Fragments on Lamentations · §33

Whatever one farms one also gathers; winepress for healing

And it is not hard to see how the Lord trampled a winepress for a virgin daughter of Judah; for since “whatever each sows, these things he will also reap,” perhaps also whatever one farms, these things he also gathers. The one who has made better wine, then, will be gladdened from his own products; but the one who farmed a vine of Sodom and a branch of Gomorrah and bore fruit of a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness and an incurable wrath of asps—all the evils being gathered by the Lord into one winepress, his base works being trampled and squeezed—will drink in sequence from such fruits for the sake of vomiting the gall and the bitterness and the wrath. And he will drink, according to Jeremiah unto vomiting out, and according to Isaiah unto being awakened and putting on the glory that is kindred; for not in vain does the Lord trample a winepress, and especially for a virgin daughter of Judah.

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 1, 15. Οὐ χαλεπὸν δὲ ἰδεῖν, πῶς ληνὸν ἐπάτησε κύριος παρθένω θυγατρὶ Ἰούδα· ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἅ σπείρει ἕκαστος, ταῦτα καὶ θερίσει< τάχα δὴ καὶ ἃ γεωργεῖ, ταῦτα καὶ τρυγᾷ. ὁ μὲν οὖν κρείττονα οἶνον ποιήσας εὐφρανθήσεται ἀπὸ τῶν ἱδίων γεννημάτων, ὁ δὲ γεωργήσας ἅμπελον Σοδόμων καὶ κληματίδα Γομόρρας καὶ καρποφορήσας στα- φυλὴν χολῆς καὶ βότρυν πικρίας καὶ θυμὸν ἀσπίδων ἀνίατον, πάντων ὑπὸ κυρίου συναγομένων< εἰς μίαν ληνόν, πατουμένων κακῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ καὶ θλιβομένων, τοῖς τοιούτοις ἀκολούθως καρποῖς πίεται ὑπὲρ τοῦ τὴν χολὴν ἐμέσαι καὶ τὴν πικρίαν καὶ τὸν θυμόν. καὶ πίεται, κατὰ μὲν τὸν Ἱερεμίαν εἰς τὸ ἐξεμέσαι, κατὰ δὲ τὸν Ἡσαΐαν εἰς τὸ ἐξεγερθῆναι καὶ ἐνδύσασθαι δόξαν τὴν συγγενῆ· οὐ γὰρ μάτην ληνὸν πατεῖ κύριος, καὶ μάλιστα παρθένῳ θυγατρὶ Ἰούδα.

About this text

Origen, Fragments on Lamentations. Original English Translation from the Greek (Klostermann).

English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.