SOURCE: Lockyer, Herbert. “Lamentations.” In All the Prayers of the Bible: A Devotional and Expositional Classic, p. 146. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1959.

In the following essay, Lockyer provides a brief overview of the Book of Lamentations.

This dirge of desolation can be treated as a postscript to the Book of Jeremiah. The five Lamentations forming the book are actually five heart-cries, or, seeing that in their original form there were no chapter and verse divisions, one long prayer of pathos. Dr. C. I. Scofield says of Lamentations, “The touching significance of this book lies in the fact that it is the disclosure of the love and sorrow of Jehovah for the very people whom He is chastening—a sorrow wrought by the Spirit in the heart of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 13:17; Matthew 23:36, 38; Romans 9:1-5).”

Dr. Alexander Whyte had a profound admiration for the book. “There is nothing like the Lamentations of...