Learning with Lamentations: Best Commentaries on Lamentations
I recently embarked on a preaching series through Lamentations and…I had to lean heavily on faithful resources to help me wrap my mind around this precious but unfamiliar Biblical book.
Newly appointed President of The Gospel Coalition, Mark Vroegop commented, “The book of Lamentations invites believers to grieve, struggle, and tap into the rich reservoir of grace and mercy God offers in the darkest moments of their lives.”[1] I recently embarked on a preaching series through the book of Lamentations. Because I had never heard the book preached through from a Sunday morning pulpit in any church, I had to lean heavily on faithful resources to help me wrap my mind around this precious but unfamiliar Biblical book.
Below are some resources and commentaries that I have found helpful in my study of Lamentations for preaching and personal discipleship.
Note: I have organized them categorically in terms of commentary type or style (Academic/Scholarly, Verse by Verse/Accessible, Homiletical/Popular Level).
Academic/Scholarly – Commentaries that have extensive historical analysis and research behind them as they also deal extensively with the text in the original language, and have clearly consulted the bulk of the available and relevant literature, both critical and evangelical.
F.B. Huey, Jr., Jeremiah and Lamentations – The New American Commentary
While Huey does not engage the original language of Lamentations very often, his insight into the historical, literary, thematic, and textual features of Lamentations is enlightening and useful for expository sermons.
Robin Parry, Lamentations – The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary [2]
Parry does very well to highlight the acrostic structure of chapters 1-4, chapter 3 being a triple acrostic. He is excellent in structure, perspective, and clear on major themes, chapter by chapter. His verse by verse detail is comprehensive, and his summarizing statements are brief and accurate. He taps into the emotional vibe of the text while never compromising on the textual content.
Verse by Verse/Accessible – Commentaries that provide helpful and enlightening historical insights while commenting in fair depth on every verse in the book, without going too deep into text criticism or the original languages. These commentaries deal helpfully with the theology of the books at hand.
R.K. Harrison, Jeremiah & Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary – Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
Harrison’s work on Lamentations is brief, insightful, clear, Christ-centered, and thorough. This work is a go-to for preachers who are under pressure. Harrison provides good structural analysis and thoughtful and helpful historical and cultural background with his verse-by-verse commentary and introduction.
Tremper Longman III, Jeremiah, Lamentations – Understanding the Bible Commentary Series
Characteristic of other Longman works, this is a commentary by a commentator who self-evidently has surveyed the bulk of available commentaries. It is scholarly, yet accessible. It is insightful both textually and theologically. This work appears consistently amidst top commentary lists, such as TGC, Tim Challies, and Ligonier, and has a 4 out of 5 star rating on bestcommentaries.com. Longman isn’t afraid to address the main issues in the text, like sin, wrath, suffering, and more. He is up on the most recent academic issues about the text. This is a great resource for any preacher.
Homiletical/Popular Level – Commentaries that provide summarizing insights that read more like a sermon and deal more with application than interpretation. These can be particularly helpful to reference toward the end of the sermon preparation process.
Philip Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope – Preaching the Word
Ryken is one of my very favorite Old Testament Preachers and commentators. With his work, clarity is king. With Lamentations, he unpacks the agonizing poetry with hopeful, proclamatory, and Christ-exalting clarity.
Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Grief & Pain In the Plan of God: Christian Assurance & The Message of Lamentations – Christian Focus
Kaiser says, “All too frequently the subject of suffering is avoided, or the realities of human pathos and divine involvement are minimized. Lamentations will not yield to any of these cheap ‘cures’.” His work in this brief volume puts his convictions along these lines on display.
Christopher J.H. Wright, The Message of Lamentations – The Bible Speaks Today
Like most volumes in the timeless BST series, Wright is devotional and textual. It is faithfully theological and helpfully practical. Working with this volume helps preachers remember and communicate to our people that Lamentations has a message for us today.
Other Helpful Lamentations Resources
Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament
Vroegop’s work is not a commentary on Lamentations, but a survey of the reality of Lament in the Bible. It is a pastorally rich, hope-filled provision for pastors into how grace and lament collide. At numerous points while reading this book, Vroegop made me want to cry out with Lamentations 3, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.”
This volume provides an article for every single book of the Bible, aiming to show where the book stands in the whole of the Biblical canon. The article on Lamentations by J.R. Soza is a great help. Any serious student of the Bible should do what they can to get access to the NDBT. Along with the articles on every book of the Bible, it also offers articles on every major theme of the Bible that runs from Genesis through to Revelation.
[1] https://www.markvroegop.com/
[2] In the spirit of transparency, it's true that Parry published a book in 2006 called The Evangelical Universalist under the Pseudanym Gregory MacDonald. We do not endorse him as an author, we simply found his work on Lamentations helpful to the task of expository preaching.
