Lamentations (KJV)
5 chapters · 154 verses. Choose a chapter to read it in the King James Version.
About the Book of Lamentations
Lamentations is a series of poems grieving the destruction of Jerusalem and the suffering of the exile. In the depths of mourning it still affirms the LORD's faithfulness and renewed mercies.
- Genre
- Poetry (lament)
- Author
- Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Jeremiah
- First audience
- Survivors of Jerusalem's fall
How to read it: Read as lament poetry — give the grief its full weight; don't rush past sorrow to resolution, yet notice the flicker of hope at its center.
It opens: “How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!” (Lamentations 1:1)
Chapters
Key verses in Lamentations
The verses of Lamentations that the rest of Scripture cross-references most often.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
Read Lamentations with a guide
- Crossover: Ending the Year with God7 days on crossing into the new year with God1 of 7 days in Lamentations
- Depression & the Dark Night7 days on hope in the darkness1 of 7 days in Lamentations
- Grief & Hope7 days of comfort when you are grieving1 of 7 days in Lamentations
- Jeremiah: Hope in Hard Times7 days with the weeping prophet1 of 7 days in Lamentations