Old Testament
Lamentations
Lamentations is the twenty-ninth of the 46 books of the Old Testament: 5 chapters and 154 verses.
About Lamentations
About Lamentations · Funeral poetry
Lamentations is five tightly crafted poems mourning Jerusalem after its destruction by Babylon — the burned temple, the starving children, the taunting enemies. Tradition attaches it to Jeremiah, though the poems themselves are anonymous. It was written to give a shattered people a way to grieve before God without pretending, and it faces the ruin so honestly that its one flare of hope — the mercies of the Lord new every morning — has carried sufferers ever since. The Church prays these poems in Holy Week.
| Testament | Old Testament — book 29 of 46, 29 of 73 in the Bible |
|---|---|
| Canon | Protocanonical (in every Christian canon) |
| Chapters | 5 |
| Verses | 154, as Bless numbers them |
| Latin | Clementine Vulgate, every chapter |
| Bp. Challoner | Summaries of 1 of 5 chapters · 2 notes |
| Catechism | 1 paragraph cite it |
Chapter by chapter
All 5 chapters, in brief.
Bishop Richard Challoner’s summary of each chapter, from his revision of the Douay-Rheims (1749–52). Open a chapter for the full text.
Lamentations 1
22 versesAnd it came to pass, after Israel was carried into captivity, and Jerusalem was desolate, that Jeremias the prophet sat weeping, and mourned with this lamentation over Jerusalem, and with a sorrowful mind, sighing and moaning, he said:
Lamentations 2
22 versesNo summary from Challoner.
Lamentations 3
66 versesNo summary from Challoner.
Lamentations 4
22 versesNo summary from Challoner.
Lamentations 5
22 versesNo summary from Challoner.
Bp. Richard Challoner · chapter summaries
In the comments
What the saints said.
1 quotation from 1 saint linked to passages of Lamentations in Bless. Each names the work it comes from.
St. Thomas Aquinas · on Lamentations 3:41
On this theme
Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God.
Summa Theologiae, II-II q.83, c. 1270
Coming up
Read at Mass.
From October 29, 2026 to October 28, 2027, Lamentations is read at the principal Mass on 0 days in the US calendar. The next reading:
| Date | Celebration | Reading | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| computed | Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time | First Reading | Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19 |
No more readings are listed here; the liturgical calendar has every date through December 31, 2028.
Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.