Lamentations

The umbrella collects passages identified as lamentations within scripture itself — psalms of national defeat, prophetic dirges over Israel's princes, and a funeral-song over the king of Tyre — alongside the standalone book bearing that title. The label is internal: the prophet is told to "take up a lamentation," or the heading credits the song as such, and the genre is named on the page.

David's lament after defeat

A psalm of David carries a lamenting heading and opens with national casting-off. The superscription places the poem in the wake of campaigns against Aram-naharaim, Aram-zobah, and Edom:

"For the Chief Musician; set to Shushan Eduth. Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and struck of Edom in the Valley of Salt twelve thousand. O God you have cast us off, you have broken us down; You have been angry; oh restore us again." (Ps 60:1).

The lament continues with the land's trembling and the people's staggering:

"You have made the land to tremble; you have rent it: Heal its breaches; for it shakes." (Ps 60:2).

"You have shown your people hard things: You have made us to drink the wine of staggering." (Ps 60:3).

Ezekiel's lamentation for the princes of Israel

Ezekiel is commanded to compose a lamentation as a formal genre over Israel's royal house. The opening states the genre directly:

"Moreover, take yourself up a lamentation for the princes of Israel," (Eze 19:1).

The dirge takes the shape of a parable: Israel's mother is figured as a lioness raising whelps, then as a vine planted by the waters. The lioness opens the song:

"and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps." (Eze 19:2).

"And she brought up one of her whelps: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured man." (Eze 19:3).

The figure shifts mid-chapter to a vine:

"Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters." (Eze 19:10).

The chapter closes with the genre marker repeated, sealing the whole as a lament:

"And fire has gone out of the rods of its branches, it has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and will be for a lamentation." (Eze 19:14).

Ezekiel's lamentation over the king of Tyre

A second lamentation in Ezekiel is a funeral-song over a foreign monarch. The genre is named at the start:

"Son of Man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." (Eze 28:12).

The dirge places the king in Eden, ornamented with precious stones, with the workmanship of music in him from his creation:

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was in you; in the day that you were created they were prepared." (Eze 28:13).

He is identified with the anointed cherub:

"You were the anointed cherub that covers; I set you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire." (Eze 28:14).

The lament turns to fall — corrupted wisdom and beauty, casting down before kings:

"Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may look at you." (Eze 28:17).

"By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore I have brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who look at you." (Eze 28:18).

The dirge ends with the king's annihilation:

"All those who know you among the peoples will be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you will nevermore have any being." (Eze 28:19).

The book of Lamentations

A separate book in the canon bears the title Lamentations and stands as Jeremiah's extended dirge over Jerusalem. The book opens on the city itself:

"How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, that was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become slave labor!" (La 1:1).

A footnote at this verse records that the title "Lamentations" is taken from the Greek translation; the Hebrew tradition opens the book by its first word, "How."