First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

Lam. l:21; 2:21f speak of two phases of the Day of the L-rd, the

first already past in the fall of Jerusalem and the dissolution

of the people of Judah, and a second in store for the gloating

enemies of G-d's people. Therefore those who speak of "Israel's

Final Holocaust" had better be reminded that it will also be a

holocaust for all the nations of the world. Jeremiah is the

traditional author of Lamentations in the closing days of Judah's

conflict with Babylon around 586, the date of Jerusalem's final

capitulation to Nebuchadnezzar.

The ninth of Ab (August) is the Jewish commemoration of this

disaster, and on that day this scroll is read in the synagogue

following the evening services. The other minor fast days

associated in some way with this event are the Tenth of Tevet

(marking the beginning of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem), the

Seventeenth of Tammuz (which marks the first breach in the walls

of Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege), and the Fast of

Gedaliah (commemorating his assassination after he was appointed

Governor of the Jewish people by

Nebuchadnezzar).

In this book, Jerusalem is personified and she weeps bitterly

(1:2) because Judah has gone into the Galut (Exile)--see 1:3-5.

The prodigal city remembers the wonderful days of old when her

festivals brought rejoicing multitudes to her Beis Hamikdash

sanctuary. Now those days are gone, and she is mocked and

despised, and enemies have invaded her sanctuary (1:10). Like

the Moshiach, hanged on the aitz, the city is naked and

humiliated and left to be seen by passers-by. "Is it nothing to

you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow

like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the L-rd

inflicted on the day of his fierce anger" (Lam. l:12). See Lam.

2:22.

Jerusalem remembers her false prophets with their false and

misleading visions (2:14) and her prophets who obtain no vision

from the L-rd (2:9) and she remembers her own rebellion against

G-d's word (1:18), and sees that all this desolation of altar and

sanctuary, all this abolition of festival and Shabbos, is just

punishment from the L-rd Himself. The Gentile enemies gloat over

her when they see Jerusalem's destruction in the Babylonian

Exile, but she calls on G-d to bring on the Day of the L-rd when

all the Gentile nations of the world will become as Jerusalem is

(1:21). Judgment only begins at the household of G-d. See 3:64

and Zech.l:l5; 2:8.

A terrible picture of gehinnom is seen in 3:7-8, for here we view

a people (pre-Exilic Jerusalem) who refused to know G-d and we

see them frozen in the gehinnom-like divine judgment. We are

reminded again of the pierced Moshiach surrounded by mockers when

we read 3:14. See also 3:30, 52-57.

The burden of proof today is still on Judah's religious leaders

as to whether or not they rebel against G-d's word (1:18), since

it was their sins which caused the destruction of Jerusalem

(4:13-16). They were as unreliable as that ally Egypt, a nation

that could not save" (4:17). Jewish religious leaders must prove

that they rightly interpret the word of G-d, because desolate

Jerusalem is still a rebuke and a challenge against them.

Note for street ministry: homelessness is mentioned in 3:19.

Jerusalem's survivors are homeless after G-d's judgment falls on

them. But see the song of hope in 3:22-23. We see that to be

thus humbled is good (3:27-29). There is hope in 3:31-32. If we

don't grow bitter toward G-d but instead test and examine our

ways and return to the L-rd, then there is indeed good in being

humbled by the L-rd (3:39-40).

The hope of Israel's ultimate return to G-d is stated in 4:22 and

5:21. This is still the great hope of all Biblically defined

believers.

LAMENTATIONS 5:12

Princes are strung up by their hands; elders are shown no

respect.