Lamentations 5:12 (DBY)

Passage

Princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured.

Nearby Context

Lamentations 5:10 Our skin gloweth like an oven, because of the burning heat of the famine.

Lamentations 5:11 They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah.

Lamentations 5:12 Princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured.

Lamentations 5:13 The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "princes", "hanged", "hand", "faces", "elders", and "honoured". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "princes" and "hanged", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "They have ravished the women in Zion..." into verse 13's "The young men have borne the mill...", so "princes" and "hanged" 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 "princes" and "hanged" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.