Lamentations 5:12 (KJV)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

Lamentations 5:10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

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

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

Lamentations 5:13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

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

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 ravished the women in Zion and..." into verse 13's "They took the young men to grind...", 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.