The Makers and Teachers of Judaism | Page 6

by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, so that none of
the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to reside
there, shall escape or be left to return to the land of Judah, to which

they have a desire to return; for none shall return except as fugitives.
And they who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to
the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who
have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall know whose
word shall be confirmed, mine or theirs."'
I. The Significance of the Destruction of the Hebrew State. The
destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. resulted in a mighty
Transformation of the life and thought of Israel. It marked the final
Overthrow of the old Hebrew kingdoms, and the gradual rise of that
new and important factor in human history known as Judaism. For over
three centuries the Jews who survived the great catastrophe were
helpless under the rule of the great world powers which in succession
conquered southwestern Asia. For the great majority of the Jewish race
it represented the beginning of that long exile which has continued until
the present. Scattered from the desert of Sahara to the distant land of
China, and from the Black Sea to the Indian Ocean, the different groups
of exiles quickly began to adapt themselves to their changed
surroundings and to absorb the new knowledge and the powerful
influences which gradually transformed their beliefs and ideals. While
their vision was vastly broadened by this contact, the danger and horror
of being completely engulfed in the great heathen world bound the
faithful more closely together, and in time made Judaism the solid,
unbreakable rock that has withstood the assaults and the disintegrating
forces of the ages. At first the survivors of the great catastrophe were
stunned by the blow that had shattered their nation. They lived only in
their memories of the past and in their hopes for the future. At last, in
the long period of misery and enforced meditation, they began not only
to accept but also to apply the eternal principles proclaimed by their
earlier prophets. Thus amidst these entirely new conditions they gained
a broader and deeper faith and were still further trained for the divine
task of teaching mankind.
II. The Book of Lamentations. After describing the destruction of the
little kingdom established at Mizpah under Gedaliah, the Hebrew
historical records suddenly become silent. This silence is due to the fact
that there was little of external interest to record. The real history of
this tragic half-century is the record of the anguish and doubts and
hopes in the hearts of the scattered remnants of the race. The little book

of Lamentations expresses dramatically and pathetically the thoughts of
the people as they meditated upon the series of calamities which
gathered about the great catastrophe of 586 B.C. Like the ancient Torah,
or five books of the Law, it contains a quintet of poems. These are very
similar in theme and form to many of the psalms of the Psalter. In the
first four the characteristic five-beat measure, by which the deep
emotions, especially that of sorrow, were expressed, is consistently
employed. Each of these four is also an acrostic, that is, each
succeeding line or group of lines begins with a succeeding letter of the
Hebrew alphabet. This acrostic form was probably adopted in order to
aid the memory, and suggests that from the first these poems were
written to be used in public. Even so the Jews of Jerusalem to-day
chant them on each of their sabbaths beside the foundation walls of the
great platform on which once stood their ruined temple. Although the
artificial character of these poems tends to check the free expression of
thought and feeling, it is possible to trace in them a logical progress and
to feel the influence of the strong emotions that inspired them.
III. Authorship and Date of the Book. In theme and literary form these
poems are so strikingly similar to Jeremiah's later sermons that it was
almost inevitable that tradition should attribute them to the great
prophet of Judah's decline. This tradition, to which is due the position
of the book of Lamentations in the Greek and English Bibles, cannot be
traced earlier than the Greek period. The evidence within the poems
themselves strongly indicates that they were not written by Jeremiah. It
is almost inconceivable that he would subject his poetic genius to the
rigid limitations of the acrostic structure. Moreover, he would never
have spoken of the weak Zedekiah, whose vacillating policy he
condemned, in the terms of high esteem which appear in Lamentations
4:20. These poems also reflect the popular interpretation