These are (small) landowners who scratched together their daily bread from the produce of the land. They were confronted, however, with crop failure due to famine (be it in the present or recent past). With no reserves and their men working on the wall, they were pressed into mortgaging their fields, vineyards, and/or houses in order to feed their families. Taking out a mortgage, of course, puts increased pressure on next week’s (or month’s) budget as the mortgage needs to be repaid. This second group felt sufficient pressure from their dilemma that they too wailed their distress
3 There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.”