Lamentations Quotes

“I once had a book on the stars but now I don't. My memory serves but not stellar, ha. So I made up constellations. I made a Bear and a Goat but maybe not where they are supposed to be, I made some for the animals that once were, the ones I know about.”
― Peter Heller, The Dog Stars

“This is a somewhat risky translation. It pivots on the Hebrew word for “great” gadal (#H1431 גְדִּ֖ל). This word can mean many things, including: horn, as in the horn of a powerful bull, the spike of a crown, the authority that a powerful king can wield to knock down an enemy, or gore them into bloody submission.

This word also carries God-given authority to change history—as it was used in the book of Jonah. Jehovah made six things “great”: Nineveh (Jon 1:2); the storm (Jon 1:4); the fish (Jon 2:1); the plant (Jon 4:6); the worm (Jon 4:7); the wind (Jon 4:8). Each of these items were smaller tools being used by God to prod the bigger tool, like Assyria, into playing God’s weapon to punish unfaithful Israel. (Is 9:5-6)
pg 15”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Lamentations: how narcissistic leaders torment church and family

“They” (her new husbands, Egypt and Babylon) heard of Jeremiah’s and Isaiah’s public declaration of divorce. (Jer 3:8; Is 50:1)
Yet another oblique reference to divorced Hagar. Hagar had been properly dismissed—by her husband, Abraham. Hagar, however, was better than Judah. She may have created division in Abraham’s household, but at least Hagar maintained her relationship with Jehovah.”
― Michael Ben Zehabe, Lamentations: how narcissistic leaders torment church and family

“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.”
― Anonymous, Lamentations

“The funeral dirge opening of Lamentations and the first three verses of Lamentations 1 reminds us that grief that emerges from a very real and painful history must be acknowledged.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

“An important aspect of Lamentations is the challenge to accept historical reality and to embrace God's sovereignty over history. We are called to lament over suffering and pain, but also to recognize God's larger work.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

“American exceptionalism embraces a work-centered soteriology, believing that the United States of American has earned a special status before God, attaining favor through her exceptional actions. This assumption stands in stark contrast to the humility and dependence on God revealed in the book of Lamentations.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

“How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people,
and that the steeples and minarets canopied,
and that the stone saints guarded
where the flute was heard in the dawn-light
and the cradle song lowed at dusk,
and the marketplace full of made things,
the first fruits bending the tables
and the pledges and signatures of honor,
honored—how is she become tributary
and her people bounded by gates.
She weepeth sore in the night
and the tears are on her cheeks;
her face is shrouded in fear and
all her beauty is departed.
The guilds and the clans are gone,
gone the pity of the nurses and
teachers. The scavenger dogs
roam the fallow gardens and
run without strength
before their pursuers. How the walls
are stained with a brother's blood
and the night brings sickness to the longing.”
― Anonymous

“The scribes have cast the blame
upon a woman, writing her filthiness
is in her skirts and the elders have gathered
in judgement under plane trees,
and the virgin is trodden as in a wine-press,
(how the crowd cries out against
the menstruous woman, and the handmaiden,
and the crone, and they are hooded
with the cloud of anger
and pulled into the waiting wagons)
And the mothers of the warriors
are crowned with laurel and the fathers
of the singers are shamed in the square
and the signs are marked upon the doorposts
and the scaffolding built at the edge
of the fairground. Who will teach
the stitches and patterns? And who will
remember the spells of the clover?
And who will know the harmonies of
number, the names and accounts of the stars?
What thing shall I take to witness for thee?
What thing shall I liken unto thee?”
― Anonymous

“I have been brought into darkness
surely against me he has turned
he hath set me in dark places
he hath hedged me about
that I cannot get out
he hath made my chain heavy
he hath closed my ways with stone
he was like a bear lying in wait
he hath pulled me to pieces
and made me desolate
that I cannot get out
he hath filled my teeth with dust
and covered me with ashes
I cried out to my rescuers
and they did not hear me,
I turned away, and still
I was hedged about,
the daylight was taken
and the blanket was taken
and the rope and all
my childish things,
I cried out with my throat
and my in-my-heart
and my Lord's Prayer and
my now I lay me down
to sleep, and my health
and my hands, and my
show me myself and my
secrets-and-all-my-sins
forgiven and I counted
the ones I knew and the ones
I dreamed and I measured
the shadow cast by the mirror,
but the sun was remote and
cold to me. I turned away,
and still I was hedged about
and anointed in fire
and ashes. I saw
the blue sheen
of the world through
the darkness, and the crust,
and the stain of another,
I touched my hair to my mouth,
and my arms to my legs,
and my mouth to my knee.
I smelled the animal sweetness
and the dampness of leaves
beyond the wall; I heard
the murmurs of my mothers
and my brother, alone in his
whimpering, and I heard the strangers
whisper. But when I cried they did not
hear me, and when I sang
they did not know my song,
and when I spoke, they did
not acknowledge me, and when I left
they did not seek me out
along the cisterns and
streets of the city.
Mercy is new in the morning
they said, and our god
will not stand for such
suffering—oh god of mercy
and golden light.”
― Anonymous