Lamentations is a unique book in the Old Testament. It contains five poems from an anonymous author, who survived and is reflecting back on Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem and the destruction and exile that followed (2 Kgs. 24-25).
The fall of Jerusalem and the exile was the most horrendous catastrophe in Israel’s history up to this point. God had promised Abraham the land of Canaan and had given David victory to make Jerusalem Israel’s capital. This city is where the kings from the line of David lived, where Solomon built the temple for Israel’s God, and where the priests maintained the rituals of Israel’s worship. After 500 years of all this history, in the summer of 587 B.C.E., the city fell to Babylon and everything was lost. The book of Lamentations is a memorial to the pain and confusion of the Israelites that followed the destruction.
7:17 • Old Testament Overviews
Many Jewish and Christian traditions hold that Jeremiah is the author of Lamentations. However, authorship is not explicitly stated within the book.
The events described in Lamentations are a reflection on the fall of Jerusalem and exile at the hand of the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.
The book of Lamentations is written entirely in poetry.
The structure of Lamentations is divided into five parts. Chapter 1 focuses on grief. Chapter 2 centers on the fall of Jerusalem. Chapter 3 pivots to hope. Chapter 4 reflects on the hardship of exile. And chapter 5 ends with a prayer for God’s mercy.
Now, the lament poems found here are not unique in the Bible, as there are many of them found in the book of Psalms (Ps. 10, 63, 69, 74, 79). These biblical poems of lament are a form of protest. They draw everyone’s attention, including God’s, to the horrible things that happen in his world that should not be tolerated. They are also a way of processing emotion. In these poems, God’s people vent their anger and dismay at the ruin caused by sin and violence. Finally, they give a voice to our confusion. How does our suffering relate to God’s character and his promises? Lament poems are a full-blown emotional explosion, and none of this is looked down upon in the Bible. Just the opposite, these poems give a sacred dignity to human suffering, as these human words of grief addressed to God have become part of God’s word to his people.
The design of the five poems in the book of Lamentations is very intentional and part of the book’s message. Chapters 1-4 are made up of acrostics, or alphabet poems, in which each poetic verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet, consisting of 22 letters. This very ordered and linear structure is a stark contrast to the disordered pain and confused grief explored in the poems. It’s like Israel’s suffering is explored A to Z, trying to express that which is inexpressible.