Concentric structures in Lamentations 5

When we started Lamentations, I was looking around for concentric structures in Lamentations, but a lot of them felt quite artificial. So I wasn't really looking for any when a couple of them just appeared. This one is for chapter 5, and next time around I'll point out some similar features in chapter 4.

A    5:1

Dear Yhwh,

Remember, look and see

B    5:2-10

a how far we have fallen

   b punished for the sins of our fathers

a how far we have fallen

C    5:11-14

four pairs of persons,

showing how far away their hope is,

how completely they've been upended

B`   5:15-18

a good things upended

   b woe to us for we've sinned

a the result of this is our lament

A`   5:19-20

Dear Yhwh,

although you are enthroned forever.

you don't remember, you neither look nor see

A``   5:21-22

Dear Yhwh, 

we pray you bring us back

but instead you reject us

The main thing to note here is how the chapter begins and ends with mentions of Yhwh, with the divine name absent in the intervening verses. As such, they form something of a prayer.

The second thing is the two mentions of sin, in 5:7,16. These both occur in the centre of first-person plural sections (1-10, 15-19), while the intervening section (5:11-14) is third-person. That intervening section is set apart with the distinctiveness of the four pairs of persons.

I'm not convinced there is anything to make out of C in particular as the central section, as the main action is really happening in the A and B sections, with the recognition of inherited and continued sin in the B sections, and the addresses to Yhwh which bookend the chapter.