Understanding Religion - The Book of Lamentations (an Exoteric Summary)
Lamentations (an Exoteric Summary)
This blog entry is just an "Exoteric" summary of the Book of Lamentations (I may throw in some "Esoteric" ideas)
"Exoteric" means "understood by the general populous" compared to "Esoteric" which means "understood by a small group".
The notes for this blog on the book of Lamentations have been taken from "The Bible Project," you can listen for yourself here: "The Bible Project Book of Lamentations Overview".
The version of the Bible I'm reading is called "The Companion Bible", here is an 8-page PDF on the Book of Lamentations from the "Companion Bible”: "https://www.companionbiblecondensed.com/OT/Lamentations.pdf"
THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS
Twenty-Fifth Book of the Bible / Twenty-Fifth Book of the Old Testament / Third book of Prophecy and the third book of the Major Prophets
Chapters: 5
Verses: 154
Name: "Lament" means "a profound or demonstrative expression of sorrow", "www.meriam-webster.com"
The name of the book in Hebrew is "ekah", translated to English is "Alas" or "How". The book gives a sense of wheeping or "lamenting" over some sad event. Hence translators renamed the book "Lamentations" for a more clearer and evocative meaning. Sometimes called the "Lamentations of Jeremiah", for the "lamenting" links Jeremiah to the book, for the author of the book and Jeremiah were present to witness the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem. "www.insight.org".
The Book of Lamentations summary
The book is a poetic reflection on the siege of Jerusalem and the following exile.
This was the most horrendous catastrophe in Israel's history up to this point.
Remember God had promised Abraham land and David victory to make Jerusalem Israel's capital and from David came the royal line of kings. We had God's presence in the Temple where the priests maintained the rituals of Israel's worship and 500-years of all this history the city fell to Babylon (approximately 587 B.C.), it was descimated and gone.
The Book of Lamentations is a memorial to the pain and confusion of the Israelites that followed this destruction.
Biblical poems of lament do a number of things: they're a form of protest (drawing attention to horrible things that happen in this world that should not be tolerated), they process emotion (venting anger and dismay at the ruin caused by sin and selfishness), a place to voice confusion (suffering makes us ask questions about God's character and promises; none of this is looked down on the Bible, just the opposite of these poems of lament).
Lament poems restore a sacred dignity to human suffering.
The design of the five poems
Chapters 1 through 4 are called "Acrostic" or "alphabet poems".
Each poetic verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is made up of 22 letters.
The order and linear structure of these poems is in stark contrast to the disorder, pain, and confused grief.
Israel's suffering is explored a-to-z and is trying to express something that is inexpressable.
Chapters 1 & 2
Chapters one and two have one verse for each Hebrew letter (22 verses = 1 per Hebrew letter).
Chapter 1 = Lady Zion's grief and shame
Jerusalem personified as "the daughter of Zion".
Lady Zion speaks and calls on to the Lord to notice her fate.
The city's destruction brought a level of psychological trauma on the Israelites that can only be expressed as the experience of a funeral and the death of a loved one.
Chapter 2 = The Fall of Jerusalem
The fall of Jerusalem is brought on by God's wrath.
"Wrath" is a key word in this poem.
God's wrath is not spontaneous volatile anger; the biblical poets and prophets used this word to talk about God's justice. Israel had entered a covenant agreement with God and for centuries they have violated by worshipping other gods, perpetuating injustice, suppressing the poor. God is slow to anger, but eventually he does get angry at human evil and will bring his just anger in the form of punishment. In this case with Jerusalem, this involved allowing Babylon to conquer the city of Jerusalem.
This poem acknowledges that God's wrath is justified.
This does not keep the poet from lamenting and asking God to once again to show compassion.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 breaks this divine pattern and has three verses per Hebrew letter (66 verses total).
Chapter 3 = The Suffering One
The voice is that of a lonely man speaking out of his suffering and grief as a representative of the whole people.
This chapter is full of language that is drawn from other parts of the Old Testament: Lament's of Job, Lament Psalms, and suffering servant poems in Isaiah.
Paradoxically this is what gives the poet hope and it leads to him offering the only words of hope in this book, because of the Lord's covenant faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22 to 3:24 - "Because of the Lord's covenant faithfulness, we do not perish. His mercies never fail; they are new every morning. How great is your faithfulness, O God. So, I say to myself 'The Lord is my inheritance, therefore I will put my hope in him'."
God's judgment becomes the seedbed of hope for the future.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 returns to the same alphabet structure as Chapters 1 and 2. 22 verses, 1 for each Hebrew letter.
Chapter 4 = The Siege of Jerusalem
The Past / The Siege
The Past = Children used to laugh and play in the streets; The Siege = Children beg for food
The Past = the Wealthy used to eat lavish meals; The Siege = they eat whatever they can find in the dirt.
The Past = Royal leaders were full of splendor; The Siege = they are famished and dirty and unrecognizable.
The Siege = the Annointed king from the line of David has been captured and dragged away.
The power comes from the shock of these contrasts and is exploring the death and suffering that Israel brought on itself
Chapter 5
22 verses, one for each Hebrew letter like Chapters 1, 2, and 4, but the alphabetic order is gone.
The poet's grief explodes back into chaos.
Chapter 5 = a communal prayer for God's mercy
The poem offers a long list of all the different kinds of people who were devastated by the fall of Jerusalem.
They ask God not to forget these people and lament on behalf of others.
Conclusion
The book ends with a paradox
The acknowledge that God is the King of the World, but Israel's circumstances make them feel like God is nowhere.
Why do you forget and forsake us?
Unless you've totally rejected us. (and the book ends).
The book's author does not provide a nice neat conclusion, much like our own experiences of pain and suffering.
Of course the story of the Bible doesn't end here, but this very important book shows us how lament and prayer and grief are an important part of the journey of faith of God's people in a broken world.
Esoteric Ideas
The pattern of 22
As pointed out each chapter in the Book of Lamentations features a multiple of 22.
Chapter 1 = 22 verses
Chapter 2 = 22 verses
Chapter 3 = 66 verses (22 x 3 = 66)
Chapter 4 = 22 verses
Chapter 5 = 22 verses
Exoterically the 22 refering to each character in the Hebrew alphabet.
The Book of Lamentations has a total of 154 verses. If we divide 22 into 154 we get 7. So the Book of Lamentations features 7 intervals of 22.
The #22 and the #7 have a unique relationship: for 22 divided by 7 gives us 3.14, the number for Pi. Pi is an important number when dealing with cycles and circles.
Time is a cycle, the Seasons are a cycle, the planets are circular or spheres, life is a cycle.
The pattern of destruction, resurrection, triumph/glory, and the return to destruction is a repretative pattern throughout the journey of life. A possible metaphor for the pattern of the Sun, which is very important to sustaining life. Metaphorically the Sun is "born" every year (on December 25th), it is resurrected at the spring equinox when it returns to the Northern Hemisphere, it reaches its glory in the middle of summer, and then in the fall it begins to "fall" until it is "destroyed" again until the Sun metaphorically dies on the Southern Cross on December 21st (the winter solstice), and then the pattern begins again when the Sun is "born again" on December 25th. In the daily cycle, the Sun rises in the morning and brings us light, then it sets in the evening until it disappears behind the horizon (the Horus Zone) and the world is full of darkness; the Sun then again rises the next morning in triumph after his victory with the "Prince of Darkness" once again bringing us light.
Order out of Chaos
Returning to the structure of Lamentations following the pattern of the Hebrew alphabet.
In Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 there is an organized pattern, "order".
In Chapter 5 we see a disorganized pattern, "chaos".
"Order out of Chaos" is a philosophy of the dark occult? To bring "order", God (or those who think they are "God") almost always resorts to destruction (chaos). Whether it's the flood, plagues, war, weather, pandemics, etc. Then through them, brings order (restored by those that caused the chaos to begin with).