The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in the sixth century bce brought its inhabitants pain, a feeling of abandonment by God, and the loss of self-identity-and engendered the six poems of the book of Lamentations. Previous studies of the book have sought for its theological centre, or have read the book solely as an expression of grief, but in this innovative interpretation Elie Assis claims that its main aim is to impart hope to its exiled...