Chapters
1-4 of the Lamentations are alphabetic acrostics. When read through
in English one might think they are uncontrolled screeds the prophet
prays in complaint about the destruction of Jerusalem; however, in
fact they are exquisite works of complex Hebrew poetry.
Chapters
1, 2, and 4 each consist of 22 long verses; each verse begins with a
consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph to Tau.
(As a reminder, there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, not 26
like the English).
Chapter
3 consists of 66 short verses where verses 1-3 all start with the first
letter of the alphabet, verse 4-6 with the second, etc., until one
gets to verses 64-66 which all begin with the final letter.
Chapter
5, the final one, consists of 22 verses, but it is not an acrostic.
The restraints of poetry are cast off and the prophet yells out his
complaints about the mistreatment the people of God are suffering at
the hands of the Babylonians, ending with these questions and
exclamations:
21 Restore us
to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
renew our days as of old
22 unless
you have utterly rejected us
and are angry
with us beyond measure.
The centre of the book is chs. 3:22-23,
the verses upon which the well known hymn Great is Thy
Faithfulness, is based:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I am no expert in Hebrew, let alone Hebrew poetry, but I can conclude that it is beautiful.
