Lamentations

Jeremiah probably wrote Lamentations after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. It consists of five poems that graphically describe the sorrow of the people of Judah.

The first four chapters are written in the acrostic form. Each has twenty-two sections beginning with a consecutive letter of the alphabet. Chapter three is the most complex consisting of sixty-six verses divided into twenty-two sections of three lines with each line beginning with another letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This chapter also contains the hope of God’s compassion (3.3). 

Chapter four begins as an acrostic, but the structure collapses at verse sixteen. The fifth chapter is a prayer, and it is not in the acrostic form. This might illustrated the disorder and destruction of Jerusalem. 

Simple Outline

Chapter One: The Personal Suffering of Jeremiah and the People
Chapter Two: The Lord’s Punishment
Chapter Three: The Limits of Man and the Compassion of God
Chapter Four: The Glory of Zion Falls
Chapter Five: Jeremiah's Prayer of Repentance

Chapter Summaries

01) Chapters 1, 2 & 4 begin with the word “How?” The destruction and desolation of Jerusalem was so bad, it was beyond understanding. Jeremiah compared the former splendor with the disaster that followed the Babylonian attack. He also stresses that this disaster was punishment for sin. 

02) This chapter especially stresses that God’s wrath was poured out on Judah and Jerusalem. The destruction and devastation was so bad that mothers even ate their children (v. 20). 

03) Like chapters 1-2 & 4, this chapter is an acrostic poem with each verse starting with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in this chapter there are three verses for each Hebrew letter. It begins with Jeremiah saying that he personally suffered in this destruction. Later in the chapter he expands it to others from by switching to the the plural, “we.” Despite the severity of God’s wrath, Jeremiah especially stresses that God is still merciful, and that Judah is not totally consumed. They could still hope in God! 

04) This chapter starts as an acrostic, but at verse sixteen it stops. It’s almost as if Jeremiah uses the structure to show the collapse of Zion. 

05) In this chapter Jeremiah shows the proper response to this judgment: Repentance. Verse twenty-one is very similar to Jeremiah 31.18 “Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned…”