Jeremiah, on one hand, rebuked the kings and the people for their sins and wanted them to repent; on the other hand, he warned them that they would be taken into captivity, that their nation would be destroyed, and that the cities of Judah and Jerusalem would become desolate.
In chapter one Jeremiah began to warn the backsliding people of the evil that would be coming upon them, saying, “Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord...they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah” (vv. 14-15).
The coming evil was like a spoiler who would suddenly come upon them. The enemies would thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine (Jer. 6:9, 26), and the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness would cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, for the land would be desolate (Jer. 7:34).
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah, “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you...but ye have not hearkened....Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof...and will utterly destroy them...and make them... perpetual desolations” (Jer. 25:3, 8-9).
Finally, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. Zedekiah was captured, and his sons and the nobles of Judah were slain. The walls of the city were broken down, the houses in the city were burned, and the remnant was carried away to Babylon (Jer. 39:2-9).
Jerusalem fell and the people were taken captive. All the warnings of Jeremiah were fulfilled. But because he loved God and God’s people, Jeremiah could not bear to see the fall of Israel and the loss of God’s glory due to the degradation of the people of Israel. Thus Jeremiah wrote Lamentations and wept for them.
Lamentations, composed of five chapters which are five songs, may be divided into five sections: suffering, lamenting, hope, confessing, and prayer. Except for the fifth, each song speaks first of the tragic destruction of Jerusalem and then of the righteousness of God’s severe judgment. “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” (1:1). “How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel” (2:1). “The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment” (1:18). “Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people” (2:11). “Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (5:21).