Lamentations

Mourning for Jerusalem

Lamentations gathers five poems of mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians, without hiding the pain or the question of meaning.

Historical context

Four of the five poems are acrostics: each stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The book is read on the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av.

Explanation

Best-known passages

“How doth the city sit solitary” (ch. 1)
“His compassions… are new every morning” (ch. 3)
The final prayer (ch. 5)