The following excerpt appears in The CEB Student Bible, introducing the book of LamentationsOverview Some people think the Bible is nothing but sentimental mushiness. They obviously haven’t read it. The book of Lamentations is exceptionally grave literature. It mourns some of the darkest moments in Jerusalem’s existence. The text haunts readers with an onslaught of images that shock, disturb, and desperately search for God in amid rubble, tragedy, and death. |
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Key Themes in Lamentation
A Different Sort of Prayer: When people today pray, they often recite prayers from memory. Other times, they display nice manners, being sure to say “please” and “thank you” to God. Hands are usually folded, and heads are often bowed. Things are different in Lamentations. People shake their fists at God. They rage at their suffering. They yell, scream, and cry from places of deepest despair. They blame God for their troubles (2:20). They wonder if God’s anger will ever end (5:20–22).
Most of us aren’t used to praying like this. Yet, the Bible tells us it’s okay. It’s okay because it’s better to be real with God than a phony. It’s okay because God already knows what’s going on in our hearts. It’s okay because sometimes, life really is awful. It’s okay because tragedy strikes us all—and we can be completely honest with God about all the garbage we face.
Praising God with Tear-Covered Faces: Lamentations asks piercing questions of God, wondering how faith can persist amid so much violence and death. Remarkably, hope is found in the midst of despair (3:21–41). Like many psalms, Lamentations finds ways to celebrate God even while mourning tragedy (see Psalm 13, 22). These biblical texts have been a source of hope for many readers across the centuries.
Keys for Reading
The A to Z of Grief: Lamentations contains five poems. Most of these have a similar pattern: each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That’s why there are Hebrew letters in the margin of the text. Why did the poems take this form? Some interpreters think it helped people memorize the book’s words. However, it’s more likely that Lamentations expresses the totality of grief, moving from A to Z, as it were. Within the pages of this book, readers see the extent of Jerusalem’s suffering. They also see how faith can be expressed amid such tragedy.
Daughter Zion: Several times, the book of Lamentations talks about “Daughter Zion” (as well as “Daughter Judah,” “daughter of my people,” and even “Daughter Edom”). Zion is another way of talking about Jerusalem, home to God’s temple. In the ancient world, people often assumed that cities had feminine characteristics. Because Lamentations cherishes the city of Jerusalem, it talks about the city not simply as a woman but as a daughter.
Disturbing Images: If Lamentations doesn’t bother you, you’re not paying attention. It talks of parents eating the corpses of their dead children (2:20; 4:10), of God’s people becoming “trash and garbage” (3:45), of slaves ruling over them (5:8). God is described as an enemy (2:5), a lurking bear (3:10), and a hiding lion (3:10). The book ends wondering whether God will ever return to those who suffer (5:21-22).
Lamentations shows what faith looks like amid the worst tragedies imaginable. It doesn’t try to sugarcoat things. It doesn’t try to minimize pain or death. It looks life’s harshest realities in the eye and reaches toward God. It allows readers to mourn, cry, and scream at life’s cruelty. It shatters myths that God’s people are somehow immune from suffering. Amid the disturbing images of these pages, readers find permission to be completely honest about the world’s horrors.
Quick Facts
Historical Context: In 588, the Babylonian war machine laid siege to Jerusalem, slowly starving its inhabitants to death. In 587, they broke through the city walls, slaughtering many inhabitants, turning others into refugees, and demolishing the city, including the temple. Lamentations remembers the horrors of these events.
Author: We know very little about the author of Lamentations. Some traditions hold that Jeremiah wrote it, in part because the book of Jeremiah also contains its share of laments (such as Jer 20:7–18; see also 2 Chr 35:25). Some biblical texts talk about people who are “skilled in mourning” (Amos 5:16). Such people would cry out in ways that allowed communities as a whole to grieve. It’s possible that professional mourners wrote Lamentations.
Date Written: The book appears to have been written when Jerusalem’s destruction (in 587 BCE) still haunted people’s memory.
Organization: As mentioned above, the book of Lamentations is organized around letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s difficult to discern other organizing structures. Lamentations crashes down over its readers with the same randomness that grief washes over those who suffer.
A Different Sort of Prayer: When people today pray, they often recite prayers from memory. Other times, they display nice manners, being sure to say “please” and “thank you” to God. Hands are usually folded, and heads are often bowed. Things are different in Lamentations. People shake their fists at God. They rage at their suffering. They yell, scream, and cry from places of deepest despair. They blame God for their troubles (2:20). They wonder if God’s anger will ever end (5:20–22).
Most of us aren’t used to praying like this. Yet, the Bible tells us it’s okay. It’s okay because it’s better to be real with God than a phony. It’s okay because God already knows what’s going on in our hearts. It’s okay because sometimes, life really is awful. It’s okay because tragedy strikes us all—and we can be completely honest with God about all the garbage we face.
Praising God with Tear-Covered Faces: Lamentations asks piercing questions of God, wondering how faith can persist amid so much violence and death. Remarkably, hope is found in the midst of despair (3:21–41). Like many psalms, Lamentations finds ways to celebrate God even while mourning tragedy (see Psalm 13, 22). These biblical texts have been a source of hope for many readers across the centuries.
Keys for Reading
The A to Z of Grief: Lamentations contains five poems. Most of these have a similar pattern: each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That’s why there are Hebrew letters in the margin of the text. Why did the poems take this form? Some interpreters think it helped people memorize the book’s words. However, it’s more likely that Lamentations expresses the totality of grief, moving from A to Z, as it were. Within the pages of this book, readers see the extent of Jerusalem’s suffering. They also see how faith can be expressed amid such tragedy.
Daughter Zion: Several times, the book of Lamentations talks about “Daughter Zion” (as well as “Daughter Judah,” “daughter of my people,” and even “Daughter Edom”). Zion is another way of talking about Jerusalem, home to God’s temple. In the ancient world, people often assumed that cities had feminine characteristics. Because Lamentations cherishes the city of Jerusalem, it talks about the city not simply as a woman but as a daughter.
Disturbing Images: If Lamentations doesn’t bother you, you’re not paying attention. It talks of parents eating the corpses of their dead children (2:20; 4:10), of God’s people becoming “trash and garbage” (3:45), of slaves ruling over them (5:8). God is described as an enemy (2:5), a lurking bear (3:10), and a hiding lion (3:10). The book ends wondering whether God will ever return to those who suffer (5:21-22).
Lamentations shows what faith looks like amid the worst tragedies imaginable. It doesn’t try to sugarcoat things. It doesn’t try to minimize pain or death. It looks life’s harshest realities in the eye and reaches toward God. It allows readers to mourn, cry, and scream at life’s cruelty. It shatters myths that God’s people are somehow immune from suffering. Amid the disturbing images of these pages, readers find permission to be completely honest about the world’s horrors.
Quick Facts
Historical Context: In 588, the Babylonian war machine laid siege to Jerusalem, slowly starving its inhabitants to death. In 587, they broke through the city walls, slaughtering many inhabitants, turning others into refugees, and demolishing the city, including the temple. Lamentations remembers the horrors of these events.
Author: We know very little about the author of Lamentations. Some traditions hold that Jeremiah wrote it, in part because the book of Jeremiah also contains its share of laments (such as Jer 20:7–18; see also 2 Chr 35:25). Some biblical texts talk about people who are “skilled in mourning” (Amos 5:16). Such people would cry out in ways that allowed communities as a whole to grieve. It’s possible that professional mourners wrote Lamentations.
Date Written: The book appears to have been written when Jerusalem’s destruction (in 587 BCE) still haunted people’s memory.
Organization: As mentioned above, the book of Lamentations is organized around letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s difficult to discern other organizing structures. Lamentations crashes down over its readers with the same randomness that grief washes over those who suffer.