Next week, The Book of Lamentations (Eicha – which in English means “How can it have happened?”) will be read on Tisha B’Av, the annual day of mourning. Having written a new commentary on this book, I ...

Rob O’Lynn teaches preaching at Kentucky Christian University, Johnson University, and Fuller Theological Seminary, and is a minister in Ashland, Kentucky.

Like so much of the poetic material in the Old Testament, Lamentations is presented to the reader as the anguished prayers of an anonymous Israelite worshipper. The tradition most Christians are ...