Commentary on Jeremiah

The words of Jeremiah the son of Helcias, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Joacim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the fifth month. The other prophets, such as Isaiah, Osee, Joel, were before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, or of the two tribes, of Judah and Benjamin. Others were after the captivity, as Daniel, Aggaeus, and Zacharias. But Jeremiah and Ezechiel wove their prophecy while the captivity was imminent: but the one of them in the land of Judah, the other in Babylon. Jeremiah, while he was yet a boy, began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

And he prophesied under his reign for nineteen years; and afterward under Joacim his son, for eleven years; and under Sedecias, who was the last of the kings of Judah, for eleven years, up to the fifth month, when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians. But the three months' reigns of Joachaz and of Jechonias (of whom the one was led away into Egypt, the other with his mother into Babylon) are reckoned within the above years: through this, from the beginning of his prophecy up to the captivity of Jerusalem, in which he himself also was taken, he prophesied for forty-one years, besides that time when he was led into Egypt. And there he prophesied in Taphnis, as is contained in this very volume. For "the words of Jeremiah," the Seventy have put, "The word of God which came to Jeremiah": in this sense, evidently, that the words of Jeremiah are the word of the Lord.

He was of the race of priests, who dwelt to the north of Jerusalem, at the third milestone, in the little village of Anathoth. And at the same time it is a marvel of the Lord's mercy, that when captivity was already at hand, and the Babylonian army was encircling Jerusalem, nevertheless He calls the people to repentance, preferring to save the converted rather than to destroy the offenders. For "transmigration," which all the others have translated with one consenting voice, the Seventy put "captivity." Now after the beginning of Jeremiah's prophesying, in the thirty-fifth year of his prophecy, Ezechiel in Babylon began to prophesy to those who had been taken captive with him. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee: I have made thee a prophet unto the nations.

Not that, as a heresy suspects, Jeremiah existed before his conception; but that the Lord foreknew that he would be, to whom things not yet made are already made, according to that which the Apostle says: Who calleth those things that are not, as those that are. And as to his being sanctified in the womb, we ought to understand it according to that saying of the Apostle: But when it pleased him, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me; that I might preach him among the gentiles. John the Baptist also is sanctified in the womb, and receives the Holy Spirit, and is moved in the womb, and speaks through his mother's mouth. And what is said, "I have made thee a prophet unto the nations," is meant to be understood by what we shall afterward read in the Prophet himself, that he prophesied not only to Jerusalem, but also to many nations round about.

Some understand this passage of the Saviour, who was properly the Prophet of the nations, and through the Apostles called all nations. For he indeed, before he was formed in the virgin womb, and before he came forth from his mother's womb, was truly sanctified in the womb, and known to the Father, since he was always in the Father, and the Father always in him.

Verse 6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. LXX: And I said, O Lord God, I know not how to speak, for I am young. He shrinks from the office which he is unable to sustain because of his age, with the same modesty with which Moses too says that he is of a slender and feeble voice. But he is reproved as being, so to speak, of great and robust age; to this one, in his boyhood, pardon is granted, which is adorned by modesty and shame.

Verse 7. And the Lord said to me: Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee, to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Do not, he says, consider your age; for as another prophet speaking has taught you: The gray hairs of man are his wisdom (Wisdom 4:9): let it only be your will to go forward; you will have me as your companion, with whose aid you will accomplish all things: open your mouth and I will fill it. Nor consider the multitude of those to whom and against whom you are about to speak; but me, who am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord. Now the Lord delivers, not in the sense that the Prophet lacks persecutions and hardships—since we read that he endured much—but that, enduring all things, he might overcome, and not yield to distress.

Verse 9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth. It is to be noted that here it is the hand of God that is put forth, which touches the mouth of the Prophet, and it is said to him: Behold, I have given my words in your mouth; whereas in Isaiah it is written: And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and had in his hand a coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.

For there, because he was of solid and mature age, and he himself simply confesses that he has unclean lips, and dwells in the midst of a people having polluted lips, one of the Seraphim is sent, who touches his mouth not with the hand, but with tongs and a coal, and takes away iniquities, and cleanses sins. But here the very hand of God is put forth, by which he wrought all things, and which in another place is called his arm: not to take away sins, which he had not committed many of on account of his boyhood, but to grant him the gift of speech. Further, Ezechiel devours a book written both within and without, containing both divine mysteries and simple history. Jeremiah's mouth is touched, and the Lord's words are given to him, so that he might receive confidence for preaching. And it is fittingly according to the letter that a hand is put forth, so that, seeing the likeness of human limbs, he might not dread the touch of a hand.

Verse 10. See, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant. That which we have added from the Hebrew, "to waste," or "to lay low," is not found in the Seventy. And it is to be considered that after four sad things, two joyful ones follow. For good things could not be built unless evil things were first destroyed; nor could the best things be planted, unless the worst were rooted out. For every plant which the heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up; and the building which has no foundation upon the rock, but is built upon sand, is undermined and destroyed by the word of God. But that building which Jesus shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy by the coming of his presence—namely, all sacrilegious and perverse doctrine—he shall utterly destroy forever.

Furthermore, those things that are raised up against the knowledge of God, and trust in their own wisdom, which is foolishness with God, he shall waste and lay low: so that in place of these, humble things may be built, and in the place of the higher things which have been destroyed and uprooted, there may be raised up and planted things that agree with the truth of the Church; and that may be fulfilled which the Apostle says: You are God's building, God's husbandry. Many understand this passage of the person of Christ: for Jeremiah is interpreted "the exalted one of the Lord," who destroyed the kingdoms of the devil, which had been shown to him on the height of the mountain in their exaltation; who destroyed the hostile powers, blotting out the handwriting of errors on the cross. Concerning these things, also, in the Psalm, after the truth of the history, he speaks tropically: Why have the gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things?

The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together. In place of these things uprooted, destroyed, and ruined, and cast down to the depths, the Church of God is built and planted. But concerning the person of Jeremiah himself there is no doubt. For we read in what follows, that he receives in his hand a cup full of wine, and is bidden to give it to drink to all the nations round about. (Verses 11, 12.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a watching rod. And the Lord said to me: You have seen well; for I will watch over my word to perform it. Instead of "watching rod," the LXX translated "walnut staff." We must therefore labor a little so that the Latin reader may understand the Hebrew etymology. SECED is called "nut"; but watching, or watchful, or to watch is called Soked (שקד). Whence also in later passages the "watching leopard" is set down under this name.

From that which is called "nut," then, on account of the similarity of the word, the name alludes to the understanding of "watchful"; which indeed is also written in Daniel according to Theodotion, so that from the trees πρίνου and σχίνου, that is, the holm-oak and the mastic-tree, cutting and sawing is decreed against the adulterous elders. Otherwise also in the beginning of Genesis, from the man, who is called is (איש), the woman is called issa (אשה), as though a certain "virago," because she was taken from the man. Instead of "walnut staff," Aquila and Symmachus have "watching rod"; but Theodotion translated "almond." Now the rod watches, considering all the sins of the people, so as to strike and correct the offenders. Whence also the Apostle writes to sinners: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and a spirit of gentleness? This is the rod, or staff, of which David speaks: Your rod and your staff, they have comforted me.

And he beautifully placed "have comforted." For the Lord corrects for this purpose, that he may amend. And just as the walnut, or almond, has a most bitter rind, and is girded with a very hard shell, so that, once the harsher and hard parts have been removed, the sweetest fruit may be found: so every correction, and the labor of continence, seems bitter indeed for the present, but bears the sweetest fruits. Whence also this is an old saying: The roots of letters are bitter, the fruits sweet. Some understand the watching and nut-rod to be the Lord, of whom Isaiah says: A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse. Whence also the rod of Aaron, which was thought dead, is narrated to have flourished at the resurrection of the Lord. (Verses 13, 14.) And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot: and its face is from the face of the North.

And the Lord said to me: From the North evils shall be opened (or, shall blaze forth) upon all the inhabitants of the earth. By certain degrees, torments are allotted to sinners, that they may come gradually to salvation. Those who are unwilling to be corrected by the striking rod are cast into the bronze and heated pot, of which Ezekiel writes more fully, which is kindled from the face of the North, signifying the king of Babylon and the city of Jerusalem. And it is beautifully inserted: From the North evils shall blaze forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth: either the land of Judah, or certainly the whole earth, of which it is written in the Apocalypse: Woe upon all the inhabitants of the earth. For the saints are not inhabitants of the earth, but strangers and pilgrims, of whom one says: I am a stranger upon the earth, and a pilgrim as all my fathers were. And another: Few and evil are the days of my life, in which I sojourn on the earth.

Whence also Peter writes his Catholic Epistle to the strangers and pilgrims of Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia. And according to the mystical understanding Solomon speaks: The North is a harsh wind: but by name it is called "right," namely by those who have grown stiff with its cold, and have lost the warmth of faith. (Verses 15, 16.) For behold, I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the North, says the Lord, and they shall come and each shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all its walls round about, and upon all the cities of Judah. And I will speak my judgments with them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have made libations to strange gods, and have worshipped the work of their own hands.

There is no doubt that many nations and the kings of individual nations were subject to the king of Babylon, who, when Jerusalem was besieged, set their thrones and tents round about, and especially at the exits of the gates, lest any of those who were shut in should be able to break out: and not only Jerusalem, but also all the cities of Judah were surrounded by a similar siege. And when, he says, the city has been captured, then I will say to them that my judgments were right, and that each has received what he deserved: not for the other vices to which the human condition is subject, but especially for idolatry, through which, forsaking me, they worshipped the works of their own hands. Some take this passage in a good sense, namely that those who have been boiled in the bronze pot, purged beforehand by torments, afterward become princes of Jerusalem: and that after the Lord has had mercy on them, then he reproaches them, because, having forsaken him, they venerated idols.

But this is a violent and perverse interpretation, lest the unlearned interpreter should make a slander of it. (Verse 17.) You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Job also is commanded to gird up his loins; and the Apostles, that with loins girded, whom Elijah and John the Baptist mortified with leather girdles, they should hold lamps in their hands, namely of Gospel preaching. Whoever, then, is about to speak the words of God ought to gird his loins, knowing that the whole strength of the devil is in the loins; and the just man says in the Psalms: My loins are filled with illusions. And when he has girded his loins, let him hear what is written: Awake, you who sleep, and arise; and Christ shall enlighten you; that always watching, and rising from sleep, he may speak what God has commanded him.

Do not fear before their face: for I will not make you fear their countenance. Or, as the Seventy and the other interpreters have it: lest perhaps I make you fear. And the sense according to our translation is: Do not fear before their face; for with me as helper, you will not be able to fear them. According to the Seventy: Do not fear before their face, have confidence in my command. For if you do not offer what you have, so that you may cease to fear, I will forsake you, and hand you over to fear, and in a certain way I will seem to make you fear, while I abandon you to dread. Now this signifies that truth must always be loved, and the multitude of men not feared, who, when rebuked, do not endure correction, but lay snares for him by whom they are corrected. And that which follows according to the LXX, "for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord," is not found in the Hebrew.

And the sense is: I will rescue you, not in the sense that no one will lay snares for you; but in the sense that, suffering snares, you may not fall into sin. (Verses 18, 19.) For indeed I have given you today (or, Behold, I have set you on this day) as a fortified city, and as an iron pillar, and as a bronze wall over all the land, against the kings of Judah, its princes, and the priests, and the people of the land. And they shall war against you, and shall not prevail; for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you. The divine word describes why the Prophet ought not to fear. I, he says, have set, or given, you today, that is, in the present life, as long as it is called "today," as a most firm city: not as one house, nor a tower, nor any walls; but a whole city, which, being set upon a mountain, cannot be hidden.

Of which it is written: Glorious things are said of you, city of God. And: I am a strong city, a city that is besieged. And, as an iron pillar, he says, of which the Apostle writes: The pillar and ground of the truth. Whence Peter and John, who were thought to be pillars of the Church, gave the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas. Nor is this enough, but as a bronze wall, he says, which is violated by no rust, nor perishes when beaten by rains, but grows stronger with age. But you will be such against kings and princes and people, not of any place, but of the land; against those who savor earthly things, and know not heavenly things, who have the image of the earthly and not the heavenly. These, he says, shall war against you, and shall not prevail. Why, I ask? What is the cause of such great strength, that neither kings, nor princes, nor priests, nor peoples can prevail against one man?

There follows: For I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you. If at any time the kings of Judah, which is interpreted "confession," and its princes and priests and peoples, namely bishops and priests and deacons, and the vile and ignoble common crowd, should wish to rise up against a holy man, let him have firmness of faith, and cease to fear: for, with the Lord's help, he will overcome.

(Verse 1.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying. This is not found in the Seventy, but is added under asterisks from the edition of Theodotion, who interpreted the Hebrew word CARATH (קראת), for which we said "cry," or "proclaim," as "read." For it signifies, by its ambiguity, both reading and crying and proclaiming.

Now we ought to take "the ears of Jerusalem" for the ears of its inhabitants. (Verse 2.) Thus says the Lord: I have remembered you, pitying your youth and the love of your espousal: when you followed me in the desert, in a land that is not sown. LXX: Thus says the Lord: I have remembered the mercy of your youth, and the love of your perfection. This is said more fully in Ezekiel, when the Lord joins Jerusalem to himself in marriage, and under the persona of a wife, unites her to his embraces; or, to show a more ardent affection, he calls her a girl, and a young maiden, and betrothed. For what we have not yet obtained, we desire more that we may obtain it. When, he says, you followed me in the wilderness; and, as it were, in place of the wedding-gifts and the dowry, I distributed to you the ornaments of the Law and the necklaces of words.

And he refers all this not to her merit, but to his own mercy, through which she also obtained charity. This too, which we have set down, "in the desert, in a land that is not sown," is not found in the LXX. (Verse 3.) Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his produce: all who devour him shall be guilty; evils shall come upon them, says the Lord. When it calls Israel the firstfruits of the Lord's produce, it shows that the people gathered from the Gentiles exists after the firstfruits; according to that which is written elsewhere: Remember your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. Now the firstfruits are always owed to the priests, and not to enemies.

What follows: All who devour him shall be guilty; evils shall come upon them, says the Lord, has this sense: Just as those who devour the firstfruits, if not of the priestly line, are guilty of a crime: so those who defile Israel shall be subjected to evils; according to that which holy David speaks in the twenty-sixth psalm: While the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh: my enemies who trouble me, they themselves have been weakened and have fallen. For they will not be immune from punishment merely because they carry out the sentence of God, and evils come upon them: for it must needs be that scandals come; but woe to that man through whom the scandal comes. (Verses 4, 5.) Hear the word of the Lord, house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

This same sense another prophet also attests: My people, what have I done to you, and in what have I troubled you? Answer me: for I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered you from the house of bondage. Now both names, Jacob and Israel, are set down, not according to the two tribes and the ten, but with reference to the whole people: since Jacob himself was afterward called Israel. Now he traces the offense from the fathers, not so that the sins of the fathers are imputed to the children, but so that the children too, bearing a likeness to their fathers, are punished both for their own crime and for their parents'. We often read that God has mercy on children for the sake of holy fathers.

Now the fathers of the sinning people forsook God; and not for a short time, but for a long time: and instead of God they followed vanity, namely idols, which profit their worshippers nothing: and they themselves became like them, according to that which is written: Those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.

Verse 6. And they did not say, Where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt: who led us through the desert, through a land uninhabitable and pathless: through a land of thirst and the image of death, through a land where no man walked, nor did any man dwell there. For "man," the Seventy translated "son of man"; and for "image of death," Theodotion added, "shadow of death." Although this is clear according to the history, we must consider it also according to anagoge, that as long as we are in this age, and are being brought out of Egypt, we ascend little by little, and first we pass through deserts and an uninhabitable land, which the holy man ought not to inhabit, and pathless, to show the difficulty of the journey.

Through a land of thirst, where we always desire greater things, and are not content with what is present; and the image, or shadow, of death: for we always stand in peril, and everywhere the devil sets his snares: through a land in which no man walked, that is, one who is of perfect age in Christ. For we shall all rise again into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Nor does he ever dwell in it who is the man of God, or the son of man; but he always hastens toward greater things. From this it is clear that perfection is not in the way: but in the end of the way, and in the mansion which is prepared for the saints in the heavens, and to whom it is said: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

In vain, therefore, does the new heresy suspect, out of the old, that perfect victory is here, where there is battle and struggle, and an uncertain outcome of future things.

Verse 7. And I brought you into a land of Carmel, that you might eat the fruit thereof and the good things thereof: and you entered and defiled my land; and you made my inheritance an abomination. For the labor of the very hard journey, I gave you an abundance of all things. For this is what Carmel signifies, which in Hebrew is called CHERMEL (כרמל), and in our tongue means "knowledge of circumcision." Now just as that people polluted and defiled the holy land, fruitful in all things, with idolatry: so we, having received the knowledge of true circumcision, eat its fruits; and if negligence creeps in, we defile the land of God, and make his inheritance abominable.

Verse 8. The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who held my Law did not know me: and the shepherds transgressed against me: and the Prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols. After such great benefits they turned the privileges of their dignity into contempt: so that priests did not seek the Lord; so that teachers of the Law were ignorant of him whom they ought to have taught to others; and shepherds became transgressors through negligence; and the Prophets, who disputed among the peoples, spoke not to God, but to an idol, and venerated their own figments. These words must be used against the teachers of our own order too, who devour the people of God like the bread they eat, and through their evil works do not invoke the Lord.

Verse 9. Therefore I will yet contend with you in judgment, says the Lord: and I will plead with your children. Lest he seem to strike by power alone, he contends with the fathers as it were by reason; according to what David sings and the Apostle uses: That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged. And by putting "yet," he testifies that he has often done this before: and by adding, "with your children," he shows a like obstinacy also in the children of the wicked. He also secretly signifies that even their children followed the ancient denial of God, at the coming of the Lord.

Verse 10. Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send unto Cedar, and consider diligently, and see if such a thing has been done: if a nation has changed its gods (or its own gods). And yet these are not gods at all: but my people has changed its glory into an idol (or into that from which nothing will profit it). He makes a comparison of a thing that is incomparable, and compares the true God to lying things. Go, he says, to the isles of Cethim: which we ought to understand either as Italy, or the western regions: from the fact that the island of Cyprus, in which a city is named by this name, lies near to the land of Judea. From it also came Zeno, prince of the Stoics. Cedar, however, is a region of the wilderness and of the Ishmaelites, whom they now call Saracens: against which a prophecy of this same prophet is woven at the very end of his book (Below, at ch.

49), and of whom David makes mention, saying: I have dwelt among the inhabitants of Cedar: my soul has long been a sojourner. And the sense is: Either go to the West, or send into the wilderness, and see if any nation has done what you have done. For none of them has spurned its own gods, nor exchanged wooden and stone ones for gold ones by comparison: but, following its ancient error, has held to what it received from its ancestors. And this is certain, since none of these is a god at all: but images of men, made with fashioned hand. But my people has exchanged truth for a lie: and has preferred an idol to me, which in time of need will be unable to profit them. We may say this also against those who follow vices with greater zeal than virtues; whom the Apostle warns, saying: I speak in human terms, because of the weakness of your flesh.

For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity: so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.

Verse 12. Be astonished, O heavens, at this: and be very desolate, O gates thereof, says the Lord. For my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water: they have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. The Seventy: the heaven was astonished at this, and shuddered exceedingly and very much, and the rest similarly. The heaven, to which it was said: Give heed, O heaven, and I will speak: and, Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, seeing the precepts of God trampled underfoot, shudders, and cannot conceal its amazement. For every creature groans and grieves together over the sins of men. Now the people of God did two adverse things. First, that it forsook God who is the fountain of life, and who gave the commandment saying: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Second, that which is written in the same place: You shall have no gods before me; instead of which it followed demons, whom he calls broken cisterns, because they are unable to keep God's commandments. And this should be noted, that the fountain is perpetual, and has living waters. But cisterns and pools are filled either from torrents, or from muddy waters, from the earth and from rains. He calls the "gates of the heavens" those of which it is written also in the twenty-third psalm: Lift up your heads, O gates, and the King of glory shall come in. For which the Seventy translated: Lift up your gates, O princes: about which more shall be said in its proper place. And let no one be troubled that Aquila and Symmachus translate "heavens," but the Seventy and Theodotion "heaven": for the Hebrew SAMAIM (שמים) is of the common number, and is called by the same name whether "heavens" or "heaven," just as Thebes, Athens, and Salona.

Verse 14. Is Israel a servant, or a home-born slave? I think it is from this passage that the Jews, being lifted up into pride, said to the Savior: We are the seed of Abraham, and have never served anyone. How do you say, You shall be free? Not knowing that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin: and that each one is a servant to that by which he is overcome. Born, therefore, of Abraham, the friend of God, they became through their own fault as it were sons of Ham, to whom it was said: Cursed be Canaan, he shall be a servant to his brothers.

Verse 15. Why then has he become a prey? The lions roared upon him, and uttered their voice: they have laid his land waste: his cities are burned, and there is none to dwell in them. The divine word asks a question, that it may itself answer it. He calls "lions" the princes of Babylon, who laid his land waste, and destroyed his cities by fire. Or indeed, according to anagoge, let us understand by "lions" the adversary powers, or the leaders of the heretics, who, laying waste the land of the Church, devastated all her cities with heretical fire, and with that fire of which it is written: All adulterers, their hearts are like an oven. For they truly utter their voice; and in this same prophet, under the figure of the partridge, they cry out: They gather what they have not brought forth: and make riches not with judgment.

And her cities were laid waste and destroyed for this reason: because they do not have God as their inhabitant, Scripture saying: And there is none to dwell in them.

Verse 16. The sons also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have defiled you even to the crown of your head. Has not this been done to you, because you forsook the Lord your God at the time when he was leading you in the way? What we have said, "at the time when he was leading you in the way," is not found in the Seventy. He names two very great cities of Egypt, Memphis and Tahpanhes, and says that their sons defiled Israel even to the crown of the head; in that sense in which Isaiah put it: From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it. For such was the lust of the Egyptians, who are men of great flesh, that they spared no member: but defiled everything. According to the letter this refers to the idols of the Egyptians; according to spiritual understanding, to the teachers of perverse doctrine, who pollute the purity of the Church with their own vileness.

And this happens to her because she forsook the Lord her God; and especially at that time when she ought most to have followed him, her guide.

Verse 18. And now what do you want in the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Sihor? And what do you want in the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river? For "Sihor" (שחור), we have translated "turbid," which the Hebrew word signifies: for which the common edition has "Geon." Since he had above spoken of the sons of Memphis and Tahpanhes, who defiled Israel even to the crown of the head: now he names Egypt itself more plainly. There is no doubt that the Nile has turbid waters; and that "the river of the Assyrians" signifies the Euphrates, since Scripture says that the promised land extends from the river of Egypt as far as the great river Euphrates.

Now those who forsake Christ, the fountain of life, and dig for themselves the cisterns of heretics, which cannot hold the waters of doctrines, must necessarily fall prey to the lions, who reduce their land to a wilderness, and destroy all the churches: and be defiled even to the crown of the head, and drink turbid waters, and the streams of the Assyrian river and of the North, whence evils blaze up over the earth.

Verse 19. Your own wickedness will reprove you (or your transgression will instruct you), and your turning away will rebuke you. Know and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing, that you have forsaken the Lord your God: and that the fear of me is not with you, says the Lord God of hosts. It should be noted that wickedness, or transgression, after it has satiated the transgressor, and, like quails, has come even to nausea, instructs the one who does penance: to whom it is commanded to see what he has left, and what he has followed; and how, spurning good and sweet things, he chose evil and bitter ones. Now all this happened because he forsook the Lord his God, and the fear of him is not with him. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: which, because he did not have, he is handed over to evil and bitterness.

Verse 20. Of old you have broken my yoke (or your yoke), you have burst my bonds (or your bonds); and you said, I will not serve. For upon every high hill, and under every leafy tree, you did lay yourself down as a harlot (or there you gave yourself over to fornication). He speaks to Israel as to a harlot, because she broke the marriage covenant, and said, I will not serve: understand, "her lord," or "her husband": but upon every high hill, and under every leafy tree, she was prostrated in idolatry. For pleasant and lofty places are always dedicated to idols.

This can also be said of one who, from the beginning a Christian, and instructed in part in the sacred Letters, afterward, through desire for secular literature, which is signified by the hills, and for pleasant eloquence, which is shown by the leafy trees, prostrates himself to demons: who, under the pretext of learning and lofty knowledge, defile the souls of believers and make them spread their feet for every passer-by. (Verse 21.) But I planted you a chosen vine, wholly a true seed: how then have you turned into the depravity of a strange vine to me? LXX: But I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true: how have you turned into bitterness, a strange vine? For "fruit-bearing" or "chosen vine," the Hebrew has SOREC (שורק), which is also found in the song of Isaiah.

It is a kind of choicest vine: with this shoot the Lord says he planted Israel also; and he marvels how the true seed and chosen vine could be turned into bitterness: and so become a strange vine; and no one is safe, if even the planting of the Lord, and the true seed, and the vine Sorech can, by its own fault, be so changed that through bitterness it withdraws from the Lord, and becomes a strange vine. And here the clemency of the Savior is to be considered, that he who said in the Gospel: "I am the true vine", also gave to his disciples, and to the people believing in him, that it might be a chosen or true vine, if it should wish to remain in that in which it was planted. (Verse 22.) If you wash yourself with nitre, and multiply for yourself the herb Borith, you are stained in your iniquity before me: says the Lord God.

For the herb BORITH (ברית), which we have translated as it is placed in the Hebrew, the LXX rendered πόαν, so as to signify the fullers' herb, which, according to the custom of the province of Palestine, grows in green and moist places: and it has the same power for washing away filth as nitre does. Now our nitre, and the fullers' herb, is penitence. Also ecclesiastical speech, which reproves and rebukes and corrects offenders, has the likeness of a more biting nitre. But he who is stained with a slight filth of sins is cleansed by lighter admonitions. Moreover grave sins, which draw one to death, cannot be washed away either by nitre or by the herb Borith: but they need harsher torments. For the work of each one, of what sort it is, the fire shall test, and it shall be revealed in fire. And beautifully he added: You are stained in your iniquity in my sight: because even if you should seem clean to men, you are not clean to me, who know the consciences of each.

Whence also it is said in another place: No living being shall be justified in your sight. (Verse 23.) How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals? See your ways in the valley. Or "vale," which in Hebrew is called GE, and is translated by the LXX as πολυάνδριον, which in our language can be called "the burial-place of a multitude." In vain, he says, do you refuse to confess your crimes, and boast of a cleanness, you who are defiled with the filth of idolatry; and shamelessly deny that you have worshipped the idol Baal (below, ch. 19). Look upon the valley of the sons of Hinnom, which is watered by the springs of Siloah, and there you will see the temple of Baal, whom, the true God being abandoned, you have venerated. And what is added: know what you have done, opens the closed eyes of the one who denies, so that she may see what she is ashamed to look upon.

Following the tropological sense, let us reprove by their works the shamelessness of those who refuse to confess their vices. For men of this sort do not walk in the narrow and strait way that leads to life, but in the broad and spacious one, by which many enter, which leads to death. Whence it is also meaningfully named πολυάνδριον, or, according to the historical sense, because there the multitude of the people was slain and destroyed by the evil of idolatry. (Verse 24.) A swift runner spreading out her ways: a wild ass accustomed to the wilderness, in the desire of her soul she drew in the wind of her love: none shall turn her away: all who seek her shall not fail. In her months they shall find her. LXX: At evening her voice howled, she spread out her ways over the waters of the wilderness, in the desire of her soul she was carried by the spirit: she has been given up: who shall convert her?

All who seek her shall not labor: and in her humiliation they shall find her. The LXX edition greatly differs from the Hebrew truth in this passage: yet each has its own sense. Because above he said, I am not defiled; and as if speaking to a woman who had conducted herself basely, he describes her fornication.

How, he says, like a swift roe (which we, by a common term, called "runner," and more meaningfully Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion rendered δρομὰς κούφη, "a light courser"), she spreads out her ways, and is carried swiftly to pasture: and just as the wild ass accustomed to the wilderness draws in, in the desire of her soul, the wind or spirit of her love (for among the Hebrews one word, RUA רוח, means both "wind" and "spirit"), so also Israel, or Jerusalem, was carried with full impetus toward the desire of lust, and burned with the love of all idols: and there is no one who by his admonitions can turn her from this impetus: not because the impossibility of the thing prevented the prophets, but because of the perverse malice of the one desiring it. Whoever, he says, shall seek her, shall not labor greatly. In her menstruation and in her uncleanness they shall find her.

For which Aquila has νεομηνίαν, that is, "the kalends" (new moon), Symmachus, "the month," the LXX and Theodotion have interpreted it as "humility." Now according to the LXX the sense here is: The harlot Jerusalem, like that woman described in Proverbs, howled with her voice at evening, and provoked lovers to lust, opened the ways of her baseness, and spread her feet for every passer-by. Now there was a place having the pleasantness of flowing waters, which becomes more delightful when there is solitude round about, so that no one may see the one committing fornication. In the desire, he says, of her soul she was πνευματοφορεῖτο, "borne by the spirit," either led by a perverse spirit, or drawing to herself the refreshment of love: or else singing songs of her own baseness.

She has been given up, he says, to her vices and to lust: no one will be able to convert her: all who wish to find her will find her in the lowliness of her baseness: so that she can never be satisfied by the love of pleasure. (Verse 25.) Keep your foot from nakedness, and your throat from thirst: and you said, I have despaired, I will not do it: for I have loved strangers, and after them I will walk. LXX: Turn your foot from the rough way, and your throat from thirst: she who said, I will act manfully, since I have loved strangers, and I have walked after them. Those about to keep the Passover are commanded to have sandals on their feet. And the Apostle proclaims the feet shod of those who are prepared for the Gospel: lest, while they walk through the wilderness of this age, they lie open to venomous creatures, which must be trodden and crushed by the evangelical foot.

We keep the throat from thirst, when we fulfill the precepts of the Savior who says: Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink. She who, out of the despair of evils, denied that she would do what the Lord commanded, and set forth the reason, saying: I have loved strangers, and I will follow them: thinking by a shameless confession to avoid her crimes. Moreover, according to the LXX, the way of sinners is rough, which is turned by the Lord into a level path. Whoever follows the heretics should be marked with the epithet of these verses; that he should have said, I have despaired, or, I will act manfully in my evil purpose, and I will be strengthened in my error.

Now it is necessary that whoever follows a teaching foreign to the Church should love strangers; and follow their footsteps, whether of demons, or of the leaders of the heretics, who are strangers to God. (Verses 26, 27.) As a thief is confounded when he is caught, so is the house of Israel confounded: they and their kings, their princes and their priests, and their prophets. Although the face of thieves be shameless and impudent, yet it blushes when caught in the theft. So Israel too, saying to the wood, You are my father: and to the stone, You have begotten me; so that they called their parents those whom they themselves had fashioned, is confounded when caught in his idolatry. And lest we think he says this of the common people: he sets down kings and princes, and their priests and prophets. Let us use this testimony against our own princes, and against those who are thought leaders in the Church, when they have been caught in shameful sins.

They have turned their back to me, and not their face. Those who cast the words of God behind them turn against him their back and not their face. For when a teacher gives a command, it is the mark of an obedient one if he listens with head bowed toward him. But if he turns his back, it is a sign of one who despises; as it is written in another place: And they turned to me a shoulder withdrawing. To such an extent, says God, have they despised my precepts, that they were unwilling even to listen, but showed the swelling of their mind by the gesture of their body.

And in the time of their affliction they shall say: Arise, and deliver us. Those who did not perceive God through his benefits shall perceive him through torments. (Verse 28.) Where are your gods, whom you made for yourself? Let them arise and deliver you in the time of your affliction. It is a shameless demand, in a time of necessity and distress, to seek help from him whom they despised in peace. And it is to be read with the affect of one reproving: let your gods, whom you made for yourself, deliver you: so that, since God is the Creator of men, and man has made a god, necessity may prove what those can do whom you formerly worshipped without concern.

According to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah. Either the same gods, or single and different ones, each city worshipped: so that they might not seem to have any consensus even in impiety: but superstition, warring against itself, followed a diverse error. And what follows, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal, was added by the LXX. (Verse 29.) Why will you contend with me in judgment? You have all forsaken me, says the Lord. Human perversity is prone to excuse itself, so that whatever it justly suffers, it seems to suffer unjustly; and refers its own fault to the judgment of God. In vain, he says, do you set forth complaints, and bring an unjust cause before the judge, since it is by reason of your own impiety that you suffer. And what follows: And you have all dealt wickedly against me, was added by the LXX. (Verse 30.) In vain have I struck your children: they received no discipline.

For which the LXX have "you did not receive." And the sense in the Hebrew is: They who were struck were unwilling to receive discipline. But in the LXX: Therefore have I struck your children, that by their death you might be instructed. And lest perhaps you should say: You were unwilling to correct sinners, learn from the blows of your own children, that I wished to cure you with a harsher medicine.

Your sword has devoured your prophets. Not my prophets, but yours: it was in no way my sword, but your sword that devoured, which you endured for your sins. Moreover the LXX do not have "your": but they simply rendered "the sword devoured the prophets"; so as to show either the hostile sword, or my sword, by which your sins were pierced through.

Your generation is like a ravaging lion. LXX: Like a ravaging lion, and you did not fear. The sword, he says, which devoured your prophets—there is no doubt it signifies Baal and the soothsayers of the idols—laid everything waste like a lion: and yet your generation, which ought to have been corrected by the death of a few, persisted wholly in crime. But according to the LXX the sense here is: Thus the sword of the Lord, which pointed out the sword of the adversaries, devoured and tore your false prophets, like a lion which tears the most eager prey it has found, and yet not even by the punishment of your prophets were you able to be turned to better things. (Verse 31.) See the word of the Lord: Have I become a wilderness to Israel, or a land of late fruits? Why then has my people said, We have withdrawn, we will come to you no more?

LXX: Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord: Have I become a wilderness to Israel: or a land full of thorns: because my people say, We will not serve, nor will we come to you? And Moses saw the voice of God, and John the apostle says he saw and touched the word of God. He marvels, however, how the people of Israel could have held God as it were a wilderness, when they followed the idols as it were the festivity of cities. It is a land of late fruits, which does not receive the rains of teachings, nor the discipline of the Gospel; and full of thorns, because it had not been cultivated. Therefore the people once of God is the more criminal in this, that it withdrew from the Lord, and no longer wishes to return to its Lord. It is a great offense to be unwilling to appease him whom you have offended. (Verse 32.) Can a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride the fastening of her breast-band?

My people have forgotten me for innumerable days. By these words we learn that Christ is the bridegroom of the virgin Church, who has neither spot nor wrinkle. And if he himself is the bridegroom, these are his own words, concerning whom John the Baptist speaks: He who has the bride is the bridegroom. Therefore he loses his ornament who withdraws from the Lord, and loses the understanding of the teachings, which is signified in the breast. Whence also John the Evangelist reclines upon the breast of the Lord, and to the priests, among other things, the breast of the victims is set apart.

But the greater the number of the times in which we forget the Lord, the greater the penalty of the sin, which could not be tamed even by the length of ages. (Verses 33, 34.) Why do you strive to show your way good in order to seek love, seeing that you have moreover taught your ways even to evil women: and in your wings (or in your hands) has been found the blood of poor and innocent souls. I did not find them in ditches (or pits): but in all these things (or under every oak). In vain, he says, do you desire to defend yourself by the artifice of words, and to show your works as though good, that you might merit love: seeing that you have moreover even taught your ways to others, and have been an example to all of evil works, and indeed in your wings, or in your hands, has been found the blood of the innocent, whom you sacrificed to idols, or whose souls you destroyed under the appearance of sacrifices.

We have put "poor" from the Hebrew, which is not found in the Septuagint. These poor and innocent, he says, I did not find slain in pits, which is what commonly happens through the ambushes of robbers: but in all the things which I have mentioned above, or under an oak, which in Hebrew is called ELLA (אלה): which word indeed also signifies "these things"; so that the sense is: In all these things, or under the oak, and the terebinth, under whose shade and foliage, as though in pleasant places, you indulged in the crimes of idolatry. (Verses 35, 36.) And you have said: I am without sin and innocent: and therefore let your fury be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said, I have not sinned: how exceedingly vile you have become (or how exceedingly you have despised) repeating your ways.

This is to be used against those who are unwilling to acknowledge their sins: but in the time of affliction and distress say that they suffer unjustly what they suffer, and provoke the wrath of God the more, since it is another and a greater sin not to mourn what they have done, but to put forward vain excuses for their sins. I will contend, he says, with you in judgment because you have said, I have not sinned: as though it were a greater thing, to have one thing in the conscience, another to utter in speech. Let the new heresy, sprung from the old, hear that it is the very greatest wrath of God, to be unwilling to confess sin humbly, but shamelessly to boast of righteousness. (Verse 37.) And you shall be confounded by Egypt, as you were confounded by Assyria: for you shall go forth from that one too, and your hands shall be upon your head: because the Lord has crushed your confidence (or hope), and you shall have nothing prosperous in it.

In order to escape the assault of the Egyptians, they used to flee for refuge to the Assyrians, whose protection was in vain, for we read that they were conquered by the Egyptians. Again, in order to flee the wrath of the Assyrians, they used to make use of the aid of the Egyptians, whom, the history relates, were overcome by the Assyrians. They are rebuked, therefore, because, having abandoned hope in the Lord, they make use of the help of men, which is wholly crushed and so overthrown that they can find no benefit in it. Whence he says: And you shall go forth from that one, that is, from Egypt, as you went forth from the Assyrians; and your hands shall be upon your head, and you shall mourn that you vainly expected protection from the Egyptians. Let us recall the history, when Tamar, corrupted and violated by her most wicked brother Amnon, placed her hands upon her head strewn with ashes, and so returned to her house.

(Verse 1.) It is commonly said (for which the Septuagint translated only "they have said"). If a man shall have put away his wife, and she, departing from him, shall have married another man: shall he return to her any more? Shall not that woman be polluted and defiled (or that land)? And you have played the harlot with many lovers (or shepherds). For the word REIM (רעים), which is written with four letters RESH, AYIN, YOD, MEM, signifies both lovers and shepherds. And if we read REIM, it signifies lovers; if ROIM, shepherds.

Yet return to me, says the Lord (or, you were returning to me, says the Lord). In the Hebrew, even after fornication, he receives the penitent one, and exhorts her to return to himself. But in the Septuagint, he does not call to penitence, but rebukes the shamelessness of the harlot, in that after adultery she dares to return to her husband. And as for what he says: and that woman shall be defiled, for which in the Hebrew we read "the land," he leaves an example, and speaks more plainly of the land of Israel, which is compared to an adulterous woman. Let us use this testimony against those who, abandoning the faith of the Lord, and entangled in the errors of heretics, after many fornications and deceptions of souls, pretend to return to the former truth: not that they may lay aside the poison of their heart, but that they may insinuate it into others. (Verse 2.) Lift up your eyes toward the straight way, and see where you have not been prostituted.

You sat in the ways waiting for them like a robber in the wilderness (or like a deserted crow). Instead of "robber," or "crow," in the Hebrew is written ARABI ערבי, which can also signify "Arabs," a people given to robbery, which even to this day makes incursions on the borders of Palestine, and besets the roads for those going down from Jerusalem to Jericho: a matter which the Lord also recalls in the Gospel. Lift up, therefore, your eyes, O Jerusalem, and look about you here and there, and see where you have not been prostituted by fornication. For just as robbers are wont toward evening and in desert places to lay ambushes for travelers: so you, like the harlot of Proverbs, sat in the ways toward evening, that by your coupling you might kill the souls of those who fornicated with you: on account of which the whole earth has been polluted by your fornications.

And significantly, according to the anagogical sense, it is enjoined upon those who promise to abandon heretical errors, that they lift up their eyes toward the straight way. For unless they begin to see straight things, they cannot condemn their former depravity. (Verses 2, 3.) And you have polluted (or slain) the land with your fornications, and with your evils: wherefore the drops of the rains have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain (or, and you have had many shepherds to your own offense). The land is slain, or polluted, because of the imperfection of those who perished through the fornication of idolatry. Whence has been taken away the blessing of all things, that they might suffer drought of the word of God. Or, it had shepherds through whom it offended God; so that those who ought to have been teachers, to restrain others from error, became instead the authors of impiety.

The forehead of a harlot woman has become yours, you were not willing to blush. Septuagint: The face of a harlot has become yours: you have become without shame toward all. Because above (on chap. Ii, 35) he had said: I have not sinned, and had sinned the more by denying her crimes: therefore he now accuses her as a shameless woman of excessive impudence: so that she is not carried with a bold face to one or another only, but blushes before none. Let us use this saying against the assembly of heretics, who glory in their errors. (Verses 4, 5.) Wilt thou not therefore at least from this time call me, My Father, thou art the guide of my virginity: shalt thou be angry forever, or wilt thou persevere to the end? Let heretics blush who are unwilling to be converted to better things, nor to return to the Father their Creator, and let them hear: At least from now call me, My Father, thou art the guide of my virginity.

He himself betrothed your soul in his embraces, and teaches how one ought to pray, and to do penance. But by how much more merciful is he, who after fornication shows the way of salvation: by so much more wretched is the harlot, who is unwilling after her wounds to receive healing.

Behold, you have spoken, and have done evil things, and you were able to. Instead of words of penitence, you blasphemed with words of pride: and you fulfilled your evil thought, and showed your strength against the man, that you might be able to do what you had discussed in speech. (Verse 6 and following.) And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what she has done, the turncoat Israel? She went to herself upon every high mountain, and under every leafy tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, when she had done all these things: Return to me, and she did not return.

And her treacherous sister Judah saw, that because the turncoat Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce, and the treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot herself also, and by the ease of her fornication defiled the land, and committed adultery with stone and wood: and in all these things her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood, says the Lord. The torments of some are the remedies of others. When a murderer is punished, he himself indeed receives what he has done; but others are deterred from crime.

The ten tribes, therefore, which were called Israel, having been captured by the Assyrians, and transferred to Media, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who ought to have feared similar things, and to have turned to God with their whole mind, surpassed the crimes of the ten tribes: and followed idols to such an extent, that they set up a statue of Baal in the Temple of God, which is called in Ezekiel the idol set up to provoke the zeal and jealousy of the Lord. He speaks, however, under the figure of two sisters, because they were both begotten of the one stock of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he calls the first one turncoat, the following one treacherous. For the former turned away from God completely, at once adoring the golden calves in Dan and Bethel. But the latter, with whom was the Temple and the religion of the true God, in imitation of her sister, gradually withdrew from the Lord. And therefore she is called treacherous.

But according to the anagogical sense, this is prophecy concerning heretics: who, while they think themselves to be pursuing, by heretical subtlety, a knowledge falsely so called, ascend the mountain of pride: and, given over to the pleasures of this flesh, expose their fornication under every leafy and pleasant tree. And when they are handed over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh, it frequently happens that the house of Judah, that is, of confession and true faith, is by no means terrified by the example, but commits far greater sins; and by the ease of her fornication defiles the land of the Church, commits adultery with stone and wood, following those doctrines which are opposed to God.

But if some man of the Church should wish to correct the one who errs, and to cut away the paternal flesh, and to draw back to penitence those who have followed falsehood: and nevertheless those others, under the appearance of ecclesiastical truth, follow the ancient error, it can be said of them: In all these things her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood. This prophecy, moreover, is made in the days of Josiah, a just king, under whom Jeremiah began to prophesy. (Verse 11.) And the Lord said to me: The turncoat Israel has justified her soul in comparison with the treacherous Judah. Israel, he says, is more just in comparison with Judah: because the former perished at once in the beginning, but the latter could be corrected by her sufferings. The new heresy, sprung from the old, testifies to this, that Israel is said to be justified in comparison with Judah.

Nor is it strange that this should be said of the sisters of one nation, since even Sodom, in comparison with Jerusalem, receives the name of righteousness, the Lord saying through Ezekiel: Sodom is justified in comparison with you: and the publican is made just in comparison with the Pharisee. (Verses 12ff.) Go, and cry (or read) these words toward the North, and say: Return, thou backslider Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away (or fix) my face from you (or upon you), for I am holy (or merciful), saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever. Only acknowledge thy iniquity, for thou hast prevaricated (or acted impiously) against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered (or poured out) thy ways to strangers under every leafy tree, and thou hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.

The Hebrew word CARATH (קרא) means both "call," "cry," and "read." Whence Aquila and Symmachus translated "cry aloud"; the Septuagint and Theodotion translated "read." Now the word is directed toward the North and against Babylon and the Assyrians, to the ten and two tribes; and their return is foretold. And I will not turn away my face, he says, from you; or I will not fix my face against you, so that I will receive you not with the austerity of judgment, but with the countenance of mercy. For I am holy and merciful, so that I will remember your iniquity no more, nor recall that you departed from the Lord, and that idols delighted you in his stead, and that you played the harlot under every shady and leafy tree. This indeed can be said of heretics and of those negligent within the Church, who are daily called to repentance by churchmen: and to whom this can properly be applied, And you have not heard my voice.

Now every heretic dwells in the North, and has lost the warmth of faith, and cannot hear that saying of the Apostle: Fervent in spirit. And because he has given himself over to pleasures, he has departed from the Lord, and has scattered his ways among foreign doctrines, and has followed pleasure. For no heresy is constructed except for the sake of gluttony and the belly, that it may seduce silly women laden with sins, always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth, of whom it is truly said: Who devour my people as they eat bread: and whom Christ marks out, devouring the houses of widows. And when, he says, I shall have had mercy on you, do not think yourself righteous: but remember always your iniquity, and know that you have played the harlot against the Lord: and bow down the neck of your pride, so that you who offended the Lord through arrogance may please him through humility.

But to that people applies what we said above: And I will not fix my face upon you—that prophetic saying is fitting: Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. (Verses 14ff.) Return to me, ye wandering children (or vagrant and departing ones), saith the Lord: for I am your husband (or your ruler), and I will take you, one out of a city, and two out of a family, and I will bring you into Zion, and I will give you shepherds according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine. And when you shall have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, the ark of the covenant (or Testament) of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, nor shall they remember it, nor shall it be visited, nor shall it be made any more.

The Jews think this was fulfilled after the return from Babylon under Cyrus king of the Persians, and Zorobabel son of Salathiel, even though not all returned—this being signified: that he takes one out of a city and two out of a family. But it is better understood of the coming of Christ, when the remnant was made safe, as the Apostle says and explains: Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and should have been made like unto Gomorrah; then were they brought into Zion, of which it is written: Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.

And shepherds were given according to his own heart, the Apostles and apostolic men, and they bring forth a multitude of believers, not in Jewish ceremonies, but in the knowledge and doctrine of Christ, and with the preaching of the Gospel sown throughout the whole world; they will place no trust in the ark of the Lord, which was the guardian of the Mosaic law; but they themselves shall be the temple of God: nor, after the manner of the erring Nazarenes, shall they, with sacrifices abolished, continue in service, but shall pursue spiritual worship. Others, however, understand this of the end of time, when, the fullness of the Gentiles having come in, all Israel shall be saved. (Verse 17.) At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall not walk any more after the wickedness of their most evil heart.

The Lord shall in no wise sit upon the ark of the Testament and the Cherubim, of which it was formerly said by that people: Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, shine forth: but all who believe with a perfect mind shall be the throne of God. Or certainly it is better understood entirely of the Church: when all nations are gathered together in the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, in which is the vision of peace: and they walk no more after the wickedness of their most evil heart, so as to do what they desire, nor do they follow their own errors; but they say with the Prophet: My soul hath cleaved to thee: thy right hand hath upheld me. (Verse 18.) In those days the house of Judah shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the North to the land which I gave to your fathers.

This is properly fulfilled at the coming of Christ, when out of all twelve tribes together they believed the Gospel, leaving the land of the North of harshest cold: and departing from the dominion of the devil, then they received the land of promise, which he had promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I have recently published a small book on the land of promise. (Verse 19.) But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a desirable land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the Gentiles? And I said, Thou shalt call me Father, and shalt not cease to go after me. Instead of "a goodly heritage of the hosts of the Gentiles," which the Septuagint translated, Theodotion translated more significantly, "a renowned heritage of the strength of the mightiest of the Gentiles," signifying Christ, who is the leader and Lord of all nations, of those who believe in his name and passion. He himself said to Israel: Thou shalt call me Father.

And: He who believes in me, believes in the Father. He himself promised: I will put thee among the children: that is, in the number of my children, who have believed in me from the people of the Gentiles; and to whom I have given the desirable land. For as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God. (Verse 20.) But as if a woman should despise her lover: so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord. This is the voice of Christ regarding the people of the Jews, to whom he had said: I will put thee among the children: and I will give thee a desirable land: and thou shalt call me Father, and shalt not cease to go after me.

How, he says, does a woman despise, not a husband, but a lover, if once she has been joined with him, seeing him serving her own lust, and the law of nature changed in her, by which she had once been subject to a husband, the Lord saying: And thy conversion shall be toward thee: so the house of Israel, that is, the people of the Jews, despised the Lord the Savior to their own destruction. (Verses 21, 22.) A voice was heard in the ways (or on the lips), the weeping and howling of the children of Israel, because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, O revolting children, and I will heal your revoltings (or contritions); instead of which Symmachus translated, conversions. God willingly receives the penitent, and runs to meet the son worn out by want and squalor, and at once clothes him with the former garments, and restores glory to the one returning: provided only that he returns with weeping and howling.

For by his own fault he made his way wicked, and forgot the Lord his God and Father, to whom he speaks in prophetic words: Return, O revolting children. Whom I therefore call children, because, having understood your sins, you return with weeping and howling to your parent. And when you, he says, shall have returned to the Lord, he will heal all your contritions, or revoltings, by which you had departed from the Lord, or certainly your conversions. For although we return to the Lord of our own will: yet unless he draws us, and strengthens our desire by his own support, we cannot be saved. Let us understand this both of the people of the Jews returning to the Lord, and of the heretics who have forsaken the Lord. (Verse 23.) Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God. Truly the hills and the multitude (or the strength) of the mountains were a lie: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

Let the penitent say this, one who abandons all pride, and the multitude or height of the mountains and hills, by which he was proud against God: and, humbled and prostrate, let him say: Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. (Verse 24.) Confusion hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth: their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. All the labors of the heretics, of whom it is written, They have failed that sought with searching, from the youth of those whom they had deceived, their sons and daughters, who had advanced in heresy, or were held merely by luxury—our confusion has overwhelmed. Whence they add: (Verse 25.) We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us: because we have sinned against our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day: and we have not heard the voice of the Lord our God.

Let Israel say this, who did not hear his Lord: let every heretic who does penance say this; and yet it is part of salvation to confess and to know one's own sins. Declare, he says, thy iniquities first, that thou mayest be justified. For truly Israel dismissed Christ the Lord his God, and sinned against him, not only at that time when he was seen in the flesh, but also before his coming. Whence they say, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not heard the voice of our God, who spoke to our fathers: If you believed Moses, you would believe me also: for he wrote of me.

(Verse 1.) If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me. Instead of which the Septuagint translated: If Israel be converted, saith the Lord, he shall be converted to me. And the sense is, if he shall have returned to me, he shall return from captivity. Or otherwise: when he shall offer what he has: For he who has, to him shall be given; but he who has not, even that which he seems to have shall be taken away from him. Further, according to the Hebrew the sense here is: If thou return to me, Israel, and once desiring salvation, thou sayest that thou hast sinned, and hast not heard the voice of the Lord thy God, be converted fully, and believe in him whom thou hast denied, and then there will be a full conversion.

If thou wilt take away thy stumbling-blocks out of my sight, thou shalt not be moved. When we are moved and say: But my feet were almost moved, we do not suffer this from weakness of nature, but because we set up stumbling-blocks and our idols against the Lord. (Verse 2.) And thou shalt swear, As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him. And how does the Gospel forbid us to swear? But here, "thou shalt swear" is said in the sense of confession, and for the condemnation of the idols, by which Israel used to swear. In fact, the stumbling-blocks are taken away, and he swears by the Lord. And the phrase, As the Lord liveth, in the Old Testament is an oath, for the condemnation of the dead, by whom every idolater swears.

It must also be noted at the same time that an oath has these companions, truth, judgment, and justice: if these be lacking, it will be no oath at all, but perjury. And when, he says, Israel shall have done this, and through the Apostles shall have become the teacher of the Gentiles, then all nations shall bless, or be blessed, in him, and shall praise him, because salvation has proceeded out of Israel. (Verse 3. And following.) For thus saith the Lord to the man of Juda and to Jerusalem: Break up for yourselves new ground, and sow not among thorns: be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest perhaps my indignation go forth like fire, and be kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the wickedness of your thoughts (or devices).

Instead of what we have said, be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, Symmachus has put, purify yourselves to the Lord, and take away the malices of your hearts: understanding circumcision as cleansing, and the foreskins as vice. Now this is commanded to the men of Juda and Jerusalem, who follow the true faith and dwell in the Church, that they should not sow among the thorns which the Gospel word signifies, which choke the seed of God, but should first make new ground and dig up all the briers, and remove the thorn-bushes: so that clean fields may receive clean seeds. This is what is said in another place: Cast not your pearls before swine, nor give that which is holy unto dogs. For how can he hear the word of God and conceive the seeds and bring forth fruit, whose mind is full of the anxieties of the world?

And what follows: Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, is commanded to no other than to the man of Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they should forsake the killing letter and follow the life-giving spirit. For if, he says, you do not do this, my indignation shall go forth like fire, and shall be kindled, and there shall be none to quench it. He warns and foretells beforehand for this reason, lest they be compelled to endure it: which we also see proved in the Ninevites, to whom sentence was foretold, that by penitence they might avert the impending wrath. But all these evils shall come because of the wickedness of your thoughts, or devices. Where are those who say there is no sin in thoughts, when according to the Gospel truth all vices proceed from the heart?

Verse 5. Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem, speak: sound the trumpet in the land, cry aloud, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities. Let Juda hear this, let Jerusalem hear this, in which is the confession of faith, and in which the peace of Christ dwells, and to which it was said through Isaiah: Get thee up into the high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion. Lift up thy voice, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: let her cry aloud, and thus command: Let us enter the fortified cities. The wars of heretics arise: let the fortifications of Christ hold us. Lift up the sign of the cross on the watch-tower, on the height of the Church. Be strengthened, ye that fear, do not stand still, but run to the help of Christ.

Evil, he says, I bring from the north, and great destruction, namely the true Nabuchodonosor, who is for this reason permitted by me to be in this world, that your strength and victory may be proved.

Verse 7. The lion is come up from his den, and the robber of the nations has roused himself: he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate. Thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without inhabitant. This, as we have said, is the true Nabuchodonosor, of whom also blessed Peter the Apostle speaks: Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour (I Peter V, 8). Now he comes up either from the abysses into which he is to be bound, and he begs that he not be sent there: and the robber, or waster, of the nations has roused himself, of whom it is said: He shall have dominion over all his enemies, and who boasts in the sight of the Lord: I have gone round about the whole earth, and walked through it. For who is there whom the poisons of the devil do not touch, except that one alone who could say: Behold the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing?

He frequently makes all the land of the Church a wilderness, so that those who have gone out from the Church fight against the Church. Of whom John the Evangelist speaks: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us. The cities of the land of Judea are laid waste, and the assemblies of heretics flourish. If therefore anyone is the abettor and author of perverse doctrines, this can be said of him: The lion is come up from his den, and the robber of the nations has roused himself, and so forth.

Verse 8. For this gird yourselves with sackcloth: lament and howl, for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us, or as the Seventy have translated, from you. We cannot otherwise avoid the lion and the most savage beast, unless we do penance, and turn to the Lord, not only in mind, but also in deed. For as long as he lays waste the Church and the land of Juda, and also despoils Jerusalem, the wrath of God is manifest.

Verse 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes, and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed. While the robber lays waste the Church of the Lord, and the wrath of the Lord against us continues, all help will be useless. The heart of the king shall perish, whose heart ought to be in the hand of God, and the heart of the princes, who were thought to be wise. For God made foolish the wisdom of the world, because through it they knew not God. The priests too, who ought to have taught the law of the Lord, and to have defended the people subject to them from the fury of the lion, being stupefied by a certain stupor, shall be turned into madness: for so the Seventy translated, expressing by stupor an excess of mind. And the prophets shall be amazed, or, as Aquila translated the Hebrew word IETHMAU (יתמהו), they shall be out of their minds.

For who would not go mad, who would not lose heart, when he sees princes, and kings, and priests, and prophets who were once his own, now under the lion?

Verse 10. And I said: Alas, alas, alas: Lord God (for which the Seventy translated: O Lord God), hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: Peace shall be to you? And behold the sword has reached even to the soul. Because he had said above: At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of God, and all the nations shall be gathered to it in the mountain of the Lord in Jerusalem: and now he says: The heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes, and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed, the Prophet is troubled, and thinks that God has lied concerning himself: nor does he understand that the one thing was promised for a time long after, but this was to happen in the near future, according to what the Apostle also says: Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. But the sword reaches even to the soul, when nothing vital is left remaining in the soul.

And at the same time this also shows, that unless the sword go before, which purges and cleanses the vices of the soul, peace and the promise will not follow.

Verse 11. At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A burning wind (or of dew) in the ways which are in the desert. The ways of the daughter of my people: not to fan, nor to cleanse. A full spirit from these shall come to me. When the sword shall have reached even to the soul, and the threshing-floor shall have been finished: then a burning wind shall come from the desert, which shall not cleanse and fan it, so that the chaff being scattered here and there, the wheat may be laid up in the barns: but a full spirit shall come, not to the people, but to me, that my wheat may be scattered. Wind and spirit are called among the Hebrews by the same name RUAH (רוח): and according to the character of the places, we ought to understand either wind or spirit. Others have explained this passage thus, that after the threshing-floor has been cleansed, the remains may be saved.

Whence also it is written: The spirit of fulness shall come to me, the Evangelist saying: Of his fulness we have all received, and we shall obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit. But take the burning wind, according to the history, as Nebuchadnezzar, who consumes all things. According to tropology, as the adversary power, which coming from the desert and from the wilderness, where there is no lodging of God, strives to overthrow his Church. And now I will speak my judgments with them. This is an aposiopesis, according to that Virgilian line (Æneid I): Whom I ... but it is better to calm the troubled waves. Being about to say prosperous things, he restrains himself, and joins sad things to sad. For these are the judgments which God speaks with his once-own people, that they may know they justly endure what they endure. Verse 13. Behold, he shall come up like a cloud, and his chariots like a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are laid waste.

He sees present things as future, and describes the Babylonian army: whose noise of chariots and wheels is compared to a most savage tempest, and the swiftness of the horses is joined to eagles. When the Prophet had said this, and had pointed out, as it were, the coming enemies with his finger, the people groan, and feel not future but already accomplished things, saying: Woe to us, for we are laid waste. This same thing is referred to the Church, that daily the army of the true Nebuchadnezzar assails us, and the chariot of Pharaoh, and all his cavalry, surpasses the swoop of eagles. But if the man of the Church understands this, believing that saying: When thou hast turned and groaned, then thou shalt be saved, he will say: Woe to us, for we are laid waste. Verse 14. Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?

To the people saying: Woe to us, for we are laid waste, the Prophet answers, or rather God through the Prophet: Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, with that water of which Isaiah also speaks: Wash ye, be clean, the water of saving baptism, the water of penitence. But he speaks to the metropolis of the Jews, that by the city the peoples may be understood: How long dost thou lie subject to wicked thoughts, which proceed from thy heart? But heart in the holy Scriptures we ought to take for sense and soul. Verse 15. For a voice of one announcing from Dan, and making known the idol (or grief) from mount Ephraim. The divine word now speaks according to the situation of the land of Judea. For the tribe of Dan, near mount Lebanon and the city now called Paneas, looks toward the North: whence Nebuchadnezzar shall come. But he describes the idol Bel, or grief or iniquity, as coming from mount Ephraim.

For after the tribe of Dan follows the land of Ephraim, through which one comes to Jerusalem. Dan is interpreted judgment: Ephraim, fruitfulness. Therefore the judgment of the Lord shall come upon the land offending the Lord, with all the fruitfulness of punishment. Verse 16. Tell ye the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far land, and they have uttered their voice against the cities of Judah: they are set as keepers of fields against her round about, because she has provoked me to wrath, says the Lord. He wills that all the nations round about should know God's sentence, and that Jerusalem, once scourged, should teach discipline to all. It is said, he says, by common report in Jerusalem, that adversaries come from a far land, and that the roar of a howling army rises against her, who so diligently besiege the city and hem in the town with fortifications, that you would think them not so much adversaries as keepers of fields and of hunters.

But all this has come to pass, not by the strength of the enemy, but by the fault of Jerusalem: because she has provoked God to wrath. For if the adversary powers have no power over swine, how much more over men, and men of the city of God? Verse 18. Thy ways and thy thoughts have brought these things upon thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, it has touched thy heart. He makes an apostrophe to the city of Jerusalem, because her ways and thoughts, by which she sinned both in deed and in word, brought upon her all that happened; and her wickedness, which is bitter in itself, touched her heart, and penetrated the inward parts of her soul. Whatever, therefore, befalls us, befalls us by our own fault, we who turn the sweet Lord into bitterness, and compel him, unwilling, to rage. Verse 19.

My bowels, my bowels, I am pained: the senses of my heart are troubled within me: I will not be silent, because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the clamor of war. Destruction upon destruction is called: and all the land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, suddenly my curtains. Where we, following Symmachus, have put "are troubled," in the Hebrew it is written HOMA (הומה); the Septuagint and Theodotion put μαιμάσσει: which word, up to the present, I do not know what it signifies. But Aquila put ὀχλίζει, which itself also sounds tumult. Let this much be said about the word, concerning which I know there is great contention among many. But the voice of the Prophet, and of God speaking through the Prophet, is introduced: that he grieves over the destruction of his people, and, as it were like a man, his inward bowels are torn.

As also the Savior grieved over the death of Lazarus: and wept for Jerusalem, lest he should conceal his grief in silence: and every blast of trumpet and roar of battles disturbs his feeling, while evils are heaped upon evils, and the whole land of the two tribes is laid waste. While I thought not, he says, my tents once and my curtains, with the Babylonian army raging, were laid waste: and my once-dwellings fell as prey to the enemy. But God speaks this same thing, when he sees the tumults of sedition and discords in the Church and in her assemblies crying "partridge," and the rest of God turned into wars. Whence follows: Verse 21. How long shall I see them fleeing, shall I hear the sound of the trumpet? Either those fleeing the king of Babylon, or those fleeing me, and withdrawing from my service. Verse 22. For my people is foolish, they have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children. They are wise to do evil: but to do good they have not known.

The cause of the destruction, the desolation, the flight and the trumpet, is that the people has become foolish, not by nature, but by the pursuit of the will. And this very folly is proved from this: that they have not known God, and instead of wise sons, foolish and senseless sons have been made. For what greater folly can there be, than that, while the ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib, Israel does not know the Lord, and despises him present, whom it always desired to see? And what follows: They are wise to do evil: but to do good they have not known, here wisdom must be taken for wickedness, according to that saying that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light: and the steward of iniquity is related to have acted wisely in a certain way: and the serpent in paradise is read to be more subtle than all the beasts. That therefore is true wisdom which is joined to the fear of God.

Otherwise, where there is treachery and evasion, it is to be called not wisdom, but craft and cunning. For what we have translated, "my people is foolish, they have not known me," the Septuagint rendered: "because the princes of my people have not known me": so that the fault belongs rather to the teachers than to the people lacking the knowledge of God. (Verse 23 and following.) I beheld the earth, and lo, it was empty and void: and the heavens, and there was no light in them. I saw the mountains, and lo, they were moving: and all the hills were troubled. I looked, and there was no man, and every bird of the heaven had fled away. I looked, and lo, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his fury. The Prophet sees in spirit what things are to come, that the people, hearing, may be terrified, and, penance having been done, may in no wise endure what they dread.

The earth is empty, its inhabitant destroyed. The heavens have no light, because of the greatness of the terror, the people not seeing. The very mountains and hills have no safe hiding-places, and by hyperbole seem to be moved and troubled. He looked, and glanced here and there, and not even a bird could be found. For even the mute elements feel the wrath of God, and irrational animals are terrified. That this is true, the whole world now shows, in that, with the multitude of men slain, the birds also, which are wont to follow their inhabitants, have gone away and perished. Carmel itself too, which overlooks the great sea, planted with olives and orchards, and thick with vineyards, shall come to such solitude as to have the waste of a desert. All the cities too shall be made desolate, and the cause of all these evils is this, that by the fault of the offending people the wrath of the Lord has been stirred up.

Whatever we have said according to the history concerning Jerusalem and Judea, let us refer to the Church of God, when she shall have offended God, and shall have been laid waste either by vices or by persecution, and where once was the chorus of virtues and gladness, there the multitude of sins and sorrows may dwell.

Verse 27. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be desolate, but yet I will not make a full end: the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above shall lament, because I have spoken. I have purposed, and have not repented; neither will I turn back from it. The mercy of God being mixed with wrath, the whole land is forsaken, but there is no full end made, that there may be those who understand his clemency. The heaven too shall appear sad above, and the earth itself shall mourn, because the sentence of the Lord has reached even to the end, nor has he repented of what he has purposed and spoken. But God's repentance is spoken of, when the aforesaid sentence is taken away, and the raging wrath does not reach to the end. He threatened through Jonah: and the multitude of tears and groans overcame the impending sword.

Verse 29. At the voice of the horseman, and of him that shoots the arrow (or bends the bow), every city (or region) flees. They have entered the steep places, and climbed the rocks. And what follows: And they have entered the woods, or the caves, is added by the Septuagint. But the divine word describes the raging army of Babylon, that at the trembling of it the whole people forsook the city, and climbed up whatever steep places there were; and yet could not escape the wrath of the Lord. But whatever, as we have said above, is understood in the history against Jerusalem, is referred to the Church, when she shall have offended God, and shall have been delivered to adversaries, either in time of persecution, or certainly by vices and sins.

Verse 30. But thou, being laid waste, what wilt thou do? For "laid waste," which in Hebrew is said SHADUD (שדוד), which Aquila alone has interpreted, others have rendered "wretched and pitiable," by her own fault, in that she has offended the merciful God. Then it follows: When thou shalt clothe thyself with scarlet, and shalt be adorned with a golden necklace, and shalt paint thy eyes with antimony, thou shalt in vain deck thyself out: thy lovers have despised thee: they will seek thy soul. He speaks under the figure of an adulterous woman: when once you have offended God, and have left, as it were, your husband the Creator, in vain you seek adornments. The demons your lovers have despised you, and will seek not the uncleanness of fornication, but the destruction of your soul. This same thing is to be understood spiritually against those who have lost the affections of marriage and the chastity of true faith.

If, he says, you shall clothe yourself with scarlet, that is, shall assume the faith of the blood of Christ: if you shall adorn yourself with a golden necklace, that is, shall have meditation of spiritual sense and understanding: and shall paint your eyes with antimony, that is, shall have zeal for the mysteries and for knowing the secrets of God, you deck yourself out in vain. For these things too you had prepared even for your lovers; and therefore the narrow bed cannot hold both, nor does God accept the ornaments by which you formerly pleased your lovers.

Verse 31. For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail: anguish (or groans) as of one bringing forth her first child. The voice of the daughter of Zion, fainting and stretching out her hands: Woe is me, for my soul has fainted because of them that are slain. He describes the city of Jerusalem wailing and crying out, under the likeness of a woman in travail, that is, one who bears her first offspring. For as a woman in labor, not yet having experienced the pain of childbirth, almost dies, and enduring anguish can scarcely breathe, and collapses with hands outstretched, so also the daughter of Zion, when she shall have seen her children slain, will burst forth into these words, and say: Woe is me, for my soul has fainted because of them that are slain. But two examples are compared in one chapter, that of a woman in travail and of one mourning: that whatever a woman suffers in childbirth, or in the deaths of her children, Jerusalem may suffer in her peoples.

(Verses 1, 2.) Go about the ways of Jerusalem, and look, and take note, and seek in her streets, whether ye can find a man that executeth judgment, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful to him. And though they say, The Lord liveth, even then they swear falsely. Great is the love of righteousness, in that God did not free the city, according to the question of Abraham and God’s answer, only for ten righteous men; but if He should find but one, in Jerusalem now about to perish, who would do judgment and seek faith (or, as Symmachus translated it, truth), yet God would have mercy on Jerusalem.

And because it might happen that some could be found among the people who feigned the worship of God, and swore by God, He forestalls this, that God is delighted not by empty words, but by truth of faith; and He says: I do not love those who swear by me, and swear in a lie, but those whose hearts and lips agree. (Verse 3.) O Lord, thine eyes look upon faith: thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction. They have hardened their faces above a rock, and have refused to return. After the words of the Lord, in which He had commanded, saying, Go about the ways of Jerusalem, and so on, the Prophet speaks to the Lord: O Lord, thine eyes look upon faith, which in Hebrew is called EMUNA (אמונה): not the works of the Jews, in which they exulted according to the ceremonies of the Law; but the faith of Christians, by which we have been made saved by grace.

In this chapter, moreover, we learn that punishments are inflicted for this reason, that vices might be corrected. Accordingly he says, thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction. For through every torment and scourge Jerusalem is being amended, and above all these things they have not even had shame for their own vices; but hardening the impudence of their brow like a rock, they have refused to be turned to better things. (Verses 4, 5.) But I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish (or, they were not able), not knowing the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. I will go therefore to the great ones, and I will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Here he calls poor and great ones not with reference to poverty and riches, but he compares the people to the rulers.

And the sense is: Seeing the obstinacy of the unfaithful people, and that with a hardened face it refused to receive correction, I reasoned this with myself: Perhaps the lowly common people cannot know the doctrine of God, and therefore it is excusable, since through ignorance it is not able to know the commandments of God. I will go therefore to the priests, and to those who are set over the people, and I will speak to them: for they have known the will of the Lord, and know the judgment of their God.

He says this, moreover, in the manner of one who doubts, according to that saying of the Gospel: I will send my son, perhaps they will reverence him, so that from the ambiguity of the statement, and the suspense of the words, the free will of man might be shown. (Verse 6.) And behold, these all together have broken the yoke: they have burst the bonds; therefore a lion out of the forest has smitten them, a wolf has laid them waste in the evening, a leopard watches over their cities; everyone that goeth out from among them shall be caught. Because their transgressions have multiplied, their turnings-away have grown strong. Those whom I thought masters have been found to be worse than disciples, and the greater the authority among the rich, the greater the insolence of sins. For they broke the yoke of the Law, the Apostle saying: Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, even as they also: and they burst the bonds of the precepts of God, and not of the Pharisees, of whom it is said in the second psalm: Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us. Because therefore they did these things, a lion out of the forest smote them, namely the kingdom of Babylon; a wolf laid them waste in the evening, signifying the Medes and Persians: for which, in the Vision of Daniel, a bear is set, in whose mouth were three rows: a leopard watches over their cities, prefiguring the onslaught of Alexander, and his swift course from the West even to India. He calls him a leopard on account of his variegated nature, and because, with very many nations subjected to him, he fought against the Medes and Persians. And there were, he says, four heads in the beast, and power was given to it.

And because he does not prophesy of the future but of the past, he covers the history as though of things yet to come, and therefore is silent concerning the Roman empire, of which perhaps it is said: Everyone that goeth out from among them shall be caught. And he gives the reasons why they suffered these things: Because their transgressions have multiplied, and they persevered in their transgressions. Hence it is said: And their turnings-away have grown strong. That which we set down at the beginning, that the Hebrew word SOCED (שקד) sounds "watching," is shown in the present passage: for where we said, "the leopard watches," in the Hebrew it is written Nemer soced (נמר שקד). According to the tropological sense, those who are thought great in the Church, because they break the yoke and burst the bonds, are therefore handed over to the disgrace of passions, that they may do what is not fitting. (Verses 7 ff.) How shall I be merciful to thee for this?

Thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are no gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and reveled in the harlot's house: they were like horses, lovers of mares, and became stallions. Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation? This is a catalogue (κατάλογος) of the sins of Jerusalem, while God says He does not know by what occasion He can pity her: Thy children, he says, have forsaken me. Not my children, but thine: who swear by them that are no gods. I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery. Let those hear this who, having received riches from the Lord, lying in idleness, are slaves to luxury. They became like horses, lovers of mares.

For "stallions" it is written in Hebrew MOSECHIM (משכים), which all with one voice have translated as "drawing" (ἕλκοντες), that is, dragging; that the greatness of their genitals might be shown, according to that saying of Ezekiel: whose flesh is as the flesh of asses. This is what is written elsewhere: They are compared to senseless beasts, and are made like unto them. At the same time he shows such madness of lust, that he calls it not only an appetite of pleasure, but a neighing (χρεμετισμός), and preserves the metaphor of horses raging to lust. When you have done these things, he says, are you not worthy of a fitting visitation? And note that here "visitation" is put for punishment and torments, according to that which is written: I will visit their iniquities with a rod. And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation?

After being bound by sins, it is no longer called the people of God, but a nation from which the soul of God has withdrawn, according to that which is written: My soul hateth your new moons, and your sabbaths, and your feast days. But what is said in the Old Testament according to feeling, is written in the New according to truth, the Saviour saying: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. (Verses 10, 11.) Go ye up upon her walls (or ramparts) and destroy: but make not a full end. Take away her branches (or supports), for they are not the Lord's. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord.

He commands the nations, of whom he had said above: A lion out of the forest smote them, a wolf laid them waste, and a leopard was in their cities, to go up upon the walls of Jerusalem, or ramparts, and destroy her: but let them not make a full end, that the remnant may be saved, and that there may be one to proclaim the glory of God among the nations, and he mingles clemency with severity. And what follows: Take away her branches, or supports, he commands that all help be removed, which she has lost by her own fault, since the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt treacherously against God, meaning the ten tribes and the two.

Let the Church hear this, that quickly the walls and ramparts of those are destroyed who have no hope in the Lord and deal treacherously against him, but yet let there not be a full end, on account of the mercy of the judge, and not on account of the merits of the offenders. (Verses 12, 13.) They have denied the Lord, and said: It is not he (or, these things are not so); neither shall evil come upon us: we shall not see sword nor famine. The prophets have spoken into the wind, and there was no answer (or word) in them. These things therefore shall befall them.

Because they have denied the Lord, or lied to the Lord, and said: It is not he by whose judgment all things happen, but all these things have come about by chance: neither shall those things come which the words of the Prophets threaten us with, nor shall we see the sword, nor shall we suffer the famine of a siege, and whatever the Prophets have spoken, they have spoken into the wind, and all have passed away void, and they had no answer, that is, no oracle, or the word of God was not in them, therefore they shall endure what the following discourse describes. Let the negligent Church, refuting the providence of God, hear this, that it shall endure both sword and famine, unless it believes that the things which are spoken will come to pass. (Verse 14.) Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye have spoken this word: behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

You have said: The prophets have spoken into the wind, nor shall the things which they threaten come to pass: therefore, O Prophet, I make my words in thy mouth to have the power of fire, and I will turn this people into wood, that by thy word and prophecy the unbelieving may be burned up. Thus God is called a consuming fire, that he may consume in us, if we build upon the foundation of Christ, wood, hay, stubble. (Verses 15 ff.) Behold, I will bring upon you a nation from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, neither shalt thou understand what it saith. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, all of them mighty men.

And they shall eat up thy harvest and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: and they shall beat down thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. Not long after, nor as you falsely believe, will the Prophets speak to you into the wind, but already now I will bring upon you the nation of the Babylonians, which shall come from far: a mighty nation, for which in the Hebrew is written ETHAN (איתן), an ancient nation, over which formerly the giant Nimrod ruled. Whose language thou shalt not know, or, as it is written in the Hebrew: neither shalt thou understand what it saith: for it is some comfort in evils, if you have as enemies those whom you may entreat, and who understand your prayers.

And what follows: Their quiver is as an open sepulchre—which is also not found in the Septuagint edition—signifies the Babylonian armor. Nor is there any doubt that the kingdom of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, and Persians is most skilled in archery. At the same time he describes the devastation of the land of Judea, the slaughter of many, the driving away of cattle, the overthrow of cities and walls, that all things are seized by the sword of the enemy, and yet in such evils he does not destroy them utterly to extermination; but he preserves a remnant, whether of those who were led into Babylon and afterward sent back to till the land of Judea, or of those who, after the heat of persecution, preserved the faith of the Lord either by flight or by confession. (Verse 19.) And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these things unto us?

Thou shalt say to them: As ye have forsaken me, and served a strange god (or strange gods) in your own land: so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

It is great folly not to know why they have suffered, when they have sinned so greatly: and the answer to those who doubt is brief: as you have served a strange god, that is, Baal, or the strange gods of all the nations, in the land of Judea, so shall you serve strange gods in a land that is not yours: without doubt, that of Babylon and Chaldea. For if a foreign religion delights you, what need is there to take up a distant error? Dwell with such peoples, nay rather, serve those whose gods you worship. This can also be understood of heretics, of whom it is written: They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us, that the Lord may cast heretics out of the Church, who for a long time under her name have venerated the images of their own lies, so that they may worship openly what they formerly venerated within, so that the chaff may be separated from the wheat.

Now, brother Eusebius, we are dictating in a swift style the second book on Jeremiah, turning our ears away a little, lest we hear the judgment of blood, and lest we bewail the souls of the slain, who, under the pretense of virtues, fall daily into pride, and think themselves like God, so that they attribute to all men that equality which the impious heresy of the Arians denies to the Son, and set their mouth against heaven, and leave nothing further for the future blessedness of the Saints. To whose madness we have replied as we were able (Epistle 133, to Ctesiphon): and if the Lord shall grant us life, we shall reply more fully.

Now the path begun must be pursued, and the little Commentaries must be dictated: neither stretching out the work with excessive length, nor by immoderate brevity taking away the understanding, of which the one burdens the sense of readers, the other hinders the desire of the studious.

(Verses 20, 21.) Announce this to the house of Jacob, and make it heard in Judah, saying: Hear, O foolish people, who have no heart: who having eyes do not see; and ears, and do not hear. In many ways he draws back to salvation those who sin, and calls the people foolish, who have abandoned the author of wisdom, and compares them to idols, of which it is written: They have eyes and do not see: they have ears and do not hear. Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.

But properly he speaks to Judah and to the house of Jacob: for Israel had already for a long time been exulting among the Assyrians: and at the same time he gives us to understand that even without a precept we ought, by natural sense, to understand what is right. (Verses 22 ff.) Will you not then fear me, says the Lord: and will you not grieve (or fear) before my face? Who have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea: an everlasting decree, which shall not pass away. And they shall be moved, and shall not prevail (or, it shall be troubled and shall not prevail), and its waves shall swell (or sound), and shall not pass over it. This people has become of unbelieving and provoking heart: they have withdrawn and gone away, and have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us the early and the latter rain in its season; who keeps for us the fullness of the yearly harvest.

He recounts benefits in order to convict the ungrateful. Will you not fear me, he says, who have bestowed such great things upon you? I do not desire the love of the perfect, but the fear of beginners, I who have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea; who by my command have restrained within its shores so mighty an element and the immense masses of its depths, according to that which is written: He has set a decree, and it shall not pass away. Things which have no sense of hearing hear me and perceive; and my people, once mine, made foolish by their own fault, not only despise but even provoke the sweet God to bitterness. They have withdrawn, he says, from me, and turned their backs on me, and gone away with hastened step; nor did a silent conscience draw them back, that they might say in their hearts: Let us fear him, who gives us the early and the latter rain.

By all of which he shows the good fullness of the yearly harvest, for which the first edition of Aquila, and Symmachus, translated “weeks.” For in the Hebrew it is written SABAOTH (שבעות), which, because of the ambiguity of the word, signifies both weeks and fullness. (Verse 25.) Your iniquities have turned these things aside, and your sins have kept good things from you. Therefore if ever the sea also passes beyond its boundaries, and the rain is withheld, in no way has the hand of the Lord been shortened, so as not to do these things: but our sins, coming upon us, have turned them aside, so that they went instead to others who had not sinned. And they have kept back, he says, the good that was already coming to us, according to that which is written literally: I will command the clouds that they rain no shower upon it (Isaiah 5:6).

We may, moreover, understand by the early and the latter rain, the Law and the Gospel, and the diverse callings from the first hour to the eleventh, to which laborers of the vineyard one reward of eternal life is promised (Matthew 20). (Verse 26.) For among my people are found impious men lying in wait like fowlers: setting snares and traps to catch men: as a decoy full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Why the early and latter rain should turn aside from them, and all good things not come, the reasons are given: because impious men have been found among his people. He did not say, unjust and sinners (as the new heresy would have it), but impious. Impiety openly denies God: iniquity and sin, if it confesses its error, easily bends God to mercy.

And what we have translated: Lying in wait like fowlers, is not found in the Septuagint; Aquila and Symmachus translated JASIR (ישר), as a fowler's net, meaning that even he who seems among them good and upright sets snares like a fowler, while they hunt one another unto death, and fill their houses with the losses and damages of others, so that the saying of the philosophers may be fulfilled: Every rich man is either unjust, or the heir of an unjust man.

And would that these things blew only from those who seem to be outside, and whom the Lord judges; and were not fulfilled in our own assemblies, which are possessed by avarice, the root of all evils (Colossians 3), so that we do not look at the faces of those who come to us, but at their hands. (Verses 27 ff.) Therefore they have become great and rich: they have grown fat and sleek, and have most wickedly passed over my words: they have not judged the cause: they have not directed the cause (or judgment) of the orphan: they have not judged the judgment of the poor (or of the widow). Shall I not visit for these things, says the Lord: or shall not my soul take vengeance on such a nation? If I should wish to note down individually what has been omitted in the Septuagint edition, it would take long. Those who set snares, he says, and rejoice in the nakedness of others, are therefore magnified and enriched, because they have done the things mentioned above.

They have grown fat and sleek, according to what is written: The beloved grew fat and thick, and kicked (Deuteronomy 32:15). And they have passed over my words, because from the consciousness of their riches they said that saying from the Gospel: Soul, you have many good things laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry. But they have passed over to their own harm, and despising all men, have not set the judgment of God before their eyes. They have despised the orphan and the poor: for which the Septuagint said “widows,” which is not found in the Hebrew; for EBIONIM (אביונים) properly means poor, not widows. As for what follows, Shall I not visit for these things, says the Lord: or shall not my soul take vengeance on such a nation? This has already been discussed above. (Verses 30, 31.) Astonishment and marvelous things have been done in the land.

The prophets prophesied falsehood (or iniquity) and the priests applauded with their hands: and my people loved such things: what then will you do in the end (or afterward)? Above he had said: I will go to the great men, and speak to them; perhaps they have known the way of the Lord: and behold, these all the more alike have broken the yoke, have burst the bonds: now he describes who the great men are, namely the prophets and priests: of whom some foretell future things, others decree from the law what is to be done. And behold, he says, while they prophesied falsehood, the priests applauded with their hands. And that it might be shown that the people also are not without fault, who are led away by such men, it is written: And my people loved such things: once mine; but after they loved such things, they ceased to be mine. What then will they do, when the last time of judgment comes, or the necessity of captivity?

Hence there is astonishment and marvel, that neither among the princes nor among the people was anyone found who felt what was right.

(Verse 1.) Take courage, sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem; and sound the trumpet in Tekoa; and raise a signal (or banner) over Bethhaccerem, for evil has been seen (or has appeared) from the north, and great destruction. No one is unaware that Jerusalem is situated in the tribe of Benjamin. Tekoa also we see daily with our own eyes to be a small town situated on a mountain, twelve miles distant from Jerusalem. Between these there is another town, which in the Syriac and Hebrew tongue is called BETHACHARMA, itself also situated on a mountain (בית הכרמא). What he says, then, is this: since Nebuchadnezzar is now imminently about to come from the north, and captivity draws near, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, take up arms, and sound the trumpet in Tekoa; and raise the banner in Bethhaccerem, that you may be able to resist the enemies.

Benjamin is interpreted “son of the right hand”: Tekoa, “trumpet”: Bethhaccerem, “house of the vineyard.” Let us refer all these things to the Church: that if she should sin, and the onset of persecution should come, she may prepare herself to resist. (Verses 2, 3.) I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate woman: and shepherds shall come to her, and their flocks: they have pitched (or shall pitch) their tents around her: each shall feed those who are under his own hand. Sanctify (or prepare) war against her: rise up, and let us go up at noon. The beauty of Jerusalem is described, which is Sion itself: so that one thing is meant by the whole city, another by the citadel of the city. For Sion is interpreted “watchtower,” and is compared to a beautiful woman: and just as lovers are said to come to her, so shepherds are said to gather to this one.

And quite elegantly in Hebrew the word which is written with four letters, RES, AIN, JOD, MEM, if read REIM (רעים), means lovers; if ROIM (רעים), means shepherds, so that either, according to the metaphor, lovers of a beautiful woman, or, according to the overthrow of the city, shepherds may be understood: of whom some hasten to defile the harlot, others to besiege and overthrow the city. By the shepherds and their flocks let us understand the princes and the armies of the Chaldeans. And they shall pitch their tents in the siege of the city all around: and each shall feed those who are under his own hand, that is, his own troops and companies. Which princes, or shepherds, will say to their flocks: Sanctify war against Jerusalem: for it is the Lord's command.

Rise up, and let us go up at noon: not by night and by ambush; but let us fight in full daylight: for no one can resist us. (Verses 4, 5.) Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of evening have grown longer (or have failed). Rise up, and let us go up by night, and destroy her houses (or her foundations). The former say: Rise up, and let us go up at noon, and fight in clear daylight. These reply: Woe to us, for the shadows of evening have grown longer. According to that saying of Virgil (Eclogue 1):

And now the topmost roofs of the farmhouses smoke afar off:
And longer shadows fall from the high mountains.

And the sense is: If we suffer these things by day, what shall we suffer by night? And again, those who had said above: Sanctify war against her, and rise up, now themselves urge one another to battle, saying: Rise up, and let us go up by night: that the adversaries may know that the victory is not of time, but of strength: and let us destroy her houses, which are fortified in vain by the strength of their walls. (Verse 6.) For thus says the Lord of hosts: Cut down her wood (or its trees) and pour out (or heap up) a mound around Jerusalem. Therefore, they say, we are secure of victory, because it is the command of the Lord commanding the Chaldeans: cut down the trees, and heap up a mound for the future siege-works.

By which it is shown that before the crown comes, the city is not to be taken at once: but by a long siege, as we read afterward. (Verse 7.) This is the city of visitation (or the lying city), all oppression is in the midst of her. As a cistern (or pool) makes its water cold: so has she made her malice cold. The Lord has commanded that the trees be cut down, and that mounds be raised all around: because the time of her visitation has come, that she may receive punishment for her sins: of which the greatest is συκοφαντία, that she oppress the innocent by calumny. As, then, a cistern, or pool, makes its water cold: so in the midst of Jerusalem, the malice that is in her has lost all the warmth of life. And this should be noted, that those kindled by the Holy Spirit are called fervent: but evils are cold.

Whence also that is written (Matthew 24), that in the last days, when iniquity shall have multiplied, the charity of many shall grow cold. Which I think that saying also signifies: I have become like those who go down into the pit. But let the Latin reader understand this, that it may suffice to say it once, that “lacus” does not mean “lake” as among the Greeks, but a cistern, which in the Syriac and Hebrew tongue is called GUBBA (גובא). But in the present passage, for “lacus,” which all have translated alike, in the Hebrew it is BOR (בור). (Verse 8.) Iniquity and devastation shall be heard in her before me continually, sickness and plague. Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest perhaps my soul depart from you, lest perhaps I make you desolate, an uninhabitable land. Septuagint: Impiety and misery shall be heard in her against her face. Through every sorrow and scourge you shall be instructed, Jerusalem, lest perhaps my soul depart from you; lest I make you a trackless land, which is not inhabited.

By these words we learn that the Lord scourges every son whom he receives. And therefore Jerusalem is instructed by scourges and torments, that she may be corrected, and that the soul of God may not depart from her, and she be reduced to solitude. If then at any time we are subject to frequent hardships, let us recall for our own consolation this little verse: Through every sorrow and scourge you shall be instructed, Jerusalem. (Verse 9.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: They shall glean to the very grape-cluster, as it were the remnants of Israel in a vineyard. Turn your hand as a grape-gatherer to the basket. The LXX: For thus says the Lord of powers: Gathering, they shall gather grapes as it were the remnants of Israel in a vineyard. Turn again as a grape-gatherer to his own basket. Some take these words in a good sense, others in an evil sense. In a good sense: when Jerusalem shall have been laid waste, the remnants may be saved.

In an evil sense thus: let not even a single cluster, nor a small bunch, remain in the vineyard; let all be gathered; and whatever you find, gather it into the basket like a grape-gatherer; that as he draws the clusters to the winepress, so you may drag the captives into Babylon. (Verse 10.) To whom shall I speak, and whom shall I call to witness, that he may hear? Behold, their ears (or, your ears) are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. They cannot hear, because they were unwilling to circumcise their ears; yet the impossibility, which descends from contempt and unbelief, is not free from punishment. If, then, anyone does not receive the words of God, nor has understanding of his precepts, he is of uncircumcised ears. And it is to be noted at the same time that circumcision is named in the Scriptures under three kinds: in the foreskin, in the heart, and in the ears; whence the Lord says: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Therefore it is by our own will that we do not receive the word of God; and hence it becomes a reproach to us, so that what had been given to us for salvation is turned, by our own fault, into punishment. (Verse 11.) Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord, I have labored in sustaining it. The LXX: And I have filled up my fury, and I have endured it, and have not consumed it. According to the Hebrew, it is said from the person of the Prophet, that he foresees the coming wrath of God, and is full of the Lord's fury and indignation, and can bear it no longer; nor does he dare to entreat the Lord on behalf of the sinners.

But according to the LXX a different sense is set forth, namely that the Lord Himself has filled it up, by striking the sinning people; and yet has withheld it, and has not poured it all out, so that remnants may be saved—which seems to me to be contrary to itself. For if He has filled up His fury, how did He hold back so as not to fill it up? (Verse 12.) Pour out (or, he pours out) upon the little one abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for man shall be taken with wife, the old man with him that is full of days. And their houses shall pass to others, their fields and wives together. Either the Prophet, in spirit, instructs the coming Chaldean to pour out the fury of the Lord even upon little children, and to spare not even innocent age; or else he narrates what has been done upon the assembly of young men gathered together, who had taken up arms to resist.

For man shall be taken with wife—those dearest of names to one another shall together feel captivity. The old man with him that is full of days. Therefore old age is not the last age, but that of those who are full of days, whom in our own speech we call "the aged" or "decrepit." There follows: And their houses shall pass to others—by the evil of captivity—their fields and wives together, so that both wife and possession pass over to the enemies. Whatever we understand according to the letter concerning Jerusalem, let us, according to spiritual understanding, refer to the Church, if she should offend God. (Verses 13 and following.) For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. For from the least even to the greatest, all are devoted to avarice, and from the prophet even to the priest, all practice deceit. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people with disgrace, saying: Peace, peace, and there was no peace.

What is said in the Hebrew, "I will stretch out my hand upon sinners," or "the inhabitants of the land," is in the LXX always written as "I will lift up"—which in either case is the posture of one who strikes; according to that which is written: "And still the hand of the Lord is stretched out," or "exalted". Now the inhabitants of the land are always in vice. Hence also in the Apocalypse it is very often said: Woe to the inhabitants of the earth. From the least even to the greatest, all are devoted to avarice; according to that saying of the Apostle: The root of all evils is avarice. And from the prophet even to the priest, all practice deceit. Some, in prophesying falsehood; others, in perversely interpreting the law of God. For the Prophet also says elsewhere: Seek the law from the priests.

And when, he says, they did such things, they announced only prosperous things to my people; and, as it were, desiring to heal the wound and disgrace of my daughter, saying: Peace, peace; when there was no peace at all. This is properly to be understood of priests and teachers, who promise prosperity to the rich, and to those whom they see set in the greatest honor, and preach a lenient God—rather preparing them for punishment and wrath. (Verse 15.) They are confounded, because they have committed abomination: nay rather, they were not at all confounded by their confusion, and they did not know how to blush. This is to be read more precisely according to the Hebrew. And when, he says, they had done such things, were they confounded? Did they blush at their crimes? Rather, they increased sin by contempt, and did not know how to blush. He here used "did not know" for "were unwilling"; or else, by excessive contempt and the ingrained habit of evil, they were not even able to understand.

Wherefore they shall fall among those who are falling: in the time of their visitation they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. Since, he says, they did not know how to blush, and had not only no deed of repentance but not even knowledge of it, nor any sense of it: therefore those who formerly stood among them shall fall, who shall be overthrown by their own vices, and when the time of their visitation and punishment shall arrive, they shall be joined to all who are falling. Now it is a great impiety, not only not to guard against sins, but not even to wish to understand them, and to make no distinction between good and evil works. (Verses 16 and following.) Thus says the Lord: Stand upon the ways, and see, and ask concerning the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk in it, and you shall find refreshment (or, purification) for your souls. And they said, We will not walk (or, we will not go).

And I set watchmen over you: hear the sound of the trumpet. And they said, We will not hear. Therefore hear (or, they heard), you nations; and know, O congregation (or, you who feed the flocks); or, according to Symmachus, and know (the testimony which is in them) how great things I will do to them. Hear, O earth. If the Gospel parable be understood, it will furnish the understanding of this passage: in which the good merchant is said to sell all his pearls, that with their price he might buy one most precious pearl; namely, that through the Patriarchs and Prophets we may come to Him who says: I am the way. We must, therefore, stand in the prophets, and contemplate most diligently, and ask concerning the ancient or everlasting paths, which are worn by the footsteps of many saints—which are more significantly called in Greek τρίβοι—which is the good way in the Gospel, and we must walk in it; which way, when found, affords refreshment, or purification, to the souls of believers.

But they, on the contrary, answered: We will not walk in the way of the Gospel—the Prophet speaking this properly of the unbelief of the Jews. And immediately he adds: And I set watchmen over you. There can be no doubt that the company of the Apostles is indicated, according to Ezekiel: Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. And I commanded that you should hear the sound of the trumpet, either the commands of the Gospel, or the teaching of the Apostles, according to that saying of Isaiah: Get up into a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice like a trumpet, you who announce to Jerusalem. They who said: We will not hear—and, being invited to the supper, were unwilling to come; therefore it is said: Hear, you nations.

This the Apostles also followed, when they spoke in Lycaonia: To you it was necessary first that the word of God should be spoken; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. And know, O congregation—by no means the Jewish one, but that of all nations; or, you who feed the flocks—bishops and presbyters and every ecclesiastical order; or, know the testimony which is in them. For the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones. To whom the Lord also speaks: Fear not, little flock. And: Behold I and the children whom God has given me. Know, then, how great things I will do to the unbelieving people.

And what follows: Hear, O earth—the whole world is called to hear; just as we read also at the beginning of Isaiah: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; that is, what things the Lord is about to do to the people of the Jews. (Verse 19.) Behold, I will bring evils upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts (or, of their turning away); because they have not heard my words, and have cast away my law. He calls the punishments and penalties of those who suffer "evils"—not upon the nations who are called to the truth of the Gospel, but upon the people who answered: We will not hear. And he is about to receive the fruit of his thoughts, or of his turning away, David saying: You shall eat the labors of your hands. And the reason is clear: because they did not hear the words of the Lord, and cast away his law. (Verse 20.) To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and sweet-smelling cane from a far country?

Your holocausts are not accepted, and your victims have not pleased me. That frankincense comes from Sheba no one doubts; whence also that saying of Virgil: "And a hundred altars are warm with Sabaean frankincense" (Aeneid 1). The cane, however, which is called in Hebrew "kaneh" (קנה), for which the LXX and Theodotion translated "cinnamon," is testified by the prophetic word to come from a far country, so that we understand India, from which many spices come by way of the Red Sea. This kind of pigment physicians call κασία σύριγγος. And the sense is: In vain do you bring together pigments of most sweet odor for me, for the compounding of ointments which were commanded in the Law, and burn holocausts, you who do not do my will in the Law, according to what was said above: They have not heard my words, and have cast away my law.

This properly applies to those who offer sacrifices from plunder and the stripping bare of the wretched, and think they can redeem their sins through alms taken from iniquity—though Scripture says: The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches, which are gathered not from iniquity, but from labor and justice. (Verse 21.) Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give ruins upon this people: and they shall stumble on them (or, weakness, and they shall be weakened in it)—fathers and sons together, neighbor and kinsman, and they shall perish. We see all things fulfilled which the Lord threatened against that people: for daily they stumble in their blasphemies, and have nothing strong in themselves, but all among them is weakness.

The sons follow the blasphemies of the fathers, and daily they receive that imprecation: His blood be upon us, and upon our children; and not only they themselves, but also their neighbors and kinsmen, and all who follow the Law and the Prophets according to the killing letter, and not according to the life-giving spirit, and all alike shall perish, because all alike have sinned. (Verses 22, 23.) Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people comes from the land of the north, and a great nation shall rise from the ends of the earth. They shall seize the arrow and the shield (or, the javelin); it is cruel (or, shameless) and shall not show mercy; its voice shall roar like the sea; and they shall ride upon horses, arrayed as a man for battle against you, daughter of Zion.

This is properly prophesied of the Babylonians, who are to come against the people of Jerusalem; and the whole order of armament is described, and the onrush of the combatants, so that, shaken by the terror of the voice, they may do penance, and appease the most merciful God. Finally, He gives occasion for entreaty, when He says, "against you, daughter of Zion." We may make use of this testimony for the time of persecution, when all the devil's rage is stirred up against us, and there is no mercy; and they oppress those who resist as the waves of a most violent sea. (Verse 24.) We have heard the report of it: our hands are grown feeble; anguish has seized us, pains as of a woman in labor.

The people to whom the Prophet—rather, through the Prophet the Lord—threatened the Babylonians, respond: that before they come, they are overcome by fear, and cannot lift up their hands, and anguish seizes them like the pain of a woman in labor; than which pain they affirm nothing more severe that they have felt. (Verse 25.) Go not forth into the fields, and walk not in the way; for the sword of the enemy, terror is round about. The Gospel teaches that one must not go out into the field, nor come down from the height of the housetops; but must heed that saying: Escape to the mountain, that you may be saved. To which mountain we are bidden, in Isaiah and Micah, to run and ascend.

But it is commanded, according to the letter, that they should not go forth, nor abandon the walls, but should protect themselves with the strongest fortifications. (Verse 26.) Daughter of my people, gird thyself with sackcloth, and sprinkle thyself with ashes; make thee mourning for an only son (or, beloved one), a bitter lamentation (or, pitiable one), for the spoiler (or, misery) shall suddenly come upon us (or, upon you). Since he had said above: Go not forth into the fields, and walk not by the way: for the sword of the enemy, and fear on every side; and had also forbidden flight, he now teaches what they ought to do, namely, to turn to penitence, and to have this as their most sure and secure armor. Where we have said, make thee mourning for an only son, in the Hebrew it is written JAID (יחיד), which sounds more like "solitary" than "only-begotten." For if it meant "beloved" or "lovable," as the Seventy translated it, IDID (ידיד) would be used, which is also the name God gave to Solomon.

Nothing indeed is more grievous than to lose an only or a solitary son. As for what we have translated, "for the spoiler shall suddenly come, or misery upon us," the Seventy render it "upon you": whereas God, much more mercifully, has spoken so as to testify that whatever is to come upon his people should be understood as coming upon himself as well. By "the spoiler," moreover, is properly signified either Nebuchadnezzar, or the devil. (Verses 27 and following.) I have given thee for a strong tester among my people, and thou shalt know, and shalt try their way. All these princes are turning aside (or, disobedient), walking deceitfully (or, perversely). Brass and iron, all of them are corrupted, the bellows have failed in the fire (which the Greeks more expressively call φυσητῆρα), the lead is consumed, in vain hath the founder (or, silversmith) melted. For their wickednesses are not consumed: call ye them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath cast them away.

To the unbelieving people is given a strong tester, which in Hebrew is called MABSAR (מבצר), meaning either "fortified," according to Aquila, or "closed and surrounded," according to Symmachus and the Seventy, like a most secure city, so that he need fear no ambushes of the people; and when thou hast tested, he says, and hast known the way of the sinning people, then thou shalt understand that silver mixed with brass can by no means be purified. For just as lead is mixed with metals which have been adulterated and corrupted, so that the foreign matter may be separated, and if it should perhaps not be purified, all the lead is consumed and reduced to nothing: so all the utterance of teachings, and the prophetic word perishes among those who scorn to hear it. Let us say also concerning these, that like deaf asps they stop their ears, that they may not hear the voice of the enchanters. For in vain hath the silversmith or founder melted: for their wickednesses are not consumed.

Whence they are called not silver, but reprobate silver: because the Lord hath cast them away. And the princes are those who depart from the Lord, or are disobedient, who walk perversely and deceitfully.

(Verses 1, 2.) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim (or, read) there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah, who enter in by these gates, to worship the Lord. This is not found in the edition of the Seventy, but was added from Theodotion out of the Hebrew. The Prophet is commanded to stand in the gate of the Lord, through which the multitude of the people enters to worship the Lord, so that by this occasion they might be able to hear what the Lord commands.

By this we understand the hardness of the people of the Jews, that they held the Prophets to be, as it were, liars and madmen, since it was only by occasion and the crowding of the place that they were compelled to hear the words of the Lord; and not because they were the words of the Lord. (Verse 3.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make good (or, direct) your ways and your endeavors (or, your devices), and I will dwell with you in this place (or, I will make you dwell in this place). The most merciful physician desires to heal all the wounded with medicine. But when he says, "Make good," or "correct your ways," he shows that they are perverse, and have nothing good in themselves. And because it is natural that each should love his native soil, and hold nothing sweeter than his fatherland, he promises rewards to the obedient.

"I will dwell," he says, "with you," that I may make you secure in your dwelling; or, according to Symmachus, "I will establish you in a firm habitation," who says: And I will confirm you in this place. (Verses 4 and following.) Trust ye not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is this: for if ye shall thoroughly amend (or, direct) your ways and your endeavors: if ye shall execute judgment between a man and his neighbor: if ye shall not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (or, shall not wrong them), nor shed innocent blood in this place: and if ye shall not walk after strange gods to your own hurt; then will I dwell with you (or, cause you to dwell) in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from age to age.

This addition which the Seventy made at the beginning of this chapter, "In lying words, which shall in no way profit you," is not found in the Hebrew. He commanded, then, both that people of the Jews at that time, and us today who seem to be established in the Church, not to place our trust in the splendor of buildings, in gilded ceilings, and walls clothed with marble slabs. And let us say: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is this. For that is truly the temple of the Lord, in which dwells true faith, holy conduct, and the whole chorus of virtues.

He then adds: If ye shall make your ways right, and your thought shall not go after error, and ye shall follow justice, and shall not do evil, nor shed innocent blood, not scandalizing the simple; and shall not walk after strange gods, worshipping perverse doctrines which you have feigned in your own heart to your own hurt: then either I will dwell with you in this place, which you call the Temple of God, and in the land which I gave to your fathers, that is, to the Apostles and apostolic men; or certainly I will make you dwell in a firm station from beginning to end. This may also apply to those virgins who boast of their chastity, and with shameless countenance parade their purity, while their conscience holds otherwise, and who do not know that definition of the Apostle concerning virgins: That she may be holy in body and in spirit.

For what does bodily chastity profit a defiled mind, if it does not possess the other virtues which the prophetic word has described? (Verses 8 and following.) Behold, you trust in yourselves in lying words (or, deceitful ones) which shall not profit you. To steal, to kill, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer libations to Baalim, and to go after strange gods whom you know not. And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered (or, we have ceased), because we have done all these abominations. That they have vain confidence in the temple, the following sins demonstrate. For what does it profit to enter boldly the threshold of the house of God, to stand with erect neck, and to have not only the heart but also the hands polluted, by theft, murder, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, and the worship of gods whom one does not know?

No one doubts that these things happen spiritually in the Church, when men, considering the prosperity of the present time, do not take account of their sins, and think that God is hidden from them, because vengeance does not follow at once; nay rather they break out into such madness that they think themselves delivered, because after evil deeds they have even withdrawn from the worship of the Lord. (Verse 11.) Is this house (or, my house) become a den of robbers, in which my name is called upon before your eyes? I, I am he: I have seen it, saith the Lord. I think this passage is taken up in the Gospel: It is written, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves; or, as it is written in another Gospel, a house of merchandise.

The Church of God is turned into a den of thieves, when thefts, murders, adulteries, sacrileges, perjuries, the invention of heresy, and all manner of crimes are practiced in it: when the princes burn with the torches of avarice, and a cheap, or certainly not cheap, little cloak possesses the riches that once belonged to kings. Whence he adds: I, I am, I have seen, saith the Lord. My eyes have beheld what you think hidden: the darkness of treasures does not escape my knowledge. He who, though he was rich, was made poor for our sakes, now blushes at our riches, and says: Woe to you rich, who have your consolation. (Verse 12.) Go ye to my place in Shiloh, where my name dwelt at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

From past events he teaches present ones: and to those who say, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is this," and who rejoice in the splendor of the precious house, he recalls the history of Shiloh, where the tabernacle of God first stood, of which it is written in the psalm: And he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. So that, just as that place collapsed into ruins and ashes, so too the Temple should fall, since it had become the dwelling of like sinners.

Therefore, as Shiloh is a type of the Temple, so the Temple is a type for us, when the time of that testimony shall come: Think you, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Verses 13 and following.) And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord: and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, and you did not hear: and I called you, and you did not answer: I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in which you place your trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh: and I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim. What we have set down, "rising up early and speaking," is not found in the Seventy.

Now God rises early, not because any time is without dawn for him, but because after the rest of the night, when the strength of the body has been renewed, the human soul is more lively, and, being not yet occupied with pleasures and the desire for food, is able to hear and do the things that are said. Whence we read also in the psalm: In the morning thou shalt hear my voice: in the morning I will stand before thee, and will see. And in Isaiah: By night, or at dawn, my spirit shall rise up to thee, O God: for thy precepts are a light upon the earth (Isaiah 26). Whence also the Apostle Paul calls them children of light, and not of night nor of darkness, nor sleeping, as others sleep, who do not perceive the commandments of God.

Because, therefore, God called them, rising up in the night, so that he might also free them from darkness, he threatens that he will do to them the like of what he did to the place of Shiloh, where the tabernacle first was: that like sins might be smitten with a like sentence. And just as the Lord cast out the seed of Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes which were called Israel, and had their princes on account of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, which same tribe was also called the tribe of Joseph: so also he testifies that he will cast off Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah together with Benjamin. He cast off Shiloh, therefore, and will cast off the Temple: he cast off the ten tribes, and will cast off the two also.

Whatever is said to that people, let us understand it also of ourselves, if we do like things. (Verse 16.) Therefore do not pray for this people; and do not take up on their behalf praise and prayer (or, do not ask that they may obtain mercy). And do not withstand me: for I will not hear you. Lest the Prophet, praying, should seem not to obtain what he asked, God commands that he not intercede for a sinning people that does no penance. But what he says: “And do not resist me,” shows this, that the prayers of the saints can withstand the wrath of God. Whence also the Lord speaks to Moses: “Let me alone, that I may strike this people, and make you into a great nation”. And in the Psalms it is read: “And Phinehas stood up, and appeased, and the plague ceased, and it was reckoned to him for justice”.

Aaron too, having taken up the censer, stood in the midst between the fire and the people about to be consumed, and the wrath of God ceased. And lest we should think there is cruelty in God, who does not even permit himself to be asked, he gives the reasons why he will not hear, saying: (Verses 17 and following.) Do you not see what these do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, that they may make cakes (or “chavonas”) to the queen (or “host”) of heaven, and pour out libations to strange gods, and provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? Says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? Do you wish, he says, O Prophet, to hear why I have told you: Do not pray for this people?

They do the things which follow: Both within and without, and in the streets, and at the exits of Jerusalem, the children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough with flour, that they may make CHAUONIM (כונים), which we have translated as cakes, or preparations, so as to indicate every kind of sacrifice, to the queen of heaven, whom we must understand as the moon; or certainly the host of heaven, that we may understand all the stars. And after these things, they pour libations to strange gods: not because they exist, but because under their names they burn incense to demons, and provoke me to anger by doing these things. And the wretched ones do not understand that this contention does not harm me, whom anger never changes; but harms themselves, to the confusion of their own faces, and to everlasting disgrace. Whatever, therefore, we do, we do not harm God, who can never be harmed; but we prepare ruin for ourselves, storing up wrath for the day of wrath.

He assigned, moreover, different roles to sons and fathers and mothers or wives, so that there might be no age which had dissented from impiety. They do not understand. (Verse 20.) Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my fury and my indignation is poured forth (or, has trickled) upon this place, upon men, and upon beasts, and upon the tree of the region, and upon the fruits of the earth: and it shall be kindled, and shall not be quenched. He who had said above, “Do they provoke me to anger?” how does he now say, “Behold, my fury and my indignation has trickled upon this place”? And the meaning is: I indeed am not naturally angry, but they act in such a way as to provoke me to anger, and I seem to change my nature. Let them, then, feel him angry whom, so far as it lies in them, they strive to make so. And beautifully he does not say, “My fury has been poured out upon this place,” but “has trickled,” to signify a moderate punishment.

But if in a mere drop of fury there is such hardness, what shall become when the whole shower is poured out? But “indignation poured forth” can also be understood thus, that what he long refused to do, he is compelled to do by the multitude of sins. But when God has become angry, both men and the things that belong to men will feel a like destruction. And it shall be kindled, he says—no doubt the fury of the Lord—and shall not be quenched: because the people do nothing by which it might be quenched. (Verses 21 and following.) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your victims, and eat the flesh. For I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not command them, in the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offerings and victims.

But this word I commanded them, saying: Hear my voice, and I will be God to you, and you shall be a people to me: and walk in all the way which I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Whose Temple he has rejected, he consequently also rejects their sacrifices; and he obliquely accuses them, that they immolate victims not out of veneration for him, but from desire of feasting.

But what he says, “I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not command them in the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offering and victims,” is plainly to be understood thus: that he first gave the decalogue on stone tablets, written by the finger of God, and after the offense of idolatry and the head of the calf, he afterward commanded that sacrifice be made to himself rather than to demons; taking away the pure religion of the commandments of God, and conceding the blood of victims and the desire for flesh. (Verses 24, 25.) And they did not hear, nor incline their ear: but they went after the desires (or wishes) and the wicked perversity of their own heart; and they went backward, and not forward, from the day when their fathers went out of the land of Egypt, even to this day.

When I said, “Hear my voice, and I will be God to you,” and the rest, they did not hear, nor did they incline their ear, but did the desires of their own heart: and contrary to the sentence of the Apostle, who forgot the things that were behind, and stretched forward to the things that were before, they did the contrary: so that they desired past things, and despised the things to come. And when he says, “From the day when their fathers went out of the land of Egypt even to this day,” he means that they spent the whole intervening time in offense against the Lord. Whence also the grace of the Gospel was necessary, which preserved them not by their own merit, but by the mercy of the Lord. (Verse 26.) And I sent to you all my servants the Prophets, daily, rising up early and sending them: And they did not hear me, nor incline their ear, but hardened their neck, and did worse than their fathers.

Just, therefore, is the wrath of the Lord, which was poured forth and trickled down upon a people that despised him and was stiff-necked, and unwilling to hear the words of God. But how God sends Prophets either by night, or at dawn, and in the day, we have said above. (Verses 27, 28.) And you shall speak to them all these words, and they will not hear you: and you shall call them, and they will not answer you. And you shall say to them: This is the nation which has not heard the voice of the Lord its God, nor received discipline. Faith has perished; and it is taken away from their mouth. Do not doubt, he says, that they have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers. Behold, I give room for repentance; nor do I speak so that they may become such, but because they are going to be such, therefore I foretell it.

At least now speak to them my words, and yet they will not hear you, and you shall call them, and they will not answer you. For such will be their pride, that when you have called them to hear, none will deign to answer. Beautifully, as I have already said before, he calls them not his people, but a nation. Which, although it was in part fulfilled in the time of the Prophets, and preceded in shadow and in image, is nevertheless more fully fulfilled in Christ, when they refused to receive discipline, and despised the voice of their Lord. Whence it is elegantly added: Faith has perished, which is properly that of Christians; and it has been taken away from their mouth: namely, all confession of the Son of God, and of faith. (Verse 29.) Shear your hair, and cast it away, and take up mourning openly (or, upon the lips): for the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath.

And we read that Job, upon hearing of the death of his sons and daughters, shore his hair; and among the Ancients this was the custom of all who mourned, to shear their locks. But now, on the contrary, to let down the hair is a sign of mourning. But all this lamentation and prophetic wailing is taken up for this reason: because the Lord has cast off and abandoned the generation of his wrath. There is no doubt that he means the people of the Jews. And this is properly to be referred to the times of Christ, when faith perished, and was taken away from the mouth of the people who blasphemed the Lord. (Verses 30, 31.) For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house in which my name is invoked, to defile it.

And they have built the high place (or altar) of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire: which I did not command, nor did it come into my heart. That the children of Judah set up a statue of Baal in the Temple of God, we learn at the beginning of Ezekiel. But the “high places,” which in Hebrew are called BAMOTH (במות), or the altar of Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, signifies that place which is watered by the springs of Siloam; and it is pleasant and wooded, and to this day affords the delights of gardens. But this error of the Gentiles occupied all provinces, so that they offered victims on mountaintops and in the most pleasant groves, and every observance of depraved superstition was kept.

TOPHETH (תפת) in the Hebrew tongue is interpreted “breadth”: and it is recorded in the book of Joshua the son of Nun concerning this place, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, and is called in Hebrew GEENNOM Ge (גיא): that is, φάραγξ, that is, a valley; and ENNOM (הנם) means either a man’s name, or “grace.” And the Hebrews relate that Gehenna took its name from this place, because indeed the whole people of the Jews perished there, offending God. In this place also they consecrated their sons to idols by fire, or offered them as a holocaust, which he had not commanded them, nor had any sanction of the Law ordered it. But if Jephthah offered his virgin daughter to God, it is not the sacrifice that pleases, but the disposition of the offerer.

For neither, if a dog, or an ass, or any unclean animal whatsoever, had first met the father returning from the slaughter of his enemies, ought he to have offered that to God. (Verses 32, 33.) Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and it shall no more be called Topheth, and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: and they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no room. And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth: and there shall be none to drive them away. This signifies the time of the siege, which they endured from the ninth year of King Zedekiah to the eleventh year; and that this valley itself should no longer be called Gehenna, that is, the valley of Hinnom, or of the children of Hinnom, but, because of the slaughter of so many, the valley of slaughter.

And so great will be the slaughter, that in the place formerly of worship there will be innumerable graves; and those whom they cannot bury will be torn by birds and devoured by beasts. And there will be none to drive them away, fearing the like fate, and being deprived of the means of burial. We pass quickly over what is plain, in order to linger where there is obscurity. For the very size of this book can produce weariness in readers, how much more if it were discussed by us at greater length. (Verse 34.) And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. For the land shall become a desolation.

When the place of idolatry has been turned into graves, so that where they had offended God, there their unburied bodies may lie, from the city once called Jerusalem, and from the other cities that were under its dominion, all joy will be taken away, and everything will be filled with mourning, and groaning, and desolation.

(Verse 1 ff.) At that time, says the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the king of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those who dwelt in Jerusalem, out of their sepulchres. And they shall spread them out before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they loved, and which they served, and after which they walked, and which they sought, and worshipped. They shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth.

And all who shall remain of this most wicked kindred, in all the places whither I have driven them, shall choose death rather than life, says the Lord of hosts. All the things which the prophetic word describes we perceive to have happened in our own time: not to Jerusalem alone, which suffered these things from the Chaldeans and the Romans, but to the whole world; so that tears have dried up, and everything has been filled with the bones of the dead. And because, according to ancient custom, they were wont to bury gold and certain ornaments of women or men in the sepulchres, avarice broke these open and dug them up too, that they might be exposed to the sky and the light.

And so first the bones of the kings of Judah, and of his princes, and of the priests also and the prophets, and of the whole people who had been in Jerusalem, were brought forth from their tombs, lying open to the sun and moon, and to the sight of all the stars: so that, having forsaken God, they might lie open to the sight of those whom they had served; and being consumed, they might be resolved into dung and ashes. But if anyone of the multitude had been able to escape, to whatever places he might come, he would prefer death to life, and would think destruction a remedy for his unhappy soul. (Verse 4.) And thou shalt say to them: Thus says the Lord: shall not he that falleth, rise again? And he that is turned away, shall he not return (or, shall he not be turned back)?

After such great evils, he calls to repentance those who were able to remain: or, before the things he has threatened come to pass, he exhorts them to conversion, and gives room for repentance. But what is written according to the Hebrew: "and he that is turned away, shall he not be turned back," signifies this: that he who has turned away from God, if he should wish to be converted to better things, is also able to turn the fury of God to better things, and to withstand it as it comes, and to avoid the blows by prayers. (Verse 5.) Why then has this people in Jerusalem turned away with a contentious turning away? They have laid hold of falsehood, and have refused to return. The more, he says, I called them to repentance, the more of them withdrew from me—not so much out of a zeal for sinning as out of a desire to conquer me.

For they laid hold strongly of falsehood, or idols, or whatever wicked things are contrary to truth and justice, and refused to return. He did not say, "they were not able"; but that they pursued iniquities with all zeal. (Verse 6.) I hearkened and listened: no one speaks what is good. There is no one who does penance for his sin, saying, what have I done? All have turned to their own course, like a horse rushing headlong into battle. Called back to repentance, they scorn to listen: nor is it enough for them to have sinned against the Lord and to have spoken blasphemy; but all, like horses rushing with fervent course into battle, do not reconsider their sin, nor say, what have I done? By which we understand these things to be said either of the whole human race, because it is prone to vices, or of the time of the Savior, when "all alike turned aside, they became unprofitable: there was none that did good, no not one".

Whence he himself cries mystically: "Save me, O Lord, for the godly man has ceased". But if these things are so, where are those who say it is placed in our own will to be entirely free of sin? "No one," he says, "speaks what is good": for even for an idle word we shall render an account on the day of judgment. (Verse 7.) The kite in the sky has known its time: the turtledove and the swallow and the stork have kept the time of their coming: but my people has not known the judgment of the Lord. For "kite," which Symmachus translated, the Septuagint and Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, ASIDA (חסידה); Aquila, "heron." Again for "swallow," Symmachus rendered "cicada," which in Hebrew is called sis (סיס).

But for what we have rendered "stork," both Aquila and Symmachus translated it as it is written in the Hebrew, AGUR (עגור); for which the Septuagint interpreted "sparrows of the field." But it is one and the same meaning that is set forth also at the beginning of Isaiah: "The ox has known his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood"; that even small birds know their own times, and know when, hastening to warm places, they ought to avoid the rigor of winter; and again, at the beginning of spring, to come back to their accustomed regions. But "sky" here we ought to understand as the air which is above. (Verse 8.) How do you say, we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Truly the lying pen of the scribes has wrought a lie. He speaks to the scribes and Pharisees, who boast of knowledge of the law, and in writing write iniquity.

And as for what he says: (Verse 9.) The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed and taken: for they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them: not that those who do these things are wise; but he calls them wise so that they may be condemned under judgment, and so that, on the contrary, their wisdom may be convicted of folly—the apostle Paul saying: "Thou who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?" And because they have cast away the word of the Lord, therefore there is no wisdom in them. In vain, therefore, do they boast of the knowledge of the law, who destroy doctrine by their works. (Verses 10, 11.) Therefore I will give their wives to strangers: their fields to new heirs: because from the least even to the greatest, all pursue avarice; from the prophet even to the priest, all deal falsely (or, work iniquity). And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people with ignominy, saying: Peace, peace, when there was no peace.

They received the reward of their works: so that those who cast away the word of the Lord should themselves be cast away by him. Their wives, he says, and possessions, I will deliver to the enemies. And lest the sentence seem cruel, let the hearer learn the causes: from the least even to the greatest, all pursue avarice. For avarice is the root of all evils. From the prophet even to the priest, who ought to have restrained others from sinning, are the first to lie under crimes: and all either do iniquity, while they plunder the goods of others, or certainly falsehood, so that there is no truth in their mouth. And after this, like good physicians, they wished to heal others' wounds with words, they who themselves were pierced with the wounds of every disgraceful deed. These things we see daily also in our own people, the blessed apostle Paul saying: "Thou who preachest that a man should not steal, dost thou steal?", and the rest.

Who, when they see sinners and the rich, wish to heal the breach of the daughter of God's people, that is, of the Church, to the ignominy either of those who are deceived, or of those who deceive others, so that they say to those covered with every crime: peace, peace, when there is no peace, and the war of sins hangs over them. (Verse 12.) They are confounded, because they have done abomination: nay rather, they were not at all confounded with confusion, and they knew not how to blush. This is to be read interrogatively, so that the sense is: Did they blush at their crimes, and did they understand the abominations which they wrought? By no means; but they broke out into such madness that they neither wished to amend their vices through shame, nor to confess their crimes in hope of pardon. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall: in the time of their visitation they shall fall, says the Lord.

These are the rewards of those who knew not how to blush: that those whose rank was higher than the people's should be mingled with the ruin of the people. For from the least even to the greatest, all pursue avarice, and from the prophet even to the priest, all deal falsely: but the time of visitation is the approaching captivity. (Verse 13.) Gathering I will gather them, says the Lord. There is no grape on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig tree: the leaf has fallen off, and I have given them the things that have passed away. What is the time of visitation, in which those who transgress shall fall, he teaches more clearly, saying: Gathering I will gather them. Without doubt this refers to Jerusalem, that they should be besieged by the Chaldeans for a long time, and endure the evils of famine.

When, he says, the seasons pass, and autumn succeeds summer, and in winter the leaves of the trees fall, you shall see all things from afar, and from these you shall not take food. For there is no grape on the vines for you, who take not the fruit of the vines; and there are no figs on the fig tree for the besieged people, who sees the fruits of its own trees devoured by the enemy. The leaves, he says, will fall when summer and autumn have passed. For I have given them the things which they would see passing away; and they would lose, with greater grief, the abundance of all things which it was not lawful for them to touch. (Verses 14, 15.) Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified city (or, fortified cities), and let us be silent there (or, let us be cast down there), because the Lord our God has made us to be silent, and has given us the water of gall to drink.

For we have sinned against the Lord, we looked for peace, and there was no good: for a time of healing, and behold fear. The voice of the people is introduced, answering, and confessing their own sins, and exhorting one another to enter the fortified cities, or the one fortified city Jerusalem: for the others had already been taken. And let us be silent, he says, there, because the Lord our God has made us to be silent: for we have no confidence to make entreaty; or, let us be cast off there, or thrown away like dung. He himself has given us water of gall to drink: because we have turned the sweet God into bitterness. And that we should drink such waters, the cause is plain: For we have sinned against the Lord, and we looked for peace, we who had done no good work; and we supposed that a time of healing was at hand for us, when everything was filled with dread and terror.

Change of speaker, and especially in the prophets, makes understanding difficult: which, if they are referred to their proper places, causes, and times, what seemed obscure will become plain. (Verse 16.) From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses, at the sound of the neighing of his warriors (or, of his cavalry) the whole earth is shaken. And they have come and devoured (or, they shall come and shall devour) the land and its fulness, the city and its inhabitants. Therefore the people did not say, as the Septuagint translated above: Let us enter into fortified cities, but "a fortified city," to signify Jerusalem. Finally, he now adds: the city and its inhabitants. He describes Nebuchadnezzar coming with his army from Dan through Phoenicia, in which place the river Jordan rises; and what the Septuagint speaks of as future, the Hebrew, for the truth of the matter, records as already accomplished. (Verse 17.) For behold, I will send you serpents, basilisks (or, most evil ones, or, as the Septuagint translated, deadly ones) for which there is no charm.

And they shall bite you, says the Lord, incurably, with the sorrow of your fainting heart. Who are these who come from Dan, whose snorting is heard, and who have reduced the whole earth to solitude—under another figure the same prophetic word shows, calling them most evil serpents, or deadly ones: and, as Aquila translated, basilisks, which are called in Hebrew SAPHPHONIM (צפענים). What his second edition meant by rendering it "watchers" I do not understand, unless perhaps because of a resemblance of the word. For which there is no, he says, charm. For in vain do they pour out prayers to God against the ancient winding serpent, they who have despised the precepts of God. Let us use this passage against those who, despising the sayings of the Savior, are delivered over to the adverse powers. (Verse 18.) My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart is mourning within me.

For which, as we said above, the Septuagint joined it with the preceding sentence, so as to set it down: "And they shall bite you, says the Lord, incurably, with the sorrow of your fainting heart." But in the Hebrew there is not so much "sorrow," which in Greek is called ὀδύνη, as μειδίαμα, which we may render as the grimace of a mouth contracted with grief and having the likeness of laughter. But these words are to be read emphatically as spoken from the person of God, lamenting the overthrow of Jerusalem and unable to bear its miseries. (Verse 19.) Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country. He describes the weeping and wailing of the city of Jerusalem when the enemies have entered. Is not the Lord in Sion? Or is not her king in her?

Or, "the Lord himself is king." Or certainly "the Lord" refers to the Father, "king" refers to the Son, according to what is written under the name of Solomon: "O God, give thy judgment to the king, and thy justice to the king's son". But why the voice of crying should be in Jerusalem, and yet the cry itself should come from a far country, the reason is plain: because the Lord is not in her, and her king has withdrawn from her. Why then have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? He has withdrawn, he says, from them—the Lord; because they, by worship of idols, have provoked to anger me, who was their Lord and king. (Verse 20.) The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

Again the people speaks, who were shut up in Jerusalem by the long siege, saying that the times have changed, and the circle of the year has passed away, and all their hope has been in vain, and has passed away. (Verse 21.) For the affliction of the daughter of my people I am afflicted, and made sorrowful: astonishment hath taken hold on me. God answers, that in the affliction of Jerusalem he himself may seem to be afflicted, and by astonishment be brought down to human likeness. (Verse 22.) Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the scar of the daughter of my people healed over?

Not only in this passage, but also in many other testimonies of the Scriptures, we find the balm of Gilead put for repentance and for medicine, and God now marvels why the wounds of Jerusalem have by no means been healed, and the scars have not yet closed over the skin, because there are no prophets, nor priests, by whose medicine they ought to be healed.

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Even if, he says, I were wholly turned into weeping, and there were not drops of tears but the abundance of a river, still I could not worthily weep for the slain of the daughter of my people. For the evils are so great that they surpass all grief by their magnitude. This may be understood both from the person of the Prophet and from the person of the Lord. (Verse 2.) Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! Septuagint: Who will give me in the wilderness a last dwelling-place, that I may leave my people, and go from them? It is better, he says, to dwell in the utmost solitude than to remain among so great crimes of men.

Whence also the Savior spoke in the Gospel: How long shall I bear with you? And in another place it is written: In that time he who understands will sit and be silent, for the time is most evil. (Verse 3.) For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongue as a bow of lies, and not of truth; they have grown strong in the land, for they have gone from evil to evil, and have not known me, saith the Lord. Sinners pass from evil to evil when they exchange one idol for another, and pass from sins to sins, or certainly pass from the evil of the siege to captivity. And of the saints indeed it is said: They shall go from strength to strength. But of sinners: They have gone forth from evil to evil.

And the cause of all their miseries is that they have not known the Lord, and there is an assembly of the treacherous, arming their tongue like a bent bow for blasphemy; and they have grown strong in the land, so that they deserve to hear: Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. (Verses 4 ff.) Let everyone take heed of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully; and a man will mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth. For they have taught their tongue to speak lies (or, their tongue has learned to speak a lie), that they might do iniquity, they have labored (or, they have done iniquity, and have not ceased that they might be converted). Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit, in deceit (or, usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit); they have refused (or, been unwilling) to know me, saith the Lord.

This passage is to be applied to the time of persecution and distress, when there is either rare or no faith; when neither brother nor neighbor is to be trusted, and a man’s enemies are those of his own household; when, according to the Gospel: The father shall deliver up the son, and the son the father, and two shall be divided against three, and three against two. And what follows, They have taught their tongue to speak lies (or, their tongue has learned to speak a lie), shows that the habit of lying is turned, as it were, into their very nature, and that they diligently strive to do iniquitous things. And what follows, Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit, in deceit, is properly directed to the Prophet, because he dwells in the midst of a lying people; or as the Septuagint translated: Usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit; and that daily they increase their crimes, and by no means repent of their former deed, but heap new evils upon the old.

Doing these things, they strive with all diligence not to know the Lord, who commanded that these things should not be done. (Verse 7.) Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt them (or, examine them by fire), and try them; for what else shall I do because of the face of the daughter of my people (or, what shall I do because of the face of the malice of the daughter of my people)? As often as we are subjected to distresses, we receive evils from God, and are tried by persecutions, that whatever adulterated matter is in us may be burned away by the heats of tribulations and miseries: For the silver of the Lord, tried by fire, proved by the earth, purified seven times. (Verses 8, 9.) Their tongue is a wounding arrow, it speaks deceit: with his mouth one speaks peace to his friend, and secretly sets an ambush for him. Shall I not visit them for these things?

Saith the Lord, or shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Every heretic who wounds the hearts of hearers who do not know the Scripture written: Keep thy heart with all diligence, possesses a wounding arrow, and speaks in deceit. And while with his mouth he promises peace to his neighbor, he secretly lays snares. In the following verses, in which he says, Shall I not visit them for these things? This Prophet often uses this device, so that when he has enumerated the several evil deeds, he then adds that he justly does what he does. (Verse 10.) For the mountains I will take up (or, take ye up) weeping and lamentation, and for the beautiful places (or, paths) of the wilderness a mourning: because they are burned up (or, have failed), so that there is no man (or, human being) passing through, and they have not heard the voice of the possessor (or, of substance); from the fowl of the air even to the cattle they have fled away and are gone.

With the Babylonian army coming and laying waste everything, the desolation of the province is prophesied, that there is lamentation on the mountains, weeping in the wilderness or in the paths of solitude, because all things have failed and been burned up, and there is none who walks through the land, all things having been made void, and nothing remaining that can breathe and live. Wherefore for "possessor," the Septuagint translated "substance," which in Hebrew is called MACNE; and "substance" here is not taken for οὐσία, that is, essence, but for wealth and riches. And what follows: From the fowl of the air even to the cattle they have fled away and gone, shows what we have often said, that the wrath of God is felt by all things, and not only do the birds of the air, but the fishes of the water fail.

According to the tropological sense, weeping is taken up over the mountains, and lamentation over the beautiful places of the wilderness, when the princes of the Church sin, and nothing of God's substance is found in her, nor is the voice of the Lord possessing the Church heard through holy and apostolic men; and from the fowl of the air even to the cattle, namely from those who can ascend to the heights, even to the irrational and the simplest, who have departed from the assembly of God. (Verse 11.) And I will make Jerusalem heaps of sand (or, a transmigration), and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without an inhabitant.

When ecclesiastical men and teachers of every kind have failed, then Jerusalem is given over to transmigration, or to heaps of sand, so that heretical speech may prevail in her, and she may become a den of dragons, and her cities be reduced to a wilderness, and there be in her no dwelling place of the divine word, and of him who says: I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God. (Verses 12 ff.) Who is the wise man that may understand this, and to whom the word of the mouth of the Lord may come, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, and been burned up like a wilderness, so that there is none who passes through? And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, nor walked in it, but have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which they learned from their fathers.

The Prophet asks whether he can find anyone among the wise men in Jerusalem, and among those to whom the word of God comes, and who can declare the will of the Lord, and give the reasons why Judea has been reduced to a wilderness, and, all having been slain, none remains to pass through it. And he brings in the Lord answering and giving the reasons: because they have forsaken his Law which he had given them, and have not heard his voice, nor done what was commanded; but have gone after the perverseness of their own heart. Therefore it is to be confessed not in our own will, but in the Lord. For the heart is perverse in all things (below xvii, 9). And, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. And after Baalim, he says, they have gone, which they learned from their fathers. Baal is the idol of the Sidonians, and is of the singular number, but Baalim is of the plural number.

Therefore neither the error of parents nor of elders is to be followed, but the authority of the Scriptures, and the command of God who teaches. (Verses 15, 16.) Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood (or, distresses), and give them water of gall to drink, and I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, until they be consumed. This may also be prophesied of the near time, when they were taken captive by the Chaldeans; and properly of that time when they were scattered among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers had known: and being divided throughout the whole world, they were fed with wormwood, or with necessities and distresses.

And they received to drink the water of gall, which signifies either the magnitude of their evils, and the perpetual yoke of captivity, or certainly, through ignorance of the law of God, they are about to receive Antichrist instead of Christ. And the sword is sent after them, that they may be consumed even unto destruction. Or certainly the sword which divides them, and does not suffer them to have consent unto evil, that they may perish in that in which they are evil. (Verses 17, 18.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider ye (or, understand), and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come: let them make haste (or, speak), let them hasten, and take up a wailing for us (or, for you); and let our eyes (or, your eyes) run down with tears, and our eyelids (or, your eyelids) gush out with waters: for a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion (or, in Zion).

Because of the coming captivity and overthrow of Jerusalem, he commands that the mourning women be called, who are accustomed, in mourning, with tearful voice and beating their arms with their hands, to provoke the people to tears. For that custom remains even to this day in Judea, that women, with disheveled hair and bared breasts, with a measured voice, stir all to weeping. But God joins himself, with the feeling of one who suffers with them, or the Prophet does, so that whatever the people endures, he says that he himself endures and feels it. And what he adds: For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, is immediately followed by what that voice is. (Verse 19.) How are we laid waste, and greatly confounded? Because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings are cast down (or, we have cast down). This is the voice of those lamenting in Zion: How are we laid waste, and greatly confounded?

And immediately they answer themselves, and set forth the causes of their devastation, saying: Because we have forsaken the land, by our own fault and sin; and our dwellings are cast down, which they once possessed as if merely passing through. Let the crowds of believers in time of persecution say this too: that they have been laid waste and confounded because they forsook the land of the Lord, and abandoned their dwellings.

Verse 20. Hear therefore, women, the word of the Lord, and let your ear receive the speech of his mouth, and teach your daughters lamentation, and each woman her neighbor a dirge. For death has come up through our windows, it has entered our houses: to destroy the little ones from without, the young men from the streets. In the preceding chapter he had said: call the mourning-women, and let them come, and to those who are skilled send, and let them make haste: now he speaks as if to persons present, in condemnation of the priests and teachers and all the men: that, since these have ceased from teaching, the women should hear the word of the Lord, and receive the words of his mouth, and teach their daughters and neighbors lamentation and the causes of tears: For death has come up through our windows: it has entered our houses.

Although this can also be understood spiritually, in that death of sins enters through all the senses to the destruction of the soul; yet it can also be understood of the onslaught of the Babylonians: that so great is the strength and swiftness of their fighting that they do not wait to unbar the doors; but climb even through the windows and roofs, in order to lay waste the houses of Jerusalem. Now those perish who are the little ones who are outside, and who go forth from Jerusalem; and the young men, to whom John also writes, who do not enter by the narrow and strait way which leads to life; but walk through the streets, of which it is written: How wide and spacious is the way that leads to death.

Verse 22. Speak these things, says the Lord, and the carcass of man (or the corpses of men) shall fall like dung upon the face of the region (or the field), and like hay behind the back of the reaper, and there is none to gather it. The Hebrew word, which is written with three letters, DALETH, BETH, RESH (for it has no vowels in the middle), if read according to the sequence and the reader's judgment as DABAR (דבר), signifies "word"; if DEBER, "death"; if DABER, "speak." Whence both the Septuagint and Theodotion joined it to the preceding chapter, so as to say: They shall destroy the little ones from without, the young men from the streets, by death. But Aquila and Symmachus translated λάλησον, that is, "speak": so that God commands the Prophet to speak the things that follow: Thus says the Lord, and the rest.

And the sense is: When death has gone up through our windows, and has entered the houses of Jerusalem, and the little ones and young men have perished from without in the streets: then their carcass, or the corpses of the dead, shall be like a dungheap upon the face of the earth, and like stubble which is left behind the back of the reapers, and, being useless, is not gathered. By which he wishes to show that there will be such great slaughter in Jerusalem and around the city that there will be no one to bury those who fall.

Verse 23. Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories, glory in this: that he knows (or understands) and knows me: for I am the Lord, who does mercy, and judgment, and justice on the earth. For these things please me (or because in these is my will), says the Lord. All the pride of men is taken away, while their wisdom, strength, and wealth are reckoned as nothing, and this alone is the true glorying, that one should know and understand that he himself is the Lord, who works mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth: that all things are governed by the providence and justice of God: and that the things which seem to us to have no reason, are full of justice and of reason. For these things alone please God, and in these is his will.

Where then are those who say that man can be ruled by his own will, and that the power of free will has been so given that the mercy and justice of God are thereby removed? Whence also the Apostle, taking up this testimony, gives the example: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

Verse 25. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will visit upon every one who has the foreskin circumcised, upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all who are shorn on the temples, who dwell in the desert, for all the nations have the foreskin. But the whole house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. Many peoples, from a certain part of the nations, and especially those bordering upon Judea and Palestine, are circumcised even to this day, and especially the Egyptians, the Idumeans, the Ammonites, and the Moabites, and the whole region of the Saracens, which dwells in the wilderness, and of whom it is said: Upon all who are shorn on the temples, dwelling in the desert.

Judah, therefore, ought not to glory, mixed as he is with the aforementioned nations, on the ground that he does not have the foreskin, but is circumcised according to the Law of God, since others also do this who do not keep the commandments of the Law and do not know the God of Israel. Nor does circumcision profit, which was given as a sign, unless the commandments of the Lord are fulfilled; just as also long hair, which signifies a nation, does not signify the strength of bodies and the might of warriors. And what follows: All the nations have the foreskin: but the whole house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart, has this sense: Since besides the Egyptians, the Idumeans, the Ammonites, and the Moabites, and the Ishmaelites dwelling in the wilderness, of whom for the most part a portion is circumcised, all the other nations in the whole world are uncircumcised in flesh; the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart, not in flesh: and this uncircumcision leads to death.

For the former is of the flesh, the latter of the spirit.

(Verse 1.) Hear the word which the Lord has spoken over you, house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: Learn not the ways of the nations, and fear not the signs of heaven, which the nations fear: for the laws of the peoples are vain. He speaks properly against those who venerate heavenly bodies, and things that are set for signs of years, seasons, months, and days, and who from these suppose that mankind is ruled, and that earthly things are governed by heavenly causes. And what he says: The laws, or legal customs, of the peoples are vain, shows that all human wisdom is futile, and has in itself no usefulness.

Verse 3-5. For he cut down a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the craftsman with the axe: he adorned it with silver and gold, he fastened it with nails and hammers, that it might not be dissolved (or that it might not be moved). They are made in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak: being carried, they must be lifted, because they cannot walk. Fear them not therefore, for they can do neither evil nor good. A description of the idols which the nations worship. A tree, he says, he cut down from the forest. The material of idols, therefore, is cheap and corruptible: The work of the hands of a craftsman. Since the craftsman is mortal, therefore also the things which he fashions are mortal. He adorned it with silver and gold, so that by the brilliance of both materials he may deceive the simple. This error indeed has passed down even to us, so that we judge religion by riches.

He fastened it with nails and hammers, that it might not be dissolved, or that it might not be moved. How great is the power of idols, which cannot stand of themselves, unless they are fastened together with nails and hammers! Made in the likeness of a palm tree, they have the beauty of metals and are adorned with the art of painting: but they possess no usefulness, whereby they might afford any fruit to the craftsman. And they will not speak. For they have nothing living in themselves. Of which it is written: They have a mouth, and will not speak; they have ears, and will not hear. Being carried, they must be lifted. Stronger is he who carries than those things which are carried; indeed in the former there is sense, in the latter merely form without sense. Fear them not therefore, for they can do neither good nor evil.

For many of the nations are accustomed to worship demons, lest they do harm, and to entreat others that they may bestow benefits: whence also that saying of Virgil (Aeneid I): A black sheep for winter, one white for the favoring west winds. Whatever we have said of idols can be referred to all doctrines that are contrary to the truth. For these too promise great things, and fashion out of their own heart an image of vain worship. They boast of great things, and, in order to deceive the simple, as it were with golden meanings and speech gleaming with the splendor of silver, they bind fast the gaze of the inexperienced, and are exalted by their own inventors, in whom there is no usefulness, and whose worship belongs properly to the nations, and to those who do not know God. (Verse 6. And following.) There is none like you, O Lord: you are great, and great is your name in might. Who will not fear you, O king of the nations?

For yours is the glory among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. Both the foolish and the wise shall alike be proved, the teaching of their vanity is wood. Silver wrapped up (or beaten out) is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophaz, the work of the craftsman and the hand of the smith. Hyacinth and purple are their clothing: all these are the work of craftsmen (or of wise men). But the Lord God is the true God: he is the living God and the everlasting king. At his indignation the earth shall be moved, and the nations shall not endure his threatening. These words are not found in the Septuagint, but have been added in many copies from the edition of Theodotion, and although they seem clear according to the letter, according to the anagogical sense they present great difficulty. For none is like the true God, among those gods that are fashioned by heretical art. All will fear him, because he is king of the nations.

For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and from this we advance to true charity. Yours, he says, is the glory. In truth is beauty, in falsehood is baseness; although heretics, according to the wisdom of the world, which is to be destroyed, seem to themselves to be wise; yet in all the kingdoms with which they tear apart the Church, there is none like you, as the divine word says: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. Both wise and foolish alike are the same. Their teaching, according to the quality of their talent, is either base, and compared to wood, or resembles silver on account of the elegance of their speech. It is brought from Tarshish. Tarshish is either a region of India, as Josephus says, or certainly the whole sea is called Tarshish, and it bears a resemblance to heaven; and yet it is wrapped up in the craft of words, or beaten out. For if it wished to deceive, it could not.

And gold from Ophaz. Gold is called among the Hebrews by seven names, one of which is called ophaz (אופז), which we may render as "refined gold," so that it may shine on the surface of idols, though within it is wood and cheap material. They are covered with hyacinth and purple, that they may proudly deceive the eyes of onlookers, while promising for themselves the color of the heavens and the kingdoms of heaven; and yet all these are the works of the wise, who in this world are thought wise: but before God they are fools. But the Lord our God is the true God. Therefore all those other things are lies. And he himself is the living God: therefore those things which are fashioned are dead. And he is the everlasting king. The shadows of heretics prevail for a time, but in a long time they are corrupted. At his indignation the earth shall be moved: those who have earthly works, and fashion earthly images.

And the nations shall not endure: by no means the people of the Lord, but the multitude of the nations, who are not able to bear the threatening of God. (Verse 11). Thus therefore shall you say to them: Let the gods who did not make the heavens and the earth perish from the earth and from these things that are under heaven. These things are to be said to false gods, and to those who have been artificially fashioned. For these have made neither the heavens nor the earth. Those who are fellow-workers of Christ are called gods: and by the teaching of the Church they build, for the most part, the house of the Lord. (Verses 12 ff.) He who makes (or who made) the earth in his strength, prepares the world in his wisdom, and in his prudence stretches out the heavens.

At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heaven, and lifts up (or brings out) clouds from the ends of the earth, made lightnings for the rain, and brings forth wind (or winds) from his treasuries. Every man has become foolish from his own knowledge, every craftsman is confounded in the graven image: because that which he has cast is false, and there is no spirit in them: they are vain, and a work worthy of laughter: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. There is none like this that is the portion of Jacob. For he who formed all things, he it is, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance, the Lord of hosts is his name. He who makes the earth in his strength is God the Father. But he makes it in his strength through the Lord the Saviour. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. He himself is also the prudence, in which he stretches out the heaven.

For he spoke and they were made, he commanded and they were created; speaking to the Son: Let us make man according to our image and likeness. At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heaven. For all the teaching of the Lord flows from the heavenly things, as David says: You shall set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance, and it was weakened, but you have made it perfect. And he lifts up, or brings out, clouds from the ends of the earth. Clouds, or mists, which God commanded not to rain a shower upon Israel, are brought out from the extremities of the earth, of which one cloud was speaking: For I think that God has shown us the Apostles last of all, as men appointed to death, because we have become a spectacle to this world, and to angels, and to men. He made lightnings for the rain.

For when the shower of teachings has come down from heaven, and has satisfied the dry hearts of men, then you will find flashes and clear lightnings of wisdom. And he brings out winds from his treasuries; in which are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. Every man has become foolish from knowledge. Although that Paul, although Peter, although Moses and Abraham are wise, in comparison with God all their wisdom will be reckoned as nothing: whence also the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Every craftsman is confounded in the graven image, who has fashioned images out of his own heart: and false is that which he has cast. But if every man is foolish from knowledge, foolish is everything false that he has made. And there is no spirit in them. It must be noted that in this chapter also, wind and spirit are called by one name among the Hebrews, RUA (רוח); but he calls the Spirit of sanctification, which cannot be found in the minds of heretics.

They are vain, and a work worthy of laughter. For who would not laugh when he has looked closely at the images of heretics? For either the things said are rustic, and as though composed in fine speech, and silver is found; or certainly they are feigned from their own sense, and in vain they promise the image of gold. In the time of their visitation they shall perish. Heresy prevails for a time, so that the elect, whoever they are, may be made manifest, and may be proven. But when the visitation of God comes, and his eye has looked upon the foolish things, all things will fall silent. There is none like this that is the portion of Jacob: of those who have supplanted the Jews, and daily destroy heretics. But the portion of the Saints is God: of whom the prophet says: The Lord is my portion. For he who formed all things, he it is: who made and fashioned all things, both in soul and in body. And Israel is the rod of his inheritance.

Everyone who is set right in God, or who by sense knows God, is the sceptre of his inheritance. Whose name is the Lord Almighty, or of Hosts: for this is what "Lord of hosts" means, which in the Hebrew is written Dominus sabaoth. (Verses 17, 18.) Gather up from the land your confusion, you who dwell in the siege; for thus says the Lord: Behold I will cast far off the inhabitants of the land at this turn, and I will afflict them so that they may be found. LXX: She has gathered her substance from outside, she who dwells in the fortification. For thus says the Lord: Behold I supplant the inhabitants of this land, and I will afflict them, that they may be found. Jerusalem is commanded that whatever substance she has outside, she should gather into the most fortified city, and prepare provisions for a long siege.

For he is no longer threatening as before of the future, and of a long time to come: but now of a captivity near at hand, which is just about to come. Gather, he says, both from outside and from the land, that is, from the fields, your substance, or your confusion. For whatever you have is worthy of confusion: which although you prepare these things, know the words of the Lord concerning them. Behold I, at this turn, at this time, will cast forth, or as it were sling far off, the inhabitants of this land: for which the LXX have translated "I will supplant and cause to fall." For which Hebrew word COLEA (קולע), Aquila and Symmachus have translated σφενδονίσω.

And the sense is: As with a sling I will cast them off with all violence, and thus I will make them to be besieged: and so I will afflict and straiten them, that all may be found in the city, and may not be able to escape the evil. (Verse 19.) Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. LXX: Woe for your destruction, your wound is very grievous. According to the Hebrew, Jerusalem herself is speaking, that she has been vehemently afflicted, and sustains an incurable wound. But according to the LXX, the Prophet speaks to Jerusalem, and mourns over her for her destruction and wound. But I said, truly this is my infirmity (or my wound), and I will bear it (or it has taken hold of me).

Jerusalem herself speaks: whatever I suffer, I suffer through my own fault: I understand my wound which has taken hold of me, or I will endure the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. (Verse 20.) My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken (or all my skins are torn), my sons have gone out from me (or my sheep), and are not: there is none to stretch out my tent any further (or there is no more place for my tabernacle) and to set up my skins. Jerusalem laments the easy overthrow of her city, so that you should not think that the walls and ramparts have been utterly uprooted, but rather the removal of a tabernacle and a tent. My tabernacle, she says, that is, my dwelling, has suddenly been taken away. All my cords are broken. She keeps the metaphor of the tabernacle, or all my skins are torn. My sons have gone out from me, or my flocks, which the LXX added, does not stand according to the history.

For in a long siege how could sheep and flocks have been taken away from Jerusalem, which even if they had been there, famine would have consumed? And they do not, she says, remain, or are not. For they were not carried off into Chaldea: but a great part of them was slain and utterly destroyed. There is none to stretch out my tent any further: there is none to restore me, and to lay the foundations of my walls, which have been thrown down even to the ground. (Verse 21.) Because the shepherds have acted foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they have not understood, and all their flock is scattered. By the metaphor of shepherds and sheep, the fault of the princes and the dispersion of the people is described.

For because the princes acted foolishly, and did not seek the Lord, whom they ought to have sought with their whole heart: therefore they did not see the evils that were coming, or did not understand the Lord, and all the multitude of Jerusalem was scattered here and there. (Verse 22.) The voice of a report, behold it comes, and a great commotion from the land of the North: to make the cities of Judah a wilderness, and a dwelling place of dragons (or a lair of ostriches). And as Symmachus has translated it, of sirens: for which in the Hebrew THANNIM (תנים) is put.

The words of the Prophet: Behold, he says, the sound and roar of the coming Babylonian is heard, and a great commotion, or earthquake, from the land of the North: so that all the cities of Judea, their inhabitants slain, it may reduce to a wilderness, and cause dragons to dwell in the place of men, and all venomous creatures, or ostriches, which animal itself is also familiar to the wilderness, and is born and nourished in the deserts. Or certainly we can understand sirens as certain monsters and phantasms of demons. All these things which both the past and present discourse has described, let us refer to the times of the persecution of the Church, when the tabernacles of the Lord are overturned, and every dwelling of the Church is reduced to a wilderness.

And that all these things should come, it is the fault of the shepherds, who acted foolishly, and did not seek the Lord, nor understood him, and therefore all the flock was scattered. (Verse 23.) I know, O Lord, that man's way is not his own: nor is it in a man's power to walk and to direct his own steps. Let the new preachers blush, who say that each one is ruled by his own will: since even here the Prophet says: His way is not man's own. And David sings in a lyric song: The steps of a man will be directed by the Lord, and he will greatly delight in his way. Or the sense here is: that what we suffer from the Babylonians is not of their strength, but of our own merit, and of your indignation. (Verses 24, 25.) Correct me, O Lord, but yet in judgment, and not in your fury; lest perhaps you reduce me to nothing.

Pour out your indignation upon the nations, who have not known you, and upon the provinces (or generations) that have not called upon your name, because they have devoured Jacob, and consumed his place, and have laid waste (or reduced to a wilderness) his glory (or pasture). We read this passage also in the psalm: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury: nor chastise me in your wrath. And the sense is: We indeed deserve all the things that we suffer, and we deserve much greater things than we suffer. Nevertheless I beseech this, that you correct me as a father, not as an adversary: that you amend me as a son, and not punish me as an enemy; for you chastise every son whom you receive, and through every pain and scourge you amend Jerusalem. But the enemies, who have not known you, and the provinces or regions, which have not called upon your name, ought by no means to experience your judgment, but your indignation. For you handed us over, that we might be corrected.

But they aggravated their yoke: they did not spare the old man, and they afflicted the little ones: they devoured us, and utterly consumed us, and reduced Jerusalem to such a wilderness, that they scattered all things both of public and private buildings, and slew your people.

(Verses 1-3.) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear the words of this covenant (or testament), and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord the God of Israel. It is not indeed set down in the title, under what time, or under what king, and in what year of his reign, this prophecy was made: but we understand either that this is to be joined to the former prophecy and time, or certainly that this word of the Lord to the Prophet was made after some interval of time from the former prophecy.

It must be noted, moreover, that the word BERITH (ברית), Aquila and Symmachus have always translated as "covenant," the LXX and Theodotion as "testament." But properly now the word is directed to Jerusalem and to the men of the tribe of Judah.

Verse 4. Cursed is the man who has not heard the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers: in the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Hear my voice, and do all things which I command you, and you shall be to me for a people, and I will be to you for a Lord. Not by privilege of race, not by the mark of circumcision, and the rest of the sabbath, but by obedience, does God become the people's God, and Israel his people. And here indeed He speaks as it were to servants, that they may please God. But in the Gospel the Lord says to his disciples: You are my friends, if you do the things which I command you. I will no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, because all things which I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

And since they have become my friends, they pass from friends into sons: For as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God. Whence to friends and sons he commands: Be perfect, as your Father also is perfect; enjoining likeness, not equality. And there it is obedience to commandments, here likeness to God. And where he says: In the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, he gives us to understand that the furnace and the iron oven, and the kindled fire, signify the greatness of tribulation and punishment, not some place of punishment prepared out of the material of iron.

Verse 5. That I may raise up the oath which I swore to your fathers, that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. The fathers seem to receive, when the sons receive; and the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in his descendants. But the land flowing with milk and honey we ought to take hyperbolically for the abundance of all things, as is that saying (Virgil, Eclogue III): Let honey flow for them, and the rough bramble bear balsam. And again: And here and there he checked the wines running in streams. Or certainly, tropologically, let us understand by the land flowing with milk and honey the Church of Christ, in which we, as little ones and infants, are nourished through faith, so that we may be able to take solid food.

And I answered and said: Amen, Lord. For which the Seventy translated, Be it so, Lord (for this is what amen signifies). The Lord had said, I swore to your fathers that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as is proved this day by the facts themselves. The prophet, loving his people, anticipates the voice of the Lord, and desires that the things given may be true, and remain forever. Whence he says: Truly, Lord, you have fulfilled what you promised; or, Be it so, Lord, that is, may what you have given always remain.

Verse 6. And the Lord said to me, Proclaim (or read) all these words in the cities of Judah, and outside Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. The most merciful God frequently foretells the future, so that at length the hardened mind may be softened toward belief. And he foretells it both in the city of Jerusalem and outside in the countryside, so that those who share a common peril may have the same repentance.

Verse 7. For testifying I testified to your fathers in the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day. Rising early I testified, and said: Hear my voice; and they did not hear, nor incline their ear, but each walked in the perversity of his own evil heart, and I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do. Up to this point it is not found in the Septuagint, for what follows, and they did not do it, was added by them, and joined to the end of the preceding chapter, in which it is written: hear the words of this covenant, and do them; and they did not do them.

But what it means to rise early, and to press upon them the words of God through the Prophets frequently, and to have brought them out of Egypt, and often to admonish them and say: hear my voice; and that they went after the perversity of their heart, and afterward that he renders to them what they deserve and receive, we have already said before.

Verse 9. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem they have returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear my words. And these therefore have gone after strange gods, to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers. Instead of conjuratio, which we, following Symmachus, have translated, Aquila and the Seventy and Theodotion translated συνδεσμὸν, which we may call a binding together. Whence also Athaliah, when she perceived that snares were being prepared against her in the Temple, spoke with the same word: Conspiracy, conspiracy. Now Scripture properly uses this word when one is drawn to sin not by a sudden and accidental fault, but by prepared snares and conspiracy, and they do it with equal mind and the same zeal, so as to despise the commands of God.

And he says that both fathers and sons, with one mind and the same purpose, having neglected God, worshiped idols, both Israel, that is, the ten tribes, and the house of Judah, that is, the two tribes whose rule was in Jerusalem, so that those whose zeal in contempt of God was the same might suffer equal punishment in enduring captivity.

Verse 11. Wherefore thus says the Lord: Behold I bring upon them evils, from which they will not be able to go out, and they shall cry to me, and I will not hear them. And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go, and shall cry to the gods to whom they make libations; and they shall not save them in the time of their affliction. God does not hear in the time of necessity and distress: because they too refused to hear the voice of the Lord. This also Saul suffered. For when, fearing the armies of the Philistines, he had not deserved to receive the word of the Lord, he turned to the witch, that he might learn from idols what he ought to have wrung from the Lord by persistence in prayer and tears.

By which we learn that even if the Lord does not hear, one must by no means cease, nor flee to demons, who cannot help their worshippers; but to the help of the Lord, who is quickly moved from anger, and changes his sentence, if those with whom he was angry are also changed. But all that is now said pertains to the tribe of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem, upon whom captivity presses.

Verse 13. For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars of confusion, to make libations to Baal. Let us read the books of Kings and Chronicles, and we shall find that Judah and Jerusalem did far worse things than Israel, so that as many cities as they had, so many kinds of idols they had; and as many as were the streets and corners of streets in the city of Jerusalem, so many altars they had for their own confusion, on which they offered victims to the idols of Baal.

Verse 14. Do you therefore not pray for this people, and do not take up praise and prayer for them: for I will not hear in the time when they cry to me, in the time of their affliction. Jeremiah is commanded not to wish to entreat the Lord for those against whom sentence has already been fixed: lest his prayer seem weak, and not to be heard on account of their own crimes. Do not, he says, pray for them, nor take up praise, as though by rehearsing the mercy of old history, with which I have always had pity on them, and by praising, you might strive to change my sentence. For even if you do this, I will not hear them, who are compelled to ask me only at a time of necessity. From which we learn that it is vain for someone to ask on behalf of another, when he for whom God is asked does not deserve to receive.

Verse 15. What is it that my beloved has done many crimes in my house? Shall the holy flesh take away from you your wickedness, in which you have gloried? A fruitful, beautiful, fruit-bearing olive tree the Lord called your name: at the voice of a great speaking a fire has burned in it, and its shrubs are consumed. He calls the people of Judah beloved and most dearly loved, who set idols in his Temple, and worshipped them, and thinks that he appeases the wrath of God thereby, if he sacrifices many victims, and glories in the multitude of sacrifices, which cannot take away the wickedness of sins.

He compares Jerusalem, or all the people of the Jews, to a beautiful and fruit-bearing olive tree, which, exalted through pride, in no way acted humbly, nor understood its Creator and lord; but lifted up through pride, and speaking greatly, was set on fire by the Lord's flame; so that its branches or shrubs were burned and reduced to nothing, that is, all the people of the adversaries were destroyed by the sword. This same meaning is found in another place, where it is said to Jerusalem: I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true: how have you turned into the bitterness of a strange vine? When its hedges are destroyed, and the boar out of the forest lays it waste, and all the beasts devour its fruits, let us apply this chapter to the leaders of the Churches: What is it that my beloved has done many crimes in my house?

Or certainly to the rich, who, while they plunder the goods of others, and do not take away the wickedness of their heart, think that they deserve God's mercy: Shall the holy flesh take away from you your wickedness, in which you have gloried? But now the names of those making offerings are publicly recited, and the redemption of sins is turned into praise: nor do they remember that widow in the Gospel, who, by putting two mites into the treasury, surpassed the offerings of all the rich.

Verse 17. And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you, for the evils of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves to provoke me, offering libations to Baal. A fruitful, beautiful, fruit-bearing olive tree, he says, your Lord called you, and planted you. But because at the voice of speaking a great flame of God descended upon you, and consumed all your branches, therefore he who had planted you has now spoken evil against you: not by injustice of sentence, nor by sudden perversity of speech; but for the evils which the house of Israel and the house of Judah did to themselves, and zealously did, offering libations to Baal, so as to provoke me to anger. And though God can do what he wills, he renders reasons lest he seem to act unjustly, according to that which is written: That you may be justified in your words, and overcome when you are judged.

(Ver. 18 and following.) But you, Lord, have shown me, and I have known: you have shown me their pursuits, and I was as a gentle lamb, that is carried to be a victim, and I did not know that they had devised counsels against me. Let us put wood into his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more. But you, Lord of hosts, who judge justly, and try the reins and the heart: let me see your vengeance upon them: for to you I have revealed my cause.

It is the agreement of all the Churches, that under the person of Jeremiah, these things are understood to be spoken by Christ, that the Father showed him how he ought to speak, and showed him the pursuits of the Jews, and that he himself, like a lamb led to the victim, did not open his mouth, and did not know—sin is understood; according to that which is said by the apostle: Who, though he had not known sin, was made sin for us: and that they said: Let us put wood into his bread, that is, the cross into the body of the Saviour. For he it is who says: I am the bread which came down from heaven: and let us root out, or cut him off, from the land of the living. For this crime they devised in their mind, that they might blot out his name forever.

But on the other hand, according to the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father, and implores his judgment, while praising justice, and invokes God, the searcher of the reins and the heart, that he himself may render to the people what it deserves, and says: Let me see your vengeance upon them, that is, upon those who persist in crime, and not upon those who turn to repentance. Of those he says on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And he reveals to the Father and opens his cause: because by no merit of his own, but by the crime of the people, he was crucified, saying: Behold the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me. The Jews and our Judaizers understand these things to be spoken from the person of Jeremiah: who, they affirm, endured these things from the people on account of his prophecy of the future, and the evils of the coming captivity.

But I do not know how they can prove that Jeremiah was crucified, since Scripture does not record this: unless perhaps they thought of it, and did not do it. (Verses 21 and following.) Therefore thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth who seek your soul, and say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and you shall not die by our hands. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon them: the young men shall die by the sword: their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant of them. For I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation. This seems to contradict the preceding statement, in which we wished to approve that what has been said was said in the person of Christ, and not of Jeremiah, who properly dwelt in the little village of Anathoth, which is three miles distant from Jerusalem.

But if we understand the etymology of the town ANATHOTH, which is interpreted "obedience," it will be clearly shown that the men of Anathoth, who once obeyed the Lord's commands, are said to be all the Jews, and especially the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, upon whom the final sentence came: that they should perish by the evils of siege, by sword, famine, and pestilence. But that we may be freed from all the trouble of interpretation, let us follow this rule: that all the Prophets did most things as a type of the Lord Savior, and whatever was fulfilled in Jeremiah's own time is prophesied in this as concerning the future of the Lord.

The fables tell that the Lernaean hydra sprouted many serpents from its middle head; and that Scylla, the monster of the Sicilian strait, though of virginal face, but girded with dogs, tears apart the shipwrecks of the wretched; joined on the same shore is the deadly song of the Sirens, which, that Homer's Ulysses might avoid, he is said to have stopped up his ears, and by prudent counsel avoided the insuperable evil.

When I desired to do this, and to avoid the rage of heretics, and, like Ismenias, singing to myself and mine, I turned over that prophetic saying: When the sinner stood against me, I was dumb, and was silent from good things, the devil did not allow me, content with the desired quiet, to persist in the explanation of the holy Scriptures, and to hand on to men of my own tongue the learning of the Hebrews and the Greeks; but he works at this day and night, both openly and by ambush, mixing false things with true, indeed smearing all his lies with cunning honey, so that he who hears the sweetness of the words may not fear the poisons of the heart: he promises peace, that he may wage graver wars; he laughs, that he may bite; he offers his hand, that he may slay the simple Abner unawares. Surely this is that which the Apostle also said: For we are not ignorant of his devices.

Here he is silent, elsewhere he accuses: he sends throughout the whole world letters, "bibline" letters, formerly golden-tongued, now full of slander, and interprets our patience, which comes from the humility of Christ, as a sign of a bad conscience. And he himself, though mute, barks through the dog Albinus, a great and corpulent one, who can rage more with his heels than with his teeth. For he has offspring of the Scottish nation, from the neighborhood of the Britons: who, according to the fables of the poets, like Cerberus, must be struck with the spiritual club, that he may fall silent in eternal silence along with his master Pluto. But of this elsewhere. Now I shall approach the third book on Jeremiah, in which I shall try, brother Eusebius, to compress the very broad fields of exposition into the narrow path of a Commentary.

(Verses 1 and following.) Righteous indeed art thou, O Lord, if I dispute with thee (or, "because I would give thee satisfaction"): nevertheless I will speak judgments to thee.

Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers, that it is well with all who deal treacherously and act unjustly? Thou hast planted them and they have taken root, they prosper (or, "they have begotten children, and bear fruit"): thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins. This dispute indeed is against all who act unjustly, and the sentiment of the seventy-second psalm is briefly comprehended in it, in which the Prophet says: How good is God to Israel, to those who are upright of heart! But my feet were almost moved, my steps had well-nigh slipped: because I was jealous over the peace of sinners, seeing the peace of sinners.

But this is properly said against the heretics, who, though they are impious, have their way prosper; and they beget children—those whom they have deceived into heresy: and they deal treacherously, and act unjustly, so that they despoil the Church, and while they persist in the depravity of their opinion, they boast that they have been planted by God, and have taken root, have begotten children and brought forth fruit: who, though they often repeat the name of Christ, do not have God as their indweller, according to that saying of Isaiah: This people honors me with their lips: but their heart is far from me (Isaiah xxix, 13). (Verse 3.) And thou, O Lord, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and proved my heart with thee. Gather them together as a flock for the victim, and sanctify them for the day of slaughter. There is, he says, no scandal in the fact that the wicked, or all heretics, flourish for a time: for thou, O Lord, knowest me, and hast seen me, and proved my heart with thee.

Whom does the Father God know in this way, if not as his own Son? For no one knows the Son except the Father: and no one knows the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Granted, he says, that the heretics prosper, granted that they beget children and bear fruit, and that thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins, that is, from their conscience: yet it is no small consolation that they are being fattened like cattle for the slaughter. Gather them into the city of Jerusalem, or into their own assemblies: that they may be slain like victims unto death, and then be sanctified, when they shall have been cut down by the sword of the Church: for the slaying of heretics is the salvation of those who had been deceived. (Verse 4.) How long shall the land mourn, and the grass of every region wither, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it?

The beast and the fowl are consumed, because they said: He shall not see our last end (or, "God will not see our ways"). Whatever happens in the world, whether of good things or of evil, happens not without providence, nor by chance, but by the judgment of God. The land now is barren, the grass is dried up. Do you wish to know the reason? The wickednesses of its inhabitants do this: so that the animals upon the earth, and the birds of the sky, are consumed, because all these things were created for the use of men: who have risen to such blasphemy as to say that God is ignorant of their ways, and does not know what each one is going to suffer. But when he says, "how long," this signifies that the wrath of God endures, because the mind of the sinners was not bent to repentance. (Verse 5.) If thou hast wearied thyself running with footmen, how wilt thou be able to contend with horses?

If thou hast trusted in a land of peace, what wilt thou do in the pride (or "roaring") of the Jordan? If, he says, the frequent captivity of the neighboring nations has wearied thee—of the Moabites and the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Idumeans: what wilt thou do in the face of the long captivity, which is to lead thee to Chaldea? And he compares footmen to horsemen, because indeed, according to history, all Persia, and the whole of Chaldea, and the armies of those regions, rejoice in cavalry. But those nations which I mentioned above, on account of the difficulty of the terrain, are not so much suited for battle as for brigandage. And he keeps up the metaphor and says: If, running with footmen, thou hast failed from weariness, what wilt thou do if thou shalt wish to match thy course with horses?

And if in thy own land thou hast had some confidence, what wilt thou do when thou shalt have crossed the Jordan, and endured its whirlpools? (Verse 6.) For even thy brothers, and the house of thy father, even they have fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice: believe them not when they shall speak good things to thee. To such a degree, he says, shalt thou be covered by the heaviest floods of the Jordan, and the multitude of horsemen coming from afar shall lay thee waste, that even thy brothers, the Idumeans, and the house of thy father, who were born of the stock of Lot—Moab and Ammon—even they, in the time of necessity and distress, shall fight against thee, and insult thee. Wherefore beware lest thou be willing to believe them, and to have hope in kinship, through which they may rage against thee with greater hatred than the enemies themselves.

This can also be understood of the Savior, that his brothers, and the house of his father, fought against him, and cried out with full voice, saying: Crucify him, crucify him: we have no king but Caesar. (Verses 7, 8.) I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance: I have given my beloved soul into the hand of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest: it has uttered its voice against me, therefore I have hated it. He who spoke in the Gospel: Arise, let us go hence. And again: Your house shall be left unto you desolate, here too in the Prophet threatens the same things; and what he is going to do, he says he has already done. For the inheritance of the Lord is Israel, and the cord of his inheritance. But when he says: I have given my beloved soul into the hand of her enemies, this means: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.

Now the inheritance of the Lord, once the people of the Jews, became against him like a lion in the forest: when it cried out against him in the Passion with united voice. And because it uttered its voice against him: therefore he held it in hatred, and cast it off, and that which was once beloved and most dear, is now called hateful. (Verse 9.) Is my inheritance to me a speckled bird? Is it a bird dyed all over? Come, gather together, all you beasts of the earth: hasten to devour. The LXX: Is my inheritance to me a hyena's den? Or is there a den round about it, above it? Go, gather together all the beasts of the field: and let them come and eat it. The speckled and all-dyed bird he calls, according to the letter, the peacock. So great, he says, was the beauty which Israel had, and Jerusalem was so distinguished by virtues, that there was nothing good which might not be seen in her.

Since therefore my inheritance, that is, the people of Israel, has become to me like a lion in the forest, and has uttered its voice against me, and I have utterly abhorred it with hatred: therefore come and gather together against her all the beasts of the earth, the multitude of diverse nations, and devour her who did not know her own Lord. But if, as the Seventy and other interpreters have translated, we read: Is my inheritance to me a hyena's den, let us refer this to the uncleanness of the nocturnal beast, which lives on the corpses of the dead, and is wont to dig up bodies out of tombs, and there is no uncleanness on which it does not feed. Such is Israel, offending its own Lord, and given over to the ways of all the beasts. (Verse 10.) Many shepherds have destroyed (or "torn apart") my vineyard, they have trodden underfoot (or "polluted") my portion: they have made my desirable portion into a desert of solitude (or "trackless waste").

They have made it (or "it has been made") into desolation. Let those hear this who wish to be princes of peoples, that not only for themselves, but also for the flocks entrusted to them, they shall render an account on the day of judgment. For because of them the Lord's portion is trodden down and polluted, so that where once there was a dwelling-place, there is now the lair of beasts. But others understand by this not the leaders of the people and the priests, but the princes of the enemies, who laid waste Jerusalem, that is, the vineyard of the Lord. (Verses 11, 12.) And it has mourned over me: the whole land is made a desolation of desolation, because there is none who takes it to heart. Upon all the ways of the desert have come the destroyers, because the sword of the Lord has devoured from one end of the earth even to the other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.

The LXX: Therefore the land has been made desolate with desolation, and so forth. That which we have put, "and it has mourned over me," is joined, according to the Hebrew, to the preceding verse, so that the sense is: They have made it into desolation, that is, my inheritance: and it has mourned over me, deprived of my help. But according to the LXX, God speaks, saying that because of him the land has been made desolate and reduced to a wilderness, because there is none who takes it to heart, nor is there any peace for all flesh. For it cannot receive the peace of God. For the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God; and they who are in the flesh cannot please God. Further, according to the Hebrew, all Judea is desolate for this reason, that there is none who takes God to heart, nor any remnant able to escape.

For through all the ways of the wilderness have come the destroyers, that is, the hostile army, and the sword of the Lord has devoured from border to border; nor was there any rest for those fleeing from the city. Whence it is said: There is no peace for all flesh. (Verse 13.) They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it shall not profit them. LXX: You have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: their lots shall not profit them. He says, they awaited better things, and the worst came; they hoped for prosperity, and suffered adversity: they received from the Lord an abundance of all things, which shall not profit them. But according to the Septuagint, all heretics sow as it were wheat, and reap thorns, the Lord awaiting that they should bring forth fruit, and they have not done judgment, but a cry. This is also said of the ecclesiastics, who by their evil manner of life destroy the words of the Lord and his teaching.

Of whom it is added: Their lots shall not profit them. For what can the name of bishop and presbyter, or the rest of the ecclesiastical order, avail them, since they are the more burdened by their dignities, and the powerful shall suffer powerful torments; and the more that has been entrusted to them, the more shall be required of them. (Verses 14, 15.) You shall be confounded by your fruits (or by your boasting) because of the wrath of the fury of the Lord (or by reproach in the sight of the Lord). Thus says the Lord against all my most wicked neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have distributed to my people Israel: Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up (or cast out) the house of Judah from the midst of them.

And when I have plucked them up, I will turn again (or return), and will have mercy on them, and will bring them back (or make them dwell), each man in his inheritance, and each man in his land. This is said to those to whom their lots and the ecclesiastical order shall not profit, that they may be confounded by their boasting and by reproach before the Lord. And as to what he adds: against all my most wicked neighbors, according to the letter, the neighbors of the Holy Land are the Idumeans, the Philistines, Moab, and Ammon. But according to the tropology, all heretics, who are reckoned under the name of Christ, and are more truly neighbors than the inhabitants of the Holy Land, who touch the inheritance of God and lay it waste: and it is said of them that they shall be taken away from the midst of the land, and the house of Judah shall be removed from among them.

And when they have been plucked up, and freed from the jaws of the heretics, they shall obtain the mercy of God, and be brought back into their inheritance and into their own land. (Verses 16, 17.) And it shall come to pass, if the instructed shall have learned the ways of my people, so as to swear in my name, "The Lord lives," as they taught my people to swear by Baal, they shall be built up in the midst of my people. But if they will not hear, I will pluck up that nation with a plucking up and a destruction, says the Lord. If, having been transferred from heresy into the Church, they shall have learned the ways of the people of God, and shall have sworn in the name of the Lord, and not in the name of the idols which they have fashioned from their own heart, they shall be built up by the Lord, and shall be a part of his people.

But if, having been transferred into the Church, they shall have kept the remnants of perverse doctrines, and shall not have heard the words of the Lord, that nation shall be plucked up from the midst of the people of God, with a perpetual plucking up and destruction, so that no place of repentance whatever is left to them. This we see daily, and we prove by facts, that heretics for this reason simulate the truth of the faith, that they may deceive the simple, and that they themselves are not converted to the faith, but rather draw the faithful into unfaithfulness.

(Verses 1 and following.) Thus says the Lord to me: Go and get for yourself a linen waistband (or girdle), and put it upon your loins, and you shall not bring it into water (or it shall not pass through water). And I got the waistband according to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.

And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: Take the waistband (or girdle) which you have gotten, which is about your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. And I went and hid it in the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me. And it came to pass after many days, the Lord said to me: Arise and go to the Euphrates, and take from there the waistband (or girdle) which I commanded you to hide there. And I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it, and behold, the waistband (or girdle) had rotted, so that it was fit for no use.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thus says the Lord: So will I make to rot the pride (or injury) of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem, and this most wicked people, who refuse to hear my words, and walk in the depravity (or in the direction) of their most wicked heart; and they have gone after strange gods, to serve them and worship them; and they shall be like this waistband, which is fit for no use. For as the waistband clings to the loins of a man, so have I made all the house of Israel, and all the house of Judah, cling to me, says the Lord, that it might be to me for a people, and for a name, and for praise, and for glory; and they have not heard.

The girdle, or waistband, which is joined to the loins of God, is the people of Israel, which, taken up from the earth in the likeness of flax, and unwashed, had neither softness nor whiteness, and yet through his mercy clung to God. And when it had sinned—for this kind of flax and waistband is indeed rational—it was led across the Euphrates, that is, among the Assyrians, and there hidden, that is, in a certain manner swallowed up by the multitude of great and innumerable nations, and reckoned as nothing. But after a long time, the Prophet himself, as a type of God, delivers the people from captivity. Who nonetheless, even after the return, did not do the commandments of God; but following strange gods, at the last even laid hands upon the Son of God, and wasted away in eternal perdition.

Every holy man too is the waistband of God, who, taken up from the earth and from the slime of the earth, is joined to the fellowship of God, and in a certain manner covers with greater diligence, and encircles, those things which appear unseemly in his Church, lest they lie open to the bites of the gentiles and heretics. And if this waistband should touch water, and should pass through the streams of the Euphrates, so that it is imbued with the moistures of the Assyrian region, it loses its former strength, and rots, and is dissolved. And although it may return to the use of God, yet it cannot have its former beauty—not by the hardness of God, but by its own fault: because they refuse to hear his words, and walk in the depravity of their own heart, or do what seems right to themselves.

But the divine word itself explains why it set forth this likeness, saying: For as the waistband clings to the loins of a man, so have I made and caused to cling to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of Judah, namely the ten and the two tribes, that they might be to me for a people called by my name, and for praise, and for glory; and for all this they have not heard me, but have followed their own vices.

Let him therefore who can say: But it is good for me to cling to God, beware lest perchance through negligence he be separated from his loins, and pass over the Euphrates, and be given into the power of the king of Assyria, and be placed not in the most solid rock, but in a hole of a rock that is broken and corrupted—that is, be occupied by the filth and vices of heretics, and come into such rottenness, that he can no longer return to the use and to the girdle of the Lord. (Verse 12 and following.) You shall therefore say to them (or to the people) this word. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Every flask (or wineskin) shall be filled with wine. And they will say to you: Do we not know that every flask (or wineskin) is filled with wine?

And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit upon his throne of the stock (or sons) of David, and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness: and I will scatter them, each man from his brother, and fathers and sons together, says the Lord: I will not spare (or desire), and I will not concede, neither will I have mercy, so that I shall not destroy them.

The Hebrew word NEBEL (נבל); the first edition of Aquila renders "flask"; the second, "nebel" itself; Symmachus, "goblet"; the LXX, "wineskin"; Theodotion, "vessel"—all of which is filled not with oil, not with water, not with honey, not with milk, not with any other material of a liquid element, but with wine, and with drunkenness: showing that we are a fragile vessel, according to the Apostle who says: We have this treasure in earthen vessels; and that it cannot be but that there be fulfilled in us what is written: For in my flesh dwells no good thing. And again: For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. And then: Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

But by this drunkenness, by which we forget the precepts of God, the whole human condition is filled with vices and sins, the Prophet saying: In your sight shall no living man be justified—not in comparison with God (as the old and new heretics wish, and the patrons of heretics), but in comparison with his knowledge: For man sees the face, God sees the heart; and what seems clean to us at times is found sordid in his eyes: not only the ignoble crowd and the vile common folk, but the kings of the Churches of the stock, or sons of David, who sit reclining, with neck erect, and belly protruding, upon his throne. The priests too themselves, the second rank in ecclesiastical honor, and the prophets, who seem to have knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, are filled according to the variety of their sins; or Judah, as the Septuagint has added.

And when they have become drunk, they are scattered from their fellowship, and fathers are separated from sons and sons from fathers, so that they are polluted by diverse heresies, and under the name of Christ take up the sword against one another, and fight against their mother who bore them, the Church. Whence he says: I will not desire them; but I will hold them in everlasting hatred: I will not spare, and I will not concede, neither will I have mercy: not from cruelty of sentence, but from truth of judgment. For those who have slaughtered my peoples shall themselves perish forever. This may also simply be taken according to the history, that the kings, priests, and prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem are to be made drunk with the cup of Babylon, and overwhelmed with the evils of captivity. (Verse 15.) Hear and give ear: Be not lifted up, for the Lord has spoken.

Because he had said above: every bottle shall be filled with wine; so that kings also, and priests, and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem should be filled with drunkenness, therefore he joins on and says: Hear and give ear, both outwardly and inwardly, both in mind and in body; and be not lifted up through pride, considering your frailty, and that there is none who, according to the measure of his sin, is free from this drunkenness. Whence he is destroyed and corrupted, and is unworthy of God’s mercy, lifting himself up against him through pride. (Verses 16, 17.) Give glory to the Lord your God, before it grow dark, and before your feet stumble upon the darksome (or gloomy) mountains. You shall look for light, and there shall be the shadow of death, and it shall be set in darkness (or, according to the Hebrew, and if you will not hear, your soul shall weep in secret because of pride (or injury)).

To those to whom the divine word had said: Hear and give ear, and be not lifted up, he now calls to penitence, that before they be led away to Babylon, and their feet stumble upon the darksome or gloomy mountains, they may give glory to God. Whence also it is often said to sinners: Give glory to God. And that Babylon, and the whole region of the Chaldeans, are called darksome or gloomy mountains, we read at the beginning of the Vision of Isaiah against Babylon, where it is written: Upon the darksome mountain lift up a standard, which in Hebrew is called NESEPHA (נשפה). This therefore he commands, that before they be led into captivity, and feel the evils of servitude, they should do penance. And though they look for light, they shall have to sit in darkness.

But if, he says, you will not hear me, according to Aquila, in darkness your soul shall weep, or according to the Septuagint, because of pride; so that not even groaning and weeping shall be free, lest the eyes of the victors be offended. But we may also interpret this passage thus: The Savior speaks: Work while it is day: the night comes when no man can work any longer. Of this time also is the prophecy of Isaiah: For the stars of heaven and Orion, and all the adornment of heaven shall not give their light, and it shall be darkened when the sun rises, and the moon shall not give her light. Zephaniah also agrees in the same words, saying: A day of tribulation and distress: a day of misery and destruction: a day of darkness and whirlwind: a day of cloud and gloom.

Before, then, the time of judgment comes, and our feet stumble upon the dark mountains, that is, the adversary powers which are set over torments and torture, let us do penance, lest, while looking for light, we be wrapped in the darkness of night; and let us know that unless we do this, the soul—whether of God or of the Prophet—shall weep because of our pride, of those unwilling to hear the words of God: whence the Prophet himself also says: Weeping, Jerusalem shall weep (or, weeping shall weep, and my eye shall bring down tears): because the flock of the Lord is taken captive (or, I cannot conceal my grief with silent groans). And the whole cause of this anguish is that the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.

Let us say to the Jews and to our own Judaizers, who follow only the plain and killing letter of history, unless you hear in secret, that is, in mystery, or in the darkness in which God has made his hiding-place, and, according to Solomon, that they may understand the parable and the dark saying, the soul of the Prophet shall weep, or their own souls, because of pride, while through stubbornness they resist God. Whence there shall be continual weeping and perpetual tears: because by the true Nebuchadnezzar the flock of the Lord has been captured and corrupted. (Verses 18, 19.) Say to the king and to the mistress (or, say to the king and to the mighty ones): Humble yourselves, sit down, for the crown of your glory has come down (or, has been taken away) from your head. The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them. All Judea (or, all Judah) has been carried away with a perfect captivity (or transmigration).

The Prophet is commanded to speak to King Jeconiah and his mother, whom he calls lady and mistress, or queen, that they should be humbled and sit in the dust: for they had lost their royal dignity, and were to be delivered to the king of Babylon. The cities of the South are shut up, that is, the tribe of Judah and Jerusalem, which lies toward the South near the wilderness, and there is none to open them, being surrounded by siege. All Judea, or all Judah, has been carried away with a perfect captivity: or has received what it deserved, and it has been fulfilled in her, as the Septuagint translated.

He raves who in this passage understands the king to be Christ, and the mighty ones to be Angels or Apostles, that they should assume a body of humility, and sit in the dust, and that either the king or the mighty should lose the crown from their head; and that the glory of Judah was carried away when in the passion it was fulfilled: All have turned aside, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that does good, no not one. The Hebrew word GEBIRA (גבירה). Aquila and Symmachus translated it as mistress and lady, which the Septuagint thought was GEBUROTH (גבורות), and rendered as "the mighty ones." (Verses 20, 21.) Lift up your eyes, and see, you who come from the North: where is the flock that was given to you, your renowned flock? What will you say when he shall visit you? For you have taught them against yourself, and instructed them against your own head.

It is commanded to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they lift up their eyes, and see the Chaldeans coming from the direction of the North: and the city itself is questioned, and it is said to her: Where is the flock that was given to you, your renowned flock? Where is your people, whom you had received from God, where is that great and renowned multitude, so that you believed the crowd of a whole province gathered into one place? What will you say when the Lord shall visit you with his rod, and shall deliver you to the enemies of Babylon, whom you yourself, against yourself, or against your own head, taught from the beginning, that you might flee to their aid, and follow their idols; who, under the pretext of your friendship, learned by what road they ought to come to you.

Let the negligent Church hear this, that she herself teaches her adversaries how they may seize her in spiritual captivity, and tear her flock with the cruelty of beasts. (Verse 22.) Shall not pangs seize you, as a woman in travail? But if you shall say in your heart, why have these things come upon me? Because of the multitude of your iniquity your shame has been uncovered, your feet (or, your soles) are defiled (or dishonored). While you are unaware, as a sudden birth seizes a woman, so sudden captivity shall seize you. But if you wish to make excuse and to ask why you have been delivered to the enemies, hear plainly, that the multitude of your iniquity has done this to you, that, as with a harlot woman, her garments being removed, your disgrace should be uncovered, and your fornications publicly shown. By which we learn, that as long as sins are small, the Lord acts patiently, and awaits our repentance.

But if we wish to join sin to sin, and heap up a mass of sins, our shame shall be uncovered, and our soles shall be shown to all, whether in the present age or in the age to come. For nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed: when that saying of Daniel shall be fulfilled: These shall rise to life everlasting, and those to reproach and everlasting confusion. (Verse 23.) If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, then you also may be able to do good, having learned evil. Those use this testimony against the Church who wish to assert diverse natures; and they say that the blackness or the variegation of sins is so great, that they cannot pass over into whiteness, and the beauty of a single color: not attending to what follows: And you also may be able to do good when you have learned evil.

For whatever is learned belongs not to nature, but to study and one’s own will: which, through excessive habit and love of sinning, is in a certain way converted into nature. But that which is impossible with men, is possible with God: so that it is not that the Ethiopian and the leopard seem to change their own nature; but he who works in the Ethiopian and in the leopard, as the Apostle says: I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me. Whence also elsewhere: I have labored, he says, more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me. And: I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. And again we read it written: What have you that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?

For which reasons let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong in his strength, nor the rich in his riches, nor the chaste in his own chastity, knowing that in all these it is the virtue of Christ, not of those who glory in their own virtues. (Verses 24, 25.) And I will scatter them like stubble that is carried away by the wind in the desert. This is your lot and the portion of your measure from me, says the Lord (or, and the portion of your disobedience against me). Because through excessive habit of evils they could not change their nature, not by fault of the Creator, but through zeal for ingrained wickedness, therefore I will scatter them like stubble carried away by the wind into the wilderness, according to that which is written elsewhere: Like dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth.

And he makes an apostrophe to Jerusalem herself: that this is her lot, and this the portion which she herself has chosen for herself, a measure heaped up and complete, and overflowing, or the portion of her disobedience, by which she was unwilling to acquiesce to God. For in whatever measure she has measured, it shall be measured to her again. (Verse 26.) Because you have forgotten me, and trusted (or hoped) in a lie: therefore I also have laid bare (or will lay bare and reveal) your thighs, and your hindparts against your face, and your shame shall appear, your adulteries, and your neighing, the crime (or estrangement) of your fornication. The cause of Jerusalem's dispersion is that she has forgotten God, and has trusted, or hoped, in lies. Whoever, apart from God, trusts in worldly things, forgets God.

Whence her thighs, or hindparts, are uncovered, that she may see her own shame: and what ought to be behind, becomes before; and she herself may perceive what she has done, and her shame may appear, not only to herself, but to all. Your adulteries, he says, and your neighing show not merely lust, but the madness of lust, in the manner of mares, which are wild for mating, as in that verse of Virgil (Georg. 3:280-281):

[lacuna] Hippomanes, which by that name
The shepherds call, a slow venom drips from the loins.

Let us ask Jesus that neither in the present nor in the future age he reveal our thighs and our hindparts, but that he blot out all our iniquities, and not allow all our crimes to appear. (Verse 27.) Upon the hills in the field I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, Jerusalem, you shall not be cleansed (or, because you have not been cleansed) after me, how long yet? Not only in the middle of the city of Jerusalem, but in every hill and in all the regions, I have seen your idols; whence it is said to her: Woe to you, Jerusalem, because you have not been cleansed after me, so that although you boasted of following in my footsteps, and paraded the confession of my name, yet you were never purified, because you have forgotten me, and hoped in lies. Whence he rebukes her and says, How long yet? And the sense is: how long shall I wait for you? How long shall I bear with you?

How long will you forget me utterly, and despise my commandments? She commits fornication on the hills and in the fields, and is never cleansed, who, with stiff neck through pride, does not humble herself under the mighty hand of God, but trusts in her own crimes and vices.

(Verse 1.) The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah concerning the words about the drought. All things agree in the wrath of God. Whence also the sun sets over sinners at noon, and the moon and stars and the rest do not give their light. And it must be supposed that at the time of the siege there were no rains, so that the besieged endured a scarcity of water. Indeed the city uses only a single spring, Siloam, and that not perpetual, and to the present day the withholding of rains causes want not only of crops, but even of drinking water. (Verses 2 and following.) Judaea (or Juda) has mourned, and her gates have fallen (or have been emptied), and are darkened (or overshadowed) over the earth, and the outcry of Jerusalem has gone up.

Her elders sent their lesser ones (or their youths) for water: they came to the wells (or to draw) and found no water, they brought back their vessels empty, they were confounded and afflicted (or blushed with shame), and covered their heads because of the devastation of the earth (or because of the works of the earth, since they failed), because rain had not come (or was not) upon the earth: the farmers were confounded, they covered their heads. In the time of drought, when the multitude that hears and learns the word of God suffers famine, Judaea mourns—she who once boasted of having the worship of God and the confession of the true faith—and her gates are either emptied or fall, which we must refer to the senses, through which discipline is conceived by the soul. Then all things are darkened and wrapped in shadows; and reason and the word of doctrine no longer reign in Jerusalem, but outcry and confusion.

The elders too, who ought themselves to go to draw water, send the younger ones, in whom there are no grey hairs of wisdom, and therefore they come to the wells and do not find the waters which history relates the patriarchs to have found. They bring back their vessels empty—the younger ones, that is: not because there was no water, but because they were unable to find it. They were confounded and afflicted, or blushed, and covered their heads; because they could not say with the Apostle: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord. Because of the devastation of the earth, or, the works of the earth also failed, through which we proceed to the knowledge of God. The cause is clear: because, he says, rain has not come upon the earth. For it was commanded to the clouds that they should not rain a shower upon it.

The farmers too, of whom one says, You are God's husbandry, you are God's building; and elsewhere: We are God's fellow-workers—cover their heads and are confounded, understanding that without God's grace and help they strive in vain. (Verses 5, 6.) For the hind (or hinds) also calved in the field and abandoned (its young) because there was no grass. And the wild asses stood on the rocks, they drew in the wind like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass (or hay). Great is the drought, when even hinds calve in the field and abandon their young because there is no grass or hay; so that creatures which by the scent of their nostrils draw serpents out of caverns, and kill venomous animals, cannot enjoy the food of grace.

The wild asses too, of whom it is written in Job: Who has let the wild ass go free in the wilderness?—leaving the plains and level fields, stand upon the rocks, and are unable to run, and draw in the wind after the likeness of dragons, and their eyes fail, and they cannot see the clear light, because reasonable food has been withdrawn. This drought often happens in the Churches, when hinds and wild asses are found among the peoples, and waste away for lack of teachers: there are those who can learn, and there are none who can teach.

If our iniquities have answered (or resisted) against us, O Lord, act for your name's sake, for our backslidings (or our sins) are many. We have sinned against you, O expectation of Israel, its Savior in the time of tribulation. If we doubt why the rains do not come down upon the earth, why all things wither in dryness, let us hear: Our iniquities have resisted us; therefore, O Lord, act not according to our works, but according to your holy name, overcome our many backslidings. For we have sinned against you, whom the secrets of the heart do not deceive, and we wait for you, who are the true hope and expectation of Israel: and you save them in the time of tribulation, according to that which is written: In my trouble I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me.

Let us too say, in the time of drought and want of water: We have sinned against you, and have done evil before you, we await your coming, who save Israel not by its own merit, but by your mercy. (Verse 9.) Why will you be like a sojourner in the land, and like a traveler turning aside to lodge? Why will you be like a wandering man, or a mighty man who cannot save? The LXX: Why have you become like a stranger in the land, and like a native turning aside to lodge? Will you be like a man asleep, and like a man who cannot save? The Jews understand this passage thus: Why do you separate yourself from your people? And like a traveler, for the refreshment of a single hour, you do not care what kind of lodging you use, but, about to pass on to other places, you do not save your people, and you abandon your once-famous temple.

But our own writers think this is said of the future dispensation of Christ, that he was to be a pilgrim on the earth, and to use the hospitality of the earth for a short time, and, like a man passing through and mighty, having left Israel, was to make his way to the multitude of the nations; so that he might pass from place to place, from people to people, from the Temple to the Church. But as for what is said according to the Septuagint: Will you be like a man asleep, and like a man who cannot save?—this sets forth a comparison, not the literal truth, according to that which is written: Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? Not that the Lord sleeps, of whom it is said: He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep; but that he seems to sleep to those whom he forsakes. Finally, in what follows it is not written: a sleeping man who cannot save; but "like a man," in both places written ἀνθρωποπαθῶς (in human fashion).

But you are in us, O Lord, and your name is called upon us; do not forsake us (or, do not forget us). You who among the Jews were to be like a stranger and a traveler, and a wandering man, forsaking your ancient dwelling, dwell in us; and your name has been called upon us, so that we are called Christians; therefore do not forsake us, and do not forget us, to whom the mouths of all the Prophets have sung of your future coming. (Verse 10.) Thus says the Lord to this people: Because they loved to move their feet, and did not rest (or did not spare, and it was not pleasing to the Lord), or, God was not pleased with himself in them; now he will remember their iniquities, and will visit their sins. When the people say: Why have you become like a stranger, and a traveler and a wanderer, that you should forsake your dwelling? The Lord answers his once-own people: Do you wish to know the reason?

Hear what is said: Because the people loved to move their feet, and did not remove them from the fetter of sins, or did not rest, and could not stand still: therefore I too have forsaken them, and there is no pleasure of mine in them. He, therefore, who long delayed, and through patience was unwilling to punish sinners, because they persisted in wickedness, will remember their iniquities; and, as with the sick and those who do not perceive God, will visit their sins, so that they may cease to sin further.

It should be noted in the Holy Scriptures that it is always the feet of sinners that are moved, while it is said to the saints, with Moses: But stand here with me. And elsewhere it is written: Praise the Lord, you servants, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. (Verses 11, 12.) And the Lord said to me: Do not pray for this people for good. When they fast, I will not hear their prayers, and if they offer whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them: for I will consume them by sword, famine, and pestilence. It is foolish to pray for one who has sinned unto death, as John says: There is a sin unto death; I do not say that anyone should ask concerning that. Every iniquity is sin, and there is sin not unto death. Fasts, and prayers, and sacrifices, and burnt offerings profit then, when we depart from vices, and weep for past sins.

But if, remaining in wickedness, we should think to redeem ourselves by vows and sacrifices, we err greatly, judging God unjust. For whoever has once been appointed to sword, and famine, and pestilence, cannot be rescued by any prayers. Whence also it is said to the Prophet, that he should not vainly ask what he cannot obtain. (Verses 13, 14.) And I said, ah, ah, ah, Lord God (or, who are you, Lord God), the Prophets say to them: You shall not see the sword, and famine shall not be among you: but he will give you true peace in this place. And the Lord said to me: The Prophets prophesy falsely in my name: I did not send them, nor did I command them, nor have I spoken to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, and false divination, and the deceit of their own heart.

Let teachers hear this, who promise prosperity to those who sin and persist in their vices, who say to the rich: You shall not see the sword of God's torments, and famine shall not be among you. For you shall be satisfied with the words of God; and the Lord will give you the truest peace in the place of the Church, or Jerusalem. But as to his saying, according to the Hebrew, three times "ah, ah, ah," this answers to the earlier words, where the Lord had threatened, saying: I will consume them by sword, and famine, and pestilence. Because, therefore, the Prophets—or rather the false prophets—promised false things: therefore the Lord spoke through Jeremiah: Do not listen to the words of the false prophets, who were not sent by me; but they came of their own will. Whence they are by no means to be called Prophets, but Diviners, who speak seduction to the people.

For it is far better to correct sins through fear of punishment, than to be subject to the divine sentence through hope of prosperity. (Verses 15, 16.) Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the Prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, saying: Sword and famine shall not be in this land: by sword and by famine those Prophets shall be consumed. And the peoples to whom they prophesied shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them: they themselves, and their wives, their sons and their daughters; and I will pour out upon them their own evil. Let the false prophets beware, who by promising prosperity supplant the people of God, lest they themselves too perish, and the deceived people be destroyed by a like death, and lie in the streets of Jerusalem, and, trampling on the Lord's commands, perish by famine and sword, and there be none to bury them; nor let the dust of repentance cover their shame.

For the prophets themselves also, and the people, and their wives and sons and daughters, and all their generation, without any one to lay them out, shall be as a dunghill. How many lie in the streets of Jerusalem! How many do we see unburied, receiving their own evils, which they suffer as the Lord pours them out! (Verse 17.) And you shall say this word to them: Let my eyes shed tears (or, let your eyes shed tears) day and night, and let them not cease, because the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a great crushing, an exceedingly grievous wound. This passage is understood in two ways: either that God himself laments his people, and his eyes do not cease to weep, or else that he commands that the eyes of the peoples flow with tears, since it is no light thing to be lamented, when the virgin daughter of his people has been struck with so great a crushing and an intolerable wound.

Others think this is said in the person of the Prophet. (Verse 18.) If I go out to the fields, behold, those slain by the sword: and if I enter into the city, behold, those wasted by famine (or, by the anguish of hunger). The prophet also and the priest have gone off into a land which they did not know. There is just cause for lamenting, because the virgin has been crushed, the daughter struck, and the people destroyed. For, he says, if I wish to go outside, I shall see the slain: if I enter the city, I shall behold those wasted away, scarcely clinging to their bones, from the necessity of famine. And what wonder that this is said of the common folk and the ignoble multitude? Since the Prophets too and the priests, who prophesied prosperity to others, and who ought to have opened the commandments of the Law, have themselves gone into a land which they did not know, and have borne the evil of captivity.

Let our own Prophets and Priests hear this, that neither within nor without is there, through their negligence, any security: that they scandalize those who are outside, and allow those who are within to perish by famine: and that they who have been the authors of sin should be companions in torment.

Verse 19. Hast thou utterly cast away Judah? Or hath thy soul loathed Sion? Why then hast thou smitten us so that there is no health? We have waited for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of healing, and behold trouble. The Prophet marvels that the Lord should so suddenly have cast away Judah and Jerusalem, that is, the kingdom of the two tribes, in which was the religion of God and the ceremonies of the Temple; and that He should have struck so great a blow that no remedy could be applied. We have waited, he says, for peace and for the time of healing, and there is no good; but on the contrary trouble: so that where before there had been the worship of God and tranquillity, there everything is now filled with seditions and hostile clamor. If then at any time our Sion, and our Judah, is cast off, and God's soul loathes it, let us not marvel, but rather say what follows: Verse 20.

We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against thee. We, he says, and our fathers, with the same madness, have neglected the commandments of God: and the measure of our forefathers has been filled up in us; so that whatever was lacking in them was completed by our accumulation. Whence also it is said of Judas: Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be always before the Lord: and let the remembrance of them perish from the earth.

Verse 21. Do not give us up to reproach, for thy name's sake, neither do disgrace to us. Remember, break not thy covenant with us, for thy glory's sake. Let us understand as belonging solely to the glory of God, not only the Temple of Judea, which has often been destroyed, but every holy thing, in which, according to what is written: Thou hast cast his throne down to the ground, it is then cast down and destroyed when it has offended God by a multitude of sins; but nevertheless he who has perished by his own fault is sustained by the mercy of the Lord, which is changed by the severity of the sentence, if the Lord should make void his covenant, by which he promised that we should be saved.

Verse 22. Are there among the graven images of the nations any that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O Lord our God, whom we have waited for? For thou hast made all these things. After many and varied discourses, he returns to the title of the prophecy, in which it is written: The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the matters of the drought. This therefore is what he says: because the images of demons cannot give rain, nor can the heavens of themselves give their own shower: therefore thou, O Lord our God, whom we have always waited for, on whom we have turned our hopes and our vows, thou give thy rain.

For all things are thine; and whatever good there is cannot be given except by thee, whose it is. Let us say this also against the heretics, who cannot bestow the rain of doctrines: and though they promise themselves to be heavens, and boast of themselves what is written: The heavens declare the glory of God: yet they cannot bestow the showers of doctrine. For God alone is he who instructs his own people, and grants diverse graces to those who wait for him.

(Verse 1.) And the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me (or against me), my soul is not toward this people. For we read that these men withstood the wrath of the Lord on behalf of the people, and turned aside a sentence already impending. Even though, he says, they should stand either before me or against me—to one of whom God said: Let me alone, and I will strike this people—yet I will not hear; for the crimes of the sinning people have been completed.

Cast them out (or send them forth) from my presence, and let them go forth. Sinners do not withdraw from God in place, but in will: although we read that both Adam and Cain were cast out from the face of God.

Verse 2. And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? Then thou shalt tell them: Thus saith the Lord: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. And I will visit upon them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. The four plagues to which the people of the Jews were delivered are shown also by the prophecy of Ezekiel: the sword, pestilence, famine, wild beasts, and captivity. Among the beasts, moreover, understand also dogs and birds, to which the bodies were given over to be torn, devoured, and scattered. For it could not be otherwise, but that the whole creation should rise up against sinners when the Creator had been despised.

Verse 4. And I will give them up to be tossed to and fro (or to commotion and distress) among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem. We read in the book of Chronicles that Manasseh, after captivity and repentance, returned to Jerusalem and reigned (II Chron. XXXIII). But as the merits of the holy descend to their posterity, as with David and others, so the crimes of sinners, if their children and grandchildren commit like deeds, come down upon their descendants. And what he says: I will give them to commotion and distress of all the earth, was in part fulfilled under the Babylonians, and now is fulfilled entirely, when the impious people has imitated a most wicked king, one who filled Jerusalem from gate to gate with the blood of the just. From which we learn that peoples are for the most part destroyed by the crime of kings, princes, and rulers.

Verse 5. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall go to pray for thy peace? For no one can, once God is offended, intercede for the sins of transgressors; because neither can a creature be as merciful as its maker, nor is the Lord as much a stranger to spare his own as he is to spare foreigners.

Verse 6. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord: thou art gone backward. A reason is given why no one has pity on Jerusalem, nor grieves for her, nor prays for her peace: because whereas, according to the Apostle, forgetting the things behind, she ought to have reached forward to the things before, on the contrary she turned backward, and longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt.

And I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and I will kill thee: I have grown weary of entreating (or in entreaty): for which the Seventy translated: I will no more let them go. The outstretched hand is a sign of one about to strike: the killing of sinners signifies wrath fully accomplished. But what he adds: I have grown weary of entreating, or in entreating, has a double sense: that God has already grown weary from forgiving them so often, and is wearied from ever calling them to salvation.

Verse 7. And I will scatter them with a fan in the gates of the land (or of my people). I have killed and destroyed my people; and yet they have not returned from their ways. What profit is there in my being entreated so often, when they do not turn back from their most wicked ways, nor do penance? For I have scattered them as it were with a fan, that I might cleanse my threshing-floor. And I have scattered them in the gates of the land, that they might in some manner tread the thresholds of hell. And I have killed and destroyed my people, that, compelled by the necessity of their evils, they might avoid the evils that hung over them.

Verse 8. Their widows are multiplied to me above the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them, upon the mother of the young man, a spoiler at noonday: I have caused terror to fall suddenly upon the cities. By diverse remedies God desires to save sinners: that those who despised him when he coaxed them may fear him when he threatens. Widows are multiplied above the sand of the sea, their husbands being slain; mothers, their children lost, feel the ravager, not by night and through ambush, but in broad daylight: to show the open violence of a stronger adversary. I have sent, he says, upon the cities—no doubt of Judah and the sinning people—sudden terror: that, the greater the suddenness of the evil, the more difficult would be the escape.

Verse 9. She that hath borne seven (or many) is weakened (or has cast them off, or is made empty); her soul hath fainted away: her sun is gone down while it was yet day (or noonday). She is confounded and ashamed: and the residue of them I will give up to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord. We have often said that the Hebrew word SABA (שבע) sounds either "seven," or "an oath," or "many." Hence the differing interpretation: Aquila, the Septuagint, and Theodotion render "seven"; Symmachus, "many." She therefore who was rich in children was suddenly made childless, and perished in broad daylight, and was confounded in her solitude. And the remaining people, he says, I will hand over to the sword: that no one may escape death and the wrath of God. Others refer this to the Synagogue, which was weakened, that the multitude of the Church might grow; according to what is written: The barren hath borne seven, or many; and she that had many children is weakened.

Whence also her sun of righteousness set for her, in whose wings is healing: and therefore she is covered with everlasting confusion, losing her people by the spiritual sword.

Verse 10. Woe is me, my mother, why hast thou borne me a man of strife (or of judgment), a man of discord (or one who is judged), in all the earth? This can be understood, by synecdoche, of Jeremiah, in that he was judged not in the whole world but in the land of Judea. But truly it fits the Lord the Savior, who says in the Gospel: For judgment I came into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind: of whom it is written: Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel: and for a sign which shall be contradicted. For which of the philosophers, which of the Gentiles, which of the heretics does not judge Christ, imposing upon him laws for his nativity, his passion, and the substance of his resurrection?

Nor is it strange, according to the truth of the assumed body, that Christ should say: Woe is me, my mother; since in another place also this plainly applies to his person, what is said: Woe is me, for I am become as one that gathereth the stubble in harvest, and as the gleaning grapes of the vintage, having no cluster to eat the firstfruits. And lest we should think that the groan of vileness is referred to the Word of God—as to who it is that laments—it follows immediately: Woe is me, my soul; for it hath perished returning from the earth: not that we divide the Persons, as the impious do; but so that the one and the same Son of God speaks now according to the flesh, now according to the Word of God.

I have not lent on usury, neither hath any man lent to me on usury: yet everyone curses me. For which the Seventy have: I have not profited, neither hath any man profited me. Theodotion: I have not owed, nor has anyone owed to me. The sense of all these, in the person of Christ, is this: No one offered himself who might worthily receive my pledge; nor did anyone lend to me by cherishing the holy and the poor, making himself my debtor. Or: I have not profited, nor has anyone profited me; for no one wished to receive as much as I desired to give. Nor has anyone profited me; for the salvation of the creature is the gain of the Creator. Or certainly: I have not owed, nor has anyone owed to me: no one gave me as much as I desired to receive, nor made himself in any way my debtor.

And what he adds: Nor has anyone owed to me, has this sense: For how could anyone owe me interest, who did not deign to accept the loan? All men, he says, curse me. For which of the heretics and of those in error does not curse Christ, believing perversely, and blaspheming yet more perversely?

Verse 11. The Lord saith: Shall not thy remnant be for good: shall I not meet thee in the time of affliction, and in the time of tribulation and distress against the enemy? These things can also be taken in the person of Jeremiah, who was compelled to prophesy in a most evil time, with captivity now impending, and to suffer harsh things from the unbelieving people. This refers to what he had said above: Woe is me, my mother! Why hast thou borne me a man who am judged, and set apart from all the earth? And the rest, the Lord answered: Do not consider the present, but the future; for your remnant and your latter things shall be for good. Moreover, even now, when your enemies wished to oppress you, I was present to you, and you were protected by my aid. This, however, can be referred both to Jeremiah, and, according to the dispensation of the flesh assumed, to the Saviour.

For what we have translated according to the Hebrew: All curse me, down to the place where it is written, in the time of tribulation against the enemy, I have found written thus in the Vulgate edition: My strength has failed among those who curse me; let it be, Lord, for those who direct them, if I have not stood by thee in the time of their affliction, and in the time of their tribulation, for good against the enemy. And the sense is: My strength has failed among those who curse me. For they do not understand my power, which is perfected in weakness, and the more they curse me, the more my strength fails among them.

And either the Prophet or the Lord joins and says: Let it be, Lord, for those who direct them, that is, let the curses which the enemies utter come upon me; and let them be directed to good, if in the time of their tribulation and distress, when the enemy was laying them waste and hastening to seize them, I did not stand in thy sight, and pray to thee for them, and say: Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do. But we also frequently find in this volume that Jeremiah prayed for the people.

Verse 12. Shall iron be joined with iron from the North: and brass? Symmachus: Shall iron harm iron from the North, and brass? The LXX and Theodotion: Shall iron and the bronze covering be known? The reason for the variety is clear: for the word JARE (ירע), which is written in the present passage, on account of the ambiguity of its pronunciation, signifies both friendship and malice; but if instead of the letter RES (which resembles the letter DALETH) one reads DALETH, it signifies knowledge and understanding. What is said, then, is to be understood thus: Do not grieve that the people are your enemy; for while you announce hard things, he who is hard cannot love you. Or else the Babylonians, who come from the North, and are the hardest iron, will not be able to be joined in friendship with this people, harder still and untamed like brass.

Or else the hardest iron, that is, the people of Israel, is unworthy of the knowledge of God, having fallen into such malice that it is encased in brass, a harder metal.

Verse 13. Your riches and your treasures I will give up to plunder, freely (or without price) for all your sins and in all your borders. And I will bring your enemies (or I will make you serve your enemies) from a land which you do not know: for a fire is kindled in my fury: it shall burn upon you. All your substance, he says, I will deliver to your enemies without any price, because of the sins which you have committed in all your borders. Therefore I will bring your enemies, or make you serve, in the land of the Chaldeans: for my fire, once kindled in my fury, shall burn in you, and cannot be quenched. For you have furnished the material for your own burning, so that my fire may consume the wood, hay, and stubble that are in you; and for this reason the cause of the burning is not in the Lord, but in those who supplied fuel for the fire.

Verse 15. Thou knowest, Lord, remember me, and visit me, and defend me from those who persecute me. Do not, in thy patience, take me away; know that I have endured reproach for thee. Thy words were found, and I ate them (or, from those who reject thy words, consume them). And thy word became to me (or shall become to me) a joy and gladness of my heart, for thy name has been invoked over me, O Lord God of hosts. What we have said, Thou knowest, is not found in the LXX. Happy indeed is that conscience which endures reproach for God. Whence he says: Thy words were found, which thou didst speak by my mouth. And I ate them, that is, they were turned into food for me; or according to Symmachus: I received them, that they might be turned into joy for me, which had formerly been a reproach. Whence also the Babylonians confess that the things which Jeremiah had foretold as future were fulfilled.

Or else this is the sense: I felt anguish; I endured the miseries of the persecuting people; yet nevertheless I rejoiced that I had obeyed thy commands, and for thy name's sake I suffered hard things.

Verse 17. I have not sat in the assembly of those who mock, and I gloried (or I was afraid) because of thy hand: I sat alone, because thou hast filled me with bitterness. Why has my sorrow become perpetual (or, why are those who grieve me strengthened), and my wound desperate, refusing to be healed (or, my wound strong, whence shall I be healed)? It has become to me like the deceit of unfaithful waters (or like deceitful water having no faith). The Hebrews think this is said in the person of Jerusalem: that she sat alone, and was filled with bitterness, and her sorrow became perpetual; and that just as waters pass away, so the words of the Prophets, by which prosperous things were promised to her, passed away falsely.

But it is better that we understand these things as spoken in the person of the Prophet, in the words of the holy man, who did not sit in the assembly, or secret gathering, of those who mock, because he feared the hand of God impending over him; or rather gloried that he had no fellowship with the wicked. Alone, he says, I sat, according to that which is written: I have not sat with the council of vanity, and I will not enter in with those who do iniquitous things. I have hated the assembly of the malignant, and I will not sit with the impious. And in another place: I am alone, until I pass over. Because of thy hand, he says, I sat alone, while I fear thee, while I always await thy hand impending over me. I was unwilling to sit in the assembly of mockers, but I devoured my bitterness, that I might prepare joy for myself in the future.

Nor did I have intervals in my sorrow, but I was weighed down by continual misery, so that I looked for no remedies. For those who grieved me prevailed, and my wound became strong. But in this I had consolation, that it was like deceitful water, and passing away. For just as passing waters, while they flow, are seen and then slip away, so also every assault of the enemies, with thy help, has passed away. Would that the Lord grant to us also not to sit in the assembly of mockers, and of those who do not think of the future; and not to yield to adversities, but always to fear the judgment of God, and to say with the Prophet: I sat alone: for I am filled with bitterness.

Let it, then, not be the counsel of the wise that rejoices in the present time, but the hidden and secret counsel of the mockers; let it be good for me to cleave to God, to place my hope in God, to be filled with reproaches, and to await the sentence of my judge; which, when the end has come, shall show by the very outcome that all sorrow and bitterness has passed away like flowing waters. (Verse 19. Seqq.) Because of this, thus says the Lord: If thou wilt return, I will restore thee: and thou shalt stand before my face. And if thou wilt separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. They shall turn to thee, and thou shalt not turn to them. And I will make thee to this people a strong wall of brass; and they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail, because I am with thee, to save thee; and I will deliver thee, says the Lord.

And I will free thee from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee from the hand of the mighty (or of the pestilent). It is clear that the above was said not by Jerusalem, but by the Prophet. To whom the Lord answered: If you turn the people from their sins, I too will turn you from tribulation into joy, and you shall stand before my face, as the Angels stand in the sight of God, daily beholding his face. And if you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. Do not think, he says, that there is no reward for a good work: if you separate any of my saints from the number of sinners by your words, you shall be as my mouth, and shall be joined to my precepts. For they ought to be your imitators, and not you theirs. Nor should you be afraid, and say: Why has my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound strong, or desperate, so that I despair of being able to be healed?

For I will make you like a wall of brass and most strong, that you may resist the adversary with all strength, and have me as your helper, and I will free you from the hand of the wicked, or of the pestilent, and I will redeem you, either by my own blood, or, for the present, by my aid. Let us consider how great a reward the word of a teacher has, if it prevails to free anyone from error, and to lead him out from the number of sinners.

(Verses 1 and following.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Take not a wife, and let there be no sons or daughters to thee in this place.

For thus saith the Lord: Concerning the sons and daughters that are begotten in this place, and concerning the mothers that have borne them, and concerning the fathers of whose stock they are born in this land, they shall die of grievous deaths of sicknesses: they shall not be lamented, nor be buried, they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth, and they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of the air and the beasts of the earth. If, at the time of the imminent captivity, the Prophet is forbidden to take a wife, lest he have tribulation of the flesh, and be tormented, over and above his own grief, by the miseries also of a wife and children, how much more does the Apostle command, since the time is short and the consummation is at hand, that even they who have wives should be as though they had none!

Whence the reproach of the new heretic (Jovinian) is superfluous, wherein we have taught that a second and a third marriage descend not from the law, but from indulgence. For it is one thing to do what is in itself good, another thing to be granted permission lest we do worse. For he himself also states the reasons why he would have young widows marry, adding: For some of them are already turned aside after Satan. And at the same time, though a teacher of continence and perpetual chastity, and blaspheming himself as equal to God, he praises triple and quadruple marriages, which I would call not so much marriages as consolations for miseries and the last plank for shipwrecked men—unless perhaps he grants indulgence to his Amazons, that even to decrepit old age they may experience the wars of lust.

But the reason why the Prophet is forbidden to take a wife is plain: that because of the imminent siege, pestilence, sword, and famine, all shall perish, and so great shall be the number of the dying that the office of burial shall be overwhelmed, but the corpses shall lie like dung, to be torn by birds and beasts. And this is to be noted, that to waste away with sicknesses and long infirmity is the wrath of God. Whence also Joram the son of Josaphat is consumed by infirmity. And the Apostle teaches that they who have profaned holy things become sick and waste away and die. (Verses 5 and following.) For thus saith the Lord: Enter not into the house of feasting, neither go to mourn, nor comfort them; because I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, my mercy and compassions. And the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall they be lamented, and men shall not cut themselves, nor make baldness for them.

And they shall not break bread among them to the mourner, to comfort him for the dead: neither shall they give them to drink the cup of consolation for their father or their mother. And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, and to eat and drink. The Apostle commands that with those who turn away from God, not even food should be taken. And further: Neither say to him, God speed you. And the Savior forbids the Apostles to salute anyone on the way. Whence also Elisha, when sending Giezi to heal the boy, forbids him to salute. Now it is customary to bring food to mourners and to prepare a feast, which the Greeks call περίδειπνα, and which are commonly called by us "parentalia," because rites are celebrated for the parents. And elsewhere the divine Scripture says: Give wine to them that are in grief, that they may, as it were, forget their sorrow.

The Prophet, therefore, is commanded not to console any of the people, lest he mingle himself in the feasts of God's enemies, lest he celebrate rites over the funerals of the dead. For it is one thing to die by the common law of nature, another to have been slain by the sentence of God. I have taken away, he says, my peace from this people, and they are unworthy of mercy; and I will spare no age, but both great and small shall perish alike, so that they shall lack even burial. Let them not cut themselves, he says, neither shall baldness be made for them. This was the custom among the Ancients, and it remains to this day among certain of the Jews, that in mourning they cut their arms and make baldness; which we read that Job also did.

Whence also it is said to the Prophet that he should not break bread among them, nor go in to comfort for the dead, nor give drink, nor enter the house of feasting, nor mingle with those who are prepared for the sentence of God. But if this is said of mourners, what shall become of heretics, whose speech creeps like a cancer, and who daily lay low in the Church the funerals of the deceived? (Verses 9 and following.) For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will take away out of this place, in your sight, and in your days, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. And when thou shalt declare to this people all these words, and they shall say to thee: Why hath the Lord pronounced against us all this great evil? What is our iniquity, and what is our sin, that we have sinned against the Lord our God?

Thou shalt say to them: Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have gone after strange gods, and have served them, and adored them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. And you have done worse than your fathers. When the Church has sinned, all joy and gladness is taken away from her, of which the Apostle says: Rejoice; again I say, rejoice: The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, of whom it is written: He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But if, he says, the people shall ask thee why they suffer these things, and shall seek the causes of their miseries, thou shalt answer them: Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord—those who are set over you in the Churches—and have gone after strange gods, whose god is the belly, and avarice and luxury, and glory in their shame, and have served them. For whoever is overcome by a thing is the servant of that thing.

And have adored them: for each man adores what he loves. And have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. It belongs properly to priests not only to teach the law, but also to do it, so that they teach the peoples subject to them and the flock entrusted to them not by words only, but by example. And lest perchance they should say, the sentence is unjust—the fathers eating the sour grape (below, XXXI), and the children's teeth being set on edge—he adds: But you have done worse than your fathers; so that just punishments are inflicted upon those who have sinned worse than their fathers. (Verse 13.) For behold, every one walketh after the perverseness of his evil heart, so as not to hearken to me. And I will cast you out of this land, into a land which you know not, you nor your fathers: and there you shall serve strange gods day and night, who shall not give you rest.

Once forsaken by the Lord, they do the things that are not fitting, so that they go after the desires of their evil heart, out of which proceed the worst thoughts, and therefore they are separated from the Church, that they may go into a distant land, which neither they nor their fathers had known before they sinned, that there they may serve strange gods, who are not gods, but are so thought by the error of those who worship them. But that he adds: Day and night, shows the perpetual perseverance of sinners in crime, while both in the days they serve wickedness, and in the nights they serve lust. Who shall not give you, he says, rest. There is no doubt that he signifies the false gods, of whom he said: And there you shall serve strange gods.

Whatever, therefore, we sin, whatever we do by day and night, and whatever evil works we perpetrate, is the dominion of demons, who never give us rest, but always drive us to increase sin with sins, and to make a heap of transgressions. (Verses 14, 15.) Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be said: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands to which I cast them out: and I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their fathers. Clearly the future restoration of the people of Israel is foretold, and mercy after the captivity; which, according to the letter, was in part fulfilled under Zorobabel and Jesus the High Priest and Ezra: according to the spiritual understanding, it is described as to be fulfilled more truly and more perfectly in Christ.

The time shall come, he says, when it shall no longer be said that the people were brought back from Egypt through Moses and Aaron, but brought back from the land of the north, Cyrus king of the Persians releasing the captives. And from all, he says, the lands: which shall be fulfilled not at all in the time of Cyrus, but at the last end, the Apostle saying: After the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, then all Israel shall be saved. We may also say this of the persecutions which have befallen our people from the days of Nero, of whom the Apostle writes: And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, even to the times of Maximin: how the Lord has had mercy on his people, and brought them back into their own land.

There is no doubt but that this means into the Church, which he gave to their fathers, the Apostles and apostolic men. (Verses 16 and following.) Behold I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them: and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, and their iniquity hath not been hidden from my eyes. And I will repay first their double iniquities and their sins, because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. There is a diverse interpretation of this chapter. For the Jews suppose that the Chaldeans are signified, who are described under the name of fishers, and afterward the Romans, who are compared to hunters, and who hunted the unhappy people from the mountains and hills and holes of the rocks.

And this the Lord says he did, because he regarded their ways, and repaid the iniquities with which they defiled the land, venerating idols, and had polluted his inheritance with the abominations of idols. But our own writers, more rightly and better, think that the Prophet has prophesied these things of the future. For since he had said above: I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their fathers, he now shows how they are to be brought back, that first he will send the Apostles, to whom the Savior said: Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And afterward hunters, whom we may understand either as ecclesiastical men, or as Angels, who, after the time of consummation has come, will hunt out all the saints from the mountains of lofty doctrines, and from the hills of good works, and from the holes of the rocks, the Apostles and apostolic men.

For not only is Christ the Rock, but he also granted to the apostle Peter that he should be called Rock. Resting in whose understandings, they are rightly said to have been transferred from the rock. And he shows that either the Apostles, or those who were afterward hunted, had sins, and received their double iniquities. For the servant who knows the will of his lord, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. And it should be known that in the Hebrew the word "first" is placed, and in the Septuagint edition it is omitted. But when he says: I will repay first their double iniquities and their sins, he shows that after they have received evils, they are also to receive good things. But those who are afterward to be transferred defiled the land of the Lord with the carcasses of their idols, and filled his inheritance with their abominations, that all the world might be made subject to God: and be preserved not at all by its own merit, but by his mercy.

What we have here set down from the Hebrew: They are not hid from my face, is not found in the Septuagint. (Verse 19.) O Lord, my strength, and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation (or of evils). All human strength, without the power of God, which is Christ, is reckoned feeble and as nothing. Whence one must flee to the Lord, and say: Lord, thou hast been made our refuge, from generation to generation. And in another place: He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven. But the day of tribulation, or of evils, is to be understood of that of which the Apostle also speaks: That he might deliver us from this present wicked world: And, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Verse 20.) To thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers possessed a lie, a vanity which did not profit them.

LXX: To thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say: How did our fathers possess false idols, and there is no profit in them? After Israel has been cast out, and translated to fishermen and hunters, consequently the multitude of the nations is called to the faith, and confesses either itself, or its fathers, to have been involved in the former error. But those who say, How did our fathers possess false idols, in which there is no profit? Confess that those things to which they are passing over are true, and are supported by every aid.

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? This too the nations speak, who have come to the Saviour from the ends of the earth, mocking both their own ignorance and that of their ancestors, because they thought gods were made by man, when it belongs to God to make men. (Verse 21.) Therefore behold I will show them at this turn: I will show them my hand and my power, and they shall know that my name is the Lord. The hand of God, by which he wrought all things, and the power, of which the Apostle said: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, is shown to the nations, once the passion of the Son is completed.

And he well said: I will show them at this turn: but he will show manifestly, and not as before, in shadow and in image, and in prophecy of future things, so that after they have come to know, they may know my name, and hear from the Son: Father, I have manifested thy name to men.

The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond, engraved upon the breadth of their heart (or in the breast of their heart), and on the horns of their altars (or of their high places). Concerning the nations who had been converted to the Lord it was said above: Behold I will show them at this turn, I will show them my hand and my power: now he speaks concerning Israel, who has been cast off: The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond, and so forth. Why this was omitted by the Seventy, I do not know; unless perhaps they spared their own people: just as it is evident they did also in Isaiah: Cease then from man, whose spirit is in his nostrils, for he is reputed high; and many other things of this kind, which if I wished to arrange them all, would require not one book, I say, but many.

The sins of the nations have been blotted out, because, converted to the Lord from the ends of the earth, they have heard this: Praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise him, all ye peoples. For his mercy has been confirmed over us, and the truth of the Lord remains for ever. And concerning them he had said to Moses: Let me alone, that I may destroy this people, and I will make thee into a great nation. But the sin of Judah, indelible, and, so to speak, to be blotted out by no reckoning, is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond, which in Hebrew is called SAMIR (שמיר); not that there is any nail called Samir; but because the diamond stone (which received this name from the fact that it is untamed and unbreakable) has such polish and smoothness, that upon it can be written, without any hindrance, with a pen of iron: so that the hard material of iron writes upon a harder, diamond tablet, and what is written endures forever.

For they themselves said: His blood be upon us and upon our children. Hence it is engraved or carved on the horns of their altars, or of their high places, so that sacrilegious deeds may persist in eternal memory. But if this is so, where is that which some doting old woman feigns, that a man can be without sin, if he wishes, and that God's commandments are easy? (Verses 2, 3.) When their children shall have remembered their altars, and their groves, and leafy trees on the high mountains, sacrificing in the field, I will give thy strength and all thy treasures to plunder, thy high places because of thy sins in all thy borders. And thou shalt be left alone from thy inheritance, which I gave thee, and I will make thee serve thy enemies in a land which thou knowest not, for thou hast kindled a fire in my fury, it shall burn forever.

And these things are not found in the Seventy, for the same reason (as I think) which we mentioned above, namely lest an eternal sentence should remain against them. Thou shalt be left, he says, alone from thy inheritance, which I gave thee, and I will make thee serve thy enemies, in a land which thou knowest not, either under the Babylonians, or, as is more true, under the Romans. For they themselves kindled the fire and provoked the most merciful Lord to fury: and this fire of his fury shall burn forever. I am ashamed of the contention of our own people, who argue against the Hebrew truth. The Jews read against themselves, and the Church does not know what is for her. Whence we, who are the sons of the Apostles, remember the iniquities of the former people, and testify that they suffered justly. But the high places, which in Hebrew are called BAMOTH (במות), can also be taken against heretics, who have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has gone over the earth.

Who have burst forth into such madness, that they alone remain without the grace of the Holy Spirit, and have lost the inheritance of the Lord, that is, the former truth of the faith. Hence also an eternal fire is prepared for them, and servitude to demons, who are their enemies and avengers. (Verses 5, 6.) Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts (or has hope) in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the tamarisk in the desert, and shall not see when good shall come; but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert, in a land of salt and uninhabitable. If every man is cursed who trusts in man, then Paul of Samosata and Photinus, although they preach the Saviour as holy and exalted above all virtues, nevertheless confess him to be a man; therefore they shall be cursed who have hope in a man.

But if it be objected to us, that we too believe in him who says: But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I have heard from God; this Abraham did not do: you do the works of your father: we shall answer with that Apostolic saying: And if we have once known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. Finally, the same Apostle writes at the beginning of his Epistle to the Galatians: Paul an apostle, not from men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brethren who are with me. For if death is swallowed up in victory, why should not the lowliness of the flesh, which was assumed for the sake of human salvation, have passed over into the majesty of the divinity, so that it made the two one; and let us not adore the creature, but the Creator, who is blessed forever?

Cursed, therefore, is not only he who has hope in man, but he who makes flesh his arm, that is, his strength, and whatever he shall have done, has thought to be not of the Lord's mercy, but of his own power. For he who does this, his heart departs from the Lord, asserting that he can do what he cannot. And he shall be like the tamarisk, which in Hebrew is called ARUER (ערער), or, as Symmachus interpreted it, a fruitless tree in the wilderness. And he shall not see when good things come, which the multitude of the nations shall see; but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert.

This is said concerning the people of the Jews, who dwell in the desert, and bear no fruits, and are in a land of salt, which produces no fruits, and uninhabitable, which has no God as its guest, nor the protections of Angels, nor the grace of the Holy Spirit, nor the knowledge of teachers. (Verses 7, 8.) Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope (or confidence): and he shall be like a tree, which is transplanted (or fruitful) beside the waters, which sends out its roots to the moisture, and shall not fear when the heat shall come: and its leaf shall be green (or its little branches shall be leafy): and in the time (or year) of drought it shall not be anxious (or shall not fear), nor shall it ever cease to bear fruit.

Let this be said concerning the Jews and the heretics, who have hope in man, namely in their own Christ, whom they think will come not as the Son of God, but as a mere man. On the other hand the man of the Church, who trusts in the Lord, hears this: And know that the Lord himself is God. He trusts in the Lord, and shall be compared to that tree, of which it is also sung in the first psalm: And he shall be as a tree, which is planted beside the flowing streams, which shall yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not fall off. But by the waters is meant the grace of the Holy Spirit, the various gifts. That it sends its roots to the moisture: that it may receive abundance from the Lord. But we can also say otherwise, that we have been transplanted from the Jewish dryness into the eternal grace of baptism.

And he shall not, it says, fear, when the heat comes, or the time of persecution, or the day of judgment: And its leaf shall be green, or, there shall be leafy little branches on it: so that it may never fear dryness, but may put forth the grace of all virtues. And when the time, or the year, of drought shall come, it shall not fear, when the angry Lord shall have commanded the clouds not to rain shower upon Israel. And what follows: nor shall it cease to bear fruit, that passage which is written in Mark, that the Lord came to the fig tree, and did not find fruit on it, because it was not yet the season, and cursed it, so that it should never bear fruit forever, can be explained.

For he who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord is his confidence, even in the time of Jewish drought shall not fear; but shall always bring forth fruit, believing in him who died once for us, and dies no more, and says: I am the life. (Verses 9, 10.) The heart of all is perverse, and unsearchable, who shall know it? I the Lord, who search the heart, and try the reins, who give to each man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his own devisings. LXX: The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is man, who shall know him? And so forth similarly. The Hebrew word (אנוש) ENOS is written with four letters, ALEPH and NUN and VAU and SIN. If then it is read ENOS, it means man, but if ANUS, it means unsearchable, or desperate: because no one can find out the heart of men. But Symmachus interpreted this passage thus: The heart of all is unsearchable: but what man is there who shall find it out?

Certain of our own people are accustomed, with good intent indeed, but not according to knowledge, to use this passage against the Jews, to the effect that the Lord and Saviour is man, according to the dispensation of the flesh assumed, and that no one can know the mystery of his birth, according to that which is written: Who shall declare his generation? Except God alone, who searches out secret things, and renders to each according to his works. But it is better that we take it simply, that no one knows the secrets of thoughts except God alone: for he had said above: Cursed is the man who has hope in man. And on the other hand: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Whence, lest we should think the judgment of men to be certain, he added, that the hearts of nearly all men are perverse, the Psalmist saying: Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare thy servant from those of others: doubtless meaning thoughts.

And in Genesis: And God, seeing that the wickedness of men was great upon the earth, and that every thought of the heart was bent upon evil at all times. And again: For the sense and thought of the human heart are inclined to evil from its youth. By these things we learn that God alone knows their thoughts. But if it is said of the Saviour: But Jesus, seeing their thoughts; and no one can see their thoughts, except God alone; therefore Christ is God, who searches the hearts, and tries the reins; and renders to each according to his works.

Verse 11. The partridge has fostered (or gathered together) what it did not bring forth. (And as the Seventy translated: The partridge cried out, it gathered together what it did not bring forth.) He made his riches not with judgment. In the midst of his days he shall leave them (or in the midst of his days it shall leave him), and in his last end he shall be a fool. The writers of natural history, both of beasts and birds, as well as of trees and plants (the chief of whom among the Greeks are Aristotle and Theophrastus, and among us Pliny Secundus), say that it is the nature of the partridge that it broods on the eggs of another partridge, that is, on eggs not its own, and sits upon them and cherishes them; and when the young have grown up, they fly away from it and abandon their foster parent.

Such are the rich who seize the goods of others, and without any thought of the judgment of God make their riches not with judgment; these they leave in the midst of time, being snatched away by sudden death, when it is said to them: Fool, this night they shall demand your soul of you; and the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be? And nothing is more foolish than not to provide for the last things, and to think brief things everlasting. But others, both because of the aforementioned account, and because of another which says that the partridge is a most quarrelsome and unclean bird, so that it pollutes its food, interpret the devil under this name, because he has gathered to himself riches belonging to others, saying to the Lord: All these things will I give you, if falling down you will worship me.

His riches, which had been wickedly gathered by him, shall leave him; and through the Apostles men shall be converted to the Lord; and he who seemed to himself most prudent shall in the judgment of all be a fool. And what is said by the Seventy: The partridge cried out, must be referred to the person of the heretics, because this partridge, the devil, has cried out through the leaders of the heretics, and has gathered what it did not bring forth, and has gathered to itself a multitude of the deceived, who afterward shall forsake him; and he shall be proved most foolish in the judgment of all.

Verse 12. A throne of glory, of loftiness from the beginning, the place of our sanctification. The expectation of Israel, O Lord: all who forsake thee shall be confounded; those departing shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein (or fountain) of living waters. The partridge having been forsaken because of its own folly, the expectation of Israel, that is, of the people of God and of him who believes in the Lord, is he himself who made all things; whose throne is glorious and lofty from the beginning, and the place of sanctification of all believers, so that the Lord is not confined to a place, but that wherever he is, that place is made holy. On the contrary, those who forsake the Lord shall be confounded with everlasting confusion, and those departing, or turning away from him, shall be written in the earth, blotted out of the book of the living.

For just as he who can say with the Apostle: But our citizenship is in heaven, is written among the heavenly things, so he who forsakes the Lord, or turns away from him, shall be written in the earth with those who savor earthly things. And the reason is plain why they are written in the earth: because they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord, or the fountain of living waters, the Lord, who says in the Gospel: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink: he who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he said of the Spirit, which they who believed in him were to receive.

Verse 14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. Many physicians in the Gospel had treated the woman with an issue of blood, who had lost all her substance upon them, and yet could be healed by none, save by him who is the true physician, and in whose wings is healing. Whence now also the Prophet, having suffered reproaches from the people, and being frequently beset by snares, desires to be healed and made whole by him whose praise is true, and whose medicine is true. (Ver. 15 ff.) Behold, they themselves say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. But I have not been troubled, following thee as shepherd (or, I have not labored following thee), nor have I desired the day of man: thou knowest. That which has gone forth from my lips has been right in thy sight (or, is before thy face).

Be not to me a terror, thou art my hope in the day of affliction (or, be not estranged from me, sparing me in the evil day). They who do not think the things spoken will come to pass say to the Prophet: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come: thinking it a mere pretense of a sentence, or a delay. But when they were saying these things, he says, I was not troubled, nor did I labor following thee as shepherd, or entering upon thy footsteps. Nor was I content with this alone, but I did not desire the day of man, nor a longer life, nor any of the prosperities of this age. And he calls him to witness whom he also calls judge: Thou knowest. There follows: That which has gone forth from my lips has been right in thy sight; so that he never lied, nor spoke anything contrary to the will of the Lord. Be not thou, he says, a terror to me, thou art my hope in the day of affliction.

This is clear according to the Hebrew. But according to what the Seventy translated, saying: Be not estranged from me, sparing me in the evil day, the sense is: Spare me not in this present age, which is evil; but repay me according to my sins, that I may have everlasting rest. For I know it is written: Whom the Lord loves he chastens; and he scourges every son whom he receives. And the evil day is either the whole age, or the day of judgment, for those who are tormented for their sins.

Verse 18. Let them be confounded who persecute me, and let me not be confounded. Let them be afraid, and let me not be afraid. Bring upon them the day of affliction, and destroy them with double destruction. The Prophet calls down curses upon those who reproach him with the word of the Lord, and say: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come; that those who persecute him may be confounded, and may blush and return to salvation; that they who lie may be afraid, and not he who foretells true things. And when the day of vengeance comes, let it destroy them with double destruction, by famine and by sword.

Verse 19. Thus says the Lord to me: Go and stand in the gate (or in the gates) of the children of the people, through which (or through which gates) the kings of Judah go in and go out, in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and all Judah (or Judea), and all inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter in by these gates. Because, he says, they disdain to hear your words, nor do they come to you to inquire what the sentence of God may be, go to the most frequented place, either the gate of the temple or of the city, through which the kings and all the common people go in and out, that they may be compelled by necessity to hear, and that in season, out of season, you may preach the word of the Lord; so that no excuse may remain with them, that they did not act because they did not hear.

(Ver. 20 ff.) Thus says the Lord: Keep your souls, and do not carry burdens on the sabbath day, nor bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem. And do not cast out burdens from your houses on the sabbath day, and you shall do no work at all, and sanctify the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers: And they did not hear, nor incline their ear, and they hardened their neck (and, what is not found in the Hebrew, more than their fathers), that they might not hear me, nor receive discipline.

And it shall come to pass, he says, if you hear me, says the Lord, that you bring no burdens in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day: and if you sanctify the sabbath day, so as to do no work in it, then kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David shall enter in through the gates of this city; and mounting on chariots and horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited for ever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the circuit of Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plains, and from the hill country, and from the south, bringing holocausts and victims (or incense-offerings) and sacrifice (or manna) and frankincense, and shall bring in oblation (or praise) into the house of the Lord.

But if you do not hear me, so as to sanctify the sabbath day, and not to carry a burden, and not to bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. Lest I should tear apart into fragments in vain the precept concerning the sabbath renewed through Jeremiah, it seemed good to set down the whole, that we might understand all things together. He keeps his soul who does not carry the burdens of sins on the day of rest and sabbath, nor brings them in through the gates of Jerusalem, which we ought to understand as the virtues. And do not, he says, cast out burdens from your houses. For they are not to be carried, but utterly cast away.

And do all no work at all, whether servile, or that of which it is written: Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both this and that; but that work is to be wrought of which the Savior speaks: Labor for the work which does not perish. Sanctify, he says, the sabbath day, that we may lead the whole time of our life in sanctification, as our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did. And when God had commanded these things, they did not incline their ear, that is, of the mind, not of the flesh; but they hardened their neck, casting off the yoke of the Law, and having, by a metaphor, the likeness of untamed animals. Let us see what is the reward of those who do not carry burdens on the sabbath day, and sanctify it.

There shall enter in, he says, through the gates of this city kings, whose heart is in the hand of God, and who reign over their own bodies, and princes sitting upon the throne of David, that they may imitate the example of Christ, and mounting on chariots and horses, of which it is written: The chariot of God is attended by ten thousand, thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sinai, in the holy place. And elsewhere: Thy riding forth is salvation. Every man who confesses God, and who dwells in Jerusalem, of which it is said: His place is made in Salem, that is, in peace, and his dwelling in Sion, and the Church of God shall be inhabited for ever.

They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the circuit of Jerusalem, of which we have already spoken, and from the land of Benjamin, who is the son of strength and of the right hand, and from the plains, which in Hebrew is called SEPHELA (שפלה), and signifies the plain understanding of history, and from the hill country, that is, from lofty doctrines, and from the south, of which it is written: God shall come from the south. Whence comes heat and full light, and where all cold is driven out. Bringing, he says, holocausts, consecrating themselves to God, and the victim, or incense-offering, so that they may say: A sacrifice to the Lord is a troubled spirit. And, We are the good odor of Christ in every place. And elsewhere: Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight. And sacrifice, for which the Seventy set down the Hebrew word itself, MANAA (מנחה), which by a very bad custom, or rather by the negligence of scribes, is read in our copies as manna.

And frankincense, of which it is written: To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Sheba (above, 6:20)? And they shall bring in oblation, which in Hebrew is called THODA (תודה), and can be rendered thanksgiving, and which the Seventy translated as praise. Into the house of David, doubtless meaning into the Church. These are the rewards of those who sanctify the sabbath, and are weighed down by no burden. But if, he says, you do not hear my precepts, and do the things which I have commanded not to be done: I will kindle a fire in its gates, that is, of Jerusalem—that fire of which it is said: All of them committing adultery are like an oven, their hearts—which devours the houses, or streets, of Jerusalem, which the Seventy rendered ἄμφοδα, and Aquila and Symmachus βάσεις, that is, towered houses, and which are called in Hebrew ARMANOTH (ארמנות).

And this fire shall never be quenched, as the Apostle says: The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. And again: If any man's work shall burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. But if our Judaizers reject this figurative explanation, they will be forced either to be Jews, and along with the observance of the sabbath to circumcise their foreskins, or certainly to find fault with the Savior, who commanded the paralytic on the sabbath to carry his pallet, the Evangelist saying: Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, not only because he broke the sabbath, but also because he said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The devil always lies in wait for good work, and everywhere sets snares for those walking, as the Prophet relates concerning the ambushes of his minions: They have set a scandal for me near the path, and the Gospel teaches this same thing more fully, that the birds of the air snatch away and destroy the seeds cast beside the way. Why I have used this beginning, brother Eusebius, the following discourse will show.

Occupied by the many crowds flocking here from the whole world, and by the cares of the holy Brethren and of the monastery, I was dictating the Commentaries on Jeremiah at intervals; so that what was lacking in leisure might be supplied by diligence; when suddenly the heresy of Pythagoras and Zeno, of ἀπαθεία and ἀναμαρτησία, that is, of impassibility and sinlessness, which was once slain in Origen, and long ago in his disciples Grunnius, and Evagrius Ponticus, and Jovinian, began to revive, and to hiss not only in the parts of the West, but also in the East, and in certain islands, especially Sicily and Rhodes, to stain very many, and to grow day by day, while they teach it secretly and deny it publicly. To this I long kept silent in reply, devouring my grief in silence, until I was compelled by the frequent urging of the brethren; yet I have not so far gone forth as to name the authors, preferring that they be corrected rather than defamed.

For I am not the enemy of men, but of error: and those who, in order to inflict upon me a like retaliation and the very grinding of their own pain, concocted old slanders of their own masters, have shown themselves so tongueless and wretched that they could not even curse in their own words. Their dirges, refuted at that time in books published against them, whoever wishes to read will clearly perceive that they are, according to Isaiah, dumb dogs that cannot bark: having indeed the will and rage to lie, but not the art of fabricating and barking. To them I say in brief: Either what you teach is good, or it is bad. If good, defend it openly; if bad, why do you secretly slay the wretched with error, and boast of an exposition of right faith only to deceive the simple? If it is true, why is it hidden? If false, why is it written? I ask, what is this madness?

While the apostle bids (I Peter III) that we be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is in us, and the Prophet cries: I spoke of thy testimonies before kings, and was not confounded, these men flee the public and whisper in the corners of the lost, and grieve, as though for their own, over what they fear to confess as their own. And when we have spoken in general terms against vices and heretics, they complain that they themselves are being attacked; and, hiding their indignation for a long time, they proclaim the evil of conscience. But if we must take care not to seem to injure old friendship, yet if we are to cut down with the spiritual sword a most arrogant heresy, then we must bear the crosses of betrayed faith, and say with the Prophet: I was turned in my misery, while the thorn was fixed in me. Rather let them hear that saying of the Apostle: We ought to obey God rather than men.

And again: If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But these matters we shall pursue more fully in a proper work, unless they hold their peace. Now let us take up again the journey begun in Jeremiah, and briefly running through the fourth book upon him, let us linger only on those things which are obscure.

(Verse 1.) Seqq.) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. And I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was doing work upon the wheel. And the vessel that he was making of clay with his hands was broken. And turning (or, and again) he made it another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Cannot I do to you as this potter, O house of Israel? Saith the Lord.

Behold, as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. Suddenly (or, in sum) I will speak against a nation and against a kingdom, to root it out (or take it away) and to destroy and to scatter it. If that nation shall repent of its evil concerning which I have spoken against it, I also will repent of the evil that I thought to do to it. And suddenly (or, in sum) I will speak of a nation and a kingdom, to build it up, and to plant it. If it shall do evil in my eyes, so as not to hear my voice, I will repent of the good that I said I would do to it.

Through all the senses indeed one arrives at judgment and understanding of the mind, by hearing, smell, taste, touch, but what is seen with the eyes is retained more firmly in the mind. Hence the Prophet is bidden to go to the potter's house, and there to hear the precepts of the Lord. When, he says, I had gone and gone down into the potter's house, he was doing work upon the wheel, which the Seventy, led astray by the ambiguity of the word, rendered as "stones"; for ABANIM, according to the character of the place and the diversity of pronunciation, means both the instrument, that is, the potter's wheel, and stones. When, he says, I saw the vessel being made of clay, suddenly it was broken, this by God's providence so acting, that the hand of the craftsman, while unaware, might by its own mishap shape a parable. And again that potter, who had lost the vessel of clay as the wheel ran, made another for himself as seemed good to him.

And immediately the Lord said to the Prophet: If the potter, he says, has this power, that from the same clay he can again make what had been broken, shall I not be able to do this in you, who, so far as lies in you, seem to have perished? And to signify free will, he says that he announces both evils to a nation and kingdom, and this one or that; and again goods: yet it does not come to pass as he himself had foretold; but the contrary happens, so that both good things befall the evil, if they do penance, and evil things befall the good, if after promises they are turned to sins. And we say this, not because God is ignorant whether this or that nation or kingdom will do such a thing, but because he leaves man to his own will, that he may receive either rewards or punishments by his own will and his own merit.

Nor will the whole outcome belong at once to man; but to the grace of him who has bestowed all things: for thus the freedom of will must be preserved, so that in all things the grace of the giver may excel; according to that prophetic saying: Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watches in vain who keeps it. For it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. Verse 11-13. Now therefore say to the man of Judah, and to the inhabitant of Jerusalem, saying, Thus (or, so) saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return, then, every man from his evil way, and make straight your ways and your endeavors. But they said, We have despaired (or, we shall be comforted), for we will go after our own thoughts, and every man of us will do the wickedness (or, what has pleased) of his evil heart.

Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations, who has heard such horrible things, which the virgin of Israel has done exceedingly? The Lord fulfills the parable which he had taught both by words and by sight, and says: Behold I frame against you evil, as a potter frames clay: but "evil" according to Isaiah, who says: Making peace, and creating evil. Not that it is evil in itself, but that it seems evil to those who suffer it. And I devise against you a device, that is, to bring a sentence according to merit. Change your works, and direct your ways, that the punishment may be changed even for the prosperous. But they, he says, said the contrary: We will be comforted, namely in evil deeds, or according to Aquila, we have despaired, and according to Symmachus, we have failed, both of which offend God; so that one supposes he can in no way be saved, or that his mind has failed for placating God. And after our own thoughts, he says, we will go.

Where then, without the grace of God, is the power of free will, and the judgment of one's own volition, since it is a great offense to God to follow one's own thoughts and to do the will of a wicked heart? Therefore he adds, saying: Ask the nations, and all the nations round about, who has done, who has heard, serving idols, what the virgin of Israel has done exceedingly? He calls her a virgin because she served the one God, as the Prophet says: God is known in Judea, his name is great in Israel.

Verse 14. Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? Or can the cold waters that break forth and flow down be plucked away? The Seventy: Shall the breasts fail from the rock, or the snow from Lebanon, or shall the water violently taken up be turned aside by the wind? Something like this also sounds in that Virgilian verse (Eclog. 1, 60 seqq.): Sooner then shall the light stags graze in the sky, And the seas leave the fish naked on the shore, Than his countenance shall slip from our breast. And in another place (Aeneid. 1, 611 seqq.): While rivers run into the sea, while shadows Roam over the mountains, while the pole feeds the stars in the vault of heaven, Ever shall your honor and name and praises remain.

As, he says, the snow cannot fail from the summits of Lebanon; nor is it overcome by any heat of the sun so as wholly to melt, and the streams flowing from the mountains are by no means dried up at their springs: so my name, which is stable of itself, and everlasting, cannot be changed, and yet, while other things keep the order of nature, my people has forgotten me. For it follows: Verse 15. For my people has forgotten me, offering libations in vain and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the age (or, everlasting paths), that they might walk in them, in a way not trodden. He who forgets God, and forsakes him who says, I am the way, and pours libations to strange gods, stumbles in his ways, not God's, but his own, and forsakes the ancient and everlasting paths, which are worn by the footsteps of all the saints who worship God.

But they walked in a way not trodden, and, having forsaken the worship of God, venerated idols, on account of which the punishment that follows is inflicted: Verse 16. That their land might become a desolation, and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passes by it shall be astonished, and shall wag his head. And because they forsook, he says, the worship of God, and followed the crooked paths of idolatry; therefore their land has been reduced to a wilderness and to a wonder and a hissing for all, so that those who once saw the land, and a most flourishing city, now fallen into desert and ashes, marvel and are astonished, and by the gesture of the body show the confusion of the soul: for this is to wag the head, and to show the stupor of the mind by silence.

Which we understand more fully and rightly to have been fulfilled after the coming of the Lord, when no Jew is permitted by law to enter the former land and the holy City; but when they come to lament, they marvel and weep over the prophecies of the Prophets, fulfilled in fact. Verse 17. As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy (or, before the enemies); I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction. Even to this day the sentence of God remains upon the Jews. Scattered throughout the whole world before the enemy, the devil, or before the demons who are their enemies; and though day and night in the synagogues of Satan they call upon the name of God, God shows them his back, not his face, that they may understand him as always withdrawing, and never coming to them.

But the day of Jewish destruction is the whole time after the Passion of the Savior, until the end of the age: that after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel may be saved.

Verse 18. And they said: Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to all his words. This was then the thought of the Jews against Jeremiah, or against the Lord Savior, and today it is the thought of heretics against his servants, that they contrive slanders, and forestall holy men with accusation, not considering what truth those men speak, but what lie they themselves are contriving; for they boast that in their priests, and in their wise men, and in their pseudo-prophets, the law and the counsel of God, and his word remain, as Scripture says: Into a wicked soul wisdom shall not enter (Wisdom, 4). (Vv. 19 ff.) Attend, O Lord, to me, and hear the voice of my adversaries. Shall evil be rendered for good, seeing they have digged a pit for my soul?

Remember that I stood in thy sight, to speak good for them, and to turn away thy indignation from them. Therefore give their sons to famine, and deliver them into the hands of the sword; let their wives become childless and widows, and let their husbands be slain by death, let their young men be pierced with the sword in battle, let a cry be heard from their houses. As a type indeed of the Saviour, Jeremiah suffers all these things from the Jewish people, which afterward, when the Babylonian came, was laid waste. But they are more fully and perfectly fulfilled in Christ, and when the city was overthrown, they were slaughtered by the Roman sword, not for idolatry, which did not exist at that time, but for the killing of the Son of God, when the whole people cried out together: Away with him, away with him; we have no king but Caesar. And their imprecation was fulfilled unto eternal damnation: His blood be upon us, and upon our children.

For they had digged a pit for Christ, and had said: Let us take him away from the land of the living. Yet he was of such mercy toward them, that standing in the sight of the Father he spoke good for them, that he might turn away his indignation from them, so that even on the cross he said: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. We pass quickly over what is manifest, that we may dwell on the more obscure points, in no way interpreting, as certain madmen do, the captivity of the heavenly Jerusalem, but pursuing a clear history and a most manifest prophecy, with full confidence in the words and their meanings. (Vv. 22, 23.) For thou shalt bring upon them a robber suddenly, because they have digged a pit to take me, and hidden snares for my feet. But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto death. Be not propitious to their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thy face.

Let them be overthrown (or stumbling) in thy sight; in the time of thy fury deal with them (or, do to them). If we understand this of Jeremiah, let us refer the sudden robber to Nebuchadnezzar; if of the Saviour—which is both truer and better—to the Roman army. And lest the sentence of God seem unjust, he sets forth what they did against Christ the Son of God, and what they suffered. But when he adds, Be not propitious to their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thy face, this is by no means contrary to the former statement, in which he entreats the Father for the people; but after the time given for repentance had passed, and they persisted in their crime, the people and the elders are punished not so much for themselves as for others, lest unpunished sin harm the rest by its example.

And what he adds, Let them be stumbling, or falling, in thy sight, is like that saying of Isaiah, and of the Apostle Peter: And you shall not stumble as against a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence. Of which the Prophet also makes mention in the Psalms: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing.

(Verses 1 ff.) Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take an earthen potter's bottle, and of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests, and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is near the entry of the pottery gate (or Charsith); and thou shalt proclaim (or cry, or read) there the words which I shall speak to thee, and thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

For "the potter's bottle," which in Hebrew is called bacbac (בקבק), the Seventy translated "little jar," and for "pottery gate," Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion set down the Hebrew word itself, HAR-ITH (חרסית); for which the Seventy, according to their custom of adding a Greek chi for the aspiration of the Hebrew letter heth (ח), said Charsith for Arsith, just as they say Chebron for Hebron, and Jericho for Jeriho. Now the divine Scripture wishes the people to be taught not only by the ears, but also by the eyes. For (as we have already said) what comes to the mind through sight is retained more than what reaches the soul through hearing. Take, he says, a bottle, or a little earthen jar, and some of the elders of the people and of the priests, and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, of which we have spoken above, in which was the shrine of Baal, and the grove, and the grove watered by the springs of Siloam.

Now this valley, he says, is near the gate which in Hebrew is called HARSITH (חרסית), that is, "of pottery." And thou shalt proclaim, or read there the words which I shall speak with thee: that there may be heard there what I am about to say. And so (as we have already said) "proclaim," and "cry," and "read" are all set down, because the Hebrew word CARATH (קראת) signifies all three of these. And he wishes both the kings of Judah to hear what he is about to say, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, both the royal stock and the whole people, so that they may be without excuse who refuse to hear. (Vv.

4-6.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring affliction (or evils) upon this place, so that the ears of everyone who hears it (or them) shall tingle, because they have forsaken me, and made this place strange, and have poured out libations in it to strange gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and have built high places to Baal, to burn their sons with fire as a holocaust to Baal; which I did not command (or think), nor did I speak it, nor did it come up into my heart. And this place certain persons foolishly refer to the heavenly Jerusalem. Lest we always have to give this warning, let it suffice to have said this once: that such an explanation is to be avoided, indeed is a heresy, which overturns what is manifest, and tries to bring in certain delusions into the churches of Christ.

But there is no doubt that they set up the idol of Baal in the Temple of God, or in the shrine which was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where also there was a grove of Baal and his altar, upon which they sacrificed and burned their sons. Which the Lord neither thought, nor spoke, nor did it come up into his heart. Not because God is ignorant of things to come, but because he says he does not know things unworthy of his knowledge, according to that word of the Gospel: Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not. For the Lord knows them that are his. And, If any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Or certainly this is said ἀνθρωποπάθως (in a human manner), and is to be taken of God in this way, as are other such things.

Now every heretic forsakes God, and makes strange the place of God's dwelling, which he has polluted by his fraud, and pours libations to strange gods, whom neither he himself knew, nor his fathers, namely the Apostles and apostolic men; but the kings of Judah, that is, the patriarchs of the heretics, fill the place once God's with the blood of the deceived and the innocent. For unless one is foolish and simple, he is not quickly overthrown. And they build high places to Baal, while they claim to discourse of lofty things. And they burn their sons to the idol, whom they have begotten in heresy. All of which the Lord says he does not know, nor has it ever come up into his thought. (V. 6.) Therefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and this place shall no more be called Tophet, and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.

The Seventy: Therefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and this place shall no more be called ruin and πολυάνδριον (burial-place) of the son of Hinnom, but πολυάνδριον of slaughter. What the valley of the son of Hinnom is, which in Hebrew is called GEENNOM (גיהנם), whence it is thought that Gehenna is named, we have said above. But I marvel what the Seventy meant by putting διάπτωσιν, that is, "ruin," for THOPHETH (תפת), and πολυάνδριον, which signifies "a multitude of men," for "valley": unless perhaps because the people fell there, and a multitude of men was slain there, either spiritually, in the error of idolatry, or literally, by the Babylonian army, which is read more clearly in what follows. (Vv.

7 ff.) And I will scatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will overthrow them by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seek their lives; and I will give their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air and the beasts of the earth; and I will make this city a desolation and a hissing: everyone that passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss because of all its plagues. And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies shall straiten them, and they that seek their lives.

Although we know that these things happened to the people also in the Babylonian captivity, yet they are more fully referred to the times of the Saviour, when they were besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and their city, in the time of Hadrian, collapsed into eternal ashes, so that they who had offered their sons to idols, afterward, compelled by the necessity of famine, turned them themselves to the use of food, and gave the flesh of all to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the earth: so that they who had abused the gifts of the Lord unto impiety, and had immolated their own offspring to idols, made their own bellies the tombs of their children. (Vv. 10, 11.) And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men who shall go, or go forth, with thee. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people, and this city, as a potter's vessel is broken, which cannot be made whole again.

This is clearly said, not of the Babylonian, but of the Roman captivity. For after the Babylonians indeed, the city was rebuilt, and the people brought back into Judea, and restored to its former abundance. But after the captivity which occurred under Vespasian and Titus, and afterward under Hadrian, the ruins of Jerusalem shall remain until the consummation of the age—although the Jews think that a golden and jewelled Jerusalem is to be restored to them, and again victims, and sacrifices, and marriages of the saints, and the kingdom of the Lord the Saviour on earth. Which, although we do not follow, yet we cannot condemn, because many churchmen and martyrs have said these things. And let every man abound in his own sense, and let all things be reserved to the judgment of the Lord. But just as an earthen and clay vessel, if it has been broken, cannot be restored to its former shape: so too the people of the Jews and Jerusalem, once overthrown, shall not have their former state.

Finally, the very name of that city is void today, and it is called Aelia after Aelius Hadrianus, and with its former habitation it has also lost its former name, to cast down the pride of its inhabitants. But the names of the Holy Cross and Resurrection do not signify a city, but a place: nor the greatness of former riches, through which the people of the Jews perished, but the glory of holiness, which our poor little Bethlehem possesses, not having gold and gems, but the bread that was born in her. (V. 12.) And they shall bury in Tophet (or, they shall bury), because there is no other place to bury in. Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to its inhabitants, and I will make this city like Tophet (or, like a ruin), and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be like the place of Tophet (or, of ruins).

But what is inserted in the Seventy: "All the houses of the kings of Judah, like the place of Tophet," is not found in the Hebrew. And there follows: (V. 13.) Unclean shall be all the houses, on whose roofs (or housetops) they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to strange gods. What he had said above, "This place shall no more be called Tophet, and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter," he now states more clearly, that there shall be such slaughter in that very place, that the people shall be buried there in heaps, and the grove once devoted to religion shall become a tumult of the dead. The city itself also, which overlooks this place, shall become like Tophet, for which the Seventy translated "ruin." The houses of Jerusalem too, and the palaces of the kings, shall be turned into like ruins.

And the reason given is, because they were unclean, and polluted with the crime of idolatry, in that on their roofs and housetops they sacrificed to the sun and moon and stars of heaven, and burned incense; nor were they content with this error, but sacrificed to demons, and poured out libations to strange gods. (Verses 14, 15.) Now Jeremiah came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said to all the people: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all its towns, all the evils that I have spoken against it, because they have hardened their neck, that they might not hear my words.

After Jeremiah, in Topheth, with the elders of the people whom he had brought with him present, had broken the little flask or small vessel, and had prophesied with the words of the Lord for the crushing of the people and the city of Jerusalem, he returns and stands in the court of the house of the Lord, and speaks to the whole multitude, which had been unwilling to go to the place of Topheth, that the Lord is about to bring upon the city of Jerusalem, and upon all its towns, all the evils which he has spoken against it. And lest we think the sentence cruel, he gives the reasons why he is about to bring evils. Because, he says, they have hardened their neck, that they might not hear my words: not even after many impieties were they willing to do penance.

(Verses 1, 2.) And Phassur the son of Emmer the priest, who had been made chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words.

And Phassur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the Lord. For Phassur, the Septuagint translated Phascor, which is interpreted "blackness of face," and for "stocks," which we have rendered, the Septuagint and Theodotion rendered "cataracten," Symmachus βασανιστήριον or στρεβλωτήριον, both of which signify instruments of torture. But we have said "stocks" according to common usage, which kind of torment we also read of in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles Paul and Silas were committed to the custody of the prison. This man, however, was the pontiff of the Temple, and having been given the dignity of the priesthood, abuses it perversely, not to teach and correct by speech, but to terrify by torments. Whence also the Savior and the apostle Paul were scourged by the command of a pontiff. Nor is it strange if today the servants of God are killed by a Phaschor, and cast into prison, and kept in dreadful custody.

For this power is given by God, that the faith of the Prophets might be shown. Nor yet is the one who strikes greater, but stronger is the one who is struck. And the Prophet patiently receives the judgment of God, nor does he cry out against the blows, but considers the One who commands. EMMER (אמר), sounds like a word meaning "speech," from which blackness is often generated, not by fault of the parent, but by the crime of the one who degenerates. But the torment with which the Prophet is tortured is seen to occur on the right side, which is interpreted "Benjamin"; and in a lofty gate, which does not indicate truth, but the unjust power of the pontiff. (Verse 3.) And when it had dawned on the morrow, Phassur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks, and Jeremiah said to him: The Lord has not called your name Phassur, but Terror-round-about. And here they have all interpreted alike both the name of the pontiff and the kind of torment, as above.

But the pontiff's name is changed, that from the name the punishment of things to come might be shown. By no means, he says, will you have blackness of face and the rule of unjust power; but you will be led captive into Babylon, for this is what "terror round about," or "on every side," signifies: that trembling and uncertain of your own safety, you may look about you here and there, and dread your adversaries coming against you.

For "terror" (pavor), which in the Hebrew is written MAGUR (מגור), the LXX and Theodotion translated μέτοικον, that is, "one migrating," Aquila's second edition "a stranger," the first "one looking about," Symmachus "one taken away" or "gathered and compelled." (Verses 4-6.) For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror, you and all your friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them away into Babylon, and shall strike them with the sword. And I will give all the substance (or strength) of this city, and all its labor, and all its price (or glory), and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, and they shall plunder them, and take them, and carry them into Babylon.

But you, Phassur, and all the inhabitants of your house, shall go into captivity, and you shall come into Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsehood. According to the above interpretation, by which the name Phassur had been changed, that he should be called Magur, all have similarly translated it, so as to signify either terror, or exile, or removal and transferring, and gathering together.

And he threatens that he, along with his friends, is soon to be captured and delivered into the hands of the enemy, and the whole people of the tribe of Judah is to be gained into the hands of the king of Babylon, and some are to be slain by the sword, and others led into captivity, and all the riches both of the city and of the royal treasures are to be seized by the enemies, and Phassur himself, with all his kindred and household, is to be led into captivity, and is to die in Babylon, because he deceived his people with a lie, promising them by no means true and sad things, but prosperous things through falsehood.

At the same time the patience and prudence of the Prophet are to be noted, in that, having been sent to prison, he is silent, and conquers the injury by silence, and yet does not conceal what he knows is to come, so that at least in this way the false-prophet pontiff might cease to sin, and might entreat the clemency of God. (Verses 7, 8.) Thou hast seduced me, O Lord, and I am seduced (or, thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived). Thou wast stronger than I, and hast prevailed (or hast obtained and hast been able). I am made a derision all the day, all mock me; for now I have long spoken, crying out iniquity, and I proclaim devastation (or, because with my bitter word I will laugh at transgression, and I will call upon misery). The Prophet says that he was deceived by the Lord, because in the beginning, hearing: "I have made thee a prophet unto the nations" (above I, 5).

And again: "Behold I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root up and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, and to build and to plant", he had thought that he would speak nothing against the people of the Jews, but against the various nations round about. Whence also he had gladly taken up the prophecy; and it turned out the contrary, that in predicting the captivity of Jerusalem he endured persecutions and distresses. And what he adds: I am made a derision all the day, all mock me: because they think that he has lied about everything, and that all things which he had predicted would come are lies. For the Prophet himself had at once thought that what the Lord threatened would soon come to pass, and the people supposed that what had not immediately come would never come at all. And I cry aloud the devastation of Babylon and the iniquity of the enemies through which my people is to be oppressed.

But if we follow the Septuagint in what they have said: because with my bitter word I will laugh at transgression, and I will call upon misery, the sense is this: I know that present sadness is to be exchanged for future joy, according to what is written: "Blessed are they that weep, for they shall laugh"; and therefore I gladly endure misery, and iniquity, and affliction, so much so that I desire and call upon them; and I compensate the brevity of the injury with the eternity of happiness. (Verses 9, 10.) For the word of the Lord is made unto me a reproach, and a derision all the day. And I said: I will not remember him (or I will not name the Lord), nor will I speak any more in his name. And it became in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I fainted (or was dissolved), not being able to bear it.

For I heard the reproach (or reviling) of many, and terror on every side (or of those gathered from every quarter), Persecute him, and let us persecute him. While I was crying out and saying that now the Babylonian army was coming, and that the sword of the enemy would plunder everything, the word of the Lord was turned to me into reproach and derision, while they think the delay of the prophecy to be a lie. Wherefore I decreed in my mind that I would no longer speak to the people of God in words, nor would I name his name. And when, overcome by shame, I had decided this modestly indeed, but foolishly, there was made, he says, in my heart as it were a burning fire, shut up in my bones; or, I was dissolved on every side, so that I could not bear it. For the divine word, conceived in the mind and not brought forth by the mouth, burns in the breast.

Whence also Paul says: "If I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me: for a necessity lies upon me. For woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel; for if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, a dispensation is committed unto me". And at Athens, seeing the city given over to idolatry, he was stirred in spirit, and burned with his whole mind. And a little later in the same book we read: "But when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ". But many teachers in the Church even to this day endure similar things, hearing the reviling of many gathered against them on every side, and saying: Persecute, and let us persecute them. (Verse 11.) All the men who were my friends, and who watched my side: if by any means he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and may obtain revenge from him.

But the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior. When adversaries rise up, and those who were once friends and peaceable have turned to war, and wish to lay snares for us, let us not be greatly troubled; but let us wish to say what the Prophet says: But the Lord is with me as a mighty warrior. Therefore those who persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak (or, therefore they persecuted, and could not understand). Let them be greatly confounded, because they did not understand the everlasting reproach (or ignominy), which shall never be blotted out. Because they persecuted, therefore they could not understand the prophetic word, and a great confusion followed their ignorance, nor did they understand the everlasting ignominy, which shall lay hold of them, and shall be blotted out by no forgetfulness.

Let those men, then, who were once peaceable, and who watched my side, and wished to deceive me, say what they will, provided that the just man and teacher of the Church obtains after persecution so great a vindication, and so great rewards. (Verse 12.) And thou, O Lord of hosts, who provest the just (or who dost approve just things), who seest the reins and the heart, let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I revealed my cause. The Lord alone is he who knows how to prove justice, just as he alone is he who beholds the inward parts of the heart. Whence also Jesus, knowing the thoughts of men, is God not by advancement, as some suppose, but by nature. Something like this also sounds in the Psalms: "In thy sight shall no man living be justified". If one living by virtues shall not be justified, how much more he who has died for sins?

And although the just man knows that he has God as his champion, yet by the impatience of human frailty, he desires now already to see what he knows is to come. To him also he has revealed his cause, who says in another place: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord". Happy, however, is the conscience whose cause is revealed to the Lord, the Apostle saying: "Everything that is made manifest is light". (Verse 13.) Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked. He who is poor in spirit, and has not riches, which have received their consolation in this world, of whom Paul also speaks: "Only that we should be mindful of the poor", when he has obtained vengeance from the Lord, praises the Lord in spirit, and glories that he has been snatched from the hand of the wicked.

But all this comes to pass, not by our own merit, but by the grace of him who has freed the poor man, and who does not have the riches of a falling pride, but the humility of a poor man set free. (Verse 14. Seqq.) Cursed be the day in which I was born, and the day in which my mother bore me, let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man (or the human being) who announced to my father, saying, A male child is born to thee, and made him glad as it were with joy. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not repent: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling at the time of noon, because he did not kill me from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception. Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in confusion?

Those who suppose that souls existed in the heavens, and were cast down from a better into a worse condition, make use of this and similar testimonies, namely, that it would have been better to dwell in the heavens than on earth, and to assume a body of lowliness: seeking certain new, or rather already old, arguments for their heresy. But we, reading that saying of the blessed Job: Cursed be the day in which I was born, and that night in which they said, Behold, a male child. And: Cursed be the man who announced to my father, saying, A boy is born to thee—we fit this testimony to mean that it is better not to be than to live in torments, according to what is written: Death is rest to the man to whom God has shut his way. And again: Why is light given to the wretched, and life to those who are in bitterness of soul?

And in the Gospel we read it said simply: It would have been better for him if he had not been born: not that there is one who was not born, but that it is better not to be than to be badly. For it is one thing altogether not to be, another, when one is, to be tormented without any cessation—just as we prefer a peaceful death to the miseries of life. Whence also Amos calls the day one of darkness, a day of affliction. And Jacob, because he had lived in labor and distress, calls the days of his life few and evil. And the apostle Paul says: That he might deliver us from this present evil age. And again: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. The Hebrews reckon the fifth month, in which Jerusalem was taken and the Temple overthrown, to the birth of Jeremiah, by certain inextricable and incredible arguments.

But if they could prove this, I do not know how they would be able to interpret the testimony of Job—unless perhaps they suppose that that day too, by a certain prefiguration and prophecy of future events, foretold the overthrow of the Temple. And I think that what he calls down, the likeness of overthrown cities, is said with reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, and that the whole time is one of mourning, so that there is crying in the morning and howling at noon. And as to what follows, He who did not kill me in the womb, they think God is signified. So that, he says, my conception might have been eternal to me—all of which is said hyperbolically. Finally he sets forth the reasons why he prefers death to life, and not to be at all rather than to be in evil, adding: Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in confusion?

(Verse 1.) Seqq.) The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying: Inquire of the Lord for us, because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us; if perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, and will withdraw from us. Above, the priest Pashhur, or Phaschor, who struck Jeremiah, had Immer for his father. But this Pashhur is the son of Malchiah—this is noted lest anyone think him the same man. Now king Zedekiah sent to the Prophet, unwilling that either the people or the princes should know, so that through envoys, by a secret message, he might learn what sentence the Lord has concerning the city Jerusalem and the people of the Jews. And what follows, Because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us, shows that Jerusalem was already besieged when Zedekiah made this inquiry of the Prophet.

And it must be noted that in the Prophets, and especially in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, the order of kings and times is by no means preserved, but out of order—what happened later according to history is related first, and what happened earlier is related later. For it is one thing to write history, another to write prophecy: as in the present passage, Zedekiah, who was taken captive with the city of Jerusalem, is written as sending to Jeremiah, and at that time when Jerusalem was being besieged; and afterward the history of Jehoiakim his brother is narrated, who was king before him, and of Jehoiachin, that is, Jeconiah, who was the son of Jehoiakim—concerning whom it will be spoken in what follows.

(Verse 3. Seqq.) And Jeremiah said to them: Thus shall you say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold I will turn back the weapons of war (or the instruments of war) which are in your hands, and with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you round about the walls; and I will gather them (or it) into the midst of this city, and I will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and a strong (or high) arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city: men and beasts shall die by a great pestilence. In vain, he says, do you wish to fight back against the Chaldeans besieging you, and prepare weapons of war, of which you will have use only in the midst of the city, so that you may seem to be armed.

But while they besiege, I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and I will strike you with my fury and indignation, so that both you and everything that breathes will die of hunger and pestilence in the midst of the city. And indeed we read that this came to pass. For without any battle-array or clash of fighters, so great a city was taken by siege, that they had none to conquer, but only some to capture. Better, it is said, were those wounded by the sword than those slain by hunger.

Verse 7. And after these things, says the Lord: I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and his people, and those who are left in this city from pestilence and sword and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not be bent, nor spare, nor have mercy. What we have translated: Into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, is not found in the Septuagint. And for what we have said, He shall not be bent, nor spare, nor have mercy, the Septuagint translated: I will not spare, nor have mercy. And it is better according to the Hebrew, that the cruel and inflexible sentence should seem to belong more to the king of Babylon than to the Lord.

Now first it was prophesied concerning the whole city; now it is foretold specifically to Zedekiah and his people, who shall be left after the pestilence, the sword, and the famine, that he shall be captured by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and slain by the sword along with his friends; nor let him hope for any mercy from him whose covenant and bond of kinship he abandoned by perjury. (Verse 8. Seqq.) And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who dwells in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes out, and deserts to the Chaldeans who besiege you, shall live, and his life shall be to him as spoil. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the Lord. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

To those who were sent by the king and had come to the Prophet to beg him to inquire of the Lord for them, he had answered the foregoing, and told them what to report to king Zedekiah. Now he exhorts them to answer the people, and gives counsel that they should desert to the Chaldeans, contrary to the royal will—which no one is unaware was dangerous for the Prophet. Whence he also calls down death upon himself and says: Cursed be the day in which I was born. And, Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow?

Not that it is a light thing, even before capture, to give counsel that one surrender oneself of one's own accord to captivity—as if, to those about to suffer shipwreck, it were commanded that before the shipwreck and the breaking up of the ship they should seize the oars and planks and give themselves to the waves—but that it is more tolerable to live somehow as captives than to be consumed by sword, famine, and pestilence. There are those who expound this passage according to tropology thus: that it is better to hand oneself over to secular disciplines, and especially to philosophy, than to remain in that Church in which there is a famine of the word of God, and the whole people dies by the sword of heretics and the want of doctrine, and by heretical pestilence.

Verse 11. And to the house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord, O house of David. Thus says the Lord: Judge judgment in the morning, and deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest perhaps my indignation go forth (or so that it may not go forth) like fire, and be kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the wickedness of your devices. What follows, Because of the wickedness of your devices, is not found in the Septuagint. Because he had said above, And to this people you shall say, Thus says the Lord, he now consequently adds, And to the house of the king of Judah, so that it is to be understood, you shall say, thus says the Lord; for both the preceding and the following are joined ἀπὸ κοινοῦ (in common), so that the sense is: And to this people you shall say, Thus says the Lord.

But properly the word is addressed to the royal house, on account of whose fault especially the city is besieged, that it may correct its error by repentance, and obtain the Lord's clemency. Judge, he says, judgment in the morning, not in the darkness of iniquity, but in the light of justice. And deliver by force the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor, so that you do not accept persons in judgment, but so that God's rule may prevail among you more than the power of the persecutor, when the rich oppress the poor. And if, he says, you do this, the fire of my fury shall by no means be kindled among you, nor shall it find material which it may consume.

The incredible clemency of God is shown in this passage, that concerning those of whom he had said above: For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good; it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire—now, with the Lord's sentence already impending, he calls them to salvation. Not that he is ignorant that the city of Jerusalem is to be taken; but that free will is preserved to man, so that they may be seen to perish not through ignorance of the future, but by their own will. Just as the Savior also knew that the Apostle would deny him, and that he himself was to be crucified—since he had often foretold this to the Apostles—and nonetheless he admonished them, wishing to correct them to repentance; so that whatever they afterward endured happened to them by their own fault, not by the harshness of one threatening.

Verse 13. Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the solid and level valley, says the Lord, you who say, Who shall strike (or terrify) us? And who shall enter our houses? And I will visit upon you; and what follows, According to the fruit of your devices, says the Lord, is not found in the Septuagint. And I will kindle, he says, a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all things round about her. For inhabitant of the solid and level valley, the Septuagint translated: Behold, I am against thee, who dwells in the valley of SOR (צור), level; for which Symmachus interpreted "rock," and Theodotion "besieged"; Aquila's first edition, "solid," his second, "Tyre." For Sor or Sur in the Hebrew tongue signifies both Tyre, and flint, and something constricted.

Now he speaks against Jerusalem, which is hemmed in by siege, either in likeness to Tyre, as though it were girded by the Babylonian army as by a great sea, and cannot escape; or certainly which thinks itself, like the hardest rock, impregnable and strong because of the solidity and greatness of its walls, and says: Who will be able to terrify us? And who shall enter our houses?—while God on the contrary says: I will visit you; you shall not be able to escape my eye. And I will visit you unto ruin, and I will render to you the fruit of your wickedness. And I will kindle a fire in your forest. Not the Babylonian, as you suppose, not the king of the Chaldeans; but my own wrath shall accomplish all these things. Now he calls Jerusalem, and the whole surrounding region, a forest, because it does not have the fruit-bearing trees of good works, so that it is prepared for burning.

And he beautifully calls it a level valley, because it is accessible to enemies, and not a lofty mountain, which can be climbed only with difficulty—according to what is also said in Isaiah: The vision of the valley of Sion. Whatever things are shown to belong to the royal house, and, in Jerome's own sense likewise, are prophesied of the metropolis-city, let us refer to the ecclesiastical order, and to the princes of the Churches—those, at least, who have given themselves over to pride and riches and wantonness. Nor, because it is the royal house, shall it therefore be freed from destruction—just as, of those who were of the stock of David, very few indeed are found who pleased the Lord, as David himself did, and Hezekiah and Josiah; while a great part of the princes and of the royal stock provoked the wrath of the Lord against the whole people.

(Verses 1 and following.) Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and thou shalt speak there this word, and thou shalt say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people, that enter in by these gates. Thus saith the Lord: Execute ye judgment and justice, and deliver him that is oppressed by violence out of the hand of the calumniator, and grieve not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, neither oppress them unjustly (or impiously), and shed not innocent blood in this place. For if you do indeed this word, there shall enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, of his race, and riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. But if you will not hear these words, I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a wilderness.

This vision, or rather this word of the Lord, occurs either before Zedekiah sent messengers to the prophet, or certainly after he had instructed the messengers what they should report to the king, and it is commanded to Jeremiah that he should by no means speak to the king through messengers, but should himself go to the palace, and there speak to him. And let us at the same time observe the divine wisdom, in that through messengers He commands sad things to be announced, mixed also with prosperous things, if the king should be willing to do penance. But here, because it is commanded to himself to go, he does not announce sad things, and captivity now about to come; but he warns what he ought to do, that he may avoid the impending sentence of God.

Now it is the proper office of kings to execute judgment and justice, and to deliver from the hand of calumniators those who are oppressed by violence, and to give aid to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (who are more easily oppressed by the powerful). And that He might instill in them a greater care for God's precepts, He added: Grieve them not, that you should not only not rescue them, but should not even suffer them, through your connivance, to be grieved by others. And shed not innocent blood in this place. For to punish murderers, and the sacrilegious, and poisoners, is not a shedding of blood, but the ministry of the laws. If, He says, you do these things, O kings of Judah, you shall retain your former power, and shall enter with pomp the gates of Jerusalem. But if you will not do so, O royal house, it shall not be so much the cruelty of the Lord, as of your own will, that the whole city be reduced to a wilderness.

Whatever is said to the royal house, let the bishops understand, and their associates the presbyters, and the deacons, and the whole ecclesiastical order, that if they do the things which are commanded, and, among other things, do not shed innocent blood, by scandalizing the little ones and wounding the consciences of individuals, they shall retain the dignity handed down to them by the Lord. But if they refuse to do so and despise it, they themselves shall reduce the Church of God to a wilderness. Now they enter of the race of David through the gates of Jerusalem, and sit upon his throne, who is interpreted "strong of hand," and mount chariots and horses, when they restrain both their own disturbances and those of the people, and enter the Church with an ordered step, and with a choir of many virtues harmonizing with them on every side.

And that we may believe this to be true, He swears by Himself, because, according to the Apostle, He has no other greater by whom He might swear. (Verses 6-8.) For thus saith the Lord concerning (or to) the house of the king of Judah: Gilead, thou art to me the head (or beginning) of Libanus, if I make thee not a wilderness, cities not inhabited. And I will sanctify against thee him that slayeth, and his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and shall cast (or throw) them into the fire, and many nations shall pass through this city, and every man shall say to his neighbor: Why hath the Lord done so to this great city? And they shall answer, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have worshipped strange gods, and served them. Scripture recalls that Gilead, which the half tribe of Manasseh possessed, is beyond the Jordan.

On this mountain Jacob was overtaken by Laban in his flight, and the mountain, according to Genesis, received the name bounos, that is, "heap of witness," because there Jacob and Laban swore, a heap of stones having been gathered together. Now it is the head, or the beginning, of the lofty mountain Libanus, which is entirely planted with cedars, according to that word of David singing: "And the Lord shall shake the cedars of Libanus". And elsewhere: "I have seen the wicked highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus". And in Zachariah we read: "Open, O Libanus, thy gates, and let fire devour thy cedars". Therefore in the present passage, because He was speaking to the royal house, He speaks by metaphor to the Temple, or to the house of the stock of Judah, either because it is itself on a height, or because from the Temple and the Sanctuary remedies for all sins were sought. Whence also this same prophet recalls: "Is there no balm in Gilead, or is there no physician there?

Why then is not the healing of the daughter of my people advanced?" (above viii, 21). He threatens, therefore, the royal house, and the city of Jerusalem, and the Temple, which He calls the head of Libanus, that it is to be reduced to a wilderness together with all its cities: not by the power of the king of Babylon, but by the command of the Lord, who says, "I will sanctify against thee him that slayeth." Now Nebuchadnezzar and his whole army are called "sanctified," because they carry out the sentence of God. And He says, "they shall cut down thy choice cedars": that is, all the powerful men and princes of the city; "and they shall cast them into the fire," that a flame devouring all things may consume them.

And when all things have been destroyed, many nations shall pass through the city, and the Temple, which it was not lawful for them to enter before; and every man shall speak to his neighbor, why the Lord has brought so sudden and so great an overthrow upon a renowned and great city? And they shall answer, He says, those who are asked, and they shall set forth the causes of the ruins, saying: because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped idols instead of God. Let the royal house of our city also hear this, and its princes, and the cedars, which lift up their tops even to the clouds, and speak through pride: who does not see that they will quickly be consumed by the flame of the Lord, if they will not consent to His precepts?

But one thing is the sanctification of the slayer and of his weapons, and another that of the priests, and of those who minister to the Lord. (Verses 10, 11.) Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him: weep with weeping for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see the land of his birth. For thus saith the Lord to Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who has gone out of this place: he shall not return here any more; but in the place to which I have transported him, there he shall die, and he shall see this land no more. Josiah, a righteous king, had three sons, Joachaz, and Jacim, and Zedekiah, of whom the first Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, led captive into Egypt, and there he died, and he set up in his place as king Eliakim, his brother.

When he had died, his son Jechonias reigned, who was led into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, together with his mother, and the princes: in whose place his uncle Zedekiah reigned, who, when Jerusalem was taken, was led into Babylon. It is asked, therefore, who is this one who ought not to be wept for, and who is to be led into captivity, and is not to return, since three were captured and led away? The Hebrews think this applies to all of them, that is, to Joachaz, and to Jechonias, and to Zedekiah alike: and that all the sons of Josiah are called Shallum (שלום), which is interpreted "consummation," or "completion," because the kingdom of Judah was ended in them. But to me it seems properly said of Zedekiah, concerning whom is both the present and the preceding chapter's prophecy, in whom truly the kingdom of Judah was ended, under whom also the city was taken: and he is recorded to have been led into Babylon, and to have died there.

This is Shallum, that is, "consummation," and "completion," the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father. But Jechonias was not the son, but the grandson, of Josiah, being the son of Joacim: so that from the beginning of the vision, when king Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maasiah the priest, up to this chapter, we should understand that everything is said to the king, and concerning king Zedekiah (above xxi). (Verses 13 ff.) Woe to him who builds his house in unrighteousness, and his upper chambers not in judgment; who oppresses his friend without cause, and does not render him his wages; who says, I will build myself a wide house, and spacious upper chambers, who opens for himself windows, and makes ceilings of cedar, and paints them with vermilion. Shall you reign, because you compare yourself to cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

He judged the cause of the poor and needy, to his own good; was it not because he knew me? Says the Lord. But your eyes and heart are set on covetousness, and on shedding innocent blood, and on oppression, and on the pursuit of evil work. The Septuagint: O you who build your house not with justice, and your upper chambers not in judgment! With him the neighbor works for nothing, and he does not render him his wages. You have built for yourself a little house, upper chambers open to the wind, adorned with windows, and paneled with cedar, and daubed with vermilion. Shall you reign, because you strive against Achaz your father? They shall not eat, and they shall not drink. It was better for you to do good judgment and justice; they did not know, they did not judge the judgment of the lowly, nor the judgment of the poor. Is not this that you do not know me? Says the Lord.

Behold, your eyes are not upright, nor your heart good, but set on your covetousness, and to shed innocent blood, and on iniquity and murder, to do these things. I have set forth both editions in full, so that both the Hebrew truth and the difficulty of the Vulgate edition may be more easily understood. Now this discourse is against Joacim son of Josias king of Judah, of whom we have spoken above, whom Nechao Pharaoh king of Egypt set up in place of his brother Joachaz, whom he led bound into Egypt. We read, moreover, as the history of both Kings and Chronicles relates (Paralipomenon 36), that Joacim son of Josias reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and reigned cruelly, and proved impious, and afterward died; yet his burial is not related, though Sacred Scripture has this custom, that it relates all kings as both dead and buried. But this one it particularly narrates as dead and not buried, of which we shall speak in what follows.

He laments, therefore, the aforesaid king, because he trusts in unrighteousness and thinks the royal dignity to be perpetual, and builds himself upper chambers, and oppresses his friends, and does not render their wages to those who labor, and reckons the building of his palace to be eternal. Shall you, says the divine word, be able to reign forever, because you desire to compare yourself to the lofty cedar, namely, to your father Josias, a just king? Your father, it says, both ate and drank, and enjoyed royal riches, yet he did not offend God in that he had riches, but pleased him in that he did judgment and justice. And therefore it was well with him both in the present age and shall be in the age to come. He judged, it says, the cause of the poor and needy, and heard it for their relief, and specifically to his own good. All these things turned out well for him because he knew me, says the Lord.

But your eyes, O Joacim, incline to covetousness, and to shed innocent blood, to oppression, and to the pursuit of evil work. But according to the Septuagint, I cannot understand what sense they have. For although the rest agree with it in some measure, that which follows: Shall you reign, because you strive against Achaz your father?—for which in the Hebrew is written ARAZ (ארז), and this word signifies cedar—it is plain that this has no sense. Likewise what follows: They shall not eat and they shall not drink, and the rest, which are so scattered and confused among themselves that, apart from the truth of the Hebrew reading, they have no intelligibility. We may, however, take this passage anagogically against the heretics, who build for themselves a house not great, and broad with the abundance of the Church, but a little one. They build, moreover, not with justice and judgment, desiring to seize what belongs to others.

Whence it is said: You have built for yourself a little house, upper chambers open to the wind, which are carried about by every wind of doctrine, and adorned with windows: for they do not have a lasting structure, nor solid firmness. And paneled, it says, with cedar. They seem indeed to have a most beautiful paneling; but at the rains and the storm of persecutions they quickly rot and collapse. And daubed with vermilion. They too indeed promise the passion of the Lord, and blood; but they do not reign forever, because they strive and provoke to wrath Araz, that is, the cedar, their father. For every heretic is born in the Church, but is cast out from the Church, and strives, and fights against his parent. And what it adds: They shall not eat and they shall not drink, is understood of the Body and Blood of the Savior, and other similar things.

And it says that all error descends from this, that they have not known God, nor have upright eyes; but their heart is inclined to covetousness, so that they seize what belongs to others, and shed the blood of the deceived. For this is to commit murder. The obscure points must be discussed more at length. (Verses 18, 19.) Therefore thus says the Lord to Joacim son of Josias king of Judah: They shall not mourn him, "Alas, brother!" and "Alas, sister!" they shall not lament for him, "Alas, lord!" and "Alas, his glory!" He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth outside the gates of Jerusalem. What we have set forth from the Hebrew: They shall not mourn him, "Alas, brother!" and "Alas, sister!" is not found in the Septuagint.

And it is properly said against Joacim king of Judah, and the riddle is opened which before seemed hidden and ambiguous among the three brothers, so that the discourse is not about Joachaz, nor about Sedecias, but properly about Joacim, whom the Hebrew history relates as killed by bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Ammonites, and Moabites. Whence in the Books of Kings he is written as dead, and his burial is passed over in silence. In the Book of the Chronicles we read that he was bound with chains and led into Babylon (2 Paralipomenon 36): nor is anything further related of him. And fittingly it says he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, so as to signify in other words that he is unburied, that is, to be torn by beasts and birds. For this is the burial of an ass. (Verses 20 ff.) Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and give your voice in Basan, and cry out to those passing by, for all your lovers are crushed.

I spoke to you in your abundance; you said, I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, that you did not hear my voice. The wind shall feed all your shepherds (or lovers), and your lovers (or friends) shall go into captivity. And then you shall be confounded, and shall blush for all your wickedness. You who dwell in Lebanon, and nest in the cedars, how you have groaned, when pangs came upon you like the pangs of a woman in travail! By the metaphor of Lebanon and Basan, regions and mountains beyond the Jordan, the discourse is directed to Jerusalem, because she has trusted in vain in Egypt, or to Joacim himself, who at that time reigned in Jerusalem and had been set up as king by the Egyptians, because he hopes in vain for the help of the Egyptians, and because they too are to be overcome by the king of Babylon, and led into captivity.

And what it says: I spoke to you, that is, God himself through the Prophets; or, they have spoken to you, so that "my Prophets" is understood; and you in your abundance said, I will not hear: it charges her with pride, and that she abused the greatness of her riches in contempt of God. And it relates that not only at this time, but from the beginning when she was brought out of Egypt, she did not hear the voice of God; whence all her shepherds and princes have been scattered here and there, and have bowed their necks to Babylonian captivity. And what it adds: You who dwell in Lebanon, and nest in the cedars, mocks the arrogance which had grown from the abundance of all things, and that, like a woman in childbirth, sudden pain and sudden captivity should come upon her.

As for what we have rendered: cry out to those passing by, in the Hebrew it is written MEABARIM (מעברים); the Septuagint and Theodotion translated "across the sea"; Symmachus, "opposite"—so as to signify that the voice of the Prophet ought to reach from Jerusalem all the way to Mount Lebanon and Basan. (Verses 24 ff.) As I live, says the Lord: Though Chonias son of Joacim king of Judah were a ring on my right hand, from there I would pluck him off (or you), and give you into the hand of those seeking your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon (which is not found in the LXX) and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will send you (or cast you forth) and your mother who bore you, into a foreign land in which you were not born: and there you shall die. And to the land to which they lift up their soul to return, there they shall not return.

Above he had said, You shall speak these things to the house of the king of Judah: and then, Go down to the house of the king of Judah: again, Thus says the Lord upon the house of the king of Judah, and in inverted order, after he had spoken of Sedecias, who was the last of the kings in Jerusalem, he returns to Joacim his brother, who reigned before him. This prophecy having been fulfilled, he now speaks to the son of Joacim, grandson of Josias, king of Jerusalem, Jechonias, who is also called by another name Joachin, who was captured by Nabuchodonosor along with his mother, princes and craftsmen, and many nobles, and led into Chaldea, and there died.

This, then, is said: as a ring does not withdraw from the hand of the one who wears it, and slips off the finger only with difficulty, so shall Jechonias be in my hand; yet I will pluck him off, and hand him over to the king of Babylon, and there he shall die with his mother and all his companions, and shall not see beyond the land of Judea, which he desires.

That wretched Grunnius, who has opened his mouth to slander holy men, and taught his tongue to lie, has translated into Latin one book of Sextus the Pythagorean, a most thoroughly pagan man; and he has divided it into two volumes, and dared to publish it under the name of the holy Martyr Xystus, bishop of the city of Rome: in which there is no mention of Christ, none of the Holy Spirit, none of God the Father, none of the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, and this book, with his usual rashness and madness, he has named "The Ring," which is read through many provinces, and especially by those who preach ἀπάθεια (impassibility) and sinlessness. As, then, the Lord threatens that he will cast Jechonias off from his hand and finger like a ring: so I beg the reader to cast away this wicked book; and let him read it, if he wishes, as he would other books of the philosophers, not as an ecclesiastical volume.

I am accustomed, in commentaries and explanations, whose custom it is to set forth the various opinions of interpreters, to mix in speech of this kind: some say this, others suppose this, some think thus. This very wretched Grunnius, and after many years the disciples of Jovinian, both he and they have slandered and do slander me, saying that I put forward my own opinions under other men's names, which I do out of a motive of goodwill, lest I seem to tear anyone apart by name for certain.

Since, then, my kindness has been turned into slander, I now say, both to him who is dead, and to this one who lives and tries to revive that man's heresy, that their master Origen refers this passage to Christ, that he was torn like a ring from the hand of God the Father, and sent into the land of captivity, into the valley of tears, and delivered to the cross; and that his mother too, doubtless the Synagogue, was captured and cast off; and he is not afraid, in recalling these things, to apply also what follows: Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Write this man abominable, or barren, and the rest, understanding it of the Lord of majesty. He writes this so that his disciples may not dare to deny it, in the fifth book of the Stromata. (Verse 28.) Is this man Chonias a vessel of earthenware, and broken? Is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure (or usefulness)?

Why are he and his seed cast out, and thrown into a land which they knew not? For what we have rendered, Is this man a vessel of earthenware and broken, Symmachus translated: Is he refuse, or vile and cast-off sweepings? For which nothing is found in the Septuagint, but they have interpreted only this: Jechonias is dishonored, like a vessel in which there is no use. And though this is said of Jechonias son of Joacim, someone dares to refer it to a type of Christ; and from the fact that the Apostle says the Lord Savior is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, that is, Wisdom, the Word, Truth and Life and Justice, that he is called a ring, which is cast off or plucked from the hand of the Lord, and handed over to king Nabuchodonosor. They are cast off, it says, both he and his seed, and thrown into a land which they did not know: which no one doubts happened concerning Jechonias.

Jechonias is interpreted "the preparation of the Lord," from whom in this passage the first syllable, that is, the name of the Lord, is taken away, and he is called Chonias, so that it is understood: prepared for perdition and ruin.

Verse 29. Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Write this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days. For there shall not be of his seed a man who shall sit upon the throne of David and have power any more in Judah. If I wished to note point by point how much the Seventy either omitted or altered, it would be a long task, especially since the diligent reader can consider from either edition what was changed, what added, what subtracted.

For "childless" there is written in the Hebrew ARIRI (ערירי), which the first edition of Aquila rendered "childless"; the second, ἀναύξητον, that is, "not growing"; Symmachus, "empty"; the Septuagint and Theodotion interpreted it as "abominable" and "cast off." And a question arises, how the prophecy can stand, that none of his stock was begotten who sat upon the throne of David, nor was any longer a prince in Judah, since the Lord and Savior was born of his seed; concerning whose birth Gabriel speaks to Mary: Behold, you shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the seat of David his father, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

We may say this, then, that what is lacking in the Septuagint, namely, "in his days he shall not prosper," or "he shall not grow," has caused a difficulty for those who do not know it. For the Seventy translated: Write this man a cast-off man; for there shall not grow of his seed a man to sit upon the throne of David, a prince any more in Judah—which in the Hebrew is stated twice; and those who first wrote out the Greek books, supposing this to have been added, removed it. Let us answer, then, that in the days of Jeconiah no man succeeded him who sat upon his throne; but much later there was born of his seed one who obtained his seat.

It can also be resolved thus: a man and human being will indeed not sit upon the throne of David, but God will sit, and his kingdom will not be earthly and brief, as David's was, but perpetual and heavenly, as Scripture says: He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Jeconiah, then, was born of Joachim; of Jeconiah, Salathiel; of Salathiel, Zerubbabel; and in order one comes down to Christ. But in the days of Joachim no son succeeded him as king, as he himself had succeeded his father, but both Salathiel and Zerubbabel were in captivity, and until Christ no one held royal power. This is because it is written in the Hebrew: "in his days and in his time," in which he himself lived, there shall not be a man to sit upon the throne of David. For all were captives, and thereafter no one of the stock of David held principality in the land of Judea.

Whence also Josephus reports that the princes were of the priestly line and tribe of Levi, whom Herod, the son of the proselyte Antipater, succeeded, and afterward under Vespasian the kingdom of this race—nay, even the image of empire—was utterly wiped out.

(Verse 1.) Sqq.) Woe to the shepherds who destroy and tear apart the flock of my pasture (or: O shepherds, who scatter and disperse the sheep of my pasture), says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel to the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, you have driven them out, and you have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your pursuits, says the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I had driven them out, thither, and I will bring them back to their own fields (or: I will restore them to their own pastures), and they shall grow and multiply.

And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them. They shall no longer fear, nor be afraid, nor shall any be missing in number, says the Lord. The prophetic word is addressed to the shepherds, or concerning the shepherds. And since concerning Jeconiah, the second-to-last king of Judea, who was of the stock of David, we read it written: Earth, earth, earth, hear the words of the Lord, write this man cast off, or childless, and there shall not be of his seed a man to sit upon the throne of David (above, xxii, 29, 30), and all hope of the kingdom of Judah had been cut off: the word passes over to the princes of the Church, and, the Synagogue with its shepherds having been abandoned and condemned, the word is directed to the Apostles, of whom it is said: And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them; they shall no longer fear, nor be afraid, nor shall any be missing in number, says the Lord.

For the Apostles will feed the flock of the Church confidently and without any fear, and the remnants of the people of Israel will be saved from all the lands, and will be turned back to their fields, or to their pastures, and will grow and multiply. But upon the evil shepherds, the Scribes and Pharisees, the Lord will visit because of the evil of their pursuits. We may also understand this, according to tropology, of the princes of the Church, who nevertheless do not rightly rule the sheep of the Lord, so that, these being cast off and condemned, the people may be saved, handed over to others who have proven worthy; and the remnants may be saved. Shepherds who teach heresy destroy the sheep. Those who cause schisms tear and scatter them. Those who separate them from the Church against justice cast them out. Those who withhold their hand from the penitent do not visit them. Of all of these the Lord will have mercy, restoring to them their former pastures, and removing the evil shepherds. Verse 5.

Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up for David a righteous shoot (or: a righteous rising); and a king shall reign, and shall be wise (or: shall understand), and shall do judgment and justice in the land. In those days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely. And this is the name by which they will call him (or: by which the Lord will call him): The Lord our righteous one (or: our righteousness). Which in Hebrew is called SADECENU (צדקנו). What is badly added in the Septuagint, "among the Prophets," is entirely to be cut away. For another chapter follows, which they have omitted, at the end of which is the title "to the Prophets," or "against the Prophets," of which we shall speak in its own place.

The shepherds of the synagogue, that is, the Scribes and Pharisees, having been cast off, and the remnants of Israel having been saved, and the apostolic men of the Gospel having been established in place of the former princes, there is brought in the shepherd of shepherds, and the prince of princes, and the king of kings, and the Lord of lords, namely Christ our Savior, who is properly the righteous shoot, or the righteous rising, of whom we read: In his days justice shall arise. And in another place: Behold the man, his name is the Rising, and beneath him it shall arise, and he shall build the temple to the Lord: so that as in Isaiah he is called Emmanuel, that is, God with us (Isaiah vii, 14), so in Jeremiah he receives the name "our righteousness." Whence the Apostle also says: Who was made wisdom for us from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. To whom is contrary the Antichrist, and his indwelling devil, called in Zechariah the foolish shepherd.

And he shall do, it says, judgment and justice in the land. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. In those days both the two tribes of Judah and the ten of Israel shall be saved together. And of the two rods, according to Ezekiel, one rod shall be made. And his name, if according to the Septuagint, "the Lord shall call him," will be called Josedec, that is, "the Lord is righteous"; if according to the Hebrew, which said, "they shall call his name," it will be said, "The Lord our righteousness." For this is the meaning of Adonai sadecenu (יהוה צדקנו), for which Symmachus translated: "Lord, justify us." Verse 7. Therefore behold, the days come, says the Lord.

And they shall no longer say, "The Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt"; but "The Lord lives, who brought out and led the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands to which I had driven them out, thither, and they shall dwell in their own land." This whole chapter is not found in the Septuagint. Its sense is this: that the people of God is by no means to be freed from Egypt through Moses, but through Jesus Christ from the whole world, into which it had been scattered. Which is even now in part fulfilled in the world, and shall be fulfilled in full when they shall come from the East and the West, the North and the South, and shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So that after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel shall be saved.

To the Prophets (or: among the Prophets, or against the Prophets). This title, as we said above, in the Septuagint edition is placed at the end of the preceding chapter, where we read it written: and this is the name by which the Lord shall call him, Josedec, among the Prophets. Most people, not knowing this, invent various ravings of explanation. It would have been much better simply to confess ignorance than to make others heirs of one's own inexperience. But the word is against the Prophets, or rather the false prophets of Jerusalem and Samaria, whom he now calls by the common and ordinary name "Prophets," concerning whom it is written in what follows: And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen iniquity; and immediately: And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things. But when he places the conjunction "and," he shows that the foregoing was spoken by the Lord concerning the Prophets, who themselves also proved to be like the false prophets.

Verse 9. My heart is broken within me (or: in me), all my bones tremble (or: are shaken), I have become like a drunken man, and like a man soaked (or: heavy) with wine, from the face of the Lord, and from the face of the words of his Holy Ones (or: and from the face of the beauty of his glory). Having considered the face of the almighty God, that is, of the Father, and having considered the face of the Son, who according to the Apostle is called the brightness of that glory, he shudders in body, and understands that he himself is nothing, according to what is also said in another place: I have become as a beast before you. Or he offers to God a sacrifice of his conscience and humility, according to that which is read in the Psalms: A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.

But let us understand the bones which trembled, or were shaken, as those of which the same David sings: All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto you? He became like a drunken man, and like a man soaked, or heavy, with wine, having no understanding, no wisdom. For the Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. But if this is so, where are those who preach a perfect righteousness in man? And if they answer that they say this of the saints, not of themselves, surely I think no one holier than Jeremiah, who, a virgin, a prophet, and sanctified in the womb, prefigures by his very name the Lord the Savior. For Jeremiah is interpreted, "the exalted of the Lord."

Verse 10. For the land is filled with adulterers, for from the face of the curse (or: the oath) the land has mourned, the fields (or: pastures) of the desert are dried up, and their course has become evil, and their strength unlike itself. What we have set down from the Hebrew, "for the land is filled with adulterers," is not found in the Septuagint, who said "oath" instead of "curse." And he gives the reasons, that because of adulteries and curses, or superfluous oath-taking, indeed perjuries, barrenness of crops has followed. Whatever you understand of the land of Judea according to the letter, refer it to the congregation of believers, since because of adulteries and lies, or perjuries against the virtues and gifts of God, barrenness comes upon the Churches. (Verses 11, 12.) For the Prophet and Priest are polluted, and in my house I have found their evils, saith the Lord. Therefore their way shall be as a slippery place in darkness.

For they shall be driven forward and shall fall therein, because I will bring (or lead in) evils upon them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. When in the Church of God, and especially among its princes, evils are found, let us know that this has been fulfilled: The Prophet and the priest are polluted; in my house I have found their evils, saith the Lord. Now the house of Christ is the Church, concerning which the Apostle also writes to Timothy: That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. By the prophet, understand the teacher: by the priest, the dignity of ministry. If these, with depraved mind, give consent to evil, their way shall become slippery and dark; nor shall they have the Lord speaking, who says: I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness.

Whence the saint speaks, fleeing all darkness: The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us: thou hast put gladness in my heart. But when they shall be in darkness and in a slippery path, that is, in heretical error, they will be driven forward at every motion and will fall. And the Lord brings evils upon them, not because evils are such that the Lord brings evils, but evils to those who endure punishments. Otherwise the same things are both evil and good. Evil, according to those whom they torment: good, according to those whom they correct. And this must be noted, that the year of the Lord’s visitation is called the correction and torment of sinners, according to that which is written: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with scourges: but my mercy I will not take away from him. (Verse 13.) And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen folly (or iniquity); they prophesied in Baal, and deceived my people Israel.

I think that the prophets of Samaria, according to the mystical understanding, are properly said to be heretics, and all who boast of knowledge falsely so called.

Now as the prophets of Samaria, whatever they spoke, prophesied in Baal, that is, in an idol consecrated to demons: so heretics, whatever they speak within the Church, or outside the Church, in order to supplant the people Israel, who before beheld God, speak in demons. Whence also, significantly, he says: And in the Prophets of Samaria I have seen folly: for they do not have him of whom it is said, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. (Verse 14.) And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a likeness (or horrible things), adultery and a way of falsehood, and they have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that no one might turn from his warfare (or from his most wicked way). They are all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

Not only, he says, have these things been found in the assemblies of heretics, but in the prophets of Jerusalem also, that is, in the teachers of the Church, I have seen similar things, or horrible things, of men adulterating the word of God, and entering by the way of falsehood, so as to acquiesce in the deceits of heretics, and to strengthen the hands of the wicked, joining their evils to their own crimes, and leading into destruction those whom they ought to have corrected. Let those who have done this not think themselves unpunished. For they themselves, and those whom they favor, shall be as Sodom, and all who dwell with them, and who do not withdraw from such men, as Gomorrah.

Let therefore the most wicked doctrine exult as much as it will, and let the prophets of Jerusalem glory that they have prevailed through falsehood, and have strengthened the hands of the wicked: their end shall be as Sodom and Gomorrah. (Verse 15.) Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts to the Prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood (or with pains, and according to Symmachus, with bitterness), and will give them water of gall to drink (or bitter water), because from the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the earth. Let us use this testimony against those who send throughout the world letters full of lies and fraud and perjury, so that they both pollute the ears of hearers, and injure the reputation of the simple, that in them this which is written may be fulfilled: From the prophets of Jerusalem pollution has gone forth into all the earth.

For it does not suffice them to devour their own iniquity, and to injure their neighbors: but those whom they have once hated, they strive to defame throughout the whole world, and everywhere to sow blasphemies. (Verses 16, 17.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hearken not to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, and deceive you: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who blaspheme me (or reject my word), the Lord hath spoken, peace shall be to you. And to everyone who walks in the perverseness of his own heart they have said: no evil shall come upon you. Lest the people should think themselves free from blame if they acquiesced in perverse Teachers, he says: Hearken not to the words of the Prophets who prophesy a lie to you, and deceive you. For the punishment shall be equal for both master and disciple.

They do not speak from the mouth of the Lord, but the things which they have feigned in their own heart. They say to those who blaspheme me, that is, to heretics and perverse men, or who cast aside my word: what do they say? The Lord hath spoken, peace shall be to you. Fear not harsh punishments, nor be terrified by empty threats: peace shall be yours and tranquility, and whatever we say and announce to you, the Lord hath spoken; nor shall evil come upon you, which you fear on account of your evil conscience; but good, which the Lord hath spoken to you.

For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and has seen and heard his word? Who has considered his word, and has heard it? Where we have translated “in the counsel,” in the Hebrew it is written BASOD (בסוד): Aquila translates “secret”; Symmachus, “word”; the Septuagint and Theodotion have translated “substance” or “subsistence.” And the sense is: Do not believe, O untaught multitude, the Prophets who announce false things to you, who say, thus hath the Lord spoken, peace shall be to you: no evil shall come upon you. For whence can they know the secrets of God, or by whose announcing have they learned the counsel of God? How has the word of the divine disposition reached them?

Certain of our own writers think that they have found in this passage a place where the substance of God is described. (Verses 19, 20.) Behold a whirlwind (or a tempest and commotion) of the Lord’s indignation shall go forth, and a storm bursting forth shall come upon the head of the wicked, and the wrath of the Lord shall not turn back until it does, and until it fulfills the thoughts of his heart. In the last days you shall understand his counsel. Those who had said above: the Lord hath spoken to us, peace shall be to you, and whom he had rebuked because they could not know things to come, nor know the sentence of God, he now shows through opposites, that they know nothing at all. For instead of peace and security, the Babylonian tempest is to come, and to come not upon just anyone, but upon the heads of the wicked, whether of the whole people, or of those who announced false things to the people.

Nor, as in past times, is the wrath and fury of God to be appeased, but that which he has foretold and most often threatened is to be fulfilled in deed, and his thought and sentence proved by the punishments of the wicked. When, he says, the last time of captivity shall come, and the exulting victor shall have obtained you, and shall have bound your hands with the clanking of chains: then you shall understand his counsel, which you now boast in vain that you know. (Verses 21, 22.) I did not send the Prophets, and yet they ran: I did not speak to them, and yet they prophesied. If they had stood in my counsel, and had made known my words to my people, I would surely have turned them from their evil way, and from their most wicked thoughts.

This meaning the Apostle also explains, writing to the Romans: And even as they did not approve of having God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, and the rest. For when false teachers have once given themselves over to lies and perjuries and to the deaths of those they have deceived, they run, not step by step, nor with measured pace, but headlong to destruction, both their own and that of those whom they have deceived.

Nor does the Lord speak to them, but they themselves speak as though from the mouth of the Lord, of whom it is also said: If they had stood in my counsel, that is, if they had wished to acquiesce in my will, and had made known my words to my people, not flattering them and destroying them by adulation, so as to say, you have no sins; you possess perfect righteousness; sanctity and chastity and righteousness are found only in you: then I would not have delivered them into uncleanness and ignominy, to do the things which are not fitting, and to follow their own most wicked thoughts. Let us contemplate heretics, how, once despairing of salvation, they give themselves over to gluttony and delights, feed on flesh meats, frequently visit the baths; are fragrant with musk; anointed with various ointments they seek the beauty of the body. For once they no longer hope for things to come, nor believe in the resurrection. Which, though they do not disclose in speech, they show forth in their works.

For if they believed, they would not do these things. And in this passage where it is written: if they had stood in my counsel, Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the Septuagint have translated similarly to what was said above. (Verses 23, 24.), think you, a God near at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? If a man shall hide himself in secret places, shall I not see him? Saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? Saith the Lord. LXX: I am a God drawing near, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off. Saith the Lord; do not I fill heaven and earth? Saith the Lord. Aquila and Symmachus have translated similarly: Am I a God from near, or from close by, and not a God from afar? But the Septuagint and Theodotion have rendered it with a contrary sense, so as to say: I am a God drawing near, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off.

This is because the former assert that God knows not only things near, but also those that are far off; and that he beholds not only things present, but things to come. But these latter reckon that God is everywhere present, and that there is no place where God is not present. For to all, and especially to the saints, God draws near, as though a garment clung to the skin. But sinners, withdrawing far from him, shall perish. This same sense we read also in the psalms: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: even there also thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Amos also agrees with these words, saying: Though they go down even to hell, thence shall my hand bring them out; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they be hid in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence. And though they hide themselves from my eyes in the depth of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them; and again in the psalm above: For darkness, he says, shall not be dark to thee; and the night shall be light as the day: as its darkness, so also its light.

Now that which is often said in the Prophets, Thus saith the Lord, is always added for this reason, lest the words of the Prophets be despised, but that they may be continually admonished that the words which they speak are the words of God. (Verses 25 and following.) I have heard what the Prophets have said, prophesying lies in my name and saying: I have dreamed (or, I have seen a dream). How long shall this be in the heart of the Prophets who prophesy a lie, and who prophesy the seductions (or, the desires of their own heart)? Who wish (or, devise) to make my people forget my name: because of their dreams, which each one relates to his neighbor: just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal (or, in Baal).

Since the preceding heading is against the Prophets, or to the Prophets, whom we clearly understand to be false prophets (there are, however, many kinds of prophesying, one of which is by dreams, such as was in Daniel), for this reason the prophetic word is also directed to those who believe in dreams, and think that everything they see is a divine revelation, which is properly disclosed to the saints and servants of God. But if we read that Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, impious kings, saw dreams which were true: this was not due to the merit of those who saw them; but so that, through the occasion they provided, the holy men Joseph and Daniel might be made illustrious, and the hard and untamable hearts of the tyrants might feel, by their own conscience, the majesty of the Lord.

There are today also dreamers in the Church, and especially in our flock, who boast their errors as the prophecy of the Lord, and frequently insist, I have dreamed, I have dreamed: whom the Lord rebukes, saying: How long shall this be in the heart of those who prophesy, who divine a lie, and who prophesy the seductions of their own heart? Now they do this so that, just as the ancient people who went out of Egypt forgot the name of God, so also their posterity might forget me. Such prophesying, however, is not in the name of the Lord, but in the name of Baal, which is properly the idol of the Sidonians, or of the Babylonians, and is called by the neighboring name Bel. (Verses 28, 29.) The prophet who has a dream, let him tell the dream, and he who has my word, let him speak my word truly. What has chaff to do with wheat? Says the Lord.

Are not my words like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer (or, an axe crushing rock)? It belongs to those who deserve to have the word of God to expound a dream, and to say: Thus says the Lord; to whom the Lord has spoken, in whom is truth and not deceitful falsehood. What do the heretics' chaff mean in relation to the wheat of the Church? Concerning which John the Baptist speaks more fully, that the Lord will cleanse his threshing floor, and will leave the chaff to be scattered by the winnowing-fan in the blasts of the winds, and to be burned with fire; but will store the wheat in barns, that it may become heavenly bread: and let each of the believers say: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. And fittingly, perverse doctrine is compared to chaff, which has no substance, and cannot nourish the peoples of believers, but is ground away from empty stalks.

And since heretics are accustomed always to promise prosperity, and to open the kingdoms of heaven to sinners: so as to say, the kingdoms of heaven are prepared for you, you can imitate the majesty of God, so as to be without sin; for you have received the power of free will, and the knowledge of the law, by which you may attain what you wish: and they deceive the wretched with flatteries, especially poor little women burdened with sins, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth, and deceive all their hearers by flattery; for this reason the Lord, comparing his words to the chaff of the heretics, says: Are not my words like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer crushing rock?

For my word, he says, announces future punishments, that it may deter men from sinning; and it threatens the chaff of sinners with burning, that the hard hearts of the heretics, untamable like flint, may be crushed by the hammer of his word: taking away the heart of stone, so as to put in its place a heart of flesh, that is, soft, and capable of receiving and perceiving the precepts of God. Something of this sort the Lord also speaks through Ezekiel, that the false prophets daub the wall with untempered mortar by their flatteries, which will afterward be undermined by a violent rainstorm and the truth of judgment. And that the false prophets sew pillows under every elbow of the hand, so as to make sinners rest, and by no means soften the wrath of God with tears. For "hammer," the Septuagint translated "axe," namely that one of which John the Baptist speaks: Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. This axe cuts down fruitless trees, and this hammer crushes the hardest stones.

Whence also the Prophet Nahum speaks: His fury—no doubt God's—shall consume the principalities: and the rocks shall be broken by him (Nahum, i, 6). This is against the heretics. But of the men of the Church it is written that hammer and axe were not heard in the house of the Lord. (Verses 30 and following.) Therefore behold, I am against the Prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words each one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the Prophets, says the Lord, who take their own tongues and say, "He says" (or, who slumber a slumber). Behold, I am against the Prophets who dream a lie, says the Lord, who relate them, and lead my people astray by their lies and by their wonders (or, their stupefactions and terrors), whereas I had not sent them nor commanded them, who have profited this people nothing, says the Lord. A lie always imitates the truth; and unless it has some likeness to what is right, it cannot deceive the innocent.

Just as, then, in the former people, the Prophets used to lie and say: Thus says the Lord. And, I have seen the Lord; and, The word of the Lord which came to him or him: so also the heretics take up testimonies of the Scriptures from the Old and New Testaments, and steal the words of the Savior, each one from his neighbor—the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists: and they take their own tongues, that they may pronounce with their mouth the poisons of their heart, and they slumber a slumber, of whom it was truly said: They have slumbered their sleep, and have found nothing. Or, according to the Hebrew: And they say, "He says," so that "the Lord" is understood, or certainly, "the divine word." The Lord therefore threatens that he himself will come against such teachers, who lead his people astray by their lies and by their stupefactions and wonders. For they promise great and incredible and enormous things, in order to deceive the wretched: they who have profited the people of God nothing.

And they fulfill that apostolic saying, teaching what they ought not, for the sake of base gain: who are accustomed to announce prosperity to the wicked, and adversity to the good. (Verses 33 and following.) If therefore this people, or a prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying: What is the burden of God (or, what is the taking up of the Lord)? You shall say to them: You are the burden (or, the taking up). For I will cast you off (or, dash you down), says the Lord. And the prophet and the priest and the people who say, "the burden (or, the taking up) of the Lord," I will visit (or, avenge myself) upon that man, and upon his house. Thus shall you say each one to his friend, and to his brother: What has the Lord answered? And what has the Lord spoken? And the burden (or, the taking up) of the Lord shall be remembered no more, for the burden (or, the taking up) shall be to each one his own word.

The Hebrew word MASSA (משא), Aquila translates as ἆρμα, that is, "burden" and "weight": Symmachus, the Septuagint, and Theodotion, "taking up." Wherever, therefore, what the Lord threatens is heavy, and full of weight and toil, and unbearable, in the title too it is called ἆρμα, that is, "weight." But wherever the Lord promises prosperous things, or after a threat promises better things, there it is called "Vision," or certainly "the word of the Lord": and from the very title of the prophecy—whether of weight, or of vision, and of the Word of God—it was evident what sort of prophecy would follow.

Since, therefore, the Prophets were accustomed to announce sad things to a sinful people, and to threaten punishments, in order to draw them back to repentance: but the Lord, being merciful and full of compassion, long delayed the sentence, the people, deceived and led astray by the fraud of the false prophets, thought that what the Lord threatened would not come to pass, and turned a serious matter into sport and jest; and when the Prophets prophesied, they said as though mocking them: Here he sees again "the weight and burden of the Lord." And so it came about that no longer was it called "Vision," but through jest and mockery, "burden and weight." The Lord therefore commanded that whether the people, or a prophet, or a priest should ask Jeremiah what the weight or what the taking up of the Lord might be, he should answer them and say: You are the burden, and you are the taking up. For I will take you up and cast you off, and dash you down, and cause you to perish.

But if henceforth any of the prophets, or the priests, or the people, should dare to name "the burden and weight of the Lord": I will visit, he says, upon that man, and upon his house; and I will blot him out forever. Let each one therefore say to his neighbor and friend, not, "What is the burden of the Lord?" but, "What has the Lord answered? And what has the Lord spoken?" Forget the old expression: let "burden," and "weight," or "taking up" no longer resound in your mouth: for to each man his own word and his own work shall be reckoned as burden and weight, according to what is written: By your own mouth you shall be justified, and by your own mouth you shall be condemned. (Verses 37 and following.) And you pervert the words of the living God: of the Lord of hosts, our God. Thus shall you say (or, you shall say) to the Prophet: What has the Lord answered you, and what has the Lord spoken?

But if you have said, "the burden of the Lord," for this reason thus says the Lord: Because you have said this word, "the burden (or, the taking up) of the Lord," and I sent to you, saying: Do not say, "the burden (or, the taking up) of the Lord": therefore behold, I will take you up (or, take you) carrying you, and I will cast you off, and the city which I have given to you and to your fathers, from before my face, and I will give you up to everlasting reproach, and eternal ignominy, which shall never be blotted out by oblivion.

The Lord commanded that no longer should the word of burden and weight and taking up be spoken among the people; but that of answer and the word of God: which, since the people had scorned to fulfill, he interprets the very word upon them, and says: Since you have said what I did not wish, and this though I often sent the Prophets, and commanded that you should not say it: therefore I will fulfill in deed upon you the word of your own taking up, burden, and weight. For I will take you up, and lift you, and carry you, and I will dash you down, and make you fall from the heights to the earth. And not only you, but also your city, which I gave to your fathers. And I will give you, he says, up to reproach, and everlasting ignominy, which shall never be blotted out by oblivion.

Now we know that this was fulfilled at the time of the Babylonian captivity; but it is more fully and perfectly accomplished after the passion and resurrection of the Savior, when the Lord said: Your house shall be left to you desolate: and its sentence shall remain until its end. Let us also speak otherwise, according to the Septuagint: λῆμμα signifies not only "taking up," but also "gift" and "present." Since therefore the people always promised themselves prosperous things, he says that they ought no longer to say this. For they are unworthy of the gifts and presents of God, but rather to be cast off and utterly abandoned by the help of God.

Now from the words and interpretation of names things are often shown, as the changed names of Abraham, of Sarah, of Peter, and of the sons of Zebedee signify a change of things: and in this same prophet (above, xx), Phasur is said to mean "fear," or "translation," and "settler," or "sojourner." It should be noted that the words, "of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God," the Latin and Greek codices do not have; and the Hebrews in their own volumes read them against themselves, which properly signifies the mystery of the Trinity.

The fifth book of the Commentaries on Jeremiah, brother Eusebius, will take its beginning from two baskets, one of which will show the sweetness of right faith, the other the bitterness of the perfidy of heretics. Although Ananias son of Azur resists Jeremiah, and Shemaiah the Nehelamite desires that the Prophet be sent to prison, and Zephaniah the priest conspires in the words of the false prophets: yet truth can be shut up and bound, but cannot be conquered, which is content even with the fewness of its own, and is not terrified by the multitude of its enemies. Raise up, therefore, with Moses your hands to heaven, and hang up the ancient serpent in the wilderness, and immediately Amalek too will be destroyed, and the venomous bites will not prevail, and the secure people of the Lord will cross with Jesus the streams of the Jordan, and after the vast wilderness, will eat the bread which was born in our little village of Bethlehem.

(Verses 1 and following.) The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets (or, panniers) full of figs, placed before the Temple of the Lord: after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jechoniah son of Joakim king of Judah, and his princes, and the craftsman, and the smith, from Jerusalem, and had brought them into Babylon. One basket had very good figs, such as are the figs of the first season: and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, because they were bad.

And the Lord said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said: good figs, very good; and bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten, because they are bad. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: As these good figs, so will I regard the captivity of Judah, whom I have sent out from this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. And I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back into this land, and I will build them up, and not destroy them; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

And as the very bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are bad: thus says the Lord, so will I give up Zedekiah king of Judah, and his princes, and the rest of Jerusalem who have remained in this city, and who dwell in the land of Egypt. And I will give them up to vexation and affliction in all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach, and a parable, and a proverb, and a curse, in all the places to which I have driven them. And I will send upon them the sword, and famine, and pestilence, until they be consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers. Some interpret the two baskets, or panniers, of good and bad figs, as referring to the Law and the Gospel; the Synagogue and the Church; the people of the Jews and of the Christians; Gehenna and the kingdom of heaven, one of which pertains to the punishment of sinners, the other to the dwelling-place of the Saints.

But we, knowing according to the Apostle Paul that the law is good and holy, and the commandment good and holy, and that there is one God of both Testaments, should rather refer this to those who believed and did not believe at the coming of the Lord the Savior: so that those who, stirred up by the Scribes and priests, cried out, saying, Crucify, crucify such a one, may be the basket of bad figs; while those of the people who believed after his ascension may be referred to the good figs, and to the best basket and pannier. Let us, however, follow the simple and true history, that he called Jeconiah the basket of good figs, who had surrendered himself, by Jeremiah’s counsel and God’s command, to the king of Babylon: to whom the Lord also promises prosperity. And the basket of bad figs he called Zedekiah, who, opposing the sentence of God, was captured, and, his eyes blinded, was led into Babylon, and died there.

To such a degree did God set his eyes for good upon those who acquiesced in his command, that he brought them back into their own land, and built them up and did not destroy them, and planted them and did not pluck them up, and gave them a heart to know him, that he was the Lord, and that they should become his people, and he would be their God: so that even in captivity he set his eyes upon them, and permitted them to till the land, build houses, and plant orchards in the region of Babylon: Daniel, by the miracles of signs, was suddenly made a prince from a captive, and the three youths were gloriously delivered from the fiery furnace, and when seventy years were completed, under Zerubbabel and Jesus the high priest and Ezra and Nehemiah, the greater part returned to Jerusalem: whose number is contained in the volume of the same Ezra.

It should also be noted that this vision was made to the Prophet in the times of Zedekiah, after Jeconiah had been led away into exile: for he did not say “captivity,” because he had surrendered himself of his own accord. By “smiths” and “those who make enclosures,” we should understand either the interpreters and teachers of the law, or artisans and setters of gold and gems, an art most highly prized among barbarous nations. For “those who make enclosures” the Seventy translated “bound men,” so as to signify the evil of captivity; and they added of their own, “the rich,” which is not found in the Hebrew. He compares the basket which had good and very good figs to the figs of the first season, which in Greek are called πρόϊμα (early figs)—namely, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Aaron, and Job, and the other holy men, of whom one of the twelve Prophets speaks: As grapes in the wilderness I found Israel, and as figs on a fig tree I found their fathers.

Whence we too are called children of Abraham. And conversely it is said to the Jews: If Abraham were your father, you would do his works. But these baskets, which had good and bad figs, were not outside and beyond the Church, but before the temple of the Lord, because all things lie open to his knowledge: nor do those figs which are outside have as much bitterness as those which, after a confession of faith, were changed by transgression. Nor do the good figs, which are not in the sight of the temple of God, have as much sweetness—such as were the philosophers of the world, who by natural goodness and understanding of the Creator, seem not so much to have followed as to have praised the virtues—as have the figs which are in the temple of God, among whom were the Prophets and Apostles, of whom one fig spoke: I gave you milk, not solid food. And: My little children, of whom I am again in labor until Christ be formed in you.

Whence it is said that in the sight of the temple of God, the good figs were very good, and the bad figs were very bad. And lest we should be thought to impose our own meaning, Scripture itself opens the matter. As, he says, these good figs: so will I regard the captivity of Judah, whom I have sent out from this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good: signifying Jeconiah and the princes who were taken captive with him.

And conversely, concerning the basket which had bad figs; and as the figs, he says, are very bad, which cannot be eaten because they are bad: so will I give up Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes, and those who fled into Egypt, and those who remained in this city, to vexation and affliction in all the kingdoms of the earth—when they were captured also in Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar set up his throne in Tahpanhes, and the Lord sent upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they were consumed from the land which he gave to their fathers. And what he said concerning the good figs: I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, is similar to the Apostle’s saying: It is God who works in you both to will and to do: that not only our works but also our will depends on the help of God.

The allegorical interpreter always raves in this passage, and wishing to do violence to the historical truth, refers to captives from the heavenly Jerusalem, transported into the land of the Chaldeans, and destined to return again to their former place, like Jeremiah and the other holy prophets; while others, who were sinners, are said to be destined to die in this land and in the valley of tears. I have set down the whole περικοπή (section) of this vision together, lest I should divide the sense in the exposition.

(Verse 1.) The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah (or, upon all the people of Judah) in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah. These events are earlier than the preceding vision: for that took place under Zedekiah, after Jeconiah had been carried away to Babylon; but this took place under Jehoiakim son of Josiah, and father of Jeconiah.

For it was not the concern (as I have already said before) of the Prophets to preserve the chronological order which the laws of history require; but they knew it was useful to write in whatever way for those who would hear and read. Whence also in the Psalter some wrongly seek the order of the psalms according to the sequence of history, which is not observed in lyric song.

Verse 2. This is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon (which is not found in the LXX. And it follows): Which Jeremiah the Prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying. In the fourth year of king Jehoiakim, son of Josiah the father of Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar assumed the rule in Babylon, and it came about that the year which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon was the fourth of the reign of king Jehoiakim in Jerusalem. Finally, in the eighth year of his reign, he led Jeconiah away into captivity along with his mother and princes, who reigned only three months after the killing of his father Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was killed in the eleventh year of his reign in Jerusalem.

Verse 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this day, that is, the twenty-third year, the word of the Lord came to me, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, and you did not listen. In the thirteenth year of king Josiah, who reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years, Jeremiah began to prophesy, and he prophesied under him for nineteen years; whom his son Jehoahaz succeeded in the kingdom: who was immediately led away into captivity by Necho king of the Egyptians, and Jehoiakim his brother obtained the kingdom. In the fourth year of whose reign this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and thus it was the twenty-third year of Jeremiah the prophet, from the time he began to speak to the people; and he never ceased preaching, but each day, rising at dawn and by night, he spoke to the people. And you did not, he says, listen.

But if, as certain old heretics wish, the law was given once for help, and precepts were established which we, by the will of our own choice, either do or do not do; how is it that the Prophet always presses himself forward, and daily repeats the commandments of God, which surely, once received, would have sufficed for those to whom they were given—unless it be to show that we always need the help of God, and that what was given once can never suffice, unless it is renewed daily by the admonition of the Lord?

And the Lord sent to you all his servants the Prophets, rising up early and sending: and you did not listen. Not through one Prophet, but through all of them, God always admonished his people, and as though he himself, set in watches and vigils, rose at dawn to admonish his people. And you did not, he says, listen; so that the more frequent the admonition, the greater were the sins of those who despised it?

Verse 4. Neither have you inclined your ears to hear, when I said: Return to me, each one from his evil way, and from your most wicked thoughts: and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord gave to you and to your fathers from age to age. Such was the hardness of the people, that they did not even assume the posture of one listening, and incline their ear, especially when the Lord admonished that each one should turn back from his evil way and from his most wicked thoughts. And, O boundless clemency, not to inflict punishment for the crime, but to call to repentance, both from evil deeds, which the “evil way” signifies, and from the most wicked thoughts, which even without deed are reckoned as sin. And he promises a reward, if they do what is commanded, that they may dwell in the land which was given to the fathers, and taken away because of the sins of the children.

And what he says, “from age to age,” or, “from eternity even to eternity,” shows the perpetuity of God’s gifts, if those to whom they are given prove worthy.

Verse 6. And do not go after strange gods, to serve them and worship them; neither provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you. And you have not listened to me, says the Lord, so that you provoked me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own harm. And these things, he says, I warned along with the foregoing, that you should not serve strange gods and worship them, and that by doing so you should not provoke me to anger because of the works of your hands, so that I would do what I did not wish, and afflict you, and you did not listen to me. And what follows, “says the Lord, so that you provoked me to anger by the works of your hands, to your own harm,” is not found in the Septuagint.

Verse 8. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard my words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord; and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant. Because you have provoked me to anger, and have done evil to your own destruction, and though I called you to repentance, you have trampled it underfoot in pride, I will send, he says, to all the families, or nations, of the north, and I will bring their chief, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant. Now the Lord sends either his Angels, to stir up the nations, or he moves such families in this way, so that they do the will of the Lord.

And in calling Nebuchadnezzar his servant, he is not called “servant” in the way that the Prophets and all the saints, who truly serve the Lord, are so called; but insofar as, in the overthrow of Jerusalem, he serves the will of the Lord: according to what the Apostle also says: Whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. That the Chaldeans are in the region of the north, in relation to the position of Jerusalem, no one doubts.

Verse 9. And I will bring them upon this land, and upon its inhabitants, and upon all the nations that are round about it; and I will slay them, and I will make them a stupor, and a hissing, and everlasting solitudes. These are the rewards of those who despise and refuse to hear the words of God. Whatever evil, therefore, is brought upon us, our sins have made it. And as all nations were then brought against Jerusalem, so today let them be brought against a negligent Church, that it may slay them and make them a stupor, and a hissing, and everlasting solitudes, that they may be an example and a marvel to all. Now hissing is a sign of a marvel and of stupor; and everlasting solitude is found in those who do not have God as their guardian.

Verse 10. And I will destroy from among them the voice of gladness and the voice of joy; the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; the voice of the millstone, and the light of the lamp. And all his land shall become a solitude and a stupor. This is proved even today in the assembly of the wicked; for their teachers do not teach the word of God, but hiss like a serpent. And there perishes among them the voice of gladness and the voice of joy, so that they never hear that word of the Apostle: Rejoice, again I say, rejoice. There is also the voice of the bride, the faith of the Church; and the voice of the bridegroom, the Lord the Savior: For he who has the bride is the bridegroom. The voice of the millstone, that the grain may not be ground therein and distributed for the peoples to eat: and the light of the lamp, namely the teaching and knowledge of the Prophets.

Finally, of John the Baptist too it is said: He was a burning lamp. And another Prophet says: Thy word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths. All the land, he says, of the heretics shall become a solitude and a stupor, when its final end shall have been shown to be foolish. (Ver. 11 and following.) And all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And when the seventy years are completed, I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, says the Lord, their iniquities, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it everlasting solitudes. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken against it: everything that is written in this book, whatever Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

Just as Jerusalem, after seventy years, receives back its former inhabitants, and, the punishments having been completed, because it obeyed the sentence of God, enjoys again its former felicity; so the king of Babylon, who was lifted up into pride and considered that he reigned over the nations by his own strength and not by the will of the Lord, will be destroyed when the Medes and Persians come. Indeed, even to this day only the remains of the city of Babylon endure. And the Lord has made it an everlasting solitude, and has fulfilled all the words which are contained in the volume of this same Prophet. For in what follows, the discourse of Jeremiah describes what evils Babylon is to suffer.

Verse 14. Because they served them, though they were many nations and great kings; and I will repay them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their hands. This is not found in the Septuagint. It signifies, however, that Jeremiah prophesied not only against Babylon, but against the other nations that had been in the Babylonian army and fought against the people of the Lord. Accordingly, in what follows he speaks against Egypt, and the Philistines, and Moab, and Ammon, and Idumea, and Damascus, and Cedar, and the kingdoms of Hazor, and Elam, and finally against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans. (Ver. 15 and following.) For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: Take the cup of the wine of this fury (or unmixed wine) from my hand, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to whom I shall send you, and they shall drink, and be made drunk (or vomit); and they shall rave because of the sword which I will send among them.

And I took the cup from the hand of the Lord, and gave it to drink to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me. The giving of the cup, and of the cup of unmixed wine, which in Greek is called ἀκράτου, is a sign of the fury of the Lord, that all the nations that fought against the people of God may drink of the cup of the Lord's fury, of which Isaiah writes against Jerusalem: The cup of fury, the cup of ruin, you have drunk and drained; therefore arise. Now this cup is drunk by all the nations, that they may vomit and rave. This a certain wicked interpreter takes in a good sense: as if, like a cathartic potion, it drives out whatever bile and phlegm and noxious humor is in the breast, and restores former health.

He also takes it as referring to Jeremiah as a figure of the Savior, that he himself gave drink to all the nations to whom he was sent, that, idolatry cast aside, they might dedicate themselves to the worship of God. That this is contrary to holy Scripture the following words demonstrate. For it is not given for a remedy, as he would have it, but the cup of unmixed wine is given as punishment.

Verse 18. To Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its princes, that I might make them a solitude, and a stupor, and a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day. I thought, he says, that I would give drink only to the nations, and therefore I offered myself gladly for this ministry; but among the other nations, nay before the other nations, I gave drink to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and princes, that I might make them a stupor, and a solitude, and a hissing, and a curse, as is even now proved by the present example. Whence he also says above: You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived; you have prevailed and were able (Above xx, 7).

Verse 19. To Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his servants, and his princes, and all his people, and to all in general. After Jerusalem, Pharaoh king of Egypt and his allies drink; the princes and all the people drink, and everyone, indeed, who is not an Egyptian but dwells within its regions: whom the Seventy translate συμμίκτους, that is, mixed people, a populace not of the Egyptian region, but foreign and immigrant.

And to all the kings of the land of Uz. Which in Hebrew is called UZ (עוץ), of which region history relates that Job also was: There was a certain man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And yet it must be known that this verse is not found in the LXX, and that Theodotion translated Uz as “island.” Verse 20. And to all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ascalon, Gaza, Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus. He set down “Philistines” generally, that is, the land of the Palestinians, and specifically their cities Ascalon, Gaza, Accaron, Azotus; he passed over Gath alone, which is included in “the remnant.” For this is what is written: “and the remnant of Azotus”: for the region of the city of Gath is near and bordering upon Azotus, which in Hebrew is called ESDOD (אשדוד). Isaiah writes that the Palestinians were captured and laid waste by the Babylonians.

Verse 21. To Idumea, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon, and to all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon. Idumea, in which are the mountains of Seir, and which in Hebrew is called EDOM (אדום): Moab and Ammon, they themselves are the sons of Lot, near the Dead Sea. Tyre and Sidon, the chief cities on the Phoenician coast, which were themselves also overcome when the Babylonian came, of which Carthage is a colony. Whence too the Poeni, by a corruption of speech, are called as it were Phoeni: whose language is in large part akin to the Hebrew language.

Verse 22. And to the kings of the islands that are beyond the sea. Beyond Cyprus, and Rhodes, and the islands that are called κυκλάδες. For these too were occupied by the Babylonians.

Verse 23. And to Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and to all who have the corners of their hair polled. These nations are in the wilderness, neighboring and mixed with the regions of the Ishmaelites, whom they now call Saracens, and of whom it is said: who have the corners of their hair polled.

Verse 24. And to all the kings of Arabia, and to all the kings of the West, who dwell in the desert. This is not found in the LXX. After Dedan, then, and Tema, and Buz, and the Ishmaelites, the order of the regions follows.

And to all the kings of Zimri. This too is not found in the LXX.

Verse 25. And to all the kings of Elam, and to all the kings of the Medes. From the fact that Zimri is followed by Elam and the kings of the Medes, we judge that Zimri too is a region of Persia, unless perhaps, because Arabia preceded, these kings are to be understood as of the wilderness. Now Elam is a region of Persia beyond Babylon, whence also the Elamites. The Medes too, and the Persians, by whom Babylon was captured and destroyed. For they too drank the cup of unmixed wine, when Alexander king of the Macedonians gave it to them to drink.

And to all the kings of the North, near and far. Because he had enumerated the regions of Persia and Babylon, Elam and the Medes, now he sets down generally all the kings of the North, both those near and those far. For “North,” which in Hebrew is called SAPHON (צפון), the LXX translated ἀπηλιώτην, which we may call “Subsolanus” (the east wind).

Verse 26. Each one against his brother, and to all the kingdoms of the earth that are upon the face thereof. Lest it be tedious to enumerate all the regions of the Eastern province part by part, he set down generally all the kingdoms of the earth that are mentioned in the land. But when he said “against his brother,” it is understood: I have given the unmixed drink, that all might rage, vomit, become insane, and contend with one another in mutual battles. And what he adds: “And the king of Sesach shall drink after them”—which is also not found in the LXX—has this meaning: All, he says, the nations round about shall be subject to the empire of Babylon, and it shall subject everything to its own power, so that all the nations of whom the preceding discourse has told shall serve it and drink of its cup. Whence also in the vision against Babylon it is written: Babylon a golden cup, making all the earth drunk (Below li, 7).

But the last king of Babylon shall drink this drink, when it is given to him by the rider of the chariot, of the camel, and of the ass, Cyrus king of the Medes and Persians. Now how Babylon, which in Hebrew is called BABEL (בבל), is to be understood as SESACH (ששך), will not be a great labor for one who has even a small knowledge of the Hebrew language. Just as among us the Greek alphabet is read in order up to the last letter, that is, Alpha, Beta, and so on down to omega: and again, for the sake of children's memory, we are accustomed to invert the order of reading, and mix the first with the last, so that we say Alpha, omega, Beta, Psi: so too among the Hebrews the first is ALEPH, the second BETH, the third GIMEL, up to the twenty-second and last letter TAU ת, whose penultimate is SIN ש. We read, then, ALEPH, TAU, BETH, SIN את בש.

And when we come to the middle, the letter LAMED ל is met by the letter CAPH כ: and just as, if we read correctly, we read BABEL (בבל): so, with the order changed, we read SESACH (ששך). Now the vowel letters between BETH and BETH, and LAMED, according to the idiom of the Hebrew language, are not placed in this name. And I judge that this was prudently concealed by the holy Prophet, lest he openly stir up against himself the madness of those who were besieging Jerusalem and were on the very verge of taking possession of it. This is also what we read the Apostle to have done concerning the Roman empire, writing of Antichrist: Do you not remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what restrains, that he may be revealed in his own time—Antichrist being understood.

For the mystery of iniquity is already at work: only he who now restrains, let him restrain until he be taken out of the way, and then that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. He who restrains signifies the Roman empire: for unless it be destroyed and taken out of the way, according to the prophecy of Daniel, Antichrist will not come before that. But if he had wished to say this openly, he would foolishly have stirred up the rage of persecution against Christians and against the Church then newborn. We have spoken longer on this chapter than the brevity of a Commentary allows, a thing which perhaps the Greeks and Latins will find tedious, since it is not found in their codices. But what would it profit, when in what follows this same Prophet himself says: How is Sesach taken, and the renowned one of all the earth seized? How has Babylon become a stupor among the nations?

Allegorical interpreters refer this whole passage to all the nations, whom the devil has made drunk with the most unmixed cup of sins. And they say that even he himself, the last one, shall drink punishments and torments, of whom the Apostle writes: Whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth. And in another place he says: But the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. It is a matter of great power to be able to transfer the names of the various nations under their etymologies, and to fit each vice to each name.

Verse 27. And thou shalt say to them: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit, and fall, and rise not up because of the sword which I will send among you. After, he says, you have given all nations to drink, and fulfilled the command of the Lord, again you shall command in the words of the Lord, and say: Drink and be drunken, and vomit, and fall, and rise not up. If to drink and be drunken, to vomit and fall is a sign of health, so that, like a purgative drink, all noxious things may be expelled, how does it follow, "and rise not up"? But what drink it is that makes them fall forever, he sets forth more plainly, namely, "because of the sword which I will send among you."

Verse 28. And when they shall refuse to take the cup from thy hand to drink, thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall drink; for behold in the city in which my name is invoked I begin to bring affliction, and shall you as innocent be exempt (or: shall you be with the cleanness of the world)? You shall not be exempt (or: you shall not be clean). He shows covertly that those who are unwilling to fulfill the precept of God by will shall receive it by necessity, and shall hear: Drinking, you shall drink. Whether you will or not, he says, the sentence of God must be fulfilled. For if the city of Jerusalem, in which the name of God was known, the Prophet saying: "God is known in Judea, his name is great in Israel", drank the undiluted cup of fury, how much more shall you not be clean, who worship idols in place of the name of God!

Verse 29. For I call the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts. This is the most undiluted drink, this the cup of the Lord's fury, which is called not upon Jerusalem alone, but upon the whole earth, and upon all the nations round about. Concerning which he had said above: And I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring him upon this land, and upon its inhabitants, and upon all the nations that are round about it.

Verse 30. And thou shalt prophesy to them all these words, and shalt say to them: The Lord shall roar from on high (or: shall give an answer), and from his holy dwelling place shall give his voice. Roaring he shall roar over his beauty (or: he shall answer over his place); a shout, as of them that tread the grapes, shall be sung against all the inhabitants of the earth. The sound (or: the destruction) shall reach even to the ends (or: over a part) of the earth: for the Lord hath a judgment with the nations: he is judged with all flesh; the wicked I have delivered to the sword, saith the Lord. Let us first say what the truth of interpretation holds. Thou shalt prophesy, he says, to all the nations, and say that the Lord roars from on high, that is, gives a sign of his fury; according to that which is written: The lion shall roar, and who shall not fear? The Lord hath spoken, and who shall not prophesy?

And from his holy dwelling place he will give his voice, that he may terrify all who hear. But he shall roar over his beauty, that is, over the Temple. And when he shall have roared, like those who tread grapes in the winepress, a shout shall be sung, and at the shedding of mutual blood a mournful song shall be chanted: which Symmachus calls κατάλημα, Aquila ἰασμὸν. The sound of this shout and song shall reach even to the ends of the earth, because the Lord hath a judgment with the nations. But if the Lord's judgment is with the nations, then the merits of the nations are diverse also. To explain that passage, as some would have it: "He that believeth not is already judged". He is indeed judged in that he did not believe; but those very ones who do not believe shall be visited among themselves with diverse punishments. He is judged with all flesh, so that none may go away unjudged.

But the wicked, that is, those who do not believe the Lord, he delivers to the everlasting sword. The allegorical interpreters, following the Septuagint, expound this passage so as to refer the open threat of the Lord to a good sense. The Lord, they say, will give an answer from on high, namely to those whom he is about to save. And from his holy place he will give his voice, and will answer in speech in his own place. But they, like vintagers full of fruits, will answer to that sentence: Destruction shall come upon all the inhabitants of the earth—not upon the whole earth, but upon a part of the earth, namely upon those who do not believe. There shall be judgment among the nations, and he himself shall be judged with all flesh. But the wicked shall be delivered to the sword.

Verse 32. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold affliction (or: evil) shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind (or: tempest) shall go forth from the ends (or: extremities) of the earth. And the slain of the Lord (or: wounded by the Lord) shall be in that day from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, and shall not be gathered, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon the face of the earth. Let those blush who attempt to do violence to holy Scripture, expounding in a good sense things full of threat. Concerning this passage I think the Lord also said: Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and the rest that is contained in the sense of that same Gospel passage. Let us understand this, however, as having come to pass historically, when all the nations round about were subjugated by the king of Babylon, and felt his cruel dominion.

Or, according to prophecy, as to be fulfilled long afterward at the consummation of the world.

And they are said to be slain by the Lord, not because the Lord himself strikes, but because in the destruction of the wicked the will and command of the Lord is fulfilled.

Verse 34. Howl (or: shout for joy), ye shepherds, and cry out, and sprinkle yourselves with ashes, ye leaders of the flock (or: mourn, ye rams of the sheep): for your days are fulfilled that you should be slain, and your dispersions, and you shall fall like precious vessels (or: like chosen rams). And flight shall perish from the shepherds, and safety from the leaders (or: rams) of the flock. It is to be noted that in this passage alone the Septuagint have put "shout of joy" in a bad sense, for which other interpreters have translated "howling" (as it is written in the Hebrew). Between shepherds and rams, or leaders of the flock, there is this distinction: shepherds belong to those endowed with reason, but rams and leaders refer to the rich, who themselves also are called a part of the flock.

And when it adds: Your days are fulfilled, that you should be slain—their days shall then be fulfilled when their sins are fulfilled; and they shall be scattered and shall fall like precious vessels, so that once broken they cannot be restored; and the more precious they were before, the greater their loss in being broken; or like chosen rams, that they may be a fat victim for those desiring to devour. Flight, he says, shall perish from the shepherds, when they have not done penance. Accordingly it is said to the Pharisees: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come? And in the psalms we read: Flight hath perished from me. And safety, he says, from the leaders of the flock, or the rams: ἀπὸ κοινοῦ, "shall perish" being understood.

Verse 36. The voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the howling of the leaders of the flock (or: the shout of joy of the rams): for the Lord hath laid waste their pastures. And the fields (or: the beautiful things) of peace have become silent before the face of the fierceness of the Lord's anger. Here too it is to be noted that in the Septuagint "shout of joy" is put for "howling." But between shepherds and rams there is this difference: the shepherds are thought to be, in the Church, those who preside over the flock with wisdom and learning and doctrine. The rams, however, are those who indeed appear as leaders among the people, but have in themselves nothing of doctrine and wisdom, and through excessive simplicity are nearly neighbors to foolishness.

But when we have peace, and do not understand either the good things or the beautiful things of peace, but give ourselves to luxury and idleness and pleasures, then the good things of peace shall rest, or fall silent, and shall be taken from us because of the fierceness of the Lord's anger, and that which is written shall be fulfilled: When they shall say, peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, at whose coming all things shall fall silent.

Verse 37. He hath forsaken his covert (or: lair) like a lion. (And, as is more truly rendered, his tabernacle, for this is what the Hebrew word SUCCHO (סכו) means.) Because their land is become a desolation (or: impassable) before the face of the anger of the dove (or: before the face of the great sword) and before the face of the fierceness of the Lord's anger. The Lord, of whom he had said above: he shall roar from on high, and from his holy dwelling place shall give his voice; roaring he shall roar over his beauty—he himself shall forsake his tabernacle, of which it is written: His place is made in peace, or in Salem, and his dwelling in Sion. He himself shall forsake his seat, and shall fulfill what he spoke through this same Jeremiah: I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance.

But like a lion he forsakes his lair, that all the beasts may have power to lay waste his land; for while the lion is guardian and president, none dares approach it. Their land, he says, is become—doubtless either of the people of the Jews, or certainly of all the nations—a desolation, and impassable before the face of the anger of the dove. Let no one wonder that the dove of the Lord is understood to be Nebuchadnezzar, whom he read above being called the servant of the Lord. For which the Septuagint translated "great sword." Though we may also take "dove" in the person of Jerusalem, as being angry and sad that she has lost the guardianship of her lion, and that her land has come into desolation.

(Verse 1 ff.) In the beginning of the reign of Joakim, son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord, and thou shalt speak to all the cities of Judah, from which they come to worship in the house of the Lord, all the words which I have commanded thee to speak to them: withhold not a word, if perhaps they will hear, and every man turn from his evil way, and I may repent of the evil (or: rest from the evil) which I purpose to do to them because of the wickedness of their doings. This prophecy is later than the former, though made under the same king. For that was made in the fourth year of Joakim son of Josiah king of Judah; but this at the beginning of the same king's reign, Scripture saying: In the beginning of the reign of Joakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord.

Therefore (as we have often already said) in the Prophets the order of history is not to be woven together, since in the present instance, under the same king, earlier things are told later, and later things earlier. But he who is to speak the word of the Lord must stand with Moses, and hear with the Psalmist: You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. And he is commanded to speak to all the cities of Judah, though the Septuagint have not rendered "cities," lest it might perhaps seem improper to speak in the court of the house of the Lord to cities that were not present; but when he speaks to the people and to the citizens, he speaks to the cities themselves. And fittingly he stands in the court and vestibule of the Temple of the Lord, so that, on the occasion of prayer to the Lord and of worshiping him, they might be compelled to hear the words of the Prophet.

Withhold not, he says, the word: though it be sad, though the fury of those who hear be roused against thee, yet say what has been commanded thee, not fearing the persecutions of those who are to be roused against thee, but the command of the Lord who bids it. If perhaps, he says, they will hear, and be converted. The ambiguous word "perhaps" cannot befit the majesty of the Lord, but speaks according to our own manner of feeling, so that free will may be preserved to man, lest, from his foreknowledge, he be compelled as if by necessity either to do or not to do something. For it is not because God knows something will happen that therefore it will happen; but because it will happen, God knows it, as one foreknowing future things. And yet it must be known, according to this same Jeremiah, that even if the Lord has foretold evils, and the people do penance, he himself will do penance concerning the things he threatened to do.

And if he has promised prosperous things, and the people act negligently, God may change his sentence, and bring evils instead of good things. Something like this is also in the Gospel: I will send my son, perhaps they will reverence him. Which assuredly is said from the person of God omnipotent. Accordingly also in the present passage he says: If perhaps they will hear, and be converted every man from his evil way, so that when they are converted, I too may repent of my sentence, and not do what I purpose to do to them. But I purpose to do it because of the wickedness of their doings, which, if they be changed, my sentence also shall be changed. Let us read the history of Jonah and Nineveh.

(Verse 4. Seqq.) And you shall say to them: Thus saith the Lord: If you will not hear me, and walk in my law, which I gave you, that you may hearken to the words of my servants the Prophets, whom I have sent to you, rising up before day, and sending, and you have not hearkened: I will make this house like Silo, and this city I will give up as a curse to all the nations of the earth. It is therefore placed in our power either to do something, or not to do it: yet in such wise that whatever good work we will, desire, and accomplish, we refer it to the grace of God, who, according to the Apostle, has given us both to will and to accomplish. But if it suffices to have walked once in the law which was given to us through Moses, as foolish heresy supposes, how did he add: That you may hearken to the words of my servants the Prophets?

Who indeed were sent after the law, and not once, but frequently: not idly and from a position of security, but always and out of solicitude. I have sent, he says, to you my servants the Prophets daily, and rising up before day: whom if you will not hear, I will make this house—that is, the temple of God—like Silo, where the tabernacle was. And when the temple shall have been destroyed, the city too will consequently be given up as a curse to all the nations of the earth.

But just as, when the temple was built on the threshing floor of Ornan, and on Mount Moriah, that is, of vision, on which Abraham is related to have offered his son Isaac, the religion of Silo ceased, nor were sacrifices afterward celebrated there: so, when the Church was built, and spiritual victims were offered in it, the ceremonies of the Law came to an end; and the city of the Jews was given up as a curse to all the nations of the earth: from which the Lord has freed us, the Apostle saying: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us.

Verse 7-9. And the priests, and the prophets (or the false prophets), and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets (or the false prophets), and all the people took hold of him, saying: He shall surely die: because he hath prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: This house shall be like Silo, and this city shall be desolate, so that there shall be no inhabitant.

The priests and the prophets, whom the Septuagint more plainly rendered as false prophets, grow angry at Jeremiah, because he foretells true things, and because, when the Temple was overthrown and the city deserted, religion and the profits arising from religion would perish; therefore they seize him, and with the people’s consent, they consign him to death, because he had said in the name of the Lord that this house should be like Silo, and the city should be desolate, so that there should be no inhabitant. If, then, at any time, because of the commands of the Lord and the truth of the faith, either the priests, or the false prophets, or the deceived people should be angry with us, let us not be greatly troubled; but let us carry out the sentence of God, thinking not of present evils, but reflecting in our mind on future goods.

Verse 10. And all the people gathered together against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, and the princes of Judah heard these words, and they went up from the king’s house into the house of the Lord, and they sat in the entry of the new gate of the Lord. Jeremiah was prophesying words in the temple of the Lord, and had said: I will make this house like Silo, and this city I will give up as a curse to all the nations of the earth; and straightway, a sedition having been stirred up by the priests and prophets and the people, the whole crowd gathers together against the Prophet into the Temple, where the Prophet was, and was being held by the hands of the priests, and of the prophets, and of the crowd. When the princes of the city, who dwelt in the royal house, had heard this, they passed, or went up, from the king’s house to the house of the Lord.

And it should be noted that to go to the house of the Lord is always an ascent. And they sat in the entry of the new gate of the Lord. For it was the office of the princes to sit in the gate of the house of the Lord, and there to ascertain the truth of a matter and of a sedition. Moreover it is called the new gate, because those who sat in it and presided over judgment withstood the calumnies of the priests and false prophets.

Verse 11. And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes, and to all the people, saying: This man is worthy of death: for he hath prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears. While the princes of the city were sitting in the gate of the temple and in the new gate, who had run from the king’s palace to the temple, that the sedition of the people might be quieted, and an assembly of the people having been gathered, the priests and false prophets accuse Jeremiah: and the Prophet would have perished, as far as it depended on the priests and the prophets, if the accusers themselves had had the power of judgment. From which we understand that those who seemed devoted to religion were more cruel toward the Prophet, through envy of his holiness, than those who were set over the public affairs.

(Verse 12. Seqq.) And Jeremiah said to all the princes, and to all the people, saying: The Lord sent me to prophesy to (or against) this house, and to (or against) this city, all the words which you have heard. Now therefore make your ways and your endeavors good, and hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent of the evil that he hath spoken against you (or the Lord will cease from the evils which he hath spoken against you). But as for me, behold, I am in your hands: do with me as is good and right in your eyes (or as is expedient for you). But know ye, and understand, that if you kill me, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon its inhabitants. For in truth the Lord sent me to you, to speak in your ears all these words.

While the princes were sitting in the gate of the city, with the people present, and the priests and the prophets were accusing Jeremiah the prophet, and were charging him with a capital crime, Jeremiah speaks to the princes, and to all the people, whom the faction of the priests and false prophets had stirred up, prudently and humbly alike and steadfastly. Prudently, in that he says he was sent by the Lord to speak against the temple and city, and gives counsel that, if they would hear his counsel and do penance, the Lord too would change his sentence. Humbly, in that he says: Behold, I am in your hands: do with me as is good and right in your eyes. Steadfastly, moreover: In truth the Lord hath sent me to you, to speak in your ears all these words.

He speaks also in other words: If you are angry that I have spoken against the temple and city of the Lord, and if the safety of the city and the temple is a care to you: why do you add sins to sins, and make both the city and its inhabitants guilty of my blood? If, then, at any time we too, for the straits of necessity, have need of humility: let us assume it in such a way that we do not abandon truth and steadfastness. For it is one thing proudly to offer insult to one who judges, which is a sign of folly; another to avoid danger by so yielding that you withhold nothing of the truth. Verse 16. And the princes, and all the people, said to the priests and the prophets: This man is not worthy of the judgment of death, for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.

The people, who had before been undermined by the priests and false prophets, are joined with the princes of the city; and they speak on behalf of Jeremiah, that he is by no means guilty of death, but has prophesied in the name of the Lord and from his mouth. For the untaught crowd quickly changes its opinion once a reason has been given. But the grief of the accusers, especially of the priests and false prophets, cannot be changed. And therefore, while they accuse and persist in accusation, the people threaten them: because the Lord had given them hope of indulgence, if they made their ways good, and hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, so that the Lord too might turn his sentence.

(Verse 17. Seqq.) Then some of the ancients of the land rose up, and said to all the assembly of the people, speaking: Micheas of Morasthi was a Prophet in the days of Ezechias king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Sion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the mountain of the house shall be like the high places of the forests. Did Ezechias king of Judah, and all Judah, condemn him to death? Did they not fear the Lord, and entreat the face of the Lord? And the Lord repented of the evil that he had spoken against them. So we are doing a great evil against our own souls. The princes of the city and the people understand the truth of the judgment.

But the elders, whose particular task it was to know old things, rehearse the history and prophecy of Micheas of Morasthi, who prophesied under king Ezechias, and compare it with the prophecy of Jeremiah, for which he is threatened with the peril of death; and they show that he had said more grievous things, and yet suffered nothing from the just king Ezechias: but, when they turned to penance, the Lord turned his sentence to a good outcome. For Micheas said: Sion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the mountain of the house shall be like the high places of the forests. But Jeremiah said: I will make this house like Silo, and I will give this city as a curse to all the nations of the earth (above XXIV, 9). And they give counsel, thinking that what Micheas had foretold would by no means come to pass, because it had not been done for a long time, on account of the people’s penance.

And likewise that what Jeremiah had spoken would by no means come to pass, if, according to his counsel, they made their ways and their endeavors good, and hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, so that the Lord would not bring the evil which he had threatened them with. And at the same time they break the rage of the accusers, and mingle themselves with them, saying: So we are doing a great evil against our own souls: not that they ought to do it, but that if they do it, it will by no means harm the accused, but their own souls, which they might have freed by a change of sentence. (Verse 20 and following.) There was also a man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Urias, son of Semei of Cariath-Jarim, and he prophesied against this city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremiah.

And king Joacim, and all his mighty men, and his princes, heard these words, and the king sought to slay him, and Urias heard it, and was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt. And what follows: And king Joacim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of Achabor, and men with him into Egypt, is not found in the Septuagint. Then it is joined: And they brought Urias out of Egypt, and brought him to king Joacim, and he slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body among the graves of the common people. Nevertheless the hand of Ahicam the son of Saphan was with Jeremiah, that he should not be delivered into the hands of the people, and that they should not kill him.

It is asked why, when Urias the son of Semei, from the town of Cariath-Jarim, having prophesied the same things as Jeremiah, was so terrified with fear that he fled into Egypt, and, being dragged back from there, was slain: Jeremiah was able to escape, who certainly had not fled, but persevering boldly in his former sentence, was set free, both by the judgment of the crowd and the princes, and by the counsel of the elders, against the accusers, the priests, and the false prophets. To which it must briefly be answered: that the judgment of God cannot be known, when in the same cause, and with the same sentence, one is punished, and another set free. Unless perhaps we can answer this, that Urias was slain unto the condemnation of the accusers and the people; but Jeremiah was reserved for God’s judgment, that he might preach to the remnants of the unhappy people, and draw them back to penance.

And indeed we read this also in the Acts of the Apostles, that James the Apostle immediately underwent Herod’s sentence, and was crowned with martyrdom; but blessed Peter and the other Apostles were reserved for the teaching of the Lord. And the steadfastness of the prophetic spirit is to be noted, in that not even when dragged back from Egypt did Urias change his sentence; but seeing death threatened against him, he nonetheless spoke what the Lord had commanded. And that he feared, and fled, and went into Egypt, is a sign not of unbelief, but of prudence: lest we offer ourselves to dangers in vain. Otherwise we also read that the Lord the Savior slipped from the hands of his persecutors; and that he commanded the Apostles: When they shall persecute you in this city, flee ye into another. It is also asked how Joacim king of Judah, of a small and weakened kingdom, and now on the very point of perishing, had the power of sending into Egypt, and of bringing Urias back from there.

Which is easily resolved, if we consider that he had been made a prince by Nechao king of Egypt, and that this prophecy took place at the beginning of his reign. Although Jeremiah was freed by the help of the Lord, yet it is also reckoned as a reward to him through whom the Lord freed his Prophet: namely, to Ahicam son of Saphan, which we shall read of in what follows, when, from the pit of mire, by the counsel and protection of Abdemelech the eunuch, Jeremiah is freed from the peril of death (below XXXVIII).

In the beginning of the reign of Joacim the son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying. This is not found in the edition of the LXX. And many think it to be the beginning of the following chapter, which is by no means so, but is to be joined to the preceding, so that whatever is reported to have been said and done we should believe to have been done in the beginning of the reign of Joacim. Whence also he had power to send to Egypt, as it were to a friendly king. But it seems to me that the LXX kept silence about this title for this reason, lest they should seem to say it a second time. For already at the beginning they had set down: In the beginning of the reign of Joacim the son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying. (Verse 2.) Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bonds and chains.

Or κλοιούς, which in Hebrew are called MUTOTH (מוטות), and in common speech are called Boiae. (Verses 3, 4.) And thou shalt put them upon thy neck, and shalt send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem to Sedecias king of Judah. And thou shalt charge them to say to their masters: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Thus shall ye say to your masters. The former vision was given at the beginning to the Prophet in the reign of Joacim the son of Josiah king of Judah. But this one is under Sedecias, who reigned last in Jerusalem, and under whom the city was taken and overthrown.

And Jeremiah is commanded to put upon his neck chains, or wooden forks, which in Hebrew, as we have said, are called MUTOTH, and to send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, the children of Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, by the ambassadors who had come to Sedecias: and to charge them to announce to their masters that they ought to serve king Nabuchodonosor; and to hear what the following discourse of the Prophet continues to say. And lest perhaps the ambassadors and kings of these nations should reply, why do you not command this to your own people? He speaks similar things also to king Sedecias, and to the priests and prophets. This passage the allegorical interpreter (Origen), fleeing always from the truth of history, interprets of the heavenly Jerusalem, as meaning that its inhabitants ought of their own accord to assume bodies, and go down into Babylon, that is, into the confusion of this world which lies in the evil one, and serve the king of Babylon, doubtless the devil.

But if they should refuse to do this, they would by no means bear heavy bodies; but would perish by sword, and famine, and pestilence; and would no longer be men, but demons. This he would say, lest his defenders should accuse us of calumny. But let us follow the plain and true history, lest we be involved in certain clouds and delusions. (Verse 5.) I have made the earth, and man, and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth, by my great strength, and by my outstretched arm, and I have given it to whomsoever it pleased me. Although this Scripture speaks ἀνθρωποπάθως (in the manner of men), as we men can speak and understand: yet the strength of God and his arm is he of whom the Apostle also speaks: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And Isaiah: Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? John the Evangelist also writes: All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing.

David also in his song speaks: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their strength by the spirit of his mouth. But as to his saying: I have given it to whomsoever it pleased me, this signifies that all things have been bestowed upon the human race through the grace of God. I, he says, made the earth, and man, and the beasts. The order is reversed. For in Genesis the living creatures are made first, and man last, but here he names man first, and afterward the things that are subject to man. (Verses 6, 7.) Now therefore I have given all these lands into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon my servant: moreover I have given him the beasts of the field also, that they may serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son. Of what unhappiness is Israel, when by comparison with him Nabuchodonosor is called the servant of God?

It is written in the Gospel: The world was made through him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Rightly, therefore, does the creator hand over his creature to whomsoever he wills. Finally, the devil too, whose type Nabuchodonosor prefigured, confesses: all these things have been delivered to me. But as to his adding: Moreover I have given him the beasts of the field also, that they may serve him, we ought either simply to understand every kind of animal—for along with man are handed over also the things subjected to him—or else certainly we may take "beasts" to mean savage nations, in that even they should serve who before knew not how to serve. But his son, and his son's son, according to the Hebrew he calls Balthasar and Evilmerodach, of whom Daniel writes. Until the time of his own land come, and of himself.

Beautifully, lest the empire of Nabuchodonosor should be thought perpetual, he says that it too shall be taken by the Medes and Persians. For this is what is signified: Until the time of his own land come, and of himself: but this too is not found in the Septuagint. And many nations shall serve him, and great kings. He did not say, all: for this is properly owed to the empire of Christ, although according to Symmachus it is not read: Many nations shall serve him, and great kings; but rather, many nations and great kings shall subject him to servitude, so that he too should serve the Medes and Persians, to whom before all nations they had served.

This which we have set down from the Hebrew: I have given him that they may serve him, and all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come, and of himself: and many nations and great kings shall subject him to servitude, is not read in the Septuagint edition (as we have already said). (Verse 8.) But the nation and kingdom which shall not serve Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and whosoever shall not bow his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit that nation with sword, and famine, and pestilence, saith the Lord, until I consume them by his hand. Not only does the Lord subject sinning nations to Nabuchodonosor, but the Apostle speaks of sinners: Whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. And in another place: I have delivered such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved.

He also admonishes that we ought to obey the powers, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake, lest we be condemned by them. (Verse 9 ff.) You therefore hearken not to your prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and augurs, and sorcerers, who say to you: Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon, because they prophesy a lie unto you, that they may drive you far from your land, and cast you out, and ye may perish. But the nation which shall subject its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and shall serve him, I will let it remain in its own land, saith the Lord: and it shall till it, and dwell in it. The allegorical interpreter raves in this passage too, and exhorts those placed in the heavenly Jerusalem not to hearken to their prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and augurs, and sorcerers: but rather to serve Nabuchodonosor, and to assume a body of humiliation, the wailings of infants, and the cradles of little ones.

For if they should do these things, once the servitude and condition of human mortality is completed, they would return to their own land, and dwell in it, and do again what they had done before. And he says he suspects that those who have despised the commands of God, being weighed down with human bodies, will become demons and unclean spirits, and will by no means recover their former seat. But let us set forth the plain sense, that there are prophets among the nations who pretend to foretell the future by a divine spirit: and diviners, of whom there is also the common proverb: They say the wise divine: and dreamers who imitate Joseph and Daniel: and augurs, who by the flight of birds and the cries of songbirds proclaim what is to be done or not done: and sorcerers, whom we may call also poisoners, or those who serve the phantasms of demons, who in Hebrew are called CASSAPHE (כשפים).

All these, he says, deceive you, and trip you up, that you may not serve the king of Babylon. For it is much better to undertake servitude of one's own accord, and to have a friend whom you serve, and to till your native land, than to serve as captives by force and necessity. (Verses 12, 13.) And I spoke to Sedecias king of Judah according to all these words, saying: Subject your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and ye shall live. Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by sword, and famine, and pestilence: as the Lord hath spoken concerning the nation which will not serve the king of Babylon.

Hearken not to the words of the prophets who say to you: Serve not the king of Babylon, for they speak a lie unto you, for I have not sent them, saith the Lord: and they prophesy falsely in my name, that they may cast you out, and ye may perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy unto you. After all the nations he passes to Sedecias king of Judah; and he addresses him with the same words with which he had threatened the nations: for the nation of Israel deserves no privilege, since it has sinned either equally or more than the other nations. Finally, because the rebellious people refused to hearken, it was consumed by sword, famine, and pestilence. It is to be noted in the Holy Scripture, that it calls prophets those who prophesy falsely in the name of the Lord, using the term for false prophets. But this, he says, they do, that they may cast you out, and you may perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy unto you.

Therefore the destruction of those who are deceived and of those who deceive is alike. This which we have set down from the Hebrew: Under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and ye shall live. Hearken not to the words of the prophets who say to you, is not found in the LXX. And therefore I admonish that the careful reader should understand how much is lacking throughout, point by point, in the Greek and Latin codices. (Verses 16, 17.) And to the priests, and to this people I spoke, saying: thus saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: Behold, the vessels of the Lord shall return from Babylon now shortly: for they prophesy a lie unto you. This which we have set down, now shortly, is not found in the LXX: and that which follows, Hearken not to them, but serve the king of Babylon, that ye may live. Why should this city be given up to desolation?

After the nations and the king, he speaks to the priests and the people, to whom he had already announced above destruction to the prophets, saying: that I may cast you out, and you may perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy unto you. He speaks the same things which he had spoken to the king and the nations, that they should not hearken to the words of their prophets, and say that the vessels of the temple of the Lord are now to be brought back, which had been carried away with Jechonias, and the princes, and his mother: and he admonishes them to serve the king of Babylon, and live, and that the city, of its own accord subjected, should by no means be given over to burning. And in this is the clemency of the Lord, to hand over to a lighter punishment, lest they suffer a heavier one. (Verse 18.) And if they are prophets, and the word of the Lord is in them, let them meet me.

And that which follows, and which we are about to give up to the end of this chapter, is not found in the LXX. (Verses 19 and following.) To the Lord of hosts, that they should not come, the vessels which had been left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, and into Babylon. For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, and the sea, and the bases (for which in the Hebrew is written MECHONOTH מכונות), and the rest of the vessels which remained in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried away Jechonias son of Joakim king of Judah from Jerusalem into Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that were left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem: they shall be carried away into Babylon, and there they shall remain until the day of their visitation, says the Lord; and I will cause them to be brought back, and restored in this place.

These things, as we have said, are not found in the Septuagint, but have been translated from the Hebrew truth: in place of which they set down something else that was not written, saying: To me, because thus said the Lord: And the rest of the vessels which the king of Babylon did not take, when he carried away Jechonias from Jerusalem to Babylon, shall enter, says the Lord—setting down the sense rather than the words: perhaps thinking it unreasonable that God should speak to pillars, and to the sea, and to the bases, and to the rest of the vessels that remained in Jerusalem, as though we did not read that the Lord rebuked the morning worm, and spoke to the sea: Be silent, and hold your peace. And as to what he says: Let them meet me, or the Lord of hosts, this shows that a true Prophet can withstand the Lord with prayers, according to how Moses stood in the breach against the Lord, to turn away the wrath of his fury.

Samuel also did the same. And the Lord said to Moses: Let me alone, he said, that I may strike this people. But when he says, Let me alone, he shows that he can be restrained by the prayers of the saints. Let them meet me, he says, the Prophets, and let whatever they foretell be shown fulfilled in deed: and then the prophecy will be proved true by its outcome. As for the pillars, and the sea, and the bases, and the rest of the vessels, we read of them in Kings and at the end of the volume of this prophet (4 Kings, last chapter). And there the vessels are enumerated which were carried away into Babylon, when Zedekiah was captured, and the city burned, and the temple overthrown.

(Verses 1 and following.) And it came to pass in that year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Ananias son of Azur, a prophet from Gabaon, said to me in the house of the Lord, before the priests and all the people, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon; yet two years of days, and I will cause to be brought back to this place all the vessels of the Lord. These, whom the Hebrew calls prophets, that is, NEBEIM (נביאים), the Seventy have translated as pseudoprophets, that they might make the meaning clearer. Accordingly in the present passage also he is called a prophet, that is, NEBIA (נביא), and not a pseudoprophet.

Now this word of the Lord occurs under king Zedekiah, in the fourth year of his reign, and in the fifth month (the prophet Ezekiel not yet prophesying in Babylon to those who had been carried away with Jechonias); and he has the confidence to speak in the temple of the Lord against the Prophet, because he promises the people prosperity, and lies are gladly heard, especially those that promise joyful things. Jeremiah had said that the remaining vessels also, whether of the temple, or of the royal house, or of the whole people, which Nebuchadnezzar had left behind, were to be carried into Babylon. But this man, on the contrary, promises that even those which had been carried away would be brought back. (Verses 3, 4.) Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon carried away from this place, and carried them into Babylon. And Jechonias son of Joakim, king of Judah, and all the captivity of Judah who went into Babylon, I will bring back to this place, says the Lord.

For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. For which the Seventy translated: Jechonias, and the captivity of Judah; because I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon—setting down the sense of the Hebrew truth briefly, rather than the words. Now Ananias, who then seemed to the people a prophet, promises not only that the vessels, but that King Jechonias also, would be brought back to Jerusalem; and that the yoke of the king of Babylon would be broken, that is, his empire destroyed, and this before even two years had elapsed, so that by the nearness of the promised time he might increase the magnitude of the joy. (Verses 5, 6.) And Jeremiah the prophet said to Ananias the prophet, in the eyes of the priests and in the eyes of all the people who stood in the house of the Lord. And Jeremiah the prophet said: Amen, so may the Lord do.

May the Lord confirm your words which you have prophesied; that the vessels may be brought back into the house of the Lord, and all the captivity from Babylon to this place. He wishes to happen what the pseudoprophet falsely says, for this is what Amen signifies: a word which the Lord often uses in the Gospel: Amen, amen I say to you. And he desires, for the sake of the prosperity of affairs, that that man rather than himself should be speaking the truth. Whence also another prophet testifies, saying: Would that I were not a man having a spirit, and spoke rather a lie (Micah 2:11). On the contrary, Jonah is grieved because he lied, and is rebuked by the Lord, since a lie by the prophet was more useful than the ruin of so great a multitude.

And lest he should seem to approve the prophecy of the pseudoprophet, he asserts the truth under the example of others, without doing injury to one who lies. (Verses 7 and following.) Nevertheless hear this word, which I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people: The prophets who were before me and you from the beginning, and prophesied over many lands, and over great kingdoms, of war, and of affliction, and of famine. The prophet who prophesied peace, when his word shall have come to pass, shall be known as the prophet whom the Lord has sent in truth. Jeremiah could have said to Ananias: You speak falsely, you deceive the people, you are not a prophet but a pseudoprophet. But if he had said this, the pseudoprophet could have turned the same words back upon Jeremiah; therefore he does him no injury. And he speaks as it were to a prophet.

Not only, he says, am I a prophet and you, but there were before you and me many others, among whom were Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, and Amos, and the rest. They prophesied, he says, against many lands, and kingdoms not small but great, announcing to them war and adversities and scarcity of all things. And on the other hand there were others who promised peace and prosperity. The judgment of both is proved true, not by the flattery of a lie, but by the outcome of events. Under the example of others, therefore, he speaks concerning himself and Ananias, so that when the outcome of events arrives, then the truth of the Prophets may be shown. This same thing the Lord also spoke through Moses, that a prophet is shown by the outcome of his prophecy.

And this is to be noted, that he rebukes the liar not with menace, not with harshness, but with confidence in the truth, and defers judgment to the future, that those who hear may await the outcome of events. (Verses 10, 11.) And Ananias the prophet took the chain (or yoke-bar, which in Hebrew is called MUTOTH מוטות) from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, and broke it. And Ananias said in the sight of all the people, saying: Thus says the Lord: so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two years of days from the neck of all nations. And Jeremiah went his way. The Seventy did not translate "two years." Nor did they call Ananias a prophet, lest, that is, they should seem to call a prophet one who was not a prophet: as though many things were not said in the holy Scriptures according to the opinion of that time in which the events are recorded, and not according to what the truth of the matter actually held.

Thus also Joseph is called the father of the Lord in the Gospel; and Mary herself, who knew that she had conceived of the Holy Spirit, and had answered the Angel: How shall this be, since I know not a man? Speaks to the Son: Son, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been seeking you sorrowing. At the same time the prudence of Jeremiah, and his humility, and patience, are to be considered. The pseudoprophet does injury by his acts, and seizing the yoke-bar, breaks it from his neck—something he certainly could not have done had it been of iron. Jeremiah is silent, and dissembles his pain: for it had not yet been revealed to him by the Lord what he should say; so that holy Scripture may show tacitly that the prophets do not speak merely at their own discretion, but by the will of the Lord—especially concerning future things, of which God alone has knowledge.

He went, it says, and withdrew on his way, as one defeated, thus fulfilling that prophetic word: I have become as a man who does not hear, and who has no reproofs in his mouth. (Verses 2 and following.) And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after Ananias the prophet had broken the chain (or yoke-bar) from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, saying: Go, and say to Ananias, thus says the Lord: You have broken the wooden chains (or yoke-bars), and you shall make (or I will make) in their place iron yoke-bars. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

And what follows: And they shall serve him, moreover I have also given him the beasts of the field, is not found in the Septuagint. And in the present passage, according to the Seventy, Ananias is not written as "the prophet," and in what follows likewise, lest, as I said before, they should seem to call the pseudoprophet a prophet. But what is that to the Hebrew truth? After Jeremiah the prophet went his way, and swallowed the injury in silence, the word of the Lord came to him, so that the prophet should not speak in his own words to the pseudoprophet glorying in his lie, but should say: thus says the Lord—although Ananias too, breaking the wooden yoke-bar, had spoken with the same claimed authority in the sight of the Lord: thus says the Lord. For a lie always imitates the truth.

And what he added: You have broken the wooden yoke-bars, and you shall make (or I will make) in their place iron chains, shows this, that in refusing a lesser penalty, he had become the cause of a greater punishment for the people. The allegorical interpreter also raves in this passage, calling the wooden yoke-bars and chains ethereal and aerial bodies, namely, of demons and of the adversary powers; and the iron yoke-bars or chains, our grosser bodies, which are woven together of nerves and bones, flesh and veins, so that those who, according to the nature of their sin, refused to undergo lesser torments from the heavenly Jerusalem, are condemned into the chains of our bodies; and endure the wailing of infancy, the bonds and filth of swaddling clothes; and serve the devil, the king of Babylon, that is, of this world, as Scripture says: The whole world is set in wickedness, along with the beasts of the earth, which are bound within the bodies of brute animals.

An unlearned handler and a follower of the calumny of Grunnius has compelled me to set down openly the faults of another, which before I mentioned with dissimulation, leaving them to the prudence of the reader. (Verses 5 and following.) And Jeremiah the prophet said to Ananias the prophet: Hear, Ananias: The Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will send you (or cast you) off from the face of the earth; this year you shall die. And what follows: Because you have spoken against the Lord. And Ananias the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month, is not found in the Septuagint. In place of which they set down only: And he died in the seventh month.

And here in the Seventy Ananias is not called "the prophet," although according to the Hebrew, holy Scripture calls him a prophet, except in the passage where Jeremiah rebukes him, saying: Hear, Ananias, the Lord has not sent you—there he withholds the title of prophet. For how could he call him a prophet, whom he denied to have been sent by the Lord? But the truth and order of the history is preserved, as we have said before, not according to what actually was, but according to what was thought at that time. You have deceived, he says, the people with a lie, that they might not acquiesce in the sentence of God. Whence you may know that you are to die this year. If, whenever we die, we are freed from the prisons of our bodies, according to that testimony which the heretics wrongly interpret: Bring my soul out of prison—how then is death now inflicted upon the pseudoprophet as a punishment?

But it is to be noted here that Jeremiah, having suffered injury from the pseudoprophet, is silent, the word of the Lord not yet having come to him; but afterward, sent by the Lord, he boldly rebukes the liar, and announces his approaching death. And as to his dying in the seventh month—since interpreters are accustomed always to explain that rest is signified by this number—perhaps they will falsely claim that he died in the seventh month for this reason, that he might be freed from the evils of the body, according to that which is quoted as written: Death is rest for a man. But we know that the bodies of believers are the temple of God, if indeed the Holy Spirit dwells in them.

(Verse 1.) And these are the words of the book which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

After Jechonias the king departed, and the lady (or queen), and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem (or the nobles), and the craftsmen, from Jerusalem, by the hand of Elassa the son of Saphan, and Gamarias the son of Helchias, whom Sedecias king of Judah sent to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, into Babylon, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captivity which he has carried away from Jerusalem into Babylon: build houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens (or orchards), and eat their fruit. Take wives, and beget sons and daughters; give your sons wives, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and be multiplied, and be not few in number. And seek the peace of the city (or land) to which I have carried you away, and pray for it to the Lord: for in its peace shall be your peace.

This letter, or rather little book, of Jeremiah the prophet is sent by the envoys of Sedecias, Ellassa and Gamarias, into Babylon, to those who had been carried away with Jechonias and his mother by Nabuchodonosor: so that, by occasion of the royal embassy, the Prophet might also complete his own task, and admonish the exiled people concerning what had been commanded them by the Lord. And he says beautifully: Jechonias the king departed, and the lady, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah, and the rest. And: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captivity which he carried away from Jerusalem into Babylon—so that they might be seen to have been carried away not by the power of the king of Babylon, but by the will of the Lord.

And the word is directed first to the elders, then to the priests, third to the prophets, fourth to all the people of God: so that, in the order of age, the prophet’s letter might also reach those who were being admonished. He admonishes them, moreover, not with his own words, but with the Lord’s, that they should build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens, or orchards, and eat their fruit, take wives, and beget sons and daughters, and multiply in the place of their captivity: and not be few in number, and seek the peace of the city, or land, to which the Lord had carried them away, and pray for it to the Lord. And giving the reason, he says, because in the peace of that land shall be your peace. To Jeremiah, because after a short time the captivity of Jerusalem was to follow, it is commanded that he take no wife, nor beget children.

Whence also it is said to us through the Apostle: The time is short; it remains, that those who have wives be as though they had none. But if, because of the shortness of the time, the use of wives is taken away from those who have them, how much more is it commanded to those who do not have them, that they not take them! Now this whole prophetic utterance enjoins that they should not give assent to the false prophets, who were promising them a return to Jerusalem after a short time; but that they should know they would remain a long time in Babylon: so that they ought to take wives, plant orchards, sow gardens, build houses, and beget children. And what he added: Seek the peace of the city, or land.

And again: For in its peace shall be your peace—this may be compared to that Apostolic saying, in which he commands: I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and chastity. Furthermore, according to the mystical understanding, after we have been cast out of Jerusalem, that is, the Church, on account of our sins, and handed over to Nabuchodonosor, of whom the same Apostle says: I have delivered such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. And again: Whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme—we ought not to be secure, nor sluggish in idleness, nor to despair utterly of salvation; but first to build houses, not upon sand, but upon rock, and such houses as the midwives built in Exodus: because they feared the Lord.

Then to plant gardens, or orchards, such as the Lord also planted, the paradise in Eden, and placed in it the tree of life, of which it is written: It is a tree of life to those who lay hold on it: and he who holds it fast is blessed. Third, to take wives, one of whom is wisdom, of whom Solomon writes: Love her, and she will keep you; and embrace her, and she will exalt you. And in another place: Her I sought to take for my bride, and I became a lover of her beauty (Wisdom VIII, 2). Nor is wisdom, one wife, sufficient for us, unless we have also the rest—fortitude, temperance, and justice—that we may beget from them many children.

Let us also give our daughters to husbands, that the truth of faith, which is understood in the sons, may be joined with good works, which pertain to the daughters, and that good works may be joined to soundness of faith; and begetting such sons and daughters, let us be multiplied in number, so that, destroying what belongs to children, and growing up into a perfect man, we may deserve to hear: I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning; and with the Apostle let us say to our children: For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel. Let us also seek the peace of the Church, our city and our land: that we may deserve to return to that from which, by the Lord’s judgment, we were carried away, to dwell in the error of confusion. For if she receives us, we have peace.

And at the same time we must consider the Lord’s clemency: he commanded us to pray for our enemies, and to do good to those who persecute us, so that we might not be content with our own salvation alone, but seek also the salvation of our enemies.

Verse 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets who are among you, and your diviners, deceive you; and do not attend to your dreams which you dream, for they prophesy falsely to you in my name: and I have not sent them, saith the Lord. That there were prophets, or rather false prophets, and diviners and dreamers in Babylon, among those whom Nabuchodonosor had brought with Jechonias and his mother, the prophet Ezekiel testifies, writing against them, of whom Jeremiah also commands that they not be believed. But at that time when this letter was being sent, Ezekiel had not yet begun to prophesy in Babylon. For this word is sent in the beginning of the reign of King Sedecias. But Ezekiel began to prophesy in the fifth year of Jechonias’ captivity, which was the same year as the reign of Sedecias. Further, according to tropology, we ought to understand as false prophets those who take the words of Scripture otherwise than the Holy Spirit intends.

And as diviners, those who pronounce the conjecture of their own mind and uncertain things of the future as if true, without the authority of divine words. And also as dreamers, those who do not heed what is written: Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; of whom the apostle Jude speaks: Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, but despise dominion: whose mind is by no means awake, but, weighed down by the stupor of arrogance and error, is surrounded by the horror of night—to whom the apostle Paul also speaks: Awake, why do you sleep? And arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. (Verse 10. Ff.) For thus saith the Lord: When seventy years have begun to be fulfilled in Babylon, I will visit you, and I will raise up over you my good word, that I may bring you back to this place.

For I know the thoughts which I think concerning you, saith the Lord: thoughts of peace, and not of affliction: that I may give you an end and patience (or hope). And you shall call upon me, and go (or, according to Symmachus, find), and you shall pray to me, and I will hear you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall seek me with your whole heart, and I will be found by you (or, I will appear to you), saith the Lord. Do not, he says, believe your false prophets, diviners, and dreamers, who promise you a near return to Jerusalem. For unless seventy years be completed, with Cyrus king of the Persians releasing the captives, you will by no means return to your homeland; and then I will fulfill my promises, that I may bring you back to this place: For I know the thoughts which I think concerning you, saith the Lord.

He says that he knows what he is thinking: but that they, along with their prophets, diviners, and dreamers, do not know. Knowledge of the future, therefore, belongs to God alone. That I may give you, he says, an end and patience: an end of captivity, and patience for present labors, or hope of future things. Then you will call upon me, and go to Jerusalem: and you will pray, and I will hear you. Certainly, without the calling and prayer of the captives, the Lord could have fulfilled what he had promised; but he exhorts them to prayers, that they may deserve to receive what was promised. You shall seek me, and you shall find me, when you shall seek me with your whole heart; according to that saying of the Gospel: Ask, and you shall receive: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

According to the anagogical sense, we are involved in the confusion of this world for so long, until we deserve to receive the rest of the number seven, and, penitence having been received, God fulfills what he promised, and we are brought back to our place, the Church. For the Lord seemed to strike, in order that he might heal: and he will give us an end to our labor and to our patience: and we shall call upon him, and return into the Church, and we shall pray, and be heard: we shall seek, and we shall find him, when we have sought him with our whole heart, and then he will appear to us. Some interpret the seventy years according to what is written: The days of our years in themselves are seventy years, which, when they have been completed, then we may return to the Lord with our whole heart, and be heard, and there may be an end to our labor and patience: for now we possess all things in shadow and in image.

(Verse 14. Seqq.) And I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places to which I have driven you, saith the Lord. And I will cause you to return from the place to which I made you migrate. Because you have said: The Lord has raised up for us prophets in Babylon. For thus saith the Lord to the king who sits upon the throne of David, and to all the people, inhabitants of this city, and to your brothers who did not go out with you into exile. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence: and I will make them like bad figs which cannot be eaten, because they are so very bad.

And I will pursue them with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and I will give them up to be a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach to all the nations to which I shall drive them, because they have not heard my words, saith the Lord, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord. Hear therefore the word of the Lord, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. Up to this point what is not found in the Seventy I have marked with asterisks. As for the rest, in which either single verses, or a few words from them, have been omitted, being overcome with weariness, I have chosen not to annotate them, lest I cause tedium to my readers.

Now the Lord promises to those who were in exile that after seventy years of captivity he will cause them to return from all the nations, and from all the places to which he has driven them, and, the captivity being loosed, they will recover their former condition and homeland. And whereas I, he says, am going to do these things of my own accord, and you will return at a fixed time, you are deceived in vain, and you think you have prophets in Babylon who promise you false things. But know this, that you ought by no means now to hope for return: but build houses, plant orchards, take wives, and beget sons, and be multiplied in number, and await the promised time.

Hear what the Lord speaks to Zedekiah, who now reigns in Jerusalem, and to all the inhabitants of his city, that is, to your brothers who were unwilling to obey my sentence and to migrate to Babylon with you, that they can by no means escape captivity, but will die by sword, and famine, and pestilence. And I will make them like bad figs; which Theodotion has translated as "sudrinas": the second version Aquila, "worst": Symmachus, "latest ones": which in Hebrew are called SUARIM (שערים), but through the fault of copyists, in place of the middle syllable, or the letter Alpha, the Greek Delta has crept in: so that instead of SUARIM one reads SUDRIM. And just as the basket, or hamper, which had good figs, is said to have had "first-ripe" ones, so the other basket, which had bad figs, is written to have had "latest" figs.

And I will pursue, he says, those who now dwell in the city of Jerusalem, with sword, famine, and pestilence: so that first by siege, immediately those who are able to remain and to escape may be scattered into all lands, and may be an example to all of cursing, of astonishment, and of hissing and reproach: to whom I will drive them, because they have not heard my words, saith the Lord, which I spoke to them by my servants, rising up early and sending: and I never ceased to warn them, that they might imitate you who now in exile enjoy secure leisure, until the promise of the Lord is fulfilled. But you who have obeyed my sentence, and have handed yourselves over to the king of Babylon, hear what I am about to say.

And in this place the deranged Interpreter dreams of the ruin of the heavenly Jerusalem, and suspects that the prophecy is directed to those who dwell in this Babylonian region of the world: that they have done well to descend of their own will into these bodies, and to build houses in the land of the Chaldeans, to plant orchards, to take wives, to beget sons, and by good works to be restored after seventy years to their former place, and to the heavenly Jerusalem. But those who were unwilling of their own will to descend to earthly things will suffer those things which the Lord threatens against Zedekiah and his people.

Those who would not imitate their brothers, nor come into Babylon, upon them he will send sword, and famine, and pestilence, that is, the want of all things, and will make them like the worst figs, which can in no way be eaten; and will pursue them with the everlasting sword, and give them up to be a vexation to all the kingdoms of the earth: whereby, namely, they become not men, but demons, aerial powers: and are, before all the Angels who preside over each province, a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach to all nations. And that they will suffer this for the reason that they were unwilling to hear in the heavenly Jerusalem the words of the Prophets who exhorted them to descend to earthly things, and to take on the body of humility; and, after penance done, following the true sabbath-keeping, to possess their former place. Such things has he said. When his disciples hear these things, and the dung of the Grunnian household, they think they are hearing divine mysteries.

And us, who despise such things, they regard as brute animals, and call us πηλουσιώτας (mud-dwellers), because, being set in the mud of this body, we cannot perceive heavenly things. (Verse 21. Seqq.) Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy to you in my name falsely: behold I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes. And there shall be taken from them a curse for all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon, of those who say: May the Lord make you like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they committed folly (or iniquity) in Israel, and committed adultery with the wives of their friends (or fellow-citizens): and spoke a word in my name falsely, which I had not commanded them: I am judge and witness, saith the Lord.

The Hebrews say that these are elders who committed folly in Israel, and committed adultery with the wives of their fellow-citizens, to one of whom Daniel speaks: Thou that art grown old in evil days. And to the other: Thou seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty hath deceived thee, and lust hath perverted thy heart. Thus you used to do to the daughters of Israel, and they, fearing, spoke with you; but the daughter of Judah did not endure your iniquity. And as for what the Prophet now says: And they spoke a word in my name falsely, which I had not commanded them, they think this signifies that they had so deceived poor little women, who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, telling them that, since they were of the tribe of Judah, Christ was to be born of their seed: and these women, enticed by desire, offered their bodies, as though they were to be future mothers of Christ.

But what is said at present: whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, seems to contradict the history of Daniel. For he asserts that they were stoned by the people according to the sentence of Daniel: but here it is written that the king of Babylon roasted them in the fire. Whence by most, and by almost all the Hebrews, this account itself, as if a fable, is not received, nor is it read in their synagogues. For how, they say, could it be that captives had the power to stone their princes and prophets? And they affirm this rather to be true, what Jeremiah writes, that the elders were indeed convicted by Daniel, but that sentence was passed upon them by the king of Babylon, who, as victor and lord, had power over the captives.

How many also of our own flock, like Ahab and Zedekiah, prophesy a lie in the name of the Lord, and commit folly in Israel, and commit adultery with the wives of their fellow-citizens, who were born in the same city of the Church! Whom the true Nebuchadnezzar roasts in the fire of sin: as the prophet Hosea says: All of them committing adultery are like an oven heated by the baker. Happy is he who takes the yoke from his youth, and sits alone, because he is filled with bitterness; and can say with David: I have not sat in the council of the malicious, and with those who do iniquity I will not go in.

And as for what the Prophet has now added: I am judge and witness, saith the Lord, this has the sense: These things which I say concerning the two false prophets, who speak a word in my name falsely, which I had not commanded them, I have by no means known by opinion: but I myself know them to be true, I whom no one can conceal from, nor escape the truth of my judgment. (Verse 24. Seqq.) And thou shalt say to Shemaiah the Nehelamite. And what follows: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because thou hast sent letters in thy own name to all the people that is in Jerusalem, is not found in the Seventy. And again they have added of their own: I did not send thee in my name. And in consequence, following the order: And to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest.

And again from the Hebrew: And to all the priests. And then the narrative continues: The Lord has made thee priest instead of Jehoiada the priest: that thou mayest be leader (or overseer and bishop) in the house of the Lord over every man that is mad and prophesies, that thou mayest put him in the stocks and in prison (or into custody) and in the cataract, which Symmachus translated μόχλον, Aquila put the Hebrew word itself, SINAC.

And now why hast thou not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who prophesies to you? Because for this reason he has sent to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long time; build houses, and dwell in them: and plant gardens, and eat their fruits. Zephaniah the priest, then, read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet. Shemaiah from the place of Nehelam, which is interpreted "torrent," had been led away with king Jechoniah into Babylon, and prophesied falsely to the people, that they would soon return to Jerusalem. That he was a false prophet the following words of Jeremiah show: Thus saith the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him.

Since therefore Jeremiah had sent letters to those who were in Babylon, saying: Build houses, and dwell in them: plant gardens, and eat their fruits: take wives, and beget sons; and after other things had added: Let not your prophets who are among you deceive you, nor your diviners; and then, Because they prophesy falsely to you in my name, and I did not send them, saith the Lord: Shemaiah, understanding that under the common name of false prophets it was written against himself, sends letters to Jerusalem to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to the rest of the priests, against Jeremiah, asking why he is not rebuked by Zephaniah the priest, whose office it is to discern between prophets, who speak by the Holy Spirit and who by the contrary spirit, and to command that he be shut up in prison, that he may pay the penalty for his lie and cease further to supplant the people.

Jehoiada was the priest who, after the slaying of Athaliah, handed over the kingship to Joash, and slew the priests of Baal. This, then, is what he writes: Why dost thou not imitate Jehoiada the priest, and put to death Jeremiah the false prophet? For the Lord has appointed thee in place of Jehoiada, that thou mayest have care of the Temple; and especially that thou mayest discern who speak by the Holy Spirit, who by a demonic spirit. Now the discernment of spirits, the Apostle also records, is of divine grace. Why, he says, hast thou not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth? And what he himself deserved as a false prophet, he attributes to the prophet, and forestalls the truth with a lie. Whence also the children of darkness are thought to be more prudent than the children of light in this generation.

And while we act patiently, and wait for the salvation of the wretched, heretics get there first, and call us by their own name, leading the blind into a pit, blind themselves. He sent, it says, to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long way off. This is all that grieves him: that against his own lie Jeremiah wrote the truth, that the return was far off, and that after seventy years they would return to Jerusalem: wherefore they ought to build houses, plant orchards, and eat their fruits, take wives, and beget sons, as the preceding passage related.

And when Zephaniah the priest, to whose name specifically the letter was written, had received this letter, he read it to Jeremiah, in a way mocking him, and by that very reading rebuking him, asking why he dared to write such things to Babylon. (Verses 30 and following.) And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: Send to all the captivity, saying: Thus saith the Lord to Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie: therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will visit upon Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and upon his seed. There shall not be a man of him sitting in the midst of this people, and he shall not see the good which I will do to my people, saith the Lord, because he has spoken rebellion against the Lord.

The pseudo-prophet Shemaiah, truly a Nehelamite, who had drawn foreign and turbid waters from the torrent, is angered that Jeremiah has written the truth against his lie, and sends letters to Zephaniah the priest, asking why the Prophet has dared to write the truth, and desires that he be shut up in prison, that he may not speak. Zephaniah also secretly accuses the prophet, when he reads the letter of the liar, and boasts that he has the accusation against him. How much more guilty of crime are they who defend pseudo-prophets, and cherish liars, and make the evil inventions of others their own sins! Let the pseudo-prophet therefore hear, let the priest understand what he too deserves to hear because of him: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will visit upon Shemaiah. The Lord speaks this, not the prophet, that he will visit upon Shemaiah the Nehelamite, not as a remedy, but as a punishment for the liar, according to what is written: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with scourges.

Nor does he visit only upon the pseudo-prophet, but also upon his seed, all the disciples whom he deceived by his error. There shall not be, he says, a man sitting in the midst of this people. Let the worst offspring be blotted out from the assembly of the saints, nor let him sit among those at rest, who could not stand with those who stood, nor heard that word: If he had stood in my counsel. And since the Lord promises the perfection of all virtues at the completion of the sevenfold time, he shall not see the good which he was claiming for himself in the present time. But all this shall come to pass because he has spoken rebellion against the Lord, in saying that, the captivity of sins already loosed, they would return to Jerusalem; against whom the Apostle inveighs: Now you are full, now you are become rich, you have reigned without us; and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you!

The prolixity of the volume of the prophet Jeremiah exceeds our purpose, so that although briefly, yet we say many things. Whence also the present sixth book of Commentaries on Jeremiah will contain the mystical promises, which the Jews think, and our own judaizers think, are to be fulfilled at the consummation of the world: for they cannot yet prove that these were fulfilled under Zerubbabel. But we, following the authority of the Apostles and Evangelists, and especially of the apostle Paul, show that whatever is promised to the people of Israel in a carnal sense has been fulfilled in us spiritually, and is fulfilled today: nor is there any other contest between Jews and Christians, except this: that while both we and they believe that Christ, the Son of God, was promised; those things which are future under Christ are said by us to have been fulfilled, and by them to be yet to be fulfilled.

We therefore, who already believe that Christ has come, must needs teach that those things which are said to be future under Christ have been fulfilled; and that we are the sons of Abraham, of whom it is written: God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham, to whom the promise was made: And in thy seed shall all nations be blessed. Which blessing the vessel of election, teaching that it was fulfilled in Christ, says: He saith not, in seeds, but in thy seed, which is Christ. Pray therefore, brother Eusebius, to the Lord Jesus Christ, that with the same labor and grace of the Spirit, by which we have interpreted the promises of the other prophets, and especially of Isaiah, we may be able also to expound this prophet. Who, as much as he seems simple and easy in words, so much is he most profound in the majesty of his meanings.

(Verses 1 and following.) This word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write for thyself all the words which I have spoken to thee, in a book. For behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will bring about the return of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord, and I will bring them back (or make them dwell) in the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. While the pseudo-prophets were promising to the people in Babylon that they would soon return, who had been taken captive with Jeconiah, and Hananiah the son of Azor was preaching the same thing in Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah affirmed that this indeed would come to pass, not within two years, as they falsely said, but at the completion of seventy years: and then he is commanded to write in a book, and to commit to memory what the Lord foretells is to come.

From which it is clear that the time of the prophecy is by no means near, but that these things are to be fulfilled after a long time, when Israel and Judah are to return to their own land, and when that is to be fulfilled which Ezekiel prophesied: that the two rods are to be joined together, and that King David is to reign, of whom he writes: And my servant David shall be king over them, and there shall be one shepherd of them all. If therefore we have said anything in that prophecy, it must be understood also in the present passage, especially since Ezekiel in Babylon and Jeremiah in Jerusalem prophesied the same things at the same time. (Verses 4 and following.) And these are the words which the Lord hath spoken to Israel and to Judah, for thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of terror (or of fear), fear, and there is no peace. Ask ye, and see if a male bears young.

Why then have I seen every man's hand upon his loins, as a woman in labor, and all faces turned to paleness? First sad things are announced, so that after the greatness of the evils, joyful things may follow. For health is more welcome when sickness has been driven off; and the greatness of grief is turned into the greatness of joys. But what he says means this: so great shall be the fear, and so great the terror, that peace being put to flight, all things shall be filled with wars and blood, and even men (whose proper part it is to fight against adversaries) shall be seized with womanly fear: and they shall put their hands not to arms, but to hold their loins, as if a woman in labor were holding her sides and loins. Whence also the faces of all shall be turned to paleness, their countenances testifying by pallor to the fear of the heart.

Some interpret this passage according to tropology, so that they think that testimony: From fear of thee, O Lord, we have conceived, and been in labor, and have brought forth: we have wrought the spirit of thy salvation upon the earth, and that Apostolic saying in which he says: My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you, are to be compared to this example: which is clearly seen to pertain not to terror, but to joy, whereas the present Scripture signifies the time of the devastation and ruin of Israel. (Verse 7.) Alas, for that day is great, nor is there any like it, and it is the time of the tribulation of Jacob, but he shall be saved out of it. He foretells the time of misery, in order to bring in the time of joy.

Although, he says, so great evils shall have preceded, that the grief of all men shall be compared to the grief of a woman in labor: yet the time of the tribulation of Jacob, that is, of the people of God, shall be changed into prosperity; and he also shall be saved out of it, understanding "at that time," of which the discourse had proceeded. But understand Jacob to mean the twelve tribes, which were by no means saved under Zerubbabel, as some falsely suppose; but were saved by the calling of the Gospel. (Verses 8, 9.) And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst his bonds: and strangers shall no more rule over them, but they shall serve (or work for) the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.

This is that David, of whom the Gospel also makes mention, who will give himself to us, that, freed without fear from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him; in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. For as the first Adam and the second Adam are written of according to the truth of the body; so also is David the Lord and Savior: because according to the flesh he is of David, holy Mary contributing all that was of the stock of David, and having origin and conception of the Holy Spirit. And as to what he says: I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst his bonds, there is no doubt that under the type of Nebuchadnezzar the devil is to be understood. (Verses 10, 11.) Therefore fear thou not, my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, Israel.

For behold I will save thee from a far country, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall rest, and shall abound with all good things, and there shall be none whom he shall fear: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee. For I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I have scattered thee. But I will not make a full end of thee: but I will chastise (or instruct) thee in judgment, that thou mayest not seem innocent to thyself (or, and though I cleanse, I will not cleanse thee). This passage (περικοπὴ) is not found in the Septuagint, and in most codices of the Vulgate edition it is added under asterisks from Theodotion.

Now the divine word promises, and familiarly calls his servant Jacob, and Israel, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called servants of God (Moses too, and other prophets, and the apostle Paul at the beginning of his Epistles glories in this title); so that the two tribes and the ten, that is, the twelve, may know that they are to be saved from a far country, and that their captivity is to be loosed, and peace restored, and that they are to be filled with all abundance, according to that which is said in the psalm: Let peace be in thy strength, and abundance in thy towers. But this shall come to pass because they shall enjoy the presence of the Lord, when the adversary nations also, which had taken them captive, shall perish, and these shall be freed from among the nations. And he teaches them that they are given over not to punishment, but to instruction, that they might be judged as his own, and not perish as strangers.

For he that does not believe is already judged, that is, prejudged unto destruction. But as to what he adds: That thou mayest not seem innocent to thyself, or according to Symmachus, and though I cleanse, I will not cleanse thee; or according to Aquila, when I have instructed thee through judgment, I will by no means make thee innocent, this signifies that the whole world stands in need of the mercy of God, and that no one, however holy he may be, goes secure before the Judge: against a new heresy sprung from the old, which supposes that in this age, and in this mortal flesh, before this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality, perfection can exist in anyone, and that all the virtues together can be fulfilled by the righteous. (Verses 12 and following.) For thus says the Lord: Your fracture is incurable, your wound is most grievous. There is none to judge your cause for binding it up, there is no benefit of healing-remedies for you.

All your lovers have forgotten you, they will not seek you. For I have struck you with the wound of an enemy, with cruel (or strong) chastisement, on account of the multitude of your iniquity, your sins have become hardened (or multiplied). Why do you cry out over your affliction? Your grief is incurable; on account of the multitude of your iniquity, and on account of your hardened sins, I have done these things to you. He speaks as it were to a beautiful woman, to whom he had said above: I will chastise you in judgment, that you may not seem to yourself innocent, whether innocent or guiltless; and by metaphor to Jerusalem, because she has been most grievously wounded by the judgment of God, and can in no way be healed except by the very one who struck her, curing her. There is none, says the Lord, to judge your cause: nor is anyone able to draw over so deep a wound the skin of a scar.

Wherever you turn, there is no benefit for you, because you have offended him who is the true and only physician. All your lovers have forgotten you—whether priests, or princes, or certainly the guardianship of angels, by which you were fortified before you offended the Lord. They will not seek you, acting contrary to the Apostle, who sought those who believed, and not the things that belonged to believers. For I have struck you with the wound of an enemy, with cruel chastisement. A friend strikes differently, an enemy differently: a father strikes differently, an enemy differently. The one strikes to correct, the other strikes to kill. Whence also the Prophet says with tears: Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your wrath. But this happened, because on account of the multitude of your iniquity, your sins have become hardened. And what follows: Why do you cry out over your affliction?

Your grief is incurable on account of the multitude of your iniquity, is not found in the Septuagint; evidently because it is said a second time, on account of the multitude of your iniquity, and your hardened sins; and those who first wrote it thought it had been added. And the sense is: That I might strike you with the wound of an enemy, and beat you with cruel chastisement, was brought about by the multitude of your iniquity, and your hardened sins, which could not be healed except by the most biting powder, and burning cautery, and the sharpest iron, by which I might cut away the putrid and incurable flesh.

And yet on account of the multitude of your iniquity, and your hardened sins, I have done these things to you, not by my own will, but compelled by the reasoning of medicine. (Verses 16, 17.) Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured: and all your enemies shall be led into captivity: and those who lay you waste shall be laid waste: and all your plunderers I will give up for plunder. For I will draw a scar over you, and heal you of your wounds, says the Lord. Because they have called you an outcast (or scattered one), O Sion. This is she who had no one to seek her. And we know that these things were done under Zorobabel, when the Babylonians and Chaldeans laid waste the Assyrians, that is, Nineveh, and again the Medes and Persians took the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and Babylon was destroyed.

Then Sion began to have the Lord seeking her, and a scar was drawn over her wounds, and she was healed of her plagues, which is more fully and perfectly accomplished in Christ. (Verses 18 and following.) Thus says the Lord: Behold I will bring back the captivity (or turning) of the tents of Jacob: and I will have mercy on their dwellings (or captivity). And the city shall be built upon its own height, and the Temple shall be founded according to its own order. And out of them shall come forth praise, and the voice of those who make merry. And I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished. (And what follows: And I will glorify them, and they shall not be made small, is not in the LXX). And his sons, he says, shall be as from the beginning, and his assembly shall abide before me, and I will visit against all who afflict him. And his leader shall be from himself, and his prince shall come forth from his midst.

And I will draw him near, and he shall approach me. For who is this that applies his heart, that he may draw near to me, says the Lord? (And again this is not in the LXX.) And you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God. The type of these things went before in Zorobabel and Ezra, when the people returned, and the city began to be built upon its height, and the observance of the Temple’s religion began, and the other things contained in the very book of Ezra. But it is more fully and perfectly fulfilled in the Lord the Savior and the Apostles, when the city was built upon its height, of which it is written: A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden: and the Temple, together with its ceremonies, was founded according to its own order, so that whatever was done carnally among the former people might be fulfilled spiritually in the Church. Then went forth praise, or thanksgiving.

For this is what THODA (תודה) signifies, so that all the Apostles said: Grace to you and peace. And the voice of those who make merry, not with that merriment with which the people ate and drank and rose up to play; but with that with which David danced before the Ark of the Lord. And they were multiplied and not diminished, so that the whole world might believe in the Lord the Savior: and they were glorified, that what is written might be fulfilled: Glorious things are spoken of you, city of God. And his sons were, that is, the Apostles, as they were from the beginning, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, princes of the Israelite race. Then the Lord visited against all who afflicted the people of God, namely the adversary powers. And his leader was from himself: without doubt the Lord and Savior according to the flesh from the race of Israel, and the prince was brought forth from his midst.

The Father drew him to himself, and he approached him, so that the Son might say: I am in the Father, and the Father in me: because no one can so apply his heart to God, nor be so joined to the Father as the Son is. And what he says according to the Septuagint: And you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God, we see fulfilled in deed in part in Israel, and wholly in the multitude of the Gentiles. (Verses 23, 24.) Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord, fury going forth, and a rushing storm, shall rest upon the head of the wicked. The Lord shall not turn away the wrath of his indignation, until he has done and fulfilled the thought of his heart; in the latter days you shall understand these things.

The whirlwind of the Lord's fury and the rushing storm and tempest shall rest upon their head—whether of demons, or of those who blasphemed the Son of God: and he shall not turn away the wrath of his indignation, until he has done and fulfilled the thought of his heart; and Jerusalem shall be surrounded by an army, and utterly destroyed. But just as a craftsman cannot be understood except by the work completed; nor the skill of medicine, except after health has followed: so when the overthrow of Jerusalem shall have come, and the rejection of the former people, then believers will understand that the rejection of the Jews is the occasion of our salvation.

(Verse 1.) At that time, says the Lord, I will be God to all the families of Israel (or the race of Israel), and they shall be to me a people.

Unless the thought of the Lord shall have been fulfilled, and his fury shall have rested upon the head of the wicked, the Lord of the universe cannot be God to the families of Israel. But he says this of the remnant, which has been saved. But if it is objected to us that it is said: I will be God to the race of Israel, or to all the families of Israel, let us take up the example: If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the works of your father. And the Apostle writes: Behold Israel according to the flesh. From which he teaches that there is another Israel according to the spirit. That therefore is Israel, who perceives God with the mind, or is most upright toward the Lord, and such an Israel shall be the people of God. (Verse 2.) Thus says the Lord: The people that survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; Israel shall go to his rest.

LXX: Thus says the Lord: I found warmth in the wilderness with those who had perished by the sword. Go, and do not kill Israel. The Latin manuscripts have ridiculously, in this passage, on account of the ambiguity of the Greek word, interpreted "lupines" instead of "warmth": for the Greek θερμὸν signifies both, which itself is not found in the Hebrew. For it is written HEN (חן), which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion interpreted χάριν, that is, grace. Only the Septuagint set down "warmth," thinking the last letter was MEM. For if we read HEN with the letter NUN, it means "grace"; if with MEM, it is interpreted "warmth." But the sense according to the Hebrew is: the people of the Jews, who survived the sword; or who was able to escape the wrath of the Lord's fury, found grace in the wilderness of the Gentiles; so that amid the crowd of nations, Israel might be saved in the Church, whence he shall go and find his rest, which he had always hoped for, which the oracles of the Prophets had promised him.

But according to the LXX the understanding is this: The Lord found the warm and living Apostles, and their companions, in the wilderness of the Gentiles, among those who had been slain by their own unbelief, and had no warmth of life. Whence it is commanded to the angels, and to those who are in the ministry of God, that they should not kill all, lest Israel be utterly destroyed, and it is said to them: Go, and do not kill Israel; let there be some, at any rate, who live, some who are warm with the ardor of faith, some who escape the cold of unbelief and death, whom the Lord may find in the wilderness. (Verses 3 and following.) The Lord appeared to me from afar (or to him): and with an everlasting love I have loved you: therefore I have drawn you, taking pity on you.

And again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel: still you shall be adorned with your timbrels (or you shall take up your timbrels), and you shall go forth in the dance of those who make merry: still you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria: plant the plants, and gather the vintage: for there shall be a day, in which the watchmen shall cry out on Mount Ephraim: Arise, and let us go up to Sion, to the Lord our God. Because Israel had offended the Lord, and had said: We have no king but Caesar. And: Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours; and he had gone far away from God: therefore the Lord appeared to him after a long time, not in the time of Zorobabel and Ezra, after they were again taken captive, but he loved him with an everlasting love which shall never be blotted out by any end. And he drew him, taking pity on him.

For he was saved by no merit, but by mercy. And again he says: I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel. Let us understand this properly of the Church. For those rave who sigh for a golden and bejeweled Jerusalem, consecrating their own avarice under the mystery of the city of the Lord. Still you shall be adorned with your timbrels, that you may sing to the Lord in the churches, all the flesh of evil works in you being consumed. And you shall go forth in the dance of those who make merry, with the crowds of the Gentiles, you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. Not at all in valleys and low places; but on the mountains of Samaria, which after the captivity of the people of Israel were possessed by foreigners, to whom it is said: Plant the plants, and gather the vintage.

Then was the day of the Lord, in which the watchmen cried out—namely the Apostles, and apostolic men—on the mountain of Samaria, and on the mountain of Ephraim, of which the one signifies "watch," the other "fruitfulness." But what do the watchmen of Samaria say, or rather what do they cry out on the mountain of Ephraim? Arise, you who lie prostrate, leave behind lowly things, spurn the victims of sacrifices. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. Let us go up to Sion, that is, to the Church, where there is watching and the beholding of God. And when we shall be in Sion, or rather shall have ascended to it, let us go up likewise to the Lord our God. (Verse 7.) For thus says the Lord: Exult in gladness, O Jacob, and neigh at the head of the nations: sound aloud, sing, and say: Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.

Significantly, it is not all Israel that is saved, but the remnant of Israel, the Lord commanding and saying: Exult in gladness, you who are of Jacob, and neigh, referring all things to the head of the nations, because the tail has now become the head. Sound aloud, sing, and say. What is it that they are commanded to say? Save, O Lord, your people. What people? Certainly the remnant of Israel, which according to election have been saved. Of whom Paul also, taking up the testimony of Isaiah, speaks: Unless the Lord Sabaoth had left us seed, we should have become as Sodom, and should have been made like Gomorrah. (Verse 8.) Behold, I will bring them from the land of the North, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth.

What follows: In the solemnity of the Passover, and he shall beget many sons, is not found in the Hebrew, but is read only in the Septuagint; in place of which the following is written among the Hebrews: Among whom there shall be the blind man, and the lame man, and the pregnant woman, and she that is in labor together: a great church of those returning hither. The remnants of the people of Israel are gathered through the Apostles and apostolic men, of whom we read above: The watchmen shall cry aloud on the mountain, and to whom it is commanded: Sound aloud, sing, and say, that the remnants of Israel may be saved.

The Lord himself also promises that he will bring them back from the land of the North, which is the harshest wind, but is called by the name "right," from unbelief, from the coldness of the Lord's charity; and that he will gather them from the ends of the earth, not at some other time, but in the solemnity of the Passover, that is, in the days of the Lord's Passion: when the Lord was crucified, and that was fulfilled which he himself promised in the Gospel: When I shall have been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself. Then he begot a great people, so that this saying of Isaiah might be fulfilled: For a nation has been born at once (Isaiah 66, according to the LXX). For on one day three thousand, and on another five thousand men believed.

And as for what is written in the Hebrew: Among whom there shall be the blind man and the lame man, and the pregnant woman, and she that is in labor together, a great church of those returning hither: although this has been fulfilled also according to the letter, in that the blind saw, and the lame walked; nevertheless it can be better understood according to the anagogic sense, that those who were previously blind through unbelief afterward believed in the Savior; and that those who were lame, to whom Elijah once said: How long do you limp on both feet? Afterward walked. And: The people that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death saw a great light (Isaiah 9:2); and the lame ran, and the pregnant woman brought forth sons, the great Church of those returning to the faith. The Jews think this was fulfilled when, under Ezra, after the day of the Passover, they went out from Babylon so as to return to Jerusalem, in which there was a type, and not the reality.

For they cannot prove that at that time all the things which we read, and are yet to read, were fulfilled. (Verse 9.) In weeping they shall come (or go forth): and in mercy I will bring them back, and I will lead them by torrents of water in a straight way, and they shall not stumble (or shall not err) therein. For I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. If we read according to the Hebrew, "in weeping they shall come" (for this is what YABU יבאו indicates), we shall say that sometimes weeping is also a sign of exceeding joy, according to that saying: I weep for joy. But if, according to the Septuagint, who said: "in weeping he shall go forth, and in mercy," or "unto consolation I will bring them back," we shall assign the sense that is also given in the Psalms: They went forth weeping, casting their seeds; but coming, they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves.

For they wept when they were led captive, and they received the greatest consolation when they were brought back by the mercy of the Lord. And the Lord led them through the apostles and apostolic men, full of waters and of a most abundant river, in the straight way, namely of faith, not in the unbelief of the Jews. And they shall not, he says, stumble therein, because they have ceased to be blind, to whom it was once said: If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now, because you say, "We see," your sin remains. We may also understand the straight way as Christ, in which whoever walks shall not stumble. I have become, he says, a father to Israel, who has been brought back, and Ephraim is my firstborn. For where sin once abounded, grace has abounded still more. Scripture testifies that Ephraim is a type of the people gathered from the nations.

For he was the younger son of Joseph, and he stole away the birthright from Manasseh, who by nature was the firstborn; but in the mystery of the cross, with the hands crossed, he who stood at Jacob's left received the blessing of the right hand. And he who had stood at the right, being blessed with the left, was reduced to the second rank. And just as Jacob supplanted Esau, so Ephraim seized the birthright from Manasseh. And the whole people of the ten tribes was called Ephraim, because Jeroboam the son of Nebat, from this tribe, was the first to obtain the kingdom in Samaria. (Verses 10 ff.) Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and announce it in the isles that are far off, and say: He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and has delivered him from the hand of one more powerful (or of one stronger).

And they shall come, and they shall praise on Mount Sion, and they shall flow together to the good things of the Lord, over the wheat, and the wine, and the oil, and the offspring of sheep and of herds. And their soul shall be like a watered garden (or like a fruitful tree), and they shall hunger no more. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance (or the virgins), and the young men and the old together, and I will turn their mourning into joy, and I will comfort them, and I will make them glad after their sorrow. And I will inebriate the soul of the priests with fatness (or of the sons of Levi), and my people shall be filled with my good things, says the Lord. The calling of the nations is clearly shown, Scripture saying: Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and announce it in the isles that are far off, and say. What do they announce to the isles that are situated far off?

That the Lord, who scattered Israel, will himself gather him. It was, therefore, by no means by the power of adversaries that they were scattered, but by the will of the Lord. And he will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. For the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, at the price of his own blood, and has delivered him from the hand of one more powerful, or stronger. By which is shown that the adversary powers are stronger than the frailty of human nature. And as far as strength on either side goes, those are stronger by nature, but we are stronger by faith, if only we deserve to be delivered by him who is able to bind the strong man, and plunder his house.

And they shall come, he says—without doubt, once delivered from the hand of the powerful—and shall praise their deliverer on Mount Sion, that is, in the Church, and shall flow together to the good things of the Lord, an abundance of all things, which is perceived not in the crops and foods of this flesh, but in the variety of virtues. Over the wheat, he says, and the wine, and the oil, from which the bread of the Lord is made, and the type of his blood is fulfilled, and the blessing of sanctification is shown, Scripture saying: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows. And the offspring of sheep, who are the simple ones in the Church, and of herds, which have horns, and toss aside adversaries.

But that we may know that these blessings pertain by no means to the body, but to the soul, there follows: And their soul shall be like a watered garden, or like a fruitful tree, which is planted beside the courses of waters, and like the paradise of the Lord in delights. And they shall hunger no more, he says. Not with that hunger of which it is written: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice; but with that hunger which is changed by satiety, and which excludes all lack of things. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, of whom the Apostle writes: For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And the young men, to whom John speaks: I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. And the old, to whom the same, in a mystical utterance, testifies: I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

And I will turn, he says, their mourning into joy, so that those whom the cross had terrified, the resurrection may gladden. And I will comfort them, and I will make them glad after their sorrow, according to that which the Lord says: Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And I will inebriate the soul of the priests, who have the knowledge of God, from whose mouth men inquire of the law of the Lord, who believe in him to whom the Prophet sings: You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek. But what follows according to the Septuagint: Of the sons of Levi, is not found in the Hebrew. And it is clear that this is by no means said of those priests who are the sons of Levi, but of those of whom Melchizedek was a preceding type. The inebriation of the priests is also shown in the Apostles, when they were fervent in faith, and were said to be full of new wine.

Whence also the place in which the Lord was arrested is called Gethsemane, which in our tongue means "valley of fatness." And when the priests have been made fat by the doctrine of the Lord, and, inebriated at the banquet of Joseph, shall have said: How excellent is your cup that makes me drunk! Then also this shall come to pass, which the Lord now promises: And my people shall be filled with my good things. All of which is now bestowed in part; but then it shall be given in full, when we shall see face to face, and the body of our lowliness shall have been changed into the glory of the resurrection. (Verse 15.) Thus says the Lord: A voice was heard on high of lamentation, weeping and mourning, of Rachel weeping for her sons, and she refused, because they are not. LXX: Thus says the Lord: A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and weeping, and mourning, of Rachel weeping for her sons, and she refused to be comforted, because they are not.

Matthew took his testimony neither according to the Hebrew, nor according to the Septuagint. For we read in him, after the description of the slaughter of the infants: Then was fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying: A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and much wailing: Rachel, weeping for her sons, and she refused to be comforted, because they are not (Matthew 2:17,18). From which it is clear that the Evangelists and Apostles by no means followed the interpretation of anyone from the Hebrew; but, as Hebrews themselves from among Hebrews, expressed in their own words what they read in Hebrew. Rachel, the mother of Joseph, when she was coming to Bethlehem, was suddenly seized with the pain of childbirth, and bore a son, whom the midwife, because she was dying in giving birth, called Benoni, that is, "son of my sorrow." But his father Jacob changed the name, and called him Benjamin, that is, "son of the right hand" (Genesis 35:18).

It is asked, then, how the Evangelist Matthew applied the testimony of the Prophet to the killing of the little ones, since it is clearly written of the ten tribes, whose chief city was not Ephrata, and is by no means in the tribe of Ephraim, but in the tribe of Judah: for it is Bethlehem also, δυνώνυμος of the same name. Whence also the names of both agree. Bethlehem is called "house of bread." Ephrata means καρποφορία, which we may call "fruitfulness." Because, therefore, Rachel was buried in Ephrata, that is, in Bethlehem, as both the Holy Scripture and the inscription of her tomb testify even today, she is said to weep for the boys who were slain near her, and in her own regions. Some of the Jews interpret this passage thus, that when Jerusalem was captured under Vespasian, countless thousands of captives were sent to Rome by this road through Gaza and Alexandria.

Others, however, say that in the last captivity under Hadrian, when the city of Jerusalem was also overthrown, an innumerable people of every age and both sexes was sold at the market of the Terebinth. And for this reason it is abominable to the Jews to visit that most celebrated market. Let them say what they will; we shall say that the Evangelist Matthew rightly took his testimony with reference to the place in which Rachel was buried, so that she wept for the sons of the neighboring villages round about as if for her own. (Verses 16, 17.) Thus says the Lord: Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord. And they shall return from the land of the enemy (or of the enemies) and there shall be hope for your latter end, says the Lord: and the sons shall return to their own borders.

According to the letter this has not yet come to pass, for we do not read that the ten tribes, which are exiled in the cities of the Medes and Persians, have returned to the land of Judea; but according to the spirit, it was fulfilled in the Passion of the Lord, and is fulfilled even to this day: when Israel is saved out of the whole world, and it is said to Rachel: Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from tears. And the sense is: Cease weeping, for the Lord has looked upon your former works: And your sons shall return from the land of the enemy, lest you be held by present grief. For there is hope for your latter end, says the Lord. And your sons shall return to their own borders, which their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob possessed.

But we understand it better of the little ones, that they have a reward for the blood poured out for Christ; and instead of the land of the enemy Herod, they possess the kingdoms of heaven; and they are to return to their former abode, when, in place of the body of lowliness, they shall have received a glorious body. This is the final hope, when the just shall shine as the sun (Wisdom 3), and those who were once little children and infants at the breast, without growth of age, and without the injuries and labor of the body, shall rise again as a perfect man, unto the measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4). (Verses 18, 19.) Hearing, I have heard Ephraim as he wandered away (or lamented); thou hast chastised me, and I was instructed like an untamed young bull (or like a calf, and I did not learn); convert me, and I shall be converted; for thou art the Lord my God. For after thou didst convert me (or, I was taken), I did penance.

And after thou didst make it known to me (or, thou didst show me), I struck my thigh (or, I groaned), I was confounded, and I blushed (or, from the day of confusion, and I showed thee), because I bore the reproach of my youth. God speaks, saying that he heard Ephraim speaking thus, and lamenting. No one doubts that this signifies the ten tribes, over whom Jeroboam the son of Nabath first reigned, who also made the golden calves in Dan and Bethel, so that the people, seduced by this error, might cease to worship and adore the God of Israel. Thou hast chastised me, he says, and I have been chastised. Every correction, which for the present seems to be a matter of sorrow, profits unto salvation; and afterward it brings forth peaceable fruit. And as to what he says: Like an untamed young bull, or like a calf, and I did not learn, this signifies that he was instructed by much labor and stripes, so that he might be converted to penance, and yet did not profit.

Convert me, he says, and I shall be converted. Therefore this very thing, that we do penance, we cannot fulfill unless we strive by the help of God. For after thou shalt have converted me, and I shall have been converted to thee, then I shall know that thou art the Lord my God, and my errors and sins shall in no way slay me. And after thou hast converted me, I did penance. See how great is the help of God, and how frail the condition of man: so that this very thing, that we do penance, we can by no means accomplish unless the Lord first converts us. And after, he says, thou hast shown me, either penance itself, or the knowledge of thee, or, I have known thee, I struck my thigh. This is the sign of one grieving and lamenting, and weeping over his former error, that he should strike his thigh with his hand, and confess that he had formerly been foolish.

I was confounded, he says, and I blushed, or from the day of confusion. For what time is not a time of our confusion, if we recall our ancient sins, and take to memory all the evil we have done? And as to what the Septuagint and the Fifth Edition say, and I showed thee, it signifies that after he groaned, and knew his own offenses, he then came to such progress that he even showed God to others who were ignorant of him, according to what David, doing penance, says: I will teach the wicked thy ways, and the impious shall be converted to thee. And as to what he says: Because I bore the reproach of my youth, he says that he sinned through the ignorance of his age, so that he might more easily obtain pardon, according to that which David sings: Remember not the sins of my youth, and my ignorances. Whence also in what follows God calls him a little child, and one abounding in delights.

But he says this on account of the abundance of riches and the fertility of the land, in which the tribe of Ephraim luxuriates even to this day. (Verse 20.) Is Ephraim an honorable son (or beloved) to me: is he a delicate child, because since I spoke concerning him (or, my words in him), remembering I will remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him: pitying I will have pity on him, says the Lord. When Ephraim does penance, and says: In the beginning thou didst instruct me, and I was instructed like an untamed young bull; and at the end: Because thou hast borne the reproach of my youth; the Lord answers, and sustains him, now converted to himself with his whole mind, with this oracle: Ephraim is a son beloved to me, whom I loved from the beginning so greatly that I preferred him to his brother Manasseh. A son honorable, who contrary to the order of nature received the honor of the firstborn by the Lord's favor.

A delicate child, of whom it is written: The children of Ephraim who bend and shoot the bow, turned back in the day of battle. Against whom, and to whom, the whole book of the prophet Hosea is directed, whom Jacob blessed. Let us understand delights in this place according to what is said in the psalm: Delight thou in the Lord, and he will give thee the petitions of thy heart. Instead of which, in the Greek and in the Hebrew it is found, abound in delights. Whence also paradise in Eden is called the paradise of delights. Because, he says, my words were in him, I will remember him still with remembrance. Lest the blessing be thought gratuitous, and conferred rather from the indulgence of the giver than from the merit of him upon whom it was bestowed, therefore he says: I will remember him, because my words were in him. Not in his mouth, not on his lips, but in the depths of the affection of his heart.

For which reason also my bowels are troubled for him. To whom he also speaks through Hosea: What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? What shall I do to thee, Israel? I will make thee as Adamah, and as Zeboim. My heart is turned within me: my bowels are troubled. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, and I will not destroy Ephraim. Pitying I will have pity on him, says the Lord. My words indeed were in him, and he received all my commandments with an eager mind, and kept them in his heart: but nevertheless, pitying I will have pity on him, says the Lord, that he might show that all the justice of men needs the mercy of God.

Verse 21. Set up for yourself watchtowers, appoint for yourself bitternesses: direct your heart into the straight way in which you walked. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. How long will you be dissolved in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall encompass a man. LXX: Set up for yourself watchmen: make for yourself a penalty: give your heart to your shoulders: the way in which you walked. Return, O virgin Israel, return mourning into your cities. How long will you turn away, O despised daughter? For the Lord has created you in salvation for a new planting: in your salvation men shall go about. Where we have said, "How long will you be dissolved in delights," Symmachus put, "How long will you sink into the depth?" But I have set forth each edition in full, so that I might show that this most obscure chapter, containing the mysteries of the Church, was either unknown or omitted by the Septuagint (or whoever else translated this prophet).

The Hebrew word SIONIM (ציונים) is translated either as "watchmen" or as "watchtowers," as Aquila and Symmachus have interpreted it. Whence I marvel what the Vulgate edition meant by putting "Sion" for SIONIM, that is, for "watchmen," thus confusing the reader's understanding, so that he might suppose that after Ephraim the word of God was suddenly directed to Sion and to the tribe of Judah, when the discourse is continuously addressed to Ephraim, to whom he spoke above: "Hearing I have heard Ephraim." And: "Ephraim is an honorable son to me," or a delicate child, to whom he now also speaks: "Set up for yourself watchtowers," or watchmen, who might announce to you beforehand the coming of so great a felicity of all things.

And what follows, "bitternesses," which in Hebrew are called THEMRURIM (תמרורים), for which Symmachus has interpreted "transmutations," this indicates that she ought to weep either for her ancient sins, or for the greatness of her joy, and be wholly converted to the Lord with her whole mind, and set, or direct, her heart into the way by which she departed, for from thence she shall return. And what the Seventy have said instead of this, "Give your heart to your shoulders," signifies that she ought to join her thoughts to her deeds, or to contemplate the shoulders of those bearing her back from captivity. Isaiah pursues this more fully, asserting that they are to be brought back on camels, and chariots, and litters. Return, he says, O virgin Israel, return to your cities, which as a captive you have deserted: how long will you be dissolved by negligence, and wander in profound error? Behold what I am about to say, and attend diligently whence so great a blessedness is to be expected for you. Hear what you had never known before.

The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth. Without the seed of a man, without any intercourse or conception, a woman shall encompass a man within the bosom of her womb, who indeed, according to the increase of age, through infant cries and infancy, will seem to advance in wisdom and age; but the perfect man will be contained in the womb of a woman for the usual months. Whence Symmachus and Aquila have interpreted according to our edition. But what the Vulgate edition meant in this place, I could say, and could find some sense, were it not sacrilege to argue about the words of God by human reasoning; but Theodotion, he too agreeing with the Vulgate edition, has interpreted: "The Lord has created a new salvation, in salvation man shall go about," putting the singular for the plural. And at the same time this too must be noted, that the birth of the Savior, and the conception of God, is called a creation. Verse 23.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: They shall yet say this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I shall have turned back their captivity: The Lord bless you, O beauty of righteousness, O holy mountain. And Judah shall dwell in it, and all its cities together, farmers and those driving flocks. LXX: Thus said the Lord of powers, the God of Israel: They shall yet say this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I shall have led back its transmigration: Blessed be the Lord over the righteous, his holy mountain, and those who dwell in the land of Judea, and in every city of it, together with the farmer, and it shall be lifted up among the flock.

According to the Hebrew it is clear that, in the return of Israel, and their captivity being turned back into their land, the cities of Judah shall be inhabited, and it shall be said to them severally: The Lord bless you, who is truly the beauty of righteousness, and the holy mountain, in which whoever shall dwell will fear no snares. And Judah shall dwell without iniquity in his cities: and there shall be farmers, and a multitude of flocks, which seems in part to have been fulfilled under Zerubbabel and Ezra. But the fullness of the prophecy is to be referred to the times of Christ: either in the first advent, when these things were done spiritually; or in the second, all things are fulfilled, according to us spiritually, according to the Jews and our judaizers carnally. Furthermore, according to the Seventy, the sense here is this: This word shall yet be said in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I shall turn back its captivity. What shall be said?

Blessed be the Lord over the righteous, his holy mountain. The mountain which deserves to receive the signification of righteousness and holiness is none other than the Savior. But it is foolish, in the Jewish error, to believe an irrational and insensible mountain to be righteous and holy. It is he of whom it is also written in what follows: And in every city of it, understood, of the Savior: together with the farmer, there is no doubt that this signifies the Lord, of whom it is written in the Gospel: "I am the vine, you are the branches: my Father is the farmer". Whence the Apostle also says: "You are God's cultivation, you are God's building". And what follows, "and it shall be lifted up among the flock," shows this, that in each flock the righteous one, and holy one, and farmer, the Lord himself, is lifted up, and ascends to the heights in his servants and believers. Verse 25.

For I have satiated the weary soul (or, for I have satiated every thirsting soul), and I have filled every hungering soul (or, replenished it): therefore I was awakened, and I saw: and my sleep was sweet to me. The change of persons makes the understanding of the Prophets obscure. The Lord had said, They shall yet say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall have turned back their captivity. But what shall they say? Without doubt this which follows: The Lord bless you, O beauty of righteousness, O holy mountain. And again, when they say these things, the Lord answers: For I have satiated the weary soul, or thirsting, and I have filled every hungering soul. And when he says this, the people who had come from captivity answer: Therefore I was awakened, and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me. Because the Lord satiates the weary, or thirsting, soul, and says in the Gospel: "Let him who thirsts come to me, and drink".

And: "He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly". And he satisfies every hungering soul, and thirsting one. Concerning which thirst and hunger the same one testifies in the Gospel: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied". And it must be noted that drunkenness is here put in a good sense, of which it is said in the Song: "Eat, friends, drink, and be inebriated, dearest ones". With which drunkenness Joseph also was inebriated with his brothers at noon. And these, having been inebriated and satiated, who had been weary and had hungered, give thanks, answering: I was awakened, and I saw the Lord, namely, raising them up and saying: "Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you". And my sleep, he says, was sweet to me, as if imitating the words of my Lord who says: "I slept, and I was in a deep sleep, and I rose up, for the Lord sustained me".

(Verse 27. Seqq.) Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, with the seed of men, and the seed of cattle. And as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to scatter, and to destroy, and to afflict: so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no more say, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children shall be set on edge; but every man shall die for his own iniquity. Every man who shall eat a sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. "House and house," that is, "the house of Israel and the house of Judah," is not found in the Septuagint: but only "Israel and Judah," so that it reads: and I will sow Israel and Judah. And what follows, "with the seed of men and of cattle," we ought to refer to rational and simple beings.

And as it was said at the beginning of Jeremiah to him: "Behold, I have set you today over nations, and over kingdoms, to pluck up, and to destroy, and to scatter, and to pull down, and to build, and to plant"; and I have watched over them to do what I threatened: so, he says, I will now watch over them, to build and to plant. For you are "God's cultivation, God's building". All promises of this kind, according to the Jews and our judaizers, are thought to be fulfilled in the thousand-year kingdom. But we, as the Apostle says: "I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase": and as the prophet Isaiah recalls that the Savior is the builder of hedges and of houses, we maintain that this was fulfilled spiritually at the first advent of Christ, and fulfilled in part, not wholly: for now we see through a glass, and in an enigma, and we do not know as we ought to know.

But when that which is perfect shall come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Or certainly we believe it is to be fulfilled in the second advent, when the Lord shall appear in his majesty, and the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, that all Israel may be saved, and not in part through individuals, but that God may be all in all. And what is added: "In those days they shall no more say, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children shall be set on edge," and the rest, we have discussed more fully in the explanations of Ezekiel, when we interpreted that passage: "Son of man, what mean you by this parable concerning the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

As I live, says the Lord, if this parable shall be used any more in Israel, for all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son. The soul that sins, it shall die". By which we learn that it is not the Lord who makes death, but sin. For the soul that sins, it shall die. And this is said in the present passage, that Israel shall by no means be offended forever by the sins of the fathers; but shall be saved by his own merits, and by faith in Christ, after many ages. And it must be observed that vices and sins are called a sour grape, so that the teeth of those eating it are set on edge, and cannot perceive its sweetness, of which it is said: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet". Whoever does not understand the Scriptures as the truth of the matter holds, eats a sour grape.

Whence all heretics, believing perverse things, cannot eat the bread that comes down from heaven, but their teeth are set on edge, not by the harshness of the food, but by the fault of their own teeth. (Verses 31, 32.) Behold, days come, saith the Lord, and I will strike (or arrange) with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda, a new pact (or covenant), not according to the pact (or covenant) which I made with your fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand, that I might lead them out of the land of Egypt. A pact (or covenant) which they made void, and I ruled over them (or I neglected them), saith the Lord.

And this shall be the pact (or covenant) which I will strike with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their inward parts (or in their mind), and I will write it in their heart, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord, for I will be merciful to their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

This testimony the apostle Paul, or whoever else wrote the Epistle, used in writing to the Hebrews, and all the men of the Church thereafter say that all these things were fulfilled at the first coming of the Saviour, and that the new Testament, that is, the Gospel, succeeded the old Testament, by which the letter of the law was changed into the law of the spirit; so that all sacrifices too, and circumcision, and the sabbath, might be fulfilled spiritually. But as to the fact that we render "pact" for "Testament," this belongs to the Hebrew truth, although "Testament" may rightly be called a pact; because in it is contained the will and the attestation of those who enter into a pact. When Israel was led out of the land of Egypt, there was such familiarity of God with that people that he is said to have taken hold of their hand, and to have given a pact, which they made void, and on that account the Lord neglected them.

But now in the Gospel, after the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension, he promises that he will give a pact, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart. And since the Lord's Testament will have been written in the mind of believers, that he himself will be to them for God, and they will be to him for a people, so that they no longer seek Jewish teachers, and traditions, and commandments of men, but are taught by the Holy Spirit, if only they deserve to hear: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you". But the Spirit breathes where it wills, and has diverse graces. And the knowledge of the one God is the possession of all virtues. And this, he says, shall come to pass, because I will be merciful to their iniquity; and their sin I will remember no more.

From which it is clear, according to the understanding of this passage (περιοχῆς), that the foregoing is to be understood of the first coming of the Saviour, when both peoples, Israel and Juda, were joined to him. But if anyone is troubled as to why he said: I will arrange with the house of Israel and the house of Juda a new pact, or Testament, not according to the pact which I made with your fathers, let him understand that first the Church of Christ came from the Jews, and that the Lord the Saviour came to them and said: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel"; and that the Apostles confirmed this very thing: "To you indeed it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken; but because you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles".

For it was not fitting to give the bread of the children to the dogs, but because the children were unwilling to receive the father coming into his own, he gave to all power, that whoever should receive him, might become sons of God. (Verses 35, 36.) Thus saith the Lord, who gives the sun for the light of the day, the order of the moon and the stars for the light of the night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar: The Lord of hosts is his name. If these laws (or these statutes) shall cease before me, saith the Lord, then also shall the seed of Israel fail, so that it be not a nation before me for all days. And in the beginning of Genesis we read that the sun was set in the sky for the light of the day, and the moon also and the stars for the light of the night.

And in the psalm: "Day to day utters speech, and night to night shows knowledge", because night and day succeed one another in turn. How, he says, the order of things, and especially of the heavenly stars, cannot be changed, and the waves of the roaring sea are rolled to the shores, and the terrible crash of the whirlpools and swelling waves is heard, and it cannot go further than has been commanded by the ordinance of God, according to that saying: "Thou hast set a bound which they shall not pass, neither shall they turn again to cover the earth": so, he says, the seed and race of Israel shall be perpetual by the will of the Lord, nor shall it ever fail. But the "laws" here are not to be understood as those of Moses, but as the constitution and order of nature.

Let us ask the Jews, if the heavens shall perish, and all shall grow old like a garment; and it is said to the Lord: "But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." How can the seed of Israel be perpetual? For either, the heavens perishing, the seed of Israel too will perish; or if it is to be perpetual, then neither will the heavens perish. But if Scripture cannot lie, and the heavens are to perish, then the seed of Israel too will perish, especially since Jacob also speaks to his sons: "Come, and I will tell you what shall befall you in the last days." But when it is said "in the last days," then the world will cease to be, and another disposition of things will come about. This against them.

But as to our own, that this world is not perpetual, the Gospel also shows, saying: "Heaven and earth shall pass away." And: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." Let us also say otherwise: as long as this world shall be, the seed of Israel and the Jewish nation will remain, not in those who are now unbelieving, but in those who have believed with the Apostles and through the Apostles, so that a remnant might be saved. (Verse 37). Thus saith the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth beneath searched out, then I also will cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord. The Septuagint: Thus saith the Lord: If the heaven shall be raised higher, and if the pavement of the earth beneath shall be lowered, then I also will not reject the race of Israel, saith the Lord, for all that they have done.

In this passage the Hebrew differs greatly from the Vulgate edition. Let us say first, according to the Hebrew: If the heavens above can be measured, and their height known, or the foundations of the earth searched out, and their extremities comprehended by reasoning, then I, he says, will cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord. But just as it is impossible for us to know the summit of the heavens and the foundations of the earth, so also it will be impossible for me to cast off all the seed of Israel. But if I shall cast off all the seed of Israel, then the summit of the heavens will be measured, and the extremities of the earth.

This syllogism is also woven in the Gospel, when one impossibility is compared to another impossibility: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." For just as that cannot happen, so neither can this happen; but if this were to happen, then that also would happen, which was thought impossible. Those therefore err who expound this passage otherwise, adducing also that testimony, that the Son could have asked the Father, and brought twelve legions of angels to his aid. To this sense the Seventy have translated the contrary, saying: If the heaven shall be raised higher, and the pavement of the earth beneath be lowered; then I, he says, will not reject the seed of Israel, saith the Lord, for all that they have done. But if this is so, then the race of Israel will be rejected.

For just as the heaven cannot be higher than it is, nor the earth lower than it is: so also the race of Israel can in no way be rejected. If we see the Jews glorying in this testimony according to the Hebrew, let us agree with them that not all the seed of Israel has been cast off. For not all have been cast off, but only those who were unbelieving. (Verse 38).

Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and the city shall be built to the Lord, from the tower of Ananeel unto the gate of the corner, and the measuring line shall go out further (or, according to Symmachus, the cord) of its measure over against it, upon the hill Gareb, and it shall compass about Goatha, and all the valley of ruins (for which Theodotion set down the very Hebrew word PHAGARIM פגרים), and the ashes, and all Asaremoth (which we read better as ASADEMOTH השדמות, for which Aquila translated "suburban places") unto the torrent Cedron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the East: it shall be holy to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor destroyed any more for ever.

Those who accept a thousand-year reign of Christ upon earth in the land of Judea, namely the Jews and our own judaizers, attempt to show that the tower of Ananeel, the gate of the corner, the hill Gareb, Goatha, the valley of Phagarim, and all Asademoth, and the torrent Cedron, and the place of the corner of the eastern horse gate, are literal places; and there they say the sanctuary of the Lord, that is, the temple, is to be built, and to remain forever. But because they cannot show this fulfilled after the captivity, in the times of Zorobabel and Ezra, they pass over to the times of Christ, whom they say will come at the consummation of the world, so that, golden and bejewelled according to the Apocalypse of John, Jerusalem may descend, and that in this space of earth, that is, from that place to that place, it may be built round about.

And they seize upon this little golden proof of their suspicion, that from the tower of Anathoth, which today is called the tower of Jeremiah, three miles distant from Jerusalem, unto the torrent Cedron, which is written of in the Gospel, and is in the valley of Josaphat, where there was a garden, in which also Judas the traitor betrayed the Savior, the foundations of the city are laid. We are about to read, they say, in what follows, that Anameel the son of Sallum was the cousin of Jeremiah, whose field he bought, and this is the tower of Ananeel—being ignorant of the Hebrew truth. For here, according to the Hebrew, it is written "from the tower of ANANEEL" (חננאל), with nun as the middle letter; but there: "Behold ANAMEEL (חנמאל) the son of Sallum thy cousin shall come to thee," with mem as the middle letter.

Invoking therefore the Lord the Savior, who has the key of David, who opens and none shuts, who shuts and none opens; who also opened the sealed book of Isaiah and of all the Prophets; and the twenty-four elders holding harps worshipped him, because he alone was able to unlock the divine mysteries—let us undertake the building of the city to which the prophetic word is directed: Glorious things are spoken of thee, city of God; and: The rushing of the river makes glad the city of God.

The Church, therefore, is built from the tower of obedience, or of grace, and of the gifts of God (for this is what Ananeel means), unto the gate of the corner, which, though it may seem to have a sublime beginning, yet as long as we subsist in this flesh, we cannot possess the straight line of truth: but we stand at the corner and with broken lines, and the measuring cord goes out further against it, that is, against the gate of the corner, upon the hill Gareb, which in our tongue is translated either "sojourning" or "scab": that it may teach us that we are strangers and pilgrims, and are not to itch in our ears, nor easily give consent to the novelty of the worst doctrines.

And it shall compass about, he says, Goatha, which the Seventy have translated "by circuit," with chosen stones, which are rolled upon the face of the earth, and are bound together by the corner-stone, as the apostle Peter says: You also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter ii, 5). And all, he says, the valley of Phagarim, which is translated "of ruins"; and the ashes—it is understood, "it shall compass about"—so that although we may seem to ourselves to be on the hills, yet we should always fear ruins and consider the ashes; and, repenting, say with David: For I did eat ashes as it were bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. Whence also it is said to those who lie fallen: Shall not he that falleth arise again? Saith the Lord.

And all, he says, sademoth, which we have translated "the region of death," dividing one word into two: sade, which is called "region," and moth, which is translated "of death"; for which Aquila translated "suburban," or "fields" and "country places." Now the region of death is the region of sinners; and the suburban region is the region of pleasures, which extends unto the torrent Cedron, where the Lord was betrayed, which is translated "darkness". See how many places the Church has, and how that apostolic saying: That it might be without spot or wrinkle, is kept for the future and for heavenly things. You hear of corners, you hear of scab, you hear of ruins and ashes, and the region of death, and darkness—and yet you glory in your own virtue and sinlessness. Then it follows: and unto the corner of the gate. And here again a corner, lest any true justice, any sure victory, be shown to exist in this age.

This corner of the gate too, though it be Eastern, whence the light goes forth, yet is called of horses: to teach us that we have need of a race and of a contest, and at last may deserve to hear with the Lord: Thou didst ride upon thy horses, and thy chariots are salvation. In the Eastern gate, in the gate of chariots, is the sanctification of the Lord. And then let us think ourselves perfect, when we shall have said to the Lord: The chariots of God are ten thousand, thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sinai, in the holy place. A building of this kind, which is set upon the foundation of Christ, of which the Apostle also speaks: As a wise architect I have laid the foundation, shall never be destroyed, but shall remain forever. Obscure and difficult matters must be discussed at greater length, so that we may run more briefly over what is manifest.

The word that was made unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Sedecias king of Judah, which is the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Judah. For Sedecias king of Judah had shut him up, saying: Why dost thou prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord. Not only the words but also the deeds of the Prophets are examples to us unto virtue. Jeremiah could have proclaimed prosperous things, and enjoyed the friendship of king Sedecias; but he preferred to obey God rather than men, and him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, rather than him who could have power only over the body.

And this must be noted, that it was the tenth year of the reign of Sedecias, Jerusalem already besieged, and consumed by sword, famine, and pestilence, with captivity near at hand, and yet Sedecias persists in his purpose; and in some measure his clemency is shown, in that he ordered him to be shut up not in the prison itself, but in the vestibule of the prison—a free custody, as it were, so that he could not escape—as though all Jerusalem, closed in by fortifications, were not itself a common prison for its inhabitants. That same year is the eighteenth year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, who took up his rule in the fourth year of king Joachim. Now the whole cause of the king's anger is this, that he speaks in the name of God the things that had been commanded him: Verse 4. Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

And Sedecias king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with his mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes. And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him, saith the Lord. But if ye fight against the Chaldeans, ye shall have no success. This was the cause of the king's anger, that he preferred truth to falsehood, and said that both the city of Jerusalem and king Sedecias were to be taken; and what is more grievous, that he would see the face of the king of Babylon, and, humbled and captive, would speak with the madness of a most powerful king. For it is a greater terror to see him whom you fear, and to endure the reproach of words before you endure the torment of punishments. And he shall lead, it says, Sedecias to Babylon, and there he shall be.

For which the Seventy translated, "and he shall enter Babylon"; of which the one signifies being dragged unwilling, the other going by his own will. And there, it says, he shall be. He puts an ambiguous word, lest it should seem that he was prophesying torments and miseries. And what follows: Until I visit him, saith the Lord: and if ye fight against the Chaldeans, ye shall have no success, is not found in the Seventy. And he prudently tempered the sentence, which can be referred both to a good and to a bad meaning. For visitation, as I have often said, signifies both consolation and punishment.

Verse 6. And Jeremiah said: The word of the Lord came unto me, saying: Behold, Hanameel the son of Sellum thy cousin shall come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption by kinship belongs to thee.

That a secret word of God had been made to Jeremiah no one could know, except by his own telling, to whom it had been made: and it is foretold to him that Hanameel his cousin will come to him, and will bring the possession of a field that had been his own; and that this place is in Anathoth, one of the suburbs which by the Law were given to the priests throughout the several tribes and cities: and it was not lawful for a possession to pass from one tribe to another, nor from one family to another family (whence also the daughters of Salphaad received an inheritance among their brothers); and especially the suburbs of the priests could not be sold to any other, until the year of remission, except to him whom kinship of blood required. Therefore his cousin, his brother's son, comes to him, and offers him the purchase which is owed to him by right of kinship. Helcias and Sellum were full brothers.

The son of Helcias was Jeremiah; the son of Sellum, Hanameel. Helcias is translated "the portion of the Lord"; Jeremiah, "the loftiness of the Lord." And rightly does the height of the Lord arise from the portion of the Lord. But Sellum is translated into our tongue "peace," or "peaceable." Hanameel means "gift," or "grace of God." Nor should we wonder that peace and grace are joined together, since this is also the beginning of the Apostolic Epistles: Grace to you and peace. First, therefore, let us merit the peace of God, and after peace grace is born to us, which lies not in the will of the possessor, but in the will of the giver. And grace of God brings the purchase to him who is placed in high places, so that although he may seem exalted, yet he still needs the grace of God.

That phrase which is often sung in the Canticle by the bride: "My cousin" (fratruelis meus), that is, ὁ ἀδελφιδοῦς μου, is called in Hebrew DODI; therefore he should be called not "fratruelis," but πατράδελφος, that is, "patruelis" (father's brother's son). Moreover, that Jeremiah was the son of Helcias, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, the very opening of this book bears witness.

Verse 8. And Hanameel my uncle's son came to me, according to the word of the Lord, into the vestibule (or court) of the prison, and said to me: Take possession of my field, which is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine, and thou art next of kin to possess it. What the word of the Lord had foretold to the Prophet was immediately fulfilled in deed. There came to me, he says, Hanameel, "grace of God," son of my uncle, that is, son of peace. He came into the vestibule of the prison, and said to me those things which the Lord had foretold he would say. Now this priestly field, whose purchase and possession was being brought to Jeremiah, is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, whose name signifies first "obedience," and then, according to "son of the right hand." And consequently he seeks the purchase of that field in which obedience and the virtue of the Lord were involved.

For which the Seventy translated πρεσβύτερον, that is, "elder," which does not suit this passage. (Vv. 9 ff.) But I understood that it was the word of the Lord, and I bought a field from Hanameel the son of my uncle, which is in Anathoth, and I weighed out to him the silver, seven staters and ten pieces of silver. And I wrote it in a book, and sealed it, and called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver in the balance. And I took the book of possession, sealed, the stipulations and the ratifications and the signs on the outside. It was indeed hard, and almost inconsistent, and worthy of laughter, that one who was already prophesying that Jerusalem was about to be captured, and that all would be led away captive, or would perish by sword, famine and pestilence, should buy a field in Anathoth which he was not to possess.

But, he says, I understood that it was the word of the Lord, and that my purchase was to be fitted to the argument and prophecy of the Lord; and therefore I acquiesced in his command to buy it; nor was it in vain that the word of God came to me concerning a matter of this kind: and I weighed out seventeen shekels of silver, which we have rendered as “staters.” Now a shekel has twenty obols, as is written in the last book of Ezekiel. And the Prophet bought for seventeen shekels, in which number the servant of the Lord, David, sang, on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and said: I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer. My God, my helper, and in him will I hope: my protector, and the horn of my salvation.

That ten is a mystical number is shown by the Decalogue, which was written on stone tablets by the finger of God, and by the day of fasting and propitiation of the seventh month. That seven also, in which is the true sabbath-keeping and rest, is holy, we prove by many testimonies of the Scriptures, of which I would have set down at least a few, were it not idle to teach what is already known. In this number, then, a possession is bought by the prophet and priest, and is written in a book and sealed, and witnesses are called in, and the silver is carefully weighed out, so that all the legal formalities of selling and buying may be observed, and the possession may be sure, strengthened by stipulations and pledges. Let those also hear this who try to claim false wills, and sometimes not even wills, without having called in witnesses for themselves. (V.

12.) And I gave the book of possession to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel my uncle's son, and in the sight of the witnesses who were written in the book of purchase, in the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the prison. Although the possession was to be given up at once—indeed to be bought for posterity, and to be bought by one who had no sons (for he had not taken a wife)—nevertheless, obedient to the Lord's command, he duly performs everything: and he gives the sealed book of possession to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah. Baruch in our language is said to mean “blessed”; he was the son of Neriah, which is interpreted “my lamp,” the Prophet saying: Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a burning light to my paths.

Neriah also, the father of Baruch, was the son of Maaseiah, that is, “of the making and work of the Lord.” Let us observe, then, with what great privileges of virtues the disciple Baruch ministered to Jeremiah, David saying: He that walked in the blameless way, this one ministered to me. Whence also Elisha, the servant of Elijah, so pleased God that after the translation of his master he even deserved to receive a double portion of his spirit. I say this as a warning to those who make use of the ministrations of wicked men, and do not dare to cast off those whom they know to be bound to them by the glue of an evil conscience. Now the book is handed over to Baruch, so great and such a man, in the sight of Hanameel, who had sold the field, and of the witnesses who had subscribed, and whose names were contained in the volume of purchase.

And, he says, In the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the prison—who, evidently, had either come to console the Prophet, or, out of zeal for the fear of God, desired to hear the words of the Lord. (Vv. 13 ff.) And I commanded Baruch before them, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these books, this sealed book of purchase, and this book which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may remain for many days. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet be possessed in this land.

With all whom the preceding discourse has related as present and looking on, Baruch, the servant and disciple, is commanded—not by the words of his teacher, but by the command of God ordering it—to take the books, one sealed, the other open, which custom of purchases is preserved even to this day, so that what the seals contain closed up within, the open volume may exhibit to those wishing to read it: both in an earthen vessel, that they may remain for many days. Firm, then, and destined to endure a long time after was the possession, which was kept with such great care, lest, if the books of purchase were left lying outside, they should be exposed to plunder, or, if buried in the ground, they should be dissolved by the moisture of the earth.

But all this is done that those who were watching might understand that Jerusalem was again to be inhabited, and the fields possessed—a thing which, although they ought to have understood it of themselves without the word of Jeremiah, they are nevertheless reminded of by the words of the Lord, and it is said to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet be possessed in this land. This is that which Jeremiah had said before: I understood that it was the word of the Lord; and for that reason he bought the field, which he was not to possess. (Vv. 16 ff.) And I prayed to the Lord after I had delivered the book of possession to Baruch the son of Neriah, saying: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God (or, thou who art, O Lord God).

Behold, thou hast made heaven and earth in thy great strength, and with thy outstretched (or exalted) arm; no word shall be difficult (or impossible) for thee (or, according to the Septuagint, Nothing is hidden from thee). Thou who showest mercy unto thousands, and repayest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, most mighty, great, powerful (which in Hebrew is called) GIBBOR (גבור): the Lord of hosts (or of powers) is thy name. Great in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought. Whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of Adam (or of men), that thou mayest render to each according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his devices.

After the purchase of the field duly celebrated, and after the sentence of the Lord, in which he promised that houses, fields, and vineyards would thereafter be possessed, the Prophet prays to the Lord, and expresses the grief of his heart with groans, saying: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God—for which the Septuagint translated, ὁ ὤν, that is, “thou who art,” O Lord God, according to that which is said to Moses: Go, say to the people of Israel: He who is has sent me to you. Not that there are no other beings; but it is one thing to exist by the benefit of the Creator, another to exist by the eternity of one's own nature. He praises the Lord, and from the creatures proclaims the Creator. And first he extols in words his power and mercy and justice over the whole race of men; then he passes to Israel, and describes in a lengthy discourse how much he has bestowed upon it.

And after such great benefits he says that they, forgetful of his goodness, provoked his clemency into bitterness, so that the city is besieged, and, before the enemy's assault upon it takes place, it is consumed by famine, and sword, and pestilence. Now he has set forth all this beforehand, in order thereafter to bring in that which seemed to constitute a reproach against the divine sentence. And dost thou say to me, O Lord God, buy the field with silver, and call in witnesses, when the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans? This is, for the present, the whole content of this passage. Now let us return to the particulars. Thou hast made heaven and earth in thy great strength. And John says of the Son: All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing that was made. For this is the strength of the Lord, the Apostle confirming it: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And with thy outstretched arm, or exalted, both of which are a sign of one who strikes. But this is the arm of which Isaiah speaks: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? No word shall be difficult for thee. For what is impossible with men is possible with God; or, to whom nothing is hidden, according to that of the Psalmist, saying: For darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be as light as day. Thou who showest mercy unto thousands, and repayest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. Great is the clemency of the Creator, to extend his mercy to a thousand generations, and to show his justice immediately only in the second generation—which, however, is itself also mingled with mercy. For he does not punish the offender at once, but awaits repentance, so that, if the children have imitated the vices of their parents, the punishment, long delayed, may then be rendered.

Most mighty, great, powerful, the Lord of hosts, or of powers, is thy name. These names indicate the power of the Creator. But the proper name of God is “Father,” which is revealed in the Gospel through the Lord, saying: Father, I have manifested thy name to men. Great in counsel. And does anyone dare to intrude into the secret of the Lord, and to pass judgment upon his judgments? And incomprehensible in thought. Him whom thought cannot comprehend, how can speech comprehend? Whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of Adam. In vain, then, does man think he can hide himself from the knowledge of God. And what follows: That thou mayest render to each according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his devices, indicates that sometimes, on account of excessive patience, his judgments seem unjust. This passage the Apostle explains more fully to the Romans: Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. The later, therefore, the vengeance upon sinners, the more just it is: after the likeness of Pharaoh, who, warned by ten plagues, and not punished, and persisting in his hardness, was at last overwhelmed by the waves of the Red Sea. (Verse 20. Ff.) Who hast set signs and portents in the land of Egypt even unto this day, and in Israel and among men (or the earth-born), and hast made thee a name as it is this day, and hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt, in signs and in portents, and in a strong hand, and an outstretched arm, and in great terror. And thou hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And they entered in and possessed it, and they did not obey thy voice, and did not walk in thy law; all that thou didst command them to do they did not do, and all these evils have come upon them. He passes from the general to the particular, and runs briefly through what he did specifically for Israel. Who hast set, he says, signs and portents in the land of Egypt, with which Egypt was afflicted even unto this day, and in Israel and among men or the earth-born. This phrase, even unto this day, is to be joined with what follows, so that we read: and in Israel and among all mortals thy signs are fulfilled daily. Or otherwise, thou didst perform signs and portents not only in Egypt, but even to this day the same strength of thy mercy has saved thy people, and thou dost come to the aid of the whole human race by the power of the Creator.

And this is to be noted, that he separates Israel from men and the earth-born, according to that saying: Israel is my firstborn son. And thou hast made thee a name as it is this day. Thy praises, he says, are celebrated in the speech of the whole world. And thou hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt. He rightly said, thy people, for at that time when it was brought forth, it was serving under the Lord's command. Thou didst bring them forth, moreover, in signs and portents, with which Egypt was struck, and in a strong hand, and in an outstretched arm, and in great terror: when the Red Sea gave a way for the people of Israel crossing over, and overwhelmed the Egyptian army: And thou hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them: namely to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Therefore they received the land of promise not by their own merit, but by the virtues of their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. For they were not yet able to take solid food, but were nourished in their infancy with honey and milk. Or certainly milk and honey signify the fertility and abundance of all things. And they entered in and possessed it. And immediately there was no interval between possession and disobedience. For abundance begets security, security negligence, negligence contempt. And they did not obey, he says, thy voice, and did not walk in thy law. In vain, then, did they promise in the wilderness, saying: All that the Lord has commanded, we will do. For the reward lies not in the promise, but in the deed: this is said to refute the impudence of those who think that man is able to fulfill all that he has promised to do. All that thou didst command them to do, they did not do, though they had indeed promised that they would do it.

And all these evils have come upon them. Evils for those who suffer them, but according to the Lord's judgment, good things, which he renders to each according to his ways.

Verse 24. Behold, siege-works have been raised against the city, that it may be taken: and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it by reason of the sword, and of famine, and of pestilence. And whatever thou hast spoken has come to pass, as thou thyself seest: and yet thou sayest to me, O Lord God, Buy the field with silver, and call witnesses, when the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans? It was the tenth year of king Zedekiah, for so it is written: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah: at that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison.

And rightly is it now said: Behold, siege-works have been raised against the city, that it may be taken: and the city has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans; nor do they have any left to conquer or to capture. For already they have been consumed by sword, famine, and pestilence: and whatever thou hast said, we see fulfilled; how then dost thou say to me, O Lord: Buy the field with silver, and call witnesses, when the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans? Therefore he does not rebuke, but asks; nor does he wish to learn so much for his own sake as for the sake of others, who were sitting in the court of the prison; and perhaps they were silently rebuking him, wondering how the same prophet, whom they believed to speak the truth, could both say that the city was to be taken, and buy a field as if he were going to possess it.

(Verse 26. Ff.) And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Shall anything be difficult (or impossible) for me: or shall any word be hidden from me? Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And the Chaldeans shall come (or shall enter in) fighting: the Chaldeans shall come against this city, and shall set it on fire, and shall burn it, and the houses, on whose roofs they sacrificed to Baal, and poured out libations to strange gods, to provoke me to anger. He joins glad things to sad, and after the overthrow of Jerusalem, promises a return to the captive people. And first he sets forth the causes of the offense and of the just fury of God, so that the greater the fault of the sinners, the greater the clemency of the Creator toward sinners may appear.

I, he says, am the Lord, the God of all flesh. By no means only of all nations, nor of the people of Israel, or as he is often accustomed to say of the saints, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob: but he said God of all flesh, so that both rational and brute animals may be believed to have been made by him. For there are some who confess the providence of the Creator only as far as rational beings, but assert that brute beasts either perish or live by chance happenings. And the prophetic word declares that nothing escapes the providence and knowledge of God: because some things were created for their own sake, others for the use of men. Shall anything be difficult or impossible for me: or shall any word indeed be hidden from me? And we have said above: Things that are impossible with men are possible with God.

And "word" here, and in many other places, we ought to understand as meaning "things." What is it, he says, that came to pass as a word? Therefore thus saith the Lord. For what had preceded, that he should place a causal conjunction, saying: Therefore thus saith the Lord. Because, he says, it is my care to govern all things, to arrange all things, and to render to each according to his ways: therefore I will deliver this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it. For first it is surrounded by an army, and Nabuchodonosor takes it in his absence, and Zedekiah is led to Riblah, and there he is delivered to the king. And the Chaldeans, he says, shall come fighting against this city. Aquila translated better, who for what is written "they shall come," rendered εἰσελεύσονται, that is, they shall enter into the city.

For they were not absent, that they should come, since indeed they had already surrounded Jerusalem, as Scripture testifies: At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem. And then: Behold, siege-works have been raised against the city, that it may be taken: and the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans. How then shall they "come" who were already present? But these who were besieging the city, he says, shall enter in, and shall take it, and shall burn it, and consume it utterly to the ground (for the Hebrew word BAU (באו), by its ambiguity, means both "they shall come" and "they shall enter in"). And the houses on whose roofs they sacrificed to Baal, the idol of the Sidonians, and poured out libations to strange gods, to provoke me to anger, so that they seem to have acted not out of error of religion, but out of a certain contention and insult toward the Creator.

Now just as the world is written to be destined to perish, according to what is written: Heaven and earth shall pass away, because it is set in the evil one, so also the houses themselves and the places in which wicked deeds have been perpetrated are subject to the wrath of God. There are some who, contentiously, refer to those very places what is written: The place where the Lord and Saviour was crucified is spiritually called Gomorrah and Egypt. Others, however, think that the whole world is signified under the name of Egypt and Gomorrah. For as Gomorrah was destroyed by divine fire, so also the world is to be burned up by the judgment of God.

Verse 30. For the children of Judah and the children of Israel were continually (or only) doing evil in my eyes from their youth. The Hebrew word ACH (אך), Aquila interpreted as πλήν, which signifies a conjunction, "verily." The first edition of Symmachus, and the Septuagint, and Theodotion, interpreted it as "only." But the second edition of Symmachus renders it διόλου, which we also have followed in the present instance, so as to say "continually." Let us then say first, according to the Hebrew: the children of Israel, and the children of Judah, doing evil continually. And the ten, he says, and the two tribes committed evil without ceasing, and there was in them a continual perseverance in the worst deeds. But if it was continual and always throughout the whole people, where is everlasting justice? Further, according to the Septuagint, who said: Only doing evil, a question arises: did other nations, at the time when Israel and Judah were sinning, not do evil?

This is resolved thus: He who has knowledge of God and departs from him, he alone sins in the eyes of God; but those who remained unbelieving sin as it were with God not seeing and not caring. Whence also David, the holy man, because he had fallen into the sin of Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, doing penance afterward, says: Against thee only have I sinned, and done evil before thee, that is, in thy sight. Then it is joined: Only doing evil in my eyes, in my sight, from their youth. And what follows: The children of Israel, who even until now provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, saith the Lord, is not found in the Septuagint, and has been added from the Hebrew. But because from their youth even to the present day they have continually transgressed, therefore the sentence of God is just, and rightly does Scripture add: Verse 31.

In my fury and in my indignation has this city been to me, from the day that they built it even unto this day, in which it is taken away from my sight. If from the time when the foundations of the city were laid, even to this day, when it was taken, and burnt, and removed from the sight of the Lord, it was always in fault, and provoked the indignation of the Lord against itself: where then (as we have often already said) is the rest of sinners?

Verse 32. Because of the malice, he says, of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they committed, provoking me to anger, they and their kings, and their princes, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Because he had said above: In my fury and in my indignation has this city been to me, from the day that they built it even unto this day, in which it is taken away from my sight; and had shown that generally none was without sin, now he enumerates by parts, both kings, and princes, and priests, and their prophets, and comprehends all in one phrase: The men, he says, of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And he beautifully did not say: My kings, and my princes, and my priests, and my prophets: but because their kings, and their princes, and their priests, and their prophets sinned.

And they turned their backs to me, and not their faces. According to that which is written elsewhere: And they turned against me a receding shoulder. For he who prays, with bowed neck, throws himself prostrate upon the ground: but he who turns his back, by that very bodily gesture shows that he disregards the one who threatens. And this, he says, they were doing.

Verse 33. When I taught them from early morning, and instructed them, and they would not hear, so as to receive discipline. Having driven away the darkness of error, and all worship of idols, my judgment being confuted, I desired daily to enlighten their hearts, and to teach the things that are right. And that he might preserve free will, he joins and says: And they would not hear, so as to receive discipline. There follows: Verse 34. And they set up their idols in the house in which my name was invoked, to defile it.

Not only at that time did Judah set up in the Temple of God a statue of an idol, which we read of at the beginning of Ezekiel: but even to this day, in the house of God, which is interpreted "Church," or in the heart and soul of believers, an idol is set up, whenever a new dogma is established, and is worshipped in secret according to Deuteronomy: Know ye not, he says, that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. (Verse 35.) And they built the high places (or altars) of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Ennom: that they might initiate their sons and their daughters to the idol Moloch.

Instead of "initiate," in the Hebrew is written EBIR (עביר), which Aquila and Symmachus rendered "cause to pass through"; the Septuagint and Theodotion translated it "offer." Concerning the valley of the sons of Ennom, which in Hebrew is called GEENNOM (גיהנם), we have spoken more fully above: that it lies beneath the springs of Siloe, and by its pleasantness, since it is a well-watered place, provoked the people to luxury, which the worship of idols follows. It should also be noted that altars and high places are called in Hebrew speech BAMOTH (במות), because of those who in the book of Samuel and of Kings are in doubt as to what this word signifies. Moloch is the idol of the Ammonites, which is translated "king." But the divine Scripture signifies that the people served not only the idol Baal, but also Moloch and all the demons in that very place.

Which I did not command them, neither did it come up into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and lead Judah into sin. Properly the tribes of Judah and Benjamin worshipped the images of demons in the shrine of Baal and Moloch. But it is evident that Joseph and Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes which are called Samaria, dwelt with the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. And so great was the evil which was done by the people, that God testifies that he never thought of it, nor did it come up into his heart, what they would do. But all these things are spoken ἀνθρωποπαθῶς (in human fashion).

And now because of these things, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, of which you say that it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. Just as to those hoping for aid, and trusting in the strength of the walls, it is prophesied that Jerusalem is to be overthrown, and the people are soon to be taken, and before the captivity are to perish by sword, famine, and pestilence: so to those despairing, and expecting no salvation after the overthrow of the city, he promises his own aid, so that both confidence and pride may merit a just sentence; and despair and humility may merit the help of God. (Verses 37 and following.) Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have cast them out in my fury, and in my wrath, and in great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell securely.

And they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all the days, and that it may be well with them and with their children after them. And I will make with them an everlasting covenant (or, I will ordain an eternal testament), and I will not cease to do them good, and I will put my fear in their heart, that they may not depart from me. And I will rejoice over them when I shall have done them good (or, and I will visit them, that I may do them good). And I will plant them in this land in truth (or in faith), with my whole heart, and with my whole soul.

Many think this was fulfilled in the time of Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, and Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, when Aggaeus and Zacharias prophesied under Ezra the priest, when the Temple was built, and under Nehemiah the walls were built round about: so that those whom before he had cast down in fury, and in wrath, and in great indignation, out of Jerusalem, and had scattered throughout the whole world; afterward, being brought back, he made to dwell securely, and they were the people of God; and the Lord was their God, and the rest which the Scripture connects. But how this can be fitted to that time: I will make them dwell securely, and I will make with them an everlasting covenant, or ordain to them an eternal testament, cannot at all be proved: since we read, and sacred history relates, that they were often taken captive, not only by neighboring nations, but by the Persians also, and the Macedonians, and the Egyptians and Romans, and serve even to this day.

All these things, therefore, must be referred to the coming of the Savior: which we see fulfilled in our own time and in the time of faith, and the election of the remnant has been made according to the Apostle. And to those who dwell in Christ securely, one heart has been given, according to that which is written: "Now the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul". And one way, he says, is he who says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life". And that they may fear me all the days. For "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". He says all the days: which, if it does not fit the Jews, must be understood of our people: for whom it has been well, and is well, and shall be well, not only for themselves, but also for their children after them. For with us he has made an everlasting covenant: nor will he cease any more to do us good.

And what follows: "And I will put my fear in their heart, that they may not depart from me," thus he grants free will, so that nevertheless that very fear which is bestowed remains the grace of the giver. "And when," he says, "I shall have done them good, I will rejoice." For he rejoices because he sees his creature saved. Whence also there is joy among the angels in heaven over one sinner doing penance. "And I will plant them," he says, "in this land in truth," or (as the LXX translated) "in faith," so that it properly signifies the Christian people whose religion is faith. "With my whole heart, and with my whole soul." If these are the words of the Lord the Savior, rightly is his heart and soul believed, who says in the Gospel: "I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again".

But if we take it in the person of God the Father, it must be understood according to that: "Your new moons and sabbaths, and feast days, my soul hates." (Verses 41 and following.) For thus says the Lord: as I have brought upon this people all this great evil, so will I bring upon them all the good that I speak concerning them. And fields shall be possessed in this land, of which you say that it is desolate, because no man remains, nor beast, and it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Fields shall be bought with money, and shall be written in a book, and a seal shall be impressed, and a witness shall be produced, in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the plain (or Sephela), and in the cities of the Nageb (that is, those which are to the south), for I will turn their captivity, says the Lord.

These things, according to the letter, although in type they occurred earlier, after the return from the Chaldeans, when the people returned to Judea by the command of King Cyrus: nevertheless spiritually they are more truly and more fully fulfilled in Christ and the Apostles. Then both men and beasts were brought back into the Church, according to that which is written: "Men and beasts you will save, O Lord," both the rational and the simple. Then fields were bought with money, that we might make for ourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, who would receive us into everlasting habitations. And they were written in the book, doubtless of the living. And the sign of the standard of the Lord's cross and victory was impressed; and witnesses were produced, the Martyrs, and the whole choir of saints. In the land of Benjamin, where is the strength of the Lord, and round about Jerusalem, in which is the vision of peace, and eternal security: in the cities of Judah, in which is the true confession of Christ.

And in the cities of the mountains, of which one is that of which it is said: "A city set on a hill cannot be hid". And in the cities of the plain, which in Hebrew are called SEPHELA; that from the deep and low places, through the levelness of the plains, we may advance to the heights. And in the cities which are to the south: which the LXX translated Nageb, where is the midday and the full light of truth. But when all these things shall have come to pass, that will be fulfilled which is written: "I will turn their captivity, says the Lord," concerning which it is written: "Ascending on high, he led captivity captive". He received, or (as the Apostle says) he gave gifts to men.