Lecture 5 — The prayer of Jeremiah the prophet

^5:1^ Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.

^5:2^ Our inheritance is turned to foreigners: our houses to strangers.

^5:3^ We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.

^5:4^ We have drunk our water for money: we have bought our wood.

^5:5^ We were dragged by the necks, we were weary and no rest was given us.

^5:6^ We have given our hand to Egypt, and to the Assyrians, that we might be satisfied with bread.

^5:7^ Our fathers have sinned, and are not: and we have borne their iniquities.

^5:8^ Servants have ruled over us: there was none to redeem us out of their hand.

^5:9^ We fetched our bread at the peril of our souls, because of the sword in the desert.

^5:10^ Our skin was burnt as an oven, by reason of the violence of the famine.

^5:11^ They humiliated the women in Zion, and the virgins in the cities of Judah.

^5:12^ The princes were hanged up by their hand: they did not respect the persons of the ancient.

^5:13^ They abused those who were young indecently: and the children fell under the wood.

^5:14^ The ancients have ceased from the gates: the young men from the choir of the singers.

^5:15^ The joy of our heart is ceased, our dancing is turned into mourning.

^5:16^ The crown is fallen from our head: woe to us, because we have sinned.

^5:17^ Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim.

^5:18^ For mount Zion, because it is destroyed, foxes have walked upon it.

^5:19^ But you, O Lord, shall remain forever, your throne from generation to generation.

^5:20^ Why will you forget us forever? Why will you forsake us for a long time?

^5:21^ Convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted: renew our days, as from the beginning.

^5:22^ But you have utterly rejected us, you are exceedingly angry against us.

89. Here the prophet, after many lamentations, turns to the remedy of prayer.

And first, he expresses the misery of the people;

second, he petitions for mercy, at but you, O Lord (Lam 5:19);

The first is in two parts.

First, he expresses the misery of the people as regards the evils which occurred;

second, as regards the good things which they lost: the ancients have ceased from the gates (Lam 5:14).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he arouses attention: remember, be attentive to my miseries. Above: remember my poverty, and transgression (Lam 3:19). Remember, as if to say, “Hold in your notice”; consider, that is, with your notice held, focus your consideration; behold, by reflecting and scrutinizing.

90. Second, at our inheritance is turned to foreigners, he presents the affliction of the people:

and first, in general;

second, he descends to particular people, at they humiliated the women in Zion (Lam 5:11).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he excludes those things by which they were sustained against misfortune, namely, personal possessions, which passed into the power of their enemies: our inheritance is turned to foreigners. Above: the enemy has put out his hand to all her desirable things (Lam 1:10). And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and wives together (Jer 6:12).

91. And divine protection: we are become orphans, because deprived of divine—as it were, paternal—consolation. Our mothers, the synagogues, are as widows, whose God was called her spouse. Neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for everyone is a hypocrite and wicked (Isa 9:16).

92. Second, at we have drunk our water for money, he describes the particular woes they suffered:

and first, their servitude;

second, their affliction, at we fetched our bread at the peril of our souls (Lam 5:9).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he presents the servitude of the people;

second, he amplifies it, at our fathers have sinned, and are not (Lam 5:7).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he presents the servitude they endured as regards their property: we have drunk our water for money, because the enemies oppress us tyrannically. You shall draw waters for money, and shall drink (Deut 2:6).

Second, he presents their servitude as regards individual persons:

93. and first, the force used: we were dragged by the necks, as if we did not want to keep getting beaten on the neck along the way; or they were bound by the neck. Neither shall you be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of your foot (Deut 28:65).

94. Second, he presents their voluntary personal servitude, because they were compelled to sell themselves into slavery to others, either absolutely or for a time; and this is: we have given our hand to Egypt, as if subjecting ourselves to them. They that were full before have hired out themselves for bread (1 Sam 2:5). Or we have given our hand, in asking for help. And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? (Jer 2:18).

95. Our fathers have sinned. Here he amplifies their servitude.

And first, from the condition of those who are slaves, because they are punished for the sins of others: and they are not, because they are dead. We have borne, enduring their punishment.

But on the contrary: what is the meaning that you use among you this parable as a proverb, saying: our fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge (Ezek 18:1–2).

Solution: I am the Lord your God, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exod 20:5). I will repay them that hate me (Deut 32:41).

96. Second, he magnifies their servitude from the condition of their rulers: servants have ruled over us, just as the Moabites, the Edomites, and other neighbors, whom they had previously ruled over. By three things the earth is disturbed . . . by a slave when he reigns, by a fool when he is filled with meat, by an odious woman when she is married (Prov 30:21–23).

97. We fetched our bread. Here he presents the affliction of their hunger:

and first, he shows the scarcity: our souls, that is, in peril of our souls, namely, of our life, fleeing into the desert from before the sword of Babylon; or that loading themselves with food they exposed themselves to dangers, so that they fled into the desert from the pursuing enemy; or because they wore out their bodies by excessive labor in searching for food. Meeting the thirsty bring him water, meet with bread him that flees (Isa 21:14).

98. Second, he presents the effect of their hunger: our skin was burnt, dried out by hunger; violence, because besieged and fleeing they suffered hunger for a long time. They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker (Hos 7:4). The flesh being consumed, my bone has cleaved to my skin (Job 19:20).

99. They humiliated the women. Here he descends to individual persons:

and first, the women: they humiliated, by seducing them. May you take a wife, and another sleep with her: may your daughters be given to another people, your eyes looking on (Deut 28:30, 32).

100. Second, as regards the princes: the princes were hanged up by their hand, as if being tortured to make them reveal their riches. The Lord will bring upon you a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flies swiftly, whose tongue you cannot understand, a most insolent nation, that will show no regard to the ancients, nor have pity on the infant (Deut 28:49–50).

101. Third, as regards those who were young: they abused the young indecently. The boy they have put in the brothel, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink (Joel 3:3).

102. The ancients have ceased from the gates. Here he presents their misery as regards goods they lacked.

And first, as regards the offices of persons: have ceased from the gates, as if from the exercise of justice at the gates; from the choir, as if no longer singing, which was the office of the nobles. Her old men are murdered in the streets, and her young men are fallen by the sword of the enemies (1 Macc 2:9).

103. Second, as regards the exercise of rejoicing: the joy of our heart is ceased. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation (Amos 8:10).

Third, as regards the glory of honorable things.

104. And first, as regards the glory of the kingdom: the crown is fallen. He has stripped me of my glory and has taken the crown from my head (Job 19:9).

105. Second, as regards the glory of the temple, covering it with sorrow. Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim, from a multitude of tears. My sorrow is above sorrow (Jer 8:18).

106. And the cause of sorrow: for mount Zion, where the temple was; foxes have walked upon it, as if in deserted places. Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a heap of stones, and the mountain of the temple as the high places of the forests (Micah 3:12).

107. But you, O Lord. Here he turns to begin imploring.

And first, he confesses the majesty itself as regards the eternity of its substance: shall remain forever; and as regards the duration of its royal glory: your throne from generation to generation. But you, O Lord, endure forever: and your memorial from generation to generation (Ps 101:13).

108. Second, he wonders at the indignation: why will you forget us forever? Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? (Isa 49:15).

109. Third, he proffers his petition: convert us, O Lord. Convert me, O Lord, and I shall be converted, for you are the Lord my God (Jer 31:18).

On the contrary. Turn you to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you (Zech 1:3).

And it should be said that both are true because for a meritorious work there is required both the preparation of the free will and the infusion of grace.

**Renew our days. Who will grant me, that I might be according to the months past, according to the days in which God kept me? (Job 29:2).

110. Fourth, he presents the need for his petition: but you have utterly rejected us. Have you utterly cast away Judah, or has your soul abhorred Zion? Why then have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us? (Jer 14:19).