Fragments on Lamentations · §71 · Origen of Alexandria

Ways blocked; fire of the Word; prophet not of sinners

For having set out many times he was not allowed to decline the ministry. For he was saying: “I will not name the name of the Lord,” (Jeremiah 20:9) and as by fire he was being driven. And he also blocks the roads of the sinners, not allowing them to sin. But the prophet is not such—he who says: “I did not sit with a council of those playing.” (Jeremiah 15:17)

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 3, 9. Ορμήσας γὰρ πολλάκις οὐ συνεχωρήθη παραιτήσασθαι τὴν διακονίαν. ἔφασκε γάρ· «ού μὴ ὀνομάσω τὸ ὅνομα κυρίου«, καὶ ὥσπερ ὑπὸ πυρὸς συνηλαύνετο. ἐμφράττει δὲ καὶ τὰς ὁδοὺς τῶν ἀμαρτωλῶν οὐ συγχωρῶν ἀμαρτεῖν. ἀλλ' οὐ τοιοῦτος ὁ προφήτης , ὅς γέ φησιν· «οὐκ ἐκάθισα μετὰ συνεδρίου παιζόντων.

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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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