EXPERIENTIAL DISSONANCE: A STUDY OF

LAMENTATIONS 3:21-39

Victoria Schlie

Biblical Interpretation, BTS 283(01), Dr. Todd

23 April 2018
 Experiential Dissonance: A Study of Lamentations 3:21-39

O, what depths of sorrow the human soul can plummet to; what assault tragedy can

deliver on the heart. All too often, faithful children of God condemn themselves for doubting

their Father in life’s calamities, sure that if they only had more faith, they would experience

peace through the struggle, sure that God would be more pleased with them if they had peace.

The Biblical book of Lamentations voices the cries of not only the author’s sorrow, but that of an

entire city in richly poetic form. The author validates the human experience of deep sorrow and

world-shattering questions that arise from tragedy, even ending the book on a note of intense

doubt and grief. Yet, at the center of the poetry, in the tightest acrostic form in the work, he

contrasts everything he (and Zion) is currently experiencing with the good character of the God

who is inflicting this temporary pain. Despite the feeling that God is being unjust, brutal,

unforgiving, and wrathful, he intentionally remembers the truth about God which he learned

through knowledge tradition. He assents to the truth of the Father’s good intentions toward His

people, His steadfast faithfulness, and His enduring love while experiencing none of this as true

emotionally. Lamentations 3:21-39 offers this knowledge based, not emotion based, trust in God

in the midst of turmoil. This passage presented the suffering Judeans two main lessons: 1) an

accurate description of God’s character and authority which they could call to hopeful

remembrance in painful circumstances, and 2) a validation of the unrest and sorrow they

experienced, even if they truly believed in God’s unchanging, good character. Lesson one is

contained within the passage, while lesson two cannot be understood without the stark contrast

of this hopeful passage with the emotional turmoil of the rest of the book.

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 Historical and Literary Context
1
As Babylonian guards besieged Jerusalem’s walls, the “weeping prophet” Jeremiah

helplessly watched his starving people gruesomely fade from the blessing and glory they once

knew. All around him, priests and holy men who were supposed to mediate the LORD’s blessing
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“breathed their last” (Lam. 1:19, NKJV) , starving mothers cooked and ate their own infants

(4:10), innocent children wandered the streets crying for food (4:4), and God abandoned His

glorious temple to destruction (2:7). This was the desperate situation most Biblical scholars

believe the poet (most likely Jeremiah, as Jewish and Church tradition has held for centuries)
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wrote his pained cries to God. Jeremiah attributed the horrifying destruction of Jerusalem (Zion)
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and her people in 587 B.C. to God’s severe punishment of Judah’s sin. But even in admitting

Judah’s sin as the rightful cause of the destruction, Jeremiah questions God’s severity and dances

between mourning and blaming God for being egregious.

This dance is made more poignant by the sophisticated poetry he uses; Jeremiah did not

hurriedly jot down his internal struggle but took considerable time and devotion to craft a piece
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that expressed this struggle in both word and structure. His poetry contains six prominent poetic

devices, including enjambment, Qinah meter, and acrostic. The acrostic patterns alter from

chapter to chapter, giving the original reader a sense of movement toward the third chapter,

which climaxes with 66 lines each beginning with a new letter instead of the former 66 lines with

each set of three lines beginning with a new letter. Chapters four and five decrease in acrostic

1
Robin A. Perry, ​Lamentations​ (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010), 5.
2
All Biblical references are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
3
R. K. Harrison, ​Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary​, vol. 21 of Tyndale Old
Testament Commentaries. IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 201.
4
Ibid., 204
5
John Piper, ​Brothers, We are Not Professionals​ (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013), 170.

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strictness (chapter 5 lacks acrostic form) as well as length (22 verses instead of 66). This overall

structure of the poem highlights chapter three as the climax and crux of the piece—what the

entire piece hinges on. This is also the chapter that breaks the theme of grief and blame to reveal

hope, highlighting hope as a central truth in the midst of the surrounding grief.

Content

God’s Character and Immutability

The most overt theme in these verses is what the true character of Judah’s God is like.

Jeremiah takes refuge in, and encourages those who are experiencing this tragedy with him to

take refuge in, the absolute and unwavering goodness of YHWH. Equally as crucial is YHWH’s

faithfulness to His promises, and therefore to His promised people. Word choice carries this

theme throughout the passage. Jeremiah attributes exclusively positive relational terms to God,

such as “steadfast love” (vv. 22, 32), “mercies” (v. 22), “faithfulness” (v. 23), “salvation” (v. 26),

and “compassion” (v. 32). Jeremiah adds absolutes to accentuate these assertions of God’s innate

character, such as “never” ceasing love (v. 22), mercies being new “every” morning (v. 23), and

surely not casting off His people “forever” (v. 31). The high frequency of absolutes and their

immediate modification of the relational character qualities emphasize God’s character as

immutable: God cannot change His positive stance toward His people because He permanently

embodies faithful relationship.

Conjunctive adverbs clarify the relationship between God’s steadfast character and His

suffering people’s response. Verses 28 through 30 can be considered a single unit of advice on

proper response to God, as each verse begins with “let him [the suffering one]” and together

6
Perry, ​Lamentations​, 9-15.

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form a single sentence in English translations. Verse 31 begins with the conjunctive adverb “for”

to connect the proper human response to the Lord’s compassionate nature in verse 31. Here,

“for” is better translated “because” (a ground statement) than “therefore” (an inference
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statement). So, the proper human response of humility and patience is an appeal to what God

already is and will already do, not a manipulation to earn God’s salvation. The conjunctive

adverb phrase “according to” in verse 32 supports this interpretation of “for” in verse 31, as it

explicitly states that God “will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast

love,” not according to the righteousness or repentance of the suffers. The source of Zion’s hope

for deliverance from destruction rested in God’s faithfulness to His promises and His own

faithful character. Through tears, Jeremiah could say with confidence “the Lord will not cast off

forever” (v. 31) because YHWH’s “abundance” of love requires Him to eventually show

compassion (v. 32).

Situational Experience versus Universal Reality

Jeremiah uses multiple voices and perspectives throughout the poem to show the totality

of despair from every angle. He views the devastation through the lens of a personified Zion in

chapter one, a furious YHWH in chapter two, his own personal view in chapter three, and the

united people of Zion (including Jeremiah) in chapters four and five. Each of these vantage

points is a specified character in the midst of the ongoing calamitous situation. However, the

middle portion of chapter three pulls away from any one specific voice or perspective and views

the situation from a universal, timeless one. Jeremiah answers not what is true about this

situation, but what is true always. He switches from speaking predominantly in first person (his

7
Modified Notes from Greg Beale, “Logical Relationships” (Handout received in Biblical Interpretation
with professor Jay Todd, Hollister, Missouri, 2018), 5.

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personal experience of God’s wrath) to exclusively third person in verse 25. He discusses not the

presently angry God or the presently sinful people, but the eternal qualities of God and the

universally proper response of a generic suffering person. This switch in vantage point coincides

with the switch in tone from distressing and accusatory to confident and optimistic. Therefore, its

third person form points to its contents being universal truths while the rest of the poem is

situational and experiential truth. The passage’s placement as the climax and center of the poem,
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as if a large scale inclusio, makes a poetic theological statement that in the very midst of any

human’s suffering, God’s faithful character and promises remain true. This does not discount the

surrounding turmoil, but the sufferer’s focus should always be directed toward eternal truths, just

as the reader is directed toward the center passage of Lamentations.

Because emotion is rooted in situational reactions while logic is non-situational, the

passage lacks the figurative language and imagery that the rest of the book overflows with. This

passage makes clear cut affirmative statements while the text immediately before and after it is

full of vivid imagery: “He has made my teeth grind on gravel” (v. 16), “the wormwood and gall”

(v. 19), and “you have wrapped yourself with a cloud” (v. 44). Instead of expressive metaphors
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and indirect analogies to convey emotional experience, the passage relies more heavily on

simple affirmatives to convey logical reality. This implicitly urges the Judean reader to not let

the intense emotion, drawn from the visceral images of destruction surrounding them, cloud the

objective reality of God’s intentions toward them.

8
J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, ​Grasping God’s Word: A hands-on approach to reading, interpreting,
and applying the Bible (​ Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2012), 102.
9
Ibid., 382.

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Experiential-Intellectual Tension

The passage not only juxtaposes this validation of the people’s turmoil and lamenting

with God’s objective goodness, but it also reveals a gaping divide between the two. The passage

begins with “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope” (v. 21). This verse starkly

contrasts with verse 18 only a few lines earlier: “so I say, ‘My endurance has perished; so has my

hope from the LORD.” Jeremiah must intentionally remember and dwell on knowledge tradition

to access any type of hope because his current experience is that YHWH had utterly abandoned

him. The two verses’ claims about hope directly contradict each other, evoking paradoxical
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tension between two realities. The original Hebrew uses the word ​towcheleth (​ ‫ )תּוֹ ֶח ֶלת‬for ​hope

in verse 18 and the word ​yachal ​(‫ )יָ ַחל‬for ​hope i​ n verses 21 and 24, providing some sense of

difference between the two hope claims, but the first word is a modification of the second.

Therefore, translating both as hope in English is accurate and maintains the experiential tension.
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The term ​yachal a​ lso includes “to wait,” “to be patient,” and “to trust” in its interpretive range,​

which are all cognitive terms, not emotion dependent ones. The original readers would have

understood the word as a cognitive state that is not necessarily influenced by the current

emotional state. Though, this does not lessen the impact that the two statements are direct

opposites, yet are both true at that time.

Jeremiah’s experience of YHWH’s complete abandonment and unjustly severe

punishment also evokes tension with the passage’s intellectual claims that God is completely

just. Justice language predominates verses 34 through 36. In addition, verses 34 through 39

reverse the pattern found in the rest of the book of making descriptive statements about Zion’s

10
Strong’s Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of the Old Testament​, s.v. “‫תּוֹ ֶח ֶלת‬,” para. 8459.
11
Ibid., s.v. “‫יָ ַחל‬,” para. 3192.

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destruction and directing condemning questions toward YHWH. Here, he makes descriptive

statements about God’s justice, such as “he does not… deny a man justice” (vv. 33,35) and “to

subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve” (v. 36), while directing condemning

questions toward the sinful people being punished: “Why should a living man complain, a man,

about the punishments of his sins?” (v. 39). This reversal of sentence pattern suggests a

completely opposite reality within the universality of the passage than what is experienced in the

rest of Lamentations. This paradoxical reality could cause the reader to believe Jeremiah is

suggesting the climax of the poem (this passage) is the true and valid viewpoint which

juxtaposes the surrounding viewpoints to condemn them; however,

I suggest the [author’s] discourse is better read as a polyphony that engages multiple perspectives

as he seeks to make sense of his situation. The juxtapositions of hope and expectancy,

and disappointment and despair, constitute the [author’s] internal dialogue with a past
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self, with alien discourses, and with the authoritative discourses of his tradition.

Jeremiah uses stark contrasts and paradoxes not only to proclaim equally true experiential and

objective realities, but also to reveal his own (and Judah’s) intense confusion in trying to

understand God’s actions. He admits the sovereignty and goodness of God, but cannot

understand it in the context of Zion’s siege, validating the human experience of doubt and

confusion in times of trouble.

Modern Application

Fortunately, Lamentations 3:21-39 presents a fairly direct application because it is

purposefully written to apply to all people at all times. The modern Church can take from it the

12
Meriam J. Bier, “’We have Sinned and Rebelled; You have Not Forgiven’: The Dialogic Interaction
between Authoritative and Internally Persuasive Discourse in Lamentations 3,” ​Biblical Interpretation​ 22/2 (2014):
147.

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same assurance that God’s character is never-changing and look to the passage for a brief but

accurate description of God’s faithful and good character, which is based on centuries of

knowledge tradition. This is most useful, as the author intended, when the reader is experiencing

intense suffering and is doubting God’s character. The passage, when read in its literary context,

does not condemn the sufferer for experiencing deep emotional turmoil, doubt, and confusion,

but does remind him that the calamity of the present situation does not affect the reality of God’s

promises and heart toward those He has adopted. The passage reminds Christians that God does

not promise His blessing will be experienced at all times—it was God who inflicted the

devastation on His own people as just punishment; but, God will never completely abandon His

people. When this is not the experiential reality of the reader, he must lean on this truth

intellectually as the source of all hope for the future. In order to lean on this truth, the sufferer

must have knowledge to remember, encouraging him to study the YHWH’s character before

turmoil comes upon him so he has something to call to mind.

This passage also makes clear that waiting on the Lord with lowliness is essential to our

proper response to turmoil. Regardless of our feeling of being unjustly treated, Christians are in

no position to condemn their just Creator for being unjust to them. Sufferers are validated in

expressing their experience of God and our situation in intense ways, but they only reveal their

finiteness and ignorance when we let expression of grief become accusation, as if we know all

facets of the situation and are capable of judging God.

Conclusion

Because the book of Lamentations was written in such rich poet form, there are many

other aspects of the poetry that support its theological message that were not covered in this

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essay. One particularly interesting question of the book is whether the book as a whole and some

of its individual verses allude to the book of Job. The situation Jeremiah writes in seems very

much like that of Job’s, the questions Jeremiah asks God seem to mimic Job’s, and Jeremiah’s

ultimate response of accepting the calamity as just punishment and affirming God’s good

character seem to be the opposite of Job’s, as if Jeremiah was proclaiming he would not react the

same way Job did (with accusation and self-righteousness) when he faced the same tragedy.

However, the key issue of this possible allusion is whether Job was written before of after

Lamentations. While some scholars consider Job to be the oldest book in the Bible, possibly

written by Moses as Hebrew tradition ascribes, others believe it was written in the time of

nd​
Solomon (950 B.C.), and still many others date the book much more recent (2​ century B.C.).

There is good reason to believe that Job was written before Lamentations and therefore, Jeremiah

would have had access to it. If this is the case, Lamentations 3:21-39 as Jeremiah’s admission of

God’s sovereignty, goodness, faithfulness, and justice in the midst of turmoil seems to allude to

Job’s final admission of YHWH as such, but without having God first challenge Jeremiah’s

accusations. Therefore, the book of Lamentations would be a product of a man who had learned

the lesson of Job and is now putting it into practice.

Even without the possible allusion to Job, this passage in Lamentations stands as a

powerful living out of conviction: in even the most horrific of times, Jeremiah held fast to his

knowledge of God’s character. Christians in modern America rarely face such incredible

difficulties, so they should continually and intentionally remember God’s seriousness about

righteousness and right response to His commands because His very being must reject sin. This

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should build an ever-deeper appreciation for Christ’s sacrifice so that God’s children do not have

to endure the righteous punishment they deserve.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beale, Greg (Modified Notes). “Logical Relationships.” (Handout received in Biblical

Interpretation with professor Jay Todd, Hollister, Missouri, 2018).

Bier, Meriam J. “‘We have Sinned and Rebelled; You have Not Forgiven’: The Dialogic

Interaction between Authoritative and Internally Persuasive Discourse in Lamentations 3.”

Biblical Interpretation​ 22/2 (2014): 146-167.

Duvall, J. Scott and J. Daniel Hays. ​Grasping God’s Word: A hands-on approach to reading,

interpreting, and applying the Bible.​ ​ G

Harrison, R. K. ​Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary,​ vol. 21 of

Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. IVP/Accordance electronic ed. Downers Grove:

InterVarsity Press, 1973.

Perry, Robin A. ​Lamentations​. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.

Piper, John. ​Brothers, We are Not Professionals.​ Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013.

Strong’s Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of the Old Testament.​ IVP/Accordance electronic ed.

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