Lamentations 1:5

are become the head There may be a reference to Deuteronomy 28:13; Deuteronomy 28:44.

prosper lit. are at peace. Cp. Jeremiah 12:1 ("are … at ease").

for the multitude, etc.] The acknowledgement that Israel's calamities were the requital for her sin recurs frequently in this poem (Lamentations 1:8; Lamentations 1:18; Lamentations 1:20; Lamentations 1:22).

before the adversary either driven like a flock of cattle on the occasion of the actual deportation, or possibly (as the writer may be dealing with a time many years subsequent) sold by their parents owing to their extreme penury.