Lamentations

• DatesWritten after 586 BC, probably within the following decades (debated)
• GenreMajor Prophets
• AuthorshipAnonymous; tradition names Jeremiah
• TimelineExile & Return (including the Second Temple period)
• Key textsLamentations 1; Lamentations 3; Lamentations 5
• Read the textLamentations in the World English Bible
• Covered in classSession 3

What the sources say, and how sure we are

• The text says

  The poems mourn the fall of Jerusalem and the temple. Chapters 1–4 are acrostics, with each verse or group of verses beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.Lam 1; Lam 3:22–24

• Outside evidence

  Excavations in Jerusalem show burned buildings and a destruction layer from the Babylonian conquest of 586 BC.2 Kgs 25:8–10

• Debated

  The book does not name its author. The Greek Bible and Jewish tradition connect it with Jeremiah, and some scholars accept this, while others see several poets writing in the years after the destruction.2 Chr 35:25