Lamennais, Jean Marie Robert de, a French theoloiiian, brother of the preceding, born at St. Malo about 1775, flourished as canon of the diocese of Kennes, and was the founder of the order known as Les fr'eres de Lamennais de Ploermel (compare Ilerzog, Recd-Ency- klojh iv, 509). He wrote several works on religious sub- jects, but they are of no particular value. In the prep- aration of Tradition de Veglise sur I' institution des evcques he greatly assisted his brother. He died in 1860. — Thomas, Biographical Dictionary, p. 1362.
Lament (represented by numerous Heb. and sev- eral Gr. words, of which the principal are P3X, uhcd', to mnurn; ITIJ X, «««/*', to sm//j; ilifi, nahah', to wail ; 'ISO, saphad', to smite the breast in token of violent grief; "jJip, hin,to strike a mournful tune ; iirS, hahah', to weepi ; ^p7]viw, to wail aloud ; kotttu), to cut, i. e. beat the bo- som, etc., in violent liursts of grief; with their deriva- tives). The Orientals are accustomed to bewail the dead in the most passionate manner, and even hire pro- fessional mourners, usually women, to perform this cere- mony more effectually at funerals. See Burial; Gkief, etc.
The '^3''p, hinah', elegy, or dii'ge, is not mentioned in the earliest Hebrew writings. The first example of it which we meet with, and also one of tlie most beautiful and pathetic, is the lament of David over Saul and Jon- athan (2 Sam. i, 17-27). Notwithstanding, it is natural to suppose that, from an early period, and not on rare occasions, the Hebrew poetic spirit found utterance in this class of compositions. The kimih is mentioned as a frequent accompaniment of mourning in Amos viii, 10 : '• I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation" (ilS'^p). Jeremiah wrote a la- ment on the death of Josiah,which, as we are informed, was added to the collection of kinoth or dirges existing at that time (2 Chron. xxxv, 25; compare also Jer. vii, 29 ; ix, 9, 10, 19). In 2 Sam. iii, 33, 34, is preserved the brief but touching lament of David over Abner (q. v.).
The kinah was of two sorts, historical andpi-ophetical. The laments of David and Jeremiah already mentioned are of the former sort. In the prophetic writings, and especially in Ezekiel, we meet with the prophetic la- ment, which had reference to some calamity yet future, but vividly anticipated and realized. Thus Ezek. xxvii, 2, " Son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus," etc. In this case the prophet himself is told to raise his la- ment, as if the city had already been overthrown. In others he gives to his prophecy the form of a lament, to be used when the predicted calamity has actually taken place. The calamity is so inevitable that the prepara- tions for bewailing it may be now begun. (Comp. Ezek. xix, 1, 14; xxvi, 17; xxvii, 32; xxviii, 12; xxxii, 2, 16. So Amos V, 1.)
The only other passage in which 113 "^p, or its cognate verb 'ilp (lMm-n),\s found, is Ezek. ii, 10, where we read of a " roll of a book," "ISO r^5p {megilluth sepher), be- ing spread out before the prophet ; " and there was writ- ten therein lamentations, D'^3"^p (kinim), and mourning, and woe." It is a remarkable coincidence, but probably nothing more, that immediately before the book of Eze- kiel there stands in most of the versions of the Hebrew Scriptures a il^S^a, or roll, which answers quite to this description. Those who regard the book of Lamenta- tions as belonging to the class of prophetic laments might probably find in this coincidence a confirmation of their views.
The opinion just mentioned, that the book of Lamen- tations was written pirolepticcdly in view of the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, and belongs to the class of prophetic kinoth, as intended to describe that event proplietically, is an ancient opinion, held and defended by critics of no mean reputation, is not now so generally entertained as formerly. The prophetic laments are usually very brief; or, if thej' include more than a few verses, always tend to pass into distinct prophecy, and rarely keep up to the close their character as laments (Ezek. xxvii, 27, etc.). Perhaps the most perfect example is the lament in Ezek. xxviii, 12-19; but even there we meet with a " Thus saith the Lord" (ver. 12). It is therefore, ^jrimci facie, improbal)le that an elegiac composition so length- ened and elaborate as the book of Lamentations should bear a distinctively prophetic character ; though, on the other hand, its assumed prophetical character might be said to justify this extended wail. Moreover, in the book itself there is not the slightest indication that it does bear such a character; and the most ancient tradi.- tion — that contained in the Sept. — gives to it a histori- cal foundation. It is, indeed, an old conjecture, that the book of Lamentations is identical with the lament wliich Jeremiah composed on the death of Josiah (2 Chron. xxxv, 25) ; but this, if its main or only purpose, is quite inconsistent with the fact that throughout the entire book tliere is not a single allusion to the death of Josiah. Only once is mention made of the king, '• the anointed of the Lord" (iv, 20), and the reference is evidently not to Josiah. — Fairbairn, s. v. See Lajientations, Book of.