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“to my beloved” in Isaiah. And David adds: “Why have you broken down her hedge?” and what follows, but Isaiah: “you have taken away his hedge” and what follows that. These things the present Lamentation has also made clear. For God, having withdrawn his own guard, handed them over to the enemies, no longer “an angel encamping around him” because of their not “fearing God.” He also abolished the times for worship according to the law, as he says in Isaiah: “your fasts and your holidays and your feasts my soul hates.” This he called forgetfulness, but not as a human passion. He provoked the king and the priest, who were indignant that, being God's portion, they suffered such things from the impious. 49 He handed over the liturgical vessels, no longer being well-pleased with the sacrifices from the impious, according to the text “I do not desire whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats.” And he handed over the wall that held together the houses of the city, that is, the royal palaces as Symmachus has translated. And the enemies, having taken also the temple, then celebrated with shouting as for a complete victory. But the altar of the soul is the rational part within us, through which the passions are sacrificed by being put to death. 50 For he took away all its security, having extended the measure of the punishment; which indeed Zechariah also has seen. 51 The wall and the rampart mourn, things worthy of mourning, becoming causes of weeping also for those who see them; “for who shall scatter the counsel of the Lord? and who shall turn back his upraised hand?” according to the blessed Isaiah. Such a city or soul that mourns, so as to be a trampling-place for the enemies, it is likely that the angels who formerly guarded her, one after another, both greater and subordinate, mourn. For if they rejoice over those who are saved, how will they not mourn over those who have fallen? 52 For they have become unseen, as if swallowed up by earth or sea. The king and the rulers and the false prophets and her law also perished by the necessity of slavery, which indeed they had destroyed by choice even before being captured. And the gates of the soul are the senses, which, when it sins, are flooded with passions and become earthly. And the powers of the soul that guard these are undone when the ruling mind and the governing reasonings among the passions have been destroyed, at which time the law and order of the soul perish, and it becomes Babylon, being full of Confusion, having nothing providential that is helped by God. 53 He recounts sorrowful spectacles that happened in the place of gladness; for out of fear they did not even permit the elders to mourn, and they made the foremost virgins look to the ground, lest, being seen, they should by violence draw them by the beauty in which they excelled. You might also say that those who formerly were preeminent in virtue, for which they were so called, have become earthly and, having been established in irrational passions, no longer act at all according to reason and have made their governing spirit earthly, and have made the moderation they once had worthy of mourning, and have corrupted the reasonings which they previously kept incorrupt. 54 The prophet says that his own glory is both the temple of God and the piety of his fatherland. And the famine was causing the exhaustion of the infants. But you might say on a higher level that he makes his own the passions of his kinsmen according to the flesh, according to the text “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” taking upon himself their difficult spiritual circumstances, the withering of true knowledge and the unstable impulse of reasoning toward earthly things and the deprivation of the glory that lifts up the head, according to the text “But you, O Lord, are my helper, my glory and the one who lifts up my head.” 55 He showed complete wickedness, so as to have no testimony of virtue nor the one who sinned similarly. For what sin is similar for one far from God and for one who has become unruly after drawing near? For “if,” he says, “I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.” Therefore also, “I will be sanctified in those who draw near to me”; because “the one who does not know the will of the Lord and does not do it, will be beaten with few stripes; but the one who knows and does not do it, will be beaten with many.” Therefore, such great suffering, which the prophets have not been able to heal, requires God alone. Therefore he has also borne flesh, with the prophets confessing their weakness in the words, “Lord, who

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ἠγαπημένῳ» παρὰ Ἡσαΐᾳ. καὶ ∆αβὶδ μὲν ἐπάγει· «ἵνα τί καθεῖλες τὸν φραγμὸν αὐτῆς;» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ὁ δὲ Ἡσαΐας· «ἀφεῖλες τὸν φραγμὸν αὐτοῦ» καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτῳ. ταῦτα καὶ ὁ παρὼν ἐδήλωσε Θρῆνος. συστείλας γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ τὴν φρουρὰν ὁ θεὸς τοῖς πολεμίοις παρέδωκεν, οὐκέτι «κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ παρεμβάλλον τος ἀγγέλου» διὰ τὸ μὴ «φοβεῖσθαι τὸν θεόν». κατήργησε δὲ καὶ τοὺς κατὰ νόμον εἰς λατρείαν καιρούς, ὡς ἐν Ἡσαΐᾳ φησί· «νηστείαν καὶ ἀργείαν καὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς ὑμῶν μισεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου». ὅπερ λήθην ἐκάλεσεν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς πάθος ἀνθρώπινον. παρώξυνε δὲ βασιλέα καὶ ἱερέα , ἀγανακτοῦντας εἰ μερὶς ὄντες θεοῦ τοιαῦτα παρ' ἀσε βούντων ὑφίστανται. 49 Τὰ λειτουργικὰ παρέδωκε σκεύη, μηκέτι ταῖς παρ' ἀσεβῶν θυσίαις εὐαρεστούμενος κατὰ τὸ «ὁλοκαυτώματα κριῶν καὶ στέαρ ἀρνῶν καὶ αἷμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων οὐ βούλομαι». παρέδωκε δὲ καὶ τὸ συνέχον τεῖχος τὰς οἰκίας τῆς πόλεως, ἤγουν τὰ βασίλεια καθάπερ ἐξέδωκε Σύμμαχος. οἱ δὲ δυσμενεῖς παραλαβόντες καὶ τὸν νεὼν ὡς ἐπὶ τελείᾳ νίκῃ λοιπὸν ἑώρταζον ἀλαλάζοντες. ψυχῆς δὲ θυσι αστήριον τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν λογικόν, δι' οὗπερ ἱερουργεῖται τὰ πάθη νεκρούμενα. 50 Πᾶσαν γὰρ αὐτῆς ἀφεῖλεν ἀσφάλειαν, τῆς τιμωρίας ἐκτείνας τὸ μέτρον · ὃ δὴ καὶ Ζαχαρίας τεθέαται. 51 Πενθεῖ δὲ τεῖχος καὶ προτείχισμα , τὰ πένθους ἄξια, τοῦ κλαίειν καὶ τοῖς ὁρῶσιν αἴτια γινόμενα· «τὴν γὰρ βουλὴν κυρίου τίς διασκεδάσει; καὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ τὴν ὑψηλὴν τίς ἀποστρέψει;» κατὰ τὸν μακάριον Ἡσαΐαν. τὴν δὲ τοιαῦτα πενθοῦσαν εἴτε πόλιν εἴτε ψυχὴν ὡς εἶναι τοῖς ἐχθροῖς καταπάτημα , πενθεῖν εἰκὸς ἀγγέλους τοὺς πρότερον αὐτὴν ἄλλους ἐπ' ἄλλοις φυλάττοντας, μεί ζους τε καὶ ὑποβεβηκότας. εἰ γὰρ ἐπὶ σωθεῖσι χαίρουσιν, ἐπὶ πεσοῦσι πῶς οὐ πενθήσουσιν; 52 Ὡς γὰρ ὑπὸ γῆς ἢ θαλάττης καταποθεῖσαι γεγόνασιν ἀφα νεῖς. ἀπώλοντο δὲ καὶ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἄρχοντες καὶ οἱ ψευδο προφῆται καὶ ὁ νόμος αὐτῆς ἀνάγκῃ δουλείας, ὃν δὴ προαιρέσει καὶ πρὶν ἁλῶναι κατέλυσαν. πύλαι δὲ ψυχῆς αἱ αἰσθήσεις, αἵτινες ἁμαρτανούσης κατακλύζονταί τε πάθεσι καὶ γίνονται γήϊναι . καὶ αἱ ταύτας δὲ τηροῦσαι τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις ἐκλύονται ἀπολωλότος νοῦ τε βασιλεύοντος καὶ λογισμῶν ἀρχικῶν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσιν, ὅτε τῆς ψυχῆς νόμος τε καὶ τάξις ἀπόλλυται, καὶ γίνεται Βαβυλὼν πλήρης οὖσα Συγχύσεως, μηδὲν ἔχουσα προνοητικὸν ὑπὸ θεοῦ βοηθούμενον. 53 Λυπηρὰ διηγεῖται θεάματα ἐν τῷ χωρίῳ τῆς εὐφροσύνης γε γενημένα· φόβῳ γὰρ οὐδὲ θρηνεῖν τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις ἐπέτρεπον, καὶ τὰς πρώτας παρθένους εἰς γῆν ὁρᾶν παρεσκεύασαν, μήποτε φανεῖσαι πρὸς βίαν αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ κάλλους, ἐν ᾧπερ ἐπρώτευον, ἐπισπάσωνται. εἴποις δ' ἂν καὶ τοὺς ἐν ἀρετῇ πάλαι πρεσβεύον τας , δι' ἣν οὕτως ἐλέγοντο, χοϊκοὺς γεγονότας καὶ πάθεσιν ἀλόγοις ἐνιδρυθέντας κατὰ λόγον ἔτι μηδὲν ἐνεργεῖν καὶ τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡγε μονικὸν ἀπογεώσαντας πνεῦμα καὶ πένθους ἀξίαν, ἣν εἶχον πάλαι, σωφροσύνην ποιήσαντας καὶ λογισμοὺς διαφθείραντας, οὓς πρὶν ἀφθόρους διέσῳζον. 54 ∆όξαν ἰδίαν φησὶν ὁ προφήτης θεοῦ τε ναὸν καὶ πατρίδος εὐσέβειαν. τῶν δὲ νηπίων τὴν ἔκλυσιν ὁ λιμὸς ἀπηργάζετο. εἴ ποις δ' ἂν ὑψηλότερον, ὡς οἰκειοῦται τῶν συγγενῶν κατὰ σάρκα τὰ πάθη κατὰ τὸ «τίς ἀσθενεῖ, καὶ οὐκ ἀσθενῶ;» τὰ κατὰ ψυχὴν ἐκείνων ἀναδεχόμενος δυσχερῆ, γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς μαρασμὸν καὶ φορὰν ἄστατον τοῦ λογισμοῦ πρὸς τὰ γήϊνα καὶ στέρησιν δόξης τῆς ὑψούσης τὴν κεφαλὴν κατὰ τὸ «σὺ δέ, κύριε, ἀντιλήπτωρ μου εἶ, δόξα μου καὶ ὑψῶν τὴν κεφαλήν μου». 55 Τὴν παντελῆ κακίαν ἐδήλωσεν, ὡς μηδεμίαν ἔχειν ἀρετῆς μαρ τυρίαν μηδὲ τὸν πλημμελήσαντα παραπλήσια. τί γὰρ ὅμοιον ἁμάρ τημα τοῦ μακρὰν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ μετὰ τὸ πλησιάζειν ἀφηνιάσαντος; «εἰ» γὰρ «μὴ ἦλθον» φησὶ «καὶ ἐλάλησα αὐτοῖς, ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ εἶχον». διὸ καὶ «ἐν τοῖς ἐγγίζουσί μοι ἁγιασθήσομαι»· ὅτι «ὁ μὴ εἰδὼς τὸ θέλημα τοῦ κυρίου καὶ μὴ ποιῶν αὐτό, δαρήσεται ὀλίγας· ὁ δὲ εἰδὼς καὶ μὴ ποιῶν αὐτό, δαρήσεται πολλάς». τὸ οὖν τοσοῦτον πάθος , ὃ μὴ προφῆται θεραπεῦσαι δεδύνηνται, μόνου δεῖται θεοῦ. διὸ καὶ σάρκα πεφόρηκε, τῶν προφητῶν ὁμολογούντων ἀσθένειαν ἐν τῷ «κύριε, τίς