OUTLINE OF LAMENTATIONS With Suggested Key Verses

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OUTLINE OF LAMENTATIONS With Suggested Key
Verses

• Lam 25 The Lord was as an enemy he hath
  swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her
  palaces he hath destroyed his strong holds, and
  hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning
  and lamentation. Lam 26 And he hath violently
  taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a
  garden he hath destroyed his places of the
  assembly the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts
  and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath
  despised in the indignation of his anger the king
  and the priest.
• Lam 322 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are
  not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
  Lam 323 They are new every morning great is thy
  faithfulness.

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OUTLINE OF LAMENTATIONS

• Lamentations describes the funeral of a city. It
  is a tearstained portrait of the once proud
  Jerusalem, now reduced to rubble by the invading
  Babylonian hordes. In a five-poem dirge, Jeremiah
  exposes his emotions. A death has occurred
  Jerusalem lies barren.
• Jeremiah writes his lament in acrostic or
  alphabetical  fashion. Beginning each chapter
  with the first letter A (aleph) he progresses
  verse by verse through the Hebrew alphabet,
  literally weeping from A to Z. And then, in the
  midst of this terrible holocaust, Jeremiah
  triumphantly cries out, "Great is thy
  faithfulness" (323). In the face of death and
  destruction, with life seemingly coming apart,
  Jeremiah turns tragedy into a triumph of faith.
  God has never failed him in the past. God has
  promised to remain faithful in the future. In the
  light of the God he knows and loves, Jeremiah
  finds hope and comfort.
• The Hebrew title of this book comes from the
  first word of chapters 1, 2, and 4 Ekah, "How!"
  Another Hebrew word Ginoth ("Elegies" or
  "Lamentations") has also been used as the title
  because it better represents the contents of the
  book. The Greek title Threnoi means "Dirges" or
  "Laments," and the Latin title Threnoi ("Tears"
  or "Lamentations") was derived from this word.
  The subtitle in Jerome's Vulgate reads "Id est
  lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae," and this
  became the basis for the English title "The
  Lamentations of Jeremiah."
• For forty years Jeremiah suffers rejection and
  abuse for his warnings of coming judgment. When
  Nebuchadnezzar finally comes and destroys
  Jerusalem in 586 b.c., a lesser man might say, "I
  told you so!" But Jeremiah compassionately
  identifies with the tragic-overthrow of Jerusalem
  and composes five beautiful and emotional lament
  poems as a requiem for the once proud city. These
  dirges reflect the tender heart of the man who
  was divinely commissioned to communicate a harsh
  message to a sinful and stiff-necked people. The
  city, the temple, the palace, and the walls have
  been reduced to rubble and its inhabitants have
  been deported to distant Babylon. Jeremiah's five
  mournful poems can be entitled the destruction
  of Jerusalem (1), the anger of Yahweh (2), the
  prayer for mercy (3), the siege of Jerusalem (4),
  and the prayer for restoration (5).

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I. The Destruction of Jerusalem.. 11-22

• The Destruction of Jerusalem (1) This poem
  consists of a lamentation by Jeremiah (11-11)
  and a lamentation by the personified Jerusalem
  (112-22). The city has been left desolate
  because of its grievous sins, and her enemies
  "did mock at her sabbaths" (17). Jerusalem
  pleads with God to regard her misery and repay
  her adversaries.

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I. The Destruction of Jerusalem...................
............ 11-22

• A.  The Lament of the Prophet Jeremiah   11-11
• 1.      The Desolation of Jerusalem    11-7
• Lam 11 How doth the city sit solitary, that was
  full of people! how is she become as a widow! she
  that was great among the nations, and princess
  among the provinces, how is she become tributary!
  
• 2.      The Cause of Jerusalem's
  Desolation................. 18-11
• Lam 18 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned
  therefore she is removed all that honoured her
  despise her, because they have seen her
  nakedness yea, she sigheth, and turneth
  backward.

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I. The Destruction of Jerusalem...................
............ 11-22

• B.  The Lament of the City Jerusalem .. 112-22
• 1.      The Contrition of Jerusalem    112-19
• Lam 118 The LORD is righteous for I have
  rebelled against his commandment hear, I pray
  you, all people, and behold my sorrow my virgins
  and my young men are gone into captivity.
• 2.      The Confession of Jerusalem    120-22
• Lam 120 Behold, O LORD for I am in distress my
  bowels are troubled mine heart is turned within
  me for I have grievously rebelled abroad the
  sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

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II. The Anger of God............. 21-22

• The Anger of Yahweh (2) In his second elegy,
  Jeremiah moves from Jerusalem's desolation to a
  description of her destruction. Babylon has
  destroyed the city, but only as the Lord's
  instrument of judgment. Jeremiah presents an
  eyewitness account of the thoroughness and
  severity of Jerusalem's devastation. Through the
  Babylonians, God has terminated all religious
  observances, removed the priests, prophets, and
  kings, and razed the temple and palaces. Jeremiah
  grieves over the suffering the people brought on
  themselves through rebellion against God, and
  Jerusalem's supplications complete the lament.

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II. The Anger of God............. 21-22

• A.  The Anger of God     21-9
• Lam 21 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of
  Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down
  from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel,
  and remembered not his footstool in the day of
  his anger!

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II. The Anger of God............. 21-22

•   B. The Agony of Jerusalem     210-17
• Lam 211 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels
  are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth,
  for the destruction of the daughter of my people
  because the children and the sucklings swoon in
  the streets of the city.

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II. The Anger of God............. 21-22

• C.  The Appeal of Jerusalem     218-22
• Lam 219 Arise, cry out in the night in the
  beginning of the watches pour out thine heart
  like water before the face of the Lord lift up
  thy hands toward him for the life of thy young
  children, that faint for hunger in the top of
  every street.

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III. The Prayer for Mercy................. 31-66

• The Prayer for Mercy (3) In the first eighteen
  verses, Jeremiah enters into the miseries and
  despair of his people and makes them his own.
  However, there is an abrupt turn in verses 19-39
  as the prophet reflects on the faithfulness and
  loyal love of the compassionate God of Israel.
  These truths enable him to find comfort and hope
  in spite of his dismal circumstances. Jeremiah
  expresses his deep sorrow and petitions God for
  deliverance and for God to avenge Jerusalem's
  misery.

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III. The Prayer for Mercy................. 31-66

• A. Jeremiah's Cry of Despair......................
  ..... 31-18
• Lam 31 I am the man that hath seen affliction by
  the rod of his wrath.
• Lam 32 He hath led me, and brought me into
  darkness, but not into light.

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III. The Prayer for Mercy................. 31-66

• B.  Jeremiah's Confession of Faith     319-38
• Lam 322 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are
  not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
• Lam 323 They are new every morning great is thy
  faithfulness.
• Lam 339 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a
  man for the punishment of his sins?

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III. The Prayer for Mercy................. 31-66

• C.  Jeremiah's Condition of Need     340-54
• Lam 349 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth
  not, without any intermission,
• Lam 351 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of
  all the daughters of my city.
• Lam 354 Waters flowed over mine head then I
  said, I am cut off.

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III. The Prayer for Mercy................. 31-66

• D.  Jeremiah's Confidence in God     355-66
• Lam 355 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of
  the low dungeon.
• Lam 356 Thou hast heard my voice hide not thine
  ear at my breathing, at my cry.

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IV. The Siege of Jerusalem................ 41-22

• The Siege of Jerusalem (4) The prophet rehearses
  the siege of Jerusalem and remembers the
  suffering and starvation of rich and poor. He
  also reviews the causes of the siege, especially
  the sins of the prophets and priests and their
  foolish trust in human aid. This poem closes with
  a warning to Edom of future punishment and a
  glimmer of hope for Jerusalem.

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IV. The Siege of Jerusalem................ 41-22

• A.  The Conditions During the Siege     41-10
• Lam 410 The hands of the pitiful women have
  sodden their own children they were their meat
  in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

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IV. The Siege of Jerusalem................ 41-22

• B.  The Cause of the Siege     411-20
• Lam 411 The LORD hath accomplished his fury he
  hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath
  kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the
  foundations thereof.

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IV. The Siege of Jerusalem................ 41-22

• C.  The Consequences of the Siege     421, 22
• Lam 422 The punishment of thine iniquity is
  accomplished, O daughter of Zion he will no more
  carry thee away into captivity he will visit
  thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom he will
  discover thy sins.

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V. The Prayer for Restoration.......... 51-22

• The Prayer for Restoration (5) Jeremiah's last
  elegy is a melancholy description of his people's
  lamentable state. Their punishment is complete,
  and Jeremiah prayerfully desires the restoration
  of his nation.

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V. The Prayer for Restoration.......... 51-22

• A.  The Review of the Need for Restoration........
  ........... 51-15
• Lam 51 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us
  consider, and behold our reproach.

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V. The Prayer for Restoration.......... 51-22

• B.  The Repentance of Sin     516-18
• Lam 516 The crown is fallen from our head woe
  unto us, that we have sinned!

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V. The Prayer for Restoration.......... 51-22

• C.  The Request for Restoration     519-22
• Lam 521 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we
  shall be turned renew our days as of old.