- In Lamentations 3 there are three verses for each letter of the alphabet. The verses are much shorter and have a different meter and cantillation from the rest of the book. The poem is also written in the first person. How do you account for these changes?
- Do you have any thoughts about the identity of the poet?
- What is the effect on the reader of the description of an individual’s suffering as opposed to the picture of national calamity in the preceding chapters?
- What does Lamentations 3 say about the writer’s personal theology? Why does he liken God to a bear and a lion?
- How do you explain the change of mood beginning in Lamentations 3:19?
- The mood shifts again at Lamentations 3:40. What do these shifts tell us about the poet’s emotions?
- To which biblical book dealing with human suffering is this chapter comparable? Are the issues similar?
- What is the significance of the shift to first person plural beginning with Lamentations 3:42 and then back to first person singular in Lamentations 3:48 and following?
- Lamentations 3:55 is reminiscent of Psalm 130. How so?
- How do Lamentations 3:61-66 represent diametrically opposite views of the enemy when compared with Lamentations 2?
