Bible

 

Lamentations 5

Studie

   

1 Remember, O Jehovah, what is come upon us; consider, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

4 Our water have we to drink for money, our wood cometh unto us for a price.

5 Our pursuers are on our necks: we are weary, we have no rest.

6 We have given the hand to Egypt, [and] to Asshur, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned, [and] they are not; and we bear their iniquities.

8 Bondmen rule over us: there is no deliverer out of their hand.

9 We have to get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin gloweth like an oven, because of the burning heat of the famine.

11 They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honoured.

13 The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

15 The joy of our heart hath ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, for we have sinned!

17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes have grown dim,

18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: foxes walk over it.

19 Thou, Jehovah, dwellest for ever; thy throne is from generation to generation.

20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, dost thou forsake us so long time?

21 Turn thou us unto thee, Jehovah, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

22 Or is it that thou hast utterly rejected us? Wouldest thou be exceeding wroth against us?

   

Komentář

 

Iniquity, transgression and sin

  
The Abduction of Rebecca, by Eugène Delacroix

In the Word three terms are used to refer to bad actions: transgression, iniquity, and sin. Transgression is the least bad. It means a violation of what is true in an external context, a violation of what is right and orderly. Iniquity is next and denotes acts that violate more interior truths. Sin is the worst. It is a violation of what is holy and righteous, a violation against the Lord. Sin is the deepest kind of evil. Regarding iniquity -- to be in charity, or live a life of charity is to live a life where the acts and thoughts that have top priority are those that have within them a love for the neighbor. Sometimes our love of self, our inborn desire to put ourselves first, is stronger than our charity and we do something for ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, or even do harm to our neighbor. Such an act, if our motive is selfish, is an iniquity.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 9156, 9965 [2-3])