Lamentations 5:12
What does Lamentations 5:12 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 5:12 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 5:12 means
Princes are hanged by the hand—likely a brutal, public execution or display—and elders, once honored counselors, are treated with contempt. Leadership has been dishonored and silenced. In a culture where elders at the gate embodied wisdom and justice, their humiliation signals civic collapse. The verse catalogs how judgment dismantles the pillars of community: rulers destroyed, sages mocked. By presenting this to Jehovah, they confess that human authority has failed and plead, implicitly, for God’s righteous rule to be restored among them. The shame of leaders mirrors the people’s shame; they stand together in need of mercy and reordering from heaven.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
KJV
King James Version · 1611Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancients.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured.
Context
Following the violation of women, the prayer notes the disgrace of leaders. Verse 12 highlights the collapse of governance and public honor. Next, it will describe the conscription of young men and even children into crushing labor. The flow moves from those at the top to those at the bottom, showing that no segment has escaped the nation’s downfall. This readies the heart for the sweeping confession and plea to come.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Lamentations 4:16
The anger of Jehovah hath scattered them; he will no more regard them: They respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.
- Isaiah 47:6
I was wroth with my people, I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thy hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
- Lamentations 2:20
See, O Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Lamentations 2:10
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
- Jeremiah 39:6
Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
- Jeremiah 52:25
and out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war; and seven men of them that saw the king’s face, that were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.
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