrow that fills their days.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What would you want to say to God about being fed “the bread of tears”?
Write on thisWhat is hard to put into prayer when sorrow comes “in large measure”?
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Where else Scripture says this
11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Isaiah 30:20Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your …Both passages name God as the giver of bread and drink that express his people's affliction.
Psalm 42:3My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”Tears become food in both psalms, portraying sorrow as something consumed rather than something left outside ordinary life.
Psalm 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,Both prayers connect tears with drinking and make bread part of their picture of sorrow.
Job 3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.Both passages connect grief with eating and use liquid imagery for sorrow: tears to drink and groanings poured out like water.
Ecclesiastes 4:1Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on …Both texts name people's tears; Ecclesiastes identifies oppression and absent comforters, while the psalm addresses God about the sorrow.
Jeremiah 9:15Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.God feeds people distressing food and drink in both passages: tears in the psalm, wormwood and poisoned water in Jeremiah.
Job 6:7My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.The shared image is food associated with distress: the psalm describes consuming tears, while Job describes food his soul refuses.
Ezekiel 4:16–17Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink …Both passages connect bread and measured drink with suffering, though the psalm measures tears and Ezekiel describes water consumed in dismay.
1 Kings 22:27Say, ‘The king says, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.”’”Both passages bind bread and drink to affliction, though the psalm addresses God and Kings reports a king's prison command.
2 Chronicles 18:26and say, ‘The king says, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I return in peace.”’”Bread and drink carry suffering in both texts: tears supplied by God in the psalm, affliction imposed by a king in Chronicles.
Ezekiel 12:18“Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness.Eating bread and drinking are marked by distress in both passages, with tears in the psalm and trembling in Ezekiel.
Where this verse fits
Grief. feeling distant from God. waiting.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The people speak to God as the one who has fed them tears. Their prayer for his saving face continues while the tears remain.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).