The lack of attribution to any other composer suggests that this is an original composition by Valderrábano. Pujol included it in his 1965 edition on that basis. The distinctive character of the melody suggests that it is based on a pre-existing recitation formula of some kind, the first phrase rising to a sustained D and the second descending to a sustained A. In addition, the melody is repeated for the second couplet of each stanza. Valderrábano’s rubric states “Here follow certain stories from the sacred scriptures, to the tunes of old romances. This first one tells of how Mattathias laments the destruction of Jerusalem, y principally he is pained by those who sacrificed the idols, of whom to the first Jew who stood up to sacrifice was killed in the area where he was making the sacrifice. The story is in the second chapter of the first book of the Maccabees.” The text is paraphrased from the translation of this book of the Bible. Pujol’s commentary states it to be a “Biblical romance inspired by the lamentations of Mattathias when, resisting the orders of Antiochus her withdrew to the mountain with his sons John, Simon, Judas, Eleazar and Jonathas, he helplessly contemplates the destruction of Jerusalem”. (pujol1965, I 41). Valderrabano’s text is reprinted in Santullano, Romancero español (santullano1943, 1567).

The claim by Binkley and Frenk that it “is the story of the prophet Elijah who fled to the desert because Jezabel wanted him killed… from I Kings 19” applies to the following piece va029, and is included erroneously in their anthology.