“Woe is me!
My mother!
You bore me!
A man of strife!
A man of contention
To the whole land!
I have not lent!
I have not borrowed!
Yet all of them curse me.”
Jeremiah laments that his mother bore him into this life. He has become a man of strife and contention throughout the whole land. However, he has neither lent nor borrowed money, so why does everyone curse him? He is in a difficult situation.
“The merciful lend
To their neighbors.
By holding out
A helping hand,
They keep the commandments.
Lend to your neighbor
In his time of need.
Repay your neighbor
When a loan falls due.
Keep your promise.
Be honest with him.
On every occasion
You will find
What you need.”
Sirach says that lending to your neighbors is nothing more than giving them a helping hand. When you lend to others you are following the commandments. You lend to your neighbor with no interest in his time of need. However, if you borrowed the money, you should repay the loan when it is due. You should keep your promise and be honest. Thus on every occasion helping each other will work out.
“But most foolish,
More miserable than an infant,
Are all the enemies
Who oppressed your people.
They thought
That all their heathen idols were gods.
These have
Neither the use of their eyes to see with,
Nor nostrils with which to draw breath,
Nor ears with which to hear,
Nor fingers to feel with.
Their feet are of no use for walking.
A human being made them.
One whose spirit is borrowed
Formed them.
None can form gods
That are like themselves.
People are mortal.
What they make with lawless hands is dead.
They are better than the objects they worship.
Since they have life,
But the idols never had.”
Next this author turns to the historic oppressors of the Israelites, the Egyptians, without naming them. He points out the ineptitude of their idol gods (θεούς). These idols could not see, breathe, hear, feel, or walk, as they lacked the five basic senses. Humans (ἄθρωπος) made them. Any spirit (τὸ πνεῦμα) they might have, was borrowed from humans. People do not make gods (Θεόν) of themselves because they are mortal. Thus they can only make dead images. In fact, these idol makers were better than the dead objects (νεκρὸν) that they made, since they had life, while their images did not.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 