THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 43 – PRINCES WERE ABUSED AND YOUNG MEN FORCED INTO HARSH SERVITUDE BY RUTHLESS BABYLON - Lamentations 5:12-13
The subject matter of Lamentations is not pleasant in most of its content, which is probably why it is rarely preached on, or taught. Here in chapter 5 we have some graphic historical accounts of suffering and atrocities done to the survivors of the Babylonian conquest. They were in great need just trying to stay alive. We have been dealing with each of these so far in chapter 5.
In the last message we saw how starvation affected the physical body; how those once slaves now ruled despotically over people. We learned women were raped throughout Israel. It is not surprising that in 70 years time God was going to punish Babylon severely and that was done through the Medes and the Persians. We are so close to God’s wrath falling on this world in the great Tribulation that is coming.
It would be unjust of God to leave the world unpunished considering what happened in Noah’s flood, and the wrath against his own people Israel, and the due punishment against Babylon, and against the Assyrians, and against Sodom and Gomorrah. God is consistent and the Tribulation is consistent with wrath against sin, AND against what the world has done and is doing to Israel (and to Christians for that matter).
The list of anguishing problems that were too heavy for the people to bear, continues in this next message.
[12]. IGNOMINY EVERYWHERE AIMED FOR HUMILIATION
{{Lamentations 5:12 “PRINCES were hung by their hands. ELDERS were not respected.”}}
When an army wants to put its ruthless stamp on the subjection of the people, then it does all it can to degrade and humiliate the conquered inhabitants. In the previous verse we saw the desecration of the women. Now it continues with the princes and elderly.
This world is absolutely atrocious. It saw the horrible, almost unspeakable things Hamas did to the citizens of Israel and to foreign visitors, yet the world turns against Israel and the world press generally, promotes the cause of Hamas. It makes me sick that my nation is one of the very worst in this evil and the Prime Minister – Albanese - is doing Satan’s work as he is a communist who hates Israel with a vengeance. He is a modern Haman. There is only one letter difference between Haman and Hamas but they are “brothers”. The current leader in Britain – Starmer – is just as bad.
The princes here would have been related to godly Josiah, a dreadful thing to happen to his family, but we note that his family (according to the ones mentioned in the biblical record) were wicked and it was because of the wickedness of the people and of his sons, that destruction came on Judah.
I will quote pieces from certain commentators about this hanging matter –
Ellicott – [[The words point to the shameless exposure of the bodies of the dead. (Compare the treatment of Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31:10-12. This was the common practice of the Assyrian kings.]]. {{1 Samuel 31:10-12 “and they put his [Saul] weapons in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose and walked all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh, and burned them there.”}}. The “modern Philistines”, the members of Hamas in the Gaza Strip of the Philistines, are no different in atrocities. The disgusting things Hamas did to pregnant women and to people are nothing less than the extreme hatred of Satan.
Barnes – [[After the princes had been put to death their bodies were hung up by the hand to expose them to public contumely. Old age, again, no more availed to shield men from shameful treatment than the high rank of the princes. Such treatment of conquered enemies was not uncommon in ancient warfare.]]
Cambridge Bible – [[The reference may either be to impalement after death, or to torture in order, as Pe. suggests, to obtain information as to hidden treasure. Both death by crucifixion and subsequent impalement were regarded with the utmost abhorrence by the Jews. For the former see Deuteronomy 21:23.]]. {{Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.”}}
Pulpit Commentary – [[i.e. by the hand of the enemy. Impalement after death was a common punishment with the Assyrians and Babylonians. Thus Sennacherib says that, after capturing rebellious Ekron, he hung the bodies of the chief men on stakes all round the city ('Records of the Past,' 1:38). Benomi gives a picture of such an impalement from one of the plates in Botta's great work ('Nineveh and its Palaces,' p. 192).]]
The second part of the Lamentations verse mentions elders. Elders were to be respected and this is solidly taught in the New Testament but upheld stongly in the Old Testament as well. Sometimes the distinction between the elders of Israel and elders = (older people) is not always clearly defined in the Old Testament but general all who would come under that umbrella are worthy of respect.
Bible Hub has an article on this but I select just the following - [[The Old Testament lays a strong foundation for respecting elders, beginning with the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20:12, the commandment to {{"Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you"}} underscores the importance of respecting parental authority, which extends to all elders. This commandment is reiterated in Deuteronomy 5:16, highlighting its enduring significance.
Leviticus 19:32 further instructs, {{"You are to rise in the presence of the elderly, honour the aged, and fear your God. I am the LORD.”}}. This verse explicitly connects the respect for elders with reverence for God, indicating that honouring the aged is an act of worship and obedience to the Lord.”]]
In our society I have noticed a progressive decline in respect for older people. In the 1940s to 1980 many of the news readers and presenters on radio and television were older people (I don’t mean OLD, but older, or mature, if you like). They had earned that position through service and knowledge. Now in our current age, these presenters and “celebrities” and anchors and all the silly terms given to them, are very young and most of them don’t have a clue about anything. They think they are film stars. They think the world loves them, and it probably does, because the world chases after its own. Wisdom is associated with age. That is just the way our world is; it is the growing arrogance and stupidity associated with the pride of life.
A similar problem happens in the employment sector. More and more, people over the age of 40 and most definitely over the age of 50 are unemployable because they are not wanted, in preference for a young person. Experience and obtained knowledge are being despised for the worldly trend.
The trouble that descended upon Judah was because of the sin of the people but very especially because of the sin of the rulers. I don’t want to be misunderstood, but it was not sin as such that caused the catastrophe, but the CONTINUING sin and the REJECTION of warning after warning, and prophet after prophet. In the following two verses Jeremiah names the perpetrators of the disaster:-
{{Jeremiah 2:26 “As the thief is shamed when he is discovered, so the house of Israel is shamed - they, their kings, their PRINCES, and their priests, and their prophets,”}}
Jeremiah 4:9 “It shall come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “that the heart of the king and the heart of the PRINCES will fail, and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astounded.”}}
In regards to Jeremiah 2:26 I wish to add something. The picture here is of a thief that has been caught in the act of thievery and then is ashamed. What is he ashamed of – his act of thievery? or being caught out?
We hear so much today of people (people in position, well-known people) who have been discovered in a criminal or immoral act, and there are multitudes. Often these are people high in society like politicians. When they get exposed what do they do? Well, they start apologising profusely. “I apologise to those who were cheated out of their savings. I am sorry for what I did.”
RUBBISH! RUBBISH! That is the response and they are not sorry at all. They are just miffed they got caught, else they would have continued happily defrauding or engaging in criminal conduct. The apologise is as genuine as a nine dollar bank note.
It says in verse 26 that Israel will be shamed when their overthrow happens with defeat and mayhem coming from the Babylonians. It is the rulers and the religious leadership that gets mentioned including the princes. I wonder if some, or a few of these (I know the king did not) were shamed to the extent that there was genuine conviction followed by repentance. In any case they were levelled in the dust just like everyone else.
In Jeremiah 4:9 the heart of these elite ones will fail and be astounded. That does not mean repentance. It may mean remorse, but not genuine turning to God, utterly undone. These priests and prophets were continually evil until Babylon came but what did they do after the collapse of society? I somehow feel they did not repent as they were so vile, and they were responsible for Judah's demise.
[13]. DEPRIVATION AND SLAVERY AND ABUSE
{{Lamentations 5:13 “Young men worked at the grinding mill, and YOUTHS STUMBLED under loads of wood.”}}
We are in the section of “position and result.” Verse 12 dealt with princes and elders; verse 13 deals with the young men; and verse 14 deals with elders. All are suffering under Babylon and the oppressing bands of Arabs and others around.
The Babylonians were hard taskmasters, no better than Pharaoh at his worst, and the one word here that describes how bad it was is “stumbled”.
An alternate translation is that young men bear (carry) the mill. So says Ellicott – [[“were not only set to grind the handmill, which was itself the work of a menial slave, commonly of women, but were made to carry the mill itself, probably as they marched along with the Chaldæan armies on their way to Babylon. (Compare Isaiah 47:2.) So in like manner the next clause describes the sufferings of the striplings, who were made to carry the wood which was used as fuel or other purposes, and who literally “fell” (or staggered) under their burdens.”]]
In any case they were the bearers of burdens, the packhorses for the Babylonians, who had no regard for the expendable dignity of the individual. The opinion of Thenius and Ngelsbach, is that this refers to the words of the dragging of the hand-mills, and of the wood necessary for baking bread for the comfort of the soldiers, on the march of the captives to Babylon.
Aben Ezra understands it of moving the wood of the mill, of turning the wooden handle of it; or the wooden post, the rider or runner, by which the upper millstone was turned: this their strength was not equal to, and so failed. The Targum interprets it of a wooden gibbet, or gallows; some wooden engine seems to be had in view, used as a punishment, which was put upon their necks, something like a pillory; which they were not able to stand up under, but fell.
All through history the conquering armies forced the defeated to be slaves and vassals for their war effort. They forced misery upon the people. They had no regard for age or gender. In the world’s rather recent history, we have glaring examples of the Japanese in WW2 and that of Communism in Europe.
There is forced labour in China, forced upon minorities by a vile regime, and what else would you expect under communism? It is a foul system but the world is rushing into Marxism all over, especially in Britain and Australia and France and Canada, under immoral, hateful men.
How wonderful it will be when at the Second Coming Messiah sets up His Kingdom and His rule will be peace and righteousness. We see a glimpse of that in Isaiah 11.
