Book of Lamentations: Chapter 3 - Required reading for eighth grade public school students in Texas

Of the 14 Bible passages on the Texas required reading list, this one surprises me the most. The list contains some well-known Bible stories that (arguably anyway) should be familar to every educated person (Noah's ark, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lion's den, stories about Moses and Job). Allso included are some passages conveying some nice ideas (the book of Ecclesiastes, some of Jesus's sayings, Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13). But there's nothing good in the Book of Lamentaions.

Here is the episode on Lamenations from the Bible in Fewer Words podcast.

Episode 198: Jane Jerusalem, you ignorant slut!

Lamentations 1-5

1 ¹ What happened to Jerusalem? It was full of people. Now there's no one.

² She is weeping at night. None of her lovers comfort her.

⁵ The Lord has made her suffer.

⁸ She has grievously sinned. Everyone has seen her nakedness. She sighs and turns backwards.

⁹ Her filthiness is in her skirts.

¹⁰ The enemy has put his hand on all her pleasant things.

¹¹ Jerusalem speaks, saying,

¹² God has afflicted me in his fierce anger.

¹⁵ He has trampled mighty men, young men, and virgins, as in a winepress.

¹⁷ Jerusalem is like a menstruous women.

¹⁸ Jerusalem speaks, saying,

I have rebelled against God's commandment.

¹⁹ I called for my lovers, but they deceived me.

²⁰ My bowels are troubled.

Should mothers eat their children?

2 ² God has swallowed the descendants of Jacob and has not pitied them. He has polluted the land.

⁴ He has killed all the good-looking people by shooting them with his bow and arrow. He has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵ God is an enemy. He has swallowed Israel.

⁸ His hand is still destroying things.

⁹ The prophets receive no messages from God.

¹⁰ The elders sit on the ground and cast dust on their heads. They gird themselves with sackcloth. Virgins hang their heads down to the ground.

¹¹ My bowels are troubled and my liver is poured on the ground.

¹⁴ The prophets see vain and foolish things.

¹⁵ Everyone that passes by clap their hands, hiss, and wag their heads.

¹⁶ All your enemies open their mouth and hiss. They gnash their teeth, and say, “We have swallowed her up.”

¹⁷ God did what he planned to do. He has thrown down and shown no pity.

²⁰ Should mothers eat their children? Should priests and prophets be killed?

²¹ Virgins, young men, and old people lie dead in the streets. You have killed them without mercy.

²² You have spread terror everywhere. No one has escaped.

He has broken my teeth

3 ¹ God has punished me with the rod of his wrath.

² He has led me into darkness, and not into light.

³ He's always against me.

⁴ He's made my skin old and has broken my bones.

⁵ He's worked against me and made my life difficult.

⁶ He put me in dark places.

⁷ He's made my chain heavy.

⁸ He doesn't listen to my prayers.

⁹ He's made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He's like a bear or lion waiting to attack.

¹¹ He's torn me in pieces.

^12-13 He's shot me in the kidneys with his bow and arrow.

¹⁴ People laugh at me all day long.

¹⁵ He's made me drunk with wormwood.

¹⁶ He's broken my teeth with gravel.

God is the source of both good and evil

²² But God doesn't kill us, because he is so merciful.

³² He causes us grief, but he is merciful.

³³ He doesn't willingly hurt us.

³⁷ No one does anything without God's permission.

³⁸ God is the source of both good and evil.

³⁹ So don't complain when God punishes you.

⁴³ You [God] have persecuted us in your anger. You have killed us without pity.

⁴⁴ You don't listen to our prayers.

⁴⁸ I can't stop crying.

⁵² My enemies chase me around like I was a bird.

⁵³ They've locked me in a dungeon and cast a stone on top of me.

⁵⁴ I'm in over my head.

⁶⁵ Curse my enemies.

⁶⁶ Destroy them in your anger.

You will be drunk and naked

4 ³ Our women have become cruel, like ostriches.

⁴ Children live on dunghills without food or water.

⁹ Those killed with a sword are better than those who starve to death.

¹⁰ Women are forced to eat their own children.

¹¹ God has accomplished his fury by burning the city of Zion.

²¹ Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who lives in the land of Uz. You will get drunk and make yourself naked.

²² God will discover your sins.

Woe unto us

5 ¹⁰ Our skin was black because of the famine.

¹¹ The women were raped in the cities of Judah.

¹² Princes are hung up by their hands.

¹⁶ Woe unto us!

²⁰ You have forgotten us forever.

²² You are angry and have rejected us.

A few more words about this episode

My bowels are troubled and my liver is poured on the ground. (2:11)

In the podcast I added "my cup runneth over" - but that is from the Psalm 23, not this verse in Lamentations. I just thought it fit here, so I threw it in just for fun.

Title inspired by:

Questions for Students

1. The Book of Lamentatons says that Jerusalem is like a menstrous woman whose filthiness is in her skirts. Such language would not be allowed in public school classrooms. Why is it in the Bible?
2. Lamentations implies that God has forced mothers to eat their children (2:20 and 4:10) and has shot people with his bow and arrow, and killed old men and women in the streets. Did God actually do these things?
3. Lamentations 3:18 says that God is the source of both good and evil? Is that true? Is God the source of evil?