Lamentations 5:12

12 Princes were hanged [up] by the hand; they were not ashamed of the faces of eld men. (Our leaders were hung up by their hands; no one showed any honour to the old men, or the elders.)

Lamentations 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:12

Princes are hanged up by their hand
According to some, as Aben Ezra observes, by the hand of the servants before mentioned; however, by the hand of the Chaldeans or Babylonians; see ( Jeremiah 52:10 ) . Some understand it of their own hands, as if they laid violent hands upon themselves, not being able to bear the hardships and disgrace they were subjected to but I should rather think this is to be understood of hanging them, not by the neck, but by the hand, could any instance be given of such a kind of punishment so early used, and by this people; which has been in other nations, and in more modern times: the faces of elders were not honoured;
no reverence or respect were shown to elders in age or office, or on account of either; but were treated with rudeness and contempt.

Lamentations 5:12 In-Context

10 Our skin is burnt as a furnace, of the face of tempests of hunger. (Our skin is burned like from a furnace, from being buffeted by the tempests of hunger.)

11 They made low (the) women in Zion, and (the) virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged [up] by the hand; they were not ashamed of the faces of eld men. (Our leaders were hung up by their hands; no one showed any honour to the old men, or the elders.)

13 They misused young waxing men unchastely, and children fell down in (the) tree. (They used the young men unchastely, and children fell down under loads of wood.)

14 Eld men failed from [the] gates; young men failed from the quire of singers. (Old men no longer sit at the city gates; young men no longer sing in the choir.)