With the destruction of the temple and the interruption of its ritual, the exile of the leaders and loss of national sovereignty, an era has come to an end. Not long after the fall of Jerusalem an eyewitness of the national humiliation composed five laments. They combine confession of sin, grief over the suffering and humiliation of Zion, submission to merited chastisement, and strong faint in the constancy of Yahweh’s love and power to restore. Israel’s faith in Yahweh will survive the shattering experience of national ruin. In the first poem the poet describes Jerusalem’s miserable state after the destruction wrought by the Chaldeans. The city itself takes up the lament. “Must women eat their offspring?” Extreme famine sometimes led to this form of cannibalism. Have we ever come close to such suffering or witnessed such? It’s a time when there is nothing to say. No shortcut through pain, grief, and suffering. Just breathe! "rise up, shrill in the night...pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord."
With the destruction of the temple and the interruption of its ritual, the exile of the leaders and loss of national sovereignty, an era has come to an end. Not long after the fall of Jerusalem an eyewitness of the national humiliation composed five laments. They combine confession of sin, grief over the suffering and humiliation of Zion, submission to merited chastisement, and strong faint in the constancy of Yahweh’s love and power to restore. Israel’s faith in Yahweh will survive the shattering experience of national ruin. In the first poem the poet describes Jerusalem’s miserable state after the destruction wrought by the Chaldeans. The city itself takes up the lament. “Must women eat their offspring?” Extreme famine sometimes led to this form of cannibalism. Have we ever come close to such suffering or witnessed such? It’s a time when there is nothing to say. No shortcut through pain, grief, and suffering. Just breathe! "rise up, shrill in the night...pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord."
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