Our enemies rape the women in Jerusalem and the young girls in all the towns of Judah.
Parallel translations
- WEB They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
- KJV They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
- BSB Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
- NKJV They ravished the women in Zion, The maidens in the cities of Judah.
- NASB They violated the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The conquering soldiers committed sexual violence against the women of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. It records the brutal degradation inflicted on the helpless.
Overview
The verse names the assault of women in Zion and the virgins of Judah, one of the cruelest atrocities of conquest in the ancient world. Lamentations does not hide such horrors but lays them honestly before God as part of its grief. Scripture's refusal to look away from human evil heightens our longing for the righteous Judge who will set all wrongs right (Revelation 21:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Isa 13:16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
- Zech 14:2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
- Deut 28:30You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 5:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.