Lamentations 1:5

5 Her foes have become the head, her enemies relax, for ADONAI has made her suffer because of her many sins. Her young children have gone away captive before the foe.

Lamentations 1:5 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:5

Her adversaries are the chief
Or, "for the head" ^F14; or are the head, as was threatened, ( Deuteronomy 28:44 ) ; and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them: her enemies prosper;
in wealth and riches, in grandeur and glory; live in ease and tranquillity, enjoying all outward felicity and happiness; while Zion was in distress; which was an aggravation of it; and yet this was but righteous judgment: for the Lord hath afflicted her;
who is righteous in all his ways: the Chaldeans were but instruments; the evil was from the Lord, according to his will and righteous determination, as appears by what follows: for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into
captivity before the enemy;
that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were carried captive by the enemy, and drove before them as a flock of sheep, and that for the sins of the nation; and these not a few, but were very numerous, as Mordecai and Ezekiel, and others, who were carried captive young with Jeconiah, as well as many now.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 (varl) "in caput", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "facti sunt caput", Cocceius.

Lamentations 1:5 In-Context

3 Y'hudah has fled into exile from oppression and endless slavery. She lives among the nations, but there she finds no rest. Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Tziyon are mourning because no one comes to the festivals. Her gateways are all deserted, her cohanim are groaning, her unmarried girls are grieving -how bitter it is for her!

5 Her foes have become the head, her enemies relax, for ADONAI has made her suffer because of her many sins. Her young children have gone away captive before the foe.

6 All splendor has departed from the daughter of Tziyon. Her princes have become like deer unable to find pasture, running on, exhausted, fleeing from the hunter.

7 In the days of her affliction and anguish, Yerushalayim remembers all the treasures that were hers, ever since ancient times. Now her people fall into the power of the foe, and she has no one to help her; her enemies are gloating over her, mocking her desolation.