00. Audio for this class
0. Welcome
- Thoughts for Israel at this terrible time
- Checking in
- Our goals for learning Lamentations & Song of Songs
- The plan of this course. 5 classes on each megillah.
1. Opening Question
Why is it important to recount calamities?
Lamentations (Eicha): Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem (Rembrandt, 1606-1669) 1630 - 4gE-j88Uz3znNw — Google Arts & Culture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13410464
2. The Five Scrolls at a glance
- What are they about?
- Song of Songs/Shir haShirim: a collection of poems about love
- Ruth: the story of how Ruth the Moabite came to Judah and married Boaz
- Lamentations/Eicha: a collection of lamentations over the destruction of the First Temple
- Ecclesiastes/Kohelet: meditations on the effort to understand the purpose of life
- Esther: the story of how Esther becomes queen of Persia and how she and her cousin Mordecai overcome a plot to annihilate the Jews
- What is the time period described in the books?
- Ruth - in the period of the judges (before the Monarchy)
- Song of Songs - traditionally, the youth of King Solomon (10th c. BCE)
- Ecclesiastes/Kohelet - the old age of a king (traditioanlly, Solomon)
- Lamentations - 586 BCE (the destruction of the First Temple)
- Esther - sometime during the reign of Xerxes (486-465 BCE) of Persia
- The genres of the Five Scrolls
- Poetry: Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes
- Prose: Ruth, Esther
- When are they read in the Jewish calendar?
- Song of Songs: In many Ashkenazi and Sephardi congregations: during Passover
- Ruth: In many Ashkenazi and Sephardi congregations: during Shavuot
- Lamentations: Very widely - on the night of Tish'a beAv (The Fast of Av)
- Ecclesiastes: In many Ashkenazi (not Sephardi) congregations - during Sukkot
- Esther: Universally during Purim (traditionally both at night and during the day)
- Musical chant for the Five Scrolls
- "Five Scrolls" trope ('trop') - Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes
- Esther - a special, bright chant. Some phrases that are understood to refer to the Destruction of the Temple are read according to the trope of Lamentations
- Lamentations - a special, especially sad chant (chapter 3 is sometimes sung with its own melody)
3. About Lamentations
Structure
- 5 poems/chapters.
- Chapters 1-4 are alphabetical acrostics
Werner E. Lemke (revised by Kathleen O'Connor), Introduction to L., Harper Collins Study Bible Revised (2006), p. 1085
“The movement from a to z (aleph to tav) suggests that suffering is complete, total, and allows room for no more. Or the acrostic form may be an effort to put an order into the chaotic experience that followed invasion and persisted during military occupation of Judah.”
Purpose
Delbert R. Hillers, Anchor Bible: Lamentations (1972), Introduction, p. xvi.
…Lamentations served the survivors of the catastrophe in the first place as an expression of the almost inexpressible horror and grief they felt…. Lamentations is so complete and honest and eloquent an expression of grief that even centuries after the events which inspired it, it is still able to provide those in mute despair with words to speak.
Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Introduction to Lamentations
p. 645
Lamentations... is a strong response to the historical circumstances for which it was framed while at the same time speaking to analogous situations in other times and places. Its catalogue of horrors is something that, alas, we continue to see reenacted in various guises across the globe. Its faith in the prospect of a restored order of justice is a sustaining belief that humankind may always need in the face of massive devastation and the traumatic displacement of exile.
Historical Context
- King Jehoiakim of Judah (reigned 609-598 BCE), appointed by Egypt
- Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar defeats Egypt 605 BCE at Carchemish on the Euphrates (currently on border between Turkey and Syria)
- King Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim reigns for 3 months (597 BCE) and is exiled to Babylon
- King Zedekiah, brother of the late King Jehoiakim reigns 597-586 BCE and rebels against Babylon. Egypt does not come to his aid.
- 586 BCE Babylonia conquers Jerusalem. Destruction and Exile.
Biblical Context
(ח) וּבַחֹ֤דֶשׁ הַחֲמִישִׁי֙ בְּשִׁבְעָ֣ה לַחֹ֔דֶשׁ הִ֗יא שְׁנַת֙ תְּשַֽׁע־עֶשְׂרֵ֣ה שָׁנָ֔ה לַמֶּ֖לֶךְ נְבֻכַדְנֶאצַּ֣ר מֶֽלֶךְ־בָּבֶ֑ל בָּ֞א נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֧ן רַב־טַבָּחִ֛ים עֶ֥בֶד מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶ֖ל יְרוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃ (ט) וַיִּשְׂרֹ֥ף אֶת־בֵּית־ה' וְאֶת־בֵּ֣ית הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וְאֵ֨ת כׇּל־בָּתֵּ֧י יְרוּשָׁלַ֛͏ִם וְאֶת־כׇּל־בֵּ֥ית גָּד֖וֹל שָׂרַ֥ף בָּאֵֽשׁ׃
(י) וְאֶת־חוֹמֹ֥ת יְרֽוּשָׁלַ֖͏ִם סָבִ֑יב נָֽתְצוּ֙ כׇּל־חֵ֣יל כַּשְׂדִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר רַב־טַבָּחִֽים׃ (יא) וְאֵת֩ יֶ֨תֶר הָעָ֜ם הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֣ים בָּעִ֗יר וְאֶת־הַנֹּֽפְלִים֙ אֲשֶׁ֤ר נָֽפְלוּ֙ עַל־הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ בָּבֶ֔ל וְאֵ֖ת יֶ֣תֶר הֶהָמ֑וֹן הֶגְלָ֕ה נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֖ן רַב־טַבָּחִֽים׃ (יב) וּמִדַּלַּ֣ת הָאָ֔רֶץ הִשְׁאִ֖יר רַב־טַבָּחִ֑ים לְכֹרְמִ֖ים וּלְיֹגְבִֽים׃
Destruction - Exile
(8) On the seventh day of the fifth month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. (9) He burned the House of GOD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down the house of every notable person.
(10) The entire Chaldean force that was with the chief of the guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. (11) The remnant of the people that was left in the city, the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon—and the remnant of the population—were taken into exile by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards. (12) But some of the poorest in the land were left by the chief of the guards, to be vinedressers and field hands.
Hayim Tadmor, "The Period of the First Temple, the Babylonian Exile and the Restoration," Part II of A History of the Jewish People, ed. H. H. Ben-Sasson, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976, p. 158
The narrator related these events in a style more terse than that common to the rest of II Kings. It is not accidental that the historiographer who wrote Chapter 25 and appended it to the earlier Book of Kings chose a dry chronicler's style, without the inclusion of value judgements that is so typical of the book itself. His proximity to these tragic events and their magnitude imposed on him an uncommon reserve. His narration is unadorned; he is yet unable to comment and can only record.
Aftermath of the destruction of the First Temple--public mourning
(4) The second day after Gedaliah was killed, when no one else knew about it, (5) some men came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria—eighty of them, their beards shaved, their garments torn, and their bodies gashed—carrying grain offerings and frankincense to present at the House of GOD.
Questions of Authorship
יִרְמְיָה כָּתַב סִפְרוֹ וְסֵפֶר מְלָכִים וְקִינוֹת.
Jeremiah wrote his own book, and the book of Kings, and Lamentations (Kinot).
The burnt book of Jeremiah 36. Events of the year 605 BCE.
(1) In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from GOD: (2) Get a scroll and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you—concerning Israel and Judah and all the nations—from the time I first spoke to you in the days of Josiah to this day. (3) Perhaps when the House of Judah hear of all the disasters I intend to bring upon them, they will turn back from their wicked ways, and I will pardon their iniquity and their sin.
(21) The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll and he fetched it from the chamber of the scribe Elishama. Jehudi read it to the king and to all the officials who were in attendance on the king. (22) Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in the winter house, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. (23) And every time Jehudi read three or four columns, [the king] would cut it up with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the brazier.
(32) So Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. And at Jeremiah’s dictation, he wrote in it the whole text of the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned; and more of the like was added.
Septuagint (Jewish Greek translation of Tanach), Lamentations, Opening
These are the words of the prophet Jeremiah as he sat upon the hill weeping over Jerusalem.
(ט) ... גַּם־נְבִיאֶ֕יהָ לֹא־מָצְא֥וּ חָז֖וֹן מֵה'׃ {ס}
(9) ...Her prophets, too, receive
No vision from the LORD.
D. R. Hillers, op.cit., p. xxii
“Her prophets find no vision from [the Name]” (2:9) is in the last analysis a rather odd statement from one [=Jeremiah] who prophesied before, during, and after the catastrophe.
(11) They [=false prophets] offer healing offhand
For the wounds of My poor people,
Saying, “All is well, all is well,”
When nothing is well.
(10) I will turn Jerusalem into rubble,
Into dens for jackals;
And I will make the towns of Judah
A desolation without inhabitants.
Adele Berlin, Oxford Study Bible: Lamentations, Introduction, p. 1163
The book was compiled after 586 BCE and before the end of the sixth century BCE, when the Temple was rebuilt.
Our Text: Lamentations Chapter 1
Questions to consider:
- What elements of destruction does this chapter draw attention to?
- How does this chapter explain the calamity?
- Who is speaking in this chapter?
- What kind of metaphors and associations appear here?
- What hope or anticipation does this chapter have for the future?
(א) אֵיכָ֣ה ׀ יָשְׁבָ֣ה בָדָ֗ד הָעִיר֙ רַבָּ֣תִי עָ֔ם הָיְתָ֖ה כְּאַלְמָנָ֑ה רַבָּ֣תִי בַגּוֹיִ֗ם שָׂרָ֙תִי֙ בַּמְּדִינ֔וֹת הָיְתָ֖ה לָמַֽס׃ {ס} (ב) בָּכ֨וֹ תִבְכֶּ֜ה בַּלַּ֗יְלָה וְדִמְעָתָהּ֙ עַ֣ל לֶֽחֱיָ֔הּ אֵֽין־לָ֥הּ מְנַחֵ֖ם מִכׇּל־אֹהֲבֶ֑יהָ כׇּל־רֵעֶ֙יהָ֙ בָּ֣גְדוּ בָ֔הּ הָ֥יוּ לָ֖הּ לְאֹיְבִֽים׃ {ס} (ג) גָּֽלְתָ֨ה יְהוּדָ֤ה מֵעֹ֙נִי֙ וּמֵרֹ֣ב עֲבֹדָ֔ה הִ֚יא יָשְׁבָ֣ה בַגּוֹיִ֔ם לֹ֥א מָצְאָ֖ה מָנ֑וֹחַ כׇּל־רֹדְפֶ֥יהָ הִשִּׂיג֖וּהָ בֵּ֥ין הַמְּצָרִֽים׃ {ס} (ד) דַּרְכֵ֨י צִיּ֜וֹן אֲבֵל֗וֹת מִבְּלִי֙ בָּאֵ֣י מוֹעֵ֔ד כׇּל־שְׁעָרֶ֙יהָ֙ שֽׁוֹמֵמִ֔ין כֹּהֲנֶ֖יהָ נֶאֱנָחִ֑ים בְּתוּלֹתֶ֥יהָ נּוּג֖וֹת וְהִ֥יא מַר־לָֽהּ׃ {ס} (ה) הָי֨וּ צָרֶ֤יהָ לְרֹאשׁ֙ אֹיְבֶ֣יהָ שָׁל֔וּ כִּֽי־ה' הוֹגָ֖הּ עַ֣ל רֹב־פְּשָׁעֶ֑יהָ עוֹלָלֶ֛יהָ הָלְכ֥וּ שְׁבִ֖י לִפְנֵי־צָֽר׃ {ס} (ו) וַיֵּצֵ֥א (מן בת) [מִבַּת־]צִיּ֖וֹן כׇּל־הֲדָרָ֑הּ הָי֣וּ שָׂרֶ֗יהָ כְּאַיָּלִים֙ לֹא־מָצְא֣וּ מִרְעֶ֔ה וַיֵּלְכ֥וּ בְלֹא־כֹ֖חַ לִפְנֵ֥י רוֹדֵֽף׃ {ס} (ז) זָֽכְרָ֣ה יְרוּשָׁלַ֗͏ִם יְמֵ֤י עׇנְיָהּ֙ וּמְרוּדֶ֔יהָ כֹּ֚ל מַחֲמֻדֶ֔יהָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָי֖וּ מִ֣ימֵי קֶ֑דֶם בִּנְפֹ֧ל עַמָּ֣הּ בְּיַד־צָ֗ר וְאֵ֤ין עוֹזֵר֙ לָ֔הּ רָא֣וּהָ צָרִ֔ים שָׂחֲק֖וּ עַ֥ל מִשְׁבַּתֶּֽהָ׃ {ס} (ח) חֵ֤טְא חָֽטְאָה֙ יְר֣וּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם עַל־כֵּ֖ן לְנִידָ֣ה הָיָ֑תָה כׇּֽל־מְכַבְּדֶ֤יהָ הִזִּיל֙וּהָ֙ כִּי־רָא֣וּ עֶרְוָתָ֔הּ גַּם־הִ֥יא נֶאֶנְחָ֖ה וַתָּ֥שׇׁב אָחֽוֹר׃ {ס}
(1) Alas!
Lonely sits the city
Once great with people!
She that was great among nations
Is become like a widow;
The princess among states
Is become a thrall. (2) Bitterly she weeps in the night,
Her cheek wet with tears.
There is none to comfort her
Of all her friends.
All her allies have betrayed her;
They have become her foes. (3) Judah has gone into exile
Because of misery and harsh oppression;
When she settled among the nations,
She found no rest;
All her pursuers overtook her
In the narrow places. (4) Zion’s roads are in mourning,
Empty of festival pilgrims;
All her gates are deserted.
Her priests sigh,
Her maidens are unhappy—
She is utterly disconsolate! (5) Her enemies are now the masters,
Her foes are at ease,
Because the LORD has afflicted her
For her many transgressions;
Her infants have gone into captivity
Before the enemy.
(6) Gone from Fair Zion are all
That were her glory;
Her leaders were like stags
That found no pasture;
They could only walk feebly
Before the pursuer.
(7) All the precious things she had
In the days of old
Jerusalem recalled
In her days of woe and sorrow,
When her people fell by enemy hands
With none to help her;
When enemies looked on and gloated
Over her downfall. (8) Jerusalem has greatly sinned,
Therefore she is become a mockery.
All who admired her despise her,
For they have seen her disgraced;
And she can only sigh
And shrink back.
(9) Her uncleanness clings to her skirts.
She gave no thought to her future;
She has sunk appallingly,
With none to comfort her.—
See, O LORD, my misery;
How the enemy jeers! (10) The foe has laid hands
On everything dear to her.
She has seen her Sanctuary
Invaded by nations
Which You have denied admission
Into Your community. (11) All her inhabitants sigh
As they search for bread;
They have bartered their treasures for food,
To keep themselves alive.—
See, O LORD, and behold,
How abject I have become!
(12) May it never befall you,
All who pass along the road—
Look about and see:
Is there any agony like mine,
Which was dealt out to me
When the LORD afflicted me
On His day of wrath? (13) From above He sent a fire
Down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet,
He hurled me backward;
He has left me forlorn,
In constant misery. (14) The yoke of my offenses is bound fast,
Lashed tight by His hand;
Imposed upon my neck,
It saps my strength;
The Lord has delivered me into the hands
Of those I cannot withstand. (15) The Lord in my midst has rejected
All my heroes;
He has proclaimed a set time against me
To crush my young men.
As in a press the Lord has trodden
Fair Maiden Judah.
(16) For these things do I weep,
My eyes flow with tears:
Far from me is any comforter
Who might revive my spirit;
My children are forlorn,
For the foe has prevailed. (17) Zion spreads out her hands,
She has no one to comfort her;
The LORD has summoned against Jacob
His enemies all about him;
Jerusalem has become among them
A thing unclean. (18) The LORD is in the right,
For I have disobeyed Him.
Hear, all you peoples,
And behold my agony:
My maidens and my youths
Have gone into captivity! (19) I cried out to my friends,
But they played me false.
My priests and my elders
Have perished in the city
As they searched for food
To keep themselves alive. (20) See, O LORD, the distress I am in!
My heart is in anguish,
I know how wrong I was
To disobey.
Outside the sword deals death;
Indoors, the plague. (21) When they heard how I was sighing,
There was none to comfort me;
All my foes heard of my plight and exulted.
For it is Your doing:
You have brought on the day that You threatened.
Oh, let them become like me! (22) Let all their wrongdoing come before You,
And deal with them
As You have dealt with me
For all my transgressions.
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is sick.
Comments
Structure
Adele Berlin, Jewish Study Bible, Comment to 1.1-22
The chapter falls into two parts, two speaking voicers: vv.1-11, the poet, and vv. 12-22, the city (in v. 17 the poet's voicer is interjected).
Jerusalem as a Widow / Mourning Woman
(6) the father of orphans, the champion of widows,
God, in His holy habitation. (7) God restores the lonely to their homes,
sets free the imprisoned, safe and sound,
while the rebellious must live in a parched land.
Endless Mourning
Adele Berlin, Comment to v. 16
Comforter: The absence of a comforter is a major theme in the chapter. With no one to comfort her, Jerusalem's mourning cannot be completed.
Uncleanness/Impurity
(ט) טֻמְאָתָ֣הּ בְּשׁוּלֶ֗יהָ לֹ֤א זָֽכְרָה֙ אַחֲרִיתָ֔הּ וַתֵּ֣רֶד פְּלָאִ֔ים אֵ֥ין מְנַחֵ֖ם לָ֑הּ רְאֵ֤ה ה' אֶת־עׇנְיִ֔י כִּ֥י הִגְדִּ֖יל אוֹיֵֽב׃ {ס}
(9) Her uncleanness clings to her skirts.
She gave no thought to her future;
She has sunk appallingly,
With none to comfort her.—
See, O LORD, my misery;
How the enemy jeers!
Adele Berlin, Comment to v. 9
Her uncleanness: The metaphor of ritual impurity (Leviticus 15:16-24z0 is used to indicate Fair Zion's moral impurity. Zion has 'exposed herself' immodestly and is sexually immoral. Sexual immorality is, in turn, a metaphor for idolatry, the sin which caused the exile according to many biblical texts.
(1) Ha!
Those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely upon horses!
They have put their trust in abundance of chariots,
In vast numbers of riders,
And they have not turned to the Holy One of Israel,
They have not sought GOD.
(18) What, then, is the good of your going to Egypt
To drink the waters of the Nile?
And what is the good of your going to Assyria
To drink the waters of the Euphrates?
(23) How can you say, “I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baalim”?
Look at your deeds in the Valley [of Hinnom; cf. 7.31–32; 32.35.]
Consider what you have done!
Like a lustful she-camel,
Restlessly running about, (24) Or like a wild ass used to the desert,
Snuffing the wind in her eagerness,
Whose passion none can restrain,
None that seek her need grow weary—
In her season, they’ll find her!