OUTLINE OF LAMENTATIONS With Suggested Key Verses Lam

OUTLINE OF LAMENTATIONS With Suggested Key Verses Lam 2: 5 The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. Lam 2: 6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. Lam 3: 22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. Lam 3: 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

OUTLINE OF LAMENTATIONS n n Lamentations describes the funeral of a city. It is a tearstained portrait of the once proud Jerusalem, now reduced to rubble by the invading Babylonian hordes. In a five-poem dirge, Jeremiah exposes his emotions. A death has occurred; Jerusalem lies barren. Jeremiah writes his lament in acrostic or alphabetical fashion. Beginning each chapter with the first letter A (aleph) he progresses verse by verse through the Hebrew alphabet, literally weeping from A to Z. And then, in the midst of this terrible holocaust, Jeremiah triumphantly cries out, "Great is thy faithfulness" (3: 23). In the face of death and destruction, with life seemingly coming apart, Jeremiah turns tragedy into a triumph of faith. God has never failed him in the past. God has promised to remain faithful in the future. In the light of the God he knows and loves, Jeremiah finds hope and comfort. The Hebrew title of this book comes from the first word of chapters 1, 2, and 4: Ekah, "How!" Another Hebrew word Ginoth ("Elegies" or "Lamentations") has also been used as the title because it better represents the contents of the book. The Greek title Threnoi means "Dirges" or "Laments, " and the Latin title Threnoi ("Tears" or "Lamentations") was derived from this word. The subtitle in Jerome's Vulgate reads: "Id est lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae, " and this became the basis for the English title "The Lamentations of Jeremiah. " For forty years Jeremiah suffers rejection and abuse for his warnings of coming judgment. When Nebuchadnezzar finally comes and destroys Jerusalem in 586 b. c. , a lesser man might say, "I told you so!" But Jeremiah compassionately identifies with the tragicoverthrow of Jerusalem and composes five beautiful and emotional lament poems as a requiem for the once proud city. These dirges reflect the tender heart of the man who was divinely commissioned to communicate a harsh message to a sinful and stiff-necked people. The city, the temple, the palace, and the walls have been reduced to rubble and its inhabitants have been deported to distant Babylon. Jeremiah's five mournful poems can be entitled: the destruction of Jerusalem (1), the anger of Yahweh (2), the prayer for mercy (3), the siege of Jerusalem (4), and the prayer for restoration (5).

I. The Destruction of Jerusalem. . 1: 1 -22 n The Destruction of Jerusalem (1): This poem consists of a lamentation by Jeremiah (1: 1 -11) and a lamentation by the personified Jerusalem (1: 12 -22). The city has been left desolate because of its grievous sins, and her enemies "did mock at her sabbaths" (1: 7). Jerusalem pleads with God to regard her misery and repay her adversaries.

I. The Destruction of Jerusalem. . . . 1: 1 -22 A. The Lament of the Prophet Jeremiah 1: 1 -11 n 1. The Desolation of Jerusalem 1: 1 -7 n Lam 1: 1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! n 2. The Cause of Jerusalem's Desolation. . . . 1: 8 -11 n Lam 1: 8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

I. The Destruction of Jerusalem. . . . 1: 1 -22 B. The Lament of the City Jerusalem. . 1: 12 -22 n 1. The Contrition of Jerusalem 1: 12 -19 n Lam 1: 18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. n 2. The Confession of Jerusalem 1: 20 -22 n Lam 1: 20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

II. The Anger of God. . . 2: 1 -22 n The Anger of Yahweh (2): In his second elegy, Jeremiah moves from Jerusalem's desolation to a description of her destruction. Babylon has destroyed the city, but only as the Lord's instrument of judgment. Jeremiah presents an eyewitness account of the thoroughness and severity of Jerusalem's devastation. Through the Babylonians, God has terminated all religious observances, removed the priests, prophets, and kings, and razed the temple and palaces. Jeremiah grieves over the suffering the people brought on themselves through rebellion against God, and Jerusalem's supplications complete the lament.

II. The Anger of God. . . 2: 1 -22 A. The Anger of God 2: 1 -9 n Lam 2: 1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

II. The Anger of God. . . 2: 1 -22 B. The Agony of Jerusalem 2: 10 -17 n Lam 2: 11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

II. The Anger of God. . . 2: 1 -22 C. The Appeal of Jerusalem 2: 18 -22 n Lam 2: 19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

III. The Prayer for Mercy. . . . 3: 1 -66 n The Prayer for Mercy (3): In the first eighteen verses, Jeremiah enters into the miseries and despair of his people and makes them his own. However, there is an abrupt turn in verses 19 -39 as the prophet reflects on the faithfulness and loyal love of the compassionate God of Israel. These truths enable him to find comfort and hope in spite of his dismal circumstances. Jeremiah expresses his deep sorrow and petitions God for deliverance and for God to avenge Jerusalem's misery.

III. The Prayer for Mercy. . . . 3: 1 -66 A. Jeremiah's Cry of Despair. . . . 3: 1 -18 n Lam 3: 1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. n Lam 3: 2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

III. The Prayer for Mercy. . . . 3: 1 -66 B. Jeremiah's Confession of Faith 3: 19 -38 n Lam 3: 22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. n Lam 3: 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. n Lam 3: 39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

III. The Prayer for Mercy. . . . 3: 1 -66 C. Jeremiah's Condition of Need 3: 40 -54 n Lam 3: 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, n Lam 3: 51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. n Lam 3: 54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

III. The Prayer for Mercy. . . . 3: 1 -66 D. Jeremiah's Confidence in God 3: 55 -66 n Lam 3: 55 I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. n Lam 3: 56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

IV. The Siege of Jerusalem. . . . 4: 1 -22 n The Siege of Jerusalem (4): The prophet rehearses the siege of Jerusalem and remembers the suffering and starvation of rich and poor. He also reviews the causes of the siege, especially the sins of the prophets and priests and their foolish trust in human aid. This poem closes with a warning to Edom of future punishment and a glimmer of hope for Jerusalem.

IV. The Siege of Jerusalem. . . . 4: 1 -22 A. The Conditions During the Siege 4: 1 -10 n Lam 4: 10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

IV. The Siege of Jerusalem. . . . 4: 1 -22 B. The Cause of the Siege 4: 11 -20 n Lam 4: 11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

IV. The Siege of Jerusalem. . . . 4: 1 -22 C. The Consequences of the Siege 4: 21, 22 n Lam 4: 22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

V. The Prayer for Restoration. . 5: 1 -22 n The Prayer for Restoration (5): Jeremiah's last elegy is a melancholy description of his people's lamentable state. Their punishment is complete, and Jeremiah prayerfully desires the restoration of his nation.

V. The Prayer for Restoration. . 5: 1 -22 A. The Review of the Need for Restoration. . . . . 5: 1 -15 n Lam 5: 1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

V. The Prayer for Restoration. . 5: 1 -22 B. The Repentance of Sin 5: 16 -18 n Lam 5: 16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

V. The Prayer for Restoration. . 5: 1 -22 C. The Request for Restoration 5: 19 -22 n Lam 5: 21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.