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Reading Guide
Lamentations/Esther
Lamentations
Each chapter is a separate poem. The first four poems are “acrostics” - alphabet poems - each poetic verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
This very carefully ordered structure of the poems is contrasted with the disorder of the pain and confused grief that they express. Israel’s suffering is explored “A through Z”.
Chapter 1 - each verse in our English Bible equals a verse in the Hebrew poem.
Jerusalem is personified as a widow in mourning - “Daughter of Zion”. The widow speaks as she describes her grief. The city’s destruction is expressed as a funeral and the death of a loved one.
Chapter 2 - Each verse in our English Bible equals a verse in the Hebrew poem.
The fall of Jerusalem and God’s wrath (God’s wrath = God’s justice)
Why does God’s wrath come against Jerusalem?
Chapter 3 - Three verses in the English Bible per letter in the Hebrew poem.
The voice of a lonely man speaking out of his suffering and grief as a representative of the whole people.
Chapter 3:22-24 - a glimmer of hope in the midst of the lament - almost in the center of the book.
Chapter 4 - Each verse in our English Bible equals a verse in the Hebrew poem.
A description of the siege of Jerusalem.
Chapter 5 - NOT an acrostic poem.
A communal prayer for God’s mercy. Naming different categories of people.
“O LORD, you reign as king forever.” (5:19)
“Why do you forget and forsake us?” (5:20)
“Unless you have totally rejected us???” (5:22)
Esther
More than 100 years after the Babylonian exile. Some Jews did return to Jerusalem after the exile, but many continued to live scattered throughout the other nations. The book of Esther is about a Jewish community living in Susa, the capital of the Persian empire.
The key characters: Mordecai, his niece Esther, the king of persia (a pushover), Haman (government official, the villain).
Things to look for:
Where is God mentioned?
“Coincidences”
Ironic reversals
Examples:
The king’s letter that “every man should be the master of his own house” AND who manipulated and controlled the king?
Who built the gallows? Who was supposed to be hanged on the gallows? BUT who was hanged on the gallows? AND who became the King’s top official?
The king issued an “irrevocable” edict to eradicate the Jews. How was it overcome?