Fallen Into Knowledge

Some thoughts while reading Lamentations:

1. The “speaker” in Lamentations is the city of Jerusalem. At first I thought that Jerusalem was just used figuratively to refer to the inhabitants of the city, but it becomes clear that it is the city’s lament we are reading. I haven’t determined whether this voice, that is - Jerusalem’s, is consistent throughout, or whether another, the prophet’s?, interjects. If it is the former, then the reading of 3:55ff could be really interesting.

2. Chapter 5:4-5, which reads, “We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. With a yoke on our neck we are hard driven…” calls to mind the Exodus. Specifically, the Israelite’s passage though Edom is evoked (Numbers 20:18f):

The Israelites said to him, ‘we will stay on the highway; and if we drink your water, we and our livestock, then we will pay for it. It is only a small matter; just let us pass through on foot.’ But he said, ‘You shall not pass through.’ And Edom came out against them with a large force, heavily armed.

(There is another, similar, scene in the Pentateuch, but I don’t remember where.)

The Book of Jeremiah certainly isn’t a “happy” book: the prophet Jeremiah, who is also attributed with writing Lamentations, certainly had a rough go of it. The mostly bleak outlook for Israel in Jeremiah makes it hard to read. Its like watching someone bent on self-destruction, and knowing that nothing you could do would prevent them from succeeding.
And yet. Even here, at the end of Jeremiah, we see that the unjust punishers of Israel (namely, Babylon), will also be punished. (Habakkuk covers similar territory). Also, as we finish the book we are left with words of hope:

Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord of Hosts, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel

Reminds me of Paul’s words in 2nd Timothy, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, –for he cannot deny himself”