Lamentations

THE

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH

[1] [2]

[3] [4]

[5]

INTRODUCTION

IN the Hebrew Bible these Elegies of Jeremiah,

five in number, are placed among the Chetuvim, or "Holy

Writings" ("the Psalms," &c.,

Lu 24:44),

between Ruth and Ecclesiastes. But though in classification of

compositions it belongs to the Chetuvim, it probably followed

the prophecies of Jeremiah originally. For thus alone can we account

for the prophetical books being enumerated by JOSEPHUS [Against Apion, 1.1.8] as

thirteen: he must have reckoned Jeremiah and Lamentations as one

book, as also Judges and Ruth, the two books of Samuel, &c., Ezra and

Nehemiah. The Lamentations naturally follow the book which sets forth

the circumstances forming the subject of the Elegies. Similar

lamentations occur in

2Sa 1:19,

&c.; 3:33.

The Jews read it in their synagogues on the ninth of the

month Ab, which is a fast for the destruction of their holy city. As in

2Ch 35:25,

"lamentations" are said to have been "written" by Jeremiah on the

death of Josiah, besides it having been made "an ordinance in Israel"

that "singing women" should "speak" of that king in lamentations;

JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 10.5.1],

JEROME, &c., thought that they are

contained in the present collection. But plainly the subject here is the

overthrow of the Jewish city and people, as the Septuagint expressly

states in an introductory verse to their version. The probability is

that there is embodied in these Lamentations much of the language of

Jeremiah's original Elegy on Josiah, as

2Ch 35:25

states; but it is now applied to the more universal calamity of the

whole state, of which Josiah's sad death was the forerunner. Thus

La 4:20,

originally applied to Josiah, was "written," in its subsequent

reference, not so much of him, as of the throne of Judah in

general, the last representative of which, Zedekiah, had just been

carried away. The language, which is true of good Josiah, is too strong

in favor of Zedekiah, except when viewed as representative of the crown

in general. It was natural to embody the language of the Elegy on

Josiah in the more general lamentations, as his death was the presage

of the last disaster that overthrew the throne and state.

The title more frequently given by the Jews to these Elegies is,

"How" (Hebrew, Eechah), from the first word, as the Pentateuch is

similarly called by the first Hebrew word of

Ge 1:1.

The Septuagint calls it "Lamentations," from which we derive the

name. It refers not merely to the events which occurred at the capture

of the city, but to the sufferings of the citizens (the penalty of

national sin) from the very beginning of the siege; and perhaps from

before it, under Manasseh and Josiah

(2Ch 33:11; 35:20-25);

under Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah

(2Ch 36:3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11,

&c.). LOWTH says, "Every letter is written with a

tear, every word the sound of a broken heart." The style is midway

between the simple elevation of prophetic writing and the loftier

rhythm of Moses, David, and Habakkuk. Terse conciseness marks the

Hebrew original, notwithstanding Jeremiah's diffuseness in his

other writings. The Elegies are grouped in stanzas as they arose in his

mind, without any artificial system of arrangement as to the thoughts.

The five Elegies are acrostic: each is divided into twenty-two stanzas

or verses. In the first three Elegies the stanzas consist of triplets

of lines (excepting

La 1:7; 2:19,

which contain each four lines) each beginning with the letters of the

Hebrew alphabet in regular order (twenty-two in number). In

three instances

(La 2:16, 17; 3:46-51; 4:16, 17)

two letters are transposed. In the third Elegy, each line of the three

forming every stanza begins with the same letter. The stanzas in the

fourth and fifth Elegies consist of two lines each. The fifth Elegy,

though having twenty-two stanzas (the number of letters in the

Hebrew alphabet), just as the first four, yet is not

alphabetical; and its lines are shorter than those of the others, which

are longer than are found in other Hebrew poems, and contain

twelve syllables, marked by a cæsura about the middle, dividing

them into two somewhat unequal parts. The alphabetical arrangement was

adopted originally to assist the memory. GROTIUS

thinks the reason for the inversion of two of the Hebrew letters

in

La 2:16, 17; 3:46-51; 4:16, 17,

is that the Chaldeans, like the Arabians, used a different order from

the Hebrews; in the first Elegy, Jeremiah speaks as a Hebrew, in the

following ones, as one subject to the Chaldeans. This is doubtful.