Fragments on Lamentations · §99 · Origen of Alexandria

Rich more pitiable; empty study; diaspora exits

For the poor who are mistreated are not so pitiable. And Paul also laments these, saying “of whom is the adoption and the glory.” (Romans 9:4) For now meditating empty things they do not delight in Moses and the prophets—“delight in the Lord.” (Psalm 37:4) For there is no one baking the nourishing word for them, nor do they share in the fatted calf though themselves having sacrificed. And he calls exits the dispersions, or also the turnings-aside of the legal writings (Psalm 37:4) (Luke 15:23).

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 4, 5. Οὐ γὰρ τοσοῦτον ἐλεεινὸν οἱ πένητες οἱ κακούμενοι. τούτους δὲ θρηνεῖ καὶ Παῦλος, «ὡν ἡ υἱοθεσία« λέγων «καὶ ἡ δόξα. κενα γὰρ νῦν μελετῶντες οὐκ ἐντρυφῶσι Μωδρῖ τε καὶ τοῖς προφήταις, τὸ «κατατρύφησον τῷ κυρίῳ. ούδεὶς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ὁ πέττων τὸν τρόφιμον λόγον, οὐδὲ τοῦ σιτευτοῦ μεταλαμβάνουσι μόσχου καίπερ αὐτοὶ τεθυκότες. διεξόδους δὲ καλεῖ τὰς διασπορὰς ἢ καὶ τὰς τῶν νομικῶν γραμμάτων παρατροπάς.

Report a mistake in this passage

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.

Report a mistake