Lamentations Context
Commentaries
The Book of Lamentations is a mournful postscript to the Book of Jeremiah. Through the use of five dirges, or funeral laments, the author grieved over the fate of Jerusalem because of her sin.
The book does not name its author, but Jewish tradition attributes it to Jeremiah
Jeremiah would have penned the poetic dirges after Jerusalem fell to Babylon in 586 B.C. (cf. 1:1–11) but before he was taken to Egypt after Gedaliah’s assassination (ca. 583–582 B.C.; cf. Jer. 43:1–7). The vivid descriptions and deep emotions expressed in the Book of Lamentations argue for a composition shortly after the events occurred, possibly in late 586 B.C. or early 585 B.C.
Historical Background. From 588 to 586 B.C. the army of Babylon ground away at the defenses of Jerusalem (for comments on these dates see information at 2 Kings 25:1–10). So Judah’s early flush of excitement and euphoria following her rebellion against Babylon was replaced with uncertainty and fear. Her ally, Egypt, had been vanquished in battle as she tried in vain to rescue Judah from Babylon’s grasp. One by one the other cities in Judah were crushed (cf. Jer. 34:6–7) till only Jerusalem remained before the Babylonian hordes.
Within the city the ever-tightening siege by Babylon’s armies began unraveling the fabric of society. Starving mothers ate their own children (Lam. 2:20; 4:10). Idolatry flourished as the people cried out to any and every god for deliverance. Paranoia gripped the people until they were willing to kill God’s prophet as a traitor and spy just because he spoke the truth.
The long siege ended abruptly on July 18, 586 B.C. The walls were then breached and the Babylonian army began entering the city (2 Kings 25:2–4a). King Zedekiah and the remaining men in his army tried to flee, but were captured (2 Kings 25:4b–7). It took several weeks for Nebuchadnezzar to secure the city and strip it of its valuables, but by August 14, 586 B.C. the task was completed and the destruction of the city began (2 Kings 25:8–10). (For support of the dates July 18 and August 14, 586 B.C., see Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983, p. 190.) The armies of Babylon burned the temple, the king’s palace, and all the other major buildings in the city; and they tore down the walls of the city which provided her protection. When the Babylonians finally finished their destruction and departed with their prisoners, they left a jumbled heap of smoldering rubble.
Jeremiah witnessed the desecration of the temple and the destruction of the city (cf. Jer. 39:1–14; 52:12–14). The once-proud capital had been trampled in the dust. Her people were now under the harsh hand of a cruel taskmaster. With all these events stamped vividly on his mind Jeremiah sat down to compose his series of laments.
“The author of the Book of Lamentations was attempting to show the fulfillment of the curses presented in Deuteronomy 28”
Parallels between Lamentations and Deuteronomy
Lamentations
Deuteronomy
1:3 She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place.
28:65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot.
1:5 Her foes have become her masters.
28:44 He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
1:5 Her children have gone into exile, captive before the foe.
28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation.
1:6 In weakness they have fled before the pursuer.
28:25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven.
1:18 My young men and maidens have gone into exile.
28:41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.
2:15 All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem.
28:37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the Lord will drive you.
2:20 Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cared for?
28:53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.
2:21 Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets.
28:50 … a fierce looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.
4:10 With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children.
28:56–57 The most gentle and sensitive women among you … will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege.
5:2 Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners.
28:30 You will build a house, but you will not live in it.
5:5 We are weary and find no rest.
28:65 Among those nations you will find no repose.
5:10 Our skin is as hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.
28:48 In hunger and thirst … you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you.
5:11 Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah.
28:30 You will be pledged to be married to a women, but another will take her and ravish her.
5:12 Elders are shown no respect.
28:50 … a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old …
5:18 Mount Zion … lies desolate, with jackals prowling over it.
28:26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.
In this rhythmic pattern the second half of a line of verse has one less beat than the first half of a line. This forms a 3 + 2 “limping meter” which conveys a hollow, incomplete feeling to the reader. Both of these elements lend an air of sadness to the dirges and heighten their emotional intensity.
Chapters 1, 2, and 4 each have 22 verses which begin with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3, the heart of the book, has 66 verses. In this chapter the first three verses begin with ’alep̱, the next three begin with bêṯ, etc. Only chapter 5 is not arranged acrostically, though (like chaps. 1–2, and 4) it has 22 verses.
A second possible reason for using the acrostic pattern was to emphasize to the readers the complete nature of their suffering because of sin. The alphabet was used to remind the people that Jerusalem’s judgment was “from A to Z.” Possibly Jeremiah had both reasons in mind when he arranged chapters 1–4 as acrostics. He broke the pattern, though, in chapter 5.
The structural symmetry is balanced by a definite progression in the book. The first four chapters are acrostics; chapter 5 is not. The first four chapters frequently use the qînâh, or limping meter; chapter 5 does not. Three of the first four chapters begin with ’êḵâh (chap. 3 is the only exception among the acrostic chaps.); chapter 5 does not. In many ways chapter 5 “breaks the mold” established in the other chapters and offers a response to the suffering. It is no accident that the chapter begins and ends as a prayer (“Remember, O LORD,” 5:1; “Restore us to Yourself, O LORD,” v.21). In chapter 5 Jeremiah presented the response that the remnant needed to make to God. It thus formed a fitting ending to the book. God’s chastisement was intended to lead to repentance.
The Jewish teachers simply call them ‘Wailings’
The story of the fall of Jerusalem is told in 2 Kings 25.
The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, lays siege to Jerusalem for two years. At the end of that time, with no food left in the city, the Jewish king Zedekiah and his army try to break out.
The effort is useless. The armies of Judah are overtaken and destroyed by the fast and furious forces of Babylon. Zedekiah is captured, forced to watch his sons killed and then blinded. He is taken to Babylon as a prisoner in chains.
