Thomas Aquinas Commentary Lamentations 4:22

"The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will uncover thy sins." — Lamentations 4:22 (ASV)

Here he comforts the Jews.

First, he comforts them with their liberation: your iniquity is accomplished, meaning it is purged by punishment. He will no more carry you away for past sins, unless you repeat them. Her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven (Isaiah 40:2).

Second, he comforts them with the punishment of their enemies: He will visit, like a judge or someone pursuing vengeance, and he will discover your sins, making them manifest through punishment. I have made Esau bare, I have revealed his secrets (Jeremiah 49:10).

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

First, he expresses the misery of the people. Second, he petitions for mercy, beginning at but you, O LORD (Lamentations 5:19).

The first part is in two sections. First, he expresses the misery of the people regarding the evils that occurred. Second, he addresses the good things they lost, beginning at the elders have ceased from the gates (Lamentations 5:14).

Concerning the first section on the evils that occurred, he does two things. First, he arouses God’s attention: Remember, meaning, be attentive to my miseries. As stated above: remember my poverty, and transgression (Lamentations 3:19). Remember is as if to say, “Hold in your notice.” Consider means that with your notice held, you should focus your consideration. Behold means to reflect and scrutinize.

3. Second, beginning at our inheritance is turned to foreigners, he presents the affliction of the people. He speaks first in general terms, and second, he descends to particular people, beginning at they humiliated the women in Zion (Lamentations 5:11).

Concerning the general affliction, he does two things. First, he addresses the loss of the things by which they were sustained against misfortune, namely, their personal possessions, which passed into the power of their enemies: our inheritance is turned to foreigners. As stated above: the enemy has put out his hand to all her desirable things (Lamentations 1:10). And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and wives together (Jeremiah 6:12).

4. He also addresses the loss of divine protection: We have become orphans, because we are deprived of divine—as it were, paternal—consolation. Our mothers, that is, the synagogues, are as widows, for God was called their spouse. Neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for everyone is a hypocrite and wicked (Isaiah 9:17).

5. Second, beginning at we have drunk our water for money, he describes the particular woes they suffered. First, he describes their servitude, and second, their affliction, beginning at we fetched our bread at the peril of our souls (Lamentations 5:9).

Concerning their servitude, he does two things. First, he presents the nature of their servitude, and second, he amplifies it, beginning at our fathers have sinned, and are not (Lamentations 5:7).

In presenting the nature of their servitude, he first addresses their property: We have drunk our water for money, because the enemies oppress us tyrannically. You shall draw waters for money, and shall drink (Deuteronomy 2:6).

6. Second, he addresses their servitude regarding individual persons. This involved, first, the force used: We were dragged by the necks, as if being forced along by blows to the neck, or as if 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 (Deuteronomy 28:65).

7. Second, it involved their voluntary personal servitude, because they were compelled to sell themselves into slavery to others, either permanently or for a time. This is expressed as: 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 Samuel 2:5). Alternatively, we have given our hand could mean asking for help. And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? (Jeremiah 2:18).

8. Our fathers have sinned. Here he amplifies their servitude. First, he does so from the condition of those who are slaves, because they are punished for the sins of others: and they are not, meaning they are dead. We have borne their punishment, enduring it.

But a contrary view is presented elsewhere: 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? (Ezekiel 18:1–2).

The solution is this: I am the LORD your God, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus 20:5). And also: I will repay them that hate me (Deuteronomy 32:41).

9. Second, he amplifies their servitude by describing the condition of their rulers: Servants have ruled over us. These were people like the Moabites, the Edomites, and other neighbors, whom they had previously ruled. 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 (Proverbs 30:21–23).

10. We fetched our bread. Here he presents the affliction of their hunger. First, he shows the scarcity involved in getting it at the peril of our souls, that is, in peril of our lives. This could mean they were fleeing into the desert from the sword of Babylon, or that by loading themselves with food they exposed themselves to dangers and had to flee into the desert from the pursuing enemy, or that they wore out their bodies with excessive labor in searching for food. Meeting the thirsty bring him water, meet with bread him that flees (Isaiah 21:14).

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

12. They humiliated the women. Here he descends to describing the affliction of individual persons. First, he addresses the women: They humiliated them by violating them. You shall take a wife, and another shall sleep with her... your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look on (Deuteronomy 28:30, 32).

13. Second, regarding 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 (Deuteronomy 28:49–50).

14. Third, regarding the 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).

15. The elders have ceased from the gates. Here he presents their misery regarding the good things they now lacked. First, regarding the public offices of persons: They have ceased from the gates, meaning from the exercise of justice at the city gates. The young men have ceased from the choir, meaning they no longer sing, which was an office of the nobles. Her old men are murdered in the streets, and her young men are fallen by the sword of the enemies .

16. Second, regarding the practice of rejoicing: The joy of our heart has ceased. And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation (Amos 8:10).

17. Third, regarding the glory of honorable things, he notes first the glory of the kingdom: The crown has fallen. He has stripped me of my glory and has taken the crown from my head (Job 19:9).

18. Second, he notes the glory of the temple, which is now covered with sorrow: Therefore is our heart sorrowful, therefore are our eyes become dim from a multitude of tears. My sorrow is above sorrow (Jeremiah 8:18).

19. The cause of this sorrow is given: For Mount Zion, where the temple was, is desolate; foxes have walked upon it, as they do in deserted places. Zion shall be plowed 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).

20. But you, O LORD. Here the prophet turns to begin his plea. First, he confesses God’s majesty, both regarding the eternity of His substance—He shall remain forever—and regarding the duration of His royal glory—your throne from generation to generation. But you, O LORD, endure forever, and your memorial to all generations (Psalms 102:12).

21. Second, he expresses wonder at God’s 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? (Isaiah 49:15).

22. Third, he offers his petition: Convert us, O LORD. Convert me, O LORD, and I shall be converted, for you are the LORD my God (Jeremiah 31:18).

A contrary idea seems to be presented elsewhere: Turn to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will turn to you (Zechariah 1:3).

It should be said that both are true, because for a meritorious work, both the preparation of the free will and the infusion of grace are required.

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

23. 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? (Jeremiah 14:19).

Philemon

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