Book of Lamentations

• Book of Psalms
• Job
• Book of Proverbs

• Book of Ruth
• Canticles
• Ecclesiastes
• Lamentations
• Book of Esther

• Book of Daniel
• Ezra and Nehemiah
• First and Second Chronicles Book

• Isaiah
• Jeremiah

• Lamentations
• Baruch including letter of Jeremiah

• Ezekiel (Ezekiel )
• Book of Daniel ( accessories)

• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micha
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi

The Lamentations of Jeremiah ( Hebrew איכה ʾ EHA ( h), Eikha, called in the Septuagint Lamentations, in the Vulgate Lamentationes, sometimes referred to as jeremiads; abbreviated Lam ) is a book of the Tanakh, which consists of five poems. There they are in the third part of the Tanakh, Torah according to ( transfer) and Nevi'im ( Prophets), classified under the hard rolls ( Megillot ), in the Old Testament of the Bible they are brought forward in order, after the prophet Jeremiah.

Time of origin

In the Lamentations of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of 586 BC is deplored. The facts of the events described in 2 Kings 25 EU and 52 EU Jer. From this in content to offer a formation 586-530. The profound shock in the first four chapters suggests that they were written from the immediate experience out shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. Chapter 5 emphasizes more the suffering of exile.

Author

Lamentations are anonymous, they contain nothing that suggests the author. According to Jewish tradition from pre-Christian times ( Targum, Septuagint ), the prophet Jeremiah is considered the author. In the secondary literature, opinions are divided about it. In the main stream of today's theological world Jeremiah is barely represented as the author. In the style of expression and the way there are similarities between the prophetic book of Jeremiah and Lamentations. It can be assumed that the author was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Some authors assume that Jeremiah after the exile of Judah remained a time in order to care for those left behind. During this time the Lamentations were incurred.

Density -driven style

Lamentations are examples of high standing of Hebrew poetry. They are written in the meter of the Jewish lament ( Qena ), the first four as Abecedarium (name song). This acrostic not only has the practical purpose of a memory aid, but is also an expression of the immensity of the all-inclusive grief - see the German the phrase " A to Z" for "everything". The acrostic proves that the songs from the beginning were written literature and do not constitute a later written down oral tradition.

The first two songs each contain 22 verses with three lines. The first words of each verse begin the sequence with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The fourth song is designed as well, but come on every verse two lines. The third song has 66 verses, divided into 22 units of three verses. Each of these verses starts with the same letter. A special feature is that in the second of the Pe - verse precludes the usual alphabetical order now before the Ayin verse to fourth song. This result is, however, also is in the old alphabet boards. The fifth song has 22 verses in one row, but no specific sequence of letters. Lamentations use a large number of images to convey the suffering and sorrow plastic.

Content

The most striking feature is the personification of Jerusalem as the " daughter of Zion ", plaintive mother, raped and dishonored lover and abandoned widow. These elements suggest that there may be a genus of ancient oriental city action was a model for the writing of these texts. There you will find the following action items:

Lamentations in Religious Tradition

Jewish traditions

Orthodox Jews read Lamentations week at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Tisha Beav is an annual Jewish commemoration and fast day commemorating the destruction of the Jerusalem temple ( Bajith Rishon ) by the Babylonians and the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem ( Bajith Sheni ) by the Romans, where the Lamentations are chanted.

Lamentations go together with Job and Jeremiah to the single parts of Scripture, read the traditional Jews in the period of mourning after the death of a relative.

Christian tradition

In the Catholic liturgy Lamentations are sung in the Triduum Sacrum Holy Week in the early morning Karmetten as readings. Allioli, in his introduction to the lamentations of various motives and intentions of the Church for this choice. Lamentations are often associated with the Latin Incipites " De Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae " ( German: "From the lamentation of Jeremiah the prophet " ) or " Incipit Oratio Jeremiae Prophetae " ( German: "It begins the speech of the prophet Jeremiah " ) was introduced and the Latin call " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Dominum Deum tuum ad convertere " ( German: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, turn to your Lord and towards God " ) completed.

There are in the history of church music, a large number of musical settings, either of Lamentations or the responsory. Among the latter are works of Carlo Gesualdo and Marc- Antoine Charpentier. The text of Lamentations is distributed differently on the respective days or Nocturnes:

In the current Protestant lectionary only the portion is represented Lamentations 3,22-26.31-32 and assigned as reading from the Old Testament ( Sermon Series III ) 16th Sunday after Trinity. Matthias Weckmann created in August 1663, a spiritual concert of verses of the first chapter, entitled How is the town as desert for the 10th Sunday after Trinity, where the destruction of the city of Jerusalem was intended. Rudolf Mauersberger set to music the verses 1,1.4.9.13; 2.15; 5,17.20-21 in his motet As the city is desolate from the Dresden cycle on Holy Saturday in 1945 as a response to the destruction of Dresden. Klaus Miehling wrote a complete cycle of nine Lamentations (op. 15, 1985) as well as individual pieces: for Choir and Strings (Op. 20, 1987), and soprano recorder quartet (op. 78, 1999), four voices ATTB (op. 84, 2001).