SOURCE: Westermann, Claus. “Lamentations.” In The Books of the Bible: Vol. I, edited by Bernhard W. Anderson, pp. 303-18. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989.

Lament belongs to human existence, for suffering is intrinsic to human life, and lament expresses this suffering. When a child is born, its first utterance is a cry. The cry of pain remains throughout one's life the immediate, inarticulate expression of pain. Jesus' cry on the cross (“and he cried aloud …”) is understandable to every person in all times. More than that, the yet unspoken cry of pain is common to all creatures who can give tongue to their suffering; it is part of the essence of all creatures.

FUNCTION AND SIGNIFICANCE

When pain finds expression in words, it becomes lament, which may be a mere cry or may be expanded into a sentence. The cry of lament also is part of being human; it is found among all human beings on earth. It appears in the narratives of the Bible: the lament of Cain, of Samson, of Rebecca, and many others. This cry of lament is wholly connected with the situation in which it is evoked and can be transmitted only as part of the particular situation that is being related.

The lament, however, may also be expanded to a larger literary structure, to a song of lament or a psalm of lament, and thereby it receives an independent existence, removed from a life situation. A distinction must be made between lament as a reaction to the death of a human being (dirge) and lament as a reaction to personal suffering (complaint). These concepts are fundamentally different, even in their original usage. The Hebrew word qinah can only mean a dirge, never a complaint about suffering. Although both forms give expression to human suffering, a complaint is raised by those who are immediately affected by suffering, while a dirge is raised by the survivors who are affected by the loss of the deceased. Further differences are implicit in this distinction. In the lament, what is at stake is the change of the situation that is lamented; therefore, in it an appeal is made to Yahweh; this is not the case in the dirge. The dirge is a secular, the lament a cultic, affair. Petition belongs to the lament, but not to the dirge.

DIRGE AND LAMENT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Actual dirges are rarely found in the Old Testament; usually, it is only stated that they were performed, as in the case of Abraham's dirge over Sarah (Gen 23:2). David's dirge over Saul and Jonathan is substantially preserved in 2 Samuel 1:17-27, and over Abner in 3:33-34. In a larger sense the dirge can also announce to the people the coming of the day of judgment, as in Amos 5:2 (“Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel”; RSV) and Jeremiah 9:16-21.

Laments constitute a considerable part of the Old Testament, especially of the psalms of lament, both communal and individual. Moreover, they form a major element of the Book of Job (individual lament) and the Fourth Book of Ezra (communal lament). The proclamation of Deutero-Isaiah and other salvation oracles that reflect the lament of the people after the fall of the nation contain many lament motifs. The same holds for other prophetic books—sometimes even whole psalms of lament such as Isaiah 63 and 64.

THE COMBINATION OF DIRGE AND LAMENT IN LAMENTATIONS

Only in the Book of Lamentations are dirges and laments combined. This is a result of the unique situation that prevailed after the catastrophe of 587 b.c.e., when the survivors experienced the conquest of Jerusalem as the death of the city. The experience of the demise of a city has a parallel in the Sumerian dirge over Ur, as well as in prophetic proclamations of judgment in the Old Testament that are clothed in the literary form of a dirge, such as Amos 5:2 and Jeremiah 9:16-21.

THE LITERARY FORM OF THE DIRGE AND THE LAMENT

In its original form the dirge is always brief. It is connected closely with funeral rites and is transmitted orally. The death wail, consisting of a word or short sentence, recurs again and again, and, in contrast to the lament, is self-contained. The lament may take a variety of forms and has no fixed structure. The most frequent motif is the announcement of death (as in Amos 5:2). This can be connected with the summons to lament, or it can stand alone. The proclamation of death may contain information about how death came upon the one who is being lamented (2 Sam 3:33-34). The anguish of death finds concrete expression in the motif of contrasting what was with what is now. The description of pain is the subjective unfolding of the cry of desolation (“Woe”). In particular instances further motifs can be added (Jahnow 1923).

The lament received its form in the worship of ancient Israel, in which it was transmitted orally; then it was fixed in small collections as communal and individual psalms of lament, out of which—together with other genres of psalms—the Psalter developed. In contrast to the dirges, these psalms are prayers. Here the lament constitutes an element of prayer, to which belong, besides the complaint, the address to God, the expression of trust, the confession of guilt, the petition to God, and the vow of praise (Gunkel-Begrich 1933; Westermann 1977).

Unlike dirges, the Psalms are not mere portrayals of misery but, rather, are divided into “God-laments” (or accusations against God: “You have done …”), “I-” or “we-laments” (subject in the first person), and “enemy laments” or complaints against enemies (“The enemies have …”). The dirge is directed toward death, the lament toward life. Because the lament belongs to human existence, it has a correspondingly existential structure. Just as, in Genesis 2, being a self, being with others (community), and being in the presence of God, the Creator, all belong to human existence, so human existence is affected by suffering in these three aspects, as is evident already in the very first lament, that of Cain in Genesis 4. That the laments in the Psalms are articulated according to these three aspects is shown, for example, by Psalms 13 and 22 (see the tables in Westermann 1977, 132 and 139). The peculiarity of Lamentations 1, 2, and 4 lies in the fact that here dirges and laments form a union in which the community lament constitutes the basic framework mixed with elements of the dirge.

ORIGIN AND HISTORICAL SETTING

The Book of Lamentations is designated in the Hebrew Bible as Qinoth (pl. of qinah, “lament”) or, following the initial cry of lament, as 'ekah (“Oh, how!”). In the Septuagint it is designated as Threnai, in the Vulgate Lamentations; some manuscripts add “of Jeremiah” or place “Laments of Jeremiah” at the conclusion. In modern translations the title has been adopted from the Septuagint or the Vulgate. According to an early Jewish tradition (2 Chron 35:25), Lamentations was affixed to the Book of Jeremiah in the canon of the Old Testament. In the Hebrew canon, the book is found among the five festal scrolls (megilloth). In our time scholars no longer believe that Jeremiah was the author.

THE TEXT

The text consists of five songs of lament. Three of these songs, which constitute the kernel of the book, 1, 2, and 4, show great similarities inasmuch as the lament of the people is connected with motifs of the dirge. Song 5 is a community psalm of lament that is structured like the community laments of the Psalter. Song 3 comprises several parts: verses 42-51 form an abbreviated community lament, whereas the other parts deal not with the suffering of the people but with the suffering and deliverance of an individual (with some expansions). Each song is a self-contained entity, as shown also by the alphabetical formulation; for each in itself extends from aleph to taw, from A to Z. Each one, therefore, is to be understood and interpreted individually.

DATE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF ORIGIN

Lamentations is among the few parts of the Old Testament whose time of origin we can know with a high degree of certainty. The origin of the laments can be traced back to the conquest of Jerusalem and the subsequent deportation of its people in the year 587 b.c.e. In the language of these songs, the suffering of the city and its inhabitants is portrayed with poignant immediacy. Indeed, no other event in the history of Israel has been transmitted to us as vividly and concretely as the fall of Jerusalem and its consequences for the survivors.

SITUATION IN LIFE

There is a particular reason why the fall of Jerusalem evoked such an immediate chorus of response from those affected by the tragedy. In ancient Israel there was a tradition, reaching back into an early period, that in cases of misfortune experienced by the whole people a rite of lamentation (Som, lit. “fast”) was held in which the misfortune was lamented before God, and God was implored for help. Such a rite of lamentation was again observed after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple; it is mentioned in 1:7a: “Jerusalem remembers in the day of her affliction …” Now, however, the rite is changed in that those who have experienced the city's fall seemed to regard that event as having finality, and therefore it was a lamentation for the death of Jerusalem. In the period immediately after the catastrophe these rites were probably the only possible form of worship; sacrificial worship had ceased. Rites of fasting and mourning are also mentioned in Zechariah 7:5-7 and 8:19. Later, then, these lamentations, together with other liturgical texts, became the festal scroll for the worship service of the ninth of Av, when the Jewish community commemorates to this day the destruction of the Temple. Here we have the rare case where the occasion for the lamentations and the inception of a traditional practice can be clearly identified.

LITERARY FORM

The five songs contain twenty-two strophes each. In number 5, each strophe consists of one line; in 4, each has two lines, giving a total of forty-four lines; in 1, 2, and 3, each strophe contains three lines, or sixty-six lines altogether. Only in number 5 does the number of strophes correspond to the number of letters in the alphabet. In 4, each strophe begins with a letter of the alphabet; the same is true for 1 and 2, where each strophe has three lines. In 3, all three lines of each strophe begin this way. Lamentations 1, 2, 3, and 4 are considered “alphabetic,” Lamentation 5 “alphabetizing.” Alphabetic psalms are also found in the Psalter, especially in Psalm 119. The purpose of this form may be to express a totality (from A to Z) or to provide a mnemonic device; both are possible. In any case, this “artificial” form is of late origin and presupposes that the psalms are more to be read than heard. The lateness of the form is evident from the fact that in Hebrew poetry, form is always determined by content. In the case of the alphabetic psalms or songs, however, the alphabetic beginning and sequence have nothing to do with the content of the songs of lament. Therefore, it is improbable that these laments originated in this alphabetic form; rather, they must have assumed their form only in the course of transmission. Such a transformation according to the alphabet was quite possible in a time when ancient songs were collected and preserved.

As far as the rhythm is concerned, here too form and content cannot be separated. The ancient Hebrews did not yet have a poetic “meter” that was independent from content. Rather, their poetry displays a rhythm, corresponding to the particular poetic content, which can change within a song or psalm. An especially marked rhythm is that of the qinah, or funereal lament, a descending 3/2 rhythm (the numbers in this case designate not syllables but accents). It occurs especially often in Lamentations 1, 2, 4, and 5, but here too other rhythms are added.

In addition, there is also the sentence rhythm, the so-called parallelismus membrorum, a movement of two sentences in a relationship of correspondence, which constitutes the real uniqueness and beauty of Hebrew poetry. In these songs the significance of the form of speech is found in their nature and purpose, namely lament. Several passages give an invitation to share in lamentation (1:12-18, 2:18-19), and in these cases the form of the lament as a whole has the basic task of summoning the people to participate in the suffering that is here lamented.

GENRE AND STRUCTURE

Songs 1, 2, and 4 display more or less clearly the structure of a community psalm of lament, with which motifs of the dirge have been combined. Song 5 is a lament of the community, differentiated from those of the Psalter only by the length of the “we-lament” in verses 2-18, which makes this similar to portrayals of affliction and the apprehensive question at the end. On the other hand, 3 deviates markedly from the other songs. It is not a lamentation over the fall of Jerusalem but a composition of several parts, of which only verses 42-51 constitute part of a communal lament. All else belongs to the lament of an individual, to which expansions and an abbreviated psalm of praise of an individual have been added (vv. 52-58). Song 3 must therefore be treated separately from the others.

Lamentation 1 begins (as do 2 and 4) with the cry of lament, “Oh, how …” This is followed by a “we-lament” that is modulated into a portrayal of affliction (vv. 1-6), a confession of guilt in verses 8a and 9a, a petition for God's favor in verses 9c and 11, an “enemy lament” in verses 7c and 10, a “God-lament” in verses 12-15 (concluding with the sentence in verse 18a: “Yahweh is in the right”), a summons to be involved (v. 18b), a petition for God's favor in verses 20a and 21a, and a petition against enemies in verses 21c-22.

In Lamentation 2, the “God-lament” follows the cry of lament (vv. 1-8b); then comes the “we-lament” with its portrayal of misery (vv. 11ab, 13), the guilt of the prophets (v. 14), enemies and neighbors (vv. 15-17), a summons to lament (vv. 18-19), and a “we-lament” (vv. 21ab, 22bc).

In Lamentation 4 the “we-lament” follows the cry of lament (vv. 1-10), which includes the guilt of the people (v. 6) and the guilt of the prophets and priests; then comes the “God-lament” in verses 11-13, a “we-lament” in verses 14-16, the imprisonment of the king (vv. 17-20), the punishment of Edom, and the blotting out of Israel's sin (vv. 21-22).

Lamentation 5 begins (and also ends; v. 21) with a petition for Yahweh's favor; there follows in verses 2-18 a long “we-lament,” similar to the portrayal of misery, though recounted in the second person. In it are found the sins of the ancestors (v. 9), a general confession of sin (v. 16), restrained praise of God (instead of confession of trust), a God-lament (v. 20), a petition for God's intervention (v. 21), and at the end the apprehensive question “Or have you utterly rejected us?”

Lamentation 3:42-51 (a fragment) consists of a “God-lament” (vv. 42-45) in which is found a confession of guilt (v. 42), an “enemy lament” (v. 46), a “we-lament” (v. 47), a description of pain (vv. 48, 49, 51). The plea for God's favor is only suggested, in verse 50.

By and large the five texts have the same structure, even though their sequence, because of the alphabetical arrangement, is not symmetrical. All five feature the following elements:

1. The cry of lament (only in 1, 2, 4)
2. The lament in three parts, in which the “we-lament” (objective) is sometimes connected with descriptions of pain (subjective)
3. Confession of guilt or attribution of guilt
4. Petition for God's favor with address to God (petition for God's intervention only in No. 5)
5. Petition against enemies

Several additional themes appear only once or twice. Apart from the cry of lament at the beginning, these are the themes of the community lament in the following order, but with some important differences:

1. The cry of lament at the beginning has the effect of making it appear that a song with this kind of introduction is a dirge, hence the designation qinoth.
2. The “we-lament” and the “God-lament” are transformed to a description of pain by changing the first person of the “we-lament” and the second person of the “God-lament” to the third person. In both structures there are exceptions, however, that permit the basic form to be preserved.
3. The dirge introduced with the cry of “woe” is a secular (profane) form that has no address to God. In Lamentations 1 and 2, however, the address to God, together with the petition for God's favor, have been added secondarily, with the result that the song of lament becomes a prayer: “O Yahweh, behold my affliction!” (1:9c, 11c, 20a; 2:18, 19, 20a). In Lamentation 4 an address to God is lacking. In Lamentation 5 the petition for God's favor is especially emphasized (vv. 1, 21), whereas in 3:42-51 it is only suggested, in verse 50.
4. In Lamentations 1 and 2 a change can be seen. At the beginning the style of the dirge prevails; in the later course of the song we find the style of the lament of suffering. This gradual transition brings about a movement within the text. The songs do not linger over the death of Jerusalem, but they boldly beseech God again to show favor toward the remnant of his people. It is a movement faintly similar to the movement discernible in the psalms of lament, from lament to confidence.
5. Befitting the peculiar character of the songs of lament, two themes of the community lament are entirely or almost entirely lacking. One of these is a remembrance of God's previous saving action (e.g., Ps 80) or a confession of trust. Lacking also is the petition for God's intervention on behalf of his people, or even a plea for restoration. The latter appears only in Lamentation 5, a community lament. Those who speak in the songs of lament are so overcome by the severe blow they have suffered that they are able neither to look back to God's saving deeds in the past nor to hope for a change that brings restoration. The absence of these two themes accords completely with the situation in which these songs arose.
6. Except for the cry of lament at the beginning, the clearest characteristic of the dirge is the contrast between “then” and “now.” This theme, however, is not equally distributed in Lamentations 1-5. Rather it is concentrated only in two passages: in the “we-lament” of 1:1-6 and in the “we-lament” of 4:10, 14-16. From this it is evident that the “we-laments,” being the laments of the survivors, agree at this point with the laments of those left behind, that is, with the dirge. This makes the combination of dirge and lament in these lamentations more understandable.

MOTIFS

THE “WE-LAMENT”

Like the laments of the people found in the Book of Psalms, the Lamentations include several characteristic features, especially complaint in distress, confession of trust in God, and petition for help. In these poems the people's lament expresses various aspects of suffering. (On the threefold organization of laments see Claus Westermann, Ausgewählte Psalmen [Göttingen, 1984], Excursus on Psalm 13.)

The fall of the nation. Throughout, the Lamentations are defined by the collapse of the kingdom of Judah, which occurred with the fall of Jerusalem, an event on which they look back:

Jerusalem remembers the days of her
          affliction and bitterness
how her people fell into the hand of the foe
and no one helped her.

(1:7)

She has fallen terribly,
and no one comforted her.

(1:9b)

This event evokes lament, mourning:

My eyes are dissolved in tears
for the fall of the daughter of my people.

(2:11)

Horror and pitfall have come upon us;
          devastation and destruction,
my eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of
          my people.

(3:47-48)

Above all, the conquest of the city of Jerusalem is in view:

The kings of the earth will not have believed it,
          nor any of the inhabitants of the earth,
that besiegers would come in,
          enemies into the gate of Jerusalem.

(4:12)

He caused wall and rampart to lament,
          together they crumbled,
Her gates have sunk into the dust,
          he has ruined and broken her bars.

(2:8c, 9a)

Survivors are deeply afflicted by the imprisonment of the king, which signifies the fall of the house of David (4:17-20):

Our eyes failed,
          looking—in vain—for help!
.....Our end drew near, our days were numbered. …
The breath of our life, the anointed of Yahweh,
          was captured in their pits,
in whose shadow we supposed that we would
          live among the nations.

The human toll. Terrible and incalculable in extent is the loss of human lives, those who died during and after the battle for the city, and those taken away into exile in a foreign land:

How lonely sits the City
that once was so populous!
Like a widow she became,
          she that was great among the nations!

(1:1)

We mourn the roads to Zion …
all its gates are desolate.

(1:4)

Death has spared no one; it has taken a terrible harvest:

On the day of Yahweh's wrath
          none escaped and survived.

(2:22b)

Those whom I nurtured and reared
          my enemy has destroyed.

(2:22c)

Even greater in dislocating impact is the loss through deportation into exile:

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction
          and hard servitude;
she dwells now among the nations
          but finds no resting place.

(1:3)

My maidens and young men
          have gone into captivity.

(1:18c)

Her kings and her princes are among the nations,
          instruction (torah) is no more.

(2:9b)

Misery after the catastrophe. In addition to bereavement a state of misery prevailed that afflicted the entire people—great and small, high- and low-born, young and old. Above all, it was the children, the women, and the aged upon whom affliction and misery came. They are mentioned recurrently and with particular anguish. However, along with them mention is made of the entire nation, every member of the body politic: children (1:16; 2:11, 12; 1:5; 2:21; 4:4) and their mothers (2:12, 20; 4:3, 5, 10; 5:11); maidens and young men (1:15, 18, 46; 2:10, 21, 22; 5:11, 13, 14); old people (2:21; 5:12, 14); nobles and heroes (1:6, 15; 4:1, 2, 7, 8); princes (2:2, 9; 5:12); the king (2:6, 9; 4:17-20); priests, prophets, and elders (1:19; 2:6, 9, 10, 20; 4:14-16).

Especially the loss of leadership is emphasized:

Her king and princes are among the nations,
          instruction is no more;
and her prophets receive no more
          revelation from Yahweh.

(2:9bc)

Furthermore, the upper social level was affected by suffering and disgrace:

Her princes have become like harts that
          find no pasture;
They went away powerless before their hunters

(1:6)

Hunger. Elemental afflictions like hunger, thirst, and bodily pain impress themselves on the people's memory with lasting force. The laments of the hungry and the thirsty and those who saw their neighbors die of hunger speak with the language of real experience:

All her people groan;
          they seek after bread.
They trade their treasures for food
          to quiet their hunger.

(1:11)

Happier were the victims of the sword
          than the victims of hunger
          who pined away
          stricken by lack of food.

(4:9; cf. 2:19; 4:5; 5:10)

It was possible to procure food only with great effort and danger:

We acquire our bread at the peril of our lives,
threatened by the sword from the wilderness.

(5:9; cf. 5:6)

We must pay for the water we drink,
and the wood we get must be bought.

(5:4)

The hunger was so terrible that mothers nourished themselves on their own children:

Should women eat their offspring,
          the children of their tender care?

(2:20; cf. 4:10)

Slavery and disgrace of the vanquished. In those days foreign rule was nothing new for Israel; but here something else is meant, namely, that a people is ruled in its own land by an occupying force whose presence is felt everywhere in daily life, which treats the surviving population arbitrarily and can dispose over all areas of life.

She that was a princess among the nations
          has become a vassal.

(1:1)

Slaves rule over us;
          there is none to deliver us from their hand.

(5:8)

Young men are compelled to grind at the mill,
          and boys stagger under loads of wood.

(5:13)

Suffering and the disgrace of suffering always belong together in the Old Testament. Thus Lamentation 5 is introduced:

Remember, Yahweh, what has befallen us;
          behold, and see our disgrace!

Again and again the lamentations express how unbearable is the burden of disgrace for its victims, the triumphant attitude of the adversary, the taunts of neighbors and former friends (1:8, 11, 17; 2:15).

Loss of inheritance, houses, and buildings. For a people whose identity was closely tied to a land, the loss of family inheritance and property was painful.

Our inheritance has been turned over to enemies,
          our homes to aliens.

(5:2)

For this our heart has become sick,
          for these things our eyes have grown dim,
for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
          jackals prowl over it.

(5:18)

The roads to Zion mourn. …
          all her gates are desolate.

(1:4)

Loss of treasures, joy, and festivals. Moreover, the catastrophe had robbed the people of the joys of life, especially those associated with the pilgrimage festivals held in Zion, when they had passed through the streets singing and dancing. All this was now no more.

From the daughter of Zion has departed
          all her splendor.

(1:6)

The roads to Zion mourn
          because none come to the appointed feasts.

(1:4a)

The old men have quit the city gate,
          the young men their music.

(5:14)

The joy of our hearts has ceased;
          our dancing has been changed to mourning.

(5:15)

Is this the city of which people said:
          “The perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth”?

(2:15c)

The loss of treasures is indicated in the contrast between then and now:

How the gold has grown dim. …
The precious stones lie scattered at the
          head of every street;
The precious sons of Zion,
          worth their weight in gold,
how they are reckoned as earthen pots. …

(4:1-2; cf. 4:5, 7-8).

In all these instances the lament gives expression to the fact that, for those who speak thus, beauty, elegance, and graciousness belong to a wholesome life. The catastrophe has deprived them of the gift of divine blessing.

Loneliness, desolation, disconsolation. Streets and open squares, once filled with a joyous multitude, are now desolate. The city itself seems in mourning:

How lonely sits the city once full of people!
.....None of her friends is there to comfort her.

(1:1-2; cf. 1:7, 9, 16, 17, 21; 2:13)

Portrayal of Suffering. The people experienced not just physical adversity but also inward suffering and heartache:

She weeps bitterly in the night,
          tears stream over her cheeks.

(1:2)

Her maidens have been oppressed,
          she herself suffers bitterly.

(1:4)

Hear how I groan!

(1:21) (cf. 1:22c; 2:11)

In all the above passages the pain and the weeping of a particular individual is portrayed: Zion is personified as a woman who is afflicted with severe pain. Long before this, Israel or Judah or Jerusalem had thus been personified, as in Amos 5:2. The intention of this device is to intensify the portrayal of suffering. A collective entity cannot weep, so it is a woman who weeps here. However, this personification can be laid aside now and then, as in 1:4: “Her maidens are oppressed, she herself suffers bitterly.” In another passage it is said of this suffering:

What can I say for you,
To whom can I compare you, daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken you to that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For deep as the sea is your ruin,
          Who can restore you?

(2:13)

Or she may be exhorted to lament:

Let your tears stream down like a brook,
Day and night give yourself no rest. …

(2:18-19)

The same sentiment is expressed in Lamentation 5 (and in 3:42ff.) without personification:

The joy of our hearts is at an end,
          our dancing is turned to mourning!

(5:15)

Therefore our heart has become sick.

(5:17)

Or the sorrow and suffering of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are described:

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit
          silently on the ground,
They have strewn dust on their heads
          and put on sackcloth.
The maidens of Jerusalem have deeply
          bowed their heads.

(2:10)

The many sentences dealing with the motif “portrayal of suffering” present the subjective side of the “we-laments,” whose objective expression consists in lamenting the miserable conditions prevailing after the catastrophe, all they had to endure and what they lost. Lamenting means both weeping and putting into words what one is weeping about. Together they enable us to perceive the hidden cause of the lament, its releasing function, which eases the heaviness of suffering.

THE “GOD-LAMENT” (REPROACH OF GOD)

A great number of sentences in Lamentations have Yahweh as the subject, with the structure “Yahweh has done …” This is the complaint directed to God, the accusation against God, which is also an aspect of the psalms of lament and the Book of Job. When one considers the great number of “God-laments” in Lamentations 1, 2, 4, 5, and 3:42-51, the designation of Lamentations as variants of the dirge (Jahnow 1923) must be ruled out. For the dirge is a secular genre; it does not speak of God. Rather, the “God-lament” is an aspect of the lament that is at the same time prayer. To be sure, the many “God-laments” in Lamentations are not, for the most part, direct address (such is the case only in the community lament in 5, in 3:42-51, and in a few other passages). The direct address has been converted into a description of affliction in the third person. But that does not alter the fact that God is reproached; God is reproved for what he has done to his people and his city.

Yahweh has brought suffering upon Israel. In these songs the anguish of lamentation is intensified by the realization that God—not accident or fate—has brought suffering upon Israel:

          … is there any sorrow like my sorrow
          which was brought upon me,
which Yahweh afflicted
          on the day of his fierce anger?

(1:12bc)

Yahweh has trodden as in a winepress
          the virgin daughter of Zion.

(1:15)

… that you have done it,
that you have brought the day which
          you have announced.

(1:21c)

Yahweh has cast down from heaven to earth
          the splendor of Israel;
Yahweh has not remembered his footstool
          in the day of his anger.

(2:1)

and Yahweh has multiplied in the daughter of Zion
          mourning and lamentation.

(2:5c)

Sometimes this suffering is portrayed as bodily affliction or sickness suffered by the personified Zion:

Yahweh has left me stunned,
          faint all the day long.

(1:13c)

And in some passages suffering is regarded as punishment for sin:

Heavy is the yoke of my sins,
          fastened by Yahweh's hand.

(1:14; cf. 4:16a; 3:42)

Yahweh has destroyed Zion in anger. Zion was regarded as the dwelling place of God and the seat of the Davidic monarchy. Therefore its destruction has the dimension of tragedy:

Yahweh has destroyed without mercy
          all the habitations of Jacob.

(2:2; also v. 3)

Yahweh gave full vent to his wrath,
          he poured out his hot anger;
And Yaweh kindled a fire in Zion,
          which consumed its foundations.

(4:11)

In the day of your anger you have slain them,
          slaughtering without mercy.

(2:21c)

God has destroyed the city and its buildings:

In the tent of the daughter of Zion
          he has poured out his fury like fire.

(2:4)

Yahweh has destroyed all its palaces,
          laid to ruin its strongholds …
Yahweh has broken down his booth like that of a garden,
Laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts.
Yahweh has brought to an end in Zion
          appointed feast and Sabbath.

(2:5-6)

Yahweh has scorned his altar,
          disowned his sanctuary,
Yahweh has delivered into the hand of the enemy
          the walls of her palaces.

(2:7; also vv. 8-9, 17)

God has rejected kingship and priesthood:

In his fierce indignation Yahweh has spurned
          king and priest.

(2:6c)

Yahweh has brought down to the ground in dishonor
          the kingdom and its rulers.

(2:2c)

Yahweh has become an enemy. God has treated Zion like an enemy. A terrible thought for the vanquished: God is not on their side but on the side of their opponents.

Yahweh has become like an enemy,
          has devastated Israel.

(2:5)

Yahweh gave me into the hands
          of those whom I cannot withstand.

(1:14c; also vv. 15, 17; 2:3)

Yahweh is compared to a hunter and a warrior:

Yahweh spread a net for my feet;
          he turned me back.

(1:13b)

Yahweh has bent his bow like an enemy,
          with the arrow in his right hand.

(2:4a)

In both of the community laments the “God-lament” has the form of direct address:

Why will you forget us forever,
why forsake us for all time?

(5:20)

You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
          slaying without pity;
You have wrapped yourself like a cloud
          so that no prayer can get through.

(3:43-44)

In a few places in the actual songs of lament, however, direct address appears together with the third person:

In the day of your anger you have slain them,
          slaughtering without mercy.

(2:21c)

“ENEMY-LAMENTS” (ACCUSATION OF ENEMIES AND NEIGHBORS)

It is striking that the “enemy-laments” (structure: “The enemies have …”) are not much developed and, in relation to the other two aspects of lament, occupy only a small place. This restraint in the “enemy-laments” is displayed particularly in two ways: (1) the lament is raised only in individual sentences, never in longer pericopes, and (2) expressions of passionate hatred for enemies or of embitterment for what they have done are hardly present. Anger against enemies arises only because they have desecrated the Temple and robbed its treasures:

The enemy has stretched out his hands
          over all her precious things;
yea, she has seen the nations
          invade her sanctuary.

(1:10)

Should priest and prophet be slain
          in the temple of Yahweh?

(2:20c)

Of the conquest of Jerusalem by enemies it is only reported objectively that an overwhelming power prevailed:

My children are desolate,
          for the enemy has prevailed.

(1:16c)

They were set upon my neck;
          he caused my strength to fail.

(1:14b)

However, bitterness does arise over the triumphal attitude, the scorn and derision of the enemy:

Her oppressors are uppermost,
          her enemies prosper,
          because Yahweh has …

(1:5)

The foe gloated over her,
          mocking at her downfall.

(1:7c)

All my enemies have heard of my trouble,
          they are glad that you have done it.

(1:21b)

Closely related to “enemy-laments” are laments raised over former friends who have not given help and have become enemies, and who after the fall of Jerusalem have boasted and mocked:

All her neighbors have been unfaithful to her,
          they have become enemies. …
          none comforted her.

(1:2, 7, 9)

Yahweh has commanded against Jacob
          that his neighbors should be his foes.

(1:17b; also 1:19, 2:15)

Thus shame was added to suffering:

Remember, O Yahweh, what has befallen us,
          behold, and see our disgrace!

(5:1)

You have made us offscouring and refuse
          among the peoples.

(3:45; also 1:8, 17)

The reason why “enemy-laments” are not nearly as prominent as “we-laments” and “God-laments” is shown in sentences like “Yahweh has made the enemy rejoice over you” (2:17c).

It was the judgment of God upon Israel that led her enemies to execute divine punishment. The insult of enemies is necessarily subdued when they are the instruments of God, as the prophets of judgment had been saying for a long time. However, when the catastrophe is perceived as God's judgment upon his people, lament cannot be raised without an accompanying confession of guilt.

CONFESSION OF GUILT

Confession is the only element, except for the lament, that occurs in all five songs, albeit in different forms. Like the description of distress, the confession is formulated in the third person:

          … because Yahweh has made her suffer
          for the multitude of her transgressions.
Jerusalem sinned grievously. …

(1:5, 8)

Her uncleanness was in her skirts,
          she took no thought of her future.

(1:9; also vv. 4, 6)

Strikingly, however, in some passages the confession of guilt has retained its proper form:

Heavy is the yoke of my sins,
          by his hand they were fastened together.

(1:14a)

Righteous is Yahweh,
          for I have rebelled against his word.

(1:18; cf. vv. 20, 22)

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

(5:16; cf. 3:42)

One can hardly judge this cluster of passages in any other way than to say that here an actual confession of guilt is preserved, based on the recognition that Israel has sinned against its God. The accusations raised in vain by the prophets of judgment against their people before the fall of the nation are now perceived to be justified by those who make this confession of guilt. The prophets were thus rehabilitated in retrospect. Accordingly, to the prophets of salvation of the preexilic time is now attributed guilt for the divine punishment in a special degree:

This happened on account of the sins
          of her prophets. …

(4:13a)

[Your prophets] have not exposed your iniquity. …

(2:141b)

In one passage the confession of guilt seems to be rejected or refused:

Our ancestors sinned, and are no more,
          and we bear their punishment.

(5:7)

The fact that this sentence occurs in the same lament as the spontaneous confession of guilt, “Woe to us, for we have sinned!” (5:16), shows how the admission of sin was not self-evident in the period after the destruction of Jerusalem. There were also those who rejected the view that children should suffer for the sins of their parents (Ezek 18:1ff), and these testimonies were likewise given a place.

PETITION FOR GOD'S FAVOR

The confession of trust has its place in the individual psalms of lament; in the community laments, however, the expression of trust is found only rarely. Instead, there is a remembrance of God's previous saving deeds. It is a peculiarity of Lamentations that both the above elements are lacking. But the distress and misery of the people do embolden them to beseech God's favor again. It is this motif that marks the lamentations as prayers and distinguishes them from the dirge.

Remember, O Yahweh, what has befallen us,
          behold, and see our disgrace!

(5:1)

Look, O Yahweh, and see!
          With whom hast thou dealt thus?

(2:20)

O Yahweh, behold my affliction,
          for the enemy has triumphed!

(1:9; cf. vv. 11, 20)

In all these passages the petition for God's favor seeks to motivate God to look favorably upon the supplicant. Viewed separately, they all contain themes of lament: “we-lament” in 5:1, “enemy-lament” in 1:9, description of pain in 1:20. Therein is shown the inextricable connection between lament and petition: the lament is made not only for its own sake but also as an appeal for a way out of distress.

This aim is also the focal point of the expansive invitation to lament in 2:18-19:

Cry aloud to the Lord, O daughter of Zion!
.....Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children!

The urgency in this series of imperatives is intended as encouragement to turn to the helper who can change the distress. But this passage too stops short with a plea for divine favor. The second element of the petition, namely, for Yahweh's intervention on behalf of his people and for restoration, is lacking in Lamentations 1, 2, and 4, as is the confession of trust. The reason for this lack is the same in both cases. Those who speak here are still so overwhelmed by the blow that has struck them that a plea for Yahweh's intervention does not pass their lips. Of course, one could argue that such a plea is implied in the petition for Yahweh's favor, but this only underscores the fact that in no case is the petition fully enunciated—not even in Lamentation 5, a community lament that is placed within the framework of both elements of the petition. It begins with a plea for Yahweh's favor (5:1) and ends with a plea for intervention (5:21):

Restore us to thyself, O Yahweh, that
          we may be restored.
          Renew our days as of old!

But precisely this community lament ends with the anxious, doubting question, which accords with the songs of lament:

Or hast thou utterly rejected us?
          Art thou exceedingly angry with us?

(5:22)

Here also should be mentioned two other statements that—instead of a confession of trust—stand between lament and petition. The first is 1:18: “Righteous is Yahweh, / for I have rebelled against him.” In the structure of Lamentation 1 this sentence stands in the place belonging to the confession of trust. Here, however, the sentence does not serve as a confession; rather, it must be explained in connection with the particular emphasis of the confession of guilt in Lamentation 1 (vv. 14, 18, 20, 22). The verse is a reflection that furthers the thought: we ourselves are at fault, not God! God is righteous, and we have rebelled against him (cf. Ps 51:6).

Also standing in the place of a confession of trust is 5:19: “But thou, O Yahweh, dost reign for ever / Thy throne endures to all generations.” Manifestly the sentence is a quotation from a psalm of praise. Those who pronounce this recall the words of praise to God, but not in a jubilant tone, for the meaning has become ambivalent. The God who is forever enthroned in the heights of the cosmos is incomprehensibly distant. Hence the note of restraint in the poet's praise of God.

PETITION AGAINST ENEMIES

In many individual and community psalms of lament the plea for Yahweh's favor and for his intervention appears as a third element of a petition directed against enemies. Such is also the case in Lamentations 1 and 4:

          … let them be as I am,
Let all their evildoing come before thee;
          and deal with them as thou hast dealt with me.

(1:21d-22a)

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom
          to you also the cup shall pass
The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion,
          is accomplished.
He will keep you in exile no longer,
          but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will
                    punish.

(4:21, 22)

What is striking is not so much the lack of a petition against the enemies in Lamentations 2 and 5 as its presence in 1 and 4. Some scholars interpret this to mean that what was said concerning the laments about the enemies is true here also: namely, that the discourse against the enemies is suppressed because Yahweh executed his judgment upon Israel through her enemies and thus they, to a certain degree, carried out his mandate. However, the situation here is different than in the laments over enemies. For the texts of both petitions against the enemies agree in saying that the enemies have covered themselves with guilt and Yahweh must therefore punish them as he punished Israel: “Do to them, as you have done to me!” Thus what is involved is God's righteous governance in history. The nations must undergo catastrophe just as it befell Israel. Verse 4:22a (“the punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished”) must be interpreted along the same lines. To be sure, this statement is not meant as a proclamation of forgiveness extended to Israel (as in Isa 40:1); it merely affirms that the iniquity of the people has been blotted out through Israel's suffering (as in Isa 40:2).

THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The theological significance of the Lamentations has usually been seen in the answer given to a theological question. Thus Norman Gottwald (1954) sees the key to their theological significance in an answer to the tension between the Deuteronomic teaching of retribution and the experienced reality of the fall of the nation. For Bertil Albrektson (1963), the tension lies in the contrast between the doctrine of the inviolability of Zion and the shattering of this belief by the city's destruction. Such and similar questions may resound in the Lamentations, but these songs were not created to answer such questions. They arose as the reactions of those who experienced the catastrophe, as actual laments in which actual suffering finds expression.

In recent years some scholars have maintained that the key to the theological understanding of the Lamentations is found in the third song. This is the view of Otto Kaiser (1981), who ascribes to this song a paradigmatic meaning. Brevard Childs expresses the same view even more emphatically: “The function of chapter 3 is to translate Israel's historically conditioned plight into the language of faith, … to incorporate the history of the nation in its … despair within a liturgical context” (Childs 1979, 594). But apart from the question of how Lamentation 3 is related literarily to chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5, one can ask what is meant by a transfer into a liturgical context, if 1, 2, 4, and 5 as well as 3 are liturgical texts. They too contain the address to God and the plea for divine favor. Likewise, it is questionable whether one can describe Lamentation 3 as “language of faith” because it is the lament of an individual, while 1, 2, 4, 5 are not because they are laments of the people. In my view, the answer to the question of the theological significance of Lamentations must come from these poems themselves. Lamentations 1, 2, 4, and 5 are unambiguous laments over the fall of Jerusalem; chapter 3, on the other hand, contains no unambiguous sentence indicating that the fall of Jerusalem is involved.

The theological significance of the Lamentations arises from the uniqueness and distinctiveness of these canonical writings of the Old Testament: the combination of lament and dirge. Their significance in the discourse about God is shown in their peculiar movement from lament over death (dirge) to prayer. They express the question of the survivors: Is this the end? (5:22). At the same time, however, they show that those who come together to remember the fall of Jerusalem (1:7) despite this question, hold to the One who in his wrath had brought about the catastrophe and implore him to turn once again to the remnant. Their confession of sin makes it possible to give meaning to the catastrophe: the wrath of God had a basis, so God is still at work. Those who were decisively struck by misfortune (as stated in the lament over death) hold firmly to the lament over suffering. The lament was preserved and handed down as an element of the service of worship. The “passion” of the people of God will speak further to the remnant; it has received a positive, constructive significance.

Furthermore, the Lamentations have a historical-theological significance. The repeated mention of the prophets (1:21; 2:14, 17) is not properly a motif of the community lament; it belongs to the motifs in Lamentations 1-5 that can be explained only within the historical context of the Book of Lamentations. In the course of the remembrance of the “days of her distress and bitterness” (1:7) it was only natural to remember also the prophets and their work. Those who remembered the catastrophe asked about the causes and historical antecedents. The Lamentations are thereby endowed with historical-theological significance. The prophets of judgment were rehabilitated; the prophets of salvation were seen as those who led Israel astray and were condemned on that basis. Here it is perceived that the work of the prophets of judgment made possible a continuity beyond the abyss of the fall of the nation: “Yahweh has fulfilled his word, as he ordained long ago” (2:17; cf. 1:21). Deutero-Isaiah will elaborate this start toward bridging the abyss.

The account of the imprisonment of the king (4:17-20) unfolds the lament over the end of the monarchy (2:2, 6, 9), and is probably part of a poem dealing with the end of the kingdom. It belongs to the multifaceted theological reworking of this event that begins just after 587. The end of the monarchy, seen in the perspective of the historical account in 2 Kings 25:1-7, with which Lamentations 4:17-20 corresponds closely, was lamented and recounted in song in a very different manner. In Psalm 89 the end of the monarchy is contrasted with the promise given by the prophet Nathan; in Lamentations 4:17-20, however, a member of the royal court speaks (probably an eyewitness, as shown by the language of verse 20, which corresponds to the words customarily used in praise of a king; cf. the royal psalms). This language connects the lament over the end of the kingdom with the later expectation of a messianic king. Here too the fall of the nation is linked with the preceding history of Israel and seems to point toward the future.

LAMENTATION 3

Lamentation 3 does not belong to the genre of the laments, as do Lamentations 1, 2, and 4. It was inserted into the collection of Lamentations because, like them, it is an alphabetical acrostic song. Also, in verses 42-51 the fragment of a communal lament is present.

Lamentation 3 is composed of various parts, brought together by the alphabetical sequence and some loose associations; for example, the lament of an individual follows the song of praise of an individual (compare Ps 22). It is not an organic composition; in style and sentiment it is comparable to the parts of psalms interspersed in the Chronicler's Work or even with the alphabetical acrostic Psalm 119.

The composition (3:1-66) contains three (or four) elements: 1-25 and also 52-66 are parts of an individual psalm of lament; 26-41 consist of expansions in the form of reflection and paraenesis; 42-51 constitute part of a community psalm of lament; 52-58 are part of a hymn of praise. The composition is singularly introduced as a personal confession: “I am a man who has experienced affliction …”; in this respect the opening is similar to Job 30 (Lam 3:14 c Job 30:9). The long “God-lament” and “I-lament” in verses 1-16 are joined with a description of pain (vv. 17-19) and a confession of trust (vv. 20-25). Verses 26-41 expand this confession of trust into a paraenesis, and this is followed by a fragmentary community lament. Verses 52-61 are part of a hymn of praise, in which the specifically liturgical parts at the beginning and end are missing. The conclusion (vv. 59-66) could be the conclusion of a psalm of lament; it contains the lament about enemies and the petition against the enemies.

The understanding of Lamentation 3 depends on a prior decision: whether to regard Lamentations 1-5 as a book with five chapters or a collection of individual songs (as in the case of the small collections within the Psalter). A decisive point to consider is the fact that not a single sentence in Lamentation 3:1-60 refers unambiguously to the catastrophe of 587. If one wants to reinterpret the suffering of the individual portrayed in Lamentation 3 as the suffering of Jerusalem after the destruction of 587, then the entire book must be understood allegorically. How shall we, for instance, understand the sentence in 3:27 (“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth”) when it is applied to Israel? Moreover, the paraenesis in 3:26-41 is similar to a midrash, in contrast to the psalms of lament. In these verses, the sufferers are denied lamentation; instead of lamenting, they are exhorted to consider their sins and return to Yahweh. The author of this expansion intends to move away from lament toward a wisdom piety (vv. 39-40).

If Lamentation 3 is an independent composition combining various parts, then these parts are to be explained and interpreted within the context of their own literary form: the context of the individual lament and its variations, the hymn of praise of the individual, and the community lament. Only then is it possible to inquire about the meaning of the composition as a whole—a question that belongs to the history of redaction.

Works Cited

Commentaries

Hillers, Delbert R. Lamentations. The Anchor Bible, vol. 7A. Garden City, N.Y., 1972.

Kaiser, Otto. Commentary in Das Hohe Lied; Klagelieder; Das Buch Esther, translated and annotated by Helmer Ringgren and Otto Kaiser. Das Alte Testament Deutsch, vol. 16/2. Göttingen, 1981.

Kraus, H. J. Klagelieder. Altes Testament, vol. 20. Neukirchen (Moers), 1956.

Meek, Theophile J. Introduction and Exegesis in The Interpreter's Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick et al., vol. 6. Nashville, Tenn., 1956. Pp. 3-38.

General Studies

Albrektson, Bertil. Studies in the Text and Theology of the Book of Lamentations, with a Critical Edition of the Peshitta Text. Lund, Sweden, 1963.

Childs, Brevard S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture. Philadelphia, 1979. Pp. 590-597.

Gottwald, Norman K. Studies in the Book of Lamentations. Chicago, 1954.

Gunkel, Hermann, and Joachim Begrich. Einleitung in die Psalmen. 1933; 2d ed. Göttingen, 1966.

Jahnow, Hedwig. Das hebräische Leichenlied im Rahmen der Völkerdichtung. Giessen, 1923.

Westermann, Claus. Praise and Lament in the Psalms. Translated by Keith R. Crim and Richard N. Soulen. Edinburgh, 1981.