The Lord has trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he has called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord has trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 1:15 Go To Lamentations 1
Glossa Ordinaria
AD 1480
HE HAS CALLED AGAINST ME: the fourth topic of complaint.
Historical interpretation THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY ALL MY MIGHTY MEN &c: these events took place during the last captivity, under which neither prophets nor priests were left. In fact, during the Babylonian captivity they had Daniel and Ezekiel and many other comforters, but in this all the MIGHTY MEN are taken away, which SAMECH signifies, that is interpreted ‘aid’. Hence Isaiah: I shall take away from Jerusalem the valiant and the strong, the whole strength of bread, and the whole strength of water. The captain over fifty, and the skillful in eloquent speech &c. Hence we read that abodes.
Allegorical interpretation He HAS TAKEN AWAY ALL MY MIGHTY MEN &c: spiritual Jerusalem, as often as she is burdened by tribulations, as often as she is battered by persecutions, or is assailed by hordes of heretics, by rights she cries saying: THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY ALL MY MIGHTY MEN. Indeed, in the whole city often few MIGHTY MEN remained, who would defend the cause of faith on the grounds of sound doctrine.
HE HAS CALLED AGAINST ME THE TIME: faults requiring, the Lord brings forth the time of vengeance, to destroy her chosen men, because there is none to defend nor to set a wall before the house of Israel.
Moral interpretation THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY ALL MY MIGHTY MEN &c: that is to say the senses of the virtues, which the soul discerns being held captive in herself, whence the Lord brings forth the time of vengeance against her, when he takes away his divine aid. When this has been removed, the enemy brings her as a captive into the confusion of error, and, while he makes her forget the preachers’ doctrine, he destroys the chosen efforts of the mind, so that he more easily may be master of her, deprived of virtues, as if in a foreign country, lest she would return through remembrance of sound dogma and an improvement of life to her original state.
