Old Testament Survey:Book of Lamentations

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see If there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought on me, which the LORD has inflicted In the day of His fierce anger.” (Lamentations 1:12)

Background

• Name of book taken from its contents—laments Jerusalem’s destruction

• Written by Jeremiah following Jerusalem’s destruction

• Poems of grief over destruction of the city and the people in captivity

• Laments Judah’s desolation, especially in Jerusalem

• Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the city, causing a famine to occur.

• When Nebuchadnezzar’s army took the city, they raped the women and took many citizens to Babylon as slaves.

• For 70 years, Jerusalem stood leveled to the ground.

• The temple was completely destroyed!

Background

Keys to the Book

• Key words– “Sorrow” to

describe Israel’s woefulness.

“ How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave!” (1:1)

Key Verses

• Key Verses– Showing the deep

grief in the

weeping

prophet’s heart

“The LORD has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word Which He commanded in days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, and He has caused an enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the horn of your adversaries!” (2:17)

• Key Verses– Showing the deep

grief in the

weeping

prophet’s heart

“The Lord was like an enemy.

He has swallowed up Israel,

He has swallowed up all her

palaces; He has destroyed

her strongholds, and has

increased mourning and

lamentation In the daughter

of Judah.” (2:5)

Key Verses

• Key Verses– Showing the

deep grief in the weeping prophet’s heart

“He has done violence to His tabernacle, as if it were a garden; He has destroyed His place of assembly; the LORD has caused the appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.” (2:6)

Key Verses

Key Chapter

• Key Chapter– The gem of the

book, expressing great faith in God’s goodness and mercy.

“Through the LORD'S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him! The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” (3:22-25)

Style

• The book consists of five independent poems, not one continuous story.

• Style of the poems is “acrostic.”• Verses are arranged alphabetically.• First and second poems: each verse consists of three

members, beginning with successive letters of the alphabet.

• Third poem: the verses consist of single members. Three verses having the same initial letter are assigned each successive letter--66 verses; 22 letters of Hebrew alphabet.

• The fourth poem is similar to the first in structure, except that each verse has only two members.

• The fifth, and last, poem is not an “acrostic” poem. It consists of 22 verses, the same number as there are characters in the Hebrew alphabet.

Style

Brief Outline of the Book

• Chapter 1—– The way of the wicked

• Chapter 2—– The wrath of God

• Chapter 3—– The weight of sorrow

• Chapter 4—– The want of help

• Chapter 5—– The wreck of iniquity

The Five Poems

• First Poem—– Represents Jerusalem as a weeping widow, mourning in

solitude over the misery of the exiles, with “none to comfort” (v.2,9,17,21), “no rest” (v.3), “no pasture” (v.6), “no comforter” (v.9).

• Second Poem—– Jerusalem, as a woman veiled with a cloud, grieves over the

ruin of Zion and the sins of the people that moved God to throw down the city.

• Third Poem—

– Jerusalem, represented by the weeping prophet, mourns before the Most High, whose judgments are just. He appeals to the people to again “turn to the Lord” (v.40), and to God to judge their cause and recompense their enemies, “according to the works of their hands” (vs. 59-64).

The Five Poems

• Fourth Poem—– Jerusalem, represented as gold, now dimmed

and changed; as snow now blacker than coal. Zion’s remembrance of former days contrasts the past with the present. Her enemies will be destroyed when “the punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity” (v.22).

The Five Poems

• Fifth Poem—– Jerusalem, penitent, confesses her sins (v.7) and

pleads with God not to “forget us forever,” but to “turn us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (v.20,21).

The Five Poems

Three Major Truths

• Sin brings great tribulation and sorrow.

• If the backsliding people had but returned to God, their bondage could have been avoided.

• Divine chastening disciplines God’s people.

Purpose

• Astonishing collection of images of sorrow, but that’s not all…

• Lamentations has come forward repeatedly to enable men to express themselves during grief, leading them to feel that they might give utterance to the deepest and saddest feelings, and that God will truly listen!

Other Practical Lessons

• God’s children can “fall from grace” and be taken captive by sin!

• God’s word is true. His punishment of the Jews fulfilled prophecy and proved the certainty of His word and His wrath against evil doers.

• The sinfulness of God’s people causes His enemies to blaspheme.

• True hope for the humble and penitent

• God’s love and care are constant.

• As in Job’s case, Jeremiah never lost hope.

• The Jews had sown the wind, and now they must reap the whirlwind.

• Jeremiah’s great love and concern for his people—demonstrated by mourning and weeping!

Other Practical Lessons