Lamentations 5:22

But, etc.] better as mg., Unless thou… and art, etc. The whole sentence is an hypothesis not to be accepted as fact. God's anger cannot last for ever, and thus there is yet hope.

Although the Book does in fact close with the language of hope, that is so little apparent on the first reading that in the synagogues Lamentations 5:21 was repeated at the end, that its words might thus be the last to fall upon the ear. A similar expedient is used in the case of Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Malachi. See note on Jeremiah 52:34.