IV. Author. — The poems included in this collection appear in the Hebrew canon with no name attached to them, and there is no direct external evidence that they were written by the prophet Jeremiah earlier than the date given in the prefatory verse which appears in the Septuagint, which is .is follows: "And it came to pass, after Israel had been carried away cai)tlve, and Jerusa- lem liad heconie tlesniale, that Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem, and said." Tills has been copied into the Arabic and Vul- gate versions; but as it does not exist in the Hel)rew, Chaldee, or Syriac, it was regarded by Jerome as spuri- ous, and is not admitted into his version. This repre- sents, however, tlie established belief of the Jews after the completion of the canon, 'i'lie Talnuid,'embodying the earliest traditions, has: '"Jeremiah wrote his book, the book of Kings, and the Lamentations"' (/)«6« Bttthra, 15, a ). Later Jewish writers are equally explicit {Echa liubb. introd.). Josephus {Ant. x, 5, 1) follows, as far
as the question of authorship is concerned, in the same track, and the absence of any tradition or jirobalde con- jecture to the contrary leaves the concensus of critics and commentators almost undisturbed. (See below.) An agreement so striking rests, as might be expected, on strong internal evidence. The poems belong unmis- takably to the last days of the kingdom or the com- mencement of the exile. They are written bj' one who speaks, with the vividness and intensity of an eye-wit- ness, of the misery which he bewails. It might almost be enough to ask Avho else then living could have writ- ten with that union of strong passionate feeling and en- tire submission to Jehovah which characterizes both the Lamentations and the Prophecy of Jeremiah. The evi- dences of identity are, however, stronger and more mi- nute. In both we meet, once and again, with the pic- ture of the " Virgin-daughter of Zion" sitting down in her shame and misery (Lam. i, 15 ; ii, 13 ; Jer. xiv, 17). In both there is the same vehement outpouring of sor- row. The prophet's eyes flow down with tears (Lam. i, 16; ii, 11; iii, 48, 49; Jer. ix, 1 ; xiii, 17; xiv, 17). There is the same haunting feeling of being suir-omided with fears and terrors on everj' side ( Lam. ii, 22 ; Jer. vi, 25 ; xlvi, 5). In both the worst of all the evils is the iniquity of the prophets and the priests (Lam. ii, 14 ; iv, 13 ; Jer. v, 30, 31 ; xiv, 13, 14). The suflterer appeals for vengeance to the righteous Judge (Lam. iii, 64-6G ; Jer. xi, 20). He bids the rival nation that exulted in the fall of Jerusalem prepare for a like desolation (Lam. iv, 21 ; Jer. xlix, 12). The personal references to Jere- miah's own fate, such as we know it from his book of Prophecies and Kings, are not wanting (comp. Lam. ii, 1 1, and iii, with Jer. XV, 15 sq.; xvii,]3sq.; xx,7; Lam. iii, 14 with Jer. xx, 7 ; iii, 64-06 with Jer. xvii, 18 ; v with iv, 17-20). As in the Prophecies, so here, the in- iquities of the people are given as the cause of the exile and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (com- pare i, 5, 8, 14, 22 ; iii, 39, 42 ; iv, 6, 22 ; v, 16 with Jer. xiii, 22-26; xiv, 7; xvi, 10 sq. ; xvii, 1 sq.), their sinful trust in false prophets and iniquitous priests, their rely- ing on tlie safety of Jerusalem, and on the aid of power- less and treacherous allies, etc. What is more, his poet- ical and prophetical individuality pervades the whole so unmistakably that it seems hardly necessarj' to refer to the numerous parallel passages adduced by Eichhorn, Bertholdt, Keil, De Wette, Jahn, Bleek, and others. If contents, spirit, manner, individuality, are any guaran- tee at all, then Jeremiah is the author, and sole author of the book before us. He even seems to refer to his other book (comp. ii, 14; Jer. xiv, 13). But were any further proof needed, we would certainly find it in the very diction and phraseology common to both works, and peculiar to them alone (comp. "^'n, Lam. i, 22, and Jer. viii, 18 ; mSI 1T^'3, Lam. iii, 47, and Jer. xxi v, 17 ; xlviii,43 ; i^" t"2 12"1", Lam. ii, 1 1, and Jer. vi, 14, and viii, 11 ; S'l^D^ "115"2, Lam. ii, 22, and Jer. vi, 25, and frequently the very frequent use of "■'^'di ""^"l-in, C'l'p, fWC"^. in both; phrases like "I became a mockery all day long," Lam. iii, 14, and Jer. xx, 7, etc. : the use of the 1 parag., and other grammatical peculiarities. See Keil, Einleit. in das A . T. § 129).
The only exceptions to this unanimity of opinion as to the authorship of Lamentations are Ilardt, who, for reasons of his own, ascribed the five different elegies to Daniel, Shadrach, IMeshach, Abednego, and king .lehon- ja respectively, and, in our own time, Conz and Thenius. The last holds that only Lam. ii and iv belong to Jere- miah (the former written in Palestine, the latter in Egypt), the three others, hov.-ever, having been written by Jeremiah's contemporaries and disciples. His rea- sons for this assumption are, that Jeremiah could not liavc treated the same subject five times; that ii and iv are difftrent from i, iii, v, which are less worthy of Jere- miah's pen; that the three latter do not quite fit Jere- miah's own circumstances; and, finally, because there is