Restore us (5:21). At or near the end of each of the classic Mesopotamian city laments is an appeal for restoration to the deity.76 In the various laments, the appeal is voiced either by the citizens or by a lower level deity. Of the extant city laments on the Ur lament includes what appears to be a brief penitential appeal to “undo the sins of its …” and “May every heart of its people be pure before thee! May the heart of those who dwell in the land be good before thee!” The other laments over Sumer and Ur and over Eridu, however, do not include this sort of confession/petition.
Bergant, Dianne. Lamentations. AOTC. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003. Provides a good exegetical and theological treatment of the book and includes brief introductory comments on literary and historical issues.
Berlin, Adele. Lamentations. OTL. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002. Provides a solid thirty-seven-page introduction to Lamentations. In the commentary section she provides a good treatment in the context of the ancient Near East.
Dearman, John. A. Jeremiah and Lamentations. NIVAC. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. As is implied in the NIV Application Commentary series, this commentary focuses on a theological reading with a view to bridging between the B.C. text and a twenty-first-century A.D. reader.
Dobbs-Allsopp, F. W. IBC. Lamentations. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002. Provides a commentary that is both technical and practical. Attention to the theology of Lamentations is helpful for the teacher/preacher.
Ferris, Paul W., Jr. The Genre of Communal Lament in the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992. Provides a technical analysis of communal laments from Mesopotamia and Israel, showing points of comparison and contrast.
Hillers, Delbert R. Lamentations. 2nd ed. AB. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1992. Provides a solid technical commentary on Lamentations. His treatment of the ancient Near Eastern background of Lamentations is strong.
Kaiser, Walter C. A Biblical Approach to Suffering. Chicago: Moody Press, 1982. Provides a popular treatment of Lamentations with emphasis on its personal significance.
1. B. T. Arnold and B. Beyer, eds., Readings from the Ancient Near East (RANE) (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 156–59.
2. See, e.g., in Old Kingdom Egypt when natar (“perfect/good god”) is prefixed to the name of the king.
3. The Akkadian king Naram-Sin (c. 2530 B.C.) was referred to as the “god of Akkad.” Deification of the king was common during the Ur III period (2100–2000 B.C.) but was not part of the Assyrian or Babylonian worldview.
4. S. N. Kramer discusses the significance of Sumerian literature in “Sumerian Literature and the Bible,” AnBib 12 (1959): 185–204. See also T. Jacobsen, The Harps That Once—: Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1987), xi–xiv.
5. R. Kutscher, Oh Angry Sea = (a-ab-ba hu-luh-ha): The History of a Sumerian Congregational Lament, (YNER 9; New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1975), 1.
6. ANET, 611–19; abridged in RANE, 222–25.
7. P. Michalowski, The Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1989).
8. D. Edzard, Die Zweite Zwischenzeit Babyloniens (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1957), 86–90; Steve Tinney, The Nippur Lament, no. 16 (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum, 1996).
9. M. Green, “The Uruk Lament,” JAOS 104 (1984): 253–79.
10. M. Green, “The Eridu Lament,” JCS 30 (1978): 127–67.
11. Not all of these use the emesal dialect exclusively.
12. CAD, s.v. “balaggu.” See also H. Hartman, “Die Musik der sumerischen Kultur” (Ph.D. diss., Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitat, 1960), 52–67, 210–11. Based on the pictogram, balag is understood to refer to a lyre or harp. See Anton Diemel, Liste der archaischen Keilschriftzeichen zusammangestellt, No. 41. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1922).
13. W. Hallo, “The Cultic Setting of Sumerian Poetry,” in Acts de la XVIIe Recontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI 17; Ham-sur-Heure: Univ. Lib. de Bruxelles, 1970), 116–34.
14. Hartman, “Musik,” 216–19.
15. E.g., the complaint and expression of distress; the rhetorical questioning of the deity (“Why do you terrify the land?” and, “How long will [PN] stand aside?”); the appeal for relief, etc. See P. Ferris, The Genre of Communal Lament in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), 58 n. 171.
16. See, e.g., the basic structure of the “Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur” (ANET, 611–19): (1) detailed complaint, (2) lament proper, (3) intercession of a patron, and (4) appeal for restoration. See Ferris, Genre, 28–35.
17. Alphabetic acrostics are also found in Psalms 9–10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145, Proverbs 31, and Nahum 1 (partial) as well as Qumran texts 11QPsaSirach, 11QPsaZion, and 11QPsa155. See D. Freedman, “Acrostic Poems in the Hebrew Bible,” CBQ 48 (1986): 408–31; W. Soll, “Babylonian and Biblical Acrostics,” Bib 69 (1988): 305–23; J. Brug, “Biblical Acrostics and Their Relationship to Other Ancient Near Eastern Acrostics,” in The Bible in Light of Cuneiform Literature, Scripture in Context III, ed. W. Hallo et al. (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1990), 283–304.
18. See, e.g., 2 Sam. 1:17; 3:33; 2 Chron. 35:25.
19. W. Shea, “The Qinah Structure of the Book of Lamentations,” Bib 60 (1979): 103–7.
20. E.g., the use of bikitu, who sing laments in Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan (BRM) 4, 6:44. Cf. ZA, 51 138:67; Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verscheidenen Inhalts (KAV) 42 r. 9, RA 14 174 r. 18.
21. Note how bky (“to weep”) and spd (“to mourn”) used in parallel in I Aqht 4.171–72, 183 leads T. H. Gaster to conclude “that [the professional mourners] lead the dirge, which is then, apparently, taken up by others” (Thespis [New York: Harper, 1950], 369).
22. Although emesal, one of the dialects used in the Sumerian laments, seems to have been reserved for use by females in the literary texts, the dialect is identified with the gala-priesthood, which was comprised of both males and females; see I. Diakonoff, “Ancient Writing and Ancient Written Language,” Sumerological Studies in Honor of Thorkild Jacobsen on his 70th Birthday (AS 20; Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1976), 113–16.
23. In a lament for Moab, Isaiah writes, “My heart laments for Moab like a harp [kinnôr]” (Isa. 16:11). Jeremiah says, “My heart laments for Moab like a flute [ḥālîl]; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth” (Jer. 48:36). Cf. Isa. 15; 16:7. See J. Braun, Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).
24. In this account the city or at least the citadel is referred to by the name “Zion.”
25. See W. Moran, “The Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Love of God in Deuteronomy,” CBQ 25 (1963): 77–87.
26. The prophets constantly warned against giving in to the temptation to turn to a countervailing power such as Egypt for security. See Isa. 20:5; 30:5; 36:6; Jer. 37:5–10; 43:8–10; 44:29–30; 46:25–26. Nevertheless, a contingent of Judeans escaped to Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch with them (Jer. 42:1–43:7; see 41:17). There they joined their compatriots engaged in local religious practices (Jer. 44:1–14. esp. v. 8).
27. RANE, 158.
28. The phrase “rested with his fathers” (2 Kings 24:6) may connote a nonviolent death. This, however, is in contrast with Jeremiah’s prophecy of an ignominious death (Jer. 24:8–9).
29. RANE, 159.
30. Ibid., 169. The Lachish ostraca (pieces of broken pottery), or “Lachish letters,” refers to twenty-two written texts found at Lachish. They date to the very end of the southern kingdom, Judah. Most of the texts are notes written by persons living on the western fringes of Judah. They refer to the dire situation of the general population at the time. Letters 3, 4, and 6 most closely parallel the biblical accounts. Letter 4 mentions the fall of Azekah described in Jer. 34:6–7.
31. Ibid., 83. See Oded Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1987), 62–63.
32. M. Biddle. “The Figure of Lady Jerusalem: Identification, Deification, and Personification of Cities in the Ancient Near East,” in Scripture in Context IV: The Biblical Canon in Comparative Perspective, ed. K. L. Younger (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1991), 173–94. Note, however, that the Old Testament uses both male and female figures to refer to Israel’s apostasy. Compare Jer. 2:4–16 with 2:20–25.
33. See Lam. 4:2. A. Fitzgerald cites evidence from fifteenth century B.C. Ugaritic texts that a city, esp. a capital city, was seen as a goddess married to the patron deity (“Mythological Background for the Presentation of Jerusalem as a Queen and False Worship as Adultery in the O.T.,” CBQ 34 (1972): 403–16.
34. “Daughter of Zion,” Isa. 1:8; “daughter of Gallim,” Isa. 10:30; “daughter of Babylon,” Isa. 47:1; “daughter of Egypt,” Jer. 46:11, etc.
35. For discussion of concept of “clean” and “wise” in contrast to “unclean” and “foolish,” see V. Matthews, Social World of Ancient Israel 1250–587 B.C.E. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1993), 142–44.
36. V. Matthews. “Treading the Winepress: Actual and Metaphorical Viticulture in the Ancient Near East,” Semeia 86 (1999): 19–32.
37. ANET, 201.
38. See J. C. Laney’s discussion of imprecatory psalms, “A Fresh Look at the Imprecatory Psalms,” BSac 138 (1981): 358–45. See also Acts 13:10–11, 23:3; 1 Cor. 16:22; Gal. 1:8–9; 2 Tim. 4:14.
39. R. Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons Königs von Assyrien (Archiv für Orientforschung 9; Graz: Weidner, 1956) §84, r 39.
40. J. Cahill, “Jerusalem in David and Solomon’s Time,” BAR 30 (Nov.–Dec. 2004): 25.
41. The House of Ahiʾel (from inscription found in the house), Ashlar House (from style of stone work), Burnt House (from thick char), and the Bullae House (from the roughly four dozen clay seals [bullae] found there).
42. Cahill, “Jerusalem,” 20–31, 62–63.
43. “Dwelling” (NIV), “tabernacle” (NASB). See Ps. 76:2: “tent” (NIV), “tabernacle” (NASB).
44. ANET, 457, ln. 121–129.
45. A merism is a figure of speech using polar expressions to include everything in between, e.g., “night and day” = all the time, “young and old” = everybody.
46. Men wore it as a loincloth (Gen. 37:34; 2 Kings 6:30), women wore it below the breasts (2 Macc. 3:19).
47. UT 67:VI.11–16, author’s translation.
48. T. Collins, “The Physiology of Tears in the Old Testament,” Parts I and II, CBQ 33 (1971): 18–38, 185–97.
49. See O. Neugebauer, History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1975); N. Swerdlow, Babylonian Theory of the Planets (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998).
50. Josephus reports cannibalism during the harsh conditions of the Roman siege of Jerusalem 656 years later (Wars 6.3.3–5).
51. S. Parpola and K. Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties & Loyalty Oaths (SAA 2; Helsinki: Helsinki Univ., 1988), 46, 52.
52. Rassam cylinder B ix, in ANET, 300. D. Hillers suggests that the close connection between the treaty language and language of the Assyrian annals may reflect a literary convention rather than a precise report of “history.” By analogy, Hillers points to the imprecations connected to Israel’s covenant being used in the poetry of Lamentations as an expression that “the utmost starvation has taken place” rather than being a claim that cannibalism literally occurred (“History and Poetry in Lamentations,” CurTM 10 [1983]: 155–61).
53. M. Zohary, Geobotanical Foundations of the Middle East (Geobotanica Selecta 3; Stuttgart: G. Fischer, 1973), 2:391ff.
54. The expression is used in interchange between protesting Israelites and Rehoboam concerning the forced (corvée) labor required by Solomon (1 Kings 12:10–11). Ashurbanipal says of the king of Arabia’s insurrection in breaking covenant with Assyria, “he has cast away the yoke of my rule which Ashur (himself) has placed upon him and the ropes he has been pulling (till now)” (ANET, 297).
55. S. Lloyd, The Archaeology of Mesopotamia (London: Thames & Hudson, 1984), 143.
56. N. Davies, The Tomb of Ken Amun at Thebes, vol. 1 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1930), pl. IX.
57. I. E. S. Edwards, Tutankhamun: His Tomb and its Treasures (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Knopf, 1976), 238–39.
58. In the process of Sennacherib’s assault on Judah, he sends a ranking officer, Rabshakeh, to taunt Hezekiah and the populace for trusting Yahweh. He claims security will only be found by submitting to Sennacherib, who promises, “Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern” (2 Kings 18:31).
59. Isaiah refers to a cistern being used as a dungeon. Its plastered sides sloping into the ceiling made cisterns virtually escape-proof (Isa. 24:22).
60. This passage is the only place the word renānîm is used, so identification is not certain. See Y. Aharoni, “Animals Mentioned in the Bible,” Osiris 5 (1938): 466. Lamentations uses ye ʿēnîm for “ostriches”; descriptions of its behavior (e.g., Isa. 13:21; 34:13; 43:20) lead some to suggest it may be a species of owl. See O. Borowski, Every Living Thing (Walnut Creek: Altamira, 1998), 155–56; G. Cansdale, All the Animals of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), 190–93.
61. B. Bertram, Ostrich Communal Nesting System (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 53.
62. Examples found in Northwest Semitic (Aramaic, Ugaritic) and East Semitic (Akkadian) texts.
63. ANET, 238.
64. The pseudepigraphic Psalms of Solomon 17:36 (first cent. B.C.) refers to the Davidic king as “the anointed of the Lord” (17:36); see The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, ed. R. H. Charles (Oxford: Clarendon, 1913), 2:631–52.
65. The cognate term is used for God in the Coptic (Egyptian) version of the Bible.
66. A. Erman, The Ancient Egyptians: A Sourcebook of Their Writings, ed. and tr. A. Blackman (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 186.
67. L. Abel, et al., Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek (Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1915), Bd. VI 1 S. 35. See “Historical Setting” in the introduction.
68. A. L. Oppenheim, “Assyriological Gleanings IV: The Shadow of the King,” BASOR 107 (1947): 7–11, reviews a number of letters from Robert F. and Leroy Waterman Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters Belonging to the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1892–1914; reprint, n.p.: N and N Press, 1977), demonstrating how the idea of “the beneficial shadow” of the king/god expressed a concept of auspicious protection and privilege.
69. ANET, 28.
70. ANET, 534–41, lines 429–30.
71. M. E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains (London: Collins, 1966), 2:446. See plate of panel d, p. 447. See also M. Munn Rankin, “Diplomacy in Western Asia in the Early Second Millennium B.C.,” Iraq 18 (1956): 86; J. and D. Oates, Nimrud: An Assyrian Capital Revealed (London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2001), 174.
72. A collection of several hundred letters written in the first half of the fourteenth century B.C. by scribes of a number of vassal kings along the Levant to Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten).
73. EA 298 in ANET, 490.
74. J. Cooper, The Curse of Agade (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1983), line 151, 212–14.
75. ANET, 462.
76. For example, “Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur,” ll. 418–36, ANET, 463; “Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur,” ll. 490–500; ANET, 619; “Lamentation over the Destruction of Eridu” 7:8–8:3, JCS 30 (1978): 127–67.
A-1. R. Knox, The Holy Bible (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1956), 734.
A-2. A discussion of laments can be found in J. Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 135–68; Ferris, Genre of Communal Lament.
A-3. See also Ps. 31:1–5; 35:1–3; 42:1; 44:1ff.; 56:1–3; 59:1–8; 60:1–5; 69:1ff.; 74:1ff.; 79:1ff.; 80:1ff.; 83:1ff.; 85:1ff.; 102:1ff.; 109:1ff.
A-4. See W. W. Hallo and J. van Dijk, The Exaltation of Inanna (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1968), 15, 29.
A-5. K. Tallqvist, Akkadische Götterepitheta (New York: Olms, 1974), 39, 64, 129, 186, 239, 240; see also “Prayer to Ishtar,” in RANE, 199–201.
A-6. M. Dietrich et al., The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places, 2nd ed. (KTU; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1995), 1.108:7.
A-7. See his Histories 2.112. For this sidebar, see K. Van der Toon, et al., ed., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), s.v., “Queen of Heaven”; S. Ackerman, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), 6–35.
A-8. UT 320, 401, 1186–1189.
A-9. See A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 361–62. See also inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud, c. 31¼ miles south of Kadesh-barnea.
A-10. See also Tablet B.M 21946, “Chronicle 5,” in RANE, 159.