IMAGERY IN LAMENTATIONS

One major hallmark of poetry, whether in English or Hebrew, is the use of vivid imagery to express ideas. Take the Book of Lamentations as an example.

Lamentations 1

Most of this chapter is written in the first person as if by the city of Jerusalem herself.

Lam. 1:1 Jerusalem is first anthropomorphized as a princess who has become a lonely widow and a vassal.

 Lam. 1:2 Next she is pictured as weeping woman who has been deserted by all her friends and lovers.

Lam. 1:4 Even the roads leading to Jerusalem and the gates of the city are said to be mourning due to the lack of people coming in on feast days.

Lam. 1:6 “Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture and are pursued by enemies.”

Lam. 1:8-9 Returning to an anthropomorphic image, Jerusalem is now pictured as a defiled and naked woman who turns her head away in shame.

Lam. 1:13-15 Now we come to a series of images picturing how God has dealt with Jerusalem in judgment. These include accusations that God has sent fire into her bones, spread a net for her feet, bound her sins into a yoke, convened an assembly against her, and “trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine vat.”

Lam. 1:20b contains an interesting image. This couplet reads,

        “In the street the sword bereaves,

        in the house it is like death.”

Here we have a form of symbolic parallelism in which the second line is more literal that the opening line and helps to clarify its meaning. In this case, “the sword” is a metonymy (where a part stands for the whole) for an enemy wielding a sword.

Lam. 1:22a “Let all their evil doing come before thee.” This is another example of anthropomorphism in which the evil deeds are pictured as a defendant coming before the court of judgment over which God presides as judge.

Lamentations 2
The emphasis in this second poem is on a third-person description of the LORD's actions followed by a direct address to the city, pleading with her to turn back to Him.

The first eight verses of this chapter all start out with either “The LORD” or “He” and provide a litany of images describing what God's actions against Judah have been. Thus he is said to have:

    “set the daughter of Zion under a cloud”

    “not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger”

    “broken down the strongholds”

    “withdrawn from them his right hand”

    “burned like a flaming fire”

    “bent his bow like an enemy”

    “poured out his fury like fire”

    “slain all the pride of our eyes”

    “multiplied mourning”

    “broken down his booth like that of a garden”

Then the poet turns to the effect that the destruction of Jerusalem has had on the city and its inhabitants.

    The city wall is “marked off by the line.”

    Her kings, wealthy men, and law are no more.

    Her prophets obtain no visions.

    The elders and women sit in mourning.

    The poet himself is lost in grief.

    The infants faint like wounded men and die for hunger.

    In brief, “Vast as the sea is your ruin.”

Then the author advises the inhabitants left to:

        “Let tears stream down like a torrent,

        “Pour out your heart like water.”

But they only had themselves to blame for these disasters since, as God says, “You did invite as to the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side. This image of “appointed feast” at the last verse of Lamentations 2 ties it together with the opening of Lamentations 1, where in v. 4 we also read of “the appointed feasts.”

Lamentations 3

This is a personal lament by the author directed to God. It contains notable imagery such as the following:

    “I am under the rod of his wrath.” v. 1a

    “He turns his hand against me.” v. 1b

    “He has besieged and enveloped me.” v. 5

    “He has walled me about...he has put heavy chains on me.” v. 7

    “He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding.” v. 10

    “He bent his bow and aimed at me; he drove the arrows of His quiver into my heart.” vv. 12-13

    “He has made my teeth grind on gravel” (v. 16)

    “My soul...is bowed down within me.” (v. 20)

But the poem turns in a positive direction in vv. 21-36 as the author sees hope behind all these actions:

    “His mercies are new every morning.”

    “The LORD is my portion, says my soul.”

    “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”

    “To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth...the LORD does not approve.”

    “Does not good and evil come from the mouth of the Most High?”

But this chapter returns in v. 43 to a litany of woes as in vv. 1-20, except that now the author speaks for the people as well as himself, with figures of speech such as:

    “You have wrapped yourself with anger...and a cloud.”

    “You have made us refuse.”

    “My eyes flow with rivers of tears.”

    “I have been hunted like a bird.”

    “I am the burden of all their [my enemies'] song.”

Lamentations 4

This chapter is filled with imagery, especially comparative similes:

    “How the gold has grown dim.”

    “The precious sins of Zion...are reckoned as earthen pots.”

    “...the daughter of my people has been cruel like the ostriches...”

    “Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk, their bodies more ruddy than coral, the beauty of their form was like sapphire.”

    “Now their visage is blacker than soot...their skin...has become as dry as wood.”

    “Happier than the victims of the sword were the victims of hunger.”

    “The LORD kindled a fire in Zion.”

    “Our pursuers were swifter than the vultures in the heavens.”

    “But to you also the cup shall pass.”

Lamentations 5

The poet turns again to God, but this time his complaints over their reduced condition tend to be more literal and less figurative in nature, with the exception of phrases such as:

    “Our mothers are like widows.”

    “Our skin is hot as an oven.”

    “The crown has fallen from our head.”

Again, we see a catchword binding together the whole of chapters 4-5 with the image of a jackal in 4:3 and 5:18.

A few of the images identified above need a little extra explanation:

Lamentations 2:2

“A degree of uncertainty...exists with regard to the interpretation...centering on the precise meaning of both 'splendor of Israel' and 'his footstool'...God's footstool...is certainly the ark in I Chr 28:2 and may be so in other instances also (Ps. 99:5; 132:7). Of course, it may refer more widely in these places, as also here, to the temple...or even to Jerusalem as a whole...We cannot be entirely sure...Its general thrust, however, is clear enough. God has turned against his people, ignoring their special status...and has removed them from the position of preeminence.” (Provan)

“This is a reference to Zion or the temple as a symbol of the presence of God. It is not a reference to the ark...since the ark was not destroyed in 587 B.C., but much earlier...The intention of this image seems to be to describe in a reverent, modest way the mode of God's presence: his throne is in heaven, that is, his dwelling is transcendent and remote, but he is nevertheless present in a special way in his temple, the place where his feet touch.” (Hillers)

Lamentations 2:6

Stephens-Hodge says, “Even his booth or 'tabernacle', the place of all places where mercy might confidently be awaited, had been broken down and laid in ruins, as if it were no more than a booth of the vineyards, put up temporarily in harvest time and then pulled down again, thereby showing the powerlessness of outward ritual to avert God's judgments from a guilty people...the destroyed Temple is a dilapidated and abandoned harvest booth.”

Provan states: “The difficulty with kaggan, 'like a garden', is to know what exactly it means in the context...The idea could be that God has destroyed his dwelling as easily as one might destroy such a [temporary] shelter.”

Lamentations 2:8

Hillers states, “Stretching a line is the action of a builder; done to mark straight lines. It is occasionally used, as here, as a metaphor for divine judgment. It is not completely clear how a phrase from the vocabulary of building becomes a synonym for destruction, but it may be that the idea is of a strict, predetermined measure from which God will not deviate; cf. II Kings 21:13; Isa 28:17; 34:11.”

But there are alternative explanations for the image:

“He 'stretched out a measuring line' like a workman about to destroy in a systematic and deliberate fashion the wall.” (Osborne)

“It is possible, however, to imagine situations other than the construction of buildings in which a measuring line, and the other tools of measurement which are associated with it...might have been used. Demolition itself requires careful planning, and measurements are also needed when buildings are surveyed in order to find out if they need to be demolished...God first checks the wall and condemns it. Only then does he proceed to destroy it.” (Provan) In this same context, Dobbs-Allsopp cites II Kings 24:13 and Isaiah 34:11.

Lamentations 3:16 – Provan states, “The picture being presented here is...not clear. Is it the consumption of gravel which is in view...? Or is the reference to abasement, as in the colloquial English expression 'to rub someone's face in the dirt'...? If the latter is correct, then we might have a parallel to it in the second part of the line, with its reference to ashes.”

But if the former is correct, then “He has also given stones instead of bread; hence the teeth grinding on gravel.” (Stephens-Hodge)

Lamentations 3:44

This verse pictures God as being wrapped in a cloud. Two articles in The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery address this passage:

One anonymous entry states that “covering also indicates alienation. Lamentation 3:43,44 provides a sobering example of this connection where it portrays God as covering himself in righteous indignation and cutting off all access to himself by his people in prayer.”

Another article says, “The cloud represents God's presence but also his hiddenness (see Lam 2:2). No one can see God and live, so the cloud shields people from actually seeing the form of God. It reveals God but also preserves the mystery that surrounds him.”

Lamentations 3:63

The King James Version is more than a bit obscure here: “I am their musick.”

RSV is a little more clear in meaning: “I am the burden of their songs.”

But NRSV is an improvement: “I am the object of their taunt-songs.”

Or if you prefer, The Message paraphrases the verse as “They mock me with vulgar doggerel.”

Lamentations 4:1

Although Hillers objects that gold can never be tarnished, Provan says that “It must be asked whether Hillers' objections...are very compelling. We are probably to take the line with what follows in v. 1b. The gold has lost its luster because, like the stones, it has been lying 'scattered at the head of every street'...The reference to its change in appearance would not then be inconsistent with the reference to its value in v. 2.”

Osborne explains that “the sons of Zion, once as precious as gold...are now discarded as dross.”

Dobbs-Allsopp, however, says, “Gold, usually impervious to tarnishing, has grown dim and changed, emphasizing the severity of the suffering.”

Lamentations 4:3

“The scientific accuracy of the caricature is in no way germane. For example, the cruelty of the ostrich (Lam 4:3) or its greedy witlessness (Job 39:13-18), perhaps motivated by misunderstood habits, derive their meaning from the Hebrew cultural mythology of the ostrich and so serve the author's illustrative purpose regardless of the actual natural history of the bird.” (DBI)

Provan: “There are certain aspects of the behavior of ostriches which might have resulted in their gaining a reputation among the ancients for cruelty toward offspring. Under certain environmental conditions, for example, the family group may break up when the chicks are only a few weeks old, the adults renewing sexual activity and becoming highly aggressive towards all juveniles.”