This week we are reading Ezekiel 19. God instructs the prophet to “raise up a lamentation for the princes of Israel” (19:1). Hebrew lamentations, or funerary songs, are a common style in the Old Testament. Often sung at gravesides, traditional laments praised the admirable qualities of the departed and mourned their loss. When King David heard of Jonathan’s death on the battlefield, he composed a sorrowful lament acknowledging their strong bond (2 Sam. 1:25-27). Lamentations is an entire book composed of songs mourning the destruction of Jerusalem. Laments also pop up in the Psalms. Thanks to Bob Marley’s 1977 track “By the Rivers of Babylon,” biblical laments have even made their way into pop culture.

Hebrew poets composed laments with a particular poetic meter with musical qualities that do not come through in English translations, but Ezekiel’s audience would have recognized his style immediately. What they may not have comprehended was the essence and underlying meaning of his lament. Unlike classical laments that focus on personal or communal suffering, Ezekiel 19 uses entirely allegorical language. Rather than focusing on the virtues of the departed, it emphasizes the vices of the deceased. 

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