Lamentations 5:10

FURTHER DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS OF GOD'S PEOPLE

"Our skin is black like an oven,

Because of the burning heat of famine.

They ravished the women in Zion,

The virgins in the cities of Judah.

Princes were hanged by their hand:

The faces of elders were not honored.

The young men bare the mill;

And the children stumbled under the wood.

The elders have ceased from the gate,

The young men from their music."

"They ravished the women ... the virgins of the cities of Judah" (Lamentations 5:11). This is an accompanying vice of warfare that is just as much a part of modern wars as it was in antiquity. Nothing is more terrible and disgusting than the wholesale rape of the women (all of them) by an army of enemies. The bestiality of wicked men unrestrained by any outside force is the utmost in depravity.

"Princes were hanged up by their hand" (Lamentations 5:12). Recent translations read, "Princes were hung up by their hands,"[8] and, "Our leaders have been taken and hanged."[9] The clause was also translated, "Princes were hanged by the hand of the enemy."[10] Evidently, there is some uncertainty as to the exact meaning. Hanging a victim by his hands was a form of crucifixion. Dummelow also mentioned a custom of those times in which, "They impaled bodies after death in order to expose them to the most utter contempt possible."[11]

"Young men bare the mill ... children stumbled under the wood" (Lamentations 5:13). What we have here is, "The disgrace of young men being compelled to do the work usually assigned to women or slaves (grinding at the mill)."[12] Also, we see the abuse of the children in their being compelled to carry burdens too heavy for a child.

"Elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music." (Lamentations 5:14). "Under the pressure of their circumstances, all public meetings and amusements had ceased."[13] The gates of ancient cities were places where public meetings, trials and rallies of all kinds were held. "The mention of young men and their instrumental music here indicates that the city gates were also places of amusement and entertainment."[14] All such things were impossible under the conditions imposed upon Israel by their conquerors.