I. INTRODUCTION
Lamentations 5 is the last
and the shortest among the five laments composed in a book known by its first
Hebrew word ‘ekah in its first, second and fourth laments. ‘ekah is an
exclamatory meaning ‘How!’ or “Alas!”[1],
and is a standard opening word in funeral songs or dirges expressing lament or
desperation.[2]
The book is further recognized as qinot, megillat qinot or seper qinot in the rabbinic
literature, e.g. the Talmud. The Masoretic Text places it in the Writings/Ketubim
whereas Hebrew practice puts it among the Megillot or the five liturgical
scrolls.
The LXX entitles the laments
“Threnoi” or “Wailings”, and the Vulgate adds a sub-title “Id est Lamentationes
Jeremiae Prophetae”[3],
explicitly accrediting its author to be Jeremiah who was an eyewitness for the
fall of Jerusalem. While Herman von der Haardt, the first commentator who refuted
the idea of Jeremiah being the writer after discovering some contradictions,
inconsistencies and differences found between Jeremiah and Lamentations, has
gained his great support by many subsequent scholars, Septuagint, Syriac, Old
Latin and Vulgate, and Targum still similarly and widely ascribe the book to
Jeremiah,[4] for
Jeremiah was perceived to be the lament composer for Josiah (2 Chronicles
35:25), and he did wail and mourn over the imminent fall of the nation. The later
scholarly supports show that both Jeremiah and Lamentations do possess some similar
theological and linguistic approaches.
Jewish tradition adopts the
custom of reading Lamentations on the ninth of Ab, commemorating five
calamities experienced by the Jews inclusive of the destruction of the First
and the Second Temples. Christians recite Lamentations selectively during the
Holy Weeks services of Tenebrae and Good Friday liturgies[5].
II. BACKGROUND
Destruction of Jerusalem was
a culminated event caused by the rebellious and unrepentant people of Judah, warned
by the Old Testament prophets, which leaves a vivid residual mark on all the subsequent
biblical literatures[6].
Lamentations is a poetic literature most probably written by an eyewitness in
Palestine shortly after the fall of Jerusalem (generally agreed as between 587B.C.
to 538B.C.)[7],
or the exilic period before constructing the Second Temple. The residences of
Jerusalem in Lamentations are regarded as ‘the poorest of the land’ since the
elites have been deported as the exiled[8].
In the ancient Near East,
lament over a destroyed city was a common genre and occurrence. There are many
similarities and common artistic forms of expressing grief, rage and protest
between these city laments and Lamentations, and the later has indeed
transferred the city’s patron goddess to the personified of Jerusalem[9].
The poet’s feeling and
concerns linger around the horrific event he has encountered and witnessed. It is
a big catastrophic occurrence and the pains of the city are made known through
four voices, e.g., the narrator, Daughter Zion, the strongman and the community[10]. Lamentations
5 represents the communal voice of the city after much sorrows and heartaches, is
now pleading for God’s mercy to restore the ruins and the broken relationship. It
ends with a question mark failing to provide comfort the four voices have sought
throughout the book.
III. FORM
& STRUCTURE ANALYSIS
Lamentations 5 is more of a
communal or a national (the speaker appeared as the first or second person
plural forms) prayer to God than a dirge, with the Vulgate bearing a title
called “A prayer (oratio) of the prophet Jeremiah”[11],
and Berlin refers it to “resemble in part the communal laments in Psalms (e.g. Psalms
44 & 80) and shares some traits with penitential prayers of the Second
Temple period”[12].
Community laments are composed by Israelites as a national plea to God for
mercy during some great national distresses[13].
22 lines or verses in the
chapter represent the complete Hebrew alphabetical letters, and most of these
consist pairs of three-beat lines where the second stands in parallelism with
the first, except three[14]. The
poem begins and ends with a petition, “Remember, Lord” in verse 1 and “Restore
us,…Lord” in verse 21[15],
though the petitions seems to fade away in a weakened voice. The poem is full
of rhymes and assonance, and out of the 134 Hebrew words, 65 end in either –u
or –m[16].
This poem differs from the
previous four in form and in rhythm. The absence of an acrostic arrangement
suggesting a deliberate intention of the author to demonstrate a sense of chaos
and disorder, and its shortened content speaks of a depletion of hope and
strength[17].
It is dominated by a single community voice addressing to Yahweh alone in
petitions, whereas there are different voices interchangeable in other chapters[18].
It contains elements of a complaint over misfortune, a petition asking God for
a change in situation and a self-reproach for the root-causes of their experienced
calamity[19].
Commentators
have well divided this chapter into three sections: an appeal to Yahweh to look
and see for their disgraces (v1), a description of the disgrace Yahweh must see
(v2-18), and a plea for a restoration to receive God’s favor (v19-22)[20].
IV. EXEGESIS OF LAMENTATIONS 5:1-22 (IN GOD WE TRUST)
Lamentations 5:1-22 seems to
exert the last ounce of strength and hope in urging God after four long
sessions of lament. It demonstrates an exhaustive yet persistent heart of those
in pains, by putting their full trust in God knowing that their ultimate source
of rescue comes from God alone. They implore God’s intervention in their
situation, iterate all the shames and pains suffered, and insist that He is the
only critical determinant for a reversal of their adversity.
1. IMPLORING
GOD’S INTERVENTION (V1)
V1：Remember, Lord, what has happened to us; look and see
our disgrace
The verse starts with a plea
from the community asking God to “Remember” (זָכַר,
zakar), a verb involves more than recalling of the facts but a request for not
forgetting or an action to be done[21] about
the happenings (הָיָה, hayah) affecting one’s current emotions and feelings.
“Behold or look” (נָבַט, nabat) implies an intentional and attentive gaze by looking at
something with pleasure or favor. The community is pleading for God’s intention
and favor which seem to be lost. “See” (רָאָה,
raah) is an action exposing the devastated city before God.
“Disgrace” or “reproach” (חֶרְפָּה, cherpah) means contempt or taunt of
the enemies causing shame and humiliation. The disgraces suffered are further
elaborated in verses 2-18.
2. ITERATING PAINS & SUFFERINGS (V2-18)
Laments in verses 2-18 are
repeated conditions mourned in the last four chapters. The passage displays a
wounded community revisiting their sufferings and pains again and again. Modified
from Berlin’s, I further subdivide this passage into three descriptions, e.g.
an economic and physical impoverishment (v2-10), a social humiliation &
degradation (v11-14) and a religious & political disintegration (v15-18)[22].
2.1 AN ECONOMIC & PHYSICAL IMPOVERISHMENT (V2-10)
V2 Our
inheritance has been turned over
to strangers, our homes to
foreigners.
“Inheritance” (נַחֲלָה, nachalah) is
possession or property occupied and owned by Israelites distributed by God to
the twelve tribes upon their conquest over the land of Canaan. Land signifies a
blessing in the Abrahamic covenantal relationship, and a loss of land might
represent a loss of evidence for Israelites to be identified as a blessed people
of God.
“Homes” (בָּ֫יִת, bayith) refers to
residential houses or dwelling habitation belonged to the people of the land. Both
these inheritance and homes are lost to the strangers and foreigners.
V3
We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows.
The enemy has afflicted the nation that the
remnants loss their familiar love and the children become “fatherless”. The
death of a husband/father denotes a loss in the family income too. “Father’ is referred
either to a biological father slaughtered, or King Zedekiah the exiled
political father, or ultimately Yahweh their departed spiritual Father, for
Psalmists call the merciful God as “Father of the fatherless and the protector
of widows” [23].
Yahweh is honoured as the spiritual Father and
Husband over Judah. Thus the women in Jerusalem did suffer the pain of her widowhood
with the demise of her husband when the glory of God departs.
V4 We
must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.
Resources like water and wood were once their
economic possessions but they have to purchase these now. “Pay” (כָּ֫סֶפ, keseph) means silver or money whereas ‘price” (מְחִיר, mechir) may indicate some unreasonably high or
oppressive rates, related to price paid for the wicked activity in the Old
Testament[24]. The remnants in
Jerusalem are mostly poor farmers retained by the Babylonians to tend their
plantings, and they are not affordable to purchase enough water and wood for
their consumption.
People
are desperate in need of the water and the wood, because it will be unbearable
and critically miserable to go through the hot summer with scarcity of water
and cold winter without burning wood[25].
V5
Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest.
“Heels” originally means neck (צַוָּר, tsavvar). The verse probably refers to the enslavement from the
enemies causing the people to be worn out (יָגַ,yaga) by hard labours . They are restless in the land presumed to be their
permanent settlement with a promised rest (נ֫וּחַ, nuach) from God.
V6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get
enough bread.
“Submitted” (נָתַן, Nathan) means give, and giving one’s hand (יָ,yad)
denotes one’s surrender and submission. This is a controversial verse as some
refer it to the nation’s previous or existing alliance with Egypt during the
famine (e.g. through voluntary exile recorded in Jeremiah), but deny any
possibility of alliance with Assyria.
Assyria and Egypt are connected to the
worship of Baal, the fertility gods of nature, over the land of Judah before
its fall. Israel is guilty of entering a spiritual alliance with these nations
and they are reaping their bitter fruits now[26].
These nations are used in geographical sense covering the west and the east too[27].
V7 Our ancestors sinned and are no more, and we bear
their punishment.
The community complains about their undeserved
pains and sufferings, for they are innocent but bearers of heavy loads because
of their ancestors’ sins. Comparing to their confession of sins previously, their
denial could be birthed out of their utter disappointment and emotional
instability.
V8
Slaves rule over us, and there is
no one to free us from their hands.
“Slaves” or “servants” refer to those appointed
governors (either Babylonians, or Israelites, or people of other nations) who
work under the Babylonian authorities. They could be people whom Judah ruled
before her fall (e.g. Edomites). From being a suzerain, Judah turns to be a
vassal and ruled by others who used to succumb under her. She has lost both her
Lord and her King, and has no one to deliver her from her bondages.
V9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives
because of the sword in the desert.
“Sword” is interpreted
either as “famine” or “violence” due to a lack of law and order in the society.
Basically the people have to risk their lives to get the bread (לָ֫חֶם, lechem). The once crowded city is figuratively described as a
desert (מִדְבָּר, midbar), a wilderness or an uninhabited land.
V10 Our
skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger.
“Feverish” (זִלְעָפוֹת, zalaphah), means at a burning or a terrible
state. “Our skin is hot as an oven” may suggest some skin diseases causing the
heat and these diseases are widely spread during the famine or war times.
2.2 A
SOCIAL HUMILIATIN & DEGRADATION (V11-14)
The captors of Judah have disrupted the normal
routines of daily life and the situation reflects the judgment of God Jeremiah
has warned against the people of Judah who are stick-necked and without
repentance[28].
V11 Women have been violated in Zion, and virgins in the towns of
Judah.
Under the rule of the oppressors or
conquerors, both the married wives, the women (נָשִׁים, ishshah) or the unmarried
young ladies, the virgins (בְּתוּלָה, bethulah) are alike and they share a
common fate of being violated (עָנָה, anah), defiled, abased, afflicted
sexually, or humbled by cohabitation. Women tend to be under sexual
exploitation whenever a nation is defeated by her enemies.
V12 Princes have been hung up by their hands;
elders are shown no respect.
Princes (שָׂר, sar) are Judean rulers,
leaders or officials, and elders (זָקֵן, zaqen) are some aged or senior
citizens of a city holding their honourable and reputable positions well-accepted
by all. They are either executed or being disfavoured. They lost their social
privilege and end up miserably.
V13 Young men toil at the millstones; boys
stagger under loads of wood.
The younger generation suffers as forced
labourers under the hands of their enemies. Young men (בָּחוּר, bachur) are choice or vigorous, implying that they are
strong and healthy. Boys (נַ֫עַר,
naar) range from the age of infancy to adolescence. Their
“grinding” at a corn mill are assigned tasks reserved only for slaves or
animals[29].
V14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the
young men have stopped their music.
City gate is an open square, a place of assembly and
a seat of government[30],
where elders would be there functioning as judges. Music is associated with
celebrative mood and festivals. Yet all these normal activities used to be
carried out actively, now cease.
2.3 A RELIGIOUS
& POLITICAL DISINTEGRATION (V15-18)
V15 Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has
turned to mourning.
Joy (מָשׂוֹשׂ, masos), rejoice or delight, together with dancing are related to a ritual
experience in the presence of God, while mourning is a state in the absence of
God[31].
Biblical records show a connection
between the rejoicing of God’s people receiving God’s favour, and disheartened or
mourning when God is not in their midst. The celebrations cease because
Jerusalem is without God’s presence to rejoice over, and the people are
literally experiencing a spiritual vacuum.
V16 The crown has
fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Crown (עֲטָרָה, atarah) or wreath refers figuratively as honour, or physically as crown wore
by a king. The king of Judah is deprived of his Davidic kingship and his throne.
The nation has lost its honourable position. Zion the holy mountain, Jerusalem the
holy city and the Temple the holy sanctuary for God’s people, have been
deprived of their glory.
Woe or alas (אוֹי, oy)
carries with it an impassioned expression of grief and despair. The community
discover once again their own sinfulness.
V17 Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our
eyes grow dim
Faint (דָּוֶה, daveh) means feeling unwell or sick. “Because of this or because of these
things” are rebellious and sinful acts of Israelites and those severe
consequences encountered by them. Eyes are darkened, and figuratively their
sights are obscure or confused because of the hopeless situation where light is
seen dimmer and dimmer.
V18 for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, with jackals
prowling over it.
Mount Zion was once occupied by human activities
because of the temple rituals and celebrations, now it is laid desolate (שָׁמֵם, shamem) and the devastation is so heavy that jackals are haunting
ruins and prowling over it[32].
Jackals are foxes representing curses in the ancient Near Easterners’ belief[33].
God’s dwelling becomes a cursed place proven by its massive destruction.
3. INSISTING
A RESTORATION FROM GOD (V19-22)
V19
You, Lord, reign forever; your throne
endures from generation to
generation.
Reign (יָשַׁב, yashab) means inhabitants, to sit, dwell, remain or
to rule. The community acknowledge the eternity and sovereignty of God that His
heavenly throne (כִּסֵּא, kisse), stool or seat lasts forever even though His
footstool, the Temple is destroyed. They are awakened and learn to place their
faith on God instead of the Temple and the priesthood system.
V20
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long?
The Hebrew interrogative word מָה (mah) means what, how or anything, and is
translated as “why” here. The community sink back to their despair and question
God the reasons they are forgotten and forsaken. They are puzzled by their emotional
pains issuing yet another question mark waiting for an audible voice of God who
have remained indifferent and silent to their plight throughout the laments.
V21
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew
our days as of old,
Requests are presented by the community, asking
God to restore them and to renew them. The root word for “restore” and “return”
is שׁוּ (shub). They understand their weaknesses
and inability to do so with their own strength and thus insist God shall
initiate a restoration for them to return to Him. It is a prayer for renewal of
the legal and loving covenant between God and His people, between the father
and his child, and between the bridegroom and his bride[34].
V22
unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.
כִּ (ki) could be translated as for, because,
when and unless etc. An interrogative ending states the impossibility for God
to utterly reject His people with his immeasurable anger[35]!
Jewish rabbis understand verse 22 to sound dull
and sad, thus they will repeat verse 21 after recitation of 5:1-22, to end the
book with a more positive and hopeful note[36].
V. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
The main theological thought
throughout Lamentations 5 is the recognition of the sovereignty of God amidst
the sufferings and lost. The community is persistent in pleading for God’s
mercy and intervention, to trust God to restore and to renew even God has been
silent since the beginning to the very end (v1 and v21-22).
The Lamentations does not
intend to provide answers to questions raised by the sufferers, but to express
and describe individual or corporate wounds as a way to release their pains. The
best way of dealing with pains and losses is to be assured that God is aware of
our predicaments though we might not receive His imminent helps.
Even there are endless
sufferings, hope is instilled when one lifts up his faith to God. Lamentations
5 encourages us to rely on the grace of God, as disastrous hours though
unexpected, are sometimes part and parcel of our earthly life.
VI. CONCLUSION
Lamentations 5 presents a
comprehensive picture of a city or a people of God who have mourned through and
prayed through during their darkest moment of life, exhibiting the complete
disgrace and humiliation the nation and the people have suffered through
physically, emotionally, economically, socially and spiritually.
We can conclude with Kaiser that
it is indeed a good pastoral passage for us to learn to cope with grief, to
take suffering personally, to find hope in adversity, to put a name to pain and
to remember God’s sovereign control over our lives and circumstances[37].
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berlin, Adele. Lamentations.
Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.
Bracke, John M. Jeremiah 30-52 and Lamentations. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox
Press, 2000.
Davidson, Robert. Jeremiah &
Lamentations: The Daily Study Bible Series. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 1985.
Dearman, J. Andrew. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2002.
Gaebelein, Frank
E. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan
Publishing
House, 1986.
Garrett, Duane & Paul R. House. Word
Biblical Commentary: Song of Songs/Lamentations.
Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004.
Harmon, Nolan B. The Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in
Twelve Volumes. Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1956.
Harrison,
R.K. Jeremiah & Lamentations: An Introduction & Commentary. Downers
Grove:
Inter-Varsity Press, 1973.
Huett, Jr., F.B. The New American Commentary: Jeremiah/Lamentations: An
Exegetical and
Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture. Nashville:
B&H Publishing Group, 1993.
Kaiser, Jr., Walter C. A Biblical Approach to Personal Suffering.
Chicago: Moody Press,
1982.
Keck,
Leander E., Ed. The New Interpreter’s
Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Kuist,
Howard Tillman. The Layman’s Bible Commentary. Translator: Deng Jia Wan &
Du
Zhi Wei. Taipei: Ren Guang
Publisher, 2002.
Loke, Y.F, Anthony. Lamentations Made Simple. Petaling Jaya:
Pustaka Sufes Sdn. Bhd.,
2012.
Re’emi,
S. Paul. Amos and Lamentations: God’s
People in Crisis. Grand Rapids: WM.B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984.
Tang, Y.C., Samuel. Lamentations: Tien Dao Bible Commentary. Kowloon:
Tien Dao
Publishing House, Ltd, 1995.
[1] Walter C.
Kaiser, Jr., A Biblical Approach to
Personal Suffering (Chicago: Moody Press, 1982), 30.
[3] Samuel
Y.C. Tang, Lamentations: Tien Dao Bible
Commentary (Kowloon: Tien Dao Publishing House, Ltd, 1995), 2.
[4] Nolan B.
Harmon, The Interpreter’s Bible: A
Commentary in Twelve Volumes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956), 4.
[5] Leander E. Keck, The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1994), 1017.
[8] S. Paul Re’emi, Amos and Lamentations: God’s People in
Crisis (Grand Rapids: WM.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 76.
[11] Nolan B. Harmon, The Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary of
Twelve Volumes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956), 35.
[12] Duane
Garrett & Paul R. House, Word
Biblical Commentary: Song of Songs/Lamentations (Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 2004), 456
[13] Re’emi, Amos and Lamentations: God’s People in Crisis, 127.
[14] Frank E. Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 697.
[16] Ibid, 110.
[17] Loke, Lamentations Made Simple, 35 & 85.
[20] Keck, The New Interpreter’s
Bible, 1067 & Garrett, Word
Biblical Commentary: Song of Songs/Lamentations, 455.
[23]
Garrett, Word Biblical Commentary:
Song of Songs/Lamentations, 460 & Re’emi,
Amos and Lamentations: God’s People in
Crisis, 1290.
[28] John M. Bracke, Jeremiah 30-52 and Lamentations
(Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 238.
[35] Kaiser, A Biblical Approach to Personal Suffering, 119.
[36] Robert
Davidson, Jeremiah & Lamentations:
The Daily Study Bible Series (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
1985), 213.
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