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to escape easily. "And my eyes have brought down water, because he that comforts me has been removed far from me." And teaching who this was, he added: "He that restores my soul." For it was for this reason that he brought on the chastisement, working out a benefit for the soul. He also laments the destruction of the sons, and the dominion of the enemies. And he also shows the form of her mourning. 17. Zion has spread out her hands. For mourning women are accustomed to both extend and draw in their hands. And he says that she is also inconsolable, since God allowed her enemies to rush against her, and to defile the consecrated place. "For Jerusalem," he says, "has become as a menstruous woman in their midst." And according to the law, she who endures a flow of blood was unclean; he therefore compares the city to this, having been filled with foreign and impious men. Nevertheless, the prophet continually praises the justice of the verdict, offering from this a benefit to those who read it. 18. The Lord is righteous, for I have provoked his mouth. For I have transgressed the laws set by him. And having lamented the enslavement of the virgins and the young men, he teaches that the service of idols is useless. For he calls those things lovers. And she beseeches the one who is able to end the unseasonableness of evils, to pity her who confesses her sin. "For provoking," she says, "I have provoked." But she is especially vexed that the enemies mock; and this too, she says, has happened by your consent. "For you have brought on a day, and you have called a time, and they became for me woes, woes." And she asks that they too fall into the same misfortunes. 22. "For let all their wickedness," she says, "come before your face." "As you have regarded," she says, "my transgression, look also upon their impiety." "And glean them, in the manner that you have gleaned me 81.788 for all my sins; because my groans are many, and my heart is grieved." And here the Syrian interpreted "glean" thus: "Afflict them, as you have afflicted me." So then, the first Lamentation has this as its end. CHAPTER 2 And the preface of the second is this: 1. How has the Lord darkened in his wrath the daughter of Zion? He has cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel? And has not remembered his footstool in the day of his wrath? And from this it is clear that the divine David calls the divine temple "his footstool"; "For worship," he says, "at his footstool." However, the prophet compared the calamity to darkness; and says the city was cast down from heaven to earth. Because it was stripped of its flourishing grace, it became easy for its enemies to capture. 2. The Lord has swallowed up without sparing all the fair things of Jacob; he has destroyed in his anger the strongholds of the daughter of Judah, he has brought them down to the ground. That is, he brought them down to the foundation. "He has profaned her kings, and her rulers." These things the blessed David also foretold: "For," he says, "you have made his strongholds a cowardice; all who pass by the way have plundered him." 3. He has broken in the anger of his wrath every horn of Israel. He calls the rulers and the potentates a horn. "He has turned back his right hand from the face of the enemy, and has kindled a burning fire in Jacob, and has devoured all things round about him." For he was not willing to defend when the enemies attacked, but was like a noble general who is easily able to destroy the enemy, yet who moves his hands behind his back, and yields the victory to the adversaries. But against me, he says, he used his hands to the contrary. 4. For he has bent his bow like an enemy, and has strengthened his right hand as an adversary, and has slain all my desirable things in the tent of the daughter of Zion; he has poured out his wrath like fire. For even in the temple the enemies dared to carry out massacres. And the word teaches that all those things happened by God's permission;

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διαφεύγειν ῥᾶγα. "Καὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου κατήγαγον ὕδωρ, ὅτι ἐμακρύνθη ἀπ' ἐμοῦ ὁ παρακαλῶν με." Καὶ διδάσκων, τίς οὗ τος, ἐπήγαγεν· "Ὁ ἐπιστρέφων ψυχήν μου." ∆ιὰ γάρ τοι τοῦτο καὶ τὴν παιδείαν ἐπήγαγε, τῇ ψυχῇ τὴν ὠφέλειαν πραγματευόμενος. Θρηνεῖ δὲ καὶ τῶν υἱῶν τὴν ἀπώλειαν, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐπι κράτειαν. ∆είκνυσι δὲ αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ πέν θους. ιζʹ. ∆ιεπέτασε Σιὼν τὰς χεῖρας αὑτῆς. Εἰ ώθασι γὰρ αἱ πενθοῦσαι, καὶ ἐκτείνειν, καὶ συστέλ λειν τὰς χεῖρας. Λέγει δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ ἀπαραμύθητον εἶναι, ἅτε δὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ὁρμῆσαι κατ' αὐτῆς συγχωρήσαντος, καὶ τὴν καθιερωμένην μολῦ ναι. "Ἐγενήθη γὰρ, φησὶν, Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ὡς ἀποκαθημένη ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν." Ἀκάθαρτος δὲ ἦν κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἡ τοῦ αἵματος τὸν ῥοῦν ὑπομένουσα· ταύτῃ τοίνυν ἀπεικάζει τὴν πόλιν ἀλλοφύλων καὶ δυσσεβῶν πληρωθεῖσαν ἀνθρώπων. Συνεχῶς μέντοι ὁ προφήτης τῆς ψήφου τὸ δίκαιον εὐφημεῖ, τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ὠφέλειαν προσφέρων τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν. ιηʹ. ∆ίκαιός ἐστι Κύριος, ὅτι τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ παρεπίκρανα. Τοὺς γὰρ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τεθέντας παρ έβην νόμους. Θρηνήσας δὲ τῶν παρθένων καὶ τῶν νεανίσκων ἀνδραποδισμὸν, διδάσκει, ὡς ἀνωφε λὴς ἡ τῶν εἰδώλων δουλεία. Ἐραστὰς γὰρ ἐκεῖνα καλεῖ. Ἱκετεύει δὲ τὸν λῦσαι δυνάμενον τὴν τῶν κακῶν ἀωρίαν, οἰκτεῖραι αὐτὴν ὁμολογοῦσαν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. "Παραπικραίνουσα γὰρ, φησὶ, παρεπί κρανα." Ἀνιᾷ δὲ αὐτὴ διαφερόντως τὸ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἐπιτωθάζειν· καὶ τοῦτο δὲ, φησὶ, σοῦ νεύσαντος γέ γονεν. "Ἐπήγαγες γὰρ ἡμέραν, καὶ ἐκάλεσας και ρὸν, καὶ ἐγένοντό μοι οἴμοι, οἴμοι." Αἰτεῖ δὲ κἀκείνους ταῖς αὐταῖς περιπεσεῖν συμφοραῖς. κβʹ. Εἰσέλθοι γὰρ, φησὶ, πᾶσα ἡ κακία αὐτῶν κατὰ πρόσωπόν σου. Ὡς ἐθεάσω, φησὶ, τὴν ἐμὴν παρανομίαν, βλέπε καὶ τὴν ἐκείνων ἀσέβειαν. "Καὶ ἐπιφύλλισον αὐτοὺς, ὃν τρόπον ἐπεφύλλισας ἐμὲ 81.788 περὶ πάντων τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν μου· ὅτι πολλοὶ οἱ στε ναγμοί μου, καὶ ἡ καρδία μου λυπεῖται." Καὶ ἐν ταῦθα ὁ Σύρος τὸ ἐπιφύλλισον οὕτως ἡρμήνευσεν· "Θλῖψον αὐτοὺς, ὡς ἔθλιψας ἐμέ." Ὁ μὲν οὖν πρῶ τος Θρῆνος τοῦτο ἔχει τὸ τέλος. ΚΕΦΑΛ. Βʹ Τοῦ δὲ δευτέρου τὸ προοίμιον τοῦτο· αʹ. Πῶς ἐγνόφωσεν ὀργῇ αὑτοῦ Κύριος τὴν θυγατέρα Σιών; Κατέῤῥιψεν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ εἰς γῆν δόξαν Ἰσραήλ; Καὶ οὐκ ἐμνήσθη ὑποποδίου ποδῶν αὐτοῦ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ; Καὶ ἐν τεῦθεν δῆλον, ὡς "ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ" ὁ θεῖος ∆αβὶδ τὸν θεῖον ὀνομάζει ναόν· "Προσκυ νεῖτε γὰρ, φησὶ, τῷ ὑποποδίῳ τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ." Ὁ μέντοι προφήτης ἀπείκασε γνόφῳ τὴν συμφοράν· καὶ λέγει ἐξ οὐρανῶν εἰς γῆν ῥιφῆναι τὴν πόλιν Ἐπειδὴ τῆς ἐπανθούσης χάριτος ἐγυμνώθη, ἐγέ νετο τοῖς πολεμίοις εὐάλωτος. βʹ. Κατεπόντισε Κύριος οὐ φεισάμενος πάντα τὰ ὡραῖα Ἰακώβ· καθεῖλεν ἐν θυμῷ αὑτοῦ τὰ ὀχυρώματα τῆς θυγατρὸς Ἰούδα, ἐκόλλησεν αὐτὰ εἰς τὴν γῆν. Τουτέστι, μέχρις ἐδάφους κατ ήνεγκεν. "Ἐβεβήλωσε βασιλεῖς αὐτῆς, καὶ ἄρ χοντας αὐτῆς." Ταῦτα καὶ ὁ μακάριος προεῖπε ∆αβίδ· "Ἔθου, γὰρ, φησὶ, τὰ ὀχυρώματα αὐτοῦ δειλίαν, διήρπασαν αὐτὸν πάντες παραπορευόμενοι τὴν ὁδόν." γʹ. Συνέκλασεν ἐν ὀργῇ θυμοῦ αὑτοῦ πᾶν κέ ρας Ἰσραήλ. Κέρας καλεῖ τοὺς ἄρχοντας, καὶ τοὺς δυνάστας. "Ἀπέστρεψεν ὀπίσω δεξιὰν αὑτοῦ ἀπὸ προσώπου ἐχθροῦ, καὶ ἀνῆψεν ἐν Ἰακὼβ πῦρ φλέ γον, καὶ κατέφαγε πάντα τὰ κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ." Οὐ γὰρ ἠθέλησεν ἐπαμῦναι τῶν δυσμενῶν ἐπελθόντων, ἀλλ' ἐῴκει στρατηγῷ γενναίῳ καταλῦσαι ῥᾳδίως δυνα μένῳ τοὺς πολεμίους, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας εἰς τοὐπίσω μεταφέροντι, καὶ παραχωροῦντι τοῖς δυσμενέσι τὴν νίκην. Ἐπ' ἐμὲ δὲ, φησὶ, τοὐναντίον ἐχρήσατο ταῖς χερσίν. δʹ. Ἐνέτεινε γὰρ τὸ τόξον αὑτοῦ ὡς ἐχθρὸς, καὶ ἐστερέωσε δεξιὰν αὐτοῦ ὡς ὑπεναντίος, καὶ ἀπέκτεινε πάντα τὰ ἐπιθυμήματά μου ἐν σκηνῇ θυγατρὸς Σιών· ἐξέχεεν ὡς πῦρ τὸν θυμὸν αὑ τοῦ. Καὶ γὰρ ἐν τῷ ναῷ τὰς σφαγὰς ἐτόλμησαν οἱ πολέμιοι. ∆ιδάσκει δὲ ὁ λόγος, ὡς τοῦ Θεοῦ συγχω ρήσαντος ἐκεῖνα πάντα ἐγένετο·