All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their treasures for food to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I have become despised.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 1:11 Go To Lamentations 1
Glossa Ordinaria
AD 1480
ALL HER PEOPLE: the fourth topic of complaint.
SEE O LORD: the fourteenth topic of complaint.
Historical interpretation. ALL HER PEOPLE SIGH &c: how great the hunger and pestilence the Jews suffered, the histories do not pass over in silence, and Josephus manifests it in particular. Hence: ALL HER PEOPLE SIGH AND SEEK BREAD &c; TO RELIEVE THE SOUL, that is corporeal life. SEE O LORD &c: note how the prophet was useful, when he lamented Jerusalem not lamenting herself, who nevertheless was introduced above, bewailing as it were in her more noble limbs, but now the whole people, as if having received some life-bringing spirit, is said to be lamenting. SEE, O LORD &c: just as the hen cherishes and kindles her eggs, so spiritual men gradually cherish their subjects, either by instructing or lamenting, to breathe life into them.
Allegorical interpretation. ALL HER PEOPLE SIGH AND SEEK the BREAD of God’s word; the bread which comes down from heaven. In the distress of hunger the Church seeks this bread from the teachers, and does not find it, because THEY HAVE GIVEN ALL THEIR PRECIOUS THINGS FOR FOOD, that is to say divine things for earthly, eternal for perishable, TO RELIEVE THE SOUL, not to satisfy it, since they, ab last with innumerable desires, can relieve it, but not satisfy it. Also from this the people is referred to as sighing and seeking bread, since the vicious are afflicted and tortured, because they do not at will have the abundance of voluptuous life.
Moral interpretation. ALL HER PEOPLE SIGH AND SEEK BREAD: any soul gives its precious things for food when it inclines the virtues of the mind toward transitory pleasure, and strives to be relieved, when it schemes to satisfy different desires. Hence the people laments, sighing and seeking bread, as although it has given its precious things for food, the desire for concupiscence is not satisfied by sight, taste and the other senses. Hence, if any virtue perchance returns and the soul reshaped by the Spirit of God regains health, it would, together with the multitude of the elect, wailing, exclaim: SEE O LORD &c. As if it would say: ‘I have become vile to myself, humiliated before my own eyes, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.’ For CAPH is interpreted ‘hand’; when the hand of the Lord either by instruction, or by punishment, or by alleviating the punishment has touched the soul or the neglectful Church, soon returning to itself and sighing, it says: SEE O LORD &c. As if it would say: ‘consider your creation, how vile it is become.’ The soul, who previously was amused by vices and bragged, as soon as she is touched by the hand of the Lord, declares herself vile, who is shaped to the likeness of her Creator.
