simile tibi filia Jerusalem (vel, cur? {}מה potest trans ferri utroque modo;) quid (vel,
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS expression he means that their complaints were the more pitiable, because their mothers could afford them no help. And we know how tender and affectionate are the feelings of mothers, for a mother would willingly nourish her own child, not only with her own milk, but even, if possible, with her life. When, therefore, the Prophet says that children cried to their mothers, he means to represent a sad spectacle, and which ought justly to produce horror in the minds of all. Where is bread and wine?
he says, even when they vanished away (some say ``fainted,'' but I prefer, as I have said, this rendering) as a dead man in the streets; and further, when they poured out, a sadder thing still, --- when they poured out their souls into the bosom of their mothers. It now follows, ---
Lamentations 2:13
13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
13. Quid contestabor tibi (vel, adducam tibi testes, vel, testificabor tecum?) quid simile tibi filia Jerusalem (vel, cur? {}מהpotest trans ferri utroque modo;) quid (vel, cur) aequabo tibi quiequam (est repetitio, sed diverso verbo) ut te Consoler, virgo filia Sion? Quia magna sicut mare contritio tua; quis sanabit te?
When we wish to alleviate grief, we are wont to bring examples which have some likeness to the case before us. For when any one seeks to comfort one in illness, he will say, ``Thou art not the first nor the last, thou hast many like thee; why shouldest thou so much torment thyself; for this is a condition almost common to mortals.'' As, then, it is an ordinary way of alleviating grief to bring forward examples, the Prophet says, ``What examples shall I set before thee? that is, why or to what purpose should
I mention to thee this or that man who is like thee? or, What then shall I call thee to witness, or testify to thee?,'' But I prefer this rendering, ``To what purpose should I bring witnesses to thee, who may say that they have seen something of a like kind?
for these things will avail thee nothing.'' 521
The Prophet, then, means that comforts commonly administered to those in misery, would be of no benefit, because the calamity of Jerusalem exceeded all other examples, as though he had said, ``No such thing had ever happened in the world;
God had never before thundered so tremendously against any people; were I, then, to seek to bring examples to thee, I should be utterly at a loss; for when I compare thee with others in misery, I find that thou exceedest them all. ``We now, then, perceive the meaning of the Prophet: he wished by this mode of speaking to exaggerate the grievousness of Jerusalem's calamity, for she had been afflicted in a manner unusual and unheard of before; as though he had said that the Jews had become miserable beyond all other nations. Why then should I bring witnesses before thee? and why should I make any one like thee? why should I make other miserable people equal to thee? He adds the reason or the end (for the {,}וvau, here ought to be so rendered) that I might comfort thee, that is, after the usual manner of men. He say," Where is corn and wine?" When they fainted as one wounded in the streets of the city, When they poured out their life into the bosom of their mothers. — Ed
521The simpler rendering would be, "What shall I testify (or declare) to thee?" So the Sept: or, "What shall I call thee to witness?" — Ed.