Lamentations 5:14

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

Ver. 14. The elders have ceased from the gate.] Where they were wont to sit, {Gen 34:20} to judge between party and party.

The young men from their music.] From their ordinary and honest recreations and disports.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

EXEGETICAL NOTES.—

Lam_5:14. Entire collapse of interest in the common ways of life was shown by the abandonment of public meetings and social pastimes. The elders ceased from [frequenting] the gate. They had gone thither as to the usual gathering-place; they adjudicated, advised, had general intercourse, and received the marks of respect suggested by the law—Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man (Lev_19:32); but that resort was no longer theirs. Moreover, the buoyancy of youthful spirits was crushed down. Young men ceased from their music, accompanied by instruments.

Lam_5:15. The iron had entered the soul. Ceased is the joy of our heart, and past pleasures had become a pain; turned into mourning our dance.

HOMILETICS

BUSINESS AND RECREATION

(Lam_5:14-15)

I. Are necessary in all organised communities. Commercial activity and prosperity lead to a more highly organised condition of social life. To prevent the clashing and confusion of the multiplicity of interests generated by an increasing commerce, certain rules are laid down for general observance. It is only thus that law and order can be maintained. It is soon recognised that business and pleasure must be judiciously combined in order to develop a healthy and vigorous people. Incessant labour would grind down and destroy the force of the national character, and an uninterrupted round of pleasure would weaken and dissipate its enterprise and energy. The happy medium in promoting what is best in both individual and national life is found in the wise alternation of work and recreation.

“Run if you will, but try to keep your breath;

Work like a man, but don’t be worked to death.”

II. Are evidences of a happy and contented people. The gate of an Eastern city is the common rendezvous of the citizens for both business and recreation. There the venerable counsellors sit in repose and dignity to discuss and settle disputes. There the traders vend their wares. There the young life of the city expresses its exuberant joy in song and dance. Here we have a picture of prosperity, peace, and happiness. No people will be long content where there is not a thriving commerce, a reverence for law and age, ample employment and food, and the opportunity for innocent recreation.

III. Their absence a pathetic sign of general desolation. “The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning” (Lam_5:14-15). The aged magistrates no longer frequent the gate, the bazaars of the merchants are deserted, the busy murmur of buying and selling is hushed, the instruments of music are laid aside unstrung, the voice of singing is no longer heard, and the spirits of the youthful dancers are crushed. Business and pleasure alike are abandoned. The joy of happier times is turned into mourning. The prophet could give no more graphic a picture of the desolation and ruin that had settled down upon the land.

LESSONS.—

1. The character and condition of a nation may be read in its commerce and recreations.

2. Work and play are alike necessary in the development of national life.

3. When the spring of enterprise is broken, a nation sinks into decay.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Lam_5:14-15. The extinction of national life:

1. When the wise and aged are no longer interested in public affairs.

2. When the voice of mirth is hushed.

3. When youth has lost its elasticity and hope.

ILLUSTRATIONS.—The dignity of labour. It is time that the opprobrium of toil were done away. Ashamed of toil, art thou? Ashamed of thy dingy workshop or dusty labour-field, of thy hard hand, scarred with service more honourable than that of war, of thy soiled and weather-stained garments, on which Mother Nature has embroidered, amidst sun and rain, amidst smoke and steam, her own heraldic honours? Ashamed of these tokens and titles, and envious of the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity? It is treason to Nature, it is impiety to Heaven. Toil—toil either of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand—is true nobility.

Business not to absorb all our time. Who gave thee leave, Christian, to overlade thyself with the encumbrances of life? Is not God the Lord of thy time, as of everything else? He does indeed allow thee a fair portion for the lower employments of the body, but did He ever intend to turn Himself out of all? This is as if the sailors, who are allowed by the merchant some small adventure for themselves, should fill the ship, and leave no stowage for his goods; or as if a servant should excuse himself to his master, when reproved for neglecting his duty, by saying he could not do it because he was drunk.—Gurnall.

Business and religion. Piety does not retreat from business, but it seizes business, sanctifies it, and makes it sacred. If I understand religion, it is to open a shop, it is to freight ships, it is to keep accounts, it is to write up your ledgers, it is to wear an apron till it be as holy as a bishop’s sleeve, and to wield a spade as responsibly and devoutly as a monarch sways a sceptre. The true characteristic of religion is to go down into everything, rise up to the highest, till, like the atmosphere, it embraces all in its beneficent and beautiful folds.—Cumming.

Recreation. Lute-strings sound all the sweeter for being sometimes let down; and fields sowed every year become barren. So it is with body and mind.

—A primitive Christian playing with birds vindicated his conduct by comparison with the bow, which, if constantly bent, becomes useless. Recreation is a second creation.

Pleasure itself unsatisfying. George Moore, when a wealthy man, wrote in his diary—“After this we kept a great deal of company. The house was looked upon as a work of art. All our friends expected to be invited to see it and partake of our hospitality. We accordingly gave a large dinner weekly, until we had exhausted our numerous friends and acquaintances. But happiness does not flow in such a channel. Promiscuous company takes one’s mind away from God and His dealings with men; and there is no lasting pleasure in the excitement.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

There were no more laws nor form of commonwealth.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Aged men in the East meet in the open space round the gate to decide judicial trials and to hold social converse (Job 29:7-8).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Here the Prophet briefly shews that the city was reduced to ruins, so that nothing but desolation could be seen there. For when cities are inhabited, judges sit at the gate and young men exercise themselves in lawful pursuits; but he says that there were no judgments; for at that time, as it is well known, they were wont to administer justice and to hold assemblies at the gates of cities. It was then the same as though all civil order had been abolished.

Then he adds, the young men had ceased from their own beating or musical songs. The meaning is, that there was so great a desolation in the city, that, it was no more a city. For men cannot dwell together without laws and without courts of justice. Where courts of justice are closed up, where laws are mute, where no equity is administered, there barbarity prevails, which is worse than solitude; and where there are no assemblies for legitimate amusements, life becomes brutal, for we know that man is a sociable being. By these words, then, the Prophet shews that a dreadful desolation appeared in the city after the people had gone into exile. And among the Chaldeans, and in Assyria, they had not their own judges nor any form of government, for they were dispersed and scattered, and that designedly, that they might not unite together any more; for it was the purpose of the Chaldeans to obliterate by degrees the very name of the people; and hence they were not there formed into a community. So justly does the Prophet deplore their desolation even in exile. It follows, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(14) Have ceased from the gate.—The gate in an Eastern city was the natural place of meeting for the elder citizens as for counsel and judgment (Rth_4:1; Jos_20:4), and also for social converse (Job_29:7; Pro_31:23). The “music” of this verse and the “dancing” of the next point to a like interruption of the social joys of the young.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. from the gate] the place of social enjoyment and conversation, answering to our clubs and other places of entertainment. See on Jer_14:2.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The gate - The gate was the place for public gatherings, for conversation, and the music of stringed instruments.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Gates, where sentence was usually passed. (Haydock) --- The Jews had judges at Babylon, (Daniel xiii. 5.) but not at first, nor everywhere.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Our grave men were wont to sit and execute judgment in the gates, but now there is no such thing. Our young men were wont to play on music, and to have their merry meetings, but they are also ceased.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. From the gate — The place for rest and recreation, for business and social converse. In a land in which there were no public houses or public baths the gates were ordinarily the only available places of common resort.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From the gate. The place where the elders, technically so called, assembled for legal proceedings, and where the citizens in general met together for social concourse. (comp. Jer_7:34 Jer_16:9)

The occupation of the elders gone.

I THE PLACE OF OLD MEN IN A COMMUNITY. As men grow old they may get past certain kinds of work, but they need not cease to be useful, nor need age become, unless from bodily frailty, a burden and a weariness. There is much for an old man to tell from the stores of his experience and observation. He may show what ought to be avoided, even if he cannot always tell what ought to be done. The elders sat in the gate, where the throng passed in and out, and where they could see more people probably than anywhere else. An old man should endeavour to be useful and to mingle with the life of the world as long as he can. It is right that he should be in the way of all the respect and veneration he can receive, not because these things are necessary to his happiness, but because those who give them are the better for their giving. A society without its troops of children at one end, full of life and eagerness, and its sprinkling of hoary heads crowned with glory at the other, would soon feel that very important elements were lacking. Elders sitting in the gate bore testimony to a certain stability and continuity in the social life of Jerusalem.

II THE PECULIAR ASPECT OF THE CALAMITY FURNISHED BY THE FACT THAT THE OLD MEN HAVE FORSAKEN THE GATE. There is no longer anything to take them to the gate. Where of old they had many pleasures, now they will have nothing but pain. The place of honour would only become a place of insult, and in all likelihood only too many of these elders had been advisers of the wrong sort, men with a serene and firmly rooted confidence in their own opinion. To the warnings of a prophet old men can often reply that such things have been said over and over again without coming true; and then, when all at once the threatening takes effect, what can they do but retire into as much obscurity as possible? These same old men, many of them, must have had much to do with the state of affairs that made all these calamities a Divine necessity. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.