BibleProject | One Story That Leads to Jesusનમૂનો

Yesterday’s Song of Songs reading landed in a peaceful garden: doves cooing, flowers blooming, lovers swooning. Today—not so much. The book of Lamentations takes us around to the other, darker side of life’s coin.

We’re immediately introduced to an image of the once-majestic Jerusalem in ruins, walls pockmarked with holes, streets spattered with bloodstains. Courtyards once bustling with life lie crumbled and abandoned. Only a few gaunt, zombie-like stragglers roam through the charred streets, starving for scraps of food among the rubble.

Hundreds of miles away, the city’s other (now displaced) survivors struggle to make sense of this catastrophe. Polite prayers fall flat under the brutality of war, siege, hunger, looting, and exile. What’s the community supposed to do in this spot? Just keep moving forward and let the past be the past (i.e., bury the pain and look away from it)? Or maybe take the route of accusing God or blaming others for the pain?

The answer is neither. Instead, the survivors lament. They express their pain directly to God, and they do not try to stay positive about it. To lament is to humbly yet freely take raw complaints and expressions of grief to God, the only one who can truly help.

Five lament poems structure the book of Lamentations, each channeling pain, confusion, and grief through creative poetry. In the first poem, the author personifies Jerusalem as an anguished widow named Lady Zion. She weeps bitterly through the night, to no avail. Nobody comes to help.

The second poem focuses on Jerusalem’s devastating experiences in exile, but never blames the Babylonian soldiers responsible for trashing the city and exiling its people. Instead, the poet faults his own people for rejecting Yahweh.

Babylon swung the swords and shed the blood. However, the resulting chaos and death happen when people reject the life-giver, all the way back to Adam and Eve. From the poet’s wider perspective, God’s divine judgment results in Babylon’s crushing attack.

Be forewarned: These poems get intense. The language of grief, like grief itself, is raw and volatile. But even though the content of Lamentations is messy, the form is not. Watch the video to learn about the carefully crafted literary design of the book of Lamentations.

Reflection Questions

• Imagine how it would feel to be an Israelite living in exile after losing your city, your temple, your homeland, and maybe even members of your family. How might the raw honesty of Lamentations help you to process your grief?
• Look up Jeremiah 31:38-40 and compare with Zechariah 1:16. How is a measuring line being used in those passages? How does this compare to the way a measuring line is used in Lamentations 2:8?