The Book of Lamentations

By Dr. Brian J. Bailey

Dr. Bailey’s commentary on Lamentations portrays the God of Righteousness who corrects and disciplines His wayward children, and in His great faithfulness brings the repentant back to His fold. Lamentations shares with us a message that hope can spring even from defeat to present us faultless before the throne of God with exceeding joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zion Christian Publishers
• Release date: Jun 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781596656987

Book preview

LAMENTATIONS

A Message of Hope

Dr. Brian J. Bailey

Version 1.1

The Book of Lamentations

© 2003 Brian J. Bailey

Front Cover Design:

© 2003 Zion Fellowship, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations in this book are taken from the

King James Version Bible unless otherwise stated.

Published by Zion Christian Publishers

Revised January 2007 (Version 1.1)

Published as an e-book on October 2017

in the United States of America

E-book ISBN  1-59665-698-0

For more information, please contact:

Zion Christian Publishers

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Editorial team: Carla Borges, Suzette Erb, Elizabeth Humphreys, David Kropf, Justin Kropf, Lois Kropf, Caroline Tham, and Paul Tham.

We wish to extend our thanks to these dear ones for without their many hours of invaluable assistance, this book would not have been possible. We are truly grateful for their diligence, creativity, and excellence in the compilation of this book for the glory of God.

PREFACE

This commentary on the book of Lamentations is intended to be read prayerfully as a devotional, especially for you dear ones, who are passing through times of sorrow.

We hope that you will take time to pause and savour these passages and imbibe the richness and treasures contained therein. This precious book was not only written for Israel as a nation but also for you, that you might receive the treasures of these dark moments in the Valley of Baca  (Tears - Ps. 84:6).

It is our prayer that you will receive comfort and hope for better days to come. Please do encourage yourself with the truth that although weeping may endure for a night, He will turn your mourning into joy and gladness just as a new day will surely dawn (Ps. 30:5).

INTRODUCTION

The book of Lamentations is a composition of five poems, elegantly written in the original Hebrew. Four of these poems are delivered in an acrostic style, using the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet at the beginning of each line, although not always in order. The purpose of this was to aid in memorisation of the text. Thus, we might say the message of this book was intended to be firmly planted in the mind of the Hebrew people, and should not be treated simply as an appendix to the book of Jeremiah. Rather, the Jewish nation and Christians alike should spend time meditating upon the truths and the lessons that these poems contain.

Because of its acrostic texture, this book has been classified as a quiet dignified manifestation of the grief that this priestly prophet felt. Its dirge-like rhythm expresses the sobbing heartbeat and sighing that almost engulfs Jeremiah as he pours out the tale of woes that have beset the nation. As with much Hebrew literature, contrast is used to compare and describe in glowing terms the former glories of the nation with the tragic judgments that they now endure. This has the effect of heightening and emphasising the sense of their grief.

Rather than being approached in an academic mode as one normally would to study the works of antiquity, the study of Lamentations should be approached in a prayerful mode, with the knowledge that it parallels the times we are living in. It is regretfully so relevant to the days in which we are living, where we are seeing God’s judgments falling upon nation after nation, bringing their inhabitants to grief and ruination.

Written after the Babylonian invasion and subsequent fall of Jerusalem and Judah, these five poems portray the heartfelt sorrow of the weeping prophet for his people as they suffer the just punishment from the Almighty for their sinful ways that have led to the desolation of the Holy City and the land of David by the Babylonians.

According to the customs of the time, odes or songs of mourning were sung for departed friends and distinguished leaders, as evidenced in the life of King David when he lamented the deaths of Saul, Jonathan, and Abner (2 Sam. 1:17; 3:33).

Throughout the books of the prophets, we see this extended to the fall and consequent judgments upon nations. Isaiah took up a lamentation for Moab, "Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken…Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen…Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh" (Isa. 16:7-11).

Other examples are found in Amos 5:1, Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 7:29 says, Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. Ezekiel 19:1 states: Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel. We know the Lord also commanded His people, specifically His ministers, to lament and grieve for the sins that had brought such a famine upon them (Joel 1:13).

This book may be said to be one in which sin is acknowledged. Moreover, it clearly reveals that God is righteous in mandating the judgments that the people are suffering, and yet to a repentant people, there is hope.

Historical Background

Whilst we have already made mention of the fact that this book was written some time after the fall of Jerusalem and Judah to the Babylonians, to appreciate it in its fullness, we do need to give a number of historical facts relating to the fall.

Even before the children of Israel had entered the land of Canaan, Moses, the mighty man of God, prophesied