93

the divine David from the person of these same ones: "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my soul. I am stuck in the mud of the deep, and there is no standing ground. I have come into the depths of the sea, a tempest has overwhelmed me." And again: "Let not a tempest of water overwhelm me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit shut its mouth upon me." So also here: 55, 56. I called upon your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You heard my voice; do not close your ears to my supplication, and to my cry. He also teaches how he persuaded the merciful one. 57. For you drew near, he says, on the day I called upon you, and you said to me, Do not be afraid. And this short word is sufficient for comfort. Then he teaches that, having judged both them and their enemies justly, he delivered the latter to slavery, but deemed the former worthy of freedom. And having asked for destruction upon the impious enemies, he has completed the third lamentation. CHAPTER 4. 1. How the gold has grown dim, the good silver has changed! The holy stones have been poured out at the head of every street? To these materials he compares the piety of the ancestors, and laments the change that has come about in their descendants. For what follows makes this clear: 2. The sons of Zion, the precious, the exalted, who are more than gold; how they were reckoned as earthen vessels, the work of a potter's hands? The Master has also foretold this through the divine Isaiah: "For they will be useless, like a sherd shattered into small pieces, among which there is not one to draw water, or to take fire from a hearth." 3. Even serpents have bared their breasts, they have nursed their young; the daughters of my people have become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness. Even the more bitter beasts, he says, care for their young; but the excess of suffering has caused the inhabitants of Zion to forget nature itself; and with most having been slain, and the rest enslaved, a few have remained, like a solitary sparrow wandering in the wilderness. And he shows the evils brought forth by the famine. 81.801 4. The tongue of the nursing child stuck to its palate with thirst; the infants asked for bread, and there was no one to break it for them. He also teaches about their former luxury. 5. Those who ate delicacies have perished in the streets. Instead of, "cast down in the marketplace." "Those who were nurtured in scarlet have embraced dunghills." And he says that their sin has become the cause; and he compares this to that of Sodom. He also speaks of the glory of the Nazirites before the calamities, and their affliction in the calamity; and he says that slaughter in war is more preferable than the arrows of famine. And he puts into the lamentation also the most grievous suffering of all: 10. The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people. For the force of starvation conquered natural affection. But the Master brought these things upon Zion, being justly indignant. 12. The kings of the earth did not believe, nor all the inhabitants of the world, that an enemy and an oppressor would enter through the gates of Jerusalem. For they had great pledges for believing, the things concerning Sennacherib, whose army he consumed in a short part of the night. But it was delivered to the enemies both because of the deceit of the false prophets, and because of the bloodguiltiness of the priests. 14. Her young men crawled in the streets. He calls the public roads "streets," and those called alleys; "They were defiled with blood so that they could not, they were cast out with their garments." The famine forced them to be cast out; but the enemies, sitting before them, prevented their burial, and the dogs consumed those who were cast out. He also speaks of the things rumored by the enemies: 15. Depart from

93

θεσπέσιος ∆αβὶδ ἐκ προσώπου τούτων αὐτῶν· "Σῶσόν με, ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι εἰσήλθοσαν ὕδατα ἕως ψυχῆς μου. Ἐνεπάγην εἰς ἰλὺν βυθοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὑπόστασις. Ἦλθον εἰς τὰ βάθη τῆς θαλάσσης, καταιγὶς κατ επόντισέ με." Καὶ πάλιν· "Μή με καταποντισάτω καταιγὶς ὕδατος, μηδὲ καταπιέτω με βυθὸς, μηδὲ συσχέτω ἐπ' ἐμὲ φρέαρ τὸ στόμα αὑτοῦ." Οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα· νεʹ, νϛʹ. Ἐπεκαλεσάμην τὸ ὄνομά σου, Κύριε, ἐκ λάκκου κατωτάτου. Φωνῆς μου ἤκουσας· μὴ φράξῃς τὰ ὦτά σου εἰς τὴν δέησίν μου, καὶ εἰς τὴν κραυγήν μου. ∆ιδάσκει καὶ ὡς ἔπεισε τὸν φιλάνθρωπον. νζʹ. Ἤγγισας γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ, ἦ ἐπ εκαλεσάμην σε, καὶ εἶπάς μοι, Μὴ φοβοῦ. Ἀπό χρη δὲ εἰς παραψυχὴν καὶ ὁ βραχὺς οὗτος λόγος. Εἶτα διδάσκει, ὡς αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῖς δυσμενέσι δικαίως δικάσας, ἐκείνους μὲν δουλείᾳ παρέδωκεν, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἐλευθερίας ἠξίωσεν. Αἰτήσας δὲ τοῖς δυσσεβέσι πο λεμίοις τὸν ὄλεθρον, τὸν τρίτον πεπλήρωκε θρῆ νον. ΚΕΦΑΛ. ∆ʹ. αʹ. Πῶς ἠμαυρώθη χρυσίον, ἠλλοιώθη τὸ ἀρ γύριον τὸ ἀγαθόν· ἐξεχύθησαν λίθοι ἅγιοι ἀπ' ἀρχῆς πασῶν διεξόδων; Ταύταις ἀπεικάζει ταῖς ὕλαις τὴν τῶν προγόνων εὐσέβειαν, καὶ θρηνεῖ τῶν ἐγγόνων τὴν γεγενημένην μεταβολήν. Τοῦτο γὰρ δηλοῖ τὰ ἑξῆς· βʹ. Οἱ υἱοὶ Σιὼν, οἱ τίμιοι, οἱ ἐπηρμένοι, οἱ ὑπὲρ χρυσίον· πῶς ἐλογίσθησαν εἰς ἀγγεῖα ὀστράκινα, ἔργα χειρῶν κεραμέως; Τοῦτο καὶ διὰ τοῦ θείου Ἡσαΐου προείρηκεν ὁ ∆εσπότης· "Ὅτι ἔσονται ἄχρηστοι, ὡς κεράμιον συντριβὲν εἰς λεπτὰ ἐν οἷς οὐκ ἔστιν ὕδωρ ἀρύσασθαι, ἢ πῦρ λαβεῖν ἀπὸ καύστρας." γʹ. Καί γε δράκοντες ἐξεδύσαντο μασθοὺς, ἐθήλασαν σκύμνους αὑτῶν, θυγατέρες λαοῦ μου εἰς ἀνίατον, ὡς στρουθίον ἐν ἐρήμῳ. Καὶ τὰ πικρότερα, φησὶ, θηρία τῶν τέκνων ἐπιμελεῖται· ἡ δὲ τοῦ πάθους ὑπερβολὴ τῆς Σιὼν τοὺς οἰκήτορας καὶ αὐτῆς ἐπιλαθέσθαι τῆς φύσεως παρεσκεύασε· καὶ τῶν μὲν πλείστων σφαγέντων, τῶν δὲ λοιπῶν ἀν δραποδισθέντων, ὀλίγοι τινὲς μεμενήκασιν ἐοικότες στρουθίῳ μόνῳ κατὰ τὴν ἔρημον πλανωμένῳ. ∆ηλοῖ δὲ τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ λιμοῦ τεχθέντα κακά. 81.801 δʹ. Ἐκολλήθη γλῶσσα θηλάζοντος πρὸς τὸν φάρυγγα αὐτοῦ ἐν δίψει· νήπια ᾔτησαν ἄρτον, καὶ ὁ διακλῶν αὐτοῖς οὐκ ἦν. ∆ιδάσκει δὲ καὶ τὴν προτέραν τούτων χλιδήν. εʹ. Οἱ ἐσθίοντες τρυφὰς ἠφανίσθησαν ἐν ταῖς ἐξόδοις. Ἀντὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐῤῥιμμένοι. "Οἱ τιθηνούμενοι ἐπὶ κοκκίνῳ περιελάβοντο κοπρίας." Λέγει δὲ τούτων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν πρόξενον γεγενῆσθαι· καὶ τῇ Σοδόμων παρατίθησι ταύτην. Λέγει δὲ καὶ τῶν Ναζιραίων τὴν πρὸ τῶν συμ φορῶν εὐδοξίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐν τῇ συμφορᾷ κακουχίαν· καὶ τὴν ἐν πολέμῳ δὲ σφαγὴν τῶν τοῦ λιμοῦ βελῶν αἱρετωτέραν εἶναί φησιν. Ἐντίθησι δὲ τῷ θρήνῳ καὶ τὸ πάντων χαλεπώτατον πάθος· ιʹ. Χεῖρες γυναικῶν οἰκτιρμόνων ἥψησαν τὰ παιδία ἑαυτῶν· ἐγένοντο εἰς βρῶσιν αὐταῖς ἐν τῷ συντρίμματι τῆς θυγατρὸς τοῦ λαοῦ μου. Τὴν γὰρ φυσικὴν φιλοστοργίαν ἡ βία τῆς πείνης ἐνίκησε. Ταῦτα δὲ τῇ Σιὼν ἐπήνεγκεν ὁ ∆εσπότης ἐνδίκως ἀγανακτήσας. ιβʹ. Οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς, καὶ πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν οἰκουμένην, ὅτι εἰσελεύσεται ἐχθρὸς καὶ ἐκθλίβων διὰ τῶν πυλῶν Ἱερουσαλήμ. Εἶχον γὰρ ἐνέχυρα μεγάλα τοῦ πιστεῦσαι, τὰ κατὰ τὸν Σεναχηρεὶμ, οὗ τὴν στρατιὰν ἐν βραχεῖ μορίῳ νυκτὸς κατηνάλωσε. Παρεδόθη δὲ τοῖς πολεμίοις καὶ διὰ τὴν τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν ἐξαπάτην, καὶ διὰ τὴν τῶν ἱερέων μιαιφόνιαν. ιδʹ. Εἷρψαν νεανίσκοι αὐτῆς ἐν ταῖς ἐξόδοις. Ἐξόδους τὰς ἀγυιὰς καλεῖ, καὶ τὰς καλουμένας ῥύμας· "Ἐμολύνθησαν ἐν αἵματι ἐν τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι αὐτοὺς, ἐῤῥίφθησαν σὺν τοῖς ἐνδύμασιν αὐτῶν." Ὁ μὲν λιμὸς ἠνάγκαζεν ἐῤῥίφθαι· προκαθήμενοι δὲ οἱ πολέμιοι θάπτειν ἐκώλυον, οἱ δὲ κύνες τοὺς ἐῤῥιμμένους ἀνήλισκον. Λέγει δὲ καὶ τὰ παρὰ τῶν πολεμίων θρυλλούμενα· ιεʹ. Ἀπόστητε ἀπὸ