Let all their wickedness come before you; and do unto them, as you have done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 1:22 Go To Lamentations 1
Glossa Ordinaria
AD 1480
Historical interpretation LET ALL EVIL BE PRESENT: TAU is interpreted ‘signs’ in plural, as that is shown with this sign, to which many significant things refer. Hence: Mark Tau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh. In this the cross of Christ is understood, just as its own shape testify to, and as in Greek omega is the final letter, so in Hebrew TAU, whence the Lord says: I am Alpha and Omega: the Beginning and the End. Likewise TAU therefore signifies the cross, with which the foreheads are signed, as not to be slayed by the killers. TAU are therefore the signs of the cross, or rather it is the cross itself, whence it is placed upon the foreheads of the men that mourn, but then it was the sign of the future cross, now it is the cross itself. Besides, TAU is the last of the Hebrew letters, which are as many as the books of the Old Testament, for which they stand as signs. Indeed, as TAU is the last of the alphabet, so is the cross of Christ for those books, he who is the end of the law unto justice, and all those signs in the books are secrets of the Lord’s incarnation and our redemption. Therefore, by rights TAU is interpreted ‘signs’, so that through the same signs one thing may be announced, in which all signs are revealed, also of Lamentations, in which many signs of the judgements of God are gathered. In the end it is proper that the weeping and the suffering, in whose foreheads the cross is signed, have their toil made up for by the Lord, and for those who have persecuted them or have not wanted to recognize the signs of such a work, a worthy vengeance is bestowed. Hence it is said: LET ALL THEIR EVIL BE PRESENT BEFORE THEE, and to the letter it happened so. Read the prophets and you will find everything complete.
Allegorical interpretation LET ALL EVIL BE PRESENT: as if: ‘why, O Lord, dost thou not revenge our blood? And revenge, O Lord, the blood of thy servants, which has been shed.’ MAKE A VINTAGE OF THEM: this will be fulfilled on Judgement Day, when the evil will receive what they deserve. But here, the impious take away temporal goods; in the future they will lose the eternal and just as they oppressed the saints, with the permission of God, they will, with God crushing, endure eternal afflictions. Which the Church fears and adds: FOR MY SIGHS ARE MANY.
Moral interpretation LET BE PRESENT: the soul, unfolded in the presence of God, asks: LET ALL EVIL BE PRESENT, namely that they heap up within and without. LET it BE PRESENT BEFORE THEE, that I may evade by your succor, I who have no confidence in myself. MAKE A VINTAGE of all their deceit, that they may not take away my fruit from me, AS THOU HAST MADE VINTAGE OF ME, when you have withdrawn your gifts in anger FOR ALL MY INIQUITIES. As if: Thou art just, O Lord: and thy judgment is right. And these are signs through which all signs’ facts are miracles, whence: Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee: that they may flee from before the bow. They, however, who do not want to take heed, rush upon this, that the Scripture threatens with, whence: Raise up indignation, and pour out wrath, hasten the time, and remember the end. As if: ‘O that the saints would not always be assailed, that each and every one would receive what he has done’, as if: Work new miracles, revealed according to the signs. Therefore, at the end of and before this lamentation, he has put the letter TAU, that is ‘signs’, and filled with tearful verses by foretelling the future.
