NOTES for Bar 4:20

What does the prophet mean when he says that he has “taken off the garment of peace”? Judging by the meaning of the corresponding Greek word, he is referring to the clothing he ordinarily wore in days of prosperity. This usage reflects the peculiarities not of Greek but of Hebrew or Aramaic, where the concepts of “peace” and “prosperity” are expressed by the same word. Standing before God is, of course, always an event in a person's life. But there are evidently special occasions when it becomes a matter of life and death. This happens in times of natural disaster or social upheaval. It is not only that, at such times, trust in God is harder to preserve than in days of prosperity. It is also that a person who trusts God normally cannot fail to understand that what is happening is not accidental, that when God permits a catastrophe He does not permit it without reason. An attempt to turn to God in order to change the situation then resembles an attempt to persuade an angry king to revoke a punishment he considers entirely deserved. God, of course, differs from a king in this respect, above all because He Himself does not seek to make anyone's life difficult. In such a case, all punishment comes down essentially to God's non-intervention in the developing situation: people themselves handle punishment quite well—though it is far from always just—displaying an ingenuity that can hardly please their Creator. Yet God plainly has every reason even for such non-intervention if He takes this position. A person who asks Him to intervene thereby assumes responsibility for those on whose behalf he asks. He in effect vouches for those for whom he seeks intercession, promising God on their behalf that they will change, and change so much that He will no longer turn away in anger when He looks at their lives and actions. Such a step requires trust and resolve. And faith in those for whom one asks.