THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEBREW POETRY

did the belief in individual immortality gain acceptance even among the Israelites. It is more probable that in earliest days the cries of the mourners were intended to placate or keep away the spirits of the dead. This reason well explains the cutting of the beard and the mutilating of the body. The heathen origin of these rites explains why they were prohibited by the later Jewish law (Lev. 1927, 28). It is possible, however, that, as among many peoples to-day, the belief prevailed that the spirit of the dead lingered for a time near the body of the deceased and that offerings presented to it and songs sung in his honor gave joy to the departed. In modern Palestine the tombs of Moslem saints are often covered with gifts presented by their descendants or by the natives who venerate the sacred spot. In the biblical laments that have been preserved the chief motive seems to be to commemorate the achievements of the fallen hero or to express the sorrow of the friends who survive. The emotional Oriental undoubtedly finds great relief and a certain melancholy pleasure in these dramatic expressions of his grief. Two kinds of dirges are found in the Old Testament. In the one an individual hero is the object of the poet's grief; in the other a city or nation. The oldest and in many ways the noblest example of the Hebrew lament is the dirge which David sang over Saul and Jonathan. It opens with a stanza in the quick, two-beat measure which gradually rises to the three and four beat and describes the greatness of the calamity that had befallen Israel. The royal poet David then goes on to describe the bravery, attractiveness, and achievements of the fallen heroes. Through it all runs the recurring refrain:

How have the mighty fallen!

The dirge which David sang over Abner represents even more closely the popular lament which the hired mourners crooned over the body of the dead. In Jeremiah 2210 the prophet laments in the same way over the exiled Jehoiahaz, whose fate he likens to that of the dead. The late tradition in II Chronicles 3425 states that Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and that all the singing men and singing women to this day speak of Josiah in their dirges. In Ezekiel 322-10 this priest-prophet of the exile sings a dirge, which is in reality a taunt song, over the Egyptian Pharaoh. The earliest example of the lament over the nation is the dramatic dirge sung by Amos over northern Israel whose coming downfall he thus vividly portrayed (Am. 51. 2). Jeremiah, in the same spirit, puts a dirge in the mouth of the singing women of Judah (Jer. 917-22). Later, in 127-12, he laments over the approaching fate of sinful Judah. The prophetic books contain many taunt songs in the form of dirges addressed by the prophet to Israel's hostile foes. Of these the stirring poem in Isaiah 144-20, describing the fall of Babylon, Ezekiel's picturesque dirges over the fall of Tyre in chapters 26-28, and the taunt songs over the Philistines, Moabites, Amonites, Edomites, Damascens, the Arabians and even the distant Elamites in Jeremiah 47-49, are the most important. To this group belong the five songs of lamentation now preserved in the book of Lamentations, which represent the culmination of this strong elegiac tendency in Israel's thought and literature.

The two

kinds of

dirges

Aim

Authorship

III

THE STRUCTURE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK OF

LAMENTATIONS

THE book of Lamentations is the most conventional and stereotyped of all the Old Testament writings. Four of its five chapters consist of acrostics in which each succeeding verse or group of verses begins with a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Even though the fifth chapter is not an acrostic, it has twenty-two verses corresponding to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. In the first and second chapters each verse contains three lines, in the fourth a couplet of but two lines. These rigid limitations in structure necessarily impede the free development of the thought. While these dirges lack the freedom and spontaneity of many other Hebrew poems they are not deficient in strong emotion and contain a remarkably vivid portrayal of the incidents and experiences connected with the destruction of Jerusalem. The poet's reason for employing the acrostic structure was evidently to aid the memory. His motive in writing was liturgical, that is, to furnish hymns that might be readily remembered and chanted, probably in connection with the fasts which were observed in commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. In the seventh chapter of Zechariah the prophet refers to such fasts which in his day had already been observed for seventy years, beginning with the destruction of the temple in 586 B.C. In form and content these poems were well adapted to this liturgical use. They kept alive in vivid form the memories of Israel's tragic experience. They aimed to impress upon the minds of the people the lessons taught by their past, "lest they forget." They also aimed to interpret the meaning of those experiences and to justify Jehovah's rigorous dealing with his people, and thus to arouse in the heart of the nation faith and adoration even in the presence of overwhelming calamity. To the historian they are of inestimable value, for they reveal the soul of the race and give contemporary pictures of conditions in Jerusalem in the days preceding and following its overthrow regarding which Israel's historians are almost silent.

The position of the book of Lamentations in the English Bible is due to the influence of a tradition preserved in the superscription to the Greek text of Lamentations: And it came to pass after Israel had been led captive and Jerusalem laid desolate that Jeremiah sat down weeping and lifted up this lament over Jerusalem. The tradition that Jeremiah was the author of Lamentations may be traced back to the Greek period in the statement of

STRUCTURE AND AUTHORSHIP OF LAMENTATIONS

the Chronicler (II Chr. 3525): And Jeremiah sang a song of lamentation for Josiah, and all the singing men and women speak of Josiah in their lamentations to this day. And they made them a custom in Israel, and now they are written in Lamentations. The tradition that Jeremiah was the author of the book of Lamentations was probably suggested by the fact that of all the great Hebrew prophets Jeremiah alone was present to witness the closing scene in Judah's death agony. He also, more frequently than any other prophet, interspersed his prophecies with dirges. His favorite metre was the five-beat, which, since the days of Amos, had been the customary lamentation metre. Many of the expressions and ideas in Lamentations are peculiar to Jeremiah, indicating that, if he did not write these poems, he at least exerted a strong influence upon the thought of those who composed them, so that there is a real underlying basis for the tradition.

The evidence that Jeremiah was not the author of Lamentations is, however, cumulative and on the whole conclusive. It is almost inconceivable that one who so frequently disregarded the rules of Hebrew metre would allow himself to be bound by the artificial limitations of the acrostic. Many of the teachings in Lamentations are also contrary to those of Jeremiah, as, for example, the explanation of the calamities which overtook his nation (cf. 57) or the estimate of Judah's last king, Zedekiah. (Cf., e. g., 29, 417, 18, 20. 20.) They reflect rather the popular attitude toward the great catastrophe. Many of the characteristic phrases of Ezekiel are woven into these dirges, indicating that their authors were acquainted with the priest-prophet of the exile. Certain of the poems also reflect later situations and points of view. The variations in the order of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet and in the literary style and excellence of the different chapters point clearly to at least two or three different authors.

Chapters 2 and 4 are the oldest poems in the book and probably come from the same author. Each reveals an intimate familiarity with the tragic events attending the final destruction of the city and temple. The emotions of the author are so strong that they overcome the regular limitations of the acrostic structure. They reflect the feeling of astonishment and stupefaction with which the survivors regarded the great catastrophe. The insane hunger of the women, the helpless misery of the children, the shameless indignities heaped upon the rulers of Judah are portrayed with remarkable vividness and fidelity. The influence of Ezekiel may also be clearly recognized in these chapters. (Cf. 214 and Ezek. 2228.) The downfall of the state is attributed to the misleading teachings of the mercenary priests and prophets. The same unusual order of letters of the Hebrew alphabet is followed in both poems, while in 1 that which became the later order is followed. These poems were probably written in Judah some time between the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 and the liberation of Jehoiachin in 561 B.C., by one who was intimately acquainted with Zedekiah's fatal policy (217), and was also a devoted supporter of the ill-fated king (420). They are, therefore, the best contemporary records that we have regarding the experiences and feelings of the Jews in the opening decades of the Babylonian exile.

Date of chapters

2 and 4

Date

of chapter 1

Of

chap

ter 5

Of

chap

ter 3

The poem in chapter 1 is an acrostic in which each succeeding letter of the alphabet is followed by three lines. It has the usual order of the Hebrew alphabet. It vividly pictures the woes following the destruction of Jerusalem. While the feeling and language are less spontaneous than in 2 and 4, it is full of genuine pathos. It strikes many notes which run through the psalms. Jerusalem, however, is no longer entirely without inhabitants, as was probably the case in the days immediately following its destruction by the Chaldeans. The day of Jerusalem's great calamity is already a memory of the past (7) and the description of that event lacks the vividness of chapters 2 and 4. The pitiable lot of those who had come back to live on its ruined site is prominent in the mind of the poet. The taunting, malicious attitude of neighboring peoples is clearly reflected. The culmination of the poem is a fervent petition that Jehovah will speedily take vengeance upon these malignant foes. There is no suggestion that Cyrus had as yet conquered Babylon and granted to the Jews the privilege of rebuilding their sanctuary. The poem, therefore, comes in all probability from a Palestinian poet who wrote during the latter part of the Babylonian period, between 560 and 540 B.C.

Chapter 5, like 1, presents a vivid picture of the conditions in the Jewish community during the years following the destruction of Jerusalem. The memories of that event, however, are vague. It was in the days of their fathers that the nation paid the first great penalty for its guilt. For these many years (20) Jehovah has apparently forgotten and forsaken his people. The basis of the petition with which the poem concludes is that after these many years the nation has atoned for its guilt and the time has come when Jehovah should pardon and restore. In contrast with 2 and 4 the sense of national guilt is much more prominent, but there is no protestation of innocence, as in the book of Job and in the psalms which come from the middle of the Persian period. There is also no suggestion that the temple has been rebuilt or that the heavy Chaldean yoke has been removed. It is evident, therefore, that this chapter comes from about the same period as 1, that is, the latter half of the Babylonian or early in the Persian period.

Chapter 3 differs widely from the other poems in the book of Lamentations. In thought and language it is closely connected with Zechariah, Job, II Isaiah, and many of the psalms. It lacks the spontaneous feeling and vigorous literary style of the other dirges in the book of Lamentations. Its spirit and language are those of the later psalm literature. The first part of the poem is a meditation on Israel's painful experiences in the past. The strong didactic element connects it with the reflective psalms and the work of Israel's wise men which culminated in the Greek period. The tone of this poem is deeply religious. The love and mercy of God are pictured with remarkable effectiveness and appreciation. The poem is apparently made up of fragments of psalms which have been adjusted to the acrostic structure and brought into a loose literary unity. Its dependence upon the later writings of the Old Testament is so great, and it is so far removed from the problems of the Babylonian period, that it is difficult to assign it to a date earlier than the last half of the Persian or the first part of the Greek period.

STRUCTURE AND AUTHORSHIP OF LAMENTATIONS

The author of chapter 3, who may have been the final editor of the book of Lamentations, evidently modelled his work after chapters 2 and 4. He has not only adopted the unusual order of the Hebrew alphabet found in these chapters but also introduced his poem between these two earlier laments. Chapter 1 was probably given its position at the beginning of the book because of its vivid description of the desolation of Jerusalem. It also furnished a fitting introduction to the book as a whole. Chapter 5 was placed at the end because even a casual reader would at once recognize that it reflected conditions a generation or two after the great catastrophe of 586 B.C. It is thus possible to trace with reasonable assurance the growth and history of the little book of Lamentations, which, though one of the shortest books of the Old Testament, represents the work of at least three different authors and reflects the thought of as many centuries. Like many of the psalms, it reflects the unassuaged sorrow but invincible faith and hope in the heart of the Jewish race. Neglected by most modern readers in the Western world, it is the book which voices the woes of the orthodox Jews, who still regard themselves as exiles without a country.