Read continuously §2 → Fragments on Lamentations · §1 · Origen of Alexandria
Jeremiah’s alphabetic laments in four cycles
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Jeremiah, the people having been taken captive and being in Babylon, laments the city and the country and the people for what has befallen them; and he laments marking off certain sections and divisions that begin next from the letters among the Hebrews. And after finishing the lament upon each letter and, upon all, the one that begins from Thau—which is the last letter of the Hebrews—he returns to Aleph and again laments; and he does this four times, going through the twenty-two letters.
Greek Klagel. Jerem. 1 Überschr. Ὁ Ἱερεμίας αἰχμαλωτισθέντος τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ ὄντος ἐν Βάβυλῶνι. θρηνεῖ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὴν χώραν καὶ τὸν λαὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς συμβεβηκόσι, καὶ θρηνεῖ περικοπάς τινας καὶ διαστολὰς πριγράφων ἀρχομένας ἐξῆς ἀπὸ τῶν παρ’ Ἑραίοις στοιχείων. καὶ μετὰ τὸ τελέσαι λέσαι τὸν ἐφ’ ἐκάστου στοιχείου Θρῆνον καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ Θαῦ ἀρχόμενον, ἔπερ ἐστὶ τελευταῖον τῶν Ἐβραίων γαράμμα, ἐπανέρχεται χεται ἐπὶ τὸ Ἄλφ καὶ πάλιν θρηνεῖ, καὶ τοῦτο ποιεῖ τετράκις τὰ εἴκοσι καὶ δύο στοιχεῖα ἐπεξιών.
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About this text Origen on Lamentations: Jeremiah's grief for captive Jerusalem, read also as the soul taken captive by sin and set free by Christ.
Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) was a Christian teacher in Alexandria and head of the catechetical school. This English is his fragments on Lamentations.
The full commentary is lost. What survives are short passages kept in later chains of quotations. He sets out the literal sense, the Hebrew form of the book, and its historical setting, and he compares the Greek translations.
A reader meets Jeremiah lamenting the fall of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem read both as the city and as the soul. Origen quotes Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion. He also cites Paul, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Zechariah, and Daniel. He uses Septuagint book names and Psalm numbering.
Edition Klostermann, Origenes Werke III (GCS 6, 1901)
We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.
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