God’s Word for You

Lamentations 5:11-13 Princes hang by their hands

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, April 15, 2025

11 Women in Zion have been violated,
  and virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes hang by their hands;
  elders are dishonored to their faces.
13 Young men grind at the millstones;
  boys stagger under loads of wood.

The main theme of this final chapter is the helplessness of the people of Judah. How terrible it is to read about women and young girls who were violated. Notice that the prophet reports that this was happening “in the cities of Judah” and “in Zion,” in both cases using the preposition “in” (beth showing location). This violent rape, then, took place not only “among” the Jews, the people of Judah and Zion, but “in” the locations of Zion and the cities of Judah. The attackers assaulted these women and girls in their own homes and in the streets of their towns and cities. This violated the laws of God, which forbids rape (Exodus 22:16) and even in specific situations, such as out in the country or within a city or town (Deuteronomy 22:23-26). The men who did these things were guilty of rape and the punishment was death by stoning, but of course in this case the attackers could hardly be held accountable by their victims who were being exiled and were denied any rights or voice.

The idea of defilement, of rape, should be so unthinkable to us that we are abhorred by it, horrified by it. But we use the language of rape as one of the most commonly heard obscenities, the F-word. Taken at its face value, it can mean nothing else than “I curse you to be raped in the most violent and degrading manner imaginable.” How can people use such a term, allow their children to use it, in so casual a manner? Shouldn’t it be a felony to use such a word? Isn’t it the worst possible example of hate speech? “Hate speech is public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group” (Cambridge Dictionary). But we are afraid to speak up about it.

We live in a culture where some of the men in the highest offices of trust and authority have admitted and even boasted of this very behavior—rape and defilement—but because of their position of power and because the nation is afraid of them, no one has said anything that has any effect. Such men defy the law and get away with it, and they begin to take away even more, day by day.

In the 1940’s, a Lutheran Pastor in Germany named Martin Niemöller said this:

“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”

His words are another example of the lament of the third cross. His words are the lament of a man who wants to warn even as he suffers. This shows how very close the first cross and the third cross come together. What, really, is the difference? Well, the distinction is completely arbitrary because the Lamentations we are studying were by a believer, probably Jeremiah the prophet, suffering under what I have called “the third cross” but with the record of it committed to the Holy Scriptures. Therefore there is no spiritual difference between our “third cross” and the “first cross” of Jeremiah and the exiles, except that the first cross account is here in the text, and our third cross is the cross of our own experience. Therefore, let’s turn to the second cross, which is of supreme importance: The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here on this cross was the Prince hanging by his hands; the Prince of Peace nailed in place. Here was the supreme Elder of Israel, the God of our Fathers, dishonored to his face. Humanly speaking he was still a young man, forced to do far worse than turn a millstone. He surely staggered under his burden of wood.

He didn’t suffer any of this because he was forced to. He wasn’t even arrested because he had no other choice. When Peter tried to step in to defend him from the detachment, Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and at once he will send me more than twelve legions of angels? But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54). He is the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He did this willingly, lovingly, obediently. This is Christ for us. “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). In that verse, when Paul says “awake or asleep,” he means that whether we are alive or dead when he returns, we will all be brought home to heaven. The dead have not missed it; they will be raised to life, and together we will be winged to heaven by the angels of God.

So speak up for one another in love. Help each other; help your neighbor by standing up for him when he is wronged; defend her honor when it might be threatened. Do it through the law, so that the government has no cause to punish you, but do it with love, so that the world will see your faith and be led to praise God on account of what you do. As Paul also says: “Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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