BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Lamenting the Fall of Jerusalem

Lamentations and Near Eastern City Laments

Without a doubt, one of the most significant events within the Hebrew bible is the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BCE. It is no wonder, then, that so much of the Hebrew Bible is dedicated to this topic, depicting the fall on multiple occasions in both prose and poetry. In her article “The Fall of Jerusalem: Who Was to Blame?” published in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Mary R. Bachvarova explores how the biblical authors explained the city’s downfall and made sense of this catastrophic event.

Lamenting the City

Beyond studying the biblical account, Bachvarova explores historical and literary accounts of the destructions of other ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cities, comparing how the blame for the catastrophe was apportioned in different cases. Indeed, while the Bible’s depiction of the fall of Jerusalem shows many similarities with Near Eastern narrative traditions, the Bible’s poetic depictions of the fall of Jerusalem, found in such writings as the Book of Lamentations, has clear parallels to a genre of Near Eastern poetry called “city laments.”

As the name implies, city laments were written to commemorate the destruction of great cities. Only five examples of city laments have survived, with the best known being the famous Lament for Ur, which details the destruction of the southern Mesopotamian city of Ur at the hands of Elamite forces in 2004 BCE. The Lament for Ur, along with the other city laments, depicts the destruction of the city, the mass killing of its inhabitants, and the loss of the city’s central temple, all motifs that also show up in the Book of Lamentations.

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Despite the similarities, there are also differences between the Near Eastern city laments and the Bible’s poetic depictions of the fall of Jerusalem. For example, the city laments often describe a city’s titular deity beseeching the heads of the pantheon to relent from their decision to destroy the city. Given ancient Israel’s monotheistic religious beliefs, this feature is clearly missing in the biblical depiction. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that the authors of the Hebrew Bible’s various poetic depictions of the fall of Jerusalem were likely familiar with the city laments, and that some biblical works, including the Book of Lamentations, were based in this ancient literary genre to some extent.

To learn more about how the Hebrew Bible’s depiction of the fall of Jerusalem relates to similar Near Eastern stories and traditions, read Mary R. Bachvarova’s article, “The Fall of Jerusalem: Who Was to Blame?” published in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Subscribers: Read the full article, “The Fall of Jerusalem: Who Was to Blame?” by Mary R. Bachvarova, in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

The Destruction of Philistine Gath

Drought and the Fall of the Hittite Empire

The Last Days of Hattusa

The Decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Modeling the Fall of the Second Temple

Ancient Jerusalem: The Village, the Town, the City

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Fall of Jerusalem: Who Was to Blame?