John Hobbins Reconstructing Lamentations

Megillat Eicha, Alsace c. 18th century (image:


On this reading, in 3:1, at the onset of a larger whole, a female lamenter explicitly casts herself as a male persona, an “everyman” (Hillers’ characterization (1992:122) developed by Dobbs-Allsopp [2002:105-109]) who gives voice to a collective experience, only to allude to her particular identity in 3:51. In the poem’s conclusion, 3:52-66, the singular “I” continues to be used, but, as Dobbs-Allsopp notes (107), “it has become more inclusive.” As she did throughout Lam 3, the lamenter concludes by voicing the grief and hopes of an entire community.

The public articulation of grief by women is extremely well-attested cross-culturally. The details have become the subject of intense study by anthropologists. Those familiar with this research will formulate, almost as a matter of course, a working hypothesis: Lam 1 is a dialogue in which (a) a chorus of lamenting women provide a context for the voice of (b) a single lamenting woman speaking in the voice of Zion: (a): Lam 1:1-11 except for 1:9c and 1:11c; (b): Lam 1:9c.11c.12-22. Lam 2 is easily understood as a dialogue between two lamenting women, (a) a lamenter who speaks of and to Zion, and (b) a lamenter once again speaking in the voice of Zion: (a) 2:1-19; (b) 2:20-22. On this understanding, it is one of “the maidens of Jerusalem” spoken of as a lamenter in Lam 2:10 whose words we hear in 2:11-12 with its focus on children and mothers. Lam 3, with 3:51 construed as suggested above, is a monologue of a lamenting woman, a female citizen of her city, who gives voice to the grief and hopes of an entire community.

It seems to me that John makes a tremendous leap from his textual analysis to proposing a female author (even one that poses as a male persona). John is of course correct that women are often those most visible and vocal in the grieving process in many cultures and indeed it has been the subject of a great amount of study lately. At the risk of being labelled a misogynist, I would suggest caution when moving from that research to the reconstructions offered by John. I am sure that those familiar with such research would offer such a hypothesis but it seems overly cumbersome.

The most obvious hurdle is that the text itself takes the voice of a man. Would we not have to then argue that the original female author (which seems to be John’s argument) felt the need to present her laments as a male composition because, presumably, the culture would not accept a composition written by a woman. Yet if the culture is so affirming of women as lead lamenters then why would they not also accept such a composition? Certainly the identification of  Zion as woman and Daughter Zion introduce the feminine perspective (and see Dobbs-Allsopp and Linafelt for more on these themes), but does that necessitate a female author?

Finally, does the gender of the speaker or author matter? That is to say, do we read the text differently if we have a man or a woman in our consciousness as the author? It might provide us with slightly different nuances to our readings, but what do we gain exegetically? And that holds true even if arguing for a male author.

I can genuinely say that I do not feel a vested interest in whether it was a man or a woman (or, more likely, men or women) who wrote these laments. I just question whether or not such a thing is knowable and how it would change our readings. Then I wonder, should it? When we read an anonymous work we tend to take the words at their “face value” (a dubious concept, but you know what I mean), but once we know the author there can be a tendency to read that work through the filter of what we believe we know about the author and what we think their agenda might be.

Is it possible not to offer a gender neutral rendering of the text, but rather a gender neutral reading? Should that be our goal?

I also thought I would share with you all the targumist’s rendering and reading of the passage (Lam. 3:49-51). (You can find my translation of TgLam, my doctoral thesis, and other articles on this blog as well. See the tab above or go here.)

עיני זלגת דמעין ולא תשתיק מלמבכי מדלית פאיג עקתי וממלל תנחומין לי

עד כדו דסיתכי ויחזו עולבני יי מן שמיא

בכותא דעייני אסתקפת למרע נפשי על חורבן פילכי עמי וניוול בנתא דירושלם קרתי




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