330 JERRY A. GLADSON intends to break the divine silence and bring hope to the beleaguered poets of Lamentations? In most cases in the HB where the expression, arytAla, is found, it has a contemporaneous reference 40. Here, its only occurrence in Lamentations, it is unfortunately impossible to tell with any degree of certainty whether it references past, present, or future. Given the context of the poem, despite the considerations noted above, more likely it refers to some previous experience attributed to God, answered by an assuring oracle 41. The temporal clause, “in the day when I called on you”, arqa μ/yb, (3,57), suggests a past experience. Even though probably recalling an earlier incident, the poet intends its recital, not as satirical, but as an expression of what he believes YHWH has done, is doing, or will do for the struggling Judahites. He intends this recital to crack open the door for YHWH’s current or future intervention. It stands as a metaphor for the anticipated divine action. Thus he cites a word of YHWH: “Do not fear ” ! To the other voicings in Lamentations, in other words, the poet now adds the Voice of God. The silence of God is broken, whether in present reality or anticipation, in this plea for deliverance 42. In this imperative, the Deus absconditus now becomes the Deus revelatus. Interestingly, Lamentations shares this reticence to give voice to YHWH with the other Khamesh Megilloth of which it is a part. While in part this may be due to prevailing, post-exilic Zeitgeist in which these books reached their final form, when there was in Second Temple Judaism an ever-increasing reluctance to speak See Gen 15,1. 24; 46,3; Num 21,34; Deut 1,21; Josh 8,1; 10,8; 11,6; Judg 40 4,18 ; 6,23; 1 Sam 22,23; 23,17; 2 Sam 9,7; 2 Kgs 1,15; 6,16; 19,6; 1 Chr 22,13 ; 28,30; Isa 7,4; 10,24; 41,10.13; 43,1.5; 44,2; Jer 1,8; 30,10; 46,27-28; Ezek 2,6; Dan 10,12.19. Three occurrences are of uncertain temporal reference : Job 5,22; Ps 49,16; Prov 3,25. This expression appears 40 times in the HB, but significantly only here in Lamentations. So MARTYR, Lamentations, 147. Determination of the temporal aspect 41 h e r e is of little consequence, according to O’CONNOR, “ B o o k of Lamentations ”, 1056, and what matters is that “it functions in the poem as a cause for present expectancy, a budding hope that God has already begun to act ”. Cf. Ps 31,21-22. Cf. “He fulfills the desire of all who fear him, / he also hears their cry, 42 and saves them” (Ps 145,18).