Lamentations 5:14
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The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
A Prayer to the Lord by the Church, Languishing in Misery, for the Restoration of Her Former State of Grace 1 Remember, O Jahveh, what hath happened to us; consider, and behold our reproach. 2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to foreigners. 3 We are orphans, without a father; our mothers are as widows. 4 Our own water we drink for money, our own wood cometh to us in return for payment. 5 On our necks are we persecuted; we are jaded, - there is no rest for us. 6 [Towards] Egypt we reach our hand, - [towards] Assyria, to satisfy ourselves [with] bread. 7 Our fathers sinned, they are not; we bear their iniquities. 8 Servants rule us; there is none to deliver us out of their hand. 9 At the risk of our life we bring in our bread, because of the sword of the wilderness. 10 Our skin gloweth with heat like a furnace, because of the fever-heat of hunger. 11 They have forced women in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah. 12 Princes are hung up by their hand; the face of the elders is not honoured. 13 Young men carry millstones, and lads stagger under [loads of] wood. 14 Elders cease from the gate, young men from their instrumental music. 15 The joy of our heart hath ceased, our dancing has turned into mourning. 16 The crown of our head is fallen; woe unto us, that we have sinned! 17 Because of this our heart became sick; because of these [things] our eyes became dark. 18 Upon Mount Zion, which is laid waste, jackals roam through it. 19 Thou, O Jahveh, dost sit [enthroned] for ever; They throne is for generation and generation. 20 Why dost thou forget us for ever, - forsake us for a length of days? 21 Lead us back, O Jahveh, to thyself, that we may return; renew our days, as of old. 22 Or, hast Thou indeed utterly rejected us? art thou very wroth against us? This…
Open source ↗This chapter, though it has the same number of verses with the 1st, 2nd, and 4th, is not alphabetical, as they were, but the scope of it is the same with that of all the foregoing elegies. We have in it, I. A representation of the present calamitous state of God's people in their captivity (v. 1-16). II. A protestation of their concern for God's sanctuary, as that which lay nearer their heart than any secular interest of their own (Lam 5:17, Lam 5:18). III. A humble supplication to God and expostulation with him, for the returns of mercy (Lam 5:19-22); for those that lament and do not pray sin in their lamentations. Some ancient versions call this chapter, "The Prayer of Jeremiah."
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
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I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.
And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound of a millstone be heard in you again.
Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.
I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.
You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.
My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.