Lamentations:

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Lamentations

• How Lonely Lies the City

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Outline

1. Introduction.
2. Structure and Style.
3. Theological content.
4. Food for Thought.
5. Practical content.

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I. Introduction

1. Authorship.
2. Canonical Placement.
3. Title.
4. Historical Background.

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A. Authorship

• Jeremiah authorship according to the LXX, the
  Vulgate, Jewish tradition, and the KJV bible
  (external evidence).
• Jeremiah authorship based similarities between
  some parts of Jeremiah and Lamentations (internal
  evidence).
• II Chron 3525 could also be a proof of Jeremiah
  authorship though the lament referred to was a
  lament for Josiah.

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B. Canonical Placement

• The Hebrew Scriptures were probably originally
  canonized into a two-fold division the Law
  (Torah) and the Prophets (Nebhim), but a later
  division adds the sacred writings (Hagiographa).
• The Hebrew canon places Lamentations just after
  Ruth in the Megilloth of Kethubhim (the rolls).
• The LXX divides the Old Testament according to
  subject matter and is the basis of the modern
  four-fold classification of the five books of
  Law, twelve books of History, five books of
  Poetry, and seventeen books of Prophecy.
• This translation places Lamentations after the
  prophecy of Jeremiah, and this position was later
  adopted by the other versions, including the
  Vulgate and subsequent English translations.

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C. Title

• In the Hebrew text, the book is named after its
  first word hkya ('Ekhah), meaning how or alas
  or oh. This word also appears first in 21 and
  41. (see also 2 Sam 125-27, Isa 121 and Isa
  4212)
• The LXX reads threnoi (or qinoth in Hebrew
  meaning tears) of Jeremiah
• The Vulgate retains the title tears in Latin-
  threni and adds id est lamentationes Jeremiae
  prophetae

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D. Historical Background.

• Shalmeneser V(727-722 BC) invaded the Northern
  Kingdom in 725 B.C-II Kings 17. Sargon II deports
  the Israelites to Assyria sometime between 722
  and 709 B.C.
• Judah itself fell years later and Jerusalem was
  destroyed in the 9th of Av 587 B.C (July/August
  in solar calendar).
• This time should be identified with Jer 391-18.
  Other historical accounts are in 2Kings 24-25 and
  2Chron 36
• Interestingly, Lamentations was and is presently
  being used by Jews as public recitation on the
  ninth of Av at the western (wailing) wall, on the
  day Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldeans and
  later by the Romans in AD 70 centuries later.

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II. Structure and Style

• Although many forms of Hebrew poetry are used in
  Lamentations such as parallelisms, meters, and
  strophic arrangements our focus will be on the
  use of acrostic patterns in the book.

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Focus on the use of an Acrostic Structure.

• Each chapter of the book is comprised of a poem
  making five poems in all.
• 1,2,4,and 5 have 22 verses, while chapter 3 has
  66
• The poems use the literary style of an acrostic
  where the poem is built around the alphabet.
• In each of chapter 1 and 2, 22 verses and 66
  lines. Each Hebrew alphabet beginning a verse.
  Three lines per stanza
• In chapter 4, same format as 1 and 2 but with two
  lines per stanza.

• In chapter 3, one Hebrew alphabet begins three
  verses. For example, Aleph begins verses 1, 2,
  and 3 and Beth begins verses 4, 5, and 6 etc.
  There is only one line per stanza.
• In chapter 5, the alphabets are not used but
  there are still 22 verses for 22 alphabets.
• However verses 19-20 are themselves
  mini-acrostic.

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III. Theological Content

1. Possible reasons for writing the book.
2. Obvious themes found in Lamentations.
3. Interesting parallelism between Lamentations and
   Deuteronomy.

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A. Possible Reasons for Writing the Book

• To show that sin has consequences.
• To bring the readers to repentance.
• To ask for mercy in the midst of judgment.
• To offer hope of forgiveness and restoration to
  the readers.
• To offer a portrait of Jesus suffering (chap 3
  is similar to Ps 22).

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B. Obvious Themes

• Fulfillment of indictment.- 217
• Retribution-18,9
• Grace-322, 55-58
• Judgment.
• Reprobation and Equal Ultimacy.- 26 521
• Misery of judgment.-2 15,31-20
• Hope of restoration.-325,26 31-33 521

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C. Interesting Parallelism

• Interestingly the book of Lamentations points to
  Deuteronomy 28.
• Here God warns the Israelites about the impending
  retribution for disobedience.
• Here God also anticipates their imminent
  apostasy.

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Deuteronomy 28
Lamentations

• 65 Among those nations you will find no repose,
  no resting place for the sole of your foot. There
  the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes
  weary with longing, and a despairing heart.
• 44 He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
• 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to
  another nation.
• 25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before
  your enemies. You will come at them from one
  direction but flee from them in seven
• 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will
  not keep them, because they will go into
  captivity.
• 37 You will become a thing of horror and an
  object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations
  where the LORD will drive you.

• 13 She dwells among the nations she finds no
  resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken
  her in the midst of her distress.
• 15 Her foes have become her masters her
  enemies are at ease.
• 15c Her children have gone into exile, captive
  before the foe.
• 16c in weakness they have fled before the
  pursuer.
• 118c My young men and maidens have gone into
  exile.
• 2 15 All who pass your way clap their hands at
  you they scoff and shake their heads

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Deuteronomy 28
Lamentations

• 53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will
  inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the
  fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and
  daughters the LORD your God has given you.
• 30 You will build a house, but you will not
  live in it.
• 65 Among those nations you will find no repose,
  no resting place for the sole of your foot.
• 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for
  the old or pity for the young.

• 220 "Look, O LORD , and consider Whom have you
  ever treated like this? Should women eat their
  offspring, the children they have cared for?
• 52 Our inheritance has been turned over to
  aliens, our homes to foreigners.
• 55 Those who pursue us are at our heels we are
  weary and find no rest.
• 512 Princes have been hung up by their hands
  elders are shown no respect.

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IV. Food for Thought

• How can God make them forget their Sabbaths and
  appointed feasts and then punish them for it?
  26, II Chron 3615-21.
• Why couldnt the people of Judah learn from the
  fall of the nation of Israel?
• How does chapter 3 point to Christ?
• How is Gods wrath so consuming yet his mercy so
  abounding?
• For what atrocities was Edom to be punished?
  421,22

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V. Practical Content

• It becomes necessary to avoid those things that
  led to Gods judgment on Judah.
• Lessons are learned in the chastisement that
  brings on his children.
• Jeremiah sets an example of love for Judah by
  warning them, and then offering up intercessory
  prayer on their behalf after the fall.

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Questions, comments