Thematic Bible: Lamentations of


Thematic Bible




Wash the evil from your heart, Jerusalem, so that you will be delivered. How long will you harbor malicious thoughts within you? For a voice announces from Dan, proclaiming malice from Mount Ephraim. Warn the nations: Look! Proclaim to Jerusalem: Those who besiege are coming from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah. read more.
They have her surrounded like those who guard a field, because she has rebelled against Me. [This is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration. Your way of life and your actions have brought this on you. This is your punishment. It is very bitter, because it has reached your heart!

My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick. Listen-the cry of my dear people from a far away land: Is the Lord no longer in Zion, her King not in her midst? Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images, with their worthless foreign idols? Harvest has passed, summer has ended, but we have not been saved. read more.
I am broken by the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

Woe to me because of my brokenness- I am severely wounded! I exclaimed, "This is my intense suffering, but I must bear it." My tent is destroyed; all my tent cords are snapped. My sons have departed from me and are no more. [I have] no one to pitch my tent again or to hang up my curtains. For the shepherds are stupid: they don't seek the Lord. Therefore they have not prospered, and their whole flock is scattered. read more.
Listen! A noise-it is coming- a great commotion from the land to the north. The cities of Judah will be made desolate, a jackals' den.

I have abandoned My house; I have deserted My inheritance. I have given the love of My life into the hand of her enemies. My inheritance has acted toward Me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against Me. Therefore, I hate her. Is My inheritance like a hyena to Me? Are birds of prey circling her? Go, gather all the wild animals; bring them to devour [her]. read more.
Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of land. They have turned My desirable plot into a desolate wasteland. They have made it a desolation. It mourns, desolate, before Me. All the land is desolate, but no one takes it to heart. Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the Lord has a sword that devours from one end of the earth to the other. No one has peace. They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves but have no profit. Be put to shame by your harvests because of the Lord's burning anger.

You will be righteous, Lord, even if I bring a case against You. Yet, I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? [Why] do the treacherous live at ease? You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience. As for You, You know me, Lord; You see me. You test whether my heart is with You. Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter, and set them apart for the day of killing. read more.
How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of its residents, animals and birds have been swept away, for [the people] have said, "He cannot see what our end will be." If you have raced with runners and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan? Even your brothers-your own father's household- even they were treacherous to you; even they have cried out loudly after you. Do not have confidence in them, though they speak well of you.

Jeremiah chanted a dirge over Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women still speak of Josiah in their dirges to this very day. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Dirges. Verse ConceptsBereavement, Expression OfLamentingSongsTraditionsWritingBooksMournersanniversary

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