Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel
We close Jeremiah with a narrative of the reign of Zedekiah, the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar, and the spoil which he carried to Babylon. The Book of Lamentations is generally ascribed to Jeremiah, and must have been written by one who witnessed the awful sufferings of the people in the siege of Jerusalem. It consists of five poems. The first, second, and fourth are in the Hebrew acrostics, each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The third is divided into twenty-two sets of three verses each, each set beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The fifth chapter is divided into twenty-two divisions, but it is not acrostic. The first twenty chapters of the wonderful book of Ezekiel fall in this week's reading. Ezekiel was the mouthpiece of God among the captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar, while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem. By wonderful visions of living creatures, or angels so arranged, typifying might, patience, wisdom, glory, God showed His overruling providence over the nations. The wheels within wheels were all in order to him. God was ruling. These four symbols were the same as the four standards under which the camp of Israel was pitched