Lamentations, written by the prophet Jeremiah, is a poem mourning the passing of Judah by the Babylonians in 586 B. C. E. (Bailey, 82) through siege and battle. Prior to the destruction, Jeremiah had warned or rather prophesized that Judah must change its ways or suffer the consequence of the Lords wrath. Before the Babylonians destroy the city of Jerusalem, Jeremiah warns the people to live by the laws of Babylon and even wrote the warning down to be presented to the people and even to the King. The King, who was placed on the throne by Egypt, in anger, burns the paper and has Jeremiah thrown in jail.
While in Jail, Jeremiah continues to spread his warning to the people (Book of Jeremiah, Holy Bible Authorized King James Version (KJV)) in hopes that they will change their ways, to no avail. The Babylonians come in and lay siege to the city of Jerusalem and after a time the inhabitants of the city succumb. The survivors are either exiled or go into hiding and leave the area into Egypt where they continue to think about what they have lost and to live without losing their cultural or religious ways.
The book of Lamentations is written in five chapters in an acrostic style poem based off of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapters one, two, four and five are written one long verse per letter of the alphabet leaving us with 22 verses, and chapter three is written with three short verses for each letter of the alphabet leaving us with 66 verses. The chapters one, two, four and five are written in a form that paints a picture of the utter destruction of Jerusalem, and the desolation of its inhabitants.
The author uses colorful speech and many analogies to impart upon the reader the full scope of damage done to the city. For example Lamentations 1:6 tells us that the daughter of Zion’s beauty has departed and her princes are become like harts that find no pasture and are with out strength before the enemy. To paraphrase or in layman terms, that after the destruction the men pined with sorrow and had no courage against the enemy (Geneva Study Bible, 1599). Another verse, Lamentations 1:17, Jeremiah compares Jerusalem to a menstrual woman among them.
Jeremiah is making a reference to Leviticus 15:19 when a woman is separated from her husband due to her pollution and abhorred for a time, he is actually telling us that after the destruction there was none to comfort Jerusalem. Jeremiah is continually referring to Jerusalem as the daughter of Zion, a nearby mountain or hill, and when he explains that Zion spread out her hands, he means that Jerusalem tried to get aid from nearby cities or perhaps prior allies, yet found none. The friends that she, Zion, thought she had were no more, as they shunned her as the woman in the passage mentioned above.
The language used in these poems is Hebrew; much is lost in the translation of the works into any language therefore no way to capture the essence of the words and the thoughts behind them. The chapters mentioned above, even in its translation, come across as a beautiful and yet mournful poem. It has many thought provoking verses that transcend through time to impress upon our minds the struggles of the siege and the subsequent downfall of this once majestic city. In verse 20, Jeremiah says ” Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? KJV).
Women eating their fruit is akin to eating their own young in an attempt to stay alive and not just their newborn, but children with some age. It clearly depicts that during the siege famine ran rampant through the city. The priest and prophet could not find solace or protection in a place of worship, is to add to the total blindness in which God took when the city came under attack. Verse 1:19, Jeremiah states that priests and elders have all given up the ghost in search of food in the city (The Geneva Study Bible sums this passage up as them dying of hunger), however if read another way, it could go more like this.
Based on the analogies of the rest of the book that Jeremiah wasn’t conveying to us that his elders and priests died from hunger, but rather that they gave up on the Holy Ghost in search of something more real that they could survive on. In the book of Jeremiah, his people are warned to stay away from idolatry, and based on the rest of the bible that when things get hard they want to make something tangible that they can worship to stay the hand of the enemy.
Since this is a poem and a lot is left up to the reader to decipher, it could be suggested that during the siege the priest’s and the elders gave into the will of others to produce some sort of idol or perform some sort of ritual with an idol (this being the analogy of food, as it was tangible and before them) to worship so that they may find a way out of the situation that they were in. And in doing so, they turned their back on God (or gave up the Ghost). These chapters are an eloquent description of what happened during the siege and afterwards, mostly lamenting the total destruction of what was once grandiose.
Chapter three as mentioned before is in short verse and 66 verses at that, however this is not the most interesting part! Chapter three is done in a different style when compared to the others to the other chapters of Lamentations. Where the others described what had happened and making comparisons what was and what is now, chapter three seems to take a stance of someone that was personally affronted or attacked. It seems that in this chapter Jeremiah feels that he alone was attacked and outcast by God. This makes up the first 17 verses of chapter three then it turns to thankfulness to the mercy of God that he allowed them to survive at all.
Jeremiah then brings up the rest of the chapter talking about how the people had imprisoned him and then cast stones upon him. He even went to say that the words and warnings that he gave the people in the name of the Lord were a joke to the people to whom he went to warn (Verse 3:14). His words were then to offer up that the Lord will one day redeem him and smite his enemies as stated in verses 64 through 66. It has been suggested that this book may have been written after Jeremiah had time to think of the events and to ponder certain aspects of the invasion of the Babylonians (Henry, 1712).
When continuing into chapter four, the general style of the verse reverts back into the meter of the first two chapters. The verses, which sum up the theme and flavor of the book, are Lamentations 2:13, 14: What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee. And they have not revealed thy iniquity, to turn away thy captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.
Holy Bible, Concordance Dictionary) In verse 2:13, Jeremiah sums up the total destruction of Jerusalem, which is the vein in which the rest of the book travels. Jeremiah expresses a wonder in his questions to repair the city that leaves the reader in awe of what the damage must have been. In the same verse Jeremiah compares the wound suffered to the city to the size of the sea, and who could staunch the sea? The second verse gives insight to why this calamity struck, and why it happened, and also blames the people for their turning to false prophets to steer them astray!
In the verse he basically tells the people of Jerusalem that they sought prophets who would tell them that they were doing good, and to ignore the wrongs that they were committing. He tells them in a blunt manner as one who had the authority to, which leaves one to believe that this man was not above lecturing and berating his people when they did wrong. Instead he let them have it sort of like a father who doesn’t just punish but teaches by pointing out the mistakes made. In this verse I saw Jeremiah as a stern father figure as well as a prophet.