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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Your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! Do not tell the news in Gath. Do not announce the victory in the streets of Ashkelon. The daughters of the Philistines will be glad. The daughters of godless men will celebrate. read more. Let no rain or dew fall on the mountains of Gilboa. Let its fields be barren! For the shields of the mighty lie there in disgrace. The shield of Saul is no longer polished with oil. Jonathan's bow was deadly. The sword of Saul was without mercy. He struck down the mighty and killed the enemy. It was easy to love Saul and Jonathan. Together in life, together in death, they were faster than eagles and stronger than lions. Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul. He clothed you in scarlet with luxury. The brave soldiers have fallen. They were killed in battle. Jonathan lies dead in the hills. I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan. You were dear to me! How wonderful was your love for me. It was better than the love of women. The mighty have fallen, their weapons abandoned and useless.
Hastings
LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF
1. Occasion.
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Then Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah. All the male and female singers speak about Josiah in their lamentations (dirges) to this day. They made them an ordinance in Israel. They are also written in the Lamentations.
She sits alone. She was a town full of people! Once great among the nations she has become like a widow! She who was a princess among the countries has come under the yoke of forced labor!
She sits alone. She was a town full of people! Once great among the nations she has become like a widow! She who was a princess among the countries has come under the yoke of forced labor! She weeps bitterly in the night. Her cheeks are wet from crying. Her lovers offer no comfort. Her friends have been false to her. They have become her enemies. read more. Judah has been taken away as a prisoner because of trouble and hard work. She dwells among the nations. There is no rest for her. Her attackers have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion are sad. No one comes to the holy meeting. All her doorways are desolate. Her priests are sighing out of sorrow. Her virgins are troubled, and it is bitter for her. Her enemies are at ease and her foes have become her masters. Jehovah (YHWH) sends her sorrow because of the great number of her sins. Young children have gone away as prisoners before the attacker. Glory has gone from the daughter of Zion! Her rulers are like stags with no place to eat. They flee without strength from their attacker. Jerusalem remembers in her days of sorrow and of her wanderings, all the desired things that were hers in the past. When her people were captive to the power of her adversary she had no helper. Her attackers desired her and made fun of her in her destruction. Great is the sin of Jerusalem! For this cause she has become an unclean thing. Those who gave her honor are looking down on her. They see her shame. Now truly, sighing out grief, she turns back. In her skirts were her unclean ways. She did not think of the future. Her fall has been a wonder. She has no comforter: See her sorrow, O Jehovah, for the enemy is lifted up. The hand of her enemies is stretched out over all her desired things. She sees the nations come into her holy place. Whom you gave orders that they were not to come into the meeting of your people. Her people are sighing and looking for bread. They have given their desired things for something to eat to give them life. See, O Jehovah, and take note. She has become a thing of shame. Come to me all you who go by, keep your eyes on me! See if there is any pain like the pain of my wound. For Jehovah has sent it to me in the day of his burning anger. He sends fire into my bones from on high. It overcomes them. His net is stretched out for my feet. He turns me back. He made me waste and feeble all the day. He keeps watch on my sins. They are joined together by his hand, they have come on to my neck; he makes my strength give way. Jehovah gives me into the hands of those against whom I have no power. Jehovah makes fun of my men of war. He gathers men against me to send destruction on my young men. The virgin daughter of Judah has been crushed like grapes under the feet of Jehovah. For these things I weep. My eye streams with water because the comforter who might give me new life is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy is strong. Zion's hands are outstretched. She has no comforter. Jehovah gave orders to the attackers of Jacob round about him: Jerusalem is an unclean (abhorrent) thing among them. Jehovah is upright. I have rebelled against him. Listen all you people and see my pain. My virgins and my young men are taken away as prisoners. I sent for my lovers, but they were false to me. My priests and my responsible men are dying. They look for food to give them new life. See, O Jehovah, I am in trouble. The inmost parts of my body are deeply moved. My heart is turned in me for I have been rebellious. Outside the children are put to the sword, and in the house there is death. Listen to the voice of my grief. I have no comforter. All my enemies have news of my troubles. They are glad because you did it. Let the day come when they will be like me. Let all their badness come before you. Do to them as you have done to me for all my sins: for loud is the sound of my grief, and the strength of my heart is gone.
I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his fury. By him I have been made to go in the dark and not in the light. read more. Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all day long. My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken. He built a wall against me, shutting me in with hardship and bitter sorrow. He kept me in dark places, like those who have been dead a long time. He built a wall around me so that I am unable to go out. He made a heavy chain for me. Even when I send up a cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He blocked my way with cut stones. He twisted my roadways. He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places. He has turned me on one side. I have been pulled to bits and lay desolate. With his bow bent, he made me the target for his arrows. He has let fly his arrows into the inmost parts of my body. I have become the laughingstock of all the peoples. I am their mocking song all the day. He has made my life nothing but pain. He gives me bitterness in full measure. He broke my teeth with crushed stones. I am bent low in the dust. Peace has been removed far away from me. I do not remember what good is. I said: My strength is cut off, and my hope from Jehovah. Remember my trouble and my wandering, the bitterroot and the poison. Remember and bow (bend) (come down to my level) down deep within me. I remember this and I have hope. We have not come to destruction because of Jehovah's loving kindness. His mercies are without end. They are new every morning. Your faithfulness is abundant. I said to myself, Jehovah is my heritage. For this reason I will hope in him. Jehovah is good to those who are waiting for him, to the person seeking him. It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of Jehovah. It is good for a man to carry the yoke when he is young. Let him sit by himself and keep silent because he has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust for perhaps there exists hope. Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame. Jehovah does not give a man up for a very long time. For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love. He takes no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men, it is not within his heart. A man crushes under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. He turns away the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High. Jehovah would not seek to deprive a man of justice. Who is able to say something should occur if Jehovah has not ordered it. Do not calamities and good things come from the mouth of the Most High? What protest may a living man make? Can a man protest about the punishment for his sin? Let us search and put our ways to the test. Let us turn again to Jehovah.
Let us search and put our ways to the test. Let us turn again to Jehovah. Let us lift up our hearts along with our hands to God in heaven. read more. For we have done wrong. We have rebelled against your law. We have not received your forgiveness. You blocked our approach to you with anger. You have slain us without compassion. You covered yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not pass through. You made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples. The mouths of all our enemies are open wide against us. Fear and deep waters have come on us with devastation and destruction. Rivers of water run down from my eyes because pf the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes stream without stopping. They have no rest. Jehovah looks down and sees from heaven. My eyes bring me pain because of all the daughters of my town. My enemies hunt for me just as if I was a bird. They sentence my life to prison and keep hurling stones at me. Waters were flowing over my head; I said: I am cut off. I called out your name in prayer, O Jehovah, out of the lowest prison. My voice came to you, Do not shut your ear to my relief, to my cry! You came near in the day when I offered my prayer to you. You said: Have no fear. O Jehovah, you have taken up my cause. You made my life safe. O Jehovah, you saw the wrong done to me. Do conduct the judgment for me! You saw all the evil they did to me and all their designs against me. Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Jehovah, and all their designs against me. You saw the lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day. Take note of them when they are seated and when they get up. I am their mockery of song. You will give them their reward, O Jehovah. Answer the work of their hands. You will cover their hearts with your curse on them. You will go after them in anger and annihilate them from under the heavens of Jehovah.
Even the jackals of the wasteland have full breasts and give milk to their young ones. The daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the wasteland.
Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false help. We watch for a nation unable to give salvation.
Why have we gone from your memory forever? Why have you turned away from us for so long?