The Book Of Lamentations

Set in the highlands of the Mexican state of Chiapas, The Book of Lamentations tells of a fictionalized Mayan uprising that resembles many of the rebellions that have taken place since the indigenous people of the area were first conquered by European invaders five hundred years ago. With the panoramic sweep of a Diego Rivera mural, the novel weaves together dozens of plot lines, perspectives, and characters. Blending a wealth of historical information and local detail with a profound understanding of the complex relationship between victim and tormentor, Castellanos captures the ambiguities that underlie all struggles for power. A masterpiece of contemporary Latin American fiction from Mexico’s greatest twentieth-century woman writer, The Book of Lamentations was translated with an afterword by Ester Allen and introduction by Alma Guillermoprieto.

The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BC is the likely setting for the book of Lamentations. This was the most traumatic event in Old Testament history, as Israel faced extreme human suffering, the destruction of the ancient city, national humiliation, and the undermining of all that was thought to be divinely guaranteed, such as the Davidic monarchy, the city of Zion, and the very temple of their God. It is out of such unspeakable pain that Lamentations speaks, through poetry of astonishing beauty and intricacy, although soaked in tears. If we neglect this book of the Bible, says Chris Wright, we miss the challenge and reward of wrestling with the massive theological issues that permeate it. How can suffering be endured alongside faith in an all-loving, good God? If death and destruction stalk the land, can Israel's faith in the covenant God of faithfulness and mercy be sustained? Through this commentary, Wright shows that we must not isolate Lamentations from the rest of the Bible, nor should we read the rest of the Bible without Lamentations. It is a crucial part of the narrative that still has many messages for us to learn from today. Part of the beloved Bible Speaks Today series, The Message of Lamentations offers an insightful, readable exposition of the biblical text and thought-provoking discussion of how its meaning relates to contemporary life. Used by students and teachers around the world, the Bible Speaks Today commentaries are ideal for those studying or preaching the Bible and anyone who wants to delve deeper into the text. This revised edition of a classic volume features lightly updated language and a new interior design.

The book of Lamentations is one of the most vivid representations of grief and trauma in the Hebrew Bible. Written in the wake of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian Empire, it is comprised of five poems of twenty-two stanzas each, in a manner of tight formal unity unparalleled by any other work in the Scriptures. In this volume, widely respected Old Testament scholar John Goldingay analyzes these and other aspects of Lamentations while keeping a constant eye on the book’s meaning and use as Christian Scripture. After a thorough introduction that explores matters of background, composition, and theology, Goldingay provides an original translation of the book from the Masoretic text along with verse-by-verse commentary.

When published, this work on the Book of Lamentations opened a new wave of studies on that much neglected biblical book. After a fresh translation, followed by acute analyses of the acrostic form and literary genres, the author develops the two-fold theology of "doom" and "hope" that reverberates through the five laments composed during the exile to cope with the fall of Jerusalem. Created for public performance, the poems artfully alternate the voices of the poet and the community, personified by turns as a forlorn widow (Fair Zion) and as an afflicted man (Jacob/Israel). The book attributes the catastrophe in part to the moral and social failures of Judah's leadership, but it also finds the enormity of the suffering beyond moral or theological explanation.

This unique translation of the Old Testament book, with reflections on Judaism’s mournful history, “not only allows but demands rereading” (Pleiades). Distinguished poet David R. Slavitt here provides a translation of and meditation upon the Book of Lamentations, the biblical account of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 587 B.C., on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av—Tish’a b’Av. (Six centuries later the Romans destroyed the second Temple on the same day.) Most of the Jewish population was deported to Babylon, and the ensuing period came to be known as the Babylonian Captivity. According to tradition, the Book of Lamentations was written in response to this political, social, and religious crisis. The five poems composing the book express Israel’s sorrow, brokenness, and bewilderment before God. Tish’a b’Av is the day on which observant Jews fast and pray. And mourn. As Slavitt observes in his meditation: “It is forbidden on Tish’a b’Av even to study the Torah, except for the Book of Job and the Book of Lamentations. This is the day on which we grieve for every terrible thing that happens in this world. It is the worst day of the year.” Slavitt’s meditation provides a context for reading the scriptural text. Cast in the same style as the Hebrew poetry, his meditation recounts how sorrow and catastrophe have characterized so much of the history of the Jewish people, from their enslavement in Egypt to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. Few translations of this remarkable book of the Bible attempt to reproduce in English, as Slavitt does here, the Hebrew acrostics. In the original, each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequential order; Slavitt elegantly reproduces this effect using the first 22 letters of the English alphabet. More than a structural or mnemonic device, Slavitt argues, the acrostics are “a serious assertion that the language itself is speaking, that the speech is inspired, and that there is, beyond all the disaster and pain the book recounts, an intricacy and an orderly coherence.”

William, a Benedictine monk of Malmesbury in western England (died c. 1143), is well known as the author of two major historical works, on the English kings and bishops from the beginnings down to his own time. These and other works, especially several saints' Lives, have always been easily accessible. But the commentary on Lamentations was not published in full until 2011. It presents itself as an abbreviation of a ninth-century predecessor, one of very few who had commented on this book. William follows his precursor in applying the traditional threefold interpretation: literal (historical), allegorical and moral. But he is no slavish imitator. He aims to re-write and improve on his source in both content and style. His characteristic mastery of the Bible and of an astonishingly wide range of classical and patristic literature is everywhere apparent. His Latin is elegant, not to say mannered and sometimes obscure, and presents many problems to the translator.

Contained in these eight lessons is a rare and rich verse by verse study of one of the lesser known books of the Bible: the Lamentations of Jeremiah. But how its words are needed today! In this brief journal, the prophet describes his beloved city in ruins and his own people in grief, all because of sin. "Whatever we sow, we reap" pulsates through these serious, soul searching messages designed to warn the reader against disobeying the voice of God. - Back cover.