Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
Parallel translations
- WEB Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
- BSB Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.
- NKJV Princes were hung up by their hands, And elders were not respected.
- NASB Leaders were hung by their hands; Elders were not respected.
- NLT Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs, and our elders are treated with contempt.
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
Leaders were executed and the elders shown no respect by the conquerors. The whole social order of honor has been overturned.
Overview
Princes were hanged—likely impaled or hung in public shame—and the elders, who once commanded reverence, were dishonored. The reversal of every God-given structure of dignity marks the completeness of Judah's humiliation. Such overturning of honor points forward to the cross, where Christ bore shame for us so that He might raise the lowly and lift the humbled (Philippians 2:8-9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Lam 4:16The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.
- Isa 47:6I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
- Jer 39:6–7Then 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.
- Lam 2:20Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Jer 52:10–11And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
- Lam 2:10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and 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.
- Jer 52:25–27He took also out of the city an eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king’s person, which were found in the city; and the principal scribe 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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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 5:12 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
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