Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Targum Lamentations 1:1 and Justice Not Robbing Mercy

Targum Lamentations 1:1 (dating perhaps to AD 8th century) reads:

 

1 Jeremiah the Prophet and High Priest said, “How was it decreed that Jerusalem and her people should be punished with banishment and that they should be mourned with ´ekah. Just as when Adam and Eve were punished and expelled from the Garden of Eden and the Master of the Universe mourned them with ´ekah?” The Attribute of Justice replied and said, “Because of the greatness of her rebellious sin that was within her, thus she will dwell alone as a man plagued with leprosy upon his skin who sits alone. And the city that was full of crowds and many peoples has been emptied of them and she has become like a widow. She who was great among the nations and a ruler over provinces that had brought her tribute has become lowly again and gives head tax to them from thereafter.”

 

As my friend Allen Hansen pointed out, this echoes the theme in the Book of Mormon of justice not robbing mercy, a theme that some critics to be much more modern (and therefore, an anachronism in the Book of Mormon).


  


To Support this Blog:

 

Paypal

Venmo

Amazon Wishlist

Blog Archive