author Arguments for and against Jeremianic authorship are extensively developed in Lange’s commentary on Lamentations, pp 6-16 and 1935 See Edward J Young, Introduction to the Old Testament, pp 333-36 Psalm 119 is a classic example of acrostic writing Though the last verse reads despairingly, an alternate reading supports the optimism of verse 21 The Revised Standard Version, along with other translations, prefers to read the text as a question: “Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?” (5:22) It is interesting to note that today, when Jews read publicly the text of Lamentations, they read verse 22 before verse 21, so that the concluding note is not despairing They the same for the last verse of Malachi Ross Price, “Lamentations,” in The Wycli e Bible Commentary, p 696 The religious calendars of the Jewish and Catholic faiths assign the reading of the book once a year For the latter, it is read on the last three days of Holy Week Care should be exercised in this area of application In the words of Norman Geisler, “Any Old Testament passage may be appropriately applied to Christ, even though the New Testament writers did not apply it, providing that it exempli es something from the life of the Messianic people which nds an actual correspondence with the truth about Christ presented somewhere in the Bible” (Christ: The Theme of the Bible, p 65) 23 Ezekiel: The Glory of the Lord When God sent His people into exile as punishment for their sin, He still continued to speak to them For if He was to purge the nation of their corrupt idolatry, they needed to hear more of the very word which they had so stubbornly resisted Among the Jews taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in his second invasion of Judah in 597 B.C was a man named Ezekiel This was the one whom God chose to be His prophet to the exiles, while Daniel served as God’s ambassador to the court of the captor king It was during the captivity years that some of the Jews returned to God This was the beginning of the religion of Judaism, and because Ezekiel was the prominent prophet at this time, he has been called “the father of Judaism.” I PREPARATION FOR STUDY Keep in the back of your mind the highlights of the message and ministry of Jeremiah Much of what Ezekiel preached was very similar to Jeremiah’s preaching, which the former prophet must have listened to often in Jerusalem, up until his exile at age twenty- ve.1 But thè di erences were many and marked, as your survey of Ezekiel will show Study Chart 86 to familiarize yourself with the contemporaries of Ezekiel and the times in which he lived ...assign the reading of the book once a year For the latter, it is read on the last three days of Holy Week Care should be exercised in this area of application In the words of Norman Geisler, “Any Old. .. with the truth about Christ presented somewhere in the Bible” (Christ: The Theme of the Bible, p 65) 23 Ezekiel: The Glory of the Lord When God sent His people into exile as punishment for their... to the court of the captor king It was during the captivity years that some of the Jews returned to God This was the beginning of the religion of Judaism, and because Ezekiel was the prominent