Let Us Search Our Ways: A Commentary on Lamentations

Description

Of all Bible books, Lamentations is most totally concerned with sin and its consequences. It shows Jerusalem in her humiliation and nakedness, with all her shame uncovered before the eyes of this unforgiving world, as one day everyone’s sins will be. The Lord is against her, and she looks in vain for help anywhere else.

Yet this book also provides comfort for those who seek the Lord in the depths of their affliction. The darkest periods in the history of God’s people have been and always will be followed by the fulfillment of His great and precious promises.

Let Us Search Our Ways relates the book of Lamentations first and foremost to Christ and His people today, clarifying difficult points, and discussing differences between the standard Bible versions in English and other Western languages.

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PRAISE FOR LET US SEARCH OUR WAYS

Lamentations is a powerful expression of exilic Judah’s pain as a consequence of the judgment God brought on them for their sin. Evan and Marie Blackmore have provided us with a substantial and insightful commentary that not only informs us about the book’s ancient meaning but also demonstrates its continuing relevance for today. I recommend this commentary for everyone who studies Lamentations, but particularly for clergy as they preach this important book of the Bible to their modern congregations.

Tremper Longman III
Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies
Westmont College

Evan and Marie Blackmore’s Let Us Search Our Ways is an excellent commentary on Lamentations. While not for beginners, it repays a careful reading, whether one is an informed adult learner or an interpreter with formal theological training. For those with some facility in Hebrew, the copious references to the original language provide depth and nuance to commentary, and great care is taken in comparing ancient text and modern translations, including such modern languages as French. The emphasis on rendering an ancient text for modern understanding is well done. Most importantly, the authors never lose sight of the theological importance of the text and they put it in a broader biblical context. In several senses this a canonical reading of Lamentations that takes into account both a historical setting for the book as well as its interplay in the larger corpus of Scripture.

J. Andrew Dearman
Associate Dean and Professor of Old Testament
Fuller Seminary Texas

The authors present the pathos of Lamentations through a helpful summary at the beginning of each chapter and a careful literary and linguistic analysis of the text. The artful combination of theological, exegetical, and literary insights gives the reader an experience of exile and a longing for the finality of redemption. Exile is a major metaphor in the Old Testament and still represents the experience of the Church, as she asks, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6.10). To this end the authors are to be commended for the integration of relevant texts from both the Old and the New Testament.

Willem A. VanGemeren
Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Languages
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

I commend this commentary on Lamentations to all who love God’s word and seek to understand it better as it tackles the questions of the purposes and uses God has for suffering, grief and pain. Here is an explanation of the Word of God that has taken every possible path to understand adequately each phrase and word in its usage in its own context. Readers will be enriched and blessed by their study of this wonderful tool in their quest to appreciate more fully what our Lord has intended in the otherwise mysterious presence of pain, suffering, grief and loss. I recommend this work enthusiastically.

Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
President Emeritus
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary