An Introduction to the Book of Lamentations

The Book of Lamentations contains five poems detailing the suffering of the people of Judah during the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the southern kingdom during the Babylonian invasion under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE. In these five poems, the author of Lamentations speaks on behalf of the survivors to give voice to the anguish, the pain, and the hardship of the community in the aftermath of the invasion.

These five poems describe the suffering of the people, their confession of sin, the people’s declaration of repentance, and a plea to God for mercy and a return of his divine favor on behalf of the people. These five poems speak about the acts of God. God is addressed as the one who brought this calamity upon the nation. The author also speaks of God as a God of steadfast love and mercy in whom rests the hope of restoration.

Introduction to the Book of Lamentations

In the Hebrew Bible, the name of Book of Lamentations is taken from the first word of the book. The Hebrew title of the book is ’êkāh, a Hebrew word which means “How”: “ How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!” (Lamentations 1:1).

In our English Bibles, the book of Lamentations is included among the Major Prophets which consist of 5 books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Lamentations in included among the Kethuvim, a word which means “Writings.” The book of Lamentations is part of the Megilloth. The Megilloth are the five Festal Scrolls which are read during Jewish festivals:

1. The Book Song of Songs is read at Passover.
2. The Book of Ruth is read at the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.
3. The Book of Lamentations is read on the ninth of Ab, the day Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 BCE.
4. The Book of Ecclesiastes, also known as Qoheleth, is read at the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths.
5. The Book of Esther is read at the Feast of Purim.

The Prophet Zechariah says that the fall of Jerusalem was remembered by the people on the seventh day of the fifth month as a day of mourning and fasting: “Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” (Zechariah 7:3, 5).

Jewish tradition says that the prophet Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations. This tradition is reflected in the introduction of the Book of Lamentations found in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The introduction to the Book of Lamentations in the Septuagint reads as follows: “And it came to pass, after Israel was taken captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented this Lamentations over Jerusalem.”

The belief that Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations is also based on an inference taken from 2 Chronicles 35:25 in which the writer of 2 Chronicles declares that Jeremiah composed a lament at the occasion of the death of Josiah and that his lament is included in a Book of Laments: “Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah which all the male and female singers use to mourn Josiah to this very day. It has become customary in Israel to sing these; they are recorded in the Book of Laments” (2 Chronicles 35:25).

However, this Book of Laments should not be identified with the Book of Lamentations. The author of Chronicles is saying only that Jeremiah composed funeral songs to lament the death of Josiah. The Book of Lamentations was written by an anonymous writer who speaks on behalf of those who experienced the horrors and the brutality imposed on the city and on the people by the invading Babylonian army.

The Book of Lamentations consists of 5 chapters. The first four chapters of the book are written in an acrostic format. The first, the second, and the fourth chapters consist of 22 verses, each verse beginning with one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 contains 66 verses, and each letter of the alphabet is repeated 3 times. Chapter 5 contains 22 verses, but the chapter is not written in an acrostic format.

Most of the poetry of the Book of Lamentations is written in the Qinah format. The word Qinah means a funeral dirge or eulogy. This poetic format is used to express mourning, pain, and sorrow. The Qinah poetic form was often used in laments or eulogies over the dead. The Qinah meter generally contains a longer line (3 accents) which is followed by a shorter (2 accents) line.

In his article, “The Folk-Song of Israel,” Karl Budde explains the use of the Qinah in the Book of Lamentations. He writes, “the singer, or singers, of the Book of Lamentations employed this versification because it afforded them the surest way of putting their listeners into a mood corresponding to their melancholy utterances. High and low, learned and unlearned, old and young, man and woman, all understood this melody, all felt themselves transported by it to the bier of their relatives or neighbors, and were carried away by it to bewail their people, their city, themselves” (Budde 1893: 12–13).

In ancient Israel, mourning for the dead was performed by professional mourners, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come; let them quickly raise a dirge over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water” (Jeremiah 9:17–18).

According to Hillers, the poems in the Book of Lamentations “give vivid short pictures of the horrors of the siege and its aftermath, reflect on the causes of the calamity, and appeal for mercy to the God who brought about the ruin of his own city and temple” (Hillers 1992 4:137).

Outline of Lamentations

A. Lamenting and Mourning for Zion

1. Zion: The Lonely Widow, Lamentations 1:1-11
2. The Widow’s Complaint, Lamentations 1:12-22

B. The Lord’s Anger With His People

1. The Destruction of the City and of the Temple, Lamentations 2:1–9
2. The Suffering of the People, Lamentations 2:10–17
3. The Call to Prayer, Lamentations 2:18–22

C. The Complaint of the People

1. The Poet’s Suffering, Lamentations 3:1–20
2. Hoping in God, Lamentations 3:21–39
3. A Call to Repentance, Lamentations 3:40–57
4. A Call to Vengeance, Lamentations 3:58–66

D. The Suffering of the People

1. The Suffering of the People, Lamentations 4:1–11
2. The Sins of the Prophets and of the Priests, Lamentations 4:12–16
2. Hope for the Future, Lamentations 4:17–22

E. The People’s Appeal to God

1. The Suffering of the People, Lamentations 5:1–18
2. Judah’s Appeal to God, Lamentations 5:19–22

Cannibalism in Lamentations

One of the most tragic events in the siege of Jerusalem was the severe famine that deprived people of food and forced some mothers to eat the flesh of their own children. The siege of Jerusalem lasted one year and a half. During the long siege of the city, the people were forced to live with the food that was stored in the city by the leaders of Jerusalem when they prepared the city to live under a long siege.

The Book of Kings mentions the severe famine in Jerusalem as a result of the siege: “On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land” (2 Kings 25:3).

The Book of Lamentations speaks of the struggles of mothers and children as they searched for food. The Book of Lamentations has several references to the hunger of the people. The author speaks of young children and infants fainting away in the open spaces of the town as they cried to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” They cried to their mothers as they fainted “like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom” (Lamentations 2:11–12).

The author of Lamentations exhorts Mother Zion to plead for their children with God, “Let your tears run down like a river day and night. Don’t let them stop. Don’t let your eyes rest. Get up! Cry out at night, every hour on the hour. Pour your heart out like water in the presence of the LORD. Lift up your hands to him in prayer for the life of your little children who faint from hunger at every street corner” (Lamentations 2:18–19).

The author also mentions the priests and elders who were dying in the city “while seeking food to revive their strength” (Lamentations 1:19). The severe famine in Jerusalem forced some women to resort to maternal cannibalism. The author of Lamentations complains to God about this tragic example of mothers eating their own children, “Look, O LORD, and consider! To whom have you done this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have borne?” (Lamentations 2:20).

When the hunger became severe, some women resorted to the extreme action of cooking their own children and using their flesh for food, “The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of my people” (Lamentations 4:10).

In her commentary on Lamentations, Adele Berlin writes, “The picture of women devouring their children is a particular gruesome form of cannibalism signifying extreme famine; it is a reversal of the natural order in which women feed their children” (Berlin 2002: 75).

The Character of God in Lamentations

The Book of Lamentations narrates the suffering of the people after the fall of Jerusalem. In addition to describing in detail the anguish and the suffering of the people, the author of the book has much to say about God and the way he dealt with the people of Jerusalem.

The Silence of God

The Book of Lamentations introduces several voices who speak about their predicament. Zion, the lonely widow, speaks about her humiliation. The narrator describes the consequences of the destruction of the nation. The humiliated Israelite speaks about his personal experience with the consequences of the siege of the city.

The community speaks about their pain, their anguish, and their suffering. The only voice not heard in the book of Lamentations is the voice of God. Throughout the book, God is silent. “Missing from the poetic voices in Lamentations is the voice of God. The missing voice looms over the book. The speakers refer to God, call for help, ask God to look, accuse God of hiding from them, of attacking and forgetting them — but God never responds” (O’Connor 2001: 1021).

The silence of God at times of suffering and distress “implies a refusal to comfort or give aid—and in the case of Lamentations, a refusal even to acknowledge the hurt” (Dobbs-Allsopp 2002: 150). People in Israel had often experienced the silence of God. The Psalmist cried unto God, “Do not be silent, O God of my praise” (Psalm 109:1).

The silence of God seems, at times, to be a contradiction of the character of God as a merciful and gracious God, a God who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6).

In time of divine silence, people feel forsaken and abandoned by God. The psalmist cried to God, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? “ (Psalm 22:1). The community also believed that their God had forsaken them, “Why have you forgotten us completely? Why have you forsaken us these many days?” (Lamentations 5:20).

To the people who were suffering the consequences of the siege, God’s silence was seen as oppressive. Dobbs-Allsopp writes, “every time that God is beckoned to see, hear, or remember but fails to respond, the divine silence grows more audible, more suffocating, more oppressive” (Dobbs-Allsopp 2002: 151).

If the silence of God was broken, it was in response to prayer. The sufferer cries to God, “I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help, but give me relief!’ You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’” (Lamentations 3:55–57).

God heard the voice of the sufferer and gave him assurance of divine help, “Do not fear!” Unfortunately, it is impossible to know if God’s response to the sufferer was in the past or out of the present situation. Whether in the present or the past, God’s answer gives the sufferer the assurance of God’s presence who, in the midst of human suffering, speaks a word of assurance.

God as the Enemy

The Book of Lamentations deals with how God acts to punish the people of Judah for their many sins. The author of the book emphasizes the absence of the one who could comfort the people, the sufferer’s prayer asking God to look at his situation, and the apparent refusal of God to reveal himself to comfort the people who are suffering. There are two issues the author tries to convey to his readers.

First, the fact that when God acts, he acts to do something against his people; God does not act on behalf of his people to save or comfort them. In Lamentations God appears as the divine warrior who throws his arrows to hurt the people. He is the God who is pursuing his people, oppressing the ones suffering, slowing down with hunger those who are already weak, killing people, refusing to act to deliver the people, and withdrawing his helping hand.

Second, the Book of Lamentations presents God as the one who caused the evil that the suffering people have experienced. God does not act to save but to destroy, which is contrary to God’s character presented in other parts of the Old Testament as a God who saves, “I, the LORD, am your Savior” (Isaiah 60:16).

In Lamentations, God is presented as the aggressor, an image that becomes the key to interpret the suffering of the victims. To this lack of mercy and salvation one must add God’s silence: God does not speak in any of the five poems in the Book of Lamentations. God is perceived by the suffering people as the enemy. All the images used by the author of Lamentations to present the character of God are negative. Adele Berlin joins the author of Lamentations in her perception of God as the enemy. She writes, “God who slaughters his people is no less cannibal than the mothers who eat their children” (Berlin 2002: 76).

The Mercy of God

It is difficult to find God’s mercy in the Book of Lamentations when the author is so critical of what God had done to Jerusalem. Two Hebrew words are translated “wrath” in Lamentations. The word “anger” occurs ten times in the book. The book ends with a reference to God’s anger, “unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure” (Lamentations 5:22).

The author also believes in the mercy of God. He said that although God causes grief, “he will also have mercy, according to the multitude of his mercies” (Lamentations 3:32). He hopes in the mercy of God even when he says that God was merciless with his people. “The Lord destroyed mercilessly all the homes of Jacob’s descendants” (Lamentations 2:2 NET). “He has overthrown without mercy” (Lamentations 2:17 NET); “you slaughtered them without mercy” (Lamentations 2:21 NET).

It is, however, in the midst of pain and suffering that the author of Lamentations finds hope. Although he knows the fate of the city was a manifestation of God’s anger, he also knows that his God is not a God of wrath, but a God of mercy.

In expressing his confidence in God’s mercy, he writes, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). He also believed in the goodness of God, “The LORD is good to those who wait for him” (Lamentations 3:25).

Conclusion

The writer of the Book of Lamentations went through the agony, the pain, and the suffering caused by the Babylonian army when they sieged Jerusalem. Although he lamented his condition with strong language, he had a truly personal relationship with God and it was because of this faith that he was able to overcome his crisis.

The author knows that God is a merciful and gracious God, but he also knows that God was never prepared to compromise. The people of Judah had greatly sinned against God and now they had to give God an account for their rebellion. As God said to Moses, “on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin” (Exodus 32:34).

The writer was a man of true faith in God. His faith in God’s mercy gave him sufficient strength and hope to believe that God would act to save the people, even when God allowed Judah’s enemies to strike the people mercilessly. It is this faith that gives him confidence in his heart to know that God had not abandoned his people. In the darkness of his soul, the writer expressed his confidence in God, “therefore I will hope in him” (Lamentations 3:24 ).

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berlin, Adele. Lamentations. Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.

Budde, Karl. “The Folk-song of Israel in the Mouth of the Prophets.” The New World (March 1893): 1–23.

Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W. Lamentations. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox Press, 2002.

Hillers, Delbert R. “Lamentations, Book of.” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. Pages 4:137-140. New York: Doubleday, 1992

O’Connor, Kathleen M. “The Book of Lamentations.” The New Interpreter’s Bible. 6:1011–1072. Nashville: Abingdon, 2001.