Grace Institute: The Writings : Lamentations Part 1

Lamentations Survey of the Old Testament: The Writings Fall 2006

Introduction

Name

The original Hebrew bible titles this book “How,” after the opening words of the book. The Septuagint, Talmud and English bibles base the title of the content, naming the book “Lamentations.” In the Hebrew bible, Lamentations is found with the Writings, located between Ecclesiastes and Esther. The Greek and English bibles place it amongst the prophets after Jeremiah based on the assumption that the book was written by Jeremiah.

Date & Author

The Septuagint includes the following preface at the beginning of the book:

"And it came to pass after Israel had been taken captive and Jerusalem had been laid waste, Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lament over Jerusalem , and said… "

The original Hebrew tex ts, however, does not contain this preface and leaves the book technically anonymous. While scholars today are divided over the authorship, there is little reason to doubt Jeremiah's authorship.

Whoever authored the book was clearly an eyewitness to the fall of the Jerusalem to Babylon . The detailed descriptions of the miseries as well as the personal nature of the woes ind icate that the author lived through the experiences being described. This would put the date of the book within a generation of the fall of Jerusalem , which took place in 586 BC.

Historical Background

The final siege of Jerusalem by Babylon took place in 586 BC, and took nearly two years (2 Kings 25:1, 8). The army of Babylon surrounded the city and did not allow any food or supplies to enter the city for 24 mont hs, slowly starving the city to death. Lamentations describes scenes of mass starvation and cannibalism as the people sat under siege. Then, after the city had starved to the point where they could not offer resistance, the army of Babylon broke down the walls of the city and burned the city to the ground. The temple wa s destroyed and the temple implements were hauled away. The king of Babylon then executed the high priests and the general of the Judean army along with sixty other leaders. The rest of the noble class was hauled off into exile in Babylon while the lower classes became refugees, traveling to Egypt .

Literary Style

Lamentations consists of 5 separate Hebrew poems. The poems themselves are laments. They follow similar structures to laments found in the Psalms and funeral dirges in non-biblical writings of the period. Lamentations is a deeply melancholy book, expressing tremendous grief and sadness over the destruction of the city of Jerusalem at the hands of Babylon . Yet it is also highly structured and demonstrates significant literary skill.

The first four poems are structured in an acrostic format. The final poem has the same number of verses (22), however is not an acrostic. Each poem has a consistent syllable count and per line.

Purpose

Lamentations has been read at the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av (literally the 9 th of Av, with Av being the 5 th mont h of the Jewish calendar). This holiday is a day of grieving over the destruction of the temple. After the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, there is evidence that people would gath er annually in Jerusalem on the anniversary of the destruction of the temple to publicly and communally grieve over the fall (Zechariah 7:3, 8, 8:19). The holiday was refreshed after the destruction of the second temple in AD 70. Today the holiday continues to be a day of fasting where many tragedies of the Jewish people are commemorated, from the destruction of the temple to the holocaust.

Central to this holiday has been the reading of Lamentations. As far back as the record of the holiday go, the book of Lamentations has been associated with the commemoration of Tisha B'Av. Many scholars, therefore, believe that these poems were originally written specifically for this annual occasion .

Structure

The third poem represents the literary climax of the book. This central poem comprises nearly half of the entire book. Furth ermore, its message of hope in God's faithfulness in the mist of Jerusalem 's distress represents the overall the book.

Theme

The theme of the book is found in this central poem, in 3:22-24:

Yahweh's lovingkindness ind eed never cease
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness
“Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.

Footnotes

1. H.L. Ellison. “Lamentations.” Expositor's Bible Commentary. Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. ( Grand Rapids MI : Zondervan, 1988).

[Next: The Five Laments]