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The book of Lamentations consists of five poems (chapters) that lament the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. They are "alphabetic acrostics", like Psalm 119, in that each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in succession. Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5 each have 22 verses each beginning with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 has 66 verses with 3 verses beginning with each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
II Chronicles 35:25 establishes the author of this book, "Jeremiah uttered a lament and all the singing men and women have sang of it to this day." "They made these an ordinance in Israel for behold they are written in Lamentations." Chronicles were written about 250 BC. some 300 years after Lamentations which was written at the beginning of the captivity in Babylon. It was natural to attribute these lamentations over the destruction of Jerusalem to a prophet who had witnessed it.
The book was and still is read in Synagogues during the morning and evening services commemorating the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. (II Kings 25) on the 9th. day of the Hebrew month of Ab (last of July).
The central theme of the book is that suffering is the result of sin. It acknowledges that God is right in allowing judgment as the penalty for sin. It appeals for trust in God who will, in time, be merciful to His people. There is no hint in the book as there is in Isaiah and Jeremiah, that suffering could be borne by one person for another, as in the case of Christ.
| Subject | Chapter |
|---|---|
| The Desolate City of Jerusalem | 1 |
| Jeremiah Prays for Jerusalem | 2 |
| Private Meditation | 3 |
| Jeremiah Greaves over Jerusalem | 4 |
| The Summation | 5 |
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