25 Lamentations

Author: Jeremiah

MacArthur’s intro to the book: “

The author of Lamentations is not named within the book, but there are internal and historical indications that it was Jeremiah. For example, the LXX introduces Lamentations 1:1, “And it came to pass, after Israel had been carried away captive … Jeremiah sat weeping (cf. 3:48, 49) … lamented … and said.” Elsewhere, God told Jeremiah to have Judah lament (Jer. 7:29). Jeremiah also wrote laments for Josiah (2 Chr. 35:25).

Jeremiah wrote Lamentations as an eyewitness (cf. 1:13–15; 2:6, 9; 4:1–12), possibly with Baruch’s secretarial help (cf. Jer. 36:4; 45:1), during or soon after Jerusalem’s fall in 586 B.C. It was mid-July when the city fell and mid-August when the temple was burned. Likely, Jeremiah saw the destruction of the walls, towers, homes, palace, and temple; he wrote while the event remained painfully fresh in his memory, but before his forced departure to Egypt c. 583 B.C. (cf. Jer. 43:1–7). The language used in Lamentations closely parallels that used by Jeremiah in his much larger prophetic book.”

John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), La.