Плач Иеремии, Глава 3, стих 48. Толкования стиха

DIFFERENT TEARS AT DIFFERENT TIMES FOR DIFFERENT SINS. GREGORY THE GREAT: Differently to be admonished are those who deplore sins of deed and those who deplore sins of thought. For those who deplore sins of deed are to be admonished that perfected lamentations should wash out consummated evils, lest they be bound by a greater debt of perpetrated deed than they pay in tears of satisfaction for it. For it is written, “He has given us drink in tears by measure,” which means that each person’s soul should in its penitence drink the tears of compunction to such extent as it remembers itself to have been dried up from God through sins. They are to be admonished to bring back their past offenses incessantly before their eyes and so to live that these may not have to be viewed by the strict judge.

Hence David, when he prayed, saying, “Turn away your eyes from my sins,” had said also a little before, “My fault is ever before me,” as if to say, I plead with you not to regard my sin, since I myself cease not to regard it. Thus also the Lord says through the prophet, “And I will not be mindful of your sins, but you should be mindful of them.” They are to be admonished to consider one at a time all their past offenses, and, in bewailing the defilements of their former wandering one by one, to cleanse at the same time their entire selves with tears. Thus it is well said through Jeremiah, when the several transgressions of Judah were being considered, “My eye has shed channels of waters. For indeed we shed channeled waters from our eyes, when to our several sins we give separate tears. For the mind does not sorrow at one and the same time alike for all things; but, while it is more sharply touched by memory now of this fault and now of that, being moved concerning all in each, it is purged at once from all. PASTORAL RULE 3.29.

Третья песнь – сетование, упование, утешение – изложена от лица автора, который описывает свои собственные бедствия: темницу, оковы, поругание от своего же народа. Дает своим соотечественникам пример терпеливого перенесения страданий. Среди бедствий он обращался с молитвой к Богу, и молитва давала ему силу терпения. Автор призывает страдающих к общей покаянной молитве. Личность автора в этой песне часто переходит в коллективную личность еврейского народа и поэтому трудно определить, где он описывает свои собственные страдания, а где страдания всего народа.