The book of Lamentations is Jeremiah’s recorded response to the devastation and ruin of Jerusalem. It is presented in a series of five poems, of which the first four are acrostics of the Hebrew alphabet, much like Psalm 119, only shorter. It is a book of suffering, shame, horror, and defeat, but centered in the middle of the work, we read of Jeremiah’s confident hope in the Lord. The first poem focuses outside the city, the second: inside the city, the third is directed toward God, the fourth toward the vanity of human glory, and the fifth poem looks to the future.