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Basics

BOOK: Lamentations

Description: A cry of anguish for the state of Jerusalem after its destruction

Author: uncertain although ancient tradition suggests Jeremiah

Date written: probably somewhere after 586BC

Chapters: 5

Brief Synopsis

•  A lament for the broken and desolate city of Jerusalem after it has been burned to the ground by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies, and a plea for God’s forgiveness

Why Read Lamentations

At first sight this book appears miserable, a catalogue of woes of the city of Jerusalem in ruins. However, the more you read it carefully, the more flesh is added to the skeleton of history. It might be helpful to consider you were a TV crew reporting on a disaster somewhere in the world.

The author – who is thought to be Jeremiah – brings to our attention so many aspects of this catastrophe, the most important of which has to be the firm declaration that what has happened has been the judgment of God on a sinful nation. [see below for details].

Written in the form of poetry, the writer sometimes has personified Jerusalem speaking out her anguish, and sometimes his own anguish. This anguish takes the form of accounts of what has happened and their present state, together with the reasons for it, and finally prayer to the Lord for His help. The central chapter, chapter 3 is the high point of faith and hope. Having said that we should note elements of faith and hope as follows:

• Chapter 1 – no elements of faith and hope, just anguish
• Chapter 2 – no elements of faith and hope, just anguish
• 3:21-23 – there is hope because of God’s love and compassion
• 3:25 – the Lord blesses those who wait on Him
• 3:31,32 – His discipline does not last for ever
• 3:33 – the Lord does not willingly bring such disciplinary judgments
• 3:55,56 – the Lord has heard his pleas
• 4:22 – their punishment in exile will be of limited duration
• 5:19 – the Lord reigns [over Israel, implied] for ever

The Historical Context

Jeremiah has been prophesying in Jerusalem through the reigns of three of the final kings of Judah [Jer 1:2,3] – five in fact although two of them only ruled a matter of a few months. He had been warning each king and the people to repent and turn back to the Lord otherwise the Lord would bring a judgment of destruction upon them.

Nebuchadnezzar

• first attacked Jerusalem in 598BC and took Jehoiakim to Babylon along with Daniel and a number of other nobles [2 Chron 36:5,6]
• then Jehoiachin, [2 Chron 36:10] was taken in 597BC, along with Ezekiel and some ten thousand other Jews, [2 Kings 24:12-17]
• and then Zedekiah, in 587BC with the fall of Jerusalem after a year’s siege.

Jeremiah had prophesied about the sin of Israel again and again:

• 16:11,12 – forefathers had forsaken the Lord, they were worse
• 16:18 – the land full of vile images
• 17:2 – even their children know the Asherah pole idols
• 17:21 – ignoring the Sabbath day
• 18:15 – God has been rejected for idols
• 22.3 – oppression and injustice again
• 22:9 – the covenant broken and idols worshipped
• 22:17 – oppression, injustice and violence
• 23:1 – leaders don’t care for the people
• 23:11 – godlessness in the Temple
• 23:14 – Jerusalem has become like Sodom and Gomorrah
• 25:4 – they refuse the Lord’s words and continue to worship idols

etc. etc.

The awfulness of the descriptions in Lamentations enables us to catch something more of the reality of what happened. We should also remind ourselves that Jeremiah prophesied the return of Israel to the land which was fulfilled in the reign of Cyrus.

Contents

• 1: Anguish for what has happened
• 2: Judgement of the Lord
• 3: Anguish & Hope
• 4: The Past Compared with the Present
• 5: Prayer over the Disgrace of Israel & Jerusalem

Concluding Comments

• In these chapters there is anguish over the loss of the city of David, Zion, Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God, the heart of God’s people.
• It is a realistic anguish that accepts that it was the ongoing sin of the people of Judah and the rulers in Jerusalem that eventually brought this about.
• There are little glimmers of hope and a declaration of trust in the Lord, but either the anguish is too great and has submerged it, or the writer doesn’t know of the prophetic words from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel that promised that the Lord would bring back His people and restore the city and rebuild the Temple.
• For the moment, this writer wallows in the anguish of the present and that seems to hinder much hope for the future.