Lamentations of Jeremiah
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Smith's Bible Dictionary
Lamentations of Jeremiah

Title. --The Hebrew title of this book, Ecah , is taken, like the titles of the five books of Moses, from the Hebrew word with which it opens. Author. --The poems included in this collection appear in the Hebrew canon with no name attached to them, but Jeremiah has been almost universally regarded as their author. Date. --The poems belong unmistakably to the last days of the kingdom, or the commencement of the exile, B.C. 629-586. They are written by one who speaks, with the vividness and intensity of an eye-witness, of the misery which he bewails. Contents. --The book consists of five chapter, each of which, however, is a separate poem, complete in itself, and having a distinct subject, but brought at the same time under a plan which includes them all. A complicated alphabetic structure pervades nearly the whole book. (1) Chs. 1,2 and 4 contain twenty-two verses each, arranged in alphabetic order, each verse falling into three nearly balanced clauses; ch. (Lamentations 2:19) forms an exception, as having a fourth clause. (2) Ch. 3 contains three short verses under each letter of the alphabet, the initial letter being three times repeated. (3) Ch. 5 contains the same number of verses as chs. 1,2,4, but without the alphabetic order. Jeremiah was not merely a patriot-poet, weeping over the ruin of his country; he was a prophet who had seen all this coming, and had foretold it as inevitable. There are perhaps few portions of the Old Testament which appear to have done the work they were meant to do more effectually than this. The book has supplied thousands with the fullest utterance for their sorrows in the critical periods of national or individual suffering. We may well believe that it soothed the weary years of the Babylonian exile. It enters largely into the order of the Latin Church for the services of passion-week. On the ninth day of the month of Ab (July-August), the Lamentations of Jeremiah were read, year by year, with fasting and weeping, to commemorate the misery out of which the people had been delivered.

ATS Bible Dictionary
Lamentations of Jeremiah

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 LETTERS. The style of Jeremiah's Lamentations is lively, tender, pathetic, and affecting. It was the talent of this prophet to write melancholy and moving elegies, 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.

Library

Lamentations
... Unlike the Greek and the English Bible, the Hebrew Bible does not place the
Lamentations immediately after Jeremiah but in the third division, among the ...
/.../mcfadyen/introduction to the old testament/lamentations.htm

The Poetical Books.
... It is called in our version "The Lamentations of Jeremiah." This title preserves
the ancient tradition, and there is no reason to doubt that the tradition ...
/.../gladden/who wrote the bible/chapter vii the poetical books.htm

Jeremiah and Lamentations.
... A MANUAL. For the Outline Study of the Bible by Books. * * * * Chapter XVI. Jeremiah
and Lamentations. Chapter XVI. Jeremiah and Lamentations. The Author. ...
/.../chapter xvi jeremiah and lamentations.htm

Number and Order of the Separate Books.
... teachers of the Greek Church, and is even in Nicephorus's stichometry.(83) The
enumeration in question has Ruth with Judges, and Lamentations with Jeremiah. ...
/.../davidson/the canon of the bible/chapter iv number and order.htm

The Manner in which Josephus Mentions the Divine Books.
... 13. Isaiah. 14. Jeremiah and Lamentations. 15. Ezekiel. 16. Daniel. 17. ... The number
twenty-two was gained by adding Ruth to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah. ...
/.../pamphilius/church history/chapter x the manner in which.htm

The Books of Samuel and Kings.
... The Lamentations of Jeremiah, and his Prayer, the Proverbs of Solomon also, towards
the end, from the place where we read "Who will find a brave woman?" are ...
/.../jerome/the principal works of st jerome/the books of samuel and.htm

The Order of the Books
... the illustration of prophetic principles; it raises a high probability that Ruth
ought not to be taken with Judges, nor Lamentations with Jeremiah, nor Daniel ...
/.../mcfadyen/introduction to the old testament/the order of the books.htm

The Objection from the Unchangeableness of God is Answered from ...
... Who hath not humbled from His whole heart nor cast off the children of men." [2943]
This passage we certainly find in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and from it ...
/.../ambrose/works and letters of st ambrose/chapter v the objection from.htm

Names and External Form of the Old Testament
... The Greater Prophets, with Lamentations after Jeremiah and Daniel after Ezekiel,
are inserted before the twelve Minor Prophets, which last stand in the order ...
/.../barrows/companion to the bible/chapter xiii names and external.htm

Jeremiah
... my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against
him, and we shall take our revenge on him." Lamentations 3:14; Jeremiah 20:7 ...
/.../white/the story of prophets and kings/chapter 34 jeremiah.htm

Subtopics

Lamentations

Lamentations of David

Lamentations of Ezekiel

Lamentations of Jeremiah

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