Charles Ellicott Commentary Lamentations 5:12

"Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored." — Lamentations 5:12 (ASV)

Princes are hanged ... —The words point to the shameless exposure of the bodies of the dead. (Compare to the treatment of Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31:10–12.) This was the common practice of the Assyrian kings (Records of the Past, i. 38). Neither age nor dignity (both are implied in the word “elders”) was any safeguard against atrocities, either in life or death.