Lamentations is the Book of Weeping. The Weeping Prophet, Jeremiah, composed five funeral dirges for fallen Jerusalem. The grief we experience is the consequence of our own failures, and yet the joy the LORD provides is the expression of His own grace. The most depressing Book of the Bible has the most encouraging promise: Great is Thy Faithfulness (Lam. 3:23).
The Hebrew title is ’Ekah: How! taken from the first word of the text, “How lonely sits the city” (Lam. 1:1). The Greek title in the Septuagint is Threnoi: dirges. The Latin title Threni: tears was derived from the Greek word. Jerome’s subtitle in the Vulgate reads: “Id est lamentations Jeremiae prophetae.” This is the origin for the English title: Lamentations.
Jeremiah is the universally accepted author of the Book. Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin is one of the most well-known Old Testament prophets.