Lecture 18

^2:18^ Sade. Their heart cried to the Lord upon the walls of the daughter of Zion: let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give yourself no rest, and let not the apple of your eye cease.

40. Here he turns to imploring the mercy of the judge through prayer).

And first, he summons to prayer;

second, he presents the prayer, at behold, O Lord, and consider (Lam 2:20).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he teaches to prepare the place of prayer by tears;

second, he teaches how to pray, at arise, praise God (Lam 2:19).

Concerning the first, he does three things.

First, he presents the reason for mourning: their heart, that of their enemies; cried, in blaspheming; to the Lord, that is, against him; upon the walls, as if the destruction of the city were an opportunity for blasphemy, as if God had not been able to defend it. Your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord (Exod 16:8). Or their heart refers to that of the Jews: that he might teach them to express the sorrow of their hearts in tearful prayer*. I cried with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord* (Ps 118:145).

Second, he invites them to shed an abundance of tears: **let tears run down like a torrent. Let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters (Jer 9:18).

Third, he invites them to mourn continuously: day and night, that is, in prosperity and in adversity: or literally, at all times, actually or habitually. Let my eyes shed down tears night and day (Jer 14:17). *
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