Study 0 From the Book of Lamentations is: Introduction to
Lamentations
The book of Lamentations consists of five songs or elegies, the
theme of which is the sorrows of Judah and Jerusalem in the siege and
destruction of the city. The cause of
these calamities is traced to the sin of the people bringing God’s judgment upon
them, and the songs contain confessions of sin, statements of faith and hope,
and prayer for the restoration of God’s favour.
Tradition from the time of the Lxx has assigned the authorship
of the songs to the prophet Jeremiah. In
the Hebrew Bible, however, the book is anonymous, and is placed not among ‘The
Prophets’, but in the section known as ‘The Writings’. The book certainly has
close affinities with Jeremiah. Chapter 1-4 seem to be the work of an
eye-witness of Jerusalem’s fall; and if not by Jeremiah himself, may well be
the work of one of more of his associates, such as Baruch. Chapter 5 probably
dates from a slightly later period.
The songs are written in acrostic form. In chapters 1, 2 and 4
each verse begins with a fresh letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. In
chapter 5 the acrostic form is not followed.
This acrostic arrangement is partly an aid to memorization, but also
seems intended to give a sense of completeness in confession of sin and
grief.
