Lamentations

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2004 by Thigpen, J Michael

Lamentations. By Dianne Bergant. Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003, 144 pp., $20.00 paper.

As a part of the Abingdon OT Commentary Series, Bergant's work on Lamentations is intended to be a compact, critical commentary "for the use of theological students and pastors" along with university level students (p. 9). It is against this goal that I attempt to assess the commentary.

Following a discussion of standard introductory matters, the commentary progresses through Lamentations chapter by chapter. The chapters are subdivided into literary units based on the author's outline. The commentary on each unit is presented in literary, exegetical, and theological analysis sections.

Throughout the commentary, Bergant's overwhelming strength is seen in the literary analysis sections. Taking the student focus of the series to heart, Bergant consistently explains and illustrates key poetic terms that are all too often assumed to be understood. This feature alone is worth the price of the book. Commonly used terms such as acrostic, inclusio, ellipsis, parallelism, merism, and more are noted in the introduction and then highlighted throughout the commentary.

Despite the wonderful poetic insights, the commentary as it stands has a shortcoming that will hinder its usefulness in educational contexts-the complete absence of notation. Although she frequently mentions alternative interpretative options, Bergant never cites sources of varying or supportive opinions. This fundamental weakness markedly decreases the educational value of the overall work as students will not be able trace Bergant's research nor will they be guided to interact with opposing views.

Beyond the lack of notation, many will find the theological and ethical analysis sections lacking. Although Bergant does an admirable job of exploring the depth of feeling and emotion in the text, the ethical analysis sections seem disjointed from the theological discussions. As she approaches the material theologically, Bergant clearly demonstrates the covenant context for the city's suffering. Yet when considering ethical implications of the issues, Bergant slips into a humanistic framework. Issues of covenant and retribution are equated with modern evils such as Nazi persecution and ethnic cleansing (pp. 22, 66, 71). Although she freely admits Lamentations does not directly deal with the concept of theodicy, she leaves behind the retributive sense of Lamentations and looks for different understandings in our modern society. She deems Israel's "traditional society" to have viewed earthly chaos as representative of divine realities, whereas we moderns view them to be only ethical situations with human solutions (p. 34).

Bergant is to be commended for bringing together a valuable work on Lamentations. The poetic insights and teaching character contribute significantly to the field. Yet, the lack of notation and the humanistic approach to ethical issues will work against widespread adoption of this commentary.

J. Michael Thigpen

Cedarville University, Cedarville, OH