Major Prophets · Old Testament
Lamentations
586 BC
- Section
- Major Prophets · Old Testament
- Events span
- 586 BC
- Written
- c. 586 BC critical view: c. 586–520 BC
- Author
- Jeremiah critical view: Anonymous poet(s)
Lamentations is five poems of grief over the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC — raw laments for a ruined city and a suffering people. Yet at its very center shines hope: God's mercies are new every morning.
Key themes
- Grief over Jerusalem's fall
- The consequences of sin
- God's righteous judgment
- Hope in God's mercy
- Waiting on the LORD
The five laments
- The city sits desolate and alone, weeping, her people carried into exile
- The LORD, like an enemy, has poured out his fierce anger on Zion for her sins
- Amid the suffering the prophet finds hope: God's mercies are new every morning
- The horrors of the siege are recalled — even the compassionate went hungry
- A closing prayer: "Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD… renew our days"
“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”