Fragments on Lamentations · §58 · Origen of Alexandria

Enemies did nothing of themselves; Moses foretold

Nothing, she says, did the enemies do from themselves; for it seemed good to God and has come to be. For which reason Nebuzaradan also was saying: “the Lord your God has spoken these evils unto this place, and the Lord has brought them on, because you sinned against him.” (Jeremiah 40:2-3) Everyone, then, who disbelieves the judgment will hear these words. All the prophets, then, were foretelling these things, and from ancient days Moses in Deuteronomy announced these things beforehand (Jeremiah 40:2–3).

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 2, 17. Οὐδέν, φησίν, ἐξ ἐαυτῶν ἐποίησαν οἱ πολέμιοι· θεῷ γὰρ ἐδόκει καὶ γέγονεν. διόπερ ἔλεγε καὶ Ναβουζαρδάν· κύριος ὁ θεός σου ἐλάλησε τὰ κακὰ ταῦτα εἰς τὸν τόπον τοῦτον, καὶ ἐπήγαγε κύριος, ὅτι ἡμάρτετε αὐτῷ( πᾶς οὖν ἀπιστῶν τῇ κρίσει τῶν ῥημάτων τούτων ἀκούσεται. πάντες μὲν οὖν οἱ προφῆται ταῦτα προὔλεγον, ἐξ ἡμερῶν δὲ ἀρχαίων ὸ Μωσῆς ἐν τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ ταῦτα προεμήνυσεν.

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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.

EditionKlostermann, 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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