Question of authorship.
As we have already said, traditionally the authorship of the book is attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, but there is another version. Many biblical scholars are unanimous in their opinion that Jeremiah could not have been the author of Lamentations for the following reasons:
- The book indirectly expresses regret that the Kingdom of Israel did not receive military assistance from Egypt. Such a position was alien to Jeremiah, who believed that God's chosen people should not turn to the pagans.
- In the Lamentations of Jeremiah there is hope for King Zedekiah, and in the book of Jeremiah the prophet denounces and even hates this ruler.
- The style of presentation is completely different from the style of the book of Jeremiah.
Composition of the Lamentation of the Prophet Jeremiah.
There are 5 songs in total in Lamentation. The 1st, 2nd and 4th songs each have 22 verses - the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each verse begins with a specific letter in order.
The 3rd canto consists of 66 verses - 22 groups of 3 verses each. Poems in a group begin with a specific letter of the alphabet. Thus, these chapters are acrostics. The fifth song, although it consists of 22 verses, is not an acrostic.
This compositional feature has not been conveyed in any of the translations of Lamentations.
The beginning of death
The catastrophe had been brewing for a long time. After the glorious era of the reign of David and Solomon, in 930 BC, the united kingdom of Israel split: ten tribes (that is, clans or tribes) of Israel entered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the remaining two - into the Southern, Judah - into the House Davidov, as it was also called, with its capital in Jerusalem. Already in 722, Israel sank into oblivion: the Assyrian ruler Sargon II swept through all the cities of the North with fire and sword, and forcibly resettled the survivors to his kingdom. The Jewish state miraculously managed to fight back, although it was forced to regularly pay tribute to the Assyrians.
However, as it turned out, the main threat lay not behind the fortress walls, but inside Jewish society itself.
The king and his courtiers, and with them almost the entire people, were steadily slipping into the pagan cults of that time every year. Images of deities, who seemed ready to satisfy all conceivable earthly needs of man, firmly captured the minds of the Jews.
The fundamental basis of the existence of the kingdom of Judah and society—the preservation of monotheism and righteous life in the face of the Creator—was increasingly shaken and decrepit.
Assyrian ruler Sargon II
The great prophets sent by God and exposing the vices and crimes of kings, priests and people were not heard. Their calls to repentance and menacing predictions about the impending catastrophe were lost behind the general fascination with the “tangible” and “accommodating” gods. Social decay was quietly eroding the kingdom. And even the short period of restoration of monotheism (that is, monotheism) during the reign of the righteous king Josiah (648–609) did not significantly affect the situation. The emergence of a new superpower on the border of the Kingdom of Judah completed this tragic process, placing the Jews on the brink of death.
Lamentations of Jeremiah interpretation.
The Lamentations of Jeremiah describe the events when Nebuchadnezzar's army kept Jerusalem under siege. Famine and idolatry reigned in the city. People ate people and prayed to all sorts of gods for deliverance. Many wanted to kill the prophet of God, believing that he was a spy, otherwise how could he predict all these events in advance?
When the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, they took away all the valuables and desecrated and destroyed everything else. The flower of the nation was taken into Babylonian captivity. The prophet Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of the temple. This terrible event was reflected in his Lamentation.
The Book of Lamentations thematically echoes the 28th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. The author of Lamentations emphasizes that the curses recorded in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy have been fulfilled, and that the suffering of the Israeli people was predicted by Moses about 900 years before the tragic events. God warned His people of the dire consequences of disobeying Him, and the author of Lamentations says that God did what He was supposed to do. God's faithfulness to His word should give His contemporaries hope that times of suffering will be followed by times of deliverance and grace.
“He spared neither the youth, nor the maiden, nor the old man, nor the very old man”
At the end of the 7th century BC, the era of the unprecedented rise of the Babylonian kingdom began. Having defeated and subjugated the great Assyria, the Chaldeans (as the Babylonians were called in the Bible) launched a wide expansion in Northwestern Mesopotamia. In a matter of years, these territories came under the control of the expanding kingdom. The energetic Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II (630–562) challenged even the Egyptian pharaoh himself: in several battles he crushed his armies, coming close to the Euphrates River and the Nile Delta. A terrible shadow hung over Judea.
Babylonian captivity of the Jews
The first defeat occurred in December 598. Then relatively small Babylonian troops entered Jerusalem, took part of the sacred temple vessels and took about 3,000 Jews to Babylon. The second wave of deportations occurred a year later: then over 15,000 people forcibly left the kingdom.
Left by Nebuchadnezzar to rule in Jerusalem, Zedekiah (the youngest son of King Josiah) remained loyal to Babylon for some time, and the prophet Jeremiah repeatedly urged him to continue to remain at peace with Nebuchadnezzar. However, under pressure from patriotic courtiers - among them there were false prophets who predicted the king the supposed imminent fall of Babylon, assuring that the allied armies of Egypt would provide support - Zedekiah rebelled, and the righteous “defeatist” ended up in prison.
Nebuchadnezzar reacted instantly. The Egyptian pharaoh, as the self-proclaimed prophets of the court whispered to the king, failed to help the dying kingdom: the Chaldeans defeated his troops. After a long siege, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple, which was the center of all the religious life of God's chosen people, was destroyed.
And he killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and spared neither the youth nor the maiden, nor the old man, nor the very old man
(2 Chronicles
36:17
), says the ancient chronicle. Modern archaeologists have discovered traces of monstrous destruction in the archaeological layer corresponding to that time.
On the rivers of Babylon. Gebhard Fugel. Around 1920
Zedekiah, who tried to escape from the burning city, was captured and brought to Nebuchadnezzar's camp. Before the last king of Judah was blinded, he, bound hand and foot, saw how soldiers, on the orders of the pagan ruler, took turns killing his children - one after another.
Thus came to pass the terrible words spoken by God to Jeremiah: For the sins which you have committed before God, you will be taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
(Post Jer
1
:2). What happened was not so much a political as a sacred catastrophe: the destruction of the only temple for the Jewish people meant the complete cessation of religious life. After all, sacrifices could only be made in the house of God, now lying in ruins.
Jeremiah's lament in music.
There are many options for setting the Lamentations of Jeremiah to music. Individual verses of the book are sung in a special psalm tone among Catholics.
The authors of vocal compositions based on the Lament were such composers as:
- Pierre de la Rue,
- F. de Peñalosa,
- H. Izak,
- Ya. Arkadelt,
- C. de Sermisy,
- J.P. Palestrina,
- O. Lasso,
- F. Dentice,
- G.F. Handel,
- I.F. Stravinsky,
- IN AND. Martynov, etc.
It must be said that many versions of the Lamentations of Jeremiah are secular music that is not intended for worship. Musical arrangements of the Lamentations of Jeremiah are called lamentations .
How lonely the once crowded city sits! he became like a widow; great among nations, the prince over the regions became a tributary. He weeps bitterly at night, and his tears are on his cheeks. He has no comforter among all those who loved him; all his friends betrayed him and became his enemies. Judas emigrated due to disaster and severe slavery, settled among the pagans and did not find peace; all who pursued him overtook him in narrow places. The ways of Zion lament, because there are none who go to the feast; all its gates were empty; His priests sigh, his maidens are sad, and he himself is sad. His enemies have become leaders, his enemies are prospering, because the Lord has sent grief upon him for his many iniquities; his children went into captivity ahead of the enemy. And all her splendor departed from the daughter of Zion; her princes are like deer that cannot find pasture; Exhausted, they went ahead of the driver.
Jerusalem, in the days of its calamity and suffering, remembered all its treasures that it had in former days, while its people fell from the hand of the enemy, and no one helps it; his enemies look at him and laugh at his Sabbaths. Jerusalem sinned grievously, and for this reason it became disgusting; all who glorified him look at him with contempt, because they saw his nakedness; and he himself sighs and turns away. There was uncleanness on his hem, but he did not think about his future and therefore he was incredibly humbled, and he had no comforter. “Look, O Lord, at my misfortune, for the enemy has become magnified!”
The enemy has stretched out his hand to all his most precious things; he sees the Gentiles entering his sanctuary, about which You commanded that they should not enter Your congregation. All his people sigh, seeking bread, and give their treasures for food to refresh their souls. “Look, Lord, and see how humiliated I am!” May this not happen to you, all who pass by! take a look and see if there is a sickness like mine, which befell me, which the Lord sent upon me in the day of His fiery wrath? From above He sent fire into my bones, and it took possession of them; He has spread out a snare for my feet, he has overturned me, he has made me poor and languishing every day. The yoke of my iniquities is bound in His hand; they are woven and climbed up around my neck; He weakened my strength. The Lord has given me into hands from which I cannot rise. The Lord has cast down all my mighty men from among me, and has called an assembly against me to destroy my young men; As in a winepress, the Lord trampled the virgin daughter of Judah. I cry about this; My eye, my eye pours out water, for the comforter who would revive my soul is far from me; my children are ruined because the enemy has prevailed.
Zion stretches out her hands, but she has no comforter. The Lord gave a command about Jacob to his enemies to surround him; Jerusalem became an abomination among them. The Lord is righteous, for I was disobedient to His word. Listen, all you nations, and look at my illness: my virgins and my youths have gone into captivity. I called my friends, but they deceived me; My priests and my elders are dying in the city, looking for food for themselves to strengthen their souls. Look, Lord, for I am cramped, my insides are agitated, my heart is turned upside down within me because I stubbornly resisted You; Outside the sword has made me sad, but at home it’s like death. They heard that I was groaning, but I had no comforter; All my enemies heard about my misfortune and rejoiced that You did this: oh, that You would command the day that You predicted to come, and they would become like me! Let all their wickedness appear before Thy face; and do to them the same way as You did to me for all my sins, for my groans are heavy, and my heart is faint.
