They ravished - They humbled.

They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah - The evil mentioned here was predicted by Moses, Deuteronomy 28:30, Deuteronomy 28:32, and by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 6:12.

They ravished the women in Zion,.... Or "humbled" them (w); an euphemism; the women that were married to men in Zion, as the Targum; and if this wickedness was committed in the holy mountain of Zion, it was still more abominable and afflicting, and to be complained of; and if by the servants before mentioned, as Aben Ezra interprets it, it is another aggravating circumstance of it; for this was done not in Babylon when captives there; but at the taking of the city of Jerusalem, and by the common soldiers, as is too often practised:

and the maids in the cities of Judah; in all parts of the country, where the Chaldean army ravaged, there they ravished the maids. The Targum is,

"the women that were married to men in Zion were humbled by strangers; (the Targum in the king of Spain's Bible is, by the Romans;) and virgins in the cities of Judah by the Chaldeans;''

suggesting that this account has reference to both destructions of the city, and the concomitants and consequences thereof.

(w) Sept. "humiliaverunt", V. L. Munster.

With this must further be considered the maltreatment which persons of every station, sex, and age have to endure. Lamentations 5:11. Women and virgins are dishonoured in Jerusalem, and in the other cities of the land. Lamentations 5:12. Princes are suspended by the hand of the enemy (Ewald, contrary to the use of language, renders "along with" them). To hang those who had been put to death was something superadded to the simple punishment by death (Deuteronomy 21:22.), and so far as a shameful kind of execution. "The old men are not honoured," i.e., dishonoured; cf. Lamentations 4:16; Leviticus 19:32. The words are not to be restricted to the events mentioned in Jeremiah 39:6, but also apply to the present condition of those who are complaining,

They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

11. So in just retribution Babylon itself should fare in the end. Jerusalem shall for the last time suffer these woes before her final restoration (Zec 14:2).

5:1-16 Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt. If penitent and patient under what we suffer for the sins of our fathers, we may expect that He who punishes, will return in mercy to us. They acknowledge, Woe unto us that we have sinned! All our woes are owing to our own sin and folly. Though our sins and God's just displeasure cause our sufferings, we may hope in his pardoning mercy, his sanctifying grace, and his kind providence. But the sins of a man's whole life will be punished with vengeance at last, unless he obtains an interest in Him who bare our sins in his own body on the tree.