The poet speaks on behalf of his fellow-countrymen when he describes the king as The breath of our nostrils. In other words, just as breath is needed to keep the body alive, so the king is the source of life for the nation. This expression is used poetically as an honorific title and is found only here in the Old Testament. It is followed by “the anointed of the LORD,” which means “the one the LORD has chosen.” The term anointed normally refers to the king, although the high priest and some prophets were also anointed.
Was taken in their pits means that the king was captured like an animal in a pitfall. The word translated pits is not the same as in 3.53, 55, but the sense is the same. Good News Translation expresses the first half of the verse well but sacrifices some of the poetic imagery: “They captured the source of our life, the king the LORD had chosen.”
When rendering The breath of our nostrils, it will be important to identify this sentiment as applying to the king; otherwise some readers will assume it refers to God. We may say, for example, “God has chosen for us our king, and the king is the one who gives us life,” “… and he enables us to live,” or more idiomatically, “… and he is in every breath we draw,” or “… and our king is as dear to us as the air we breathe.”
As long as the king was alive there was hope, but with him gone all hope was lost. He of whom we said introduces a direct quotation of a saying which the people had used. This phrase introducing the quotation may have to be reworded to say, for example, “We had always said about our king: ‘We shall live in his shadow among the nations.’ ” The idea of living in the shadow of the king means to receive his protection, and so Good News Translation has “the one we had trusted to protect us…,” which makes a good translation model. Compare Judges 9.15; Isaiah 32.1-2.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .