what is the meaning of the book of lamentations
Book of Lamentations The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew: אֵיכָה‬, ‘Êykhôh, from its incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem.[1] In the Hebrew Bible it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings"), beside the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Esther (the Megilloth or "Five Scrolls"), although there is no set order; in the Christian Old Testament it follows the Book of Jeremiah, as the prophet Jeremiah is its traditional author.[2] Jeremiah's authorship is no longer generally accepted, although it is generally accepted that the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC forms the background to the poems.[3] The book is partly a traditional "city lament" mourning the desertion of the city by God, its destruction, and the ultimate return of the divinity, and partly a funeral dirge in which the bereaved bewails and addresses the dead.[3] The tone is bleak: God does not speak, the degree of suffering is presented as undeserved, and expectations of future redemption are minimal.[4]
Old Testament The Old Testament is considered one of the most important and influential works of literature in world literature, and has provided inspiration for writers (both religious and secular) throughout subsequent history. In 1886, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "In the Jewish Old Testament, there are men, things and speeches in so grand a style that Greek and Indian literature have nothing to compare to it. One stands with awe and reverence before these tremendous remnants of what man once was... The taste for the Old Testament is a touchstone of "greatness" and "smallness". To have glued this New Testament, a kind of rococo of taste in every respect, to the Old Testament to form one book... that is perhaps the greatest audacity and sin against the spirit that Europe has on its conscience."[41]