Fragments on Lamentations · §84 · Origen of Alexandria

Swallowed by fear; pride before fracture

Symmachus: “panic.” (Psalm 7:15) With a whole mouth they swallowed and we were carried down into a depth of evils, having been filled with fear and confusion; for “into what he dug the sinner falls,” (Psalm 7:15) paying penalties of what he sinned. And since “before fracture insolence leads” (Proverbs 16:18) according to Solomon—that is, arrogance—we were both lifted up and fractured. From which David sings: “let a foot of arrogance not come to me, and a hand of a sinner not shake me.” (Psalm 36:11)

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 3, 46. 47. Σύμμαχος· πτόησις. ὅλῳ στόματι κατέπιον κατέπιον καὶ εἰς βάθος κακῶν ὑπηνέχθημεν φόβου καὶ ταραχῆς ἐμπλησθέντες· >ἐμπίπτει γὰρ εἰς ὅν ὤρυξε x003E; ὁ ἀμαρτωλὸς διδοὺς ὡν ἥμαρτε δίκας. καὶ ἐπεὶ «πρὸ συντριβῆς ἡγεῖται ὕβριος« κατὰ τὸν Σολομῶντα, τουτέστιν ὑπερηφανία, ἐπήρθημέν τε καὶ συνετρίβημεν. ὅθεν ὁ Δαβὶδ μελῳδεῖ· «νὴ ἐλθέτω μοι ποὺς ὑπερηφανίας, καὶ χεὶρ ὰμαρτωλοῦ μὴ σαλεύσαι με.

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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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