Lamentations of Jeremiah interpretation. Lamentations

canonical book of the OT; consists of 5 songs (chapters), united by the theme of mourning the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BC.

Title and place in canon

In the Jewish tradition, the book is called by the initial word of the 1st line, - "how." This word, in addition to Lament 1. 1, is repeated twice more (Lament 2. 1; 4. 1), and each time a new alphabetic acrostic begins with it. In some Jewish sources, the book has a name - "weeping" (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra. 14b-15a). It is to this name that the Greek Θρῆνοι in the Septuagint and the Latin Lamentationes Ieremiae prophetae in the Vulgate go back. Name in Slavic-Russian. Bible - "Lamentations of Jeremiah" - is an inaccurate translation of the Greek Θρῆνοι Ιερεμιου - "Lamentations of Jeremiah".

In the Jewish canon, I. p. is assigned to sec. "Scriptures" and placed between the Books of Ecclesiastes and Esther. In most Hebrew (Masoretic) codes (including in Cod. Leninradensis) I. p. is considered one of the "Five scrolls" (megilot) and is located after the Books of Ruth, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes (i.e., in chronological order, since the latter 2 books are attributed to Solomon) and before the Book of Esther (Dyakonov, Kogan. 1998, p. 85-86).

In the Septuagint, Peshitta and Vulgate, the Book of I. p. is placed together with the Book of the Prophets. Baruch after Jeremiah the prophet of the book. This order is accepted in most Western Europe. and Russian publications.

Author. Time and place of writing

On the origin of the book in Heb. the text is not reported, however, in LXX there is a preface, reflecting, according to P. A. Jungerov, an ancient tradition: and said..."

In the Holy Scripture says that Prov. Jeremiah was the compiler of “songs of lamentation”: “I mourned Josiah and Jeremiah in a song of lamentation; and all the singers and female singers spoke about Josiah in their lamentable songs, known to this day, and handed them over to the use of Israel; and behold, they are written in the book of lamentations” (2 Chronicles 35:25). In ancient times, I. p. was identified with this deplorable song of Jeremiah (Ios. Flav. Antiq. X 5. 1). This opinion prevailed in the 18th century. (e.g., I. D. Michaelis and others), but researchers of a later time came to the conclusion that between the political situation in Judea after the death of King Josiah in the battle of Megiddo (2 Kings 23. 29) and the situation of Judea and Jerusalem, described in the Book of I. p., there is nothing in common (Blagoveshchensky, 1899, p. 8).

Jewish tradition (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra. 15a; Moed Katon. 26a; Midrash Rabbah on Lamentations 1.1; Midrash Ialkut; cf.: Targum on Lamentations 1.1; Jungerov. 2003. p. 313), as well as exegetes of the ancient Church (cf.: Iust. Martyr. I Apol. 55. 5) are confident in the belonging of I. p. Jeremiah. In favor of the authorship of Jeremiah, in addition to the preface to the I. p. in the Septuagint, researchers cite a number of arguments: firstly, Prop. Jeremiah is said to have witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem; secondly, I. p. contains some metaphors and expressions that are also found in the Book of Prop. Jeremiah; thirdly, the prophet called on the people even before the fall of Jerusalem to mourn for themselves and their land (Jer 7.29; 9.10-11, 20-22), and also composed a lament for King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35.25); fourthly, some verses of I. p. can be correlated with the life of the prophet (Lamentations 3. 14, 53-56, cf.: Jer 20. 7; 38. 6).

Questions about the authenticity and integrity of IP became the subject of discussion in biblical criticism of the 19th century. Mn. the authors, recognizing the integrity of the I. p., denied its belonging to the prophet (G. Ewald and others), some attributed the text to several. authors, including and prop. Jeremiah (e.g. K. A. H. Kalkar). Others have come to the conclusion that I. p. consists of several. independent parts, none of which belonged to the prophet (I.K.V. Augusti, T. Nöldeke, K. Buddha). Despite the fact that some authors still recognized the authenticity of the book (K. F. Keil, F. Gitzig), starting from the 2nd half. 19th century the general conclusion was that the prophet is not the author of the I. p. (Blagoveshchensky. 1899. S. V-IX). This position continues to dominate today. literature

Conclusion about the inauthenticity of I. p. researchers substantiate a number of features of the content of the book, its structure and place in the Jewish canon. Jeremiah repeatedly predicted the defeat of King Zedekiah (Jer 21.1-10; 24.1-10; 32.1-5; 34.1-7), who locked the prophet in prison (Jer 37), and the author of I. p. speaks of hope for the king: “The breath of our life, the anointed of the Lord is caught in their pits, the one about whom we said:“ under his shadow we will live among the nations ”(Lamentations 4. 20). The prophet condemned the hope of the people of Israel in the military assistance of neighboring peoples (Jer 2. 8), the author of I. p. considers himself one of those who were waiting for help from the allies (Lamentations 4. 17).

The different alphabetical order of the acrostic in chapters 2-4, in contrast to the 1st chapter, as well as the absence of an acrostic in the 5th chapter, makes one doubt that the chapters belong to one author. (B. Bayer). In favor of this provision is the fact that I. p. in the Jewish canon refers to sect. "Scriptures", and not to sect. "Prophets" (Kalkar, E. Reis).

It has been suggested that the book was written by one of the royal scribes from the Shafan family, a participant in the reform of King Josiah (2 Kings 22.8-13) and a witness to the destruction of Jerusalem (Hillers. 1992), or by one of the professional mourners in Judea (Weinberg. 2005, p. 171).

The Jewish tradition has preserved 2 traditions about the time of the compilation of this book by Prop. Jeremiah (Midrash Eicha-Rabbati). One of these traditions is based on the biblical story about how the disciple of the prophet. Jeremiah Baruch, the son of Niriyah, wrote down on a scroll the words of the Lord about the disasters coming to Jerusalem (Jer 36. 1-3). According to early Heb. commentators, in this place we are talking about the fact that Baruch wrote down the 1st ch. I. p. On the day of fasting, declared in the 9th month of the 5th year of the reign of Josiah's son Joachim, Baruch, at the command of Jeremiah, publicly read the words of the prophet written in a scroll in the temple (Jer 36. 9-10). Joachim ordered the capture of the prophets Jeremiah and Baruch (who nevertheless managed to escape), and read the scroll and burned it. At the command of the Lord, Jeremiah compiled a new scroll, which contained "all the words of the scroll that Joachim burned ... and many more similar words were added to them" (Jer 36:32). Midrash Eicha-Rabbati (3. 1) explains that thus. 4 more chapters have been added. According to this tradition, I. p. was compiled before the destruction of Jerusalem.

The time after the destruction of the temple dates back to the emergence of I. p. in another tradition (Midrash Eicha-Rabbati. 1. 1): the book was written with the aim of giving the people spiritual instruction that the fall of Jerusalem was God's reward, and not an accident. Before the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah denounces the Jewish people, and then mourns their suffering.

Researchers who reject the unity of the book date the chapters of I. p. in different ways. According to Bayer, 1st ch. was compiled before the final destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the Jews (2 Kings 25:8-12); 2nd and 4th chapters - after Zedekiah was captured and sent to Babylon (Lamentations 2.9; 4.20; 2 Kings 25.6-7); 3rd ch. does not contain indications of certain events; 5th ch. written last, but no later than the issuance of the decree of Cyrus II 539/8 BC (2 Chronicles 36. 22-23) (Bayer. 2007).

A number of researchers (D. R. Hillers, Bo Johnson, I. Weinberg, and others) continue to insist that all chapters of the book belong to one author.

Many consider Judea (Hillers. 1992; Weinberg. 2005. pp. 171-172), or more precisely, Jerusalem (Westermann. 1994. only her witness. Some scientists do not rule out the possibility of creating an I. p. in Babylonia (Dyakonov, Kogan. 1998, p. 88).

Genre

I. p. belongs to the genre of deplorable songs (Blagoveshchensky. 1899. S. II-III), which developed in Dr. Israel from solemn lamentation for the dead. This ancient custom is described in the story of the death of the patriarch Jacob (Genesis 50:3, 4) and was widely spread at the time of the establishment of the monarchy. Thus, weeping at the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-27) and at the death of Abner (2 Samuel 3:33-34) belong to King David. Prop. Jeremiah composed a mournful song for the death of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25). Over time, public disasters became the reason for creating such songs (cf.: Ps 77; 88; 142; Am 5. 1-17; Jer 9. 10, 17; Eze 19. 1-14; 26. 15-21).

The possibility of attributing I. p. to the ancient genre of elegy, which was discussed in the scientific literature of the 19th century, is disputed. Despite the sad mood prevailing in the book, grief does not become despair, the author speaks of hope for a future. recovery. I. p. cannot be attributed to the genre of elegy also because in places where the prophet mentions enemies and prays for revenge, the tone of lamentation becomes angry (Lament 3. 64-66). A significant part of the I. p. is didactics (Lament 3. 22-40), which is also unusual for works of the elegiac genre (Blagoveshchensky. 1899. P. 20-21). A characteristic feature of I. p. is a mixture of elements of the genres of individual and collective lamentations. Changing the speaker even in one song can occur several times. once. The speech is either from the 1st person personified Jerusalem (Zion; Lament 1. 12-16, 18-22), or from the author (Lament 2. 11-17; 3).

The custom of composing mournful songs is widespread in the ancient Near. East. Mesopotamian texts, primarily the Sumerians, are often used as parallel material for research. laments for the ruined cities of Ur, Nippur, Eridu and Uruk (ANET. P. 611-619). S. N. Kramer believed that I. p. reflects a tradition “begun in Sumer 4000 years ago” (Kramer S. N. Lamentation over the Destruction of Nippur // Eretz-Israel. Yerushalayim, 1969. Vol. 9. P. 89; cf. Kraus 1968, pp. 9-11). However, these parallels can be explained not only by the influence of Mesopotamian literature, but also by the common theme - the plight of people who found themselves in a besieged city (McDaniel. 1968. P. 198-209).

Poetics

Metrics

Biblical versification is tonic, based on the number of stresses in a verse (half line). The assumption of the existence of a special elegiac verse in I. p. was first expressed by the English. researcher R. Lauth (Lowth. 1753. P. 223), to whom the honor of the discoverer of the main artistic technique of sacred poetry - biblical parallelism belongs. The exact rhythm of I. p. determined it. biblical scholar Buddha (Budde. 1882; Idem. 1892). The essence of the poetic meter of the 1st-4th chapters of the I. p. lies in the regular alternation of 2 columns of the verse, of which the 2nd is always shorter than the 1st and can consist of at least 2 words, and the 1st, i.e. about ., - at least 3 words. Buddha believed that the metric of the verse was due to the melody of lamentable songs. Of the 242 verses (according to the division accepted in the Jewish tradition) of the first 4 chapters, I. p. 189 follows this pattern, 53 deviates from it, 32 of these digressions require the introduction of conjectures into the text (offered to the Buddha: Budde. 1892. S. 261) . Proponents of this hypothesis noted that other deplorable songs of the OT were built on the same metrical model (Is 14.4-26; Jer 9.9-10, 18, 20, 21; Eze 26.15-18; Am 5.1 -2) (cf. Blagoveshchensky, 1899, p. 43). Last the hypothesis has been criticized for suggesting a significant change in the original text of the lament. Modern biblical scholars call the size of the 3+2 verse used in the Old Testament lamentations for the dead, “the size of the kin” (, - funeral song) (Meyer. 2008, p. 622). Although the size of 3 + 2 is characteristic for I. p., as Buddha also noted, there are verses built according to other rhythmic models: 4 + 2 (Lament 5. 3), 3 + 3 (Lament 3. 29), and, finally, verses in which the 1st half-line is not longer, but shorter than the 2nd: 2 + 3 (Lament 2. 12a). Dr. The lamentation of King David at the death of Saul and Jonathan is written in size (2 Kings 1. 17-27). All this makes it impossible to conclude that only the size 3 + 2 is typical for mourning songs (Dyakonov, Kogan. 1998, pp. 90-92).

Acrostic

The first four songs of I. p. are written in alphabetical acrostic. The fifth canto is related to the previous ones only by the number of lines - 22, corresponding to the number of letters in Heb. alphabet. According to the rabbinic interpretation, the prophet chose this form of lamentation to show the Jews that they violated the law of Moses from the 1st to the last letter (Midrash Eicha-Rabbati. 3. 1). Despite the unity of form, the first 4 songs of I. p. differ. If the alphabetical principle in chapters 1, 2, and 4 is observed only in verse 1, then in ch. it is present in every verse. There are also differences in the order of the initial letters of the acrostic: in the 1st song, the “traditional” order of the letters - (ain) precedes (ne), in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, on the contrary, turns out to be before. This feature of the structure of I. p. was a mystery to researchers, while in the middle. 70s 20th century no sherds containing Heb. an alphabet with such an "unconventional" sequence of letters (Kochavi M. An Ostracon of the Period of the Judges from "Isbet Sartah // Tel Aviv: J. of the Inst. of Archaeology of Tel Aviv Univ. 1977. Vol. 4. P. 1-13; Meshel Z. Kuntillet "Ajrud - A Religious Center from the Time of the Judaean Monarchy on the Border of the Sinai. Jerusalem, 1978). It is recognized by researchers as more archaic, and the presence of the usual alphabetical sequence in the 1st song, according to some, indicates that it belongs to another author. A manuscript of I. p. (4QLam) was found in Qumran, in which the verses of the 1st song are also arranged in an “unconventional” order (Dyakonov, Kogan. 1998, pp. 92-95).

Comparisons and metaphors

Comparisons (an important stylistic feature of the I. p.) are found in 75 of the 264 poems of the I. p. (Westermann. 1994. P. 105-108). Basically, these are images borrowed from natural phenomena, for example: “... for your wound is as great as the sea” (Lamentations 2.13; cf.: Lamentations 1.6). Only once is there a comparison with the historical event of the destruction of Sodom (Lamentations 4.6). Most of them emphasize the contrast between what was before the conquest of Judea, and modern. the author of the situation: “Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more beautiful in body than coral, their appearance was like a sapphire; and now their face is darker than all black; do not recognize them on the streets; their skin stuck to their bones, it became dry like wood” (Lamentations 4:7-8; cf.: Lamentations 1:1, 6; 2:15). Mn. comparisons of I. p. are typical for psalms. A number of comparisons are characterized by the motive of “accusations against God”: “The Lord became like an enemy, destroyed Israel, destroyed all his palaces ...” (Lamentations 2.5; cf.: Lamentations 1.15). “He [the Lord] has become to me like a bear in ambush, like a lion in a hidden place” (Lamentations 3.10). Devastated Jerusalem is symbolically likened to a woman: first, a widow (a metaphor for God-forsakenness) (Lament 1.1), then an unclean, filthy woman (Lament 1.8, 9). The prophet calls Jerusalem "the daughter of Zion" (Lamentations 2.1), "the daughter of Judah" (Lamentations 1.15).

The wall of Jerusalem is a metaphor for the city: “The wall of the daughter of Zion! shed tears day and night, do not give yourself rest, do not lower the apples of your eyes ”(Lamentations 2. 18). The wrath of God that fell upon Judea is like the process of pressing grapes in a winepress, Judea is grapes (“... as in a winepress, the Lord trampled a virgin, the daughter of Judah” (Lamentations 1. 15)), as well as a raging fire (Lamentations 2. 3, 4). "Break the horn", "raise the horn" - traditional. biblical metaphors (cf.: 1 Samuel 2.1, 10; Ps 74.11; 88.18; 91.11). Both are found in Lamentations 2. 3, 17; 1st is victory, 2nd is defeat. Symbolic descriptions of events (Lament 1. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15; 4. 21) in I. p. alternate with extremely realistic ones (Lament 1. 4, 5; 2. 11, 12; 5. 1-22) .

Replays

connecting individual songs into a single whole is another feature of the poetic language of the I. p. The initial word of the 1st song “how” is repeated three times in the I. p. (Lament 1. 1; 2. 1; 4. 1). The expression "there is no comforter", indicating God-forsakenness, sounds like a leitmotif throughout the 1st song (Lamentations 1. 2, 9, 16, 17, 21). Appeals to God are repeated more than once: “Look, Lord ...” (Lamentations 1. 9s, 11s, 20a) - and a prayer for retribution to enemies: “... do with them the same way as You did with me ... "(Lamentation 1.22; cf.: Lamentation 3.64-66). Several once the prophet speaks of compassion for the people: “My eyes are exhausted from tears, my insides are agitated ... from the death of the daughter of my people ...” (Lamentations 2. 11; cf.: Lamentations 3. 49-50).

Composition

In the 2nd floor. 19th century in discussions about the composition of I. p., Ewald's hypothesis dominated, according to which the 5 chapters of the book are 5 works that together create a holistic drama. The central action, according to Ewald, is depicted in the 3rd chapter, in which the feeling of the author, mourning the fate of Jerusalem, is expressed most strongly. He is close to despair, but he has an awareness of his sinfulness and the need for repentance. His grief begins to subside. And although in the 4th ode the sufferer is still weeping, remembering the disasters, understanding the merit of these disasters weakens grief, the cry turns into prayer (Ewald. 1866, p. 323). Ewald's hypothesis is opposed by the absence of a strictly thought-out plan in I. p.

The analysis of the composition of the I. item is connected with the solution of questions about the unity and about the authorship of the book. Proponents of the unity of I. p. point to the commonality of language, style, and the main ideas of the work (Hillers), as well as the unity of composition (Weinberg). According to Weinberg, I. p. is a triptych, the center of which is the 3rd chapter, consisting of 66 verses, and chapters 1-2 and 4-5 form 2 "side" parts. Such a construction “could hardly have arisen from the unification of initially ... independent texts, unless the unification itself was, in essence, an act of creating a new text” (Weinberg. 2005, pp. 161-162).

One of the arguments in favor of the unity of the work is the alphabetical order of the verses in the first 4 songs of the I. p. The integrity of the individual chapters of the I. p. in modern. researchers do not doubt (Meyer. 2008, p. 626).

The main theme of the I. p. is sorrow for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC (cf.: 2 Kings 25. 1-21; 2 Chronicles 36. 17-21), as well as the theological understanding of the punishment sent down by the Lord.

The first song (Lament 1) is a series of brief sketches of the destruction of the city. In Lamentations 1-11 (1st half of the song) the poet describes Jerusalem in the 3rd person. The words of a short prayer (Lamentations 1.9, 11) complete this description and prepare the change of the subject who will lead the narrative in v. 12. In Lamentations 1.12-22 the personified Jerusalem (Zion) acts as the narrator. Changing the speaker helps to tell about the event from different perspectives, to comprehend the depth of suffering. The author shows that not only the people or individuals suffer, but the whole city of God.

In the 1st half of the 1st ode (Lamentation 1. 1-11ab) Zion is represented as a widow abandoned by all. Once crowded and lively, now Jerusalem is lonely and sad, all friends have betrayed him (Lamentations 1. 1-2). Together with Jerusalem, Judea was deserted, its inhabitants scattered (Lamentations 1.3). A small part of them remained in Jerusalem, but they are not visible even on holidays (Lamentations 1.4). The enemies of Judas prosper because the Lord punished His people for their sins (Lamentations 1:5). The glory of Zion has perished, the people have become a laughingstock (Lamentations 1.6-7). The cause of disasters is the sins of Israel, their iniquities are like defiled clothes on a harlot (Lamentations 1. 8-9). The Lord did not even spare the sanctuary and handed it over to the pagans for plunder (Lamentations 1.10). Famine reigns in the country (Lamentations 1. 11av).

The second part of this song (Lamentations 1:11s-22) begins with a prayer in which Zion addresses God: “Look, Lord, and see how I am humiliated!” (Lament 1. 11s). Jerusalem complains to everyone passing by about her unparalleled suffering (Lamentations 1.12). The wrath of God is like a fire that burns from within. The Lord deposed all the princes of the people and, as in a winepress, trampled on the daughter of Zion (Lamentations 1. 13-15). The capital is crying, pouring out water, but there is no comforter (Lament 1. 16-17a). In Lamentations 1.17c, the prophet begins to speak, lamenting the despicable attitude of other peoples towards Jerusalem. Further, Zion, repenting of her sins, prays to God for intercession and asks to repay the enemies according to "their malice" (Lamentations 1. 18-22).

The second song (Lament 2), like the 1st, is built on the principle of an acrostic, but there is no change in the subject-narrator, there is no speech of the personified Jerusalem. A very definite plan is visible: the song consists of 2 parts (Lamentations 2. 1-12 and 2. 13-22) - in the 1st the prophet describes the disasters of Zion after the death of Judea and the destruction of the temple, in the 2nd he addresses the city with a speech ( Blagoveshchensky, 1899, pp. 2-4). First st. Chapter 2: “How the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in His anger!” - serves as an inscription for the entire song. The Lord devastated Judah, crushed the whole fortress of Israel, rejected its princes (Lamentations 2. 1-2). The wrath of the Lord is like fire (Lamentations 2:3). The Lord acts “like an enemy” for Israel: he struck him with a bow, destroyed the sanctuary, rejected the king and the priest (Lamentations 2. 4-7). The walls of Jerusalem are destroyed, the king and princes are taken into captivity, the law is not fulfilled, the prophets are deprived of revelations (Lamentations 2. 8-9). The elders are silent, the maidens "lowered their heads to the ground" (Lamentations 2.10). In the 11th art. the prophet speaks in the 1st person, announcing the suffering at the sight of the death of the Jewish people.

In the 2nd part of this song (Lamentations 2.13-22) the prophet addresses Jerusalem a word of consolation, but it cannot heal a wound like the sea (Lamentations 2.13). The prophet accuses the people who trusted the false seers who led them to exile (Lamentations 2:14). Those passing by remember the former greatness of Jerusalem, of which not a trace remains (Lamentations 2.15). The Lord fulfilled what was predetermined earlier: he destroyed without mercy and allowed the enemy to triumph (Lamentations 2. 16-17). Only God can help in this disaster (Lamentations 2:18-19), and the prophet prays for His mercy (Lamentations 2:20-22).

The third song (Lament 3) differs from the others in form and content. It uses a triple acrostic - each line of the three-line begins with one letter of the alphabet: 3 lines begin with, 3 - with, etc. In the 3rd song, as in the compositional center of the I. p., the main idea of ​​​​the work is expressed. The author speaks of his sufferings in the first person: “I am a man who has experienced grief from the rod of His wrath” (Lamentations 3. 1). Only in verses 40-47 is it already in the 1st person plural. numbers. The question of the identity of the author of this part of the I. p. remains debatable. Traditional the answer to it is the prophet. Jeremiah. Modern Biblical scholars regard these words as the speech of a "collective personality," a people personified by Zion (cf. Lamentations 1-2) (Gottwald. 1954; Albrektson. 1963; Eissfeldt. 1964. S. 680-681).

At the beginning of the song, the prophet speaks of the suffering that befell him (Lamentations 3. 1-6). He turned to God with a prayer, but was not heard (Lamentations 3. 8). The Lord lay in wait for him, like a predatory beast (Lament 3. 10-11), like an enemy, hit him with arrows (Lament 3. 12-13). The sufferer has become a laughing stock for the whole people (Lamentations 3. 14-16). He was ready to despair (Lamentations 3.17-18), but the thought of the Lord gives him hope (Lamentations 3.19-20): he believes in the inexhaustible mercy of God (Lamentations 3.22-23), for the Lord has always been his inheritance (Lamentation 3. 24-33). He realizes that disasters are sent to people for sins (Lamentations 3. 34-39). The prophet admonishes the people to "search their ways and turn ... to God" (Lamentations 3:40-47). After describing the terrible fate of Israel, "devastation and ruin", there follows a lament about the death of the "daughter of the people" (Lamentations 3. 48-51). From verse 52, the prophet again describes his own disasters: the enemies caught him, threw him into a pit and threw stones at him (Lamentations 3. 52-54). “From a deep pit,” he turns to God in prayer, crying out for deliverance and retribution for the enemies “according to the works of their hands” (Lamentations 3. 55-66).

In the 4th song, as in the 2nd one, 2 parts can be distinguished: 4. 1-11 and 4. 12-22 (Blagoveshchensky. 1899, p. 5-6). At first, the prophet depicts the sad fate of the “sons of Zion”: the one who used to prosper is now humiliated (“... equivalent to the purest gold ... compared with earthenware ...”) (Lamentations 4. 1-2). The people are experiencing a terrible hunger: "... the children ask for bread, and no one gives them" (Lamentations 4. 3-5). The punishment that befell Jerusalem "exceeds the penalty for the sins of Sodom" (Lamentations 4:6). The princes of the people, who previously shone with greatness, are now black, and "they are not recognized in the streets" (Lamentations 4. 7-8). Mothers, mad with hunger, ate their children (Lamentations 4.10). Thus “the Lord has perfected his wrath” (Lamentations 4:11). In the 2nd part, the prophet speaks about the reasons for the death of Jerusalem: all this happened "for the sins of false prophets ... for the iniquity of the priests" who shed the blood of the righteous (Lamentations 4. 12-16). In vain was the hope of the people for the help of the allies, who could not save him. "The anointed of the Lord", in whom the people hoped, was seized by enemies (Lamentations 4. 17-20). Even neighboring Edom went over to the side of the enemy and rejoiced at the destruction of Zion (Lamentations 4:19). But the end of the punishment of the “daughter of Zion” is near, and then God will reward Edom for its iniquity (Lamentations 4:22).

The fifth ode differs from the others not only in the absence of an acrostic, but also in its genre - it is closest to the public laments of Ps. 44; 59; 73; 78; 82. In the Vulgate and Septuagint it is preceded by the inscription: "The Prayer of Jeremiah the Prophet." The prophet asks God to "consider ... the reproach" of Israel (Lamentations 5.1). The people lost their property and are forced to buy even drinking water (Lamentations 5. 2-4). The calamity that befell Zion is the punishment for the sins of many. generations (Lamentations 5.7). It is hard to endure insults from arrogant conquerors, but it is even harder to see the violence and dishonor they inflict on the wives and virgins of Israel (Lamentations 5.11). Enemies do not spare either the young or the old, "the joy of the heart has ceased", the eyes of the vanquished "darkened" (Lamentations 5. 12-18). In conclusion, the I. p. the prophet prays to God for the conversion of the people to the Lord and trusts in His mercy (Lamentations 5. 19-22).

Theological ideas

The main idea that unites all the songs of I. p. - the cause of the catastrophe that befell Zion is the sins of many generations of the Jewish people who violated the covenant with God (Lamentations 1. 8-9; 3. 37-42; 4. 13-14; 5 .7). At the same time, the prophet does not confine himself to describing disasters and denouncing the people, but instills hope in him, indicating a way out of that abyss, into which the Lord allowed the enemies to plunge His people - to turn to the Lord, "as of old" (Lamentations 5. 21).

In the early and medieval Church

I. p. attracted great attention of the exegetes of the early Church; pl. verses were included in the Judeochrist created for polemical purposes. collections of testimonies of St. Scriptures confirming the truth of Christ. faith, so-called. testimonium. Lament 4 had a rich tradition of interpretation. 20. Schmch. Justin the Philosopher quotes him in the form, several. different from the LXX variant (Iust. Martyr. I Apol. 55. 4-5: "Breathing before our face Christ the Lord"). The same quote is found in schmch. Irenaeus of Lyon (Iren. Dem. 71). Tertullian has a similar interpretation (Tertull. Adv. Marcion. III 6.7). Origen also sees in this place an Old Testament reference to Christ (Orig. Cant. Cantic. 2.3; Idem. De princip. II 6.7). Origen is the author of the first in early Christ. exegetical literature of the commentary on the I. p., which has been preserved in fragments (Idem. Selecta in Threnos // PG. 13. Col. 605-662), interprets the text postish. After establishing the historical meaning, the author turns to revealing the spiritual: the soul, contemplating heavenly mysteries, falls under the power of demons and only Christ can free it (Ibid. 12 // PG. 13. Col. 608b). Other early church commentaries have been preserved: Blzh. Theodoret of Cyrus (Theodoret. Interpretation in prophetam Jeremiae // PG. 81. Col. 779-806 (Threni)), St. Ephraim the Sirin (S. Ephraem Syri Hymni et sermons / Ed. T.-J. Lamy. Malines, 1886. T. 2. P. 217-228), Olympiod of Alexandria (Olimpiod. Alex. Fragm. in Lamentationes Jeremiae // PG 93. Col. 725-761). Medieval. the authors compiled a series of comments: Rabban Maurus (Rabanus Maurus. Expositio super Jeremiam // PL. 111. Col. 1181-1272), St. Paschasius Radbertus. Expisitio in Lamentations Jeremiae // PL. 120. Col. 1059-1256), Guibert of Nozhansky ( Guilbertus Abbas S. Mariae de Novigento. Tropologiae in Lamentationes Jeremiae // PL. 156 Col. 451-488), Rupertus Tuitiensis. In Jeremiam // PL. 167. Col. 1378-1420), Hugo de S. Victore. In Threnos Jeremiam // PL. 175. Col. 255- 322).

According to the ancient Jerusalem Lectionary of the 5th-8th centuries, the text of I. p. was read at the divine service on Good Friday (Lamentations 3. 52-66; see: Tarchnischvili. Grand Lectionnaire. T. 1. P. 105), 17 Jan. (commemoration day of St. Anthony; Lamentation 3. 22-32; see: Tarchnischvili. Grand Lectionnaire. T. 1. P. 28), as well as on litanies (litias) (Ibid. T. 2. P. 78), however, it gradually fell into disuse. In modern orthodox worship I. p. is not used.

Lit.: Lowth R. De sacra poesi Hebraeorum. Oxf., 1753; Ewald G. H. A. Die Psalmen und die Klagelieder. Gott., 18663; Budde K. Das Hebräische Klagelied // ZAW. 1882. Bd. 2. S. 1-52; idem. Zum hebräischen Klagelied // Ibid. 1892. Bd. 12. S. 261 ff.; Blagoveshchensky M. D. Book of Lamentation: Experience research. isagoge-exegetical. K., 1899; Löhr M. Das Buch Jeremia und die Klagelieder Jeremia. Gott., 19062. Bd. 2: Die Klagelieder Jeremias; Yungerov P. A. Introduction to the Old Testament. Kaz., 1910. M., 2003. Book. 2; he is. Book of the Prophet Jeremiah and Lamentations of Jeremiah in Russian. per. from Greek text LXX with input. and note. Kaz., 1910. S. 106-114; Gottwald

M. A. Skobelev

Introduction.

Jeremiah wrote this book in those three months (at the end of 586 - the beginning of 585 BC) that separated the fall of Jerusalem conquered by the Chaldeans (1:1-11) from the forced departure of the prophet to Egypt (after the murder of Godaliah; Jer. 43 :1-7).

Historical setting.

Recall that from 588 to 586 BC, the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar kept the Jewish capital under siege (about this in 2 Kings 25:1-10). So the expression of joyful emotions, turning into euphoria, which met the attempt of the "princes" of Judah to "break away" from Babylon, gave way to a state of uncertainty and fear. An ally of the Jews, Egypt, who tried to help them, was himself defeated in battle. Under the blows of the Babylonians, the Jewish cities fell one after another (Jer. 34:6-7), and, finally, Jerusalem alone remained "face to face" with the enemy hordes.

The siege was like a noose tightening around the throat. Hunger-mad mothers ate their own children (Lamentations 2:20; 4:10). Idolatry flourished in full bloom, for the desperate people prayed to all the "gods" they knew for deliverance. As if possessed, some of them rushed to God's prophet to kill him: they accused him of betrayal and "espionage" just because he told them the truth. The long siege ended abruptly on July 18, 586.

Obviously, the city walls were broken in several places at once, and the Babylonian soldiers broke into Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1-4a). King Zedekiah with a small number of people tried to escape, but they were all captured (2 Kings 25:4b-7). It took Nebuchadnezzar several weeks to establish himself in the city and take out of it everything that was of value to him.

After that, on August 14, 586, the Babylonian king set about destroying the Jewish capital (2 Kings 25:8-10). The temple, the royal palace and all the main city buildings were burned, and the city walls were also destroyed. When the Chaldeans led the captives out of Jerusalem, only heaps of smoking ruins remained behind them.

The prophet Jeremiah witnessed the desecration of the temple and the destruction of this holy place of the Jews and their capital (Jer. 39:1-14; 52:12-14). Terrible pictures again and again passed before his mind's eye, and his throat constricted from sobs, and from his heart, clothed in a poetic form, complaints and lamentations flowed.

The Book of Lamentations has one very important feature, which, however, is often overlooked. This is her "correspondence" to the 28th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. The author of the book of Lamentations was clearly trying to show how the curses recorded in Deuteronomy 28 were fulfilled. The table below makes it possible to trace the corresponding "parallels".

All the suffering and hardships that befell Jerusalem, which we read about in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, were predicted by Moses about 900 years before. God warned of the terrible consequences of disobedience to Him, and Jeremiah makes it clear that now He has essentially fulfilled what He warned. However, it is His faithfulness to His word that gives Israel, as the book of Lamentations suggests, hope. Precisely because His covenant with His people is still in effect, Israel is only being led by Him through grave adversity, through suffering, but God will not allow its destruction.

According to this covenant, disobedience will entail judgment, but in case of repentance, the people will be pardoned and "restored" (Deut. 30:1-10). Thus the logic of the covenant allowed Jeremiah to have hope in the midst of despair (Lamentations 3:21-32). To the Jews taken captive, the prophet addresses, in essence, in order to remind them of what is written in the book of Deuteronomy.

In the light of this, one must also perceive the cry of prayer that sounds in the closing verses of the 5th chapter of Lamentations. This is not the hopeless cry of a "remnant" that has fallen in spirit. Rather, it is a response of faith on the part of those who have learned the lesson he offered, and therefore turn to God with the hope that He will return the Jews from captivity and "restore" them as a people. The "question" in 5:22 suggests that God did not completely reject Israel.

Table of parallel places in the books of Lamentations and Deuteronomy:

Lamentations:

Deuteronomy:

1:3 Judas settled among the Gentiles and did not find rest.

28:65 But even among these nations you will not rest, and there will be no place for your foot to rest.

1:5 His children went into captivity, persecuted by the enemy.

28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people.

1:18 My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

28:41 You will bear sons and daughters, but you will not have them, because they will go into captivity.

2:15 All who pass by shake their hands for you and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem.

28:37 And you will be a terror, a parable, and a laughingstock to all the nations to which the Lord will lead you.

2:20 The women ate their own fruit, the babies they suckled.

28:53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you.

2:21 Children and elders lie on the ground in the streets.

28:50 A brazen people who will not respect an old man and will not spare a young man.

4:10 The hands of soft-hearted women cooked their children.

28:56-57 A pampered woman who lived in luxury will not give (neither to her husband nor her children) an afterbirth and the children she bears; because she will secretly eat them (herself) during the days of the siege.

5:2 Our heritage has gone to strangers, our houses to strangers.

28:30 You will build a house, and you will not live in it.

5:10 When ours turned black as an oven from burning hunger.

28:48 In hunger and thirst you will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send against you.

5:11 Women are dishonored in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

28:30 You will be engaged to a wife, and another will sleep with her.

5:18 Because Mount Zion is deserted, foxes (jackals) walk on it.

28:26 And your dead bodies shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts, and there shall be no one to drive them away.

At least two major structural features characterize this book.

1. Its content is clothed in the form of funeral lamentation, or lamentations. There are five of them, corresponding to the number of chapters. The themes of funeral lamentation were the good qualities and deeds of the deceased and the tragedy of his loss for those who mourn. Jeremiah mourns the tragic "death" of the city of Jerusalem. Funeral lamentations, as a poetic form, are characterized by repeated repetition of the mournful exclamation "how"! Three of the five chapters of the Lamentations of Jeremiah begin with it.

2. The book is built on the principle of an acrost. More precisely, four of its five chapters. Recall that when using an acrostom, each of the verses began with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the order in which they appeared. In chapters 1,2,4 - 22 verses each, corresponding to the number of letters in the alphabet. The form of the acrost (contributing to the memorization of poetic lines) was a favorite in Hebrew poetry. The only chapter not written in an acrostic in Lamentations is the fifth, but it also has 22 verses. The third chapter has 66 verses, but the principle of acrost is observed in it, for each of the letters in alphabetical order, not one, but three verses begin in it.

It is believed that Jeremiah used the acrost not only for the benefit of memorization, but also in order to express the fullness of suffering (from "A" to "Z") of his people. He seemed to want to say that he did not miss anything that can only be expressed in human words, no matter what letters they begin with. It is noteworthy that in the 5th chapter, where the prophet and the people are more and more imbued with humility and find peace in their hope in God, the principle of the acrost is not observed.

The theme of the book is the unfortunate fate of Jerusalem, the description of which is interrupted only by confessions of guilt of the people and pleas for help. The inconsolable sorrow of the prophet for those who were taken captive and for those who remained in the ruins of the great city grows in the first two chapters, and in the second it is a cry not only for Jerusalem, but also for all lost Judea. Crying and recognition that the cruel punishment from above "the daughter of Judas" deserved.

The sorrow reaches its climax in the third and fourth chapters. In the fourth, the consciousness of guilt, which entailed punishment, emerges more and more clearly, and at the same time the light of hope opens up to the soul of the prophet. In the fifth chapter, as already mentioned, peace sets in, and even lamentations sound only reflecting the circumstances and facts as they are.

Book plan:

I. Lamentation one: the destruction of Jerusalem is guilty of her sin (chapter 1)

A. Jeremiah mourns the destruction of Jerusalem (1:1-11)

B. Jerusalem's plea for mercy (1:12-22)

II. Lamentation two: God punished Jerusalem for her sins (chapter 2)

A. The wrath of God (2:1-10)

B. Jeremiah about his sorrow (2:11-19)

C. Jerusalem's supplication to the Lord (2:20-22)

III. Lamentation three: Jeremiah mourns on behalf of all Jews (chapter 3)

A. Lamentations of Jeremiah (3:1-18)

B. Jeremiah Expresses Hope (3:19-40)

C. Prayer of Jeremiah (3:41-66)

IV. Fourth Lamentation: The Lord has wrought His wrath (chapter 4)

A. Contrasting Jerusalem as it was before the siege to what it became after its fall (4:1-11)

B. The Causes of God's Wrath (4:12-20)

C. Retribution to Edom and pardon to Israel (4:21-22)

V. Lamentation Five: A Prayer for Renewal (chapter 5)

A. Remember, Lord (5:1-18)

B. Prayer proper (5:19-22)

1 Lamentation for Jerusalem, lonely, inconsolable, despised; his glory is gone. 12 "Look and see if there is a disease like my disease"? The Lord sent sickness to me. 17 Zion is inconsolable. 18 The Lord is righteous; Zion's prayer in distress and for vengeance on her enemies.

1 How lonely the city sits, once crowded! he became like a widow; great among the peoples, the prince over the regions became a tributary.

2 He weeps bitterly in the night, and his tears are on his cheeks. He has no comforter among all those who loved him; all his friends betrayed him, became his enemies.

3 Judas migrated because of distress and heavy slavery, settled among the Gentiles and did not find peace; all who pursued him overtook him in narrow places.

4 The ways of Zion mourn, because there are none going to the feast; all its gates are empty; his priests sigh, his maidens are sad, and he himself is bitter.

5 His enemies are at the head, his enemies are prosperous, because the Lord has sent sorrow upon him for the multitude of his iniquities; his children went into captivity ahead of the enemy.

6 And all her splendor departed from the daughter of Zion; her princes are like deer that find no pasture; exhausted, they went ahead of the driver.

7 Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her distress and her sufferings, all her treasures which she had in the days of old, while her people fell at the hand of the enemy, and no one helped her; enemies look at him and laugh at his Sabbaths.

8 Jerusalem sinned grievously, and therefore she became abominable; all who glorified him look at him with contempt, because they saw his nakedness; and he himself sighs and turns back.

9 He had uncleanness on his hem, but he did not think about his future, and therefore he was unusually humiliated, and he has no comforter. “Look, O Lord, at my calamity, for the enemy has been exalted!”

10 The enemy has stretched out his hand on all his most precious things; he sees how the Gentiles enter into his sanctuary, which you commanded, so that they would not enter into your assembly.

11 All his people sigh, looking for bread, give their treasures for food, to refresh the soul. “Look, Lord, and see how I am humiliated!”

12 Let it not be with you, all who pass by! look and see if there is a disease like mine, which has come upon me, which the Lord has sent upon me in the day of His fiery wrath?

13 He sent fire from above into my bones, and he took possession of them; he spread a net for my feet, he overthrew me, he made me poor and languishing all day long.

14 The yoke of my iniquities is bound in his hand; they are woven and climbed up on my neck; He weakened my strength. The Lord has given me into hands from which I cannot rise.

15 The Lord hath brought down all my mighty men among me; as in a winepress, the Lord trampled the virgin, the daughter of Judah.

16 I weep for this; my eye, my eye pours out water, for the comforter that would revive my soul is far from me; my children are ruined because the enemy prevailed.

17 Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no comforter for her. The Lord gave a command about Jacob to his enemies to surround him; Jerusalem has become an abomination among them.

18 Righteous is the Lord, for I have disobeyed his word. Listen, all you peoples, and look at my sickness: my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

19 I call my friends, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders are dying in the city, looking for food for themselves to strengthen their souls.

20 Look, Lord, for it is hard for me, my insides are agitated, my heart has turned over in me because I stubbornly resisted You; Outwardly, the sword has dishonored me, but at home, like death.

21 They have heard that I am groaning, and I have no comforter; all my enemies heard of my calamity and rejoiced that you had done it: oh, that you would command the day that you foretold to come, and they would become like me!

22 Let all their wickedness appear before your face; and deal with them just as You dealt with me for all my sins, for my groans are heavy, and my heart fails.

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Lamentations of Jeremiah, 1 chapter

How lonely the city sits, once crowded! he became like a widow; great among the peoples, the prince over the regions became a tributary.He weeps bitterly at night, and his tears are on his cheeks. He has no comforter among all those who loved him; all his friends betrayed him, became his enemies.Judas moved because of disaster and heavy slavery, settled among the pagans and did not find peace; all who pursued him overtook him in narrow places.The ways of Zion are mourned, because there are none going to the feast; all its gates are empty; his priests sigh, his maidens are sad, and he himself is bitter.His enemies have become at the head, his enemies prosper, because the Lord has sent sorrow upon him for the multitude of his iniquities; his children went into captivity ahead of the enemy.And all her splendor departed from the daughter of Zion; her princes are like deer that find no pasture; exhausted, they went ahead of the driver.

Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her distress and her sufferings, all her treasures that she had in the former days, while her people fell at the hands of the enemy, and no one helps her; enemies look at him and laugh at his Sabbaths.Jerusalem sinned grievously, for which she became disgusting; all who glorified him look at him with contempt, because they saw his nakedness; and he himself sighs and turns back.He had uncleanness on his hem, but he did not think about his future, and therefore he was unusually humiliated, and he has no comforter. “Look, O Lord, on my calamity, for the enemy has been exalted!”

The enemy has stretched out his hand to all his most precious things; he sees how the Gentiles enter into his sanctuary, which you commanded, so that they would not enter into your assembly.All his people sigh, looking for bread, giving their jewels for food, to refresh their souls. “Look, Lord, and see how I am humiliated!”Let it not be with you, all who pass by! look and see if there is a disease like mine, which has come upon me, which the Lord has sent upon me in the day of His fiery wrath?He sent fire from above into my bones, and he took possession of them; he spread a net for my feet, he overthrew me, he made me poor and languishing all day long.The yoke of my iniquities is bound in his hand; they are woven and climbed up on my neck; He weakened my strength. The Lord has given me into hands from which I cannot rise.The Lord has cast down all my mighty ones among me, called an assembly against me to destroy my youths; as in a winepress, the Lord trampled the virgin, the daughter of Judah.I cry about this; my eye, my eye pours out water, for the comforter that would revive my soul is far from me; my children are ruined because the enemy prevailed.

Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no comforter for her. The Lord gave a command about Jacob to his enemies to surround him; Jerusalem has become an abomination among them.Righteous is the Lord, for I have been disobedient to His word. Listen, all you peoples, and look at my sickness: my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.I call my friends, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders are dying in the city, looking for food for themselves to strengthen their souls.Look, Lord, for it is hard for me, my insides are agitated, my heart has turned over in me because I stubbornly resisted You; Outwardly, the sword has dishonored me, but at home, like death.They heard that I was groaning, but I had no comforter; all my enemies heard of my calamity and rejoiced that you had done it: oh, that you would command the day that you foretold to come, and they would become like me!Let all their wickedness appear before your face; and deal with them just as You dealt with me for all my sins, for my groans are heavy, and my heart fails.

The Life and Passion of the Holy Prophet Jeremiah

Truly, Jeremiah is now needed with his great lamentation not for the Israelites, but for today's Christians! And since Jeremiah is now gone, we humble ourselves will cry out instead of him, weep and we will ask for our brothers.

Rev. Theodore the Studite.

According to St. Demetrius of Rostov

The Holy Prophet Jeremiah was born in Anathoth. The son of the priest Helkiah, he was predestined and appointed to the prophetic ministry, like Samuel (1 Samuel 2), even before his birth, as the Lord Himself said about it: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I have sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jer. 1:4-5).

Saint Jeremiah, a priest by birth, but a teacher and prophet by calling from God, was, according to the testimony of Saint Ignatius the God-bearer, a virgin throughout his life (Jer. 16:2). He entered the prophetic ministry in 630 B.C., still at a tender youthful age, as can be seen from the first chapter of his book, which tells that he expressed his confusion at the call from the Lord to prophecy:
- Oh my God! - I do not know how to speak, for I am still young - a lad.
The Lord encouraged him and, endowing him with the mind of an adult and perfect man, said:
- Do not say: "I am young", for to everyone to whom I send you, you will go, and everything that I command you, you will say. Don't be afraid of them; for I am with you to deliver you.
Having said this, the Lord stretched out His hand and, touching the lips of Jeremiah, said to him:
Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. Look, I have placed you on this day over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and destroy, destroy and destroy (the sinful, lawless life of people) and in the place of what was destroyed and uprooted again to build and plant "(good morals and godly life of people)" (Jer. 1:7-10).
This word of the Lord, which called Jeremiah to the prophetic ministry, was in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign3; the holy prophet was then in his fifteenth year of birth: at such a young age he became an instrument of the effective grace of God!

In those days, the Jewish people, although outwardly they kept devotion to the faith of their fathers, worshiped the true God, who once brought them out of Egypt, but inwardly they were far from true service to Him. Entering into close relations with the surrounding peoples, the Jews were morally corrupted; obeying foreign customs, most of them, especially the wealthy and powerful of them, served pagan abominations. Not only in the vicinity of Jerusalem, along the hills and valleys, but also in Jerusalem itself, near the temple of the Lord, erected by Solomon, idols were set up, to which sacrifices were made as well as to the true God. This moral corruption, deeply penetrating into the life of the people, arousing the just wrath of God, prepared for the land of Judea ruin and destruction, which was foretold to Saint Jeremiah in two visions: a walnut rod and a boiling cauldron.

And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
- What do you see, Jeremiah?
He replied:
- I see the staff of the almond tree.
The Lord said to him:
- You see correctly; for I am watching4 over my word, that it may soon be fulfilled.
And the Word of the Lord came to him another time:
- What do you see?
- I see, - answered Jeremiah, - a boiling cauldron blown by the wind and it appears from the north.
And the Lord said to him:
- From the north disaster will pour down on all the inhabitants of this land. But you gird up your loins and stand up and tell them all that I command you; do not be cowardly before them, lest I smite you before their eyes. Behold, I have made you now a fortified city and a pillar of iron and a wall of bronze in all this land, against the kings of Judah, against his princes, against his priests, and against the people of this land. They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you (Jer. 1:17-19).

Fulfilling the commandment of God, Saint Jeremiah began to denounce the Jews for apostasy from the true God and deviation to pagan superstition, threatening them with the coming wrath of the Almighty and exhorting them to repent in order to deliver themselves from the terrible consequences of the wrath of the Lord. The prophetic ministry of Jeremiah continued from the days of King Josiah, as already mentioned, in the days of his son Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, and in the days of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, and in the days of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the brother of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.

The prophet of God endured many sufferings from his fellow tribesmen, who lost their true faith in God and the fear of God! - He proclaimed the terrible rebukes of the Lord of Hosts without hesitation and embarrassment, he boldly and boldly proclaimed the word of truth both in the courtyard of the temple and at the gates of the city, and in the royal palace, and in prison, and in the vicinity of Jerusalem. More than once he was brought to the kings and nobles, and he directly, without cunning or cowardly shyness, openly said to everyone that if they did not repent and turn away from lies, then evil misfortunes would befall them. For this is what the Lord says: “I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, and they will come and set up every one his throne at the entrance to the gates of Jerusalem, and around its walls, and in all the cities of Judah.

And they will be the executors of My destinies over the criminal people, the executioners of the wicked. And I will put all this on them because they forsake me and burned incense to foreign gods and worshiped the works of their hands (Jer. 1:15-16). Hear the word of the Lord, you house of Jacob and all the servants of the house of Israel! This is what the Lord says: What iniquity did your fathers find in me, that they turned away from me and became futile and said not, Where is the Lord, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, led us through the wilderness, through the dry land, through the land of the shadow of death, whereon no one did not go and where did not man dwell?

I have brought you into a fruitful land, that you may eat its fruits and good things; but you have entered and defiled my land, and made my property an abomination. I will sue you, and I will sue your sons' sons. For go to the Isles of Hittim and see, and send to Kedar and search carefully and see if there was anything like this? Has any people changed their gods, even though they are not gods? - and My people have changed their glory to that which does not help. Marvel at this, heavens, and tremble and be horrified at the foundations of the earth: My people have done two evils, having lost My fear: they forsook Me, the Lord their God, the source of living water, and arranged, flogged for themselves those who were not fit, who could not hold water.

I planted My people like a noble vine on the banks of the Jordan, the purest seed, and it turned into a wild branch of a strange vine. Israel, My servant and household, like a frisky camel, like a wild donkey prowling in the desert, swallowing air in the passion of her soul, said: do not hope, no! for I love strangers, and I will walk in their ways. The house of Israel has dishonored itself: its people, and its kings, and its princes, and its priests, and its prophets, turned their backs to Me, and not their faces, and said: "We are our own masters; we will no longer come to You"; but at the time of their distress they will say: "Arise and save us!" - Oh, kind! hearken ye to the word of the Lord: Was I a wilderness or a land of Israel? - Does the girl forget her jewelry and the bride - her dress? But My people have forgotten Me, there is no number of days of their forgetfulness! And in your treachery you skillfully guide, covering your shame with a garment of piety, your ways in order to win love! And for this, even for crimes, you adapt your ways, so that on the edges of your clothes is the blood of poor, innocent people ...

And because they act according to the stubbornness of their evil heart, I will bring disaster and great destruction on them from the north. And in that day, says the Lord, the heart of the king will stop, and the heart of princes, and the priests will be terrified, and the prophets will be amazed! (Jer. 43:17; 4:6-9). As a spring spits water out of itself, so Jerusalem spews evil out of itself: violence and robbery are heard in it, before My face - always insults and wounds. Take heed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you a desert, a land uninhabited" (Jer. 6:7-8).
With such and similar enthusiastically fiery speeches, Saint Jeremiah repeatedly addressed his contemporaries; they are like a hammer that breaks rocks, are set forth at length in his prophetic book. And everything he said prophetically came true.

Political hardships and disasters for Jerusalem began under King Josiah as follows: in the thirty-first year of his reign (2 Kings 22: 1; 2 Chronicles 34: 1), the Egyptian pharaoh Necho undertook a military campaign against the Assyrian king on the Euphrates River. And since his path lay through the borders of the land of Judah, Josiah, in order to protect his kingdom from the invasion of the Egyptians, gathered his army and decided to resist them. Pharaoh sent messengers to him to say: "What is it to me and to you, king of the Jews? Now I am not going against you, but to where I have a war. And God commanded me to hurry; do not resist God, so that He does not destroy you."

But Josiah did not heed this warning of Necho and went against him with his army to the Magiddon plain, which lay on the way from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan, from where Necho intended to reach the banks of the Euphrates by the closest route through Damascus.
There was a battle; the Jewish army, suppressed by the numerical superiority of the enemy, was completely defeated; Josiah himself was mortally wounded. The bodyguards hurriedly took their beloved dying king and took him to Jerusalem, where he gave his spirit to God. Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers and was mourned by the people in Jerusalem and throughout Judea with great sorrow, for he was the best, most worthy of kings in his kindness and God-fearing. Wept the king Josiah and Jeremiah in a lamentable song.

After that, Pharaoh Necho continued his military procession to Assyria, and in Jerusalem the second son of Josiah, Jehoahaz, was anointed king, who reigned, however, only three months before the return of Necho from the Assyrian campaign. The Egyptian king, to whom, after the victory of Magiddon, supremacy over the Judean land passed and who at that time had in mind the main and powerful enemy - Assyro-Babylonia, and ignored the weak, the kingdom of Judea, on the way back took possession of Jerusalem and all of Judea and subjugated of his power, - when this one appeared to him in a military camp, in Rivla, the land of Hamath8, in order to receive confirmation in his royal dignity, he deposed and, as a captive in chains, sent to Egypt, and appointed his elder brother king in Judea Eliakim, renaming him Joachim. At the same time, Necho imposed on Judea a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold,9 unbearably heavy for a small state, and all the more so since it was exacted with merciless severity.

So the seed of Abraham, a free people, a once glorious and powerful kingdom, lost its originality, found itself in enslavement. And this was an inevitable consequence of the lawlessness of the Jews, with which they angered the Most High God, not bringing sincere repentance according to the exhortations of the prophets, not arranging their moral life according to the law of God!
At the beginning of the reign of Joachim, king of the Jews, there was this word from the Lord to Saint Jeremiah:
"Stand in the courtyard of the Lord's house and say to all the Jews who come to worship in the house of the Lord, all the words that I command you to say - do not diminish a word. - Thus says the Lord: if you do not obey Me in doing according to the law mine, which I have given you to humbly listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you early in the morning and whom you ignore, then with this house on which my name is called and in which you place your hope (cf. Jer.7:14), I will do the same that I did with Shilom10, and I will betray this city for a curse to all the peoples of the earth ".

Hearing such formidable pronouncements of the prophet on behalf of God, the imaginary zealots of public peace and state security - the priests and false prophets, filled with anger, seized Jeremiah and demanded a trial over him, demanded that the death sentence be pronounced on him from both the princes and the people. In the house of the Lord, crowds of the people, stirred up in this way against Jeremiah, gathered, the princes of the Jews and some persons from the royal house came there and sat down at the entrance at the gate to the house of the Lord. Thus was drawn up the formal judgment of the prophet. The wicked priests and false prophets, turning to the assembly of the people and the princes of the Jews, said:
- Death to this man, because he prophesies against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.

Jeremiah, in his defense, said:
- The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city, all the words that you have heard. Therefore, correct your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will remove the calamity that he has spoken against you. As for me, here I am - in your hands; do with me what you please and what in your eyes will seem best and just. But only know for sure that if you kill me, lay innocent blood on yourself, and on this city, and on its inhabitants, for truly the Lord sent me to you to speak all those words in your ears.

Then the Jewish princes and the king's nobles, who presided over the people's assembly, said to the frantic priests and false prophets:
- This man cannot be sentenced to death, because he spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God.
And some of the elders of the earth stood up for Jeremiah and turned to the people with these words:
- Remember, Micah the Moraspite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of the Jews, and said to all the people of the Jews: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become a wooded hill." - Did Hezekiah the king and the people of the Jews kill him for this? Did they not fear the Lord and beseech Him? And the Lord abolished the calamity that he had spoken against them; but we - we want to do great evil to our souls (Jer. 26:11-19).

So let us repent, let us turn away from evil, and let us not seek the death of an innocent man. For was there even any benefit from the newly shed blood of Uri, the son of Shemaiah of Cariathiarim, who prophesied in the name of the Lord against this city and against this land in exactly the same words as Jeremiah foretold? - The king and his nobles, hearing then the speech of this Uriah, hated him and sought to kill him; and he, doomed to death, fled to Egypt from fear; King Joachim sent his people to Egypt, who brought him from there: Uriah was put to death by the sword; but what came of it? - popular indignation against the king and princes of the Jews: the same will certainly happen if you put Jeremiah to death as well.

After that, a division occurred in the popular assembly: some insisted that they kill the holy prophet, while others defended his innocence. And the haters of Jeremiah, of course, would have overcome his defenders, if one of the influential nobles at the royal court, by the name of Ahikam, the son of Safanov, had not taken him under his protection; he delivered Jeremiah from the hands of evil people, ready to kill him (Jer. 26:20-24).
Meanwhile, idolatry, which poisoned the conscience of the people in the course of many previous years and gave rise to extreme corruption of morality, was more and more intensified in Judea. Among the Jews there were those who, in response to the prophetic call - to correct the path of their lives and follow the law of God - mockingly said:
- Do not get your hopes up; we will live according to our thoughts and we will each act according to the aspiration of his (evil) heart (Jer. 18:12), - we will do everything that came out of our mouths, we will burn incense to the "goddess of heaven" and pour out libations to her, as we did we and our fathers, our kings and princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, because this gave us satiety and happiness (Jer. 24:17)

Truth was gone from them, it was taken from their mouths; from the least to the greatest, each of them was devoted to self-interest, and from the (false) prophet to the priest - all acted deceitfully and, doing abominations, were not at all ashamed and did not blush (Jer. 6: 13-15). The king of the Jews, Joachim, also did things that were objectionable in the eyes of the Lord, carried away by the general stream of wickedness (2 Kings 23:37, Par. 36:5).
And so Saint Jeremiah again received an order from the Lord:
“Go and enter the house of the king of the Jews and say this word there and say: hear the word of the Lord, king of the Jews, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants, and your people entering through these gates.

Thus says the Lord: do judgment and righteousness, and save the offended from the hand of the oppressor; do not offend and oppress the stranger, the widow and the orphan; For if you keep this word, then kings will enter by the gates of this house, sitting on the throne of David from his generation, riding in a chariot and on horses, themselves and their servants and their people. And if you do not listen to these words, then by myself I swear (says the Lord) that the house will become empty, the cities will become uninhabited, and all the land of Judah will turn into a desert; for I will prepare destroyers with their weapons, who will strike down the impenitent people as trees are cut down. And many nations will come through this desolate city and say to each other: "Why did the Lord do this to this great city?" And they will say in response: "Because they left the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them."

And about the King of the Jews Joachim himself, the holy prophet said in the name of the Lord that since his eyes and his heart are turned to self-interest and the shedding of innocent blood, to doing oppression and violence, then after death they will not mourn him, expressing grief with exclamations: " alas, my lord!" and "alas, his greatness!" - He will be buried with a donkey's burial: they will drag him out and throw him far beyond the gates of Jerusalem (Jer. 22: 1-19).

Such bold words of the prophet of God, spoken publicly, before the people, aroused great anger of the king and his entourage: then Saint Jeremiah would certainly have been put to death, if the providence of God had not preserved him for future mystical broadcasts from the face of the Lord. Roughly he was seized and dishonored, in chains, put in prison.

At this time, the execution of God's judgment on the criminal city, defiled by pagan abominations and stained with the blood of the innocent, came. - Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopallasar, the king of Babylon, the conqueror of the Assyrian monarchy, on behalf of his father, opposed the Egyptian king Necho and, under Karchemish11, having defeated the army of the pharaoh, who had attempted to take possession of Assyria, immediately directed his forces against his tributary, the king of the Jews. Jerusalem, after a short siege, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar; The king of the Jews, Joachim, was captured in the third year of his reign and, together with the chosen youths from the royal and princely noble families (including the prophet Daniel, still a young man, and with him the three youths Ananias, Misael and Azariah) (Dan. 1:1-6), was taken to Babylon. A significant part of the citizens of Jerusalem was also taken there and a part was taken from the vessels of the house of God.

A short time later, Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned in Babylon after the death of his father, returned the captive Joachim to Jerusalem, restoring him in the dignity of the king of the Jews, and only made him his tributary. So three years passed: Joachim paid tribute to the king of Babylon, as before, until now, he paid tribute to the Pharaoh of Egypt. Having thus freed themselves from the dependence on Egypt that weighed over Judea and not seeing the future menacing danger from Babylon, the monarchy was still young, then busy organizing its internal affairs, Joachim and his nobles, thinking presumptuously to overthrow the Chaldean yoke, indulged in debauchery and various follies.

But before Jehoiakim, the king of the Jews, openly renounced obedience to Nebuchadnezzar and clearly proclaimed the independence of his kingdom from Babylon, there was a word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, then kept in prison, the word is this:
- “Take yourself a book scroll and write in it all the words that I spoke to you about Israel and Judah and about all nations from the day I began to speak to you, from the days of Josiah to this day; perhaps the house of Judah, the Jewish people will hear about all the disasters that I think to do to them, so that they turn each from their evil way, so that I forgive their iniquities and their sins.

Jeremiah fulfilled this command of God through his disciple-scribe Baruch, the son of Niriah, who wrote down in a book scroll all the words from the mouth of the prophet. After that, Jeremiah said to Baruch:
- I am imprisoned, and they guard me, I cannot get out of here and go to the house of the Lord, So, go and read the words of the Lord written by you from my mouth aloud to the people in the house of the Lord, on the day of fasting, also aloud to all the Jews who came from their cities; read to them, and perhaps they will offer prayer before the face of the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for great is the indignation and wrath that the Lord has declared against this people.

Baruch read before the people's assembly the words of the Lord, written in a scroll. This was in the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim (Jer. 36:9).
The reading of the scroll made a tremendous impression on everyone; the assembly was excited. The incident was reported to the royal palace, where all the noble advisers were then; the latter demanded Baruch to come to them. The prophecy of Jeremiah, read by Baruch, struck even the carelessly dissolute, the nobles corrupted in conscience. They looked at each other in horror and asked Baruch how he wrote this prophecy. Varukh replied:
- Jeremiah spoke these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them in this scroll.
The dignitaries said:
- These prophecies are so important that their content must certainly be told to the king (Jer. 36:10

Continuation follows