As joyful as the Exodus and the Conquest were in representing the birth of the nation and its inheritance of the Promised Land, the Exile and Captivity mark the opposite end of the emotional spectrum.
Lamentations is a book, albeit brief, focused exclusively on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The tone is bitter and gloomy, and God is silent throughout. Many of the chapters are variations of word play. For instance, the first chapter has 22 verses which form an acrostic, with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet appearing in order at the start of each new stanza.
The author, believed to be Jeremiah, recalls Judah's finer days in contrast to the pitiable condition in which she now finds herself. In the book's opening verses, the nation is described as a widow, a vassal, and a forsaken lover. She has lost so much, but there is no cry here for justice or fairness. Instead, there is a recognition that this is justice. The people have received what they deserve, because they had turned their backs on God.
While their punishment is severe and lamentable, Jeremiah does not try to argue or complain about it. It is simply a new fact of life which the people of Judah must now accept. The verses read as a people grieving a great loss and struggling to cope with a profound change in their circumstances.
The only hope expressed as the first chapter ends is that the nation's punishment would not continue forever, but that Judah's mocking neighbors may soon come in for some justice of their own: "They heard how I was groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. Bring on the day you have announced, and let them be as I am. Let all their evil doing come before you; and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many and my heart is faint" (vs. 21-22).
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