LAMENTATIONS OF (ante) have been universally acknowledged by the Jews as the work of their weeping prophet, and have his name attached to them in the Septuagint version—made about 260 B.C.—which declares also that he wrote them very soon after the Jews had been carried captive and their city destroyed. This declaration the subject-matter and style very well sustain. The book is divided into five parts by peculiarities of structure which, appearing fully in the original, are partly preserved in the Septuagint, but are noticed in the English translation only by the number of chapters and verses being retained. The first. second, and fourth parts each contain 2.'2 verses, which, with one or two variations, are arranged in the order of the Hebrew alphabet and all begin with the corresponding letter; the third multiplies this arrange ment by three—each letter beginning three verses in succession—so that the whole num ber of its verses is 66; and the fifth contains 22 verses, but their initial letters are not in alphabetic order like the rest. I. Lamentation over the solitariness of Jerusalem after the people had been carried captive: the change in its civil state and religious privileges mourned over; its sins acknowledged as the justly procuring cause; its friends com plained of as false, timid, and cruel; the Lord penitently sought as the only source of help. II. The destruction of the city lamented: of its dwellings, palaces, altars, tem ple, gates, walls, ramparts, and strongholds; the sufferings of little children bewailed; mourning by the Young and old over the strong and the weak slain in the streets; the sorrow aggravated by the exultation of enemies over the city that had once been called "the perfection of beauty and joy of the world;" the false prophets condemned for mis leading the people; and the Lord again invoked as alone able to save. III. Lamenta
tion of the prophet as representing the people himself, and perhaps Christ, who was thought by some to be Jeremiah, probably because of his tears over the sins and sorrows of men, his estimate of himself as eminently the man who had seen affliction through the visitation of God upon sin; his hope arising in darkness through his remembrance of the divine mercy, compassion, and faithfulness; his conviction of the good resulting from both hoping and waiting for the salvation of God, and from bearing the yoke sub missively, seeing that afflictions have a benevolent design and are not to continue for ever; the afflicted exhorted to try their ways, acknowledge their transgressions, and turn to the Lord; deliverances recounted which the prcphet had already received from the depths of the dungeon into which he had been cast. IV. Lamentation over the desola tion of the land, especially as contrasted with its former prosperity and glory: the sons of Zion, once regarded as fine gold, now compared to earthen vessels; mothers once tendor and self-denying; now selfish and cruel; persons once in luxury and clothed in scarlet, now desolated and deified; the protracted misery of Jernsalent regarded as more bitter than the sudden destruction of Sodom; and all this confessed to be the result of its own transgressions, of the sins of its prophets, and the iniquities of its priests. V. Final appeal to the Lord as alone able to deliver and willing to forgive: the cal: unities of the nation again recited; the sins that caused them penitently confessed; and God, as eternal and almighty, entreated to turn his people back to himself and to renew the blessings they had formerly enjoyed.