From Lamentations 1:
The Sorrows of Zion
1 How lonely sits the cityThat was full of people!
She has become like a widow
Who was once great among the nations!
She who was a princess among the [a]provinces
Has become a forced laborer!
. . .
6 All her majesty
Has departed from the daughter of Zion;
Her princes have become like deer
That have found no pasture;
And they have [j]fled without strength
Before the pursuer.
From Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition, Stephen J. Bennett. at p. 205, 209:
"Bergant has noted the significance of the personification of Jerusalem as a woman (widow, queen). The city walls enclose the population as a mother's womb encloses a child. But the city-mother is no longer full of children, bereft like a widow."
"The translation "daughter of Zion" is misleading because it gives the impression that a subset of Jerusalem is in view, when in fact it is a term of endearment signifying the population of Jerusalem as a whole. The phrase is used 20 times in the book, sixteen times in Jeremiah, and about 10 times elsewhere."
From the Levinas quote in earlier post: "Truth, the daughter of experience . . ."
Comment: "Daughter Truth." Can we say the same thing about an experience of truth as we say about Daughter Zion? Certainly our faith tells us that our truth embraces us as a mother her child. So ultimately (i.e. when we are close at hand) our experience of truth should settle us in God's (truth's) embrace, not keep us off-balance?
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