Contemporary compositions—such as Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony (1942) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, and Stravinsky’s “Threni” (1958), for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra—testify to the continuing vitality and universal quality of the texts. In the Hebrew Bible Lamentations has the title ʾēkāh ‘How’, the initial word of the book. In the Babylonian Talmud, however (b. B. Bat. 14b), and in other early Jewish writings, the book is called qīnōt, that is, “Lamentations.”