Lamentations - Introduction

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS
LESSON 1
INTRODUCTION

A lamentation is a literary form, a dirge (kinah in Hebrew) for the dead. Lamentations are found elsewhere in the Bible; for example, the lamentation of David over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-27) and for Abner (2 Samuel 3:33-34). These poetic songs were sung by friends and relations or by professional mourners (Jeremiah 9:16). This literary form was also used by the prophets who applied it to the judgments and downfall of individuals or nations: Israel (Amos 5:2), Judah (Jeremiah 9:21f), Shallum (Jeremiah 22:10), princes of Judah (Ezekiel 19:13), Tyre (Ezekiel 26:17f; 27:32-36), the king of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:12-19), Egypt (Ezekiel 32:19f), and the lamentation for the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4-21). The more usual type of lamentation is a prayer in which the speaker laments a need or misfortune and petitions Yahweh for help and deliverance. About a third of the Psalms are this form of prayer, many of which are attributed to David.¹ Prayers of lamentation, both personal and collective, are also found in other Bible books.²

The Book of Lamentations is a funeral dirge for the holy city of Jerusalem, which was reduced to rubble by the invading Babylonian army in 587 BC. In a mournful poem, the inspired author, with deeply felt emotion, expresses his distress for the slaughter of his people and the enslavement and despair of the survivors.

Many Christian Old Testament versions entitle the book "The Lamentations of Jeremiah." The tradition of identifying Jeremiah as the author is based on 2 Chronicles 35:25, which records: Jeremiah composed a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers to this day lament Josiah in their dirges; they have made it a rule in Israel; they are recorded in the Lamentations.

The Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament (LXX), the Latin Vulgate, and all Christian translations place Lamentations immediately after the Book of Jeremiah and identify Jeremiah as the author. Early Church Fathers, including Origen and Jerome, also named Jeremiah as the author, which accounts for its location after the Book of Jeremiah in the Christian Old Testament. However, the Hebrew Bible lists it in the "Writings" (Hagiographa in Greek and Ketuvim in Hebrew). It is one of the five megillot, the "rolls" or "scrolls" read on major feast days. The Hebrew title is Eyka/Ekah, "How," the opening word of its text in Hebrew. The Talmud and other ancient Jewish writings entitled it Quinot, "Songs of Mourning" (The Navarre Bible, Major Prophets, Lamentations, page 521).

Scholars who support the tradition of Jeremiah, as the author, point out that the poems and their subject matter reflect the times of the prophet. However, those who reject Jeremiah as the author believe the passage in 2 Chronicles 35:25 refers to a now-lost poetic dirge by Jeremiah since Lamentations never mentions righteous King Josiah. In addition, they argue that Jeremiah would never have said that the voice of prophecy was silenced (2:9), nor would he have put his trust in help from Egypt (4:17) or given praise to his enemy, failed King Zedekiah (4:20).

Biblical scholars agree that Lamentations was written after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 587/6 BC as the work of a single author who describes, with deeply heartfelt mourning, the destruction of the holy city and its people. However, from his pain flows unconquerable faith and trust in God and a cry of repentance for his people's sins and the hope of restoration. Today, Jews chant it on the great fast commemorating the destruction of Solomon's Temple by the Babylonians on the 9^th of Ab in 587 BC, repeated by the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans on the same day in AD 70.

The Book of Jeremiah ends with an epilogue about the last days of Jerusalem when the city fell to the army of Babylonian general Nebuchadnezzar and the prominent citizens were deported along with the Temple treasures to Babylon (cf. Jer 52:1-34). The English title, "Lamentations," originates from the Latin and Greek and the other Hebrew title, qinot, meaning "laments," and is attested to in the Babylonian Talmud (b. Bat. 14b) and in early Rabbinic writings. As mentioned, in the Hebrew Tanakh, common to Jewish tradition, the book is entitled Ekah, "How," from its first word, a practice seen in other Old Testament Gooks of the Pentateuch (i.e., Genesis = b'reshit, "In beginning"). Other manuscripts of ancient translations and early printed editions add, after the word "Lamentations," "of Jeremiah," or "of Jeremiah the Prophet," expressing the common belief concerning authorship.

The Book of Lamentations is divided into five chapters consisting of five poems, with the first four alphabetic acrostic patterned poems lamenting the desolation of Jerusalem. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters; therefore, there are 22 verses in chapters 1, 2,4, and 5. However, the Third Lament in Chapter 3 has 66 verses, still using the 22 Hebrew alphabet letters. The fifth Chapter is a lament pleading for mercy and restoration. Lamentations is an acrostic poem in which each new line represents a letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

Chapter 1: The First Lament ~ Jerusalem's destruction (1:1-22).
Chapter 2: The Second Lament ~ Yahweh's righteous anger (2:1-22).
Chapter 3: The Third Lament ~ A prayer for mercy (3:1-66).
Chapter 4: The Fourth Lament ~ The siege of Jerusalem (4:1-22).
Chapter 5: The Fifth Lament ~ A prayer for restoration (5:1-22).

**Summary Outline for Lamentations**
BIBLICAL PERIOD	The Babylonian Conquest of Judah
FOCUS	Four-part lament for the destruction of Jerusalem				The hope of restoration
COVENANT	The Sinai Covenant and Davidic Covenant
SCRIPTURE	1:1--------------2:1-------------------3:1--------------------4:1------------------5:1--------------22
DIVISION	Jerusalem's destruction	Yahweh's righteous anger	A prayer for mercy	The siege of Jerusalem	A prayer for restoration
TOPIC	Grief	Cause	Hope	Repentance	Penitent nation
LOCATION	Jerusalem
TIME	587/6 BC

The Historical Background

The Neo-Assyrians became the dominant empire over the ancient Near East and parts of Caucasus, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean throughout the 9^th to 7^th centuries BC. It was the largest empire in history up to that point. The Assyrians ruled over all of Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt, as well as parts of Anatolia, Arabia, and what is today modern Iran and Armenia. Among their subdued nations were the nations of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Southern Kingdoms of Judah, the Babylonians, and the Medes.

The United Kingdom of Israel was independent under the rule of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon. However, after Solomon died in c. 930 BC, the nation split into two states: ten of the twelve tribes of Israel formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the tribes of Benjamin and Judah remained loyal to the Davidic heir, forming the Southern Kingdom of Judah. King Jeroboam I of the Northern Kingdom of Israel rejected worship at God's holy Temple in Jerusalem, drove out the Aaronic priesthood, installed his own priests, and set up pagan altars in Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12-13). God sent a prophet from Judah to condemn Jeroboam and his pagan altars (1 Kings 13:1-10).

King Hoshea of the Northern Kingdom pretended to submit to King Shalmaneser of Assyria and paid him tribute, but the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had formed an alliance with the Pharaoh of Egypt against the Assyrians. In retaliation, King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria marched against the Northern Kingdom, capturing the northern province of Galilee in 734 BC and incorporating it into an Assyrian province. In 723-21 BC, after Hoshea again rebelled against the Assyrians, the Northern Kingdom's capital city, Samaria, was besieged and finally conquered. The siege was begun by Shalmaneser V and completed by Sargon II in 721 BC. Sargon captured the city and deported 27,290 inhabitants into Assyrian lands, instituting an Assyrian province called Samerina (Samaria) with an Assyrian governor. He settled pagan people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, and Sepharvaim in the cities of Samaria, who brought the worship of their pagan gods and adopted the worship of Yahweh (2 Kings 17:24-41). These people became the Samaritans. The nation of Northern Israel ceased to exist until 1947, when the United Nations recreated the nation of Israel as a homeland for the displaced Jews of the Holocaust.

Led by a Chaldean chief named Nabopolassar, the Babylonians, and their allies, the Medes, revolted against the Assyrians in 614 BC. In 612 BC, after a two-month siege, they captured the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. Their victory effectively meant the end of the Assyrian Empire and began the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Babylonians immediately claimed all the former Assyrian territories, including the Jewish state of Judah.

At first, Judah submitted to Babylonian domination, paying tribute to Babylon. However, they continually conspired to throw off the Babylonian yoke. It was a long struggle that had disastrous results for Judah. During the reign of Judahite King Jehoiakim (609-597 BC), he "became the servant of the Babylonians for three years" beginning in 605 BC (2 Kings 24:1). Three years later, he rebelled against Babylon, refusing to pay the required tribute. The Babylonian general and son of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, put down the rebellion and took prisoners back to Babylon. Among the prisoners were the future prophet, Daniel, and his three friends (see the Book of Daniel).

After King Jehoiakim died in 597 BC, his 18-year-old son, Jehoiachin, became king, reigning for three months "and doing evil in God's sight" (2 Kings 24:8-9). He also rebelled against the Babylonians. In 597 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC) besieged the city of Jerusalem. Jehoiachin gave himself up, and 2 Kings 24:11-14 records: The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign and carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the LORD, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the LORD had foretold. He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land. This second deportation of Jews to Babylon included the priest Ezekiel, who later wrote the book that bears his name. The Babylonians installed Jehoiakim's uncle, Zedekiah (ruled 598-587 BC), as a puppet king of Judah, but he also rebelled against the Babylonians (2 Kings 24-25).

The Babylonian army, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, began the siege of Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah, in c. 589 BC to end the Judahite revolts against Babylon; however, they withdrew to fight another enemy, the Egyptians. They returned and renewed the siege. Jerusalem fell after a 30-month siege. When Jerusalem fell, the Babylonians systematically destroyed the city and her holy Temple of Yahweh by fire in 587/6 BC and took most of the remaining population of Jerusalem away into exile in Babylonian lands. However, the Babylonian Exile began earlier during the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah (ruled 609-598 BC), when the young future prophet Daniel and sons of important families were taken to exile in Babylon (Daniel 1:1-7). The second exile was in 597 BC with the deportation of young King Jehoiachin of Judah (r. 598 BC) and his family, skilled craftsmen, warriors, and 10,000 additional captives (2 Kings 24:12-16). The third deportation was in 587/6 BC, when King Zedekiah was captured, and Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed (2 Kings 24:17-25:21). Jeremiah 52:28-30 records that 4,600 Judahites were taken captive and deported to Babylon in the third deportation. These catastrophic events resulted in the sorrowful funeral lament for Jerusalem, recorded in the Book of Lamentations. Psalm 137 poetically tells the sorrow of the deported Judahites: "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, at the memory of Zion. On the poplars there we had hung up our harps" (Psalm 137:1-2).

All Bible quotes are from the NJB (New Jerusalem Bible) unless listed as NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition) or IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English, Volumes I-III) or the IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English, Volume IV).

Endnotes:

1. See the collective lamentations of Psalms 44, 60, 74, 79, and 80; and the individual lamentations found in Psalms 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 22, 26, 27, 28, 31, 35, 38, 39, 42, 43, 51, 54, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 80, 88, 102:1-12, 24-29, 109, 120, 130, 140, 141, 142, and 143.

2. Personal: Jeremiah 11:18-23; 12:1-4, 14-18; 15:10-12, 15-18; 17:14-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-13. Collective, many of which are the "confessions" in the name of the community: Ezekiel 9:6-15; Nehemiah 1:5-11; Isaiah 63:7-64; Jeremiah 14:7-9, 17-22; Hosea 6:1-3; Joel 1-2.