Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
The metaphor of enemies riding on the neck means total subjection, the utmost contempt and degradation. The Jews dared not raise their heads; they had earned this reward through their stiff necks and refusal to bear God's yoke, so He gave them over to serve strangers instead.
AI summary
In trouble, pour out your complaint before God and make it known; He sees and remembers all that befalls you. Their whole grief compressed into one word: reproach. This reproach cut deeper because it reflected on God's own honor, who had once owned them as His people.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 5:1-16
A yoke of hard servitude was laid upon their necks, forced submission to endless labor with no rest, day or night, not even on the sabbath. They labored till weary and were not permitted the recovery their ancestors once knew in Egypt.
AI summary