Reference: Lamentations, Book Of
Easton
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 2Sa 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. (See Bible.)
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."
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The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, do not let it be known in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. read more. Mountains of Gilboa, let not dew or rain be on you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty has been evilly cast away, the shield of Saul not being anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and with delights; who put ornaments of gold on your clothes. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant you have been to me. Your love to me was wonderful, more than the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
Hastings
LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF
1. Occasion.
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And Jeremiah mourned for Josiah. And all the singing men and the singing women have spoken of Josiah in their lamentations until this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel. And behold, they are written in the Lamentations.
How alone sits the city that was full of people! She has become like a widow, once great among the nations, a noblewoman among the nations, but now has become a tribute-payer.
How alone sits the city that was full of people! She has become like a widow, once great among the nations, a noblewoman among the nations, but now has become a tribute-payer. She bitterly weeps in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt deceitfully with her; they became her enemies. read more. Judah went into captivity because of affliction, and from great slavery. She dwells among the nations; she finds no rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her between the narrows. The roads of Zion mourn without any going to the appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests sigh; her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her enemies have become as chief; her haters are at ease; for Jehovah has afflicted her for the multitude of her sins. Her children have gone, captive before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty has departed. Her rulers have become like bucks: they find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer. In the days of her affliction and her wandering Jerusalem remembered all her desirable things from previous days; when her people fell into the hand of the foe; and there is no ally for her. The foes saw her; they laughed at her annihilation. Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she has been removed. All knowing her despise her because they saw her nakedness; yea, she sighs and turns backward. Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she did not remember her end, and has gone down astoundingly. There is no comforter for her. O Jehovah, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself. The enemy has spread out his hand upon all her desirable things; for she has seen the nations enter her holy place, whom You commanded that they should not enter into Your congregation. All her people sigh; they seek bread. They have given their desirable things for food to relieve the soul. See, O Jehovah, and look on me, for I have become vile. Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which is done to me, with which Jehovah has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. From above He has sent fire into my bones and it has laid them low. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me amazed and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand; they intertwine; they rise on my neck. He has made my strength to falter; Jehovah has delivered me into their hands. I am not able to rise up. Jehovah has trampled all my mighty ones in my midst; He has called a gathering against me to crush my young men. Jehovah has trod the virgin daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who could refresh my soul is far from me. My sons are desolated because the enemy prevails. Zion spreads forth her hands; none is comforting to me; Jehovah has commanded concerning Jacob that his enemies should be all around him; Jerusalem has become as an impure thing among them. Jehovah is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. I beseech you, all peoples, hear and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men went into exile. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders expired in the city while they sought food for them to bring back their life. Behold, O Jehovah, for I am in trouble; my inward parts ferment; my heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled. On the outside the sword bereaves; in the house it is as death. They hear that I sigh; there is none to comfort me. All my enemies have heard my evil; they are glad that You have done it. You will bring the day that You have called, and they shall be like me. Let all their wickedness come before You; and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
I the man have seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me go in darkness and not into light. read more. Surely He turned against me; He turns His hand all the day. He has wasted my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones. He built against me and has circled me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me live in dark places, like the dead of old. He has set a fence around me and I cannot go out; He has made my bronze chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. He walled up my ways with cut stone; my paths are crooked. He was a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in secret places. He has turned my ways aside and torn me in pieces. He made me desolate. He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my inward parts. I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness and made me drunk with wormwood. He also broke my teeth with gravel; He has covered me in the ashes. And You cast off my soul from peace; I have forgotten blessedness. And I said, My strength and my hope from Jehovah are gone. Remember my affliction and my wandering, as wormwood and bitterness. My soul vividly remembers and bows down on me. I recall this to my mind; therefore I hope. It is by Jehovah's kindnesses that we are not destroyed, because His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him. Jehovah is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope for the salvation of Jehovah, even in silence. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sits alone and keeps silence because He laid it on him. He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may be hope. He gives his cheek to Him who strikes him; he is filled with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever; for though He causes grief, yet He will have pity according to the multitude of His kindnesses. For He does not afflict from His heart, nor does He grieve the sons of men; to crush all the prisoners of the earth under His feet; to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High; to pervert a man in his cause. This, Jehovah does not see. Who is this who speaks, and it occurs, when the Lord does not command it? From the mouth of the Most High does not go out the evil and the good. What? Should mankind complain, a living man, because of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah. Let us lift up our heart and hands to God in Heaven. read more. We have sinned and have rebelled; You have not forgiven. You have wrapped Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain; You have not pitied. You have wrapped Yourself with a cloud from any prayer passing through. You have made us as the sweepings and garbage in the midst of the peoples. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a pit have come to us, shame and ruin. Streams of water run down my eye for the ruin of the daughter of my people. My eye flows out and does not cease, from there being no intermission, until Jehovah shall look down and behold from Heaven. My eye pains my soul because of all the daughters of my city. My haters have hunted me, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the pit, and cast a stone at me. Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off. I called on Your name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest pit. You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my relief, at my cry for help. You drew near in the day that I called on You; You said, Fear not. O Lord, You strove for the causes of my soul; You redeemed my life. O Jehovah, You have seen my wrong; judge my cause. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their plots against me; the lips of those who rose up against me, and their scheming against me all the day. Behold their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song. You will return to them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands. You will give them dullness of heart, Your curse on them. Pursue and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of Jehovah.
Even the jackals draw out the breast; they suckle their young ones. The daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
While we are, our eyes fail, for our help is vain; in our watching we have watched for a nation; it does not save.
Why do You forget us forever and forsake us the length of days?