Jensens survey of the old testament adam 208
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“Elegies,” this is a title representing the
content of the book and the melancholy
meter of its ve poems. The Qinoth title was
retained in the Greek Bibles, with the Greek
translation Threnoi (“lamentations,” from
threomai, “to cry aloud”). This was carried
over into the Latin Bibles as Liber Threnorum
(“Book of Lamentations”), and thence into
the English Bibles as Lamentations.
B. PLACE IN THE BIBLE
In the threefold Hebrew Bible (Law,
Prophets, Writings), Lamentations appears in
the last part, in a section called Megittoth.
Recall that the Megilloth is a group of ve
Old Testament books which the Jews read
publicly on national holidays. Lamentations
is read on the ninth day of Ab (about midJuly), the anniversary of the destructions of
Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and A.D. 70.
In some ancient versions of the Bible,
Lamentations appeared as an appendix to
Jeremiah, and often was not included in the
listing of the Old Testament books.
In our English Bible, Lamentations very
appropriately follows the book of Jeremiah.
The translators of the Greek Septuagint (100
B.C.), recognizing its Jeremianic authorship,
also placed it here.
C. AUTHOR AND DATE
Lamentations was very likely written soon
after
586 B.C., while memories of the
appalling siege of Jerusalem were still fresh.
Some think that the author wrote chapter 5
a little later than the rst four chapters,
“when the intense anguish of the
catastrophe had given way to the prolonged
ache of captivity.”1
As to authorship, the evidence points
strongly, though not conclusively, to
Jeremiah.2 Such evidence includes the
following:
1. The Septuagint introduction to the book:
“Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented
with this lamentation over Jerusalem,
and said.”
2. Hebrew and Gentile tradition.
3. Similarities between Lamentations and
poetical portions of Jeremiah (cf. also 2
Chron 35:25).3
4. The writer was an eyewitness of
Jerusalem’s destruction, with a
sensitivity of soul (cf. Jer 9:1; 14:17-22),
and ability to write.
D. COMPOSITION AND STYLE
Lamentations is a set of ve elegies
(melancholy poems), the rst four of which
follow an acrostic pattern ( rst letter of
lines, or groups of lines, representing each of
the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew
alphabet).
The poetic meter is described as a limping
meter, with three beats in the rst line
trailing away in a mourning two-beat line.
When publicly read, the chanting of the
Hebrew text gave support to the mood of
the words.
Many poetic styles and devices appear in
these poems. Vivid imagery is perhaps the
most prominent one.
One of the distinctive features of the book
is the acrostic format of chapters 1-4.4 In
chapters 1, 2, and 4, each verse begins with
a word whose rst letter is successively one
of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew
alphabet. chapter 3 has sixty-six verses, each
successive letter of the alphabet having
three verses allotted to it instead of one.
Various views are held as to why the
author used this acrostic device. Among
