Heidegger's Bible Handbook: Lamentations: Argument

3. The argument of the same.

Jeremiah, therefore, foreseeing in the Spirit the twofold captivity of the Jews, and the burning of the Temple, bewails the ruin of his nation, not in a profane manner, but so that even in ruined affairs he might show that there is some use for doctrine. First, therefore, he discourses concerning the judgments of God: then, he exhorts the people to repentance: he rouses to hope: and, finally, he opens the door to the invocation of God, and invites the people even in the most deplorable conditions to God’s mercy and faithfulness in it. Now, the Scope/Goal is, both to show, that, although nothing should appear in the land except desolation, and, with the Temple razed, the covenant of God should appear to have failed, and all hope of salvation for the people to have been put to confusion, yet the hope of grace and the covenant of God has not come completely to naught, provided that the people, not completely overwhelmed by so great a calamity, seeks God in sincere faith and repentance: and to demonstrate his faith in the discharge of his Prophetic office even in the more deplorable times: and, finally, to instill fear in other peoples also, when they see that to such a point sin brought that people, whom God so favors, when they feel themselves entangled in even more grievous sins.