When was the book of Lamentations written?

Answer 1

The book of lamentations was written by Jeremiah to warn the Jews of going a stray from God.

Answer:

According to Matthew Henry's book synopsis, Lamentations was written "after" Jerusalem's destruction. Therefore, Jeremiah's witness and warning went out to his people long before. His persecution and struggles in this pursuit are recorded in the book of "Jeremiah" where Jerusalem's destruction is recorded.

The words of "Lamentations" takes up after the people are led away to Babylon. They never read these words:

"How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!" (Lam.1:1 NIV)

As The Bible is timeless... so is man's rebellious nature against God's Commandments. The Bible calls this "sin" ["...sin is the transgression of the law - I John 3:4].

And in this regard, Lamentations may be an eye-opener to the "wise" in these last days as to "WHY" the chaos and confusion all around us -- our "sins" which separate us from the Lord, and which have always kept man separated.

While most folks don't bother reading it at all... most who do think of Lamentations as perhaps a "sad poem" of a people who forsook their God -- instead of a "prophecy" -- and a personal witness and warning to us in these last days to assess our own situation and relationship to our Creator.

The descriptions of the hardships they endured [like starvation and cannibalism] for their sins are disturbing... and ring out frighteningly "current" to the direction our society is headed.

"Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers like widows. We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.

"We submitted to Egypt and Assyria [Germany] to get enough bread. Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment. (Lam.5:1-7 NIV)

Prophecy has a way of repeating itself. What some people see as "past fulfillment" is a foreshadowing of things to come.

Lamentations isn't a warning to Jeremiah's people in his day... God inspired it as a warning to all people today in these "last days" [the ones who are reading them] who "call on the name of the Lord."

It conveys understanding of "WHY" there is so much "lamentation" in the world -- "sin," which is and has always been the breaking of the Ten Commandments... the sum of which is the "lack of love for our Creator and one another."

"LAMENTATIONS 1

Book Synopsis: - It is evident that Jeremiah was the author of the Lamentations which bear his name. The book was not written till after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. May we be led to consider sin as the cause of all our calamities, and under trials exercise submission, repentance, faith, and prayer, with the hope of promised deliverance through God's mercy." [Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary.]

Answer 2

The book is written by the prophet Jeremiah in about 586 B.c.