In verses 11-14 in the Hebrew text, the use of the first person plural is replaced by the third person, in which the poet speaks of women, virgins, princes, elders, and young and old men. “We” and “our” will be resumed again in verse 15 and will continue to the end. Translators will note that, while Revised Standard Version reflects the Hebrew usage, Good News Translation uses first person plural pronouns (“we,” “our,” “us”) throughout chapter 5. The reason for this is that, even though the Hebrew omits these pronouns in verses 11-14, all references are still to the same people of Jerusalem and Judah who have been included in the first person plural pronouns. Good News Translation‘s consistent use of first person plural makes the persons in verses 11-14 more clearly part of the suffering people in the rest of the chapter. Translators should consider following Good News Translation.
The Hebrew of this verse need not be understood as literally as in Revised Standard Version. The poet is not trying to make a distinction between the two kinds of victims, as though only virgins were raped in the towns. The two parallel half-lines refer to a single situation, so that the sense is that women both married and unmarried have been raped both in Jerusalem and in the surrounding towns. There is only one verb in the Hebrew verse, and it is an active verb with no actor expressed, though the actor is fairly clearly the enemy.
Ravished translates a verb which has the general sense of doing violence, humiliating, oppressing, and in this context it refers to a man forcing a woman to have sex. Revised Standard Version translates as a passive what in Hebrew is “They raped.” Translators may not be able to use the passive; and in such cases it may be possible to use an indefinite subject or, more directly, “the enemies,” “the invaders,” “those who invaded us,” or “our enemies.”
Two places are named; the first is Zion, which also means Jerusalem, although on this occasion Good News Translation has translated “Mount Zion,” which is the location of the Temple. This particular reference hardly seems necessary or appropriate in this context. The other place is the towns of Judah.
The word virgins is the same Hebrew term as is found in 1.4 (“maidens”). There it was pointed out that virgins was inappropriate in some languages, because its central meaning in English is often young women or girls who have not had sexual experience. In this context, however, that element of meaning is central, and so virgins is a suitable translation. However, the translation of virgins can be a problem in some languages. The Hebrew term refers to young women who have not had sexual relations with men, but also who are approaching or are already of marriageable age. However, in some societies a girl called a “virgin” is one who before marriage participates in ritual sexual relations. In others a “virgin” is a woman who has not married after passing a certain age. In some languages a woman who has not married because of physical or mental handicaps is called a “virgin.” If serious problems are encountered in the translation of this term, it will often be better to use a less technical word such as “young women” or “girls.”
In some languages it may be best to reduce the parallelism of verse 11 to a single line; for example, “Our women have been raped in Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah” or “The enemy troops have raped our women in….” Terms for rape are often euphemisms or roundabout expressions which refer to violence; for example, “They did harm to the bodies of…” or “They put disgrace on the women….” In languages in which only a descriptive expression will make clear what happened to these women, we may sometimes say, for example, “forced to have sex” or “made to sleep with.” Whatever expression is used, it should be acceptable for public reading.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .