the book of Lamentations

Lamentations describes the funeral of a city. It is a tearstained portrait of the once proud Jerusalem, now reduced to rubble by the invading Babylonian hordes. In a five-poem dirge, Jeremiah exposes his emotions. A death has occurred; Jerusalem lies barren.

Jeremiah writes his lament in acrostic or alphabetical fashion. Beginning each chapter with the first letter aleph, he progresses verse by verse through the Hebrew alphabet (every three verses in chapter three). In the midst of this terrible holocaust, Jeremiah triumphantly cries out, " Great is thy faithfulness" (3:23). In the face of death and destructuion, with life seemingly coming apart, Jeremiah turns tragedy into a triumph of faith. God has never failed him in the past. God has promised to remian faithful in the future. In the light of the God he knows and loves, Jeremiah finds hope and comfort.

The Hebrew title of this book comes from the first word of chapters 1, 2, and 4: Ekah, "Ah, How!" Another Hebrew word Ginoth ("Elegies" or "Lamentations") has also been used as the title because it better represents the contents of the book. The Greek title Threnoi means "Dirges" or "Laments," and the Latin title Threni ("Tears" or "Lamentations") was derived from this word. The subtitle in Jerome's Vulgate reads: "Id est lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae," and this became the basis for the English title "The Lamentations of Jeremiah."

Lamentations - Jeremiah's Sorrow At The Fall of Jerusalem