Bible

 

Lamentations 5

Studie

   

1 Remember, O Jehovah, what is for us; look, and see our reproach.

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

3 We are orphans and have no father; our mothers are as widows.

4 We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes with a price.

5 On our necks we are persecuted; we toil, and there is no rest for us.

6 We have given the hand to Egypt, to Assyria, to be·​·satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne·​·the·​·burden of their iniquities.

8 servants have ruled over us; there is none that pulls· us ·out from their hand.

9 We brought our bread with the peril of our souls on·​·account·​·of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin was·​·charred* as an oven from the faces of the gales of the famine.

11 They afflicted the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 By their hand princes are hanged; the faces of elders were not honored.

13 They took·​·up the young·​·men to·​·grind, and the lads stumbled over the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young·​·men from their strumming.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing has turned to mourning.

16 The crown of our head is fallen; woe unto us now, that we have sinned!

17 Over this our heart is infirm; Over these our eyes are·​·darkened.

18 On·​·account·​·of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

19 Thou, O Jehovah, dwellest for eternity; Thy throne from generation to generation.

20 Why dost Thou forget us perpetually, and forsake us for length of days?

21 Return Thou us unto Thee, O Jehovah, and we shall be turned·​·back; renew our ancient days.

22 For rejecting shalt Thou reject us and be· ever very ·enraged against us?

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

Komentář

 

Sojourn

  

It is fitting that to “sojourn” in the Bible -- to live in a foreign land -- represents instruction, learning the things represented by that area. This is used quite a bit in the early parts of the Bible, when Abraham and his immediate descendants sojourned in a variety of foreign places. It arises also later in the Old Testament, with the Israelites given rules on how to treat sojourners in their midst.

The sojourner is a person who is willing to learn and accept new spiritual truths. That's in contrast to the term "stranger", as used in the Bible. A stranger has a natural inclination to good, but is not willing to learn spiritual truths. There is a long history of using travel to round out an education, from the 19th-century “world tours” taken by Oxford and Cambridge graduates to the exchange programs and semesters abroad offered in modern school programs. The idea is pretty straightforward: by immersing ourselves in other cultures we can both learn about them and deepen our minds.