The Bible

 

Lamentations 5

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1 Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners.

3 Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.

4 Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come.

5 For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured -- there hath been no rest for us.

6 [To] Egypt we have given a hand, [To] Asshur, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned -- they are not, We their iniquities have borne.

8 Servants have ruled over us, A deliverer there is none from their hand.

9 With our lives we bring in our bread, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine.

11 Wives in Zion they have humbled, Virgins -- in cities of Judah.

12 Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.

13 Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled.

14 The aged from the gate have ceased, Young men from their song.

15 Ceased hath the joy of our heart, Turned to mourning hath been our dancing.

16 Fallen hath the crown [from] our head, Wo [is] now to us, for we have sinned.

17 For this hath our heart been sick, For these have our eyes been dim.

18 For the mount of Zion -- that is desolate, Foxes have gone up on it.

19 Thou, O Jehovah, to the age remainest, Thy throne to generation and generation.

20 Why for ever dost Thou forget us? Thou forsakest us for length of days!

21 Turn us back, O Jehovah, unto Thee, And we Turn back, renew our days as of old.

22 For hast Thou utterly rejected us? Thou hast been wroth against us -- exceedingly?

   

Commentary

 

Face

  
Photo by Caleb Kerr

“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That's a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone's eyes, we can truly know what they are inside. And it's not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man's spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our interior thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them. It makes sense, then, that people's faces in the Bible represent their interiors, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally. When the topic is the Lord's face, it represents the Lord's interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. And when people turn away from the Lord and refuse his love, it is described as the Lord “hiding his face.”

(References: Heaven and Hell 91)