The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
Parallel translations
- WEB The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.
- BSB The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
- NKJV The elders have ceased gathering at the gate, And the young men from their music.
- NASB Elders are absent from the gate, Young men from their music.
- NLT The elders no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing.
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 elders no longer gather at the city gate and the young men no longer make music. Both wise governance and ordinary joy have ceased.
Overview
The gate was the center of justice and counsel where elders presided, and music was the sound of communal gladness; both have fallen silent. Their absence signals the collapse of public life and celebration alike. The verse shows how sin's consequences silence both order and joy, while the gospel promises a restored city where neither justice nor song will ever fail (Isaiah 35:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Jer 7:34Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
- Ezek 26:13And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
- Isa 24:7–11The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
- Rev 18:22And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
- Deut 16:18Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
- Jer 16:9For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
- Job 30:1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
- Jer 25:10Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
- Job 30:31My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
- Job 29:7–17When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
- 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.
- Lam 1:19I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
- Lam 1:4The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
- Isa 3:2–3The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
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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 5:14 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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