Lamentations 2:10

10 Daughter Zion's elders sit on the ground and mourn. They throw dust on their heads; they put on mourning clothes. Jerusalem's young women bow their heads all the way to the ground.

Lamentations 2:10 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:10

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, [and]
keep silence
Who used to sit in the gate on thrones of judgment, and passed sentence in causes tried before them; or were wont to give advice and counsel, and were regarded as oracles, now sit on the ground, and dumb, as mourners; see ( Job 2:13 ) ; they have cast up dust upon their heads;
on their white hairs and gray locks, which bespoke wisdom, and made them grave and venerable: they have girded themselves with sackcloth:
after the manner of mourners; who used to be clothed in scarlet and rich apparel, in robes suitable to their office as civil magistrates: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground:
through shame and sorrow; who used to look brisk and gay, and walk with outstretched necks, and carried their heads high, but now low enough. Aben Ezra interprets it of the hair of their heads, which used to be tied up, but now loosed and dishevelled, and hung down as it were to the ground.

Lamentations 2:10 In-Context

8 The LORD planned to destroy Daughter Zion's wall. He stretched out a measuring line, didn't stop himself from devouring. He made barricades and walls wither—together they wasted away.

9 Zion's gates sank into the ground; he broke and shattered her bars; her king and her officials are now among the nations. There is no Instruction! Even her prophets couldn't find a vision from the LORD.

10 Daughter Zion's elders sit on the ground and mourn. They throw dust on their heads; they put on mourning clothes. Jerusalem's young women bow their heads all the way to the ground.

11 My eyes are worn out from weeping; my stomach is churning. My insides are poured on the ground because the daughter of my people is shattered, because children and babies are fainting in the city streets.

12 They say to their mothers, "Where are grain and wine?" while fainting like the wounded in the city streets, while their lives are draining away at their own mothers' breasts.