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.)
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