And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty has departed: her princes have become like harts that find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 1:6 Go To Lamentations 1
Glossa Ordinaria
AD 1480
AND IS DEPARTED: the fifth topic of complaint, by which all disadvantages are brought separately before the eyes, which is to be noted almost everywhere.
Historical interpretation. AND FROM THE DAUGHTER OF ZION IS DEPARTED: before this sentence is put VAU, that is interpreted ‘and’, as if those set before above are connected as a punishment by God’s just judgement. Indeed, Jerusalem besieged had lost all the ornament of her beauty without, and within that of delight; her riches taken away and the temple and the priesthood desecrated, she herself labors in hunger and pestilence. And there were none who would come to her aid, because HER PRINCES HAVE BECOME LIKE RAMS THAT FIND NO PASTURES, with virtues dissolved and trembling hearts they are not considering defending themselves but fleeing.
Allegorical interpretation. AND FROM THE DAUGHTER OF ZION IS DEPARTED: namely the Church, of which it is said in the Canticles: Behold thou are fair, O my love. Beauty departs from her, when her faith is corrupted by the rage of heretics, of which is said: Thou hast put on praise and beauty.
HER PRINCES HAVE BECOME: that is to say the shepherds and herdsmen not finding the pastures of life in the Scriptures HAVE GONE AWAY WITHOUT STRENGTH of the divine word, whither-soever error urges them, BEFORE THE FACE OF THE PURSUER, so that they themselves, who neglect to drive the Lord’s flock to the pastures of life, rush bound to the pastures of death, without the strength of the virtues. Indeed, the beauty of the Church lies in all her faithful, but most of all in her priests and those assisting at the altar, and in her virgins, who are mentioned above as being foul.
Moral interpretation. AND FROM THE DAUGHTER OF ZION IS DEPARTED: the soul, that is to say, allured by malicious customs, who has lost her beauty, that is the ornament of virtues. And her princes, namely the rational operations of the soul or the defenses of Scripture, have not come to her aid, with which she ought to thrust back her pursuers, but, with the strength of virtue more wearied and tied by the clasps of her transgression, she is hurled into the pit of eternal confusion.
