Fragments on Lamentations · §83

Cloud of evils blocks prayer; no dove-wings over the wall

And these things are part of the confession that has already come; for as darkness from a cloud you brought upon us the circumstances of the terrors, and being far from you you pursued, you destroyed those dead in the sin through the punishment. And since our sins were standing us apart from you as a walling-off cloud, our prayer was not arriving toward you; for we did not have “wings of a dove” to fly over saying: “in God I will overleap a wall”; for it was not easy to pass the sin, being both hard and dark and without share of a holy spirit.

Greek

Klagel. Jerem. 3, 43. 44. Καὶ ταῦτα τῆς φθασάσης ἐξομολογήσεως μέρος· ὡς γὰρ σκότος ἡμῖν ἐκ νεφέλης ἐπήγαγες τὰς τῶν δεινῶν περιστάσεις, καὶ μακρὰν ὄντας ἀπὸ σοῦ κατεδίωξας, ἀπώλεσας νεκρῶν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ διὰ τῆς τιμωρίας. καὶ ἐπείπερ αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἡμῶν διίστων ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ σοῦ ὥσπερ διατειχιζούσης νεφέλης, οὐκ ἔφθανεν ἡμῶν ὴ προσευχὴ πρός σε· οὐ γὰρ εἴχομεν >πτέρυγας περιστερᾶς> ὑπερίπτασθαί λέγειν· «ἐν τῷ θεῷ ὑπερβήσομαι τεῖχος( οὐ γὰρ ἠν εὐχερὲς παρελθεῖν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, στερεάν τε οὖσαν καὶ σκοτεινὴν καὶ πνεύματος ἄμοιρον ἁγίου.

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.