Initial word panel for Lamentations from the mid-15th century Almanzi Pentateuch (with Haftarot and Megillot), from Lisbon, Portugal. British Library.
Reading Lamentations with Inner-Biblical Exegesis
By identifying biblical intertexts and parallel phrases, we can better understand the flow, the imagery, and even the core message of Eichah, Lamentations.
Published: July 14, 2021
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
This is my translation. See also, Amos Hakham, Isaiah 1-35 (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1984), pp. 14-15. NJPS translates: “Alas, she has become a harlot, the faithful city that was filled with justice, where righteousness dwelt— but now murderers.”
Notably, neither my suggestion nor the NJPS follows the Masoretic division of the text (as per the cantillation notes).
The verse is very difficult to parse. First, it is unclear whether the “misery and harsh oppression” are the causes or the results of the exile. (The note in The Jewish Study Bible, p. 1584, suggest that instead of “because of misery” to translate “after misery.”) Second, why or where did she find no rest? Finally, where are the narrow places (if that is the proper translation) in Israel, in Babylon, or on the way?
I follow here, with adjustments, Avraham Rosenfeld’s translation in Tisha B’Av Compendium: Tephilot and Kinot (New York: Judaica Press, 1989), 144, where this is listed as the 33rd kinah. In the Artscroll, it is the 31st. The Sephardic tradition also uses this kinah. The author of the kinah is unknown, though some scholars attribute it to R. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1167). For more on this kinah, see Aaron Mirsky, "ממדרש לפיוט ולשירת הספרדים" [From Midrash to Piyyut and to Sephardic Poetry], Lĕšonénu 32.1–2 (1968): 129–139 [132–133].
This Deuteronomic theology accounts for the multiple expressions of hope in chapter 3 (vv. 21–29).
