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a few things: And just as it is possible to see Jerusalem prospering, abounding with people and nations and ruling in the lands, so, if virtue is changeable, [to see] it at some time isolated and widowed and enslaved, so as even to pay tribute to the enemy who has conquered it, according to the soul of one who has fallen from the truth. 9 And what must be said about the fact that, having ruled lands, it is so enslaved by its enemies that it always pays tribute, paying to evil masters whatever they command? And they command nothing good. And perhaps for each thing in which it stumbles here, it pays a certain tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, which is interpreted as Settling and knowledge of distress; not only to Nebuchadnezzar, but also to his satraps. 10 In the first Lamentation, the one beginning with Aleph, we have been able to preserve the literal meaning. But in this one what could one say, when a city is said to have wept in the night, so that the tears are on its cheeks? Unless perhaps one would say that the inhabitants, being called a city, those who also pay tribute, wept when they remembered from what peace and freedom they had come into so great a slavery and humiliation. How then shall we explain "in the night," except that at the time of the common rest of all men, the city, remembering its calamities—that is, the inhabitants of the city, not resting, wept, and they wept with streams of tears flowing down their cheeks? And their weeping was especially intensified and their tears flowed, there being not even one to comfort them from so many lovers, and every friend rejecting the friendship toward it and having turned to enmity. Who then, according to the literal sense, were those who formerly loved it, from whom there was no one to comfort it? Perhaps the other cities of Judea, and for this reason perhaps loving the metropolis, in a time of crisis did not comfort. And after a few things: These things, then, are for the literal sense. But if the account, as we established in the things before this, calls Jerusalem a certain kind of soul, this would be said to weep, having fallen from its own land and being in Confusion, and to have a state contrary to laughing the laughter that comes from joy and gladness, which our Lord promises will belong to those who have wept the blessed weeping, saying: "blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh." And in Job also it says he "will fill the mouth of the truthful with laughter." And perhaps for this reason one of the patriarchs is called Laughter. The one, therefore, who groans because of being in the tent, just as the apostle has shown by saying: "for we who are in this tent groan, being burdened," longing for the laughter in the promise and the divine gladness, weeps a weeping most nourishing and beneficial to the soul. 11 We think that to love (agapan) is more divine and, so to speak, spiritual, but to be a friend (philein) is more physical and human. And perhaps, with no wicked person loving (agapan), it must be observed that concerning the better ones he says: there is no one to comfort her from all those who love (agaponton) her, but concerning the lesser ones: all who are friends (philountes) with her have rejected her, they have become her enemies. For the inferior ones both rejected her and became her enemies; but the better ones only did not comfort her. 12 For the literal sense, the meaning would be of this sort: Judea exchanged its own place, these things having become for it the causes of its humiliation (by which it has been humbled, having sinned and having left behind the stature and the exalted state which it formerly had while existing in piety), and furthermore also of its great slavery, by which it has been enslaved, being subject to the passions. And having been removed, it was settled among nations, where it has not been able to find rest, all its enemies pursuing it and having overtaken and overpowered it, it having come to be among the nations who afflicted it. 13 The meaning for the literal sense is this: the law saying: "three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God," those of the people hastened, after it was built

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ὀλίγα· Ὥσπερ δὲ ἔνεστιν ἰδεῖν Ἱερουσαλὴμ εὐθηνουμένην, πληθύνουσαν λαῷ καὶ ἔθνεσιν καὶ ἄρχουσαν ἐν χώραις , οὕτως, εἰ μεταπτωτή ἐστιν ἡ ἀρετή, μονουμένην ποτὲ αὐτὴν καὶ χηρεύουσαν καὶ δου λεύουσαν, ὥστε καὶ φόρους τῷ κρατήσαντι αὐτῆς ἐχθρῷ τελεῖν, κατὰ τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ ἐκπεπτωκότος τῆς ἀληθείας. 9 Τί δὲ δεῖ λέγειν καὶ περὶ τοῦ ὅτι ἄρξασα χωρῶν ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον δουλοῦται παρὰ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς, ὥστε καὶ φόρον ἀεὶ αὐτὴν ἐπιτελεῖν, τελοῦσαν τοῖς κακοῖς δεσπόταις, ἃ ἂν ἐκεῖνοι προστάττωσιν; προσ τάττουσι δὲ χρηστὸν οὐδέν. καὶ τάχα καθ' ἕκαστον ὧν πταίει ἐν θάδε, φόρον τινὰ τελεῖ τῷ Ναβουχοδονόσορ, ὃς ἑρμηνεύεται Ἐγκα θισμὸς καὶ ἐπίγνωσις συνοχῆς· οὐ μόνῳ δὲ τῷ Ναβουχοδονόσορ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς σατράπαις αὐτοῦ. 10 Ἐπὶ μὲν τοῦ πρώτου Θρήνου, τοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἄλφ ἀρξαμένου, τὴν λέξιν σῶσαι δεδυνήμεθα. ἐπὶ δὲ τούτου τί ἄν τις εἴποι, λεγομένης πόλεως κεκλαυκέναι ἐν νυκτί , ὥστε τὰ δάκρυα εἶναι ἐπὶ τῶν σιαγόνων αὐτῆς ; εἰ μὴ ἄρα τοὺς ἐνοικοῦντάς τις ἐρεῖ πόλιν ὀνο μαζομένους, τοὺς καὶ φόρον τελοῦντας, κεκλαυκέναι ὑπομνησθέντας ἐξ οἵας εἰρήνης καὶ ἐλευθερίας εἰς ὅσην δουλείαν καὶ ταπείνωσιν ἐληλύθασιν. πῶς οὖν διηγησόμεθα καὶ τὸ ἐν νυκτί , ἢ ὅτι ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς κοινῆς ἁπάντων ἀνθρώπων ἀναπαύσεως ἡ πόλις ὑπο μιμνῃσκομένη τῶν συμφορῶν, τουτέστιν οἱ τὴν πόλιν οἰκοῦντες οὐκ ἀναπαυόμενοι ἔκλαιον, καὶ ἔκλαιον κρουνηδὸν τῶν δακρύων καταρ ρεόντων ἐπὶ τῶν σιαγόνων αὐτῶν; ἐπετείνετο δὲ μάλιστα αὐτοῖς ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ἐπέρρει τὰ δάκρυα, οὐχ ὑπάρχοντος κἂν ἑνὸς παραμυθουμένου αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοσούτων ἀγαπώντων, παντός τε τοῦ φιλοῦντος ἀθετοῦντος τὴν φιλίαν τὴν πρὸς αὐτὴν καὶ μεταβεβληκότος εἰς ἔχθραν . τίνες οὖν, ὡς πρὸς τὴν λέξιν, οἱ ἀγα πῶντες αὐτὴν πρότερον, ἀφ' ὧν οὐδεὶς ὑπῆρχεν παραμυθησό μενος αὐτήν ; τάχα αἱ λοιπαὶ τῆς Ἰουδαίας πόλεις, διὰ τοῦτο δὲ ἴσως ἀγαπῶσαι τὴν μητρόπολιν, ἐν καιρῷ περιστάσεως οὐ παρε κάλουν . Καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα· Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν πρὸς τὸ ῥητόν. ἐὰν δὲ ὁ λόγος, ὡς ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτων παρεστήσαμεν, Ἱερουσαλὴμ λέγῃ τὴν ποιὰν ψυχήν, αὕτη ἂν κλαίειν λέγοιτο, ἐκπεσοῦσα τῆς οἰκείας χώρας ἐν Συγχύσει γενομένη, καὶ κατάστασιν ἔχειν ἐναντίαν τῷ γελᾶν γέλωτα τὸν ἀπὸ χαρᾶς καὶ ἱλαρότητος, ὃν ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ἐπαγγέλλεται ὑπάρξειν τοῖς τὸν μακα ριζόμενον κλαυθμὸν κλαύσασι φάσκων· «μακάριοι οἱ κλαίοντες νῦν, ὅτι γελάσονται». καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἰὼβ δὲ «ἀληθινῶν» φησὶ «στόμα ἐμ πλήσει γέλωτος». τάχα δὲ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ εἷς τῶν πατριάρχων Γέλως λέγεται. ὁ τοίνυν στενάζων διὰ τὸ εἶναι ἐν τῷ σκήνει, ὥσπερ ὁ ἀπόστολος δεδήλωκεν εἰπών· «καὶ γὰρ οἱ ὄντες ἐν τῷ σκήνει στενά ζομεν βαρούμενοι», τὸν ἐν ἐπαγγελίᾳ γέλωτα ποθῶν καὶ τὴν θείαν ἱλαρότητα, κλαυθμὸν κλαίει τροφιμώτατον καὶ ὠφελοῦντα τὴν ψυχήν. 11 Οἰόμεθα δὲ τὸ μὲν ἀγαπᾶν θειότερον εἶναι καί, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, πνευματικόν, τὸ δὲ φιλεῖν σωματικὸν καὶ ἀνθρωπικώτερον. τάχα δέ, οὐδενὸς φαύλου ἀγαπῶντος, παρατηρητέον ὅτι περὶ μὲν τῶν κρειττόνων φησί· οὐχ ὑπάρχει παρακαλῶν αὐτὴν ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων αὐτήν , περὶ δὲ τῶν ἐλαττόνων· πάντες οἱ φιλοῦντες αὐτὴν ἠθέτησαν αὐτήν, ἐγένοντο αὐτῇ εἰς ἐ χθρούς . οἱ μὲν γὰρ ὑποδεέστεροι καὶ ἠθέτησαν αὐτὴν καὶ ἐγένοντο αὐτῇ ἐχθροί· οἱ δὲ κρείττονες μόνον οὐ παρεκάλεσαν. 12 Πρὸς μὲν τὸ ῥητὸν τοιοῦτος ἂν εἴη ὁ νοῦς· τὸν ἴδιον τόπον ἡ Ἰουδαία ἤμειψεν, αἰτίων τούτων γενομένων αὐτῇ τῆς ταπει νώσεως αὐτῆς (ἣν τεταπείνωται ἁμαρτοῦσα καὶ τὸ ἀνάστημα καὶ τὸ ἐγηγερμένον, ὃ πρότερον εἶχεν ἐν θεοσεβείᾳ ὑπάρχουσα, κατα λιποῦσα), ἔτι δὲ καὶ τῆς πολλῆς δουλείας αὐτῆς , ἣν δεδούλωτο ὑποτεταγμένη τοῖς πάθεσιν. μετοικισθεῖσα δὲ ἐν ἔθνεσιν ἱδρύνθη, ἔνθα εὑρεῖν ἀνάπαυσιν οὐ δεδύνηται, πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν κα ταδιωκόντων αὐτὴν καὶ καταλαβόντων καὶ κατακεκρατηκό των, αὐτῆς γενομένης παρὰ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν οἳ ἔθλιβον αὐτήν . 13 Ὁ πρὸς τὸ ῥητὸν νοῦς οὗτός ἐστιν· τοῦ νόμου λέγοντος· «τρὶς τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ὀφθήσεται πᾶν ἀρσενικόν σου ἐνώπιον κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου», ἔσπευδον οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ λαοῦ, μετὰ τὸ οἰκοδομηθῆναι