Commentary on Lamentations

Jerome (342–420)

As for Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, who can fully understand or adequately explain them? The first of them seems to compose not a prophecy but a gospel. The second speaks of a rod of an almond tree and of a seething pot with its face toward the north, and of a leopard that has changed its spots. He also goes four times through the alphabet in different meters.

Think how great that weeping must be that deserves to be compared with a flood of waters. Whoever so weeps and says with the prophet Jeremiah, "let not the apple of my eye cease," shall straightway find the words fulfilled of him: "mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." If righteousness and truth terrify him, mercy and peace may encourage him to seek salvation.

See also

• More works by Jerome

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