324 JERRY A. GLADSON Downward once more goes the poem, as the poet insists Yhwh bring retribution upon his tormentors in the ç through the t strophes (3,61-66). With this, the poem comes to rest alphabetically and theologically, a “prolonged plea to God” 14. The third poem balances an acute awareness that the horrible calamity befallen the city has come from the “mouth of the Most High ”, with the urgent need to submit penitently to divine mercy, the ultimate Source of hope 15. This poem acknowledges the cause of suffering, interprets it as a pedagogical theodicy, and points hopefully to a future redemptive act. “The dsj of YHWH never , ceases ” (3,22). Although the poem follows a demanding acrostic structure, it contains several “voices”. The identity of these voices has so far resisted definitive clarification 16. The I-voice in vv. 1-24 may be that of an anonymous masculine sufferer, the rbg (3,1) a “shamed and humiliated captive” 17, possibly even the poet of the poem. Earlier scholars frequently identified this voice with Jeremiah 18, although this view has been largely abandoned. Hillers respects anonymity and identifies this voice as that of a “typical sufferer,” a person “who represents what any man may feel when it seems that God is against him” 19. On the other hand, the “I” may be taken as a collective; thus the people or even Jerusalem speak(s) 20. The theology of hope in vv. 25-39 may well be attributed to the same voice, or to the poet, if the two are not identical. Carleen Mandolfo locates what she calls the Didactic Voice (DV) in Lam 3,22-24, a “ normative voice” to “counter balance” that of 3,1-21 and also the first two poems of the book (Lam 1–2). This DV is centralized F. DOBBS-ALLSOP, Lamentations (Louisville, KY 2002) 127. 14 Lam 3,21-23.25-30.33-36.38.40-42. 15 N. GOTTWALD, “Lamentations”, Harper’s Bible Commentary (ed. 16 J. MAYS) (San Francisco, CA 1988) 650. Deciphering the voices in Lam 3 is but a part of the larger problem of the entire book. As noted above, there is no consensus on how many voices speak in Lamentations. K. O’CONNOR, “Book of Lamentations”, 1020. 17 So P. VERMIGLI, “Commentary on the Lamentations of the Prophet 18 Jeremiah ”, The Peter Martyr Library (trans. D. SHUTTE) (Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies 55; Kirksville, MO 2002) VI, 146. HILLERS, Lamentations, 64. 19 “ Here Jerusalem says of itself: ‘I am this sufferer’” — O. EISSFELDT, 20 The Old Testament. An Introduction (New York 1965) 503 (italics Eissfeldt).