Lamentations 5:12

12 Our leaders have been taken and hanged; our elders are shown no respect.

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 Hunger has made us burn with fever until our skin is as hot as an oven.

11 Our wives have been raped on Mount Zion itself; in every Judean village our daughters have been forced to submit.

12 Our leaders have been taken and hanged; our elders are shown no respect.

13 Our young men are forced to grind grain like slaves; boys go staggering under heavy loads of wood.

14 The old people no longer sit at the city gate, and the young people no longer make music.