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Outline of the Book. A) The prophet and people weep over Jerusalem’s destruction (Lament 1) B) God’s judgment upon His people is described (Lament 2) C) Jeremiah’s grief is comforted only by the hope of God’s mercy (Lament 3) D) Judah has become like tarnished gold because of its sin (Lament 4)
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The destruction of Judah became a symbol of God's judgment against sin and injustice. Yet, theological reflection suggests that the connection between event and symbol was only partial. The damage caused by the Babylonians could be used to represent divine justice, but it did not bring about perfect justice.
- Michael Graves
ZEDEKIAH (597-586) (crowned by Babylon) of Egypt, he was deposed by Babylon) The Judean am-haaretz – the landed gentry1 – put Josiah's son Jehoahaz on the throne, but Necho, the Egyptian pharaoh, hurried to depose him and carry him off into captivity. The pharaoh crowned his brother Jehoiakim, who reigned from 608 to 598.
- God’s Justice and Sour Grapes
- Two Biblical Accounts of Judah’s Demise
- Divine Justice in Kings: The Accumulation of Sin Theory
- Divine Justice in Chronicles: The Fairness Theory
- An Alternative Theology – An Alternative History
“The fathers eat sour grapes and the children’s teeth fall out.”* This saying appears to have been one of the ways that the final generation of independent Judahites, living during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, explained their predicament to themselves. They are God-fearing people; they did not sin. Their ancestors sinned and they, the childre...
The great historiographical works in the Bible, Kings and Chronicles, each tell the story of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah from the period of the United Monarchy until the destruction of Judah (586 BCE). Each work tells the story in a different way, including different and often contradictory facts. Although sometimes these differences may refle...
Manasseh’s Sins
According to the book of Kings (2 Kings 21), the kingdom of Judah fell (586 BCE) because of the sins of the evil King Manasseh (ca. 687-642 BCE), who lived almost a century before: Despite Manasseh’s sins being so great that they cause the destruction of Judah, he felt none of the negative effects of his actions during his entire 55 years of rule (2 Kings 21:1); these were saved for his great-great-grandchildren.
The Implications of this Ideology
The implications of this ideology are somewhat startling; it means that: 1. If you sin, you may not be punished; instead, the punishment may fall to your descendants. 2. If you are exemplary, you may still be punished due to the sins of your ancestors. 3. Even if you repent your sins and the sins of your ancestors, it may not be enough to be absolved of your ancestors’ sins.
Josiah’s Insufficient Repentance
The book of Kings states this last point explicitly with regard to the repentance of Judah in the time of Josiah being insufficient to save them from God’s wrath against the (long dead) generation of Manasseh. After describing the greatness of Josiah and how much he accomplished in Judah to make the country’s practices in line with those of the Torah, 2 Kings 23 states:
Chronicles, written after Jeremiah and Ezekiel’s ideas became more prevalent, takes great issue with the perception of Divine Justice expressed here in Kings. The Chronicler’s religious belief system could not fathom God acting in such an arbitrary manner. Punishment and reward had to be carried out during the relevant individual’s lifetime.Otherwi...
This version of history is very different than that of Kings. In this version, God is extremely fair and everyone gets what they deserve. The only problem is, for Chronicles to get history to conform to his theology, he has to rewrite it. The texts cited above are just a handful of examples of over twenty accounts of reward and punishment not found...
the nation of Judah during the reign of Jehoash (Joash). The purpose of the book is to appeal to the nation to return to God by repenting of its wickedness. The terrible calamities of the book (locusts, famine, etc.) are seen as Divine judgments against a disobedient people. If Judah would return to God, physical and spiritual blessings would ...
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Forward314 This lesson is the first of three that highlight the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. The order of the lessons is chronological and thematic. This first covers Jeremiah’s word about the coming judgment of the Lord against Judah and Jerusalem. The second will cover the fall of Jerusalem and the Book of Lamentations.
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Invitation to Jeremiah. The book of Jeremiah navigates a crucial transition in God’s epic story. It narrates the end of one era—that of the old covenant—and it points to a new and better age with a new and better covenant. Its theme verse brings both sides together: Yahweh has set Jeremiah “over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up ...
