The roads to Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Feast, thrice a-year. This was the most charming sight, when all the nation met to adore God, and to renew their friendship with one another. (Calmet)
DELETH: a fourfold species of planks is introduced according to anagogy. Through the service of which the house of the Lord rises, joined together in a fourfold cupola, namely by the ways, gates, priests and virgins.
THE WAYS OF ZION &c: the eighth topic of complaint, in which something is said to have happened which ought not, or that something did not happen, which ought to have happened.
Historical interpretation. THE WAYS OF ZION MOURN &c: from the general term set before he moves to the species of the single persons, for the grief to multiply more amply, as the general term is divided into species and the species are collected anew in the general term, and, since Threni are composed according to the rules of metre, they are occasionally adorned with figures of secular eloquence and by means of rhetorical devices distinguished by metaphors. Hence it is said here: THE WAYS OF ZION MOURN &c, not that the ways should feel or mourn, but brought into solitude, they excite grief in...
“Call for the mourning women,” the prophet Jeremiah says. In no other way can the burning heart cool down, swelling as it is with its affliction, unless it relieves itself by sobs and tears.… You have heard certain mournful and lamenting words of Jeremiah that he used to mourn Jerusalem as a deserted city and how among other expressions of passionate grief he added this, “The ways of Zion do mourn.” These words were uttered then, but now they have been realized. For when the news of our calamity shall have been spread abroad, then will the ways be full of mourning crowds and the sheep of his flock will pour themselves forth and like the Ninevites utter the voice of lamentation, or, rather, will lament more bitterly than they. For in their case their mourning released them from the cause of their fear, but with these no hope of release from their distress removes their need of mourning. I know, too, of another utterance of Jeremiah, which is reckoned among the books of the Psalms. It is...
In the early days of the church, all was well. The present elaborate, far-fetched and artificial treatment of theology had not made its way into the schools of divinity, but playing with pebbles that deceive the eye by the quickness of their changes or dancing before an audience with varied and effeminate contortions were looked on as all one with speaking or hearing of God in a way unusual or frivolous. But since the Sextuses and Pyrrhos, and the antithetic style, like a dire and malignant disease, have infected our churches, and babbling is reputed culture, and, as the book of the Acts says of the Athenians, we spend our time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. O, what Jeremiah will bewail our confusion and blind madness; he alone could utter lamentations befitting our misfortunes.
The beginning of this madness was Arius (whose name is derived from frenzy). He paid the penalty of his unbridled tongue by his death in a profane spot, brought about by prayer no...
Daleth- ‘of planks.’ Of incorruptible cedar wood and sethim is the house of the Lord built.
The ways- preachers
of Zion- heavenly
none that come- on the feet of the mind.
solemn feast- of the heavenly fatherland, whence: Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs, even to the horn of the altar ; of angels.
all her gates- which ought to be decorated.
her priests- who ought to rejoice.
sigh- on account of their sins.
her virgins- chaste intentions; who ought to shine.
in affliction- since they are stained with vices.
she- the conquered people.
oppressed with bitterness- of her vices.
Here in Verse 4 is loudly lamented the misery of persons remaining. First, regarding such persons who frequent pilgrimages. As expressed: "The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the appointed feasts". That is, while they arouse contentions during three feasts: (Psach, Pentecost, and Scenopegia). To such the prophet Isaiah 33:8 refers: "The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases. Covenants are broken, witnessess are despised, there is no regard for man".
Second, as to those persons remaining, like the leaders, or priests, the city honors. As said: "all her gates are desolate". And the propher Isaiah states: "And her gates shall lament and mourn; ravaged, she shall sit upon the ground." (Is 3:26)
Then: "her priests groan". As the minor propher Joel discloses: "Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep" (Jo 2:17).
Also, regarding maidens and virgins, Verse 4 says: "Their maidens have been dragged away". Namely, they are violated...
