Lamentations 5:14
in Lamentations 5The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.
KJV
The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
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This verse in Lamentations 5
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThe elders have ceased from the gate,.... Of the sanhedrim, or court of judicature, as the Targum; from the gate of the city, where they used to sit and try causes; but now there was nothing of this kind done: the young men from their music; vocal and instrumental; the latter is more particularly specified, though both may be intended; neither were any more heard; their harps were hung upon the willows on the banks of Euphrates, which ran through the city of Babylon, Psa 137:1.
This site's exposition
Young men toil at millstones
on Lamentations 5:13-15
Verse 13 sets the young at a slave's labor: “Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood”. Verse 14 empties the gate of its elders, and verse 15 states the result: “Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning”.
This site's exposition
The elders have left the city gate
The city gate served as court and meeting place, where elders heard cases, as in Ruth 4:1-2. Adam Clarke notes that justice left with them. John Gill ties the stopped music to the harps hung up by the rivers of Babylon in Psalm 137:1-2.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Here misery is considered in relation to the people's lost possessions. First, as persons' offices as stated: "The old men have quit the city gate." Namely, exercising their office at the city gate. Then: "the young men their music": That is, as exercising their office …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
God is righteous, for we have sinned. " Note, All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. If the crown of our head be fallen (for so the words run), if we lose our excellency and become mean, we may thank ourselves, we have by our own iniquity profaned our crown and laid our honour in the dust. Prayer for Mercy and Grace.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
It does indeed well become old men to cease from their music; it is time to lay it by with a gracious contempt when all the daughters of music are brought low; but it speaks some great calamity upon a people when their young men are made to cease from it.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The elders have ceased from the gate - There is now no more justice administered to the people; they are under military law, or disposed of in every sense according to the caprice of their masters.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The gate - The gate was the place for public gatherings, for conversation, and the music of stringed instruments.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Encumbered with millstones. When the enemies led them away in neck irons, they would place on their shoulders millstones and burdens in order to tire them. 10 Alternatively, ‘youths were forced to grind wheat,’ a task which drains their strength.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| זְקֵנִים֙ | zekenim | old [men] | H2205 → | 178 times |
| מִשַּׁ֣עַר | mishaar | from [the] gate | H8179 → | 374 times |
| שָׁבָ֔תוּ | shavatu | they have ceased | H7673 → | |
| בַּחוּרִ֖ים | bachurim | young men | H970 → | 44 times |
| מִנְּגִינָתָֽם׃ | mineginatam | from music their | H5058 → |
זְקֵנִים֙old [men]
zekenimH2205 →178 times
מִשַּׁ֣עַרfrom [the] gate
mishaarH8179 →374 times
שָׁבָ֔תוּthey have ceased
shavatuH7673 →
בַּחוּרִ֖יםyoung men
bachurimH970 →44 times
מִנְּגִינָתָֽם׃from music their
mineginatamH5058 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 18:22And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never ring out in you again. Nor will any craftsmen of any trade be found in you again, nor the sound…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 26:13
So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 7:34
I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 16:9
For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 25:10
Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
- Ezekiel 26:13
Through
Ezekiel 26:13So I will silence the sound of your songs, and the music of your lyres will no longer be heard.
it leads to
- Isaiah 24:8–9
The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 24:8–9
Through
Lamentations 2:10The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to…
it leads to
- Isaiah 3:26
And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- Isaiah 3:26
Through
Jeremiah 7:34I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
it leads to
- Hosea 2:11
I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts.
- Revelation 18:23
The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of…
- Hosea 2:11
Where this verse is studied
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.