by Stephen Rodgers

LAMENTATIONS IN 10 WORDS OR LESS

“A despairing poem about the destruction of Jerusalem.”

TITLE

/sigh

I need to be more careful about what I write. A couple of times now I’ve written the following

I’ll let you in on a little secret: this section is about to get really repetitious for the next few months.  ALL the prophetic books take their name from the prophet who…well…prophesied them. So there’s really no great mystery here.  However, there may be some good background material…

Well, now we come to the one prophetic book that doesn’t take it’s name from a particular prophet: Lamentations.

MSB:

“Lamentations” was derived from a translation of the title as found in the Latin Vulgate (Vg.) translation of the Greek OT, the Septuagint (LXX), and conveys the idea of “loud cries.” The Hebrew exclamation ekah (“How,” which expresses “dismay”), used in Lam. 1:1; 2:1, and 4:1, gives the book its Hebrew title. However, the rabbis began early to call the book “loud cries” or “lamentations” (cf. Jer. 7:29). No other entire OT book contains only laments, as does this distressful dirge, marking the funeral of the once beautiful city of Jerusalem (cf. Lam. 2:15). This book keeps alive the memory of that fall and teaches all believers how to deal with suffering.

Constable:

The English title of this book comes from the Talmud, which called it “Lamentations” (Heb. qinoth). The Hebrew Bible has the title “Ah, how” or “Alas” (Heb. ‘ekah), the first word in the first, second, and fourth chapters. The title in the Septuagint is “Wailings” (Gr. Threnoi).

So just to be completely clear, there is no Hebrew poet named “Lamentations.” Which actually is a great segue into…

AUTHOR & AUDIENCE

Other than a tiny kerfuffle brought on by people who occupy their time by studying the anthropology of poetry (I’ll get to that in the OBJECTIONS section), the only real excitement related to the reliability of Lamentation is the fact that it’s technically anonymous.

Now before I go much further, let me preface that by saying that I think Jeremiah wrote it, and I’m not alone on that. Many scholars, liberal and conservative, believer and unbeliever tend to think that Jeremiah wrote it. The ESVSB is surprisingly reserved on this subject however:

The book does not identify its author, which should keep interpreters from unnecessarily contentious debates. Many scholars consider Jeremiah the author. They base this decision on (1) the statement in 2 Chronicles 35:25 that Jeremiah “uttered a lament for Josiah”; (2) the fact that Jeremiah was an eyewitness of Jerusalem’s destruction; and (3) the similarities in theological emphasis and vocabulary between the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. In addition, much Jewish tradition (such as the Septuagint, the Targum on Jeremiah, and the Babylonian Talmud, Baba Bathra 15a) attributes this book to Jeremiah. The problems with this view include: (1) Lamentations does not name Jeremiah as its author; (2) the book of Jeremiah details much of Jeremiah’s post-587 b.c. activities but says nothing about his writing Lamentations; (3) there are differences in key vocabulary between Jeremiah and Lamentations; and (4) Lamentations provides material for worship in Jerusalem, whereas Jeremiah spent his last years in Egypt.

Let me briefly address the points that are raised in objection:

1. This is the most troubling of the arguments raised, since it would seem to imply that unless the Bible explicitly tells us something, then we cannot know it with certainty. I’m going to move on fairly quickly so that I don’t work myself up into a full-fledged rant here, but suffice to say I would cheerfully reject that claim…with both barrels. Such a position finds itself at odds with any number of historically orthodox creeds and confessions (WCF 1.6: “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture…”). Furthermore, it’s going to get rather uncomfortable around here if it gets trotted out and set against historically orthodox doctrines that would otherwise fail “test by word search”…and here I’m thinking of the trinity. Ok, deep breaths…
2. Argument from Silence? Really?
3. Fair point.
4. Assumes facts not in evidence. The fact of the matter is that while Jeremiah clearly records that he was unwillingly shanghaied to Egypt following the assassination of a Babylonian official, almost immediately we run into conflicting Rabbinic notes and traditions. Some say he was stoned to death in Egypt; others say he returned to Babylon. We don’t know, (and I’d point out that according to the standards entailed in (1) and (2)), we can’t know.

DATE

Ok, so remember what I wrote about dating the book of Jeremiah:

For the most part, the writing of the book of Jeremiah is concurrent with it’s setting. Jeremiah began his ministry during the thirteenth year of King Josiah (the last good king of Judah, 640-609 BC), and continued to prophesy and preach throughout the reigns of Jehoahaz (609 BC), Jehoiakim (609-598 BC), Jehoiachin (598-597 BC), and Zedekiah (597-586 BC). He survived the fall of Jerusalem, and was relocated to Egypt against his will following the assassination of Gedaliah.

Lamentations takes place after that whole “fall of Jerusalem” bit in 586 BC, but prior to the return of the exiles in 538 BC (remember Nehemiah). That’s less than a 50-year window of opportunity. On top of that, a number of internal indicators seem to point towards an earlier date, as the pain and trauma from the fall of Jerusalem is still fresh in the mind of the poet.

BACKGROUND & SETTING

Everything I wrote regarding the setting for Jeremiah would seem to apply here.

Per Constable:

The biblical records of the times in which Jeremiah ministered are 2 Kings 21—25 and 2 Chronicles 33—36. His contemporary prophets were Zephaniah and Habakkuk before the Exile, and Ezekiel and Daniel after it began.

Per the MSB:

Politically momentous events occurred in Jeremiah’s day. Assyria saw its power wane gradually; then Ashurbanipal died in 626 B.C. Assyria grew so feeble that in 612 B.C. her seemingly invincible capital, Nineveh, was destroyed (cf. the book of Nahum). The Neo-Babylonian empire under Nabopolassar (625–605 B.C.) became dominant militarily with victories against Assyria (612 B.C.), Egypt (609–605 B.C.), and Israel in 3 phases (605 B.C., as in Dan. 1; 597 B.C., as in 2 Kin. 24:10–16; and 586 B.C., as in Jer. 39,40,52).

Jeremiah records one of the most pivotal moments in OT history: the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. While the northern kingdom had fallen to the Assyrians already, the southern kingdom had held out until now. However, as the Babylonian empire grew, their opinion of Israel shifted from considering them a military ally against Egypt (especially after they successfully fought Egypt to a standstill), to considering them a likely candidate for conquest. And so, in 586 BC the Babylonians successfully attacked and destroyed Jeruasalem, leading the kingdom of Judah off into exile.

This is the time of Jeremiah.

And the time of Lamentations would literally be right after that.

HISTORICAL & THEOLOGICAL THEMES

There are three major themes in Lamentations:

• Judgment. Sin has consequences, and God uses secondary agents to execute His judgement (Lam. 1:14-15; 2:1-8, 17, 22; 4:11).
• Response to Judgment. The appropriate to God’s judgment is repentance (Lam. 3:40-42) and a desire for forgiveness and restoration (Lam. 5:21-22).
• God’s Character. God is just in His judgment, but he is also the God of hope (Lam. 3:21, 24-25), love (Lam. 3:22), compassion (Lam. 3:22), faithfulness (Lam. 3:23), and salvation (Lam. 3:26).

INTERPRETIVE CHALLENGES

While there are a number of verses that require additional study (as in any book of the Bible), none of them (that I am aware of) rise to the level of being fundamental or even well popularized.

LITERARY FEATURES

Per the ESVSB:

As its title indicates, the book of Lamentations is a collection of laments, or melancholy dirges, for a ruined society. The poems in the book could also be termed elegies or funeral orations, in which the author expresses deep personal and communal grief for the dead and for all of the suffering that surrounds their loss. In terms of structure, the first four poems are acrostics. This structure, using the entire Hebrew alphabet, matches the poet’s intent, which is to give full expression to the suffering of his people and the sorrows of his own soul—in effect, to offer a lament “from A to Z” (or aleph to taw). Perhaps the highly structured form of the acrostic is also an attempt to impose some sense of order on a tragic situation that is chaotic beyond what anyone can bear.

If you need a refresher on poetry, you can refer back to the article on the Wisdom Books. Also, it’s an interesting footnote that the text of Lamentations is one of the primary sources used by scholars who wish to argue that the ANE Israelites employed particular forms of metered verse in their poems, and not just parallel structures and acrostics.

OBJECTIONS

So I promised an objection based on the anthropology of poetry, so here it is (notice I never said it was a particularly impressive objection). Basically the argument goes something like this: “Lamentations is a series of sophisticated acrostic poems. Sophisticated acrostic poems are too sophisticated for a primitive ANE culture like the Israelites. Therefore, the date of Lamentations is unreliable and we can assume influence from more literary societies.”

On the contrary, not only is there ample evidence for highly sophisticated literary forms that pre-date Lamentations (for example, the majority of the Wisdom Literature), but one could quite easily make the case that of the various forms of poetry, acrostic poetic forms would be one of the earlier forms to arise within a culture that has a written alphabet (as the ANE Israelites did).

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

• Lamentations 3:22-23
• Lamentations 5:21

DID YOU KNOW?

• The Hebrews divided the night into three watches: 1) sunset to 10pm, 2) 10pm to 2am, and 3) 2am to sunrise (Lam. 2:19).

Other Works Referenced

• Apologetics Study Bible, “Lamentations”
• Archaeological Study Bible, “Introduction to Lamentations”
• ESV Study Bible, “Introduction to Lamentations”
• MacArthur Study Bible, “Lamentations”
• NET Bible, Lamentations
• NIV Study Bible, Lamentations
• Reformation Study Bible, “Lamentations”
• The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook, “Lamentations”
• Know Your Bible
• Dever, The Message of the Old Testament
• Driscoll, A Book You’ll Actually Read On the Old Testament
• Knight, The Layman’s Bible Handbook