Old men translates the same term used for “elders” in verse 12. However, the term is used here in a more general sense, referring to the old men who were responsible for settling legal disputes and advising in family matters. Have quit the city gate can be taken as an idiomatic phrase meaning “no longer give their advice” or “have ceased their counseling.” The fact that these old men carried on their discussions at the city gate is of secondary importance.

In 1.4 the poet laments that “the city gates stand empty” (Good News Translation), and here it is especially the old men who are no longer to be found there. In the past the space near the city gate had been the place in which business was conducted, as in Ruth 4.1-12, and where old men gave legal decisions, as in Job 29.7-10.

The expression city gate or “doors of the city” will have little meaning for most readers unacquainted with the way a biblical city was built. Even where gates are known, the reader is apt to think of the gate which leads to a particular house, rather than the gate which leads into a city. Since the primary reference is not to the gate itself but to the area of meeting and carrying on business, it will often be clearer to say, for example, “The old men have left the meeting place inside the city gates,” or “The old men are no longer found sitting in the town square,” or, as suggested above, “The old men have ceased to give advice to people.”

In the same way the young men (this is the same word as in the first half of verse 13) have given up their music. The verb in the first half-line, have quit, serves also for the second half-line. The poet is saying that the normal, happy routine of life, with old men conversing in the square and young people making music to entertain the people, has ceased. Although the Hebrew word for music refers to music made on stringed instruments, the attention is drawn to the absence of music. Good News Translation has kept the two halves of the verse parallel, with “no longer sit” and “no longer make.” In a similar manner we may say, for example, “We no longer hear the old men talking in the square, nor do we hear the music played by the young people there.”

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 .