DAWN
Daily Arts Web Nucleus
\Home\

Discover the Arts! Each day a different image from the Literary, Performing, or Visual Arts representing a portion of Scripture
plus an explanation with links and a discussion forum

2013 October 8



The Entombment of Atala (1808)
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (1767-1824)
Romantic Style
Musee du Louvre, Paris, France
Image Source: Web Gallery of Art


     The Book of Lamentations Overview: Lamentations is a series of 5 poems lamenting the final fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in about 586 B.C. The first four chapters are acrostic poems. The fifth chapter is a non-acrostic poem. Each chapter has 22 verses except for chapter 3 which has 66 verses, consisting of 22 triplet acrostics. The first chapter follows the normal alphabetic order; but chapters 2-4 have a reversal of letter number 16 (called "Ayin") with number 17 ( called "Pe") -- (i.e., the order is Pe, Ayin in chapters 2, 3, and 4). Tradition holds that Jeremiah is the author, and the content of the book is consistent with Jeremiah's style in the Book of Jeremiah - particularly his use of poetry, laments, and variations of speakers (where he speaks, the people speak, and the LORD speaks, often without formal introduction - discernible by context - which is a device used by other prophets and poets in Scripture). For purposes of illustration, I've analyzed the chapters for major components of the mourning process in accord with "The Five Stages of Grief," as well as for content.

     Explanation: Bargaining. In Lamentations 2 (as in chapter one) the opening word is the exclamation, "eyk," "how!?" -- the word of denial -- how can these things be!? The first 12 verses deal mainly with this astonished grief. From 13 to 22 we see elements of bargaining (an attempt to cling to some modicum of hope, or to some last moment of comfort), particularly in verse 19, which advises the afflicted to "lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children" -- expressing the hope that the LORD might be moved by the suffering of the young and innocent to relent. This attempt to bargain is illustrated above by the young man clinging to his beloved till the last moment -- an attempt to cling to a last moment of comfort -- in this case, the comfort of mere touch. The chapter opens with a cry of distress at how the LORD has covered Zion with a cloud of his anger, destroyed her beauty, and forgot her (1). He destroyed her habitations, ruined her strong holds, and polluted the kingdom and the princes (2). He cut them off with fierce, fiery anger and slew all who were pleasant to the eye; he was their enemy who swallowed and destroyed them; he destroyed his tabernacle (the Temple) and its worship services and altar (3-7). He destroyed her walls and gates, exiled her princes, and would not speak to her prophets; the elders were stunned to silence (8-10). Jeremiah wept himself dry and was weak with distress because the children swooned in the streets, and begged for food, and died upon their mothers' bosoms (11-12). Considering these things, Jeremiah attempts to "bargain" for comfort for Zion, though her ruin is vast (13). He first says that she has been wronged by her prophets who said vain, foolish, and false things to her (14). He complains that those who pass by marvel at the destruction of her beauty and say that this was the day they looked for (15-16). He states that the LORD withdrew from her and let her enemies triumph (17). For these reasons the people plead with copious tears for restoration to favor; and Jeremiah encourages them to cry out to the Lord and plead for their children, and he pleads with the LORD to consider the horror of women eating their own children, of priests and prophets slain in the sanctuary, of the dead lying in the streets, of the terrors the LORD sent to consume them, and of the children slain by the enemy (18-22).


Lamentations 2

Aleph

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!

Beth

2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

Gimel

3 He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

Daleth

4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacleof the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

He

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.

Waw

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.

Zayin

7 The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

Heth

8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Teth

9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

Yodh

10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Kaph

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.

Lamed

12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

Mem

13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

Nun

14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

Samech

15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

Pe

16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

Ayin

17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

Sadhe

18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

Qoph

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.

Resh

20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Shin

21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

Tau

22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.





Home | DAWN Forum Archive | Site Index

Tomorrow's Picture: TBA

     PARTICIPATION: We have 7 areas available (via email) for your participation. We are accepting contributions for Prose, Poetry, Writers, Visual Artists, Music, DAWN, and ILLUMINATION. DAWN, the page you are presently visiting, features a new image daily and invites discussion of the artist, style, or Biblical subjects depicted. ILLUMINATION features a compact, Illuminated Bible for which we are accepting visual, auditory, musical, and written contributions on any Biblical passage or theme. Our goal is to have a community-made, online, Illuminated Bible.

Please Email Comments, Questions, and Contributions for All Areas To

AD LIB ARTS EMAIL
copyright 2013, Scott Souza