Communal Laments

Laments, or dirges, are familiar from ancient Near Eastern literature. They often take the form of call-and-response, with the response as an invariant refrain, and they use alphabetical acrostics as memory aids. Laments employ vividly stark and dramatic imagery of destruction and despair that is often horrific. Much of this imagery is conventional and designed to provoke a strong emotional response in the participants (or readers).

The destruction of the first Jerusalem Temple in 586 BCE was a national crisis that generated a body of lamentation literature, beginning with the biblical book of Lamentations. Dirges for Jerusalem continued to be written after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and through the late antique and medieval periods. See also “Laments of Baruch for the Destruction of Jerusalem.”