written between 580 and 561 B.C., when Jehoiachin was liberated.
Chapters 1 and 3 follow the regular order of the Hebrew alphabet and
apparently represent the work of a later author or authors. Chapter 1 is
full of pathos and religious feeling and is closely parallel in thought
to such psalms as 42 and 137. Chapter 3 is a poetic monologue describing
the fate and voicing the contrition of the righteous within the Judean
community. Chapter 5, on the contrary, is in the three-beat measure and
lacks the acrostic structure of the preceding chapters. Its style and
point of view are so different from those of the preceding chapters that
it must be the work of another author, who probably lived in the Persian
period.

IV. Its Real Character. The purpose of the book of Lamentations was
evidently, (1) to give appropriate expression to the feelings of the Jews
who survived the destruction of Jerusalem, 586 B.C.; (2) to drive home the
great lessons taught by their past history, and thus to arouse true
repentance; and (3) to kindle in turn hopes regarding their future.
Through them Jeremiah and Ezekiel live and speak again, but from the point
of view of the people. These tragic poems also throw contemporary light
upon the horrors of the final siege and capture of Jerusalem and upon the
fate of those who survived.

V. Numbers and Fortunes of the Jews Who Remained in Palestine. The Jews
actually carried into captivity constituted only a small part of the total
population of Judah (cf. Section XC:ii). The peasants and the inhabitants
of the towns outside Jerusalem remained undisturbed, except as some of
them were doubtless drafted into the army which under Zedekiah undertook
to defend Jerusalem against the Chaldeans. From the later record of
Nehemiah's work the names of many of these towns can be determined. In the
north were Jericho, Geba, Mizpah, Anathoth, and Kirjath-jearim; in the