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Topic:
The Book Of Lamentations -- A Brief Overview
The book of Lamentations is called in the Hebrew canon 'Ekhah , meaning
"How," being the formula for the commencement of a song of
wailing. It is the first word of the book (see 2 Sam. 1:19-27). The LXX.
adopted the name rendered "Lamentations" (Gr. threnoi = Heb.
qinoth) now in common use, to denote the character of the book, in which
the prophet mourns over the desolations brought on the city and the holy
land by Chaldeans. In the Hebrew Bible it is placed among the Khethubim.
As to its authorship, there is no room for hesitancy in following the LXX.
and the Targum in ascribing it to Jeremiah. The spirit, tone, language,
and subject-matter are in accord with the testimony of tradition in
assigning it to him. According to tradition, he retired after the
destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar to a cavern outside the
Damascus gate, where he wrote this book. That cavern is still pointed out.
"In the face of a rocky hill, on the western side of the city, the
local belief has placed 'the grotto of Jeremiah.' There, in that fixed
attitude of grief which Michael Angelo has immortalized, the prophet may
well be supposed to have mourned the fall of his country" (Stanley,
Jewish Church). The book consists of five separate poems. In chapter 1 the
prophet dwells on the manifold miseries oppressed by which the city sits
as a solitary widow weeping sorely. In chapter 2 these miseries are
described in connection with the national sins that had caused them.
Chapter 3 speaks of hope for the people of God. The chastisement would
only be for their good; a better day would dawn for them. Chapter 4
laments the ruin and desolation that had come upon the city and temple,
but traces it only to the people's sins. Chapter 5 is a prayer that Zion's
reproach may be taken away in the repentance and recovery of the people.
The first four poems (chapters) are acrostics, like some of the Psalms
(25, 34, 37, 119), i.e., each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew
alphabet taken in order. The first, second, and fourth have each
twenty-two verses, the number of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The
third has sixty-six verses, in which each three successive verses begin
with the same letter. The fifth is not acrostic. Speaking of the
"Wailing-place (q.v.) of the Jews" at Jerusalem, a portion of
the old wall of the temple of Solomon, Schaff says: "There the Jews
assemble every Friday afternoon to bewail the downfall of the holy city,
kissing the stone wall and watering it with their tears. They repeat from
their well-worn Hebrew Bibles and prayer-books the Lamentations of
Jeremiah and suitable Psalms."
From: Easton's Bible Dictionary. Fair Use. Presented for educational
purposes only.
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