Jeremiah bewails the ruin of Jerusalem

Qinoth or kinoth in Hebrew, (קינות‎;), and in the Vulgate "Threni." In his Preface to his translation of Jeremiah, St. Jerome thus describes the Book of Lamentations:

"He (Jeremiah) bewailed the ruin of his city in a fourfold alphabet which we have restored to the measure of metre and to verses."

Structure of Lamentations

The first four chapters are acrostics, each verse in chapters 1, 2, and 4 commence with the consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, as is the case with certain Psalms. Chapter 3 presents a more complicated acrostic, for each set of three verses begin with a fresh letter of the alphabet. Chapter 5 contains twenty-two verses, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but is not constructed as an acrostic, it is the Prayer of Jeremiah.

Contents of Lamentations

1:1-11. The poet describes the state of the fallen city.

1:12-22. He weeps over the ruin of Jerusalem.

2:1-10. God's destroying wrath is depicted.

2:11-22. He is just, therefore the city must repent.

3:1-18. Speaking in the person of the outcast people he laments their calamities.

3:19-39. He turns himself to God his Redeemer.

3:40-66. His absolute trust in God.

4:1-11. Their sins are the cause of this destruction; how blessed they were before they fell!

4:12-22. Yet the Nations and especially Edom shall reap their due meed of punishment.

5:1-22. The Prophet's prayer for his people.

In the Greek text we have a short preface; it is generally given in the Douay Bibles, but with a note saying that it is not part of Sacred Scripture. It does not appear in the Vulgate. In this preface the received opinion is stated, viz. that these Lamentations were composed by Jeremiah after the people had been carried into captivity. But Josephus has preserved another tradition, viz. that the Lamentations were composed by Jeremiah after the death of Josias in 608 B.C.

This opinion is no doubt based on II Paralipomenon 35:25, and it has been accepted by some of the Fathers in consequence. But it is clear that the state of things described in Lamentations in no sense accords with the circumstances of Josias death. That Jeremiah was the author can hardly be doubted; the strain throughout is remarkably similar to that of many passages in his prophecy, and many verses in Lamentations find their almost exact parallel in the prophecy, e.g.:

• Lamentations 1:2, and Jeremiah 13:17;
  
• Lamentations 1:16, and Jeremiah 14:17;
  cf. also
  
• Lamentations 2:18, 3:14, and Jeremiah 20:7;
  
• Lamentations 3:52-54, and Jeremiah 38:6.

Lamentations' Place in the Canon

Lamentations is rarely named in the Ecclesiastical lists, it finds no place, for instance, in those furnished by the Councils of Florence and Trent. In the present printed Hebrew Bibles it is placed among the Hagiographa for liturgical reasons; but originally it stood immediately after Jeremiah, as Origen, St. Hilary, and St. Jerome, bear witness. The Hebrews counted as many Books of the Bible as there were letters in the Hebrew alphabet, viz. twenty-two; thus St. Jerome says in Prol. Galeatus:

"So there are twenty-two Books of the Old Law; i.e. five of Moses, eight of the Prophets, nine of the Hagiographa. Some, however, place Ruth and Lamentations among the Hagiographa and account these books as among the number of these latter; and thus they say there are twenty-four Books of the Old Law."

It is owing to this custom of attaching Lamentations to Jeremiah that its name is wanting in some lists.


by
Very Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., S.T.M.
Doctor in Sacred Scripture,
Member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, and
late Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Collegio Angelico, Rome.