The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary series seeks ‘to bridge the existing gap between biblical studies and systematic theology’. Accordingly, in this volume Robin Parry not only attempts to interpret the book of Lamentations within its ancient context but also ventures further, exploring how the book might function as Christian scripture.

An introduction provides a well-informed and articulate, albeit relatively conservative, exploration of the main critical questions, emphasising a sixth-century exilic setting and also the wider ancient Near Eastern context. Like the great majority of scholars, Parry rejects the traditional authorship by Jeremiah, though he does entertain the possibility that the work is consciously Jeremiah-like, perhaps even speaking at times in the voice of Jeremiah. The understanding of the theology of Lamentations in key modern studies is surveyed (Gottwald, Albrektson, Westermann, Dobbs-Allsopp, Linafelt, O'Connor, House, Boase and Mandolfo), before Parry presents briefly his own assessment of the theology of the book, with covenant as the context within which the theology of sin and punishment is to be understood and also within which the glimmers of hope in the work are to be situated.

The five chapters are then treated in commentary form over 120 or so pages, in historical-critical mode. There is extensive reference to the Hebrew, with both Hebrew script and transliteration given on every occasion – a helpfully inclusive feature for non-Hebraists. Parry provides several excursuses in the course of his commentary, including one on the meaning of the words kî 'im in 5:22: he translates ‘even though’, thus rendering the last verses of Lamentations (5:21–2) as a prayer for salvation in the midst of ongoing suffering, in contrast to more pessimistic interpretations.

The final part of the work Parry calls ‘Theological Horizons of Lamentations’. This is the most distinctive section and it is here that, in the course of some 80 pages, he makes his main contribution. He argues that a helpful way into reflection on contemporary theological interpretation of Lamentations is to observe how the text has functioned over the centuries within Judaism and Christianity. Among moments in the reception of Lamentations from which Parry draws inspiration are the weeping of the deity in Lamentations Rabbah, the use of chapter 3 by St John of the Cross and Calvin's lectures on the book. But this section is not essentially a study in reception history, for Parry develops his reading in the context of a constructive systematic Christian theology, evangelical but also ecumenical, with reference to the Rule of Faith and also a strong emphasis on a canonical approach, reading Lamentations especially in the context of Jeremiah, Isaiah 40–55 and Matthew's Gospel (notably 23:35 and 27:39). Describing the book as filled with the cries of those caught between the death of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians and its rebirth, Parry proceeds to read Lamentations in the light of cross and resurrection: ‘Lamentations then is to the exile and restoration of Israel what Holy Saturday is to the cross and resurrection of Christ’.

Occasionally, for example in the case of Jeremiah, I worried that Parry was in danger of assimilating Lamentations to his canonical intertexts. And sometimes I wondered whether his commentary exegesis was being skewed by his own perspective (e.g. in his positive reading of the end of chapter 5). But Parry is sensitive to these dangers and conducts the exercise with sophistication. He gives the reader some profound insights (including on Christian anti-Semitism, political theology and the ethics of reading) and often expresses himself in felicitous wording, as in the following summary of the volume as a whole: ‘So our aim in the first part of the commentary is to hear the distinctive theological voice of Lamentations but, in the second part, it is to hear how the acoustics change when that voice is heard in the Cathedral of Christ’. All in all, a valuable and welcome addition to the series.