Megillat Eicha, Alsace c. 18th century (image: Learn.jtsa.edu)

John has an intriguing post regarding Lam. 3:51: Lamentations 3:51: A New Proposal This is a notoriously problematic passage and John has an interesting proposal for a textual reconstruction. Of greater interest to me is his broader conclusions that I am not sure that I can agree with.

On this reading, in 3:1, at the onset of a larger whole, a female lamenter explicitly casts herself as a male persona, an “everyman” (Hillers’ characterization (1992:122) developed by Dobbs-Allsopp [2002:105-109]) who gives voice to a collective experience, only to allude to her particular identity in 3:51. In the poem’s conclusion, 3:52-66, the singular “I” continues to be used, but, as Dobbs-Allsopp notes (107), “it has become more inclusive.” As she did throughout Lam 3, the lamenter concludes by voicing the grief and hopes of an entire community.

The public articulation of grief by women is extremely well-attested cross-culturally. The details have become the subject of intense study by anthropologists. Those familiar with this research will formulate, almost as a matter of course, a working hypothesis: Lam 1 is a dialogue in which (a) a chorus of lamenting women provide a context for the voice of (b) a single lamenting woman speaking in the voice of Zion: (a): Lam 1:1-11 except for 1:9c and 1:11c; (b): Lam 1:9c.11c.12-22. Lam 2 is easily understood as a dialogue between two lamenting women, (a) a lamenter who speaks of and to Zion, and (b) a lamenter once again speaking in the voice of Zion: (a) 2:1-19; (b) 2:20-22. On this understanding, it is one of “the maidens of Jerusalem” spoken of as a lamenter in Lam 2:10 whose words we hear in 2:11-12 with its focus on children and mothers. Lam 3, with 3:51 construed as suggested above, is a monologue of a lamenting woman, a female citizen of her city, who gives voice to the grief and hopes of an entire community.

It seems to me that John makes a tremendous leap from his textual analysis to proposing a female author (even one that poses as a male persona). John is of course correct that women are often those most visible and vocal in the grieving process in many cultures and indeed it has been the subject of a great amount of study lately. At the risk of being labelled a misogynist, I would suggest caution when moving from that research to the reconstructions offered by John. I am sure that those familiar with such research would offer such a hypothesis but it seems overly cumbersome.

The most obvious hurdle is that the text itself takes the voice of a man. Would we not have to then argue that the original female author (which seems to be John’s argument) felt the need to present her laments as a male composition because, presumably, the culture would not accept a composition written by a woman. Yet if the culture is so affirming of women as lead lamenters then why would they not also accept such a composition? Certainly the identification of  Zion as woman and Daughter Zion introduce the feminine perspective (and see Dobbs-Allsopp and Linafelt for more on these themes), but does that necessitate a female author?

Finally, does the gender of the speaker or author matter? That is to say, do we read the text differently if we have a man or a woman in our consciousness as the author? It might provide us with slightly different nuances to our readings, but what do we gain exegetically? And that holds true even if arguing for a male author.

I can genuinely say that I do not feel a vested interest in whether it was a man or a woman (or, more likely, men or women) who wrote these laments. I just question whether or not such a thing is knowable and how it would change our readings. Then I wonder, should it? When we read an anonymous work we tend to take the words at their “face value” (a dubious concept, but you know what I mean), but once we know the author there can be a tendency to read that work through the filter of what we believe we know about the author and what we think their agenda might be.

Is it possible not to offer a gender neutral rendering of the text, but rather a gender neutral reading? Should that be our goal?

I also thought I would share with you all the targumist’s rendering and reading of the passage (Lam. 3:49-51). (You can find my translation of TgLam, my doctoral thesis, and other articles on this blog as well. See the tab above or go here.)

עיני זלגת דמעין ולא תשתיק מלמבכי מדלית פאיג עקתי וממלל תנחומין לי

עד כדו דסיתכי ויחזו עולבני יי מן שמיא

בכותא דעייני אסתקפת למרע נפשי על חורבן פילכי עמי וניוול בנתא דירושלם קרתי

49 My eye weeps tears and does not cease from crying. There is no respite from my anguish or anyone to comfort me;

50 Until the Lord looks out and sees my humiliation from heaven.

51 The weeping of my eyes is the cause of the affliction of my soul over the destruction of the districts of my people and the humiliation of the daughters of Jerusalem, my city.

Solger MS of TgLam 1:9b-1:16a

This is mostly a post to test the integration of my blog with twitter, but a separate post doesn’t hurt to emphasize that, at long last, I have updated/corrected my translation of TgLam. This translation is based upon Codex Vaticanus Urbinas Hebr. 1 (the images from the older but incomplete Solger MS can be found here as well). So you can find my updated translation on this site and on the NTCS site.

Between the beginning and ending of these broadcast laments, lambs were born. Lambs arriving during Holy Week have a Biblical poignance. The Old Testament is full of shepherds looking for new pastures. The Gospel for the Sunday after Easter begins ‘Jesus said, I am the good shepherd’. All week long, our pastures were transformed into windswept tundras, with howling winds and bitter rain, hail and snow. Each morning, I tried to scoot the newborns and their mamas into the shed. Without a sheepdog, this is a job that requires picking up the lambs and encouraging their mothers to follow. There are no sheepdogs in the Bible either, an oversight that Jesus may have lamented during the parable of the lost sheep. Once inside the shed, I settle down, a lamb tucked inside my jacket, and my radio tuned into Book of the Week. The choice for Holy Week was Julian Barnes’ Nothing To Be Afraid Of, a meditation on mortality and the fear of death. He begins: ‘I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.’

By the time Easter Sunday arrived, the snow had descended like a veil over the countryside, a climatic version of the cloud in Lamentations, created so ‘that our prayers should not pass through’. Modern theologians claim that Lamentations is not a breast-beating, self-pitying lament, but an account of a disaster that, without offering easy grace or cheap hope, tells us how to handle grief. It’s a useful interpretation when there is much to grieve about. The cries of the bewildered ewes as we take away the lambs that didn’t survive the freezing night. The milestone of ‘4,000 American soldiers dead’ reached by Evensong on Easter Sunday. Tibetan monks dying for freedom. Houses repossessed. I could go on.

But I’m trying not to dwell on the ‘grandeur of sadness’, but to marvel at what has lived. Daffodils that survived the snow. Lambs that have begun their lamb games and the bereaved ewe that has adopted a hungry triplet. The hope that someday even this war will end. And here’s the Lamentation for the Day: you can believe in God and still miss Him.

John’s comment:

We studied Lamentations on five consecutive Wednesday nights a while back. A passage I find especially moving is 1.12 – ‘any sorrow like my sorrow.’ I have used it at funerals to comfort a grieving family who may feel that no one else can possibly understand their personal grief.

There are a number of such passages in Lamentations and I am glad to know that you are able to provide comfort through the words. This is part of the reason I still work on Lamentations, because I believe we have largely lost the ability and understanding of lamenting in western Christianity. It is important that people know that it is ok to grieve, to cry out, and even to be angry with God. He is a big God and he can take it. Most of all, I believe God wants us to be honest with him, to completely open up our hearts and minds, no holding back; open up the fire hose and let it flow, fierce and angry.

John’s reference to funerals reminds me of what I consider to be one of the most poignant passages in all of Scripture. Every time I teach 2 Samuel and I come to the Bathsheba episode I always pause and comment about David’s response to their son’s death. The scene is incredibly powerful. David has accepted his guilt and asked for God’s forgiveness for his sins of taking Bathsheba and killing Uriah. But Nathan declares that the son shall die. David mourned for the child, even as he was still alive, David lay by his bed and fasted. The child died.

2Sam. 12.20   Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the LORD, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate.  21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.”  22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’  23 But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

As a parent, how can one read this and not be overcome with emotion? There are deep and penetrating truths in the episode. While we live, and while those around us live, we must pray to God to save. He is a gracious God who saves. Eventually, however, that time will arrive and in our grieving for our loss we may be assured that we will go to them. In this world we must break our fast, as hard as it may be, and it may be some time before we are able, but we must break our fast and continue to live and love in this world.

So far I have not officiated at a funeral. I have no idea what I would actually say in such a circumstance. I have of course been to several, but usually as a member of the grieving family. But I will keep these words and therefore I will have hope…

Lamentations

The book of Lamentations is one of the smallest works in the Bible and yet one of the most powerful and enigmatic. Written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 586 B.C.E. by the Babylonians, Lamentations expresses the grief and disbelief of those who lived through the horror and yet still looked to their God. Not just an outpouring of emotion, however, the book of Lamentations also contains a profound theological reflection and response to the problem of sin and suffering.

This incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking work is often overlooked in Christian study and is rarely read in the lectionary cycles, either in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer or the Revised Common Lectionary. Perhaps the passage best known to Christians comes from Lamentations 3, which is an optional reading for Holy Saturday and is the basis of a famous hymn:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. (3:22-23)

While this passage is a statement of the poet’s firm faith in God’s presence and mercy, it does not serve well as a summary of Lamentations. The book’s final two verses are perhaps a better encapsulation of the tone and temperament of Lamentations:

Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored;
renew our days as of old—
unless you have utterly rejected us,
and are angry with us beyond measure. (5:21-22)

The five poems that make up the book of Lamentations move constantly between the cry of anguish at the condition of Jerusalem and her people to the fear that God may have finally rejected Israel forever, and to the affirmation that the LORD is the one who has allowed this to happen and yet God may still have mercy on them if only they repent. It is perhaps this challenging content with its powerful emotions and accusations against God that have caused this little book to be so often overlooked in Christian tradition.

The emotions expressed within these poems are raw and dramatic. Written most likely by those who witnessed the atrocities recounted, the book of Lamentations depicts the horrors of war and living in a city under siege. It dares to call out to God asking how—how could the LORD possibly allow such a thing to occur to God’s people? Wars, hardships, and strife continue to this day, and so the example of Lamentations and its nascent message of faith remain relevant to the contemporary community of faith.

Date and Authorship

Almost all scholars agree that the book of Lamentations was written in the years immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.. Certainly these five poems express the kind of shock and despair that we might expect from an eyewitness, yet their form and style demonstrate that they were created as an act of reflection on, and as a memorial of, their tragedy. Lamentations does not contain any glimpse of the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple that occurred after Cyrus the Great and the Persians defeated the Babylonians and allowed the Jews to return and rebuild their holy city in 538 B.C.E. Thus the time of composition is set within the years immediately following the destruction and prior to Jerusalem’s restoration. Moreover, it is likely that the poet was one of the many who were not exiled to Babylon, but remained in Judah and endured the daily reminders of the Babylonian conquest.

Jeremiah has traditionally been ascribed as the author of Lamentations, largely based upon the reference in 2 Chronicles 35:25 to Jeremiah’s having composed laments for the death of Josiah, but also due to the similarities in message and vocabulary between portions of the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. Since the book of Lamentations is composed of five separate poems, many scholars have posited several authors and that is a distinct possibility. The text of Lamentations itself is, in fact, anonymous and most scholars agree that it is unlikely that it is the work of the prophet Jeremiah. In many ways it is the anonymity of the work that provides it with such great power, especially for today’s reader. It is not a work by a named and distant prophet; rather, it is a work that could be penned by anyone who has gone through such tragedy, and readers are invited to identify themselves with the authors’ perspectives. This becomes most powerful with the so-called “everyman” of chapter 3, as we shall discuss below.

Form and Genre

Lamentations is a collection of five poems, each intimately related by both structure and content and yet each a separate work. The first four poems are acrostics, that is to say the first letter of each of their verses (or “stanza”) is a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus the first stanza of the collection begins with the Hebrew letter aleph, the second with beth, and so on. There is variation within this form. In chapters 1 and 2 each stanza contains three lines or “couplets” and each stanza is introduced by a successive Hebrew letter. (That is, a new Hebrew letter begins the first word of each verse of these chapters, introducing a new set of three lines of poetry). Chapter 4 has a similar pattern, but with only two couplets per stanza. Chapter 3 consists of three-lined stanzas like chapters 1 and 2, but the stanzas have greater intricacy. Every couplet within each stanza begins with that stanza’s unique Hebrew letter (so the first three verses of chapter 3 form a stanza of three lines that each begin with aleph, and so on). The final chapter does not have an alphabetic acrostic but echoes the acrostic form, since it has twenty-two lines paralleling the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

Another key feature of Lamentations is the rhythm of the poetic lines. In biblical Hebrew poetry the fundamental unit is the two-part line, or “couplet,” with each half-line usually of similar length. In Lamentations, and in other lament poems in the Bible, many of the line segments are of unequal length, the first being longer than the second. This “limping” pattern is referred to as qinah meter and provides a solemn and mournful rhythm to the recitation of the poem.

The lament genre dominates Lamentations and has particularly strong parallels to the city-lament genre widely attested in Mesopotamian literature. Some of the key features of the city-lament genre that have been incorporated into Lamentations include the structure and form, the assigning of responsibility, the abandonment of the city by its patron deity, the weeping of the female figure (Lady Zion), lamentation, and the restoration of the city. But Lamentations also has strong parallels with biblical laments, both communal and individual. The result is a transformation and adaptation of the various forms and styles known from biblical and extra-biblical sources into a unique Judaean lament of the destruction of Jerusalem.

The most significant departure from the city-lament genre, and yet what places Lamentations firmly within the biblical tradition, is that the destruction of Jerusalem is not attributed to the action of a capricious god. While God is always the primary agent in that God allowed Jerusalem’s destruction (“the Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob,” 2:2), the author of Lamentations makes it abundantly clear this has only come about because of Judah’s sin. “Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy” (1:8; see also 2:14, 17; and 3:25-33). As we shall see, the destruction of Jerusalem and the suffering caused was viewed as a result of Judah’s actions; God’s punishment was just. The question is, would God now have mercy and once again show favor on the people.

Summarizing the Poems

Each of the chapters of Lamentations takes a slightly different perspective on the crisis that precipitated their creation, each with their own emphasis, yet their presence together within the canon reveals the unity of their message. Chapter 1 opens with the mournful cry ‘Ekhah, “How lonely sits the city.” The tragedy seems to go beyond comprehension as the holy city that had been so great, so beautiful, so powerful, has been emptied of her glory and reduced to rubble. Throughout Lamentations, Jerusalem, or “daughter Zion,” is personified as a woman who has become a widow, been violated, and mourns alone and without friends. The authors contrast Zion’s former status as a great city and ruler with her current condition of abuse and abandonment (1:6; 2:15). She recalls “all the precious things that were hers in days of old” (1:7); while no friends came to help, “our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help” (4:17).

Two facts are made clear from the outset. The first is that it is the LORD who has caused the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Zion’s enemies are only able to conquer her “because the LORD has made her suffer” (1:5). Furthermore, God is often described as being directly responsible, “I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath” (3:1) and “you have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity” (3:43). The second is that the reason God has brought this upon the holy city is “for the multitude of her transgressions” (1:5). God would not have been moved to punish had the people not sinned. “The LORD is in the right for I have rebelled against his word” (1:18).

The fact that “daughter Zion” is given voice in Lamentations creates a dialogue with God and allows the reader to appropriate her suffering as our own (or to see our own suffering in Zion’s). While many prophetic texts speak of “daughter Zion” and her humiliation (especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah) it is only in Lamentations that she speaks for herself. The result is that her condition is both more poignant and more personal. The reader is drawn into her suffering as the text moves into the first person, “hear, all you peoples, and behold my suffering” (1:18). As the dialogue develops the city, the people, and the reader cry out together to God demanding a response, “Look, O LORD, and see how worthless I have become” (1:11).

Chapter 3 is set apart in several ways. It stands in the middle of this five chapter book and draws together the various themes already related. The first half of the chapter is in the first person and draws the reader in to identify themselves with the struggles and suffering of the poets. The voice here is not that of “daughter Zion”  since the chapter opens, “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath” (3:1). (The New Revised Standard Version has “I am the one” but the Hebrew is “the man” hagever.) This so-called “everyman” is anyone and everyone who struggled and suffered, those men, women, and children who starved in Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege and those who go hungry today. The speaker directly confronts the horrors of

The latter portion of the chapter describes the attacks of the enemies and concludes with a plea to God to bring these foes to justice. “Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the LORD’s heavens” (3:66).

In the middle of this chapter that is in the middle of this book resides a poignant confession of faith and hope. God remains judge and that judgment is just, but in spite of all the suffering the poet declares that “the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end” (3:22). Verses 22-42 call the reader to repent and return to God so that God may bless the people. “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (3:25-26).

The book of Lamentations concludes, however, with a much more mixed and poignant declaration of faith and fear. “But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. Why have you forgotten us completely?” (5:19-20). The LORD remains God, the supreme ruler over all, yet the poet cannot help but wonder at God’s absence. “Why have you forsaken us these many days?” (5:20). As noted in the opening to this brief study, the final two verses call upon God to restore the faithful and renew their glory in God, if it is not too late. “Restore us to yourself, O LORD…unless you have utterly rejected us.”

Interpretation

The practice of lamenting, expressing our feelings of grief and confusion, is something that we have all but lost in western Christianity. As a result we have tended to interpret Lamentations by focusing upon those moments of confession and contrition, preferring passages such as those in chapter 3 that speak of the poet’s faith in God and the LORD’s justice. But Lamentations was written as an expression of grief and while it certainly contains the language of confession (e.g., 1:8; 2:14, 17; 3:25-33) these poems are raw and poignant replies to the atrocities that the poet had just survived. They cry out in their lament, describing the horrors of an eighteen-month long siege that led some mothers to cannibalism (4:10) and the young men and women to be crushed by their enemies (1:15).

How does one respond to such horrors? Lamentations demonstrates that at least part of our response is to continue the conversation with God. We may be suffering and angry and full of doubt, but we must continue to express honestly our feelings to God, crying out “See, O Lord, how distressed I am!” (1:20). It is only in such openness and honesty with God that we can fully understand and know our own condition and God’s sovereign role in our lives. Like daughter Zion, we must acknowledge our sins (“her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future,” 1:9) even while demanding that God look upon our situation and have mercy (“O LORD, look at my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed,” 1:9). All too often in modern western Christianity we focus upon our need to acknowledge our sins and call upon God’s mercy that we fail to also acknowledge that the judgment comes from God as well. Our poet states “who can command and have it done, if the Lord has not ordained it?” before calling the audience to confession and obedience.

Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the LORD.
Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands
to God in heaven.
We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven. (3:40-42)

Even as the author leads us into continuing the dialogue with God we confront the most theologically challenging aspect of Lamentations. Where was God during this tragedy? Where is God now, as we seek to make sense of our own tragedies? The book of Lamentations brings this question home with dramatic power through silence. Although the poet repeatedly appeals to God, God never responds; the divine voice is not heard. “Look Lord!” is a refrain that is repeated throughout Lamentations (e.g., 1:9, 11; 2:20; 5:1). Yet even as the personified Zion begs God to see her plight, she has already been ravaged. Zion’s cry for God’s help and mercy echoes hollowly and there is no reply. The destruction and horrors visited upon Jerusalem and her people seem completely disproportionate to their sins. “The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children” (4:10) and yet God does not speak. What could be said? The divine silence is awful.

Into this silence the poet confronts Israel’s responsibility and confesses “the LORD is in the right for I have transgressed his word” (1:18). Rather than assume that God must not exist or that God no longer cares about his people, the poet leads us to reflect upon our role in the covenantal relationship with God. In so doing, we see that God’s role in destroying Jerusalem is not proof that God does not exist, rather it is evidence that the LORD remains the God of Israel who continues to care about God’s people by punishing them as a parent might punish their child.

This seeming paradox is the same that we find in the cross. It is inexplicable to many that God would require the sacrifice of the Son for the sins of the world. It seems cruel and excessive and yet it is in reality the full depth of mercy and compassion since it is through Jesus’ sacrifice that salvation came to all the world. So it is that God continues to love Israel enough that rather the simply ignore or abandon them God continues to maintain his Covenant with them. In their obedience God promised to bless them, “but if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish” (Deut. 30:17-18). God’s punishment is a sign that the Covenant remains in force and the LORD remains the God of Israel.

Thus the insistence of Lamentations that it is the LORD who sent fire from on high that “went deep into my bones” (1:13), while it may sound offensive to us, is a powerful statement of faith. In spite of all the famine, torture, and killing the poet continues to believe that his God, the LORD alone, is ruler of the universe and is thus capable of bringing about such utter destruction of the people. Furthermore, God has done so because God loves Israel enough to punish them and will ultimately restore the people to himself “for the Lord will not reject forever” (3:31). The LORD’s Covenant with Israel remains in force and the relationship will endure.

And yet as the poets cry out to God and ask for mercy, God is silent. How often have we also suffered grief, pain, disappointment, and poured out our hearts to God, waiting for a reply? Lamentations contains the complaints, prayers, and petitions that any of us might address to God in our grief. It is true that God’s response is not found in the text, but it is found in history. While the poet recognizes the sins of Israel and declares God just in punishing them, the book ends with the question, “or have you utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure?” Outside the book, within the text of life, God responded by fulfilling God’s word given through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:10) and God restored the people to Judah by the hand of Cyrus.

At its heart Lamentations is about the relationship between God and Israel, a relationship that only continues because the people refuse to let go, refuse to assume that God has cast them aside, and choose to repent and return to God asking and waiting for God’s mercy. We too, no matter how great our distress and our sorrow, must be honest with God and not be disappointed when a voice does not crack the sky. God will reply through the text of our lives, we must simply be willing to read it.

The Book of Lamentations is one of the smallest works in the Bible and yet it is one of the most powerful and enigmatic. Written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, Lamentations expresses the grief and disbelief of those who lived through the horror and yet still looked to their God. However it is not just an outpouring of emotion, the Book of Lamentations also contains a profound theological reflection and response to the problem of sin and suffering.

This incredibly thoughtful and thought-provoking work is often overlooked in Christian study and is rarely read in the lectionary cycles, either in the Book of Common Prayer or the Revised Common Lectionary. Perhaps the passage best known to Christians comes from Lam. 3 which is read every Holy Saturday and is the basis of a famous hymn.

Lam. 3.22    The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
23     they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

While this passage is a statement of the poet’s firm faith in God’s presence and his mercy it does not serve well as a summary of Lamentations. The final two verses are perhaps a better encapsulation of the tone and temperament of Lamentations.

Lam 5.21     Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;
renew our days as of old—
22     unless you have utterly rejected us,
and are angry with us beyond measure.

The five poems that make up the Book of Lamentations move constantly between the cry of anguish at the condition of Jerusalem and her people, to the fear that God may have finally rejected his people forever, and to the affirmation that the Lord is the one who has allowed this to happen and yet he may still have mercy on them if only they repent. It is perhaps this challenging content with its powerful emotions and accusations against God that have caused this little book to be so often overlooked in Christian tradition.

The emotions expressed within these poems are raw and dramatic. Written most likely by those who witnessed the atrocities recounted; the Book of Lamentations recounts the horrors of war and living in a city under siege and dares to call out to God asking him how, how could God possibly allow such a thing to occur to his people. Wars, hardships, and strife continue to this day and so the example of Lamentations and its nascent message of faith remains relevant to the community of faith today.

At which point we dive into date, authorship, etc. So, what do you think? Engaging enough? Too

1. Makes me think of underwear with little black Bibles all over them. Sorry about that. Now you won’t be able to clear your mind of the image. Watch, you will snicker when you read “briefs” in this post.

Rabbinic Reception of Lamentations

I am very grateful for this opportunity to contribute in some small way to the work of this seminar. My work on Lamentations began 14 years ago as I cast about for a subject for my doctoral thesis. My primary interest is in exegesis and so I was directed to consider the rabbis and how they interpreted (and transformed) the biblical text. Specifically, I worked on the Targum of Lamentations. I intend for this to be a discussion of some sample texts but feel I should start by placing us within the context of both Lamentations itself and then within the corpus of rabbinic commentaries.

Lamentations

The Book of Lamentations is one of the smallest works in the Bible and yet it is one of the most powerful and enigmatic. Written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 586 bce by the Babylonians, Lamentations expresses the grief and disbelief of those who lived through the horror and yet still looked to their God for their hope and deliverance.

Canon Date and Authorship

The Book of Lamentations is found in the Jewish canon as one of the Megillot, the Five Scrolls. The LXX placed Lamentations after Jeremiah and Baruch, assuming the prophet to be the author and thus its current location in the Christian canon. Wherever its location its canonicity has never been challenged (so far as we can tell), within either Jewish or Christian tradition.

Almost all scholars agree that the Book of Lamentations was written in the years immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem. Certainly these five poems express the kind of shock and despair that we might expect from an eyewitness, yet their form and style demonstrate that they were created as an act of reflection on and as a memorial of their tragedy.

Form and Genre

The form and genre of Lamentations is unique within the biblical canon and as such deserves some comment. Lamentations is a collection of five poems, each intimately related by both structure and content. The first four are acrostics: the first letter of each stanza is a subsequent letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus the first stanza begins with aleph, the second with beth, and so on. There is variation within this form as ch. 4 has only two couplets per stanza and ch. 3 has one couplet per stanza and repeats each letter three times (so the first three lines each begin with aleph, etc.). The final chapter does not have an alphabetic acrostic, but echoes the acrostic form since it has 22 lines paralleling the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The acrostic form is found in other ancient near eastern texts and may be merely intended as an aid to memory, however it is more likely intended to demonstrate the completeness of Judah’s grief, it is “from A to Z” (Gottwald).

Liturgical Use

The earliest recorded use of these poems is within the Tisha b’Av liturgy commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem (see Zech. 7:3-5). They were used and perhaps written as monuments of memorial and continue in such use within Jewish tradition. The early church saw reference to Jesus in passages such as 4:20 (“The Lord’s anointed”) and his suffering on the cross in 1:12. Portions of the text continue to be used in Christian liturgy such as in the Tenebrae service during Holy Week (Lam. 1:15).

Targum & Midrash

Most of you are, of course, familiar with the targumim, the Aramaic rendering of the biblical text. It is import, however, that we not forget that the targumim are at once both translation and commentary. As translation a targum is engaged in the task of faithfully representing God’s word by rendering into Aramaic every word of the biblical text in its proper order. This is contrast with midrash which is rabbinic exegetical commentary that often comments only upon select verses. I was reminded recently that midrash “cannot be defined but merely described.”¹ “Midrash” can refer to the exegetical method or the actual text/genre of rabbinic commentary.

These distinctions are not always so distinct and this is particularly true in the targumim to the Megillot. Within the targumim commentary is also frequently woven into the translation and thus moves targum beyond what we might define in modern terms as a “simple translation.” This is most often found as simple glosses or additional words and phrases added to the text for clarity or explanation, but occasionally larger sections of material will be spliced into the text. Such is the case in the targumim to the Megillot.
With regards to Lamentations, even as we find a fair amount of midrashic interpretation within the targum, this distinction between targumic and midrashic approach is evidenced in their concerns in reading the text. The targumist has the two-fold concern of presenting the biblical text “faithfully” (or at least as he understands that notion) while at the same time offering some amount of direction so that the audience does not misunderstand the word of God. In Lamentations the primary concern of the targumist was not so much the circumstances of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, but rather the text itself. The darshan, on the other hand, viewed the biblical text often as nothing more than a jumping off point, from which another text might be interpreted with often merely a single word from the base text being the trigger for the exegetical train that ensues.

Lam 1:1

‏אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָדָד הָעִיר רַבָּתִי עָם
הָיְתָה כְּאַלְמָנָה רַבָּתִי בַגּוֹיִם
שָׂרָתִי בַּמְּדִינוֹת הָיְתָה לָמַס׃

How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.

TgLam 1:1

1 Jeremiah the Prophet and High Priest told how it was decreed that Jerusalem and her people should be punished with banishment and that they should be mourned with ʾekah. Just as when Adam and Eve were punished and expelled from the Garden of Eden and the Master of the Universe mourned them with ʾekah.

The Attribute of Justice spoke and said, “Because of the greatness of her rebellious sin that was within her, thus she will dwell alone as a man plagued with leprosy upon his skin who sits alone.”

And the city which was full of crowds and many peoples has been emptied of them and she has become like a widow. She who was great among the nations and a ruler over provinces which had brought her tribute has become lowly again and gives head tax to them from thereafter.

אמר ירמיהו נביא וכהנא רבא איכדין אתגזר על ירושלם ועל עמהא לאתדנא בתירוכין ולמספד עליהון איכה היכמה דאתדנן אדם וחוה דאתרכו מגנתא דעדן ואספד עלויהון מרי עלמא איכה ענת מדת דינא וכן אמרת על סגיאות חובהא אשתדר ומה דבגוהא בגין תהא יתבא בלחודהא כגבר דמכתש סגירו על בסריה דבלחודוהי יתיב וקרתא דהוה מליא אוכלוסין ועממין סגיאין אתרוקנת מנהון והות דמיא כארמלא ודמתרברבא בעמיא ושליטא באפרכיא והוון מסקין לה מסין הדרת למהוי מכיכא ולמתן לה כרגא בתר דנא

Lamentations Rabbah to Lam. 1:1, Petihta 1 (Soncino Edition)

R. Abba b. Kahana opened his discourse with the text, Cry thou with a shrill voice, O daughter of Gallim (Isa. X, 30). Isaiah said to Israel, Rather than you should utter songs and praises before idols, cry with a shrill voice in words of Torah,² cry with a shrill voice in the Synagogues. ‘O daughter of Gallim’: as the waves (gallim) are conspicuous in the sea, so are the patriarchs in the world. Another interpretation of ‘O daughter of Gallim’ is to read the text as bath Golim, i.e. ‘O daughter of wanderers’–daughter of³ Abraham, of whom it is written, And there was a famine in the land; and Abram went down into Egypt (Gen. XII, 10); daughter of Isaac, of whom it is written, And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines unto Gerar (ib. XXVI, 1); daughter of Jacob, of whom it is written, And he went to Paddan-aram (ib. XXVIII, 5).
‘Hearken’ (Isa. X, 30): hearken to My commandments, hearken to words of Torah, hearken to words of prophecy, hearken to the dictates of righteousness and benevolence. ‘O Laish’: otherwise layeshah, i.e. a lion, will come up against you, alluding to the wicked Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is written, A lion is gone up from his thicket (Jer. IV, 7). ‘O thou poor’: poor in righteous men, poor in words of prophecy, poor in performance of the Divine precepts and in good deeds. ‘Anathoth’: otherwise, Anathoth, i.e. the man of Anathoth, will come and prophesy against you; as it is written, The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth (ib. I, 1). Since retribution came upon Israel, he [Jeremiah] lamented over them, Ekaha.⁴

Let’s consider a few examples. If we begin at the beginning of the Book of Lamentations we find that both the targum and the midrash have added a considerable amount of commentary. TgLam actually dramatically expands the first four verses of Lamentations and in so doing provides a theological prologue by which the entire book is to be interpreted by his audience. I have provided here only the first verse. You can see that there are a number of things going on in this single verse that are atypical of a targum, but relatively common in the targumim of the Megillot. Traits that make using these targumim for text critical purposes difficult if not impossible, but in the Bible in =Its Traditions project would make them useful for the Jewish interpretative tradition section of the apparatus.

The targumist has represented each word of the Hebrew in Aramaic, in order, but those equivalents are floating in a sea of commentary. The targumist identifies Jeremiah as the author, something not explicit in Lamentations itself but long held in tradition, and roots the laments (ekhah) of Israel in the rebellion of Adam and Eve. The subsequent three verses will go on to sketch out a Heilsgeschichte of Israel’s rebellion against God and providing reasons for why God allowed Jerusalem and the Temple to be destroyed. The targumist also sets the tone right at the beginning that it grieves God to have to allow these acts. “The Master of the Universe mourned them with ‘ekah.”

Lamentations Rabbah, the midrash of the book of Lamentations, is a collection of various homilies, commentaries, and haggadic stories based upon the text of Lamentations and while it may contain earlier traditions, it is dated to the late 5th or early 6th century ce. Ekhah Rabbati begins with an exegetical exuberance, with no less than 35 patihtaot on the first verse alone! We will look quickly at only the first portion of the first patihta. It is quite typical of homiletic midrashim in that it begins with an opening verse from another biblical book, in this case Isaiah (possibly the haftorah for Tisha b’Av), and works its way through a string of biblical citations and allusions back to the base text of Lam. 1:1.

The opening text is Isa. 10:30. “Cry aloud, O daughter Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! Answer her, O Anathoth!” The midrash begins its commentary with the reference to crying with a loud voice, and places into the mouth of Isaiah the warning that Israel should spend its time studying Torah and saying prayers in the synagogue, an implicit explanation for the tragedy that befell Jerusalem. The midrash then plays with the term ‏גַּלִּים and offers various interpretations of its meaning. It finally returns to Isa. 10:30 and the exhortation to heed the Torah is again put forth. The town name Laishah puts the darshan in mind of a lion (‏לַיִשׁ) and Jeremiah 4:7, “A lion is gone up from his thicket.” Finally, the reference to Anathoth in Isa. 10:30 also reminds the darshan of the fact that Jeremiah is from Anathoth and that it was he who prophesied against Jerusalem and he lamented her downfall, thus Ekhah, the opening word of Lamentations.
You can see how the midrash seem, in some ways, to have only passing interest in the text of Lamentations itself and instead is engaged in a kind of exegetical game, swinging from word to word of the intersecting text, Isa. 10:30, until he returns at last to our base text.

I will offer quickly one other verse to demonstrate a particular peculiarity of TgLam and how it deals with the difficulties presented not by the language or grammar of the text, but of its meaning.

Lam 1:15

15‏ סִלָּה כָל־אַבִּירַי אֲדֹנָי בְּקִרְבִּי
קָרָא עָלַי מוֹעֵד לִשְׁבֹּר בַּחוּרָי
גַּת דָּרַךְ אֲדֹנָי לִבְתוּלַת בַּת־יְהוּדָה׃
The LORD has rejected
all my warriors in the midst of me;
he proclaimed a time against me
to crush my young men;
the Lord has trodden as in a wine press
the virgin daughter Judah.

TgLam 1:15

כבש כל תקיפיי יי ביני אראע עלי זמן לתברא חיל עולימיי ועלו עממי על גזירת מימרא דיי וסאיבו בתולתא דבית יהודה על די הוה דמהון דבתולתהן מתשד היך כחמר מן מעצרתא בעדן דגבר מבעט ית ענבין חמר ענבוהי שדיין‏:‬

The Lord has crushed all my mighty ones within me; he has established a time against me to shatter the strength of my young men. The nations entered by the decree of the Memra of the Lord and defiled the virgins of the House of Judah until their blood of their virginity was caused to flow like wine from a wine press when a man is treading grapes and grape-wine flows.

Lamentations Rabbah to Lam. 1:15 (Soncino)

LamR 44. THE LORD HATH SET AT NOUGHT (SILLAH) ALL MY MIGHTY MEN (I, 15). He hath made me like refuse before them. R. Abba b. Kahana said: In Bar Gamza⁵ they call refuse ‘sallutha’.⁶ R. Levi sai d: In Arabia they call a comb ‘mesalselah’.⁷
HE HATH CALLED A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY AGAINST ME TO CRUSH MY YOUNG MEN. We find that the death of youths is considered as grievous as the destruction of the Temple; for it is written, THE LORD HATH TRODDEN AS IN A WINEPRESS THE VIRGIN DAUGHTER OF JUDAH,⁸ and in the same way, HE HATH CALLED A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY AGAINST ME TO CRUSH MY YOUNG MEN.⁹

The targum has represented each word of the Hebrew text in order, but has also added some additional material in response to the biblical text. The biblical text’s final stich, “the Lord has trodden as in a wine press the virgin daughter Judah,” is what has triggered this expansion. The image conjured by MT is a gruesome one; although it is clearly intended as a metaphor, MT describes the Lord trampling the “virgin daughter of Judah” (גת דרך אדני לבתולת בת-יהודה). The targumist of TgLam has little problem with speaking of God in anthropomorphic terms, but clearly this verse is too much for his sensibilities. Rather than the Lord treading upon the virgin, the Lord decrees by his Memra that the nations should enter Jerusalem.
So our targumist embellishes the text and turns an already graphic image into something truly horrific. Once within the city, the nations raped the virgins so viciously that “their blood of their virginity was caused to flow like wine from a wine press.” The image is vivid and shocking and although it removes God from the role of active abuser, the biblical image has been taken to an extreme. God issues the initial decree allowing the enemy to enter the Holy City (since no harm can assail Jerusalem without God’s approval), but it is the nations who actually defile the innocent.

The treatment of this verse and others like it in TgLam reveals the targumist’s pattern of dealing with passages that it finds truly troubling. The events of 586 bce or even 70 ce were not of great concern to the targumist. That God is the one who decreed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is understood. That Israel had sinned and therefore deserved her punishment is taken as a given and such a view is defended throughout the targum. The fact that the text states that “the Lord has trodden…the virgin daughter of Judah,” the possibility that God could directly do something so atrocious, offends our targumist’s sensibilities. The targumist deflects this by taking the odd approach of intensifying the text, something that I have termed “dramatic heightening,” so that while making the nations the active agent (while God remains the cause) he also makes the act far more grotesque and literal.

Again, Lamentations Rabbah takes a different approach. In this case there is no opening or intersecting verse that rather the darshan begins to work directly on the base text. The midrash has a few plays on the Hebrew סִלָּה and then comments briefly on the phrase that caught the targumist’s attention. The midrash simply states, “We find that the death of youths is considered as grievous as the destruction of the Temple.” It is a strong theological statement that one might suggest can only be made many years after the Temple has been destroyed. The darshan is able to make this connection because he has equated the “virgin daughter of Judah” of the third stich with the temple and finds it in parallel with the young men of the first stich.

This is just a very brief sampling the two primary exegetical witnesses to the rabbinic interpretation of Lamentations. Lamentations is invoked often in other midrashic texts and in halakhic texts as well, usually in subordination to a larger exegetical agenda. The midrash relates many tales of heroism and piety that occurred during the siege(s) of Jerusalem and following the capture and destruction. The targum wrestles with the biblical text to present it in such a way that the people of Israel will not mistake their exacting God for a capricious God. In general terms we can say that the rabbinic response to Lamentations and the destruction of Jerusalem was to use it as an opportunity to exhort the scattered nation of Israel to return to faithful worship of God and specifically through rabbinic understandings of what is right worship, the reading of Torah, the study of Mishnah, and meeting in the Synagogue.

1. Strack-Stemberger, p. 235
2. The meaning is: use your voice for study and prayer.
3. Descendant of, the feminine being used of the nation.
4. ‘How’–How doth the city sit solitary (Lam. I, 1).–Ekah is the usual way of commencing a dirge or lamentation.
5. S.E. of Lydda.
6. The text reads סרקיו but a word is required sounding like sillah.
7. He would therefore translate: “The Lord hath combed the flesh of all my mighty men.” Combing the flesh was a common form of torture.
8. Cf. Prologue XXXII where wine-press’ is explained as the Temple.
9. Since both are related in the same verse, they are equal tragedies.

The images presented here are from the Codex Solger MS 1-7.2° (Solger) manuscript. The images are made available courtesy of and with the permission of the Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg.

Codex Solger MS 1-7.2° (Solger) of Nürnberg represents the Western Text tradition of TgLam. Solger is three years older than Urb. 1, dated to 1291, and is likely to be the basis for the Rabbinic Bible, prepared by Felix Pratensis and printed in 1517 by Daniel Bomberg and reprinted without Tiberian pointing (and other minor alterations) by Lagarde in 1872. Dr. Christine Sauer, librarian of the manuscript department of the Stadtbibliothek of Nürnberg, has informed me that unfortunately “in Solg. Ms. 7.2° a double-leaf with TgLam 1-9a has been lost.” The MS contains the Hebrew text of Lamentations followed verse by verse with the Targum.

The images below thus start with TgLam 1:9b. The names of the images indicate the passages included in the image, e.g,. “tglam19b-16a” contains TgLam Chapter 1 verse 9b through Chapter 1 verse 16a.