Lamentations 1:15

15 "The Master piled up my best soldiers in a heap, then called in thugs to break their fine young necks. The Master crushed the life out of fair virgin Judah.

Lamentations 1:15 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 1:15

The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty [men] in the
midst of me
As a causeway is trodden; or as mire is trodden under foot in the streets; so were the mighty and valiant men, the soldiers and men of war, trodden under foot and destroyed by the Chaldeans in the streets of Jerusalem, and in the midst of Judea; the Lord so permitting it: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men;
the army of the Chaldeans, which were brought against Jerusalem by a divine appointment and call; against whom the choicest and stoutest of them, even their young men, could not stand; but were crushed and broken to pieces by them. The word for "assembly" sometimes signifies an appointed time; a time fixed for solemn festivals, and for calling the people to them; and so the Targum here,

``he hath called or appointed a time to break the strength of my young men;''

the time of Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonians: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, [as] in a
winepress;
in the winepress of his wrath; or however in the winepress of the Babylonians, who are compared to one; into whose hands the Jews falling, were like grapes cast into a winepress, and there trodden by men, in order to squeeze and get out the wine; and in like manner were their blood squeezed out of them and shed. The Targum interprets it of the blood of virginity being poured out, as wine in a press; the virgins of Judah being ravished and defiled by the enemy.

Lamentations 1:15 In-Context

13 "He struck me with lightning, skewered me from head to foot, then he set traps all around so I could hardly move. He left me with nothing - left me sick, and sick of living.

14 "He wove my sins into a rope and harnessed me to captivity's yoke. I'm goaded by cruel taskmasters.

15 "The Master piled up my best soldiers in a heap, then called in thugs to break their fine young necks. The Master crushed the life out of fair virgin Judah.

16 "For all this I weep, weep buckets of tears, and not a soul within miles around cares for my soul. My children are wasted, my enemy got his way."

17 Zion reached out for help, but no one helped. God ordered Jacob's enemies to surround him, and now no one wants anything to do with Jerusalem.