Bible Commentaries
Lamentations

Lamentations

[Note. "This book is a kind of appendix to the prophecies of Jeremiah, of which, in the original Scriptures, it formed part It expresses with pathetic tenderness the prophet's grief for the desolation of the city and temple of Jerusalem, the captivity of the people, the miseries of famine, the cessation of public worship, and the other calamities with which his countrymen had been visited for their sins. The leading object was to teach the suffering Jews neither to despise 'the chastening of the Lord,' nor to 'faint' when 'rebuked of him,' but to turn to God with deep repentance, to confess their sins, and humbly look to him alone for pardon and deliverance. No book of Scripture is more rich in expressions of patriotic feeling, or of the penitence and trust which become an afflicted Christian. The form of these poems is strictly regular. With the exception of the last (cha. 5), they are in the original Hebrew alphabetical acrostics, in which every stanza begins with a new letter. The third has this further peculiarity, that all the three lines in each stanza have the same letter at the commencement. As a composition, this book is remarkable for the great variety of pathetic images it contains; expressive of the deepest sorrow, and worthy of the subject which they are designed to illustrate." Angus's Bible Handbook.]