Guide
Early Jewish Personal Laments
1st Century BCE–2nd Century CE
Restricted
By Carol Bakhos
Although many Jewish laments were communal in nature and were likely recited liturgically (see Early Jewish Communal Laments), some were purely literary. These laments appear in narrative contexts and are attributed to individuals.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Laments of Baruch for the Destruction of Jerusalem
2 Baruch 10:5–11:7; 35:1–4
[ . . . ] I, Baruch, came back and sat in front of the doors of the Temple, and I raised the following lamentation over Zion and said:Blessed is he who was not born,or he who was born and…
Primary Source
Laments of Eliphas and Nereus for Job
Testament of Job 31:7–32:12; 53:1–4
And so, after he [Eliphas] had wept with a loud wailing, he called out a royal lament while both the other kings and their troops sang in response.Hear then the lament of Eliphas…
Primary Source
Lament for Sitis, Job’s Wife
Testament of Job 25:1–8
Who is not amazed that this is Sitis, the wife of Job?
Who used to have fourteen draperies sheltering her chamber and a door within doors, so that one was considered quite worthy merely to gain…
Primary Source
Lament of Jephthah’s Daughter
Biblical Antiquities 40.5–7
And when the daughter of Jephthah came to Mount Stelac, she began to weep, and this is her lamentation that she lamented and wept over herself before she departed. And she said,
“Hear, you mountains…