She that has borne seven languishes: she has breathed her last; her sun has gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the rest of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies,
says the LORD.
Read Chapter 15
Cyprian of Carthage
AD 258
The Scriptures prophesied that at noon in Christ’s passion there should be darkness. In Amos it says, “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, the sun shall set at noon, and the day of light shall be darkened. I will turn your feast days into grief and all your songs into lamentation.” Also in Jeremiah: “She is frightened that has borne children, and her soul has grown weary. Her sun has gone down while as yet it was noon. She has been confounded and accursed. I will give the rest of them to the sword in the sight of their enemies.” Also in the Gospel: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the earth even to the ninth hour.” To Quirinus - "Testimonies Against the Jews 2.23"
Seven: many. It is not common for a mother to lose so numerous a family; yet such shall be the misfortune of Jewish parents. The synagogues shall decrease.
Day. Her prosperity shall end on a sudden. (Calmet)
“In that day, says the Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the earth in the clear day. I will turn your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation,” plainly announced that obscuration of the sun that at the time of his crucifixion took place from the sixth hour onwards, and that after this event, those days that were their festivals according to the law, and their songs, should be changed into grief and lamentation when they were handed over to the Gentiles. Jeremiah too makes this point still clearer when he thus speaks concerning Jerusalem: “She that has borne seven languishes. Her soul has become weary. Her sun has gone down while it was yet noon. She has been confounded and suffered reproach. The remainder of them will I give to the sword in the sight of their enemies.” Those of them, again, who spoke of God’s having slumbered and taken sleep, and of his having risen again because the Lord sustained him, and who enjoined the prin...
What more can now be said respecting the crime of the Jews, than that they were then blinded and seized with incurable madness, who read these things daily and yet neither understood them nor were able to be on their guard so as not to do them? Therefore, being lifted up and nailed to the cross, Jesus cried to the Lord with a loud voice and of his own accord gave up his spirit. At the same hour there was an earthquake. The veil of the temple, which separated the two tabernacles, was torn into two parts. The sun suddenly withdrew its light, and there was darkness from the sixth even to the ninth hour. Of this event the prophet Amos testifies, “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord that the sun shall go down at noon, and the daylight shall be darkened. I will turn your feasts into mourning and your songs into lamentation.” Also Jeremiah: “She who brings forth is afraid and vexed in spirit. Her sun is gone down while it was yet noon. She has been ashamed and confounded. The...
