Out of the mouth of the most High proceeds not evil and good?
All Commentaries on Lamentations 3:38 Go To Lamentations 3
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
Here arguments are proposed from divine powers by which everything is governed and provided for. First, such is applied against those persons who derogate divine providence, faithless through blasphemy. Verse 37 thus says: "Who has commanded and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?"
Within this context, heresy is excluded from those who contend God's providence extends itself to universal ideas, and incorporeal things, as celestial bodies. And even up to human kind, due to a conformity of human nature to God, (the Creator).
As Rabbi Maimonides asserts: "here and now, each and all particulars the Lord God does not actually acknowledge". (cf. Moses ben Maimon, (1135-1204 C.E.: Torah and Talmud exegete, author: "More Nebukim, Dalalat al hairin: Guide for the Perplexed).
Then, Verse 38 asks: "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come?" Namely from good results prosperity, from bad results adversity. For, in such an idea is excluded the error of those persons who claim everything happens from chance, like Cicero, the Roman philosopher (Marcus Tullius, 106-43 B.C.). However, the apostle and evangelist John 1:3 asserts: "All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that was made." And the prophet Isaiah 45:7: asserts the Lord God: "I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe, I am the Lord, who do all these things."
Second, arguments are advanced regarding divine power against persons who deride the above ideas, through impatience within inurmurings. As: "Why should a living man complain; a man, about the punishment of his sins?" Namely, as to his known sins, from which he now suffers. For, Wisdom 1:11 declares: "Beware then of useless murmuring, and keep your tongue from slander."
