The Makers and Teachers of Judaism | Page 7

of the great
national calamity, rather than Jeremiah's searching analysis of
fundamental causes. A careful study of Lamentations shows that
chapters 2 and 4 were probably written by one who was powerfully
influenced by Ezekiel's thought. They both follow in their acrostic
structure an unusual order of the Hebrew alphabet, differing in this
respect from chapters 1 and 3. They have so many close points of
contact with each other that it is safe to say that they are both from the
same author. They reveal an intimate familiarity with events

immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem and were probably
written between 580 and 561 B.C., when Jehoiachin was liberated.
Chapters
1 and 3 follow the regular order of the Hebrew alphabet and apparently
represent the work of a later author or authors.

Chapter 1
is full of pathos and religious feeling and is closely parallel in thought
to such psalms as 42 and 137.

Chapter 3
is a poetic monologue describing the fate and voicing the contrition of
the righteous within the Judean community.

Chapter 5
, on the contrary, is in the three-beat measure and lacks the acrostic
structure of the preceding chapters. Its style and point of view are so
different from those of the preceding chapters that it must be the work
of another author, who probably lived in the Persian period.
IV. Its Real Character. The purpose of the book of Lamentations was
evidently, (1) to give appropriate expression to the feelings of the Jews
who survived the destruction of Jerusalem, 586 B.C.; (2) to drive home
the great lessons taught by their past history, and thus to arouse true
repentance; and (3) to kindle in turn hopes regarding their future.
Through them Jeremiah and Ezekiel live and speak again, but from the
point of view of the people. These tragic poems also throw
contemporary light upon the horrors of the final siege and capture of
Jerusalem and upon the fate of those who survived.
V. Numbers and Fortunes of the Jews Who Remained in Palestine. The
Jews actually carried into captivity constituted only a small part of the
total population of Judah (cf. Section XC:ii). The peasants and the
inhabitants of the towns outside Jerusalem remained undisturbed,
except as some of them were doubtless drafted into the army which
under Zedekiah undertook to defend Jerusalem against the Chaldeans.
From the later record of Nehemiah's work the names of many of these
towns can be determined. In the north were Jericho, Geba, Mizpah,
Anathoth, and Kirjath-jearim; in the centre, Netophah and Bethlehem;
and in the south Tekoa, Keilah, and Bethzur. The lot of these, who are

later known as the people of the land, was pitiable indeed. There are
many references in Lamentations and Ezekiel to the persecutions to
which they were subjected by their malignant foes, the Moabites and
Ammonites on the east and the Philistines on the west. Even more cruel
and aggressive were the Edomites, who had suffered many wrongs at
the hands of the Hebrews. It was probably about this time that this
half-nomadic people began to be driven northward by the advance of
the Nabateans, an Arab people who came from the south. Dislodged
from their homes, the Edomites took advantage of the weakness of the
Jews and seized southern Judah, including the ancient capital Hebron.
The doom which Ezekiel pronounces upon the Edomites in 25[12] is
because of the revenge that they wreaked upon the Jews at this time. It
is significant that Ezekiel's sermons in the period immediately
following the fall of Jerusalem contain dire predictions of divine
vengeance upon all these foes. After the overthrow of Gedaliah's
kingdom, the Jews who remained in Palestine appear to have been left
wholly without defences or defenders. Ezekiel, in 33:23-29, speaks of
those who inhabit the waste places in the land of Israel, who live in the
strongholds and the caves. Some of them appear to have turned robbers.
Foreign settlers came in from every side and in time intermarried with
the natives and led them into idolatry. Ezekiel sternly condemns their
immorality and apostasy.
From the references in Jeremiah 41:5 and Ezra 3:3 it is clear that even
during this reign of terror many of the people continued to offer
sacrifices to Jehovah at the great altar cut in native rock which stood
before the ruins of their temple in Jerusalem. Priests were also
doubtless found in the land to conduct these services. The ancient feasts,
however, with their joyous merrymaking and the resulting sense of
divine favor, were no longer observed. Instead, the people celebrated in
sackcloth and ashes the fasts commemorating the successive stages in
the destruction of their city (Zech. 7:3-7). While their lot was pitiable
and their character seemingly unpromising, these people of the land
were important