THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS
LESSON 6
CHAPTER 5: A PRAYER FOR RESTORATION (5:1-22)
And as Isaiah said before, "Except
the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom and would
have been like to Gomorrah." Here again, he shows another thing, that not even
those few were saved by their own resources. They too would have perished and
met with Sodom's fate, that is, they would have had to undergo utter
destruction. They (of Sodom) were destroyed root and branch and left not even
the slightest remnant of themselves. They too, he means, would have been like
these, unless God had used much kindness to them and had saved them by faith.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 16
St. John Chrysostom reminds us that no one is saved from Divine Judgment by his own resources but only by faith and the mercy of God, even in times of unspeakable human destruction, as in the case of the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BC by the Babylonians. Throughout the book, the writer has coupled the recognition of human sin and its consequences with an unshakable faith in God. He offers prayers that God will lead His covenant people to repentance and return to hope and faith in Him despite their sufferings. Their sins led to suffering (1:8), their sorrow to repentance (1:20), their prayers brought profound hope (3:19-24), and their repentance to restoration (5:21).
Lament of the Captives in Babylon
By the rivers of Babylon
we sat and wept
at the memory of Zion.
On the poplars there
we had hung up our harps.
For there our goalers had asked us
to sing them a song,
our captors to make merry,
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
How could we sing a song of Yahweh
on alien soil?
If I forget you, Jerusalem.
May my right hand wither!
May my tongue remain stuck to my palate
if I do not keep you in mind,
if I do not count Jerusalem
the greatest of my joys.
Psalm 137:1-6
For the song "By the Rivers of Babylon" from Psalm 137, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYK9iCRb7S4
The Vulgate translation entitles Lamentations Chapter 5, "The Prayer of Jeremiah." The writer abandons the acrostic pattern in the fifth lamentation, a petition full of faith. He asks the Lord to intervene for the suffering covenant people as they journey into exile. While the first three lamentations ended with a prayer, there was no prayer at the end of the fourth lamentation. The final supplication becomes the prayer of the previous lamentation and the book's conclusion. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "...after many lamentations, (the prophet) takes comfort in prayer" (Postilla super Threnos, 5, 1).
The prayer begins by describing the suffering of the people on their journey to captivity in Babylon in verses 1-6:
1 Yahweh, remember what has happened to us; consider, and see our degradation. 2 Our heritage has passed to strangers, our homes to foreigners. 3 We are orphans, we are fatherless; our mothers are like widows. 4 We have to buy our own water to drink, our own wood we can get only at a price. 5 The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted; exhausted we are, allowed no rest. 6 We made a pact with Egypt, with Assyria, to have plenty of food.
Verse 1 recalls Psalm 89:50-51: Do not forget the insults to your servant; I take to heart the taunts of the nations, which your enemies have leveled, Yahweh, have leveled at the footsteps of your anointed! The "yoke" (verse 5) refers to the burden the conquerors have placed on the defeated people who are now at the mercy of their enemies.
Question #1: Most of the population
was forced to travel to Babylonia. However, they left some poor country people
behind to work the vineyards and farms (Jeremiah 52:15-16).
What happened to Jeremiah? See Jeremiah 40:1-6.
The answers to the questions are at the end of the lesson.
6 We made a pact with Egypt, with Assyria, to have plenty of food.
The Babylonians are as destructive to them as their previous enemies with whom they
made treaties, defying God's commandment not to make treaties with pagan
peoples (Exodus 23:32; Deuteronomy 7:2; Jeremiah 2:18-19).
The writer acknowledges the people's past sins, how undeserving of forgiveness they
are, and how all they can do is plead for God's mercy in verses 7-18.
7 Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear the
weight of their guilt. 8 Slaves rule us; there is no one to rescue us from
their clutches. 9 At peril of our lives we earn our bread, by risking the sword
of the desert. 10 Our skin is as hot as an oven, from the scorch of famine. 11
The women in Zion have been raped, the young girls in the towns of Judah. 12
Princes have been hanged by their hands; the face of the old has won no
respect. 13 Youths have been put to the mill, boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders have deserted the gateway; the young have given up their music.
15 Joy has vanished from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. 16 The
crown has fallen from our heads. Alas that ever we sinned! 17 This is why our
hearts are sick; this is why our eyes are dim: 18 Because Mount Zion is
desolate; jackals roam to and fro on it.
The writer confesses the sins of his people in verse 7: Our ancestors sinned;
they are no more, and we bear the weight of their guilt.
The Israelites began sinning against Yahweh while Moses was on Mt. Sinai, receiving
the Ten Commandments, instructions concerning liturgical worship, and the other
articles of the Law when they made the image of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32:1-10).
They also sinned when they refused to trust God's promise of victory in moving
forward to conquer the Promised Land in Numbers 13:25-14:12, resulting in an
additional 38 years of wandering in the wilderness (for a total of 40 years)
until God raised up a new generation to complete His plan for the conquest of
Canaan. Both times, God forgave the Israelites. The writer sees the present
disaster as collective retribution. However, the generation of covenant people
at the time of Lamentations were responsible for their own sins. See what God
told Ezekiel about individual responsibility in Ezekiel 14:12-23.
Question #2: What were the conditions of the covenant between God and Israel under which He would protect and bless them? See Exodus 20:6; 24:3-7 and Deuteronomy 7:9-12. What does the New Testament say about demonstrating our love for God? See John 15:10; 1 John 2:3-5; 3:22, 24; 5:2, 3; and 2 John 1:6.
Verses 8-14 list the worst of the suffering experienced by the people of Judah and Jerusalem on the journey to Babylon and the conditions they faced after they arrived:
The writer cries out his sorrow for his people's sins and the terrible consequences of losing God's divine protection: The crown has fallen from our heads. Alas that ever we sinned! 17 This is why our hearts are sick; this is why our eyes are dim: 18 Because Mount Zion is desolate; jackals roam to and fro on it.
Despite
everything they have done, the writer beseechs God to renew their lives as only
He can (verses 19-22).
19 Yet you, Yahweh, rule from eternity; your throne endures from age to age. 20
Why do you never remember us? Why do you abandon us so long? 21 Make us come
back to you, Yahweh, and we will come back. Restore us as we were before! 22
Unless you have utterly rejected us, in an anger which knows no limit.
In verse 19, the writer confesses Yahweh's sovereignty over his people and the Earth. Verse 20 asks two rhetorical questions, accusing God of not remembering and abandoning them. The purpose is not so much to blame God as to make Him remember His covenant promises and to bring them back to Him and restore them.
Question #3: Why does the writer ask the questions? What is his hope?
The Council of Trent referred to verse 21 when it wrote that to be justified, a person needs the grace of God and to cooperate with it: "The origin of justification in adults is the grace of God, which comes to us through Christ Jesus; that is, the source of righteousness is the vocation they have received, through no merit of their own. Those who strayed far from God through sin are encouraged and helped to convert, and led to righteousness, by His grace, if they respond to and cooperate with that grace" (De iustificatione decree, 6th session, chapter 5; Dz-Sch. 1625). The Catechism of the Catholic Church #1432 explains this teaching: "The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart (cf. Ezek 36:26-27). Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: Restore us to thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!' (Lam 5:21) God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced (cf. Jn 19:37; Zech 12:10): Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation, it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance'" (St Clement of Rome, Ad Cor. 7, 4: PG1, 224).
Yahweh
did not forget His covenant people. When they had atoned for their collective
and individual sins, He moved the Persian king who conquered the Babylonians to
allow them to return to their homeland and rebuild the Jerusalem Temple:
In the first year of Cyrus king of
Persia "to fulfill the word of Yahweh through Jeremiah "Yahweh roused the spirit
of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and have it publicly displayed
throughout his kingdom: "Cyrus king of Persia says this, Yahweh, the God of
Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has appointed me to
build him a Temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you
of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up.'"
(2 Chronicles 36:22-23, also see
Ezra 1:1-11).
Answers to Questions
Answer 1: The Babylonians did not force Jeremiah to accompany the Judahites being deported to Babylon. Instead, they released him from his chains and allowed him to accompany the exiles or stay in Jerusalem/Judah.
Answer 2: Yahweh's continued covenant blessings were based on obedience to His Law. Obedience to God's Law was a demonstration of their love for Him. We show our love for God/Christ in the New Covenant by obedience to His commandments.
Answer 3: The hope is that God's anger is limited, and He will respond to their repentance.
Catechism reference:
Lamentations 5:21 (CCC 1432).
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