The Daughter of Zion Suffers

by Kristen West McGuire

For the next year, My Secret is Mine newsletter will be centered on the autobiography of Dr. Edith Stein, Life in a Jewish Family. Canonized in 1998, she is now known by her Carmelite name of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, co-patroness of Europe. Many apostolates today have St. Teresa as their patroness, including My Secret is Mine. This series will explore the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith found in the Old Testament and Magisterial teachings. All of our interviews, Bible studies, and book reviews will explore the themes of conversion, family relationships and the effect of anti-semitism in the world.

Lamentations 2:13-19 (Douay-Rheims Edition)

13 Mem. To what shall I compare thee? or to what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? to what shall I equal thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion? for great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?

14 Nun. Thy prophets have seen false and foolish things for thee: and they have not laid open thy iniquity, to excite thee to penance: but they have seen for thee false revelations and banishments.

15 Samech. All they that passed by the way have clapped their hands at thee: they have hissed, and wagged their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying: Is this the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth?

16 Phe. All thy enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they have hissed, and gnashed with the teeth, and have said: We will swallow her up: lo, this is the day which we looked for: we have found it, we have seen it.

17 Ain. The Lord hath done that which he purposed, he hath fulfilled his word, which he commanded in the days of old: he hath destroyed, and hath not spared, and he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee, and hath set up the horn of thy adversaries.

18 Sade. Their heart cried to the Lord upon the walls of the daughter of Sion: Let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the apple of thy eye cease.

19 Coph. Arise, give praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches: pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands to him for the life of thy little children, that have fainted for hunger at the top of all the streets.

(Note that the word, “Sion,” is usually seen in English Bibles as, “Zion.”)

Context: The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew: Eichah) is attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. King Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem, burned down the First Temple, and exiled the Jewish elite to Babylon in 586 BC. The poems document the terrible aftermath of the defeat. Starvation was rampant, and religious and government leadership collapsed. The survivors had experienced such trauma that they wondered, “Has God abandoned His chosen people?”

Translation: Like Proverbs 31, the chapters of the Book of Lamentations are acrostic poems that start with each successive letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. (This style is retained in the Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible. See the italicized letters at the start of each verse above.) The poems have a 3:2 qinah rhythmic meter, pairing three beats followed by two, to mimic a sob or a limp. A qinah is a traditional Hebrew elegy or dirge chanted on the Jewish memorial of Tisha B’Av, recalling the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. (Listen to a selection of the qinah chanted in Hebrew.)

Vocabulary (Hebrew)

virgin: bethulah - 1. a virgin (from her privacy) 2. sometimes (by continuation) a bride 3. (figuratively) a city or state

Daughter of Zion: Bat siyyōn - a personification of Jerusalem and its people, which in this context is beloved of God, despite the challenges she is undergoing in exile

heal: raphah - to be healed, especially the restoration of national favor and health

the apple of thine eye: bat ‘ê·nêḵ - daughter, as in a much beloved daughter.

cease: p̄ū·ḡaṯ - to be struck dumb, silenced, to give yourself no relief

Meditation: Ah, Daughter Zion! Pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord! In the long history of the Jewish people, there are seasons of both exile and exodus, of persecution and pardon. No one fully understood this Chosen People who honored only one all-powerful God and set aside a day of rest (Shabbat). Jewish women didn’t have “rights” as we express that term today—they were the property of their fathers or husbands. However, Jewish culture promotes caring for the widow and orphan. And the rules around strict separation between the sexes in public were aimed at protecting women from rape. In the Jewish view, when a man “lies with” a woman, she became his legal responsibility.

In the ancient world, the Jews were distinctive—they refused to worship alien gods. (However, the Old Testament is full of examples of this prohibition being broken.) When Jews stayed faithful to the Torah, their Persian, Greek and Roman conquerors responded with bans, violence, or forced conversions. Sadly, Christian communities also persecuted Jews, which led to prejudice and even attempts at expulsions or forced conversions. Truly, the Daughter of Zion has suffered.

The Holocaust shocked people and forced a reckoning with the effects of such anti-semitic persecution. Pope St. John Paul II said, “Our attitude to the Jewish religion should be one of the greatest respect, since the Catholic faith is rooted in the eternal truths contained in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in the irrevocable covenant made with Abraham.”

Daughter Zion! Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin! As Christians, we can and should join our Hebrew brothers and sisters in midnight prayer. For evil still exists and threatens the innocent.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you ever wake up in the night, worried about the evils you know are happening in so many parts of the world? What are the prayers you turn to, in the watches of the night?
2. Tisha B'Av marks the historical tragedy of the desecration of the Temple, in both 586 BC and 70 AD, among other losses. It is day of strict mourning. How can and should we engage in communal mourning?
3. As Christians, we have a respect for the Hebrew people as the Chosen People. We accept the Old Testament as part of our faith. How much do you know about the Jewish faith? How might you learn more?

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