the Third Week of Advent
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Dictionaries
Lamentations of Jeremiah
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or An elegiac poem, composed by the prophet on occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. The first two chapters principally describe the calamities of a the sieges of Jerusalem; the third deplores the persecution which Jeremiah himself had suffered; and fourth adverts to the ruin and desolation of the city and temple, and the misfortune of Zedekiah; and the fifth is a kind of form of prayer for the Jews in their captivity. At the close, the prophet speaks of the cruelty of the Edomites, who had insulted Jerusalem in her misery, and threatens them with the wrath of God, B. C. 586.
The first four chapters of the Lamentations are in the acrostic form; every verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in regular order. The first, second, and fourth chapters contain twentytwo verses each, according to the letters of the alphabet; the third chapter has three successive verses beginning with the same letter, making sixty-six in all. Moreover, all the verses in each chapter are nearly of the same length. The fifth chapter is not acrostic. See 2 Chronicles 35:25; and never was a subject more worthy of tears, nor treated with more tender and affecting sentiments. One would think, as it has often been said, that every letter was written with a tear, and every word was the sob of a broken heart. Yet he does not forget that a covenant God still reigns.
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Lamentations of Jeremiah'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/l/lamentations-of-jeremiah.html. 1859.
