Lamentations
Lamentations grieves the fall of Jerusalem, and in its third chapter finds hope in God’s faithfulness.
New Every Morning · Lamentations 3:23
Crewneck · 7 colors
Price range: $36.95 through $39.95
New Every Morning · Lamentations 3:23
Hoodie · 7 colors
Price range: $42.95 through $46.95
New Every Morning · Lamentations 3:23
T-Shirt · 7 colors
Price range: $24.95 through $28.95
About the book of Lamentations
Lamentations is a short book of five poems written after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC. Tradition credits Jeremiah, who saw the siege, though the book does not name its author. It was written for the survivors, a grieving community that needed words for what had happened. Its Hebrew title, Eikhah, means “how,” the first word of the book and the cry of someone who cannot understand the loss. Four of the five poems are acrostics built on the Hebrew alphabet, which gave grief a shape and an order.
Main themes
Lamentations does not hurry to comfort. It describes hunger, ruin and shame with plain honesty, and it admits that the people’s sin helped bring the disaster. The voice is a mourner, sometimes the city herself and sometimes the poet. God is not falsely accused, and he is not ignored. The book teaches that lament is a form of prayer.
At the center, in chapter 3, the poet lifts his eyes from the ruins and chooses to remember who the Lord is. This chapter is the longest and the most personal, written in the first person. That one turn gives the book its weight. Sorrow and trust sit together on the same page, and neither cancels the other. The last chapter closes with a request that God restore his people, so the book ends with the prayer still open.
Verses from Lamentations on our apparel
Lamentations 3:23. “They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” “They” points back to the mercies and compassions in verse 22 that never fail. The line recalls the manna Israel gathered fresh each morning in the wilderness (Exodus 16). God’s faithfulness here rests on his own character, since Jerusalem had sinned greatly, and yesterday’s failures do not use up what he gives today. Thomas Chisholm drew the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” from this phrase in 1923. Our New Every Morning design puts the verse on a T-shirt, a hoodie and a crewneck.
Other lines, such as Lamentations 3:22, are not on our shirts yet, so read the whole chapter in your own Bible.
Frequently asked
Who wrote Lamentations? Tradition credits the prophet Jeremiah, who witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, though the book does not name its author.
What does “they” refer to in Lamentations 3:23? It points back to the Lord’s mercies and compassions in the verse before it, which are described as never failing.