Book introduction
The book of Lamentations
Lamentations is five poems of grief over Jerusalem after Babylon destroyed it in 586 BC. In the middle of the darkness comes one of the Bible’s best-known lines of hope: God’s mercies are new every morning.
Read Lamentations 3Start at chapter 1
Who wrote Lamentations?
The poems are unsigned. Tradition credits Jeremiah. Many scholars think they come from one or more poets who saw the fall.
When was it written?
Written soon after 586 BC.
Main themes
- Grief brought to God
- Loss is named in full, not hurried past.
- Sin and judgment
- The poems admit why the city fell.
- Hope in God’s faithfulness
- Chapter 3 turns on God’s steadfast love.
Outline of Lamentations
Key verses
Yahweh’s steadfast love is why we have not perished; his compassions have not run dry. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Yahweh is good to those who look to him in hope, to the person who seeks him out.
Bring us back to yourself, Yahweh, so that we may return; renew our days as in the past,
Quoted from the Lumin Translation.
Where to start
Chapter 3 is the center. Chapters 1–4 are acrostics, built on the Hebrew alphabet.
Ask about this book
Questions about Lamentations?
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