Lamentations 5:13 (ASV)

Passage

The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 5:11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.

Lamentations 5:12 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.

Lamentations 5:13 The young men bare the mill; And the children stumbled under the wood.

Lamentations 5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.

Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "young", "bare", "mill", "children", "stumbled", "under", and "wood". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "young" and "bare", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 12's "Princes were hanged up by their hand..." into verse 14's "The elders have ceased from the gate...", so "young" and "bare" belong inside that flow. In Lamentations context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "young" and "bare" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.