Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

4. The ways of Zion do
mourn, because none
come to the solemn
feasts: all her gates are
desolate; her priests sigh,
her virgins are afflicted,
and she is in bitterness.
4. Viae Sion lugentes a non venientibus
(ad verbum; quia non sint qui veniant)
ad solennitatem; omnes portae ejus
solitariae (vastatae, öymmw ;) sacerdotes
ejus plorantes, virgines ejus afflictae, et
ipsa amaritudo ei (hoc est, ipsa in
amaritudine, ut vertit Hieronymus.
Jeremiah refers here to another cause of sorrow, that the worship of God
had ceased, it having been interrupted; nay, it seemed to have become
extinct for ever. He then says that the ways of Sion mourned, because none
came to the feasts. The words are figurative, for we know that feelings
belong not to ways; but the Prophet ascribes feeling to what is inanimate.
And this sort of personification is more emphatical than if he had
introduced the people as mourning. But when the Jews saw that God’s
worship had fallen, it was more grievous than to find themselves bereaved
of children or of wives, or plundered of all their goods; for the more
precious God’s worship was to them, and the more religion was thought
of, in which consisted the eternal salvation of their souls, the more severe
and mournful was it to see the Church, so scattered, that God could no
longer be worshipped and invoked.
It is indeed true that God’s worship was not tied to ceremonies; for Daniel
never ceased to pray, and he was heard .no less in his exile than if he came
to the sacrifices with great solemnity to make an offering in the Temple.
This is no doubt true; but as God had not in vain instituted these duties
and rites of religion, the Prophet exhibits the thing itself by its symbols.
As, then, feasts were testimonies of God’s grace, it was the same as
though the Jews were called together by a standard being lifted up, and as
though God appeared in the midst of them. Hence the Prophet, referring to
these external symbols, shews that the worship of God had in a manner
ceased.
Her gates are solitary, or desolate; her priests are in mourning, her virgins
in afflictions; she is in bitterness. F3 Now this passage reminds us, that
when God afflicts his Church, however grievous it may be to see innocent
men slain, blood shed promiscuously, the sexes, men and women, killed
indiscriminately; and though it be a sad spectacle to see houses robbed and
plundered, fields laid waste, and al! things in a confusion, yet when all
these things are compared with the abolition of God’s worship, this
passage reminds us that all these things ought to appear light to us.
Though David greatly deplored his condition, because he was banished
from the Temple, and did not as usual lead thither the assembly, when he
was not the only one ejected from the sanctuary of God; yet when the
sanctuary itself was destroyed, together with the altar, when there were no
sacrifices, no thanksgiving, no praises; in short, no prayer, it was surely
much more bitter.
This lamentation of the Prophet ought then to be carefully noticed, when
he says, that the ways of Sion mourned, that no one went up to the feasts.
What follows I pass over; I shall hereafter dwell more on these things
when we advance towards the end of the narrative.
Lamentations 1:5
5. Her adversaries are the
chief, her enemies prosper;
for the Lord hath afflicted her
for the multitude of her
transgressions: her children re
gone into captivity before
5. Fuerunt inimici ejus in caput;