Glossa Ordinaria

BEHOLD, O LORD: the fourteenth or rather fifth topic of complaint, as all misfortunes are presented to the judge one by one, so that he, as if he saw the things themselves and not only heard the words, should be moved to pity.

Historical interpretation BEHOLD, O LORD: sometimes Jerusalem is perplexed with shame; sometimes, trusting in compassion, she is raised up, whence she says: BEHOLD, O LORD, that her affliction may turn the pious judge to compassion, shame to mercy. MY BOWELS ARE TROUBLED, like a woman in labor. I AM FULL: she points out, not that she is entirely touched, but that she is full of the BITTERNESS of sorrow and pain. MY HEART IS TURNED WITHIN ME by the weight of tribulation; THE SWORD of the persecutor; DEATH ALIKE, for the bitterness of tribulation.

Allegorical interpretation BEHOLD, O LORD: RES is interpreted ‘of the head’. For the disorder of the bowels or the destruction of the heart is a sighing of the mind that is denoted in the head. Therefore it is justly said confusion ‘of the head’, when the Church is filled with bitterness due to the falling of her own, she who daily exhibits her pain and tribulation before the most clement judge. The bowels are the reservoir of all food, in which it is digested; by which those are understood, who do not neglect to conceal within and ruminate the bread, which comes down from heaven, just as clean flesh. They receive this food through faith, digest it with charity and meditating God’s law, whence Isaiah: Of fear, O Lord, we have conceived, and have brought forth wind. The Church deplores these bowels being disturbed, when she suffers various temptations and is vexed within and without.

MY HEART IS TURNED WITHIN ME: namely because she does not put the seal of God upon her heart, whence: Put me as a seal upon thy heart. Indeed, if she had been sealed, the enemy would not have overthrown her. Thus, she is struck without by the sword of the persecutors, within by the doctrine of the heretics or the depravity of morals, which are more bitter than gall.

Moral interpretation BEHOLD O LORD: the soul, troubled by various pains, mourns her bowels, that is her mind being disturbed, whence: The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, which searches all the hidden things of the bowels, that is of the mind. This sighing of the head is therefore good, as the mind is represented by the head, whence Jeremiah says elsewhere: My bowels, my bowels are in part, and adds explaining: The senses of my heart are troubled within me. For the bowels signify the mind, because as in the bowels the offspring, so the thoughts in the mind. To be sure, the faithful soul, wearied by temptations, deplores herself weakened within and without; without by persecutions, within by pains. Indeed, when we are weakened on the outside by scourging, on the inside are we wearied by suggestions by the flesh, whence he adds: ABROAD THE SWORD DESTROYS, AND AT HOME THERE IS DEATH ALIKE.

THEY HAVE HEARD: the second topic of indignation; for it shows to whom this act principally pertains, that is to God himself, whom the enemies have despised in their own affairs, whence: Let all their evil be present.

Historical interpretation THEY HAVE HEARD: there is none who doubts that the gentiles, surrounding Jerusalem, abused her captivities. In fact, they rejoiced that she had been deprived the help of God, whom they envied standing firm among so many tempests. THAT THOU HAST DONE IT: she brings God’s judgement into the reckoning, from which she does not ignore that all things are ordered. THOU HAST BROUGHT A DAY OF CONSOLATION: these are the words of the prophet, who announces the forthcoming consolation to comfort the captured people as if it were something past, because he sees it so clearly. He speaks in a rhetorical manner, to procure the favor of the judge and to instigate against the enemies.

Allegorical interpretation THEY HAVE HEARD: the Church deplores her own troubles and those of her friends, whence the letter SIN, which means ‘of teeth’, is placed before. This is the gnashing of teeth, of which it is read in the Canticles: Thy teeth as flocks of sheep that are shorn. They are those who do not need the milk on infancy but who chew solid bread, whence it is said to Peter: Kill and eat. As if: ‘I have served you not only bread to eat but creeping things.’ For such persons know, with the acuteness of doctrine, to kill vice and to lead creeping things to the body of Christ. Different, however, is the function of the teeth: Some divide, some diminish, others form words; thus others are mystical teeth, such as flocks of sheep that are shorn, who, deprived of old age, provide their offspring with the milk of doctrine and the garments of virtue. Others, whiter than milk, furnished with the beauty of their service, serve the Word to the utmost subtlety, whence the Apostle: Strong meat is for the perfect: for them who have their senses exercised.

THEY HAVE HEARD THAT I SIGH: the enemies hear the weeping spouse, who feels her absent husband, who, although always present through his majesty, suffers that his spouse is agitated by temptations, so that she is always alarmed and weak, that she may yield to the suggestion of the seducer. They have seen THAT I SIGH, which they always have wished, which they never have suspected. THERE IS NONE TO COMFORT ME, as the spirit of discipline shuns falsehood, and daily MY EVIL is multiplied. The demons are the enemies of the Church and heretics and false Christians. THAT THOU HAST DONE IT, whence: I am the Lord, I make peace, and create evil, that is allowing it by thy just judgement. THOU HAST BROUGHT A DAY OF CONSOLATION: this is more fit for the Church, because after the final captivity no consolation is left for the Jews. On Judgement Day, the Lord will render consolation for the just and punishments for the wicked.

Moral interpretation THEY HAVE HEARD: the soul deplores that THE ENEMIES HAVE HEARD the evils she endures. THERE IS NONE TO COMFORT: it is an increase of pain to the anxious soul, because the one she puts her hope in postpones his succor. In addition, she suffers unutterably from the fact that the invisible enemies, who formerly flattered her, now mock her. Indeed, her conscience, by more seriously blaming, insults her, and the vices that used to seem sweet, become bitter. Those, however, who before seemed to be her friends and who ought to have shown pity, if they happened to know our crimes, now scorn her as if enemies. Hence David: They that watched my soul have consulted together, saying: God hath forsaken him. But the soul has teeth, that is virtues; thoughts, that know how to separate fortunate things from unfortunate and require the comforting Spirit and to hope for the pity of God, whence he adds: THOU HAST BROUGHT A DAY OF CONSOLATION. Indeed, the forceful soul knows that after the straits, the penitents will be given indulgence, and the insolent repayed with punishments.

Historical interpretation LET ALL EVIL BE PRESENT: TAU is interpreted ‘signs’ in plural, as that is shown with this sign, to which many significant things refer. Hence: Mark Tau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh. In this the cross of Christ is understood, just as its own shape testify to, and as in Greek omega is the final letter, so in Hebrew TAU, whence the Lord says: I am Alpha and Omega: the Beginning and the End. Likewise TAU therefore signifies the cross, with which the foreheads are signed, as not to be slayed by the killers. TAU are therefore the signs of the cross, or rather it is the cross itself, whence it is placed upon the foreheads of the men that mourn, but then it was the sign of the future cross, now it is the cross itself. Besides, TAU is the last of the Hebrew letters, which are as many as the books of the Old Testament, for which they stand as signs. Indeed, as TAU is the last of the alphabet, so is the cross of Christ for those books, he who is the end of the law unto justice, and all those signs in the books are secrets of the Lord’s incarnation and our redemption. Therefore, by rights TAU is interpreted ‘signs’, so that through the same signs one thing may be announced, in which all signs are revealed, also of Lamentations, in which many signs of the judgements of God are gathered. In the end it is proper that the weeping and the suffering, in whose foreheads the cross is signed, have their toil made up for by the Lord, and for those who have persecuted them or have not wanted to recognize the signs of such a work, a worthy vengeance is bestowed. Hence it is said: LET ALL THEIR EVIL BE PRESENT BEFORE THEE, and to the letter it happened so. Read the prophets and you will find everything complete.

Allegorical interpretation LET ALL EVIL BE PRESENT: as if: ‘why, O Lord, dost thou not revenge our blood? And revenge, O Lord, the blood of thy servants, which has been shed.’ MAKE A VINTAGE OF THEM: this will be fulfilled on Judgement Day, when the evil will receive what they deserve. But here, the impious take away temporal goods; in the future they will lose the eternal and just as they oppressed the saints, with the permission of God, they will, with God crushing, endure eternal afflictions. Which the Church fears and adds: FOR MY SIGHS ARE MANY.

Moral interpretation LET BE PRESENT: the soul, unfolded in the presence of God, asks: LET ALL EVIL BE PRESENT, namely that they heap up within and without. LET it BE PRESENT BEFORE THEE, that I may evade by your succor, I who have no confidence in myself. MAKE A VINTAGE of all their deceit, that they may not take away my fruit from me, AS THOU HAST MADE VINTAGE OF ME, when you have withdrawn your gifts in anger FOR ALL MY INIQUITIES. As if: Thou art just, O Lord: and thy judgment is right. And these are signs through which all signs’ facts are miracles, whence: Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee: that they may flee from before the bow. They, however, who do not want to take heed, rush upon this, that the Scripture threatens with, whence: Raise up indignation, and pour out wrath, hasten the time, and remember the end. As if: ‘O that the saints would not always be assailed, that each and every one would receive what he has done’, as if: Work new miracles, revealed according to the signs. Therefore, at the end of and before this lamentation, he has put the letter TAU, that is ‘signs’, and filled with tearful verses by foretelling the future.