Lamentations

Part One: Introduction to Lamentations

The Name

The Hebrew title is Eikhah, "How!", the cry of grief that opens chapters 1, 2 and 4: "How doth the city sit solitary" (1:1). The rabbis also called it Qinot, "Lamentations" or "dirges," from which the Greek (Threnoi) and English titles come. The book is a collection of five funeral poems mourning the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Babylon in 586 BC.

Author and Date

The book does not name its author, but Jewish and Christian tradition has long attributed it to Jeremiah. The Greek Septuagint introduces it: "And it came to pass, after Israel was taken captive... that Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem." Jeremiah was an eyewitness of the siege and fall (Jeremiah 39), was known for his tears (Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17), and composed laments (2 Chronicles 35:25). Many phrases in Lamentations echo his prophecy, and 3:53-55 recalls his own experience in the cistern (Jeremiah 38:6). The poems were written soon after the fall of Jerusalem, while the scenes of famine and ruin were still fresh, around 586-580 BC.

The Structure of the Poems

Lamentations is carefully crafted poetry. Four of its five chapters are acrostics, built on the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet:

The acrostic form may express the completeness of grief, from A to Z, and impose order on overwhelming sorrow. Much of the book uses the qinah or "limping" rhythm of Hebrew funeral songs, in which a longer line is followed by a shorter one. Chapter 3, the longest and central chapter, contains the book's great message of hope at its very centre (3:21-33).

Historical Setting

In 588 BC Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. After about eighteen months of famine, the walls were breached; King Zedekiah fled, was captured, blinded and taken to Babylon; and in the fifth month of 586 BC the temple, palace and city were burned and the walls broken down (2 Kings 25:1-21; Jeremiah 39; 52). Lamentations describes the aftermath: an empty city, starving children, mothers driven to unthinkable acts, priests and prophets killed, the young taken captive, and the surrounding nations mocking. Jews still read Lamentations each year on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av), the day of mourning for the destruction of both the first temple (586 BC) and the second (AD 70).

Purpose and Theme

Lamentations gives voice to grief, confesses that the judgment was deserved, and holds on to hope in God's mercy. It teaches God's people how to suffer under His discipline without despair. Its themes are:

• Honest grief: pain and loss expressed fully before God.
• Sin and judgment: "The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment" (1:18). The destruction was God's just judgment, foretold long before (2:17).
• Hope in God's character: in the middle of the ruins, "his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (3:22-23).
• Prayer for restoration: "Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old" (5:21).

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Outline of Lamentations

Part Two: Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1 — The Desolate City

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

Lamentations 1:1

Jerusalem is personified as a widow weeping through the night with tears on her cheeks, "among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her" (1:2). The nations she trusted, her "lovers," had abandoned her. The refrain "none to comfort" echoes through the chapter (1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21). Judah has gone into captivity (1:3). The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the feasts (1:4). "Her adversaries are the chief... for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions" (1:5). The poet is clear about the cause: "Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed" (1:8). "She remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully" (1:9). The enemy entered the sanctuary, where Gentiles were forbidden (1:10). The people traded their treasures for bread (1:11).

Then the city herself speaks to passers-by:

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

Lamentations 1:12

She describes God's judgment as fire in her bones, a net for her feet, and a yoke of transgressions bound on her neck (1:13-14). "For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me" (1:16). Then comes the confession that runs through the book:

The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment

Lamentations 1:18

"I called for my lovers, but they deceived me" (1:19). "Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress... for I have grievously rebelled" (1:20). She asks God to judge her enemies as He has judged her (1:21-22).

Chapter 2 — The Anger of the LORD

This chapter focuses on God as the One who brought the judgment. "How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel" (2:1). He swallowed up the dwellings of Jacob, threw down the strongholds, and cut off the horn (strength) of Israel (2:2-3). "The Lord was as an enemy" (2:5). He destroyed His own tabernacle and its feasts, despised king and priest, cast off His altar and abhorred His sanctuary (2:6-7). The walls and gates fell (2:8-9). "The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD" (2:9). The elders sit silent in sackcloth; the young women bow their heads to the ground (2:10).

The poet breaks down at the sight of the children: "Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled... because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine?" as they die in their mothers' arms (2:11-12). The false prophets were to blame: "Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity" (2:14; compare Jeremiah 6:14; 23:16-17). Passers-by clap their hands, hiss and wag their heads: "Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?" (2:15; compare Psalm 48:2). Enemies gloat (2:16).

The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old

Lamentations 2:17

What happened was exactly what God had warned in the law of Moses (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). The poet urges the city to pray: "Arise, cry out in the night... pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger" (2:19). The chapter ends with a terrible description: mothers eating their children, priests and prophets slain in the sanctuary, the young and old lying dead in the streets (2:20-22), the curse foretold in Deuteronomy 28:53-57.

Chapter 3 — The Man of Affliction and the Mercies of God

The central and longest chapter shifts from the city to a single sufferer, speaking in the first person, perhaps Jeremiah himself, representing the nation.

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

Lamentations 3:1-2

He describes his suffering in a series of vivid images: aged flesh and broken bones (3:4), walled in with no escape (3:7), heavy chains (3:7), prayers shut out ("when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer," 3:8), crooked paths (3:9), attacked like prey by a bear and a lion (3:10-11), a target for God's arrows (3:12-13), mocked by his own people all day (3:14), filled "with bitterness... drunken with wormwood" (3:15), teeth broken with gravel (3:16), far from peace (3:17). "And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD" (3:18). "Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall" (3:19).

Then, at the lowest point, he deliberately turns his mind:

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Lamentations 3:21-24

Nothing outward had changed: the city still lay in ruins. But he remembered who God is. God's mercies (His covenant love) are the reason any survived at all; His compassions never run out; they are renewed every morning; His faithfulness is great. "The LORD is my portion" (compare Psalm 16:5; 73:26): when everything else is gone, God Himself remains. The hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" is based on these verses.

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Lamentations 3:25-27

The sufferer is to sit alone in silence, put his mouth in the dust, and "give his cheek to him that smiteth him" (3:28-30). Then comes the theology of suffering:

For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Lamentations 3:31-33

God's discipline is real, but temporary; it is not His delight but His loving purpose (Hebrews 12:10-11). God sees all injustice (3:34-36). He is sovereign over all events: "Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?" (3:37-38), "evil" here meaning calamity. "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" (3:39): we have no right to complain of punishment we deserve, especially when we are still alive.

The response is repentance:

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled

Lamentations 3:40-42

The poet confesses that God has not yet pardoned and that He has covered Himself with a cloud so prayer cannot pass through (3:42-44). "Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people" (3:45; compare 1 Corinthians 4:13). His eyes run down with tears without ceasing "till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven" (3:48-50). His enemies chased him like a bird and "cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off" (3:52-54), a memory that matches Jeremiah's time in the muddy cistern (Jeremiah 38:6).

I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

Lamentations 3:55-58

The chapter ends with a request for God to judge his persecutors (3:59-66), leaving vengeance in God's hands (Romans 12:19).

Chapter 4 — The Tarnished Gold

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

Lamentations 4:1

This poem contrasts Jerusalem's former glory with its present horror. "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers" (4:2). Even jackals nurse their young, but the mothers of Jerusalem had become cruel like the ostrich in the desert (4:3). Babies' tongues stuck to their mouths for thirst; children begged for bread and no one gave it (4:4). Those raised in luxury now clung to rubbish heaps (4:5). The punishment was greater than Sodom's, which at least was quick (4:6). The nobles, once purer than snow, were now unrecognisable, their skin shrivelled on their bones (4:7-8). "They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger" (4:9). "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people" (4:10). Even the kings of the earth would not have believed that an enemy could enter Jerusalem (4:12).

The leaders were to blame: "For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her" (4:13). The people looked in vain for help from a nation that could not save, Egypt (4:17; Jeremiah 37:5-10). The enemy pursued them "swifter than the eagles of the heaven" (4:19; Deuteronomy 28:49). "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen" (4:20), referring to King Zedekiah, captured as he fled (2 Kings 25:4-7). The chapter ends with a word to Edom, which rejoiced at Jerusalem's fall: "the cup also shall pass through unto thee" (4:21; compare Obadiah 10-16; Psalm 137:7), and a word of hope to Zion:

The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity

Lamentations 4:22

Chapter 5 — The Prayer of the Remnant

The final chapter is a prayer of the whole community.

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

Lamentations 5:1

They list their sufferings: their inheritance given to strangers (5:2); orphans and widows (5:3); having to pay for their own water and wood (5:4); persecution and weariness (5:5); dependence on Egypt and Assyria for bread (5:6). "Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities" (5:7). "Servants have ruled over us" (5:8). They risk their lives for bread (5:9); women are violated (5:11); princes are hanged and elders dishonoured (5:12); young men grind at the mill and children stumble under loads of wood (5:13).

The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

Lamentations 5:15-16

Mount Zion is so desolate that foxes walk on it (5:18). Then their faith rises to God's eternal throne:

Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Lamentations 5:19-21

Jerusalem's throne had fallen, but God's throne remains for ever. They ask God to turn them, knowing that even repentance is His gift. The book ends with an unresolved cry: "But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us" (5:22), which can also be read, "unless thou hast utterly rejected us." When Jews read Lamentations publicly, they repeat verse 21 after verse 22 so the reading ends on a note of hope. The answer to their prayer came seventy years later with the return from exile, and supremely in Christ.

Part Three: Christ in Lamentations

The Suffering One

Christians have long seen in Lamentations, especially in chapters 1 and 3, a picture of the sufferings of Christ, who bore the judgment of God for His people's sins, as Jerusalem bore it for her own.

The great difference: Jerusalem suffered for her own sin, "The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled" (1:18). Christ suffered as the sinless One for the sins of others (1 Peter 2:22-24).

Christ Weeping over Jerusalem

Jesus, like Jeremiah, wept over Jerusalem as He foresaw another destruction: "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee" (Luke 19:41-44). "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem... how often would I have gathered thy children together... and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37-38). On the way to the cross He told the weeping women, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 23:28). The temple was destroyed again in AD 70, which is also remembered on the Ninth of Av.

The Comforter for a City with None

Lamentations repeats that Jerusalem had "none to comfort" (1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21). God's answer came through Isaiah, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people... her warfare is accomplished... her iniquity is pardoned" (Isaiah 40:1-2), and finally through Christ, who promised, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:4), and who sent "another Comforter" (John 14:16). God is "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4), and one day "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying" (Revelation 21:4).

New Mercies Every Morning

The faithfulness and fresh mercies of God (3:22-23) are seen most fully in Christ: "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared... according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:4-5). "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us" (Ephesians 2:4).

Part Four: Fulfilled Prophecies

Lamentations itself declares that the destruction fulfilled God's ancient word (2:17).

Part Five: Key Passages in Depth

Lamentations 1:12 — Is It Nothing to You?

The city appeals to those who pass by without caring. It challenges indifference to suffering and to God's judgment on sin. Applied to Christ, it asks every person who passes by the cross: does His sorrow mean anything to you?

Lamentations 2:17 — God Keeps His Word

The destruction was not an accident or a sign that God had failed. It was exactly what He had warned about centuries earlier. God's faithfulness to His warnings is as certain as His faithfulness to His promises. This is both a warning and a comfort: the same God who kept His word in judgment will keep His word in restoration.

Lamentations 3:21-26 — Hope in the Ruins

The turning point of the book is a decision of the mind: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope." Hope did not come from changed circumstances but from remembering God's character: His mercies, compassions and faithfulness. The believer is called to "hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD." This is faith that holds on in the dark (Habakkuk 3:17-18; Romans 8:24-25).

Lamentations 3:31-33 — Why God Afflicts

God's discipline is temporary ("not cast off for ever"), mixed with compassion ("according to the multitude of his mercies"), and not His delight ("he doth not afflict willingly"). It is the discipline of a Father for the good of His children (Hebrews 12:5-11; Psalm 119:67, 71, 75).

Lamentations 3:40-41 — Search, Try and Turn

In suffering, the right response is self-examination and repentance: "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD." True repentance involves the heart, not just outward gestures: "lift up our heart with our hands unto God."

Lamentations 5:19-21 — The Throne That Remains

Jerusalem's king was gone, its temple burned, its walls broken, but "Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation." When every earthly support falls, God's reign stands. The prayer "Turn thou us unto thee... and we shall be turned" recognises that restoration must be God's work (Jeremiah 31:18; John 6:44).

Part Six: The Major Teachings of Lamentations

1. Grief Is Real and May Be Expressed to God

Lamentations gives God's people permission and words to grieve deeply and honestly (2:11, 18-19; 3:48-51). Christians do not grieve as those without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13), but they do grieve.

2. Sin Brings Suffering

The destruction came because "Jerusalem hath grievously sinned" (1:8; 1:18; 4:13; 5:16). Sin is serious, and God's holiness requires judgment.

3. God Is Righteous in His Judgments

"The LORD is righteous" (1:18). The book never accuses God of injustice; it confesses that the punishment was deserved (3:39, 42).

4. God Is Sovereign over Calamity

God brought the judgment (2:1-8, 17; 3:37-38). Even the worst events are under His control.

5. False Prophets Bear Great Guilt

They "have not discovered thine iniquity" (2:14), leading the people to destruction with false comfort (4:13).

6. God's Mercies Never Fail

In the darkest place, His compassions are new every morning and His faithfulness is great (3:22-23).

7. The LORD Is Our Portion

When all else is lost, God Himself is enough (3:24; Psalm 73:26).

8. Waiting Quietly on God

"It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD" (3:26).

9. Repentance and Prayer

Suffering should lead to self-examination, confession and prayer (3:40-42; 5:1, 21).

10. God's Eternal Throne and Future Restoration

"Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever" (5:19). The punishment will end (4:22), and God can renew His people's days (5:21).

Part Seven: Connections — How Lamentations Links to the Rest of the Bible

Lamentations and the New Testament

Lamentations in the Old Testament

Themes That Run from Lamentations Through Scripture

Part Eight: Practical Lessons

• Bring your grief honestly to God (2:19).
• Don't be indifferent to the suffering of others (1:12).
• Acknowledge sin when God disciplines (1:18; 3:39).
• Don't trust false friends and false comfort (1:2, 19; 2:14).
• Remember that God keeps His word, both warnings and promises (2:17).
• In the darkest moment, recall God's character (3:21).
• His mercies are new every morning (3:22-23).
• Make the LORD your portion (3:24).
• Wait quietly and hopefully (3:25-26).
• Learn to bear the yoke while young (3:27).
• God does not afflict willingly (3:33).
• Search your ways and turn to the LORD (3:40).
• Lift up your heart, not just your hands (3:41).
• Call on God from the pit; He draws near (3:55-57).
• Leave vengeance to God (3:59-66).
• Remember that God's throne remains when everything else falls (5:19).
• Ask God to turn you and renew you (5:21).

Part Nine: Key Verses to Memorize

Conclusion

Lamentations is a book of tears written in the ashes of Jerusalem. In five carefully crafted poems, the weeping prophet mourns a city left as a widow, a temple burned, children starving, and a people carried away, all because they had rebelled against the LORD who warned them for centuries. The book does not hide the horror or excuse the sin. But at its very centre, in the darkest place, hope shines: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." The God who judged is the God who remains on His throne for ever and who can turn His people back and renew their days. That hope found its answer in the return from exile, and supremely in Jesus Christ, who wept over Jerusalem, bore the wrath of God as "the man that hath seen affliction," and rose again, so that those who mourn may be comforted and every tear one day wiped away.

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23