Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur 12
Ancient Near East
11 That “mourning” plants grow in the steppe, 12 That the mother does not seek out her child, 13 That the father not say, “Oh, my dear wife!” 14 That the junior wife not take joy in his embrace, 15 That the young child not grow vigorous on her knee, 16 That the wetnurse not sing lullabies, 17 To change the location of kingship, 18 To defile the rights and decrees, 19 To take away kingship from the land, 20 To cast the eye of the storm on all the land,
Date: 2000 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Lamentations 2:21
Hebrew Bible
20 ר (Resh) Look, O Lord! Consider! Whom have you ever afflicted like this? Should women eat their offspring, their healthy infants? Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s sanctuary? 21 ש (Sin/Shin) The young boys and old men lie dead on the ground in the streets. My young women and my young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them when you were angry; you slaughtered them without mercy. 22 ת (Tav) As if it were a feast day, you call enemies to terrify me on every side. On the day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has finished off those healthy infants whom I bore and raised.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Texts in Conversation
The Sumerian Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur describes war’s toll through the breakdown of family roles, naming mothers, fathers, children, and caregivers. Lamentations 2:21 follows this literary structure by also listing young and old, maidens and youths, as victims of violence.
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Notes and References
"... Both the Book of Lamentations and the Sumerian City Laments are trying to portray suffering in a way that affects all sociological levels of society. Berlin points out that both literary works list the different elements of the population. The Lamentation over Sumer and Ur describes different members of a family suffering. (Lines 12-16) She compares this to the Book of Lamentations 2:21, Lying on the ground in the streets are young and old. My maidens and youths have fallen by the sword. Regardless of a historical connection, direct or not, Sumerian Laments and the Biblical Book of Lamentations clearly share similar motifs, images and themes. These similarities show that there were common ways of describing war and destruction in the ancient Near East in literary texts ..."
Filarski, Wered
Lamentations: A Comparison Between Mesopotamia and Judea
(pp. 87-98) Jewish Bible Quarterly 45, No. 2, 2017
* 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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