Single-volume commentaries on the book of Lamentations have been rare. Westminsters Old Testament Library commentary series has existed for about forty years without a volume on Lamentations. While no work on Lamentations could be said to be worth such a wait, this brilliant commentary by Adele Berlin more than fills the void and should become the foundation for all work on Lamentations for years to come. In a day when biblical commentaries seem to be evaluated by weight, and biblical books of a length similar to Lamentations are generating commentaries in excess of 500 pages, the economy and elegance of Berlins work cry out like a voice in the wilderness. Following a thorough bibliography, Berlin addresses general issues involved in the interpretation of the book of Lamentations in a tightly written thirty-seven-page introduction. Along with expected subjects, such as date, authorship, purpose, features of Hebrew poetry, and ancient Near Eastern parallels, Berlin also addresses Mourning as a Religious Concept and The Theology of Destruction and Exile. She identifies qinah meter as the defining poetic feature of La mentations, while not arguing for a countable sense of meter in Hebrew poetry (2). She de scribes a sublime literary touch in the use of the formal and rigid ac rostic structure in poems lamenting the breakdown of order and structure in the world (45). [Full Review]