28 August

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Lamentations 1-3

Lamentations 1

In the Septuagint, the Lamentations are prefixed with the words, "And it came to pass that after Israel had been carried away captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented this lament over Jerusalem and said..."

In this brief Book of Lamentation the spirit of the man is strikingly revealed. There is no exultation over the fulfilment of his predictions, and there is a twofold loyalty manifest throughout, first to God in the confession of sin, and then to his people in the expression of their sorrow.

In this first poem there are two clearly defined movements. The first (Lamentations 1:1-11) describes the desolation of the city, as to her relationships with other nations, and as to her internal condition, declaring the cause to be that "she hath grievously sinned." Under the figure of a widow sitting solitary, the prophet describes the city. "She that was great" has "become tributary," and is loverless and comfortless. Within, her desolation is overwhelming. The Temple is deserted, and her beauty has departed. With great care the prophet sets forth the cause of her diction. She had "grievously sinned," and has forgotten her latter end; and the prophet ends this description of the desolation by identifying himself with the sorrow and the sin in the words, "See, O Lord, and behold; for I am become vile."

In the second movement (Lamentations 1:12-22) the city, personified, bewails her diction, appealing to the passer-by, and describing her sorrow; then confesses the justice of the desolation which has overtaken her, crying to Jehovah for sympathy and deliverance.

Lamentations 2

In the second poem, the prophet dealt with the sources of the sorrow he had described. Again affirming that it was the result of the direct action of Jehovah, he proceeded to describe it in its material and spiritual aspects. Habitations of Jacob are destroyed, princes are profaned, the people are slain. Such are the material judgments. The place of worship is destroyed, the solemn assemblies are forgotten, the sanctuary is abhorred, king, princes, prophets, and people are degraded.

After this recognition of the act of Jehovah in judgment the prophet broke out into a description of the affliction in iniquity as to the actual suffering endured, and the even more painful contempt of the nations. He identified himself with the people in all their sufferings, and recognized the contempt of the nations as fulfilling the word which Jehovah had spoken. Finally, he uttered an appeal of penitence in which there are two movements. The first is his appeal to the people, in which he urged them to repentance, and the turning of the life to God. The second is the appeal of the people to Jehovah, in which again the story of affliction is told.

Lamentations 3

In this central and longest poem, Jeremiah identified himself completely with the experiences of his people. In the first movement, in language which throbs with pain, he described his own sorrows, recognizing through all the action of Jehovah, as the almost monotonous repetition of the pronoun "He" reveals. Here he most evidently recognized the relation of sorrow to sin. All the intermediate instruments of punishment are out of sight. Every stroke falls from the hand of God, as the opening declaration suggests, "I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath." This is indeed the recognition of the method of Jehovah in judgment. Such recognition compelled the ending of the dirge by an affirmation of hope. The remembered afflictions of God create assurance of deliverance.

The next movement is one wholly of assurance, in which the prophet, having in the previous section recognized Jehovah's activity in judgment, now recognized His activity in mercy. The passage is full of beauty, as it deals with that tender compassion of God which had never been absent even in the work of punishment. This recognition of mercy ends with an expression of submission to judgment, and a consequent song of hope strong in its confidence.

The third movement of identification is one of appeal. Again the prophet first recognized the justice of the divine visitation, and then earnestly appealed to the people to turn to God in true penitence, ending with a declaration of his sense of the national sorrow and of his personal and immediate share in it.

The last movement of the song is again one wholly of assurance. The prophet celebrated the deliverances already wrought for him by Jehovah. From the lowest dungeons he had lifted his cry, and had been heard. Against all the devices of his enemies Jehovah had pleaded his cause. The reproaches that they had heaped on him Jehovah had heard. These past deliverances created his assurance that Jehovah would yet act on behalf of His people and destroy their enemies from under the heavens.