There can hardly be any doubt, however, as to the time to which these threnodies refer. A brief glance at the corresponding portions in the books of Kings and Chronicles affords decisive evidence that they speak, one and all, of the whole period from the beginning of the last siege by Nebuchadnezzar to its terrible end. This has also, from the Se]it. and the IMidrash down- wards, been the almost unanimous opinion of investiga- tors (Carpzov, Eichhorn, Jahn, Bertholdt, Bonnelius, Horrer, Kiegler, Pareau, etc.). It would seem to be equally clear that these poems belong, broadly speaking, to no particular jihase of t lie great epoch of terrors, but that, written probably within a very brief space of time (more especially does this appear to be the case with the first lour), they portray indiscriminately some woe- ful scene that presented itself " at the head of every street," or give way to a wild, passionate outcry of ter- ror, misery, despair, hope, jjrayer, revenge, as these in vehement succession svv'ept over the poet's soul.
Yet it has been suggested (and the text has been strained to the utmost to prove it) that the successive elegies are the pictures of successive events portrayed in song; that, in fact, the Lamentations are a descriptive threnody — a drama in which, scene after scene, the on- ward march ol" dread fate is descriljcd, intermixed with plaints, reflections, prayers, consolations, such as the chorus would utter in grave and measured rhythms, ac- companied by the sighs and tears to Avhich the specta- tors would be moved by the irredeemably doomed he- roes and actors. Thus, for instance, it has been main- tained that the first chapter speaks of Jehoiachin's cap- ture and exile (Horrer, Jahn, Piegler, etc.), upon which there is this to be observed, that a mere glance at 1 Kings xxiv shows that such scenes as are described in this first elegy (famine, slaughter of youths, etc.) do not in the least agree with the time and circumstances of Jehoiachin, while they do exactly correspond with the following chapter of Kings, in which the reign under Zedekiah, with all its accompanying horrors, to the downfall of the city and empire, are related with the se- vere calmness of the historian, or rather the dry minute- ness of the annalist. Neither can we, for our own part,
LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF 216 LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF
see that •' gradual change in the state of the city" which t)e Wcttesees in the consecutive chapters; nor can we trace the gradual progress in the mind of the people- that is. in the lirst two chapters, heaviest, forever incon- solable grief ; ill the third, tlie turning-point (the clas- sical peripeti/) ; in the fourth and fifth, the mind that gradually collects itself, and linally tiiids comfort in fer- vent prayer — which is Ewald's ingenious suggestion, to wliicli Keil assents, as far as " a general inner progress of the poems"' goes. To our, and, we take it, to everj' unbiassed view, each of the elegies is complete, as far as it goes, in itself, all treating the same, or almost the same, scenes and thoughts in ever new modes. In this respect they might, to a certain degree, be likened to the "/» Memoiiam" and the second movement of the ■■Eroiccr — the highest things to which we can at all compare them in the varied realms of song. The gen- eral state of the nation, as well as of the poet, seem not much different from the first to the last, or, at all events, the fourth poem. It would certainly appear, moreover, as if, so far from forming a consistent and progressive whole, consciously leading onward to harmony and su- preme peace, they had not even been composed in the order in which they are before us now. Thus, e. g., the iburth chapter is certainly more akin to the second than to the third. Accident, more than a settled plan, must have jilaced them in their present order. But the his- tory of tills collection and redaction is one so obscure that we will not even venture on a new speculation con- cerning it.
YI. Cunients. — The book is a collection of five elegies sung on the ruins of Zion ; and the fall of Judsa, the de- struction of the sanctuary, the exile of the people, and all the terrors of sword, fire, and famine in the city of .Jerusalem, are the principal themes upon which they turn in many varied strains. We may regard the first two chaiJters as occupied chiefly with the circumstances of the siege, and those immediately following that event ; ill the third the prophet dei)lores the calamities and persecuti(jns to which he was himself exjiosed ; the fourth refers to the ruin and desolation of the city, and the unhappy lot of Zedekiah ; and the fifth and last seems to be a sort of prayer in the name, or on behalf, of the Jews in their dispersion and captivity. More particularly,
1. Chap. i. The opening verse strikes the key-note of the whole poem. That which haunts the prophet's mind is the solitude in which he finds himself. She that was " princess among the nations" (1) sits (like the JUD.EA cAi'TA of the Eomaii medals), '• solitary," " as a widow." Her " lovers" (the nations with whom she had been allied) hold aloof from her (2). The heathen have entered into the sanctuary, and mock at her Sabbaths (7,10). After the manner so characteristic of Hebrew poetry, the personality of the writer now recedes and now advances, and blends by hardly perceptible transi- tions wish that of the city which he personifies, and with which he, as it were, identifies himself. At one time it is the daughter of Zion that asks, " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by V" (12). At another, it is the ])i-ophet who looks on her, and portrays her as " spread- ing forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her" (17 ). ^[ingling with this outliurst of sorrow there are two tliouglits characteristic both of the man and the time. The calamities which the nation sufl'ers are the consequences of its sins. There must be the confession of those sins : " The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment" ( 18). There is, however, t,his gleam of consolation that Judah is not alone in her sufferings. Those wlio have exulted in her destruction shall drink of the same cup. They shall be like unto her in the day that the Lord sh-ill call (21).