Lamentations

• Introductory Matters
• • Authorship
  • • Tradition has maintained Jeremiah was author
    • • Reasons for
      • • 2 Chron. 35:25 states Jeremiah wrote a lament for Josiah
        • Septuagint added a preface to the book crediting Jeremiah as author
        • Lamentations has been placed after the Book of Jeremiah in Protestant and Catholic translations of the Bible implying it is an appendix to the Book of Jeremiah
      • Reasons against
      • • Laments in the Book of Lamentations are for Jerusalem and Judah rather than Josiah - 2 Chron. 35:25 probably does not refer to Lamentations
        • Differences in style and tone between Lamentations and Book of Jeremiah
        • • Jeremiah proclaimed Zedekiah would be captured by Babylonians (Jer. 37:17), but Lam. 4:20 expresses shock when that occurred
          • Jeremiah told people not to trust in Egypt for assistance (Jer. 34:21, 37:3-10), but Lam. 4:17 seems to imply the author genuinely expected Egypt to help Judah
    • Best to say the author was someone who experienced the fall of Jerusalem in 587/586 B.C.E.
  • Date
  • • After destruction of Jerusalem in 587/586 B.C.E.
    • Probably only a short time after the destruction of Jerusalem since author does not expect immediate relief
  • Literary structure
  • • Five separate laments
    • First four (Lam. 1-4) are acrostics
• Message of the Book
• • Grief comes as physical and spiritual
  • • Physical - famine rules, people are abused, society has disintegrated
    • Spiritual
    • • Worship is disrupted because Temple is in ruins
      • Prophets wait for God's word but it does not come (2:9)
      • No one comes to the appointed feasts - signals a lack of dedication to God
      • Biggest problem is "does God love His people anymore?" - God has sent this terrible suffering (1:5,12; 2:2-4) and has become the enemy of His people (2:5)
  • God's punishment of Judah is deserved, yet should it be so great? (1:18)
  • Hope still exists
  • • God's love never ceases (3:22) nor does he cast His people off forever (3:31)
    • He can bring newness (3:22-23,32)
    • A person should retain his or her commitment to God and hope in Him (3:24)
• Usage of the Book
• • Book is read in synagogue worship on Ninth of Ab to remember Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 587/586 B.C.E. as well as the burning of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E. by Titus
  • Author wrestles with the difficulty and uncertainty of grief and helps us to wrestle with the same difficulty - easy answers are avoided - the answer of God's presence exists but is difficult to practice

Artwork by Rembrandt from the Bible Picture Library of Photo Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97