The delivers Lamentations (or Lamentations of Jérémie , איכהʾēḫā (H), Eikha) is a book of the Tanakh and Old Testament, probably writes by the prophet Jérémie close to Jerusalem and finished towards 607 before J. - C., with the Ier front century J. - C.. They are lamentations caused by the destruction of Jerusalem.

Context

This book is composed of five lyric poems. The four first are acrostic (each worms starts successively with one of the 22 letters of the alphabet Hebrew), except the third chapter. It describes the great pain caused by the seat, the catch and the destruction of Jerusalem by Nabuchodonosor II, king of Babylon. Vigorous and pathetic, this book expresses the major sorrow with the sight of desolation, the misery of confusion, of the famine, the sword and other plagues being the expression of the divine punishment for the sins of the people, the prophets and the priests. The book finishes nevertheless with a note of hope.

Summary

The first poem describes Jerusalem like a given up princess, punished because of the abundance of its transgressions. It lost its splendor and its adversaries make fun of its collapse. She says herself then: “Yahvé is right, because it is against its mouth that I rebelled. (...)” (Jérémie 1:18).

In the second, Jérémie known as: “My eyes were consumed in the tears. My intestines are in effervescence. My liver was spread with ground, because of the collapse of the girl of my people. ” (Jérémie 2:11). The children weaken in consequence of the famine, and the women eat their own children. The corpses strew the streets. The words of this passage are right: “At the day of the anger of Yahvé there was neither survivor nor surviving. ” (Jérémie 2:16, 22).

The third poem announces the hope of Sion in the divine mercy.

The fourth poem deplores the last glory of the temple of Jerusalem, now destroyed.

The last poem begin with a petition requiring of God to remember his people. They are their ancestors who sinned, and it is their fault which the people must now carry. Humbly, they confess: “As for you, O Yahvé, you will sit for indefinite times. Your throne is from generation to generation. (...) Make return to us towards you, O Yahvé, and we will return readily. Bring to us of the new days like formerly. But you really rejected us. You were indignant at us to the extreme. ” (Jérémie 5:19 - 22).

Random links:

Neuville (Puy-de-Dôme) | Ngayokhem | Calcinus elegans | Noubarachen | Picris