Her adversaries have become the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 1:5 Go To Lamentations 1
Glossa Ordinaria
AD 1480
HER ADVERSARIES HAVE BECOME: the eighth topic of complaint.
Historical interpretation. HER ADVERSARIES HAVE BECOME HER LORDS; HER ENEMIES ARE ENRICHED, because the Lord has spoken through Moses, namely, saying in Deuteronomy: The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. May thy sons and daughters be given to another people ; and somewhat later: The stranger that lives with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail. This, however, the Lord has said due to the iniquity of Jerusalem, not to incite her to sin by commanding, but by warning to recall her from sin. But, as she was unwilling to obey, the prophet laments that all this has happened, though by God’s just judgement. Accordingly, the letter HE, which is interpreted ‘those’, is put before, as if he were saying: ‘those are the judgements, that the Lord once had fore-said through Moses.’
Allegorical interpretation. HER ADVERSARIES HAVE BECOME: that is to say, heretics or pagans or bad Catholics; THEY ARE ENRICHED with the eloquence of preaching, as there is want of intelligence. From which it is said: I will send forth a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord, because, when this is removed, the enemies of the Church are elevated to LORDS and are enriched with the treasures of Scripture FOR THE MULTITUDE OF our INIQUITIES. But then like dumb dogs not able to bark, they cannot defend the faith, nor provide the due teaching to their subjects. Hence HER CHILDREN, who have not the perfection of the teaching, are led INTO CAPTIVITY, not having masters or defenders, BEFORE THE FACE OF THE OPPRESSOR, that is to say the enemy, visible or invisible, and tied by the chains of blemish.
Moral interpretation. THEY HAVE BECOME &c: the ruling demons, to wit, of whom it is said: If the spirit of him that hath power ascend upon thee, leave not thy place. In fact, if the poor soul watchfully had taken heed, she had not allowed HER ADVERSARIES, wickedly urging, to become HER LORDS.
THEY ARE ENRICHED: against us, namely, they prevail with their habit of vices growing, so that we cannot escape, unless with God’s help. But he too is furious who on account of this our iniquity has spoken to punish, he who speaks once, and repeats not the selfsame thing the second time. One must not despair, however, nor cease from mourning, as but HER CHILDREN, that is to say the faint of heart and not the strong, are captured BEFORE THE FACE OF THE OPPRESSOR, ensnared in many fetters, that is, from which they are nevertheless set free by God showing pity. For her adversaries, made more potent, threaten, sometimes AS LORDS defiling the good intention itself, sometimes by a longer use of pleasure entangling the resisting soul, according to this saying of Solomon: He that nourishes his servant delicately from his childhood, afterwards shall find him stubborn. We are set free from them with greater difficulty, the more superior and the more enriched they dominate as lords.
