Texts in Conversation
1 Maccabees draws on Lamentations to describe Jerusalem’s suffering, especially the image of children fainting and dying in their mothers’ arms. It uses this language to depict the Seleucid crisis as comparable to earlier violence in Israel’s history.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Lamentations 2:11
Hebrew Bible
10 י (Yod) The elders of Daughter Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dirt on their heads; they have dressed in sackcloth. Jerusalem’s young women stare down at the ground. 11 כ (Kaf) My eyes are worn out from weeping; my stomach is in knots. My liver59 is poured out on the ground due to the destruction of my helpless people; children and infants faint in the town squares. 12 ל (Lamed) Children say to their mothers, “Where are food and drink?” They faint like a wounded warrior in the city squares. They die slowly in their mothers’ arms.
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
1 Maccabees 2:9
Deuterocanon
7 and he said, “Woe is me! Why was I born to see the destruction of my people and the destruction of the holy city, and to dwell there when it was given into the hand of the enemy, the sanctuary into the hand of foreigners? 8 Her temple has become like a man who was glorious. 9 Her vessels of glory are carried away into captivity. Her infants are slain in her streets. Her young men are slain with the enemy’s sword. 10 What nation has not inherited her palaces and taken possession of her spoils? 11 Her adornment has all been taken away. Instead of a free woman, she has become a slave.
Date: 134–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The only other mention of “streets” occurs in the description of idyllic peace in the eulogy of Simon (πλατύς 1 Maccabees 14:9; compare 1:55; 2:9). The parallels reflect a contrast between life before, and life after, the Maccabees' rise to power. (Whereas 1 Maccabees 2:9 echoes Lamentations 2:11–12, 1 Maccabees 14:9 echoes Zechariah 8:4. The vocabulary in Mattathias’s outcry reflects the language of Lamentations more fully than any of the other four interludes ... In particular, note the resonances with Lamentations 2:7, 19–22. The personification of Jerusalem as a mother who grieves the loss of her children and the devastation of her temple resonates with Lamentations) ..."
Michael W. Duggan, “1 Maccabees: Emotions of Life and Death in Narrative and Lament,” in Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions: Emotions Associated with Jewish Prayer in and around the Second Temple Period, ed. Stefan C. Reif and Renate Egger-Wenzel (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015), 95–116.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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