Old Testament · Major Prophets · Book 25 of 66

Lamentations

Five poems of grief over Jerusalem’s fall that hold on to the LORD’s faithful love in the ruins.

5 Chapters

Lamentations 1–5

Author

Traditionally Jeremiah

Written

Soon after 586 B.C.

Written For

Survivors of Jerusalem’s fall

Overview

Lamentations Summary

Lamentations is a set of five poems of mourning written after the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C. The city had held out through a long siege, and the poems remember famine, the death of children, the flight and capture of the king, the burning of the temple and the people led away into exile (2 Kings 25). The book opens with the city as a grieving widow: “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!” (1:1).

The poems are built with great care. Chapters 1, 2 and 4 each have 22 verses, and each verse begins with the next letter of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet, a pattern called an acrostic. Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic: its 66 verses come in groups of three that each begin with the same letter. Chapter 5 also has 22 verses but is not an acrostic. Many readers see the alphabet as a way of expressing grief completely, “from A to Z,” and of giving order to sorrow too great to put into words. Much of the book also uses a limping, uneven rhythm (often called the qinah or lament meter) that was used for funeral songs. English translations do not show the acrostic, but the verse numbers reflect it.

Each poem looks at the disaster from a different angle. In chapter 1 the poet and the city herself speak of her loneliness and shame, and a refrain repeats that there is “no one to comfort” her (1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21). Chapter 2 describes the LORD’s anger: “The Lord is like an enemy” (2:5), and “The LORD has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word” (2:17). In chapter 3, at the center of the book, a single man describes his own suffering and then turns to hope: “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (3:22–23). Chapter 4 contrasts life before and after the siege, and chapter 5 is a prayer of the whole community that asks, “Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return” (5:21).

Several themes run through the book. Honest grief: the poems bring pain, protest and questions directly to God. Sin and judgment: the city admits, “The LORD is righteous, yet I rebelled against his command” (1:18), and the disaster is seen as the fulfillment of the covenant warnings (compare Deuteronomy 28). God’s rule: “You, LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation” (5:19). Hope in God’s character: “For no one is cast off by the Lord forever” (3:31). Return: “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD” (3:40).

Readers understand parts of Lamentations in different ways. The “man who has seen affliction” in chapter 3 has been read as Jeremiah, as an unnamed representative sufferer, as one of Judah’s kings, or as the nation speaking with one voice. The book ends with a question, “unless you have utterly rejected us” (5:22), which some read as a note of lingering doubt and others as an expression of hope that God has not done so; in Jewish public reading, verse 21 is repeated after verse 22 so the reading ends with the prayer for restoration. Jewish communities read Lamentations on Tisha B’Av, the fast that mourns the destruction of the temple. Many Christians read the suffering of chapters 1 and 3 in the light of Christ’s sufferings, while others read the book mainly as a guide to lament in times of loss. This outline simply follows the text.

About the Name

Title

In the Hebrew Bible the book is named by its first word, ’Ekah, meaning “How!” or “Alas!”, the cry of grief that also opens chapters 2 and 4. Early Jewish teachers also called it Qinot, “Laments.” The Greek translation (the Septuagint) named it Threnoi and the Latin Vulgate Threni or Lamentationes, both meaning “laments” or “dirges,” and the English title comes from the Latin. Some English Bibles call it “The Lamentations of Jeremiah.”

In English Bibles, following the Greek order, Lamentations comes right after Jeremiah as the third of the Major Prophets, even though it is short. In the Hebrew Bible it belongs to the Writings, as one of the five Megillot or “Scrolls,” each read publicly at a set time of the Jewish year.

Who Wrote It

Author Details

The book itself does not name its author. Jewish and Christian tradition identifies the prophet Jeremiah. The Septuagint opens the book with a note that “Jeremiah sat weeping” and composed this lament over Jerusalem, and the Talmud says Jeremiah wrote his own book, Kings and Lamentations. Second Chronicles 35:25 also says Jeremiah composed laments, though for King Josiah. Supporters of the tradition point to the poems’ eyewitness detail and to themes and phrases shared with Jeremiah, such as eyes overflowing with tears (Jeremiah 9:1; 14:17; Lamentations 1:16; 2:11) and the phrase “my people” spoken as a grieving family member.

When It Was Written

Date of Writing

The poems describe the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 B.C. (some date it to 587 B.C.) with vivid, firsthand detail, so most readers date the book soon after that event. Those who hold that Jeremiah wrote it place it between the fall of the city and his being taken to Egypt not long afterward (Jeremiah 43:6–7), around 586–585 B.C.

Scholars who see several poets often date chapters 2 and 4 closest to the fall, and chapters 1, 3 and 5 somewhat later, with chapter 5 remembering a long time of suffering (5:20). Nearly all place the book before the first exiles returned from Babylon in 538 B.C., since it does not mention the return or the rebuilding of the temple. The poems were written for the survivors in the ruined land and the exiles in Babylon, to give words to their grief and to turn them back to the LORD.

Study Guide

Lamentations Outline

5 chapters in three parts. Each chapter is a separate poem, so the outline follows the poems: chapters 1–2, chapter 3 at the center, and chapters 4–5. Tap any section to expand it, and tap a verse reference to read it at BibleGateway.

Part I