Lecture 11

^1:11^ Caph. All her people sigh, they seek bread: they have given all their precious things for food to revive the soul: see, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile.

11. Here he presents the plunder of their goods as regards those things of which they deprived themselves.

And first, he presents the necessity of depriving themselves, because of the lack of necessary things: ​​they seek bread. I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread (Ps 101:5).

Second, he presents this same deprivation: they have given all their precious things to revive, not to satiate, the soul, a life of little worth. This is what we read of the Egyptians (Gen 47:13–21).

Third, he provokes God to pity: see, O Lord. How exceedingly base you are become, going the same ways over again! (Jer 2:36).

And this last word is presented as coming from the personified city or from the people who, as a prophet exhibiting her misfortune, unable to bear hearing any more, burst into lamentations and sobs.