Most Christians never hear a sermon on Lamentations. Many may never even read it. There are no miracles in it. No heroes. And there’s no happy ending. It closes with a question that God does not answer.
So here’s a bold claim: this dark little book is one of the clearest pictures of Good Friday in the whole Old Testament.
After all, Jesus Himself said the Old Testament Scriptures ‘bear witness about me’ (John 5:39). Lamentations is part of those Scriptures. So Jesus must be somewhere in its tears. In this post, we shall find Him in 6 places.
Jesus in the Old Testament — Book 25 of 39
This post is the 25th instalment in our series tracing Christ through every book of the Old Testament. See the full series index.
What Is Lamentations About?
In 586 BC, the army of Babylon broke through the walls of Jerusalem. They burned the temple—the house where God had lived among His people. Many died, and many were taken away as prisoners.
Lamentations is five sad poems about this disaster. The book is brutally honest about hunger, death and shame. It even says God Himself did this (Lamentations 2:17).
Why would God destroy His own city? Because His people had broken His covenant—the binding promise between God and His people. Long before, God had warned Israel what would happen if they turned away from Him (Deuteronomy 28). Lamentations shows those warnings coming true.
Key words to know before we start
| WORD | WHAT IT MEANS IN SIMPLE ENGLISH |
|---|---|
| Lament | A cry of grief or sorrow, often spoken as a prayer to God |
| Covenant | A binding agreement between God and His people, with promises and warnings |
| Anointed / Messiah | Someone chosen by God and marked with oil for a special job, such as king. ‘Christ’ is the Greek word for the same idea |
| Steadfast love (hesed) | A Hebrew word for God’s loyal love—love that keeps its promises |
Can We Really Find Jesus in Lamentations?
The name ‘Jesus’ never appears in Lamentations. So how do we say He’s there?
The answer starts with Jesus. After He rose, He walked with two disciples to Emmaus, and ‘beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’ (Luke 24:27). Later He said ‘everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled’ (Luke 24:44).
In the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms head the third section, the Writings, where Lamentations belongs. So Jesus means the whole Old Testament—Lamentations included.
The apostle Peter agrees. He says the Old Testament prophets ‘predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories’ (1 Peter 1:11). Lamentations holds both: deep suffering and a small, stubborn hope.
HOW WE READ CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT—SAFELY
History first: We begin with what the words meant to the first readers in 586 BC. We never skip the real event.
Scripture explains Scripture: We let the New Testament show us how the Old points to Christ. We do not invent secret codes.
Patterns, not guesses: We look for types—real people and events God shaped as pictures of Christ.
Christ as us and for us: Jesus suffers as His people (He stands in their place) and for His people (He takes their punishment).
Edmund Clowney, a much-loved teacher of preachers, warned against jumping from any small detail straight to Jesus. First, he said, ask what truth the passage shows about God. Then ask how Christ fills that truth to the full. Augustine put it simply: the New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is made plain in the New.
1. The Sufferer Nobody Noticed (Lamentations 1:12)
In Chapter 1, Jerusalem is pictured as a woman who has lost everything. She calls out to people passing 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 LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.’
Lamentations 1:12
600 years later, Jesus hangs on a cross outside the same city. Matthew says ‘those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads’ (Matthew 27:39).
The picture is almost the same: a sufferer is outside Jerusalem, people walking past, nobody caring. For centuries, Christians have read this verse before Easter and heard in it the voice of Jesus.
Two sufferers outside Jerusalem compared
| QUESTION | JERUSALEM IN LAMENTATIONS 1 | JESUS ON THE CROSS |
|---|---|---|
| Why did the suffering come? | Because of her own sin (1:8) | Because of our sin, not His own (1 Peter 2:24) |
| Did the sufferer deserve it? | Yes—she admits, ‘I have rebelled’ (1:18) | No—He had no sin at all (2 Corinthians 5:21) |
| What was the result? | Exile and shame | Forgiveness and life for all who trust Him |
Jerusalem asked if any sorrow was like hers. The true answer came at the cross. Jesus’ sorrow was greater—because He carried a punishment that was not His own.
2. ‘I Am the Man’: One Man Suffering for Many (Lamentations 3)
Chapter 3 is the centre of the book. Suddenly the voice changes from a city to one man.
‘I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.’
Lamentations 3:1
Affliction means great pain and trouble. The rod is a stick used for punishment. This man feels God’s anger against sin as if it falls on him alone.
Who is he? Probably Jeremiah, the prophet who warned Jerusalem for forty years. But he speaks for the whole nation—one man standing for many. The Hebrew word here, geber, means a strong man. The strongest man in the city is crushed.
The man of Lamentations 3 and the Man of Sorrows
| WHAT THE MAN IN LAMENTATIONS 3 SAYS | WHAT HAPPENED TO JESUS | WHERE TO READ IT |
|---|---|---|
| ‘He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light’ (3:2) | Darkness covered the land for three hours while He hung on the cross | Matthew 27:45 |
| ‘He shuts out my prayer’ (3:8) | He cried, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ | Matthew 27:46 |
| ‘I have become the laughingstock of all peoples’ (3:14) | Soldiers, priests and passers-by all mocked Him | Matthew 27:29, 41 |
| ‘He has sated me with wormwood’—a bitter plant (3:15) | He was offered wine mixed with gall, a bitter drink | Matthew 27:34 |
| ‘They flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me’ (3:53) | He was laid in a tomb and a great stone was rolled over it | Matthew 27:60 |
| ‘You have redeemed my life’ (3:58) | God raised Him from the dead on the third day | Matthew 28:6 |
Is this just lucky matching? No. Look at the whole shape: darkness, mockery, a pit covered with stones—then rescue. That is the shape of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Philip Graham Ryken, in his commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, draws out the difference: the man in Lamentations tasted God’s wrath, but only Jesus drank it all—and rose again.
Isaiah 53 paints the same picture. It calls God’s Servant ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ (Isaiah 53:3). Both passages show one person carrying pain that belongs to others. That is where our title comes from.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Jesus also prayed in the darkness, ‘with loud cries and tears’ (Hebrews 5:7). So when you feel God has shut out your prayer, remember: Jesus has been there first, and He came through it.
3. The Anointed King Who Was Captured (Lamentations 4:20)
‘The breath of our nostrils, the LORD’s anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.”’
Lamentations 4:20
‘The breath of our nostrils’ means the one we depend on to live. ‘The LORD’s anointed’ means the king—the man God had chosen and marked with oil. Here it is King Zedekiah, the last king from David’s family, caught by the Babylonians as he fled (2 Kings 25:4–7).
Why does this point to Jesus? Because God had promised David that one of his sons would rule for ever (2 Samuel 7:12–16). Zedekiah was not that son. When he was captured, God’s promise to David looked dead.
But the promise was not dead. It was waiting for the true Anointed One. Remember, ‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ both mean ‘anointed one’. Jesus was also captured at night. Soldiers ‘arrested Jesus and bound him’ (John 18:12). Yet this capture was not a defeat. It was the road to victory, and now His people truly live under His shadow.
Two anointed kings compared
| QUESTION | KING ZEDEKIAH | KING JESUS |
|---|---|---|
| How was he captured? | Running away at night (2 Kings 25:4–5) | Stepping forward and giving Himself up (John 18:4–8) |
| Was he faithful to God? | No—‘he did what was evil’ (2 Kings 24:19) | Yes—He obeyed His Father perfectly |
| How long did his kingdom last? | It ended in 586 BC | It will never end (Luke 1:33) |
This reading is very old. Irenaeus, a second-century church leader, applied this verse to Christ’s sufferings. John Calvin, the sixteenth-century Reformer, insisted it speaks first about the real king in 586 BC, while seeing David’s royal line as a picture of Christ’s kingdom. Both are true: history first, then the greater King.
4. ‘Your Punishment Is Accomplished’ (Lamentations 4:22)
‘The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer.’
Lamentations 4:22
Daughter of Zion is a tender name for Jerusalem and her people. The punishment is accomplished—finished, complete, fully paid.
But was it really? The exile ended, yet sin was not truly paid for. Animal sacrifices could never take sin away for good (Hebrews 10:4).
The real payment came at the cross. Just before He died, Jesus cried, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). The apostle Paul explains what that means: ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us’ (Galatians 3:13).
O Palmer Robertson, in The Christ of the Covenants, shows how God’s covenants hold the whole Bible story together. Seen this way, Lamentations is the covenant curse falling on God’s people. The cross is that same curse falling on God’s Son instead.
FROM WARNING TO RESCUE: THE COVENANT STORY IN 3 STEPS
The warning (Deuteronomy 28): Break My covenant, and siege, hunger and exile will come.
The reality (Lamentations): The city starved, fell and went into exile.
The rescue (the cross): Jesus took the curse, so all who trust Him receive the blessing.
5. Mercies New Every Morning (Lamentations 3:22–33)
In the middle of the darkest book comes one of its brightest passages:
‘The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’
Lamentations 3:22–23
‘Steadfast love’ translates the Hebrew word hesed. It means loyal love—love that keeps its promises even when the other person has failed. The poet has lost his city, temple and king, yet God’s love has not stopped—because it depends on God, not on us.
He goes on: ‘though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart’ (3:32–33). God does bring grief on sin, but He takes no pleasure in it. His deepest heart is compassion.
Where do we see that heart most clearly? At the cross. ‘He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?’ (Romans 8:32). Hesed has a face and a name: Jesus Christ. In Him ‘all the promises of God find their Yes’ (2 Corinthians 1:20).
6. A Book That Ends With a Question
Lamentations ends with a prayer mixed with fear:
‘Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.’
Lamentations 5:21–22
The book stops there. And throughout chapter 1, the city cries that there is no one to comfort her (1:2, 9, 16, 17, 21).
So who answers? Isaiah does. Isaiah 40 opens with ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God’ (Isaiah 40:1). The scholar Patricia Tull Willey has shown that Isaiah 40–55 deliberately answers Lamentations, picture by picture. Where Lamentations says ‘no one to comfort’, God says, ‘I, I am he who comforts you’ (Isaiah 51:12). That comfort comes through the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
Then Jesus came. He is that Servant. He promised to send ‘another Helper’ (John 14:16)—the Holy Spirit, whom older Bibles call the Comforter. The temple lay in ruins, but Jesus said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (John 2:19). He meant His own body—the true meeting place between God and people. And the tears on Jerusalem’s cheeks (1:2) will one day be gone for good, because God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes’ (Revelation 21:4).
Timeline: How God Answers the Question of Lamentations
- 586 BC—The fall: Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple. Lamentations is written.
- About AD 30—The cross: Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, dies under God’s curse and rises again.
- AD 70—A second fall: Rome destroys the temple, just as Jesus warned (Luke 19:43–44).
- The last day—No more tears: God lives with His people for ever and wipes every tear away.
But Aren’t We Just Reading Jesus Into It?
- ‘The word Jesus is not in the book.’ True. Nor is it in Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53, yet the New Testament finds Him there. Jesus told us to look (Luke 24:27).
- ‘Lamentations 4:20 is about Zedekiah.’ Yes, and we agree. The type works by contrast: the failed king makes us long for the faithful one.
- ‘The man in chapter 3 is Jeremiah.’ Probably. But crowds saw Jeremiah in Jesus (Matthew 16:14), and like the weeping prophet, Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41).
- ‘This is just matching verses.’ One match could be chance. Six lines all pointing the same way is a pattern—and it is the pattern Jesus and the apostles taught us to see.
What This Means for You
Lamentations teaches us three things. Sin is serious—serious enough to destroy a city and to nail God’s Son to a cross. God’s love is stronger than our failure, because Christ has paid in full. And it is right to bring our tears to God. Jesus did.
The book ends with a frightening question: has God utterly rejected us? For everyone who trusts in Jesus, the answer is no. On the cross, the Father turned away from His Son, so that He would never have to turn away from us.
‘Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.’ At the cross, there is none. And there is no love like His love either.
Tough Questions, Honest Answers
Who wrote the book of Lamentations?
The book doesn’t name its author. But very old Jewish and Christian tradition says Jeremiah wrote it. The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament even adds a short note saying so, and 2 Chronicles 35:25 tells us Jeremiah wrote laments. The style and themes are also very close to the book of Jeremiah. Some modern scholars doubt this, but Jeremiah remains the most likely author. In the end, the book’s authority comes from God, who breathed out all Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16).
Why is Lamentations written as an alphabetical acrostic?
4 of the 5 poems are acrostics. This means each verse or group of verses begins with the next letter of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet. Chapter 3 has 3 verses for each letter, which is why it has 66 verses. Chapter 5 has 22 verses but drops the pattern, as if the poet has no strength left. The acrostic helped people remember the poems. It may also say that this is grief ‘from A to Z’—complete sorrow, yet sorrow held inside God’s order.
Is the hymn ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ based on Lamentations?
Yes. Thomas Chisholm wrote the words in 1923, based on Lamentations 3:22–23, and William Runyan wrote the tune. Many people sing it without knowing it comes from the saddest book in the Bible. That makes it even more powerful. God’s faithfulness isn’t something we see only in good times. It’s His promise-keeping love, which holds firm even when everything else falls apart.
Why do Jewish people read Lamentations on Tisha B’Av?
Tisha B’Av means ‘the 9th day of Av’, a month in the Jewish calendar. On this fast day, Jewish people remember the destruction of both the first temple in 586 BC and the 2nd temple in AD 70. In many synagogues, Lamentations is read aloud in a low, sad chant. Christians can respect this deep sorrow and learn from it. But we believe the answer to the ruined temple is Jesus, the true temple. Like Paul, we pray that Jewish people will come to know Him as their Messiah (Romans 10:1).
Does God cause suffering?
Lamentations 3:38 asks, ‘Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?’ The Bible teaches that God rules over all things, including hard things. Yet God is never the author of sin, and people remain responsible for the evil they do. That’s why Babylon was also judged (Lamentations 4:21). The cross is the clearest example: wicked men killed Jesus, yet it happened by God’s ‘definite plan’ (Acts 2:23). This means our suffering is never random. God can use it for good (Romans 8:28).
Is it wrong for a Christian to complain to God?
There’s a difference between grumbling and lament. Grumbling complains about God and turns away from Him in unbelief, as Israel did in the wilderness (Numbers 14). Lament complains to God and turns towards Him in faith. Lamentations, and around a third of the Psalms, are laments. Jesus Himself prayed a lament from the cross (Psalm 22:1). Carl Trueman has argued that churches which only sing happy songs leave hurting Christians without words to pray. God welcomes honest tears.
How can Lamentations help us when we’re grieving?
Lamentations gives us words when we have none. It shows God isn’t offended by tears. Or by hard questions. Notice how the poet turns in 3:21: ‘But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.’ Hope often begins not with a feeling, but with choosing to remember who God is. In our grief, let’s read the book slowly, and pray it back to God. And remember we don’t grieve alone. Jesus is the Man of Sorrows, and He has walked this road before us.
