John Calvin on Lamentations 5:11

He mentions here another kind of reproach, that women had been ravished in Jerusalem, and in other cities. There is here a delicate word for a disgraceful act. The words literally are, —

Women in Sion they humbled (or, were humbled,) And virgins in the cities of Judah.

It is humbled by the Sept. and Vulg. “And” before “virgins” is supplied by the Vulg. and Syr. — Ed. God had commanded chastity to be observed among his people. When, therefore, virgins and women were thus defiled, it was a thing extremely disgraceful. But the Prophet mentioned this also, in order that God might at length show himself propitious to his people after having been entreated. (Deuteronomy 22:21-24.)

And he mentioned Sion rather than Jerusalem, — it was indeed to state a part for the whole; but that place, we know, had been chosen by God that his name might be there worshipped. Sion, then, was a holy place above any other; it was, in a word, the earthly dwelling of God. As, then, God had there his palace, that he might dwell in the midst of his people, it was a disgraceful sight in the extreme to see women ravished there, for the temple of God was thus violated. It was not only a thing disgraceful to the people, that women were thus ravished, but it was a filthy profanation of God’s worship, and therefore sacrilegious. We now see the design of the Prophet. He mentions also the cities of Judah, but with reference to the same thing. It follows —

Lamentations 5:12

12. Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured

12. Principes manu sua fuerunt suspensi, facies senum non fuerunt in honore (non fuerunt honoratae, ad verbum)