Commentary on the book of Lamentations of Jeremiah. Prophet Jeremiah: biography. Book "Lamentations of Jeremiah Mission: Proclamation of Tribulation"
The Holy Prophet Jeremiah is considered the Old Testament forerunner of Christ, possessing the gift from above to foresee and proclaim future events. And the Lord told him many things about the future, in particular the saint described the division of the Bible (Holy Scripture) into two books: the Old and New Testaments.
The prophet Jeremiah is one of the four main prophets who are revered by the Orthodox and Catholic canons. What does the saint's name mean? Translated from ancient Hebrew, the name Jeremiah means “The Lord will exalt.” His name is iconic among believers as the greatest saint who showed all the courage and zeal to turn his people away from destruction and expulsion from their native land.
Omens for Jerusalem
The prophet Jeremiah lived in difficult times. His biography will be told to the reader in the article.
The omens said that all the tribes of the northern kingdoms would march on Jerusalem, placing their thrones at the entrance to the city, as well as around its walls. The majestic city collapsed due to the unbelief of the inhabitants, who turned away from worshiping God. Jeremiah tried to hold off the impending tragedy. He spent time non-stop in prayers to God, crying out to him for the forgiveness of his beloved people, and watering the land, which was awaiting a bloody fate, with bitter tears.
The prophet wandered the streets of his hometown, stopping rich and poor in order to turn at least one person away from sinful actions. Jeremiah could equally fearlessly enter a royal mansion or a pottery workshop to proclaim the will of Yahweh. His love for his city and people did not find a response in the hearts of his fellow citizens; he was considered an outcast and a traitor, a traitor and a spy. He decided to share the fate of his exiled people rather than remain in the care of the pagans. And at the very end, he fell defeated under the blows of his people, whom he had served all his life. This was a great man and prophet of God - the holy righteous Jeremiah.
Biographical information
When did the prophet Jeremiah live? His life dates back to 650 BC. The prophet Jeremiah was born into the family of the priest Hilkiah in the city of Anathoth near Jerusalem in the 13th year of the reign of King Josiah of Judah. The symbol of Jeremiah's messages was the image of his own life: hopelessness, melancholy, the inevitability of God's punishment for his sins. The prophet survived seven kings of Judah, although his ministry was greatest during the reigns of kings Joash, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah.
The prophetic gift was revealed to him completely unexpectedly at a young age. And Jeremiah was only 15 years old when the Lord appeared to him and touched his lips, promising his protection and help. The young man was frightened and refused the difficult mission, but he had to humbly accept his fate, which had been predetermined for him since birth. The first revelation from the Lord was that kingdoms would appear one after another and just as quickly perish.
This prophecy began the difficult fate of Jeremiah, who would later be called the “weeping prophet.” To depict sorrowful lamentations and complaints, the term “jeremiad” was coined.He could not achieve success in the field of preaching, so he bitterly cried out to Yahweh that the task at hand was too difficult for him, and everyone was laughing at him and mocking his speeches.
At the very beginning of his activities, Jeremiah took the side of King Josiah, who wanted to restore the cult of worship of Yahweh. He abandoned omens for a while, because he considered his mission useless. Although over time he realized that only he could save the people of Israel from a tragic fate that threatened expulsion and ignominy.
How does the icon depict the saint?
The Prophet Jeremiah on the icons is depicted not as a white-bearded old man, but as a middle-aged man. He has a powerful physique, dark hair, and a short round beard that emphasizes the correct proportions of his face. The right palm is folded, and the left palm contains a scroll. In the scrolls you can read the words of the prophet Baruch, who was the scribe and friend of the prophet. It was Baruch who was engaged in recording the omens of the prophet when he was in prison. When compared with other prophets (Isaiah, Ezekiel and Malachi), he gives the impression of a mighty warrior with a purposeful look, who had to go through a number of tests and not break under the blows of fate.
Mission: Declaration of Disaster
Jeremiah had a difficult mission all his life, because he had to inherit his father’s work, serve in the temple, get married and raise children. But the Lord predestined for him a different service, meaning renunciation of himself, of his desires, of life in comfortable conditions. The most difficult sacrifice for Jeremiah was to predict disasters for his native people. Instead of words about joy and bliss, he was forced to prophesy about destruction, slavery and death. The Lord called him to preach in Jerusalem so that people would turn their eyes to the true God.
The Old Testament prophet tried to convey messages to people everywhere, so he preached wherever he had the slightest opportunity. And they saw the prophet weeping at the city gates, and in the temple, and in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, and in prison. He had a secretary, Baruch, who recorded sermons and revelations and then sent them in writing to the elders of Judah.
Jeremiah's sermons did not find a response in the hearts of people, although they came true with alarming speed. The people did not want to listen to the tragic news; the saint was even called a traitor to the faith. The priest Paschor decided to deal with the prophet: he hit him and imprisoned him in a block to stop talking about the plight of the people of Israel.
What are Jeremiah's predictions about?
The main idea of Jeremiah's predictions was submission to the new state of Babylonia, which was rapidly growing and gaining military strength. The saint suggested that the rulers and noble citizens abandon Egypt so as not to bring terrible punishments on Judea. Nobody wanted to heed his words. They whispered that he was actually a Babylonian spy and was trying to cause trouble. At that time, Egypt was the strongest state, and Babylonia was just beginning to develop, so no one saw any danger from it. Jeremiah's speeches irritated his fellow tribesmen and turned them against him.
A terrible prophecy
Many biblical prophets appealed to the people to submit to God, so as not to incur heavenly punishment. Jeremiah was not the first saint in this field. Joachim appears on the throne of Judea after Johal, who vowed eternal cooperation with Egypt. During the reign of this king, dark times came for the prophet. The saint visits Jerusalem, where he preaches that if people do not immediately return to God’s commandments and humble themselves by turning their gaze to Babylonia, then strangers will appear in the city, and the entire population will be in slavery for 70 years.
The Old Testament prophet speaks of inevitable grief - the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the main Jewish shrine. Among the priests, such words caused a murmur of discontent. He was captured and brought to trial by the nobility and people, who demanded immediate execution. Jeremiah managed to escape. Soon he would be taken to execution, but in difficult times his friend Ahikam and other princes helped him out.
Prophecies come true
Despite constant hardships and humiliation, the prophet felt that his words were needed by the people. Power in Assyria was gradually weakening, but it was too early to feel calm in the face of the threat of invasion by other states. Politicians considered Babylon a frivolous adversary and sought support in Egypt and later in Assyria.
The Egyptian rulers decided to pit the two states against each other: they invited Judah to oppose Nebuchadnezzar and stop paying tribute to him. This was the beginning of the punitive operation of the Babylonian king, who assembled a huge army designed to wipe out the rebellious Jews from the face of the earth. All these events were predicted by Jeremiah: a bloody war and the destruction of his native country. At that time, it was not entirely correct to consider this a prophecy; all previous events did not predict a good outcome under the reign of short-sighted kings. It was obvious to any citizen that refusal to pay tribute to Babylon would entail bloody retribution.
The Prophet Jeremiah criticized the conclusion of political alliances and condemned the decision to refuse to pay tribute. He spoke of imminent punishment, the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temples. For this he was accused of apostasy and treason. After all, Yahweh promised protection for his people, but the prophet doubts God’s words. Jeremiah did not calm down, he decided to write a message to King Joachim. A menacing message was read to the ruler, but he tore it up and burned it. Jeremiah writes another message together with his assistant Baruch, filling the scroll with new prophecies and threats.
Jeremiah's hardships: punishment for prophecies
Even those closest to him refused to be related to him, and his neighbors plotted to kill him. The people twice demanded that the authorities execute him. Among the ancient Jews, he pronounced prophecies for 23 years, during which time he exposed their sins, apostasy from the true God, and predicted misfortunes and grief. Everyone avoided him, subjected him to ridicule and persecution. Jeremiah decided to demonstrate the words literally; he wanted to tell about the irreversibility of the conquest by the Babylonian kingdom. His actions were full of symbolism, but they emphasized the wrong direction of the kings' policy and the onset of a terrible catastrophe.
Yahweh commanded him to take an earthenware jar and break it. Thousands of fragments scattered to the sides, which testified to the fragmentation of the Israeli people throughout the world. The next time, the prophet received instructions from God to take a linen belt and take it to the Euphrates River to hide it in the crevices of the rock. Over time, the belt completely rotted, which predicted a similar fate for the Jews. Jeremiah puts a wooden yoke around his neck and appears before King Zedekiah to emphasize the slave future of his compatriots. The servants remove the yoke from the prophet's neck, but he does not calm down - he puts on the iron yoke and again appears to the king.
The plight of the prophet
To stop him from prophesying, they throw him into prison, and later they try to drown him in the mud of a fortress moat. Now it is impossible to judge whether the prophecy came true or the rulers conducted incorrect negotiations, but difficult times have come for Judea. The Babylonians actually went to war against Jeremiah's homeland. The army of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar swept away the kingdom of Judah, conquered the local inhabitants and drove them into slavery. Nebuchadnezzar himself showed pity for Jeremiah, released him from prison and gave him personal permission to preach wherever the saint wished.
During the siege of Jerusalem, the prophet spoke with sadness about the coming judgment of Yahweh. He also said that this is not the end, bright times will come when God will give blessings to the people of Israel. At that time of grace, all laws will be written not on tablets, but in the hearts of believers.
The Jewish administration decided to throw off the oppression of the Babylonians, followed by a riot and an attempt to hide with an ally, that is, with the Pharaoh of Egypt. By that time, the prophet had managed to write the famous work “The Lamentations of Jeremiah” - a work in verse that describes the fate of the Jewish people and the destruction of the majestic Jerusalem. He managed to hide the Ark of the Covenant and the Tablets in a hiding place so that they would not be torn apart by enemies. The Jews fled, but took Jeremiah with them, although he tirelessly predicted punishment on the heads of the Egyptians.
Forced flight
The Prophet settled in the city of Tafnis, where he lived for about 4 years. Under him, all crocodiles in the Nile became extinct, which made the Egyptian population very happy. The fate of the prophet was difficult - all his predictions came true in his new place of residence. This has already served as the last straw of patience for the Jews - they kill Jeremiah to prevent further misfortunes. Other nations treated their prophets with reverence, and those whose warnings tended to come true were elevated to the rank of saints. After the murder, the Jews came to their senses and, according to Egyptian canons, decided to preserve the relics of the prophet. 250 years passed after the death of Jeremiah, and Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, who transferred the relics of the prophet to his capital Alexandria.
Message to descendants
The prophet Jeremiah is highly revered by Christians. The Bible contains the work he wrote. There are five songs described in the holy book. The name is "Lamentations of Jeremiah". The first, second and fourth songs each contain 22 verses, each beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in strict sequence. The third song has 66 verses, divided into three groups; the fifth song also has 22 verses, but they are not ordered alphabetically.
The first song of lament tells about the bitter fate of the Jewish people, about their captivity by the Babylonians and the destruction of Zion. In the second song, Jeremiah tries to analyze the tragedy that happened; he considers it the Lord’s punishment for sins. In the third song, the prophet mourns for his people, who did not heed his words, for which they were punished. The fourth song is calmer: the prophet realizes his incorrigible guilt in the face of God. In the fifth song, the words are filled with sorrow and calm, hope for a bright future.
The interpretation of the book of the prophet Jeremiah is a thorny path of humility after the defeat of Zion. The dominant thought is the Lord's punishment directed at his people. In the complaints of the book, this anger is described as just retribution, due to the fact that the kingdom of Judah was mired in unforgivable sins.
The book of the prophet Jeremiah does not contain bewilderment or confusion before punishment, as in the Book of Job. Here is a confirmation of the words of other prophets who long ago predicted the coming of the day of reckoning. Although, in parallel with the understanding of God’s wrath, there is an emotional rejection of such punishment. Jeremiah is trying to understand whether the price for sins is too great? Having gone through all the suffering and tossing, the author finds the courage to agree with God's will. The book of the prophet Jeremiah reflects absolute faith in the Lord, hope for redemption, and the imminent onset of a joyful future for the persecuted people of Judah.
Introduction.
Jeremiah wrote this book in those three months (late 586 - early 585 BC) that separated the fall of Jerusalem conquered by the Chaldeans (1:1-11) from the forced departure of the prophet to Egypt (after the murder of Gedaliah; Jeremiah 43 :1-7).
Historical setting.
Let us recall that from 588 to 586 BC, the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar kept the Jewish capital under siege (about this in 2 Kings 25:1-10). So the expression of joyful emotions, turning into euphoria, which greeted the attempt of the “princes” of Judah to “break away” from Babylon, gave way to a state of uncertainty and fear. The Jews' ally Egypt, who tried to help them, was himself defeated in the battle. Under the blows of the Babylonians, the Jewish cities fell one after another (Jer. 34:6-7), and, finally, only Jerusalem remained “face to face” with the enemy hordes.
The siege was like a noose tightening ever tighter around my throat. Maddened with hunger, mothers ate their own children (Lam. 2:20; 4:10). Idolatry flourished in full bloom, as desperate people prayed to all the “gods” they knew for deliverance. As if possessed, some of them rushed towards God's prophet to kill him: they accused him of treason and "espionage" just because he told them the truth. The long siege ended suddenly on July 18, 586.
Apparently, the city walls were broken in several places at once, and Babylonian soldiers rushed into Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1-4a). King Zedekiah tried to escape with a small number of people, but they were all captured (2 Kings 25:4b-7). It took Nebuchadnezzar several weeks to establish himself in the city and remove from it everything that was of value to him.
After this, on August 14, 586, the Babylonian king began to destroy the Jewish capital (2 Kings 25:8-10). The temple, the royal palace and all the main city buildings were burned, and the city walls were also destroyed. When the Chaldeans took captives away from Jerusalem, only piles of smoking ruins remained behind them.
The prophet Jeremiah witnessed the desecration of the temple and the destruction of this shrine of the Jews and their capital (Jer. 39: 1-14; 52: 12-14). Terrible pictures passed before his mind's eye again and again, and his throat constricted with sobs, and complaints and lamentations flowed from his heart, clothed in poetic form.
The Book of Lamentations has one very important feature, which, however, is often overlooked. This is its "correspondence" to the 28th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. The author of the book of Lamentations was clearly trying to show how the curses recorded in Deuteronomy 28 were fulfilled. The table below allows us to trace the corresponding “parallels”.
All the suffering and adversity that befell Jerusalem, which we read about in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, were predicted by Moses about 900 years earlier. God warned of the dire consequences of disobeying Him, and Jeremiah makes it clear that He has now essentially fulfilled what He warned about. However, it is His faithfulness to His word that gives Israel, as the book of Lamentations suggests, hope. Precisely because His covenant with His people is still in effect, Israel is only being led by Him through severe adversity, through suffering, but God will not allow its destruction.
Under this covenant, disobedience would result in judgment, but if the people repented, they would be pardoned and “restored” (Deut. 30:1-10). Thus, the logic of the covenant allowed Jeremiah to have hope in the midst of despair (Lam. 3:21-32). The prophet essentially addresses the captive Jews in order to remind them of what is written in the book of Deuteronomy.
In the light of this, we must also perceive the prayerful cry that sounds in the final verses of the 5th chapter of Lamentations. This is not the hopeless cry of a disheartened “remnant.” Rather, it is a response of faith on the part of those who have learned the lesson offered to them, and therefore turn to God with the hope that He will return the Jews from captivity and “restore” them as a people. The “question” in 5:22 suggests that God has not completely rejected Israel.
Table of parallel passages in the books of Lamentations and Deuteronomy:
Lamentations:
Deuteronomy:
1:3 Judas dwelt among the Gentiles and found no rest.
28:65 But even among these nations you will not rest, and there will be no rest for your feet.
1:5 His children went into captivity, persecuted by the enemy.
28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation.
1:18 My virgins and my youths went into captivity.
28:41 You will bear sons and daughters, but you will not have them, because they will go into captivity.
2:15 All who pass by clasp their hands for you, and shake their heads after the daughter of Jerusalem.
28:37 And you will be a terror, a byword, and a laughing stock among all the nations to which the LORD will bring you.
2:20 The women ate the fruit of their own, the babies they had suckled.
28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, the flesh of thy sons and thy daughters, whom the LORD thy God hath given thee.
2:21 Children and elders lie on the ground in the streets.
28:50 An insolent people, who will not respect an old man and will not spare a young man.
4:10 The hands of soft-hearted women boiled their children.
28:56-57 A pampered woman who lives in luxury will not give (neither to her husband nor to her children) the afterbirth and the children she bears; because she will secretly eat them (herself) during the days of the siege.
5:2 Our inheritance has passed to strangers, our houses to strangers.
28:30 You will build a house, and you will not live in it.
5:10 When ours turned black like an oven from burning hunger.
28:48 In hunger and thirst you will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send against you.
5:11 Women are dishonored in Zion, and virgins in the cities of Judah.
28:30 You will be betrothed to your wife, and another will sleep with her.
5:18 Because Mount Zion is desolate, foxes (jackals) walk about it.
28:26 And thy carcases shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts, and there shall be no one to drive them away.
At least two main structural features characterize this book.
1. Its content is clothed in the form of a funeral lament, or lamentation. There are five of them, corresponding to the number of chapters. The themes of funeral lament were the good qualities and deeds of the deceased and the tragedy of his loss for the mourners. Jeremiah laments the tragic "death" of the city of Jerusalem. Funeral lamentations as a poetic form are characterized by the repeated repetition of the mournful exclamation “how”! Three of the five chapters of Lamentations begin with it.
2. The book is built on the acrost principle. More precisely, four of its five chapters. Let us recall that when using the acrost, each of the verses began with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the order they appeared. Chapters 1,2,4 have 22 verses each, corresponding to the number of letters in the alphabet. The acrost form (which facilitated the memorization of poetic lines) was a favorite in Hebrew poetry. The only chapter not written by an acrost in Lamentations is the fifth, but it also has 22 verses. The third chapter has 66 verses, but the principle of acrosticism is observed in it; for each letter in alphabetical order, not one, but three verses begin in it.
It is believed that Jeremiah used the acrost not only for the benefit of memorization, but also to express the fullness of the suffering (from “A” to “Z”) of his people. He seemed to want to say that he had not missed anything that could be expressed in human words, no matter what letters they began with. It is noteworthy that in chapter 5, where the prophet and the people are increasingly imbued with humility and find peace in their hope in God, the principle of acrost is not observed.
The theme of the book is the unfortunate fate of Jerusalem, the description of which is interrupted only by admissions of guilt of the people and pleas for help. The prophet's inconsolable grief for those taken captive and for those left on the ruins of the great city grows in the first two chapters, and in the second it is a lament not only for Jerusalem, but also for all of lost Judea. Crying and recognition that the “daughter of Judah” deserved cruel punishment from above.
The Tribulation reaches its climax in chapters three and four. In the fourth, the consciousness of guilt, which entailed punishment, emerges more and more clearly, and at the same time the light of hope opens to the soul of the prophet. In the fifth chapter, as already mentioned, peace sets in, and even complaints are heard only reflecting the circumstances and facts as they are.
Book outline:
I. First Lamentation: Sin is to blame for the destruction of Jerusalem (chapter 1)
A. Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem (1:1-11)
B. Jerusalem's plea for mercy (1:12-22)
II. Lamentations 2: God punished Jerusalem for her sins (chapter 2)
A. About the wrath of God (2:1-10)
B. Jeremiah about his sorrow (2:11-19)
C. Jerusalem's plea to the Lord (2:20-22)
III. Lamentations Three: Jeremiah mourns on behalf of all the Jews (chapter 3)
A. Lamentations of Jeremiah (3:1-18)
B. Jeremiah expresses hope (3:19-40)
C. Jeremiah's Prayer (3:41-66)
IV. Lamentations Four: The Lord has accomplished His wrath (Chapter 4)
A. Contrasting Jerusalem as it was before the siege with what it became after its fall (4:1-11)
B. The Causes of God's Wrath (4:12-20)
C. Retribution for Edom and mercy for Israel (4:21-22)
V. Fifth Lamentation: Prayer for Renewal (Chapter 5)
A. Remember, O Lord (5:1-18)
B. The prayer itself (5:19-22)
This book is called etcha “how,” that is, the particle with which the 1st century begins. first chapter. The rabbis called it kinotti - sobs, which name was adopted by the Greek translators, who called it θρηνοι - weeping, sobs. This title completely defines the content of the book, which is a series of lamentable songs about the destruction of Jerusalem, similar to those songs that were composed on the occasion of the death of loved and respected persons (for example, David’s song about the death of Saul and Jonathan).
The writer of the book and the time it was written. LXX translators (hereinafter in the text the word “translators” is absent) directly attribute the book of Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah, calling it “Lamentations of Jeremiah.” In addition, LXX has a special inscription for the book, which is also included in our Slavic Bible. It reads as follows: “And it came to pass that Israel was carried into captivity, and Jerusalem was desolate, and Jeremiah the prophet sat down weeping: and he wept with this lamentation over Jerusalem and said”. From here it is clearly seen that sacred tradition from ancient times considered the author of the book of Lamentations to be the prophet Jeremiah. The same tradition was preserved among the Jews.
The impression one gets from the book fully corresponds to this legend. All parts of Lamentation clearly reflect the characteristics of Jeremiah's character, his views, and even the speech of the book undoubtedly indicates that this book belongs to the prophet Jeremiah. Then, the author of Lamentations, obviously, has just experienced the horrors of the siege and capture of Jerusalem and writes under the fresh impression of the catastrophe that has taken place. It is clear that the book was written shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem, even before the time when Jeremiah was carried away by his fellow tribesmen to Egypt.
Subject of the book. The entire book is a depiction of the unfortunate fate of Jerusalem, interrupted at times by confession of the sins of the Jewish people, and then by prayers to God for help. It is divided into five chapters or songs, of which the first is all imbued with inconsolable sorrow about the taking of the Jews into captivity and the destruction of Zion, and is also dedicated to depicting the misfortunes of the Jews who remained on the ruins of destroyed Jerusalem. The second song contains a new and intensified complaint about the destruction of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah; The prophet recognizes this death as a well-deserved punishment for the crimes of the Jewish people before God. The third song is a manifestation of the highest tension of the prophet’s grief. If earlier, in the first two songs, only the sounds of an approaching thunderstorm were heard, then here the thunderstorm breaks out with all its force. But, just as a thunderstorm clears the air, so great sorrow enlightens the soul, and after painful and bitter complaints, the prophet reveals to his readers a horizon of bright hopes. The fourth song represents the complaint of the prophet in a confused state. The bitterness of sorrow here is tempered by the clear consciousness of one’s guilt before God. The misfortune that befell Jerusalem is here the punishment that the inhabitants of Jerusalem brought upon themselves by their sins. In the fifth song, finally, the community of believers, together with the prophet, achieves complete peace regarding their fate, and if more complaints are repeated here, they are expressed calmly; they only state the known position of the Jews.
Place of the book in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. If in the Greek Bible the book of Lamentations follows directly after the book of prophecies of Jeremiah, then in the Hebrew it is classified in the section of the so-called Ketubim, or hagiographs, and is placed after the book of Song of Songs. The basis for the collectors of the Jewish canon in this case could be the fact that in the book. Lamentation, in fact, does not contain direct prophecies, but the feelings of a believing heart are expressed, and therefore this book is more like works of a lyrical nature, which, for the most part, are the books of Ketubim.
Features of the external form of the book. Each of the five songs of Lamentation has 22 verses, according to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and only in the third song each verse is divided into three parts, so that there are 66 verses. The first four songs are acrostics, that is, the initial letters of their verses are the initial letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the third song, each of the three parts, or members of the verse, begins with the same letter. This whole construction has a deep meaning. The Prophet seems to want to say by this that he expressed the fullness of the suffering of his people, that he did not miss anything that can be expressed in ordinary human words, no matter what letters they begin with. Only when his grief subsides, precisely by the 5th canto, does he cease to observe this acrostic order and the 5th canto retains only the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but is not an acrostic.
How lonely the once crowded city sits! he became like a widow; great among nations, the prince over the regions became a tributary.He weeps bitterly at night, and his tears are on his cheeks. He has no comforter among all those who loved him; all his friends betrayed him and became his enemies.Judas emigrated due to disaster and severe slavery, settled among the pagans and did not find peace; all who pursued him overtook him in narrow places.The ways of Zion lament, because there are none who go to the feast; all its gates were empty; His priests sigh, his maidens are sad, and he himself is sad.His enemies have become leaders, his enemies are prospering, because the Lord has sent grief upon him for his many iniquities; his children went into captivity ahead of the enemy.And all her splendor departed from the daughter of Zion; her princes are like deer that cannot find pasture; Exhausted, they went ahead of the driver.
Jerusalem, in the days of its calamity and suffering, remembered all its treasures that it had in former days, while its people fell from the hand of the enemy, and no one helps it; his enemies look at him and laugh at his Sabbaths.Jerusalem sinned grievously, and for this reason it became disgusting; all who glorified him look at him with contempt, because they saw his nakedness; and he himself sighs and turns away.There was uncleanness on his hem, but he did not think about his future and therefore he was incredibly humbled, and he had no comforter. “Look, O Lord, at my misfortune, for the enemy has become magnified!”
The enemy has stretched out his hand to all his most precious things; he sees the Gentiles entering his sanctuary, about which You commanded that they should not enter Your congregation.All his people sigh, seeking bread, and give their treasures for food to refresh their souls. “Look, Lord, and see how humiliated I am!”May this not happen to you, all who pass by! take a look and see if there is a sickness like mine, which befell me, which the Lord sent upon me in the day of His fiery wrath?From above He sent fire into my bones, and it took possession of them; He has spread out a snare for my feet, he has overturned me, he has made me poor and languishing every day.The yoke of my iniquities is bound in His hand; they are woven and climbed up around my neck; He weakened my strength. The Lord has given me into hands from which I cannot rise.The Lord has cast down all my mighty men from among me, and has called an assembly against me to destroy my young men; As in a winepress, the Lord trampled the virgin daughter of Judah.I cry about this; My eye, my eye pours out water, for the comforter who would revive my soul is far from me; my children are ruined because the enemy has prevailed.
Zion stretches out her hands, but she has no comforter. The Lord gave a command about Jacob to his enemies to surround him; Jerusalem became an abomination among them.The Lord is righteous, for I was disobedient to His word. Listen, all you nations, and look at my illness: my virgins and my youths have gone into captivity.I called my friends, but they deceived me; My priests and my elders are dying in the city, looking for food for themselves to strengthen their souls.Look, Lord, for I am cramped, my insides are agitated, my heart is turned upside down within me because I stubbornly resisted You; Outside the sword has made me sad, but at home it’s like death.They heard that I was groaning, but I had no comforter; All my enemies heard about my misfortune and rejoiced that You did this: oh, that You would command the day that You predicted to come, and they would become like me!Let all their wickedness appear before Thy face; and do to them the same way as You did to me for all my sins, for my groans are heavy, and my heart is faint.
LamentationsDan Burns
Historical background
Lamentations are a series of psalms of lament traditionally attributed to Jeremiah that recount the physical, emotional, and spiritual tragedy of the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. From the time of King David until the beginning of the sixth century BC, God's people resided in Judea, and their capital was Jerusalem. David's son built the Temple, which represented God's presence with His people. Jerusalem and the Temple, along with the Torah (God's law given to Moses), formed the core identity of God's people. However, during those four centuries, the sin of God's people increased and their spiritual condition worsened. God warned His people of coming punishment if they did not repent, but the people continued to commit sins of injustice, idolatry, and compromise. Despite the reforms undertaken by Hezekiah and Josiah in the 7th century BC, God ultimately decreed that His people would be punished and sent into captivity.
God carried out this punishment through the Babylonians, under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar. After a military victory and the first deportation of key leaders in 597 BC, the last king of Judah, Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. In response, Nebuchadnezzar brought his army and, after a 2.5-year siege, captured the city, destroying the walls and temple. All the sacred belongings of the temple were taken away, and the building itself was burned and destroyed to the ground, along with the royal palace and all the important buildings of Jerusalem. The Babylonians captured King Zedekiah, executed his sons in front of him, then gouged out his eyes, so the last thing he saw was the death of his sons. Then the king, officials and most of the city population were relocated to Babylon. The historical account of these events is given in 2 Kings. 25 and Jer. 52. Jeremiah's lament is the reaction of God's people to these terrible events. Thus, the book was written shortly after the fall of Jerusalem, but before the return from captivity in 539 BC. Although authorship is traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, it is possible that he collected or edited some of the psalms of lament rather than writing them all himself, or that someone else edited the final version of the book.
Literary purpose
The book consists of 5 psalms of lamentation. The purpose of the psalm is to express the anguish of the soul, the pain of suffering and loss before God in an open and sincere form of prayer. Such psalms do not usually minimize the extreme pain experienced by the worshiper, nor do they ensure that everything is said in an “appropriate” way. Crying is a cry to God from great pain with an expressed or implied request for deliverance. The difficulty with Jeremiah's Lamentations is that God is the cause of pain and suffering. God promised to punish His people if they continued to break the covenant. After one hundred years of warnings and calls to repentance, God sent punishment to His people in the form of a prolonged siege by the cruel Babylonian army. So, although the cause of their suffering lay in their sin, their real enemy was not the Babylonian army, but God. The Lamentations of Jeremiah assert that God is just in His punishment and that the people have sinned and deserve to be punished. At the same time, in the book, Jeremiah prays for God's deliverance from these terrible circumstances and seeks a restored relationship with God. The book's main verses (3:23-30) affirm God's compassion and goodness and express hope in God's presence despite the current state of punishment.
Theological topics
God's Faithfulness Includes Punishment
The lament of Jeremiah is a response to the fulfillment of Deut. 28. When God brought His people out of Egypt and formed them into a nation, He promised to be faithful to them. His promises included blessing if they followed Him (Deut. 28:1-14) and curses if they rejected Him (Deut. 28:15-68). The experience of punishment at the hand of Babylon was predicted in detail in Deut. 28:49-50, 52: “The Lord will send a people against you from afar, from the ends of the earth: a people whose language you do not understand will swoop down like an eagle, an insolent people who will not respect the old man and will not spare the young man... and will oppress you in all your dwellings. yours, until throughout all your land your high and strong walls in which you trusted are destroyed; and he will oppress you in all your dwellings, in all your land which the Lord God has given you.” Lamentation of Jer. 2:17 recognizes that the punishment experienced by God's people was the fulfillment of the Lord's promise. “The Lord has done what He has determined, He has fulfilled His word spoken in ancient days, He has destroyed without mercy and made the enemy rejoice over you, He has lifted up the horn of your enemies.” Even in the midst of deep pain and despair, the sufferers recognized that the punishment was from the Lord (see also Lamentations 3:43-48).
Throughout the book the people acknowledged their sin (1:22, 2:14, 3:39-42, 4:13). These sins included injustice as well as following false prophets (2:14), prophets who claimed to speak for God but in reality gave a sense of false security while the true God was preparing punishment. These prophets did not adequately warn God's people about the consequences of sin. Lamentation of Jer. 2:6-7 describes a clear covenantal form of discipline for God's people. As part of His covenant blessing, the Lord gave His people a king to rule over the people, priests to worship, a Temple where they could come into God's presence, and feasts to celebrate God's goodness. Now all this was destroyed - a sign of God's punishment. The people were sent into physical and spiritual captivity. The Lamentations of Jeremiah mention five times captivity, the removal of God's people from the land God had given them. All the pain and suffering God's people experienced was a direct result of the Lord's punishment at the hands of the Babylonian people. God was faithful to His promise to discipline His children.
God is merciful and faithful even when he punishes
The center of the book is Lamentations 3:22-33. Here, the writer expresses his confidence in God's goodness, faithfulness and compassion even in the midst of punishment. The author is able to recognize a theological truth that he believes in his mind, but has difficulty believing in his heart. When punishing, God is not cruel or capricious. He is still merciful and forgiving. His compassion freed us from the full measure of His wrath and reversed our sentence. Grace allowed Him to look at us with grace and forgiveness, not just anger. Although the greatest example of this is revealed with the coming of Christ in the New Testament. The principles of grace and mercy are demonstrated throughout the Old Testament. The author further acknowledges that one must accept punishment because it is from the hand of the Lord and patiently wait for God's salvation. Those who believe in the Lord, even in the process of purification, will be restored. The time of punishment will not last forever, but will be shortened due to God's mercy. Because God's ultimate goal for His children is forgiveness and restoration. “For His anger is but a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime: mourning may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 29:6).
How can we apply this section of God's word to our lives today? First, we can understand how to pour out our pain and anguish before the Lord. It does not matter whether we suffer under unjust circumstances or because of our stubbornness and sin. When we experience a devastating loss, we have the privilege of turning to the Lord our Father and crying out our pain and asking Him for deliverance. In fact, we must come to Him first in every crisis. Second, we see that God is merciful and faithful, even in times of punishment. Although many people had abusive and reckless fathers who caused them to suffer inappropriate punishment, our Heavenly Father is loving and just and He will discipline us to teach us godliness and love. There is a purpose in everything He does. Third, we can see that even in terrible circumstances of suffering, God is still with His people. He promises an end to suffering and final salvation for His people. Even if our suffering lasts our entire life or even more than 400 years, God is still working to bring salvation and mercy. He is worthy of our trust even when we do not understand His actions in the present. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).”
Structure
The Lamentations of Jeremiah consists of 5 lament poems corresponding to the five chapters of the book. The first four are acrostics, that is, verses in which each line begins with a corresponding letter of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet. In Chapter 3, each letter of the alphabet begins not one, but three verses. The last chapter imitates the form of an acrostic poem, as it contains 22 lines, but is not actually one. The literary purpose of such a psalm is to impart a sense of completion. Thus, the poem speaks specifically about the issue it addresses. Therefore, each chapter of Lamentations describes the fullness of regret and pain experienced by those who saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the removal of the inhabitants from their land. All five poems are different from each other, but at the same time they form a single whole, and their main part of the central psalm is the most important. Excerpt from Lamentations Jer. 3:23-33 contains the greatest assurance of God's goodness and compassion of any book.
- Destruction of Jerusalem 1
- Wrath of God 2
- God's Compassion 3
- Punishment results 4
- Prayer of God's People 5
Bible Study Questions on Lamentations
1. The Lamentations of Jeremiah - a reflection on the terrible punishment of God's people revealed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians in 587 BC. Why was this event so terrible for God's people? What does this event mean? Read in Jer. 52 about the details of the event.
2. What God promised in Deut. 28:1-6? What God promised in Deut. 28:15-19, 49-52? Why do you think God made these promises? Was He true to His promises?
3. How God's punishment is expressed in Lamentations Jer. 1:10 and 2:6-7? What is the literal and symbolic meaning behind these actions? What is ironic about God allowing foreigners to desecrate the temple and neglect God's festivals and holy days? (What have God's people been doing for centuries?) What ironic punishment might God give us today with a similar effect?
4. What suffering did the people experience during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, according to Lamentations Jer. 2:11-13? Have you ever experienced loss and pain like this?
5. The Bible uses the psalms of lament to teach us how to cry out to God in deep pain and ask for His intervention, even when we do not understand the circumstances of our lives or are to blame for what is happening. What is the difference between healthy crying to God and unhealthy complaining or complaining to God?
6. Why was Jerusalem punished according to 1:22, 2:14 and 3:39-42? When you know that what happened was your fault, is it easier or more difficult to cope with severe pain? Was God fair in punishing them so severely for their sins?
7. What key truth is affirmed in the central passage of the central lament in 3:22-27? In your opinion, how could a person make such a statement while experiencing such severe suffering? Is such confidence in God available to those who are seriously suffering today? What does 3:32-33 add to our understanding of God's presence in the midst of our suffering?
8. The fifth chapter is the final prayer of lamentation before God. How do you understand 5:19-22? What is your understanding of the historical significance of 5:22? Has God rejected His people and become extremely angry with them? Have you ever felt that God has rejected you beyond measure? How does Jesus' ministry on the cross affect how we read these verses and pray similar prayers?