Theme - Jeremiah suffered deeply with Judah in the judgments which he had announced, and for which he was despised and persecuted. In his sufferings he wept over the people, but out of his weeping he pointed them to a star of hope. That these poems were written shortly after the fall of Jerusalem is evident. They give expression to the passionate feelings of a patriot standing in the midst of the ruins of the capital city of his nation, shaken by the desolation which he views.

Structure - There are five independent poems in the book arranged in five chapters. Poems 1, 2, and 4 each contain twenty-two acrostic verses - each succeeding verse beginning with the corresponding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Poem 3 is also acrostic, but each letter is repeated three times as the initial letter of three successive lines, making a total of sixty-six verses. Although chapter 5 is not acrostic, it likewise contains twenty-two verses to correspond in length with the three poems mentioned previously.

In the poems which have sixty-six verses, each verse has only one third as many poetic measures as are found in the verses of the poems with only twenty-two letters. This then results in the same number of measures in all the five chapters.

Outline - These five poems may be entitled: I. The Misery of Jerusalem II. The Cause of the People's Suffering III. The Basis of Hope IV. The Past and Present of Israel V. The Final Appeal for Restoration

Throughout the poems, the following emphatic lessons on sin stand out: (1) Sin will certainly be punished. (2) Sin is an offense and source of grief to God. (3) God will triumph over sin. (4) Sin blinds men to their highest interest. (5) Sin turns men against their best friends. (6) Sin destroys nations as well as individuals. Even more emphatic are the sublime lessons on love: Love does not blind the prophet of God to the faults of those loved; but it does lead to an effort to win the sinner. Moreover, love does not desert those whose sins bring upon them the chastisements and punishments of God.