On the Book of Lamentations
Comfort and hope in the midst of pain and suffering:
It might be somewhat telling to admit that one of my fav Old Testament books is Lamentations! ‘What,’ you ask, ‘a book filled with lament, misery, hardship, depression and suffering is your fav book?’ OK, so I might have a bit of a melancholic streak, but the book offers us much more than morose ruminations.
I have written pieces before on this short book. See for example these older articles:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/10/22/the-book-of-lamentations/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/12/11/bible-study-helps-lamentations/
Good commentaries on biblical books are always worth being aware of. Because Lamentations is just 5 chapters in length, most commentaries on it are bundled with Jeremiah, as in these volumes:
Dearman, J. Andrew, Jeremiah/Lamentations (NIVAC, 2002)
Guest, John, Jeremiah, Lamentations (MTOT, 1988)
Harrison, R. K., Jeremiah & Lamentations (TOTC, 1973)
Hays, J. Daniel, Jeremiah and Lamentations (TTC, 2016)
Huey, F. B., Jeremiah, Lamentations (NAC, 1993)
Lalleman, Hetty, Jeremiah & Lamentations (TOTC, 2013)
Longman, Tremper, Jeremiah, Lamentations (NIBC, 2008)
Ryken, Philip Graham, Jeremiah & Lamentations (PTW, 2001)
Wilcock, Michael, Jeremiah & Lamentations (Christian Focus, 2013)
If a stand-alone commentary, they can be somewhat brief, as in:
Allen, Leslie, A Liturgy of Grief: A Pastoral Commentary on Lamentations (Baker, 2011) – 195pp
Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W., Lamentations (Int, 2002) – 159pp
Mackay, John, Lamentations (MC, 2008) – 235pp
O’Connor, Kathleen, Lamentations and the Tears of the World – 156pp
Parry, Robin, Lamentations (THOTC, 2010) – 260pp
Provan, Iain, Lamentations (NCB, 1991) – 142pp
Wright, Christopher, The Message of Lamentations (BST, 2015) – 166pp
But here I want to draw your attention to the two newest (and lengthier) volumes, at least from conservative and/or evangelical writers:
-Boda, Mark, Lamentations (BCOTPB, 2026) – 346pp
-Goldingay, John, The Book of Lamentations (NICOT, 2022) – 228pp
Boda, an Old Testament scholar, has already penned various important commentaries:
The Book of Zechariah (NICOT)
Haggai, Zechariah (NIVAC)
With Mary Conway: Judges (ZECOT)
And the other OT scholar, Goldingay, has also written a number of significant commentaries, including:
The Book of Jeremiah (NICOT)
Daniel (WBC)
Genesis (BCOTP)
Hosea–Micah (BCOTPB)
Isaiah (NIBC)
Joshua (BCOTHB)
Psalms, 3 vols. (BCOTWP)
Given that one of my all-time favourite biblical texts is found smack-dab in the middle of Lamentations, I will offer some commentary by both men on it. I refer to Lam. 3:19-27
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
Boda says this in part about this portion of Lamentations:
Lamentations 3 showcases the role of the Prophet within a community struggling with pain. The complexity of human experience is on full display, revealing that coping with moments of suffering cannot be reduced to a single approach but demands sensitivity to the dynamics of both human and divine participants. We have noted a variety of strategies for dealing with pain throughout the chapter….
This pastoral sensitivity displayed in the Prophet is remarkable. Here we find no prophetic caricature delighting to see God strike his people with lightning bolts of divine judgment. Instead, we find one who has lived in the painful fray, as seen in the book of Jeremiah.
He continues:
Walking with those who are experiencing suffering is a challenge in the best of times, but it is a significant part of life in ministry. Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians reflect a pastoral heart that understood the need for different strategies in guiding believers in their relationship with God: “Warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thess. 5:14). The concluding general instruction is a reminder of the need for patience with the uniqueness of each person or group of people in one’s life. People range from idle and disruptive to disheartened to weak—very different conditions that, though perhaps appearing similar on the surface, demand different strategies for care and discipleship. The Prophet figure in Lamentations is dealing with a community encompassing diverse perspectives on the situation, ranging from confrontation (idle, disruptive) to encouragement (disheartened, weak). Lamentations 3 showcases such sensitivity for those dealing with the complexities arising from suffering.…
Lamentations as a whole and chapter 3 in particular provide direction for those who would walk alongside others who suffer. It shows the importance of providing opportunities for those suffering to share their memories and for those who would walk alongside to use their own memories to provide pathways for coping with suffering and emerging from it with hope.
And Goldingay offers these words:
The man’s declaration, the this that makes it possible to avoid giving in to final despair, is that actions that emerge from commitment have meant we have not come to an end and that compassion on Yahweh’s part has not become spent. The logic of the comment is that the fact that we have not come to an end (which is obviously true, otherwise he and the people who read or listen to this poem would not be reading or listening) is evidence that Yahweh has not abandoned his commitment, that his compassion has not become spent. The man is not just making a bold statement of faith; he is making a logical inference from some facts (Tg’s rendering, “Yahweh’s commitments have not come to an end,” likely has the same implication). The statement, along with the facts on which it is based, mitigates the doctrine of retribution and at the same time “agrees with one of the most extraordinary teachings in the OT,” expressed in Exod 34:6-7 at a moment of horrifying waywardness, horrifying chastisement, but manifest mercy. The man is haunted by the memory of this Yahweh, whose mercy here presupposed in Lamentations has paralleled that mercy. It is perhaps possible to make such affirmations too early, when one has not owned the despair-threatening nature of one’s situation or has not allowed someone else to own it. While Yahweh might have been the subject of the statements in vv. 1-18, it is explicit that he is the subject here. Positive namings of Yahweh are now possible; the man is now okay about making Yahweh the subject of affirmative statements. He moves from concrete experiential images for pain to key theological concepts for comfort. Lamentations as a whole has certainly not rushed to make these affirmations of God’s faithfulness; it has waited until chapter 3. And the development within Lam 3 parallels that within Job, where Yahweh’s appearing to Job pulls him to submission by a different dynamic. In Lam 3, Yahweh does not appear; its testimony suggests that the faithful, if they are wise, will “with the one eye looke upon their owne miseries and with the other, upon the mercies of the Lord,” as Pss 42-43 model.
The way these lines have inspired hymns reflects the way Lamentations melds theology and spirituality. Among many examples is John Keble’s:
New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
Lamentations is not just theory, and it is not concerned with theodicy – certainly not as a theoretical exercise – but neither is it just piety. As the poem melds theology and spirituality, it makes key theological statements about God. But part of its point in doing so is to lean on Yahweh to be himself.
If you have been ignoring or overlooking this important OT book, why not remedy that, and give it the proper reading and meditation that it deserves?
[1346 words]
