Jerome

In his own words on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:1

  (Chapter 1, Verses 1 onwards) The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah concerning the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: the word of the Lord that came to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. And it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem, in the fifth month. The other prophets, such as Isaiah, Hosea, and Joel, were before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, or of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Others were after the captivity, such as Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah. However, Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied as the captivity was imminent: one of them in the land of Judah, the other in Babylon. Jeremiah began prophesying when he was still a young boy, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah. And he prophesied during his reign for nineteen years, and afterwards under his son Joachim for eleven years, and under Zedekiah, who was the last of the kings of Judah, for eleven years, until the fifth month when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians. But the three months of Joachaz and Jehoiachin (one of whom was taken to Egypt and the other was taken with his mother to Babylon) are included in the aforementioned years: thus, from the beginning of his prophecy until the captivity of Jerusalem, in which he himself was also taken captive, he prophesied for forty-one years, except for the time when he was taken to Egypt. Here, he prophesied in Taphnis, as is contained in this very volume. According to the words of Jeremiah, the Septuagint placed, 'The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah' (Jeremiah 43:8), in this sense, that the words of Jeremiah are the word of the LORD. He belonged to the class of priests who lived opposite the north of Jerusalem, in the third mile, and the village of Anathoth. At the same time, there was the wonderful mercy of the LORD, that even with the captivity approaching and the Babylonian army besieging Jerusalem, He still prompts the people to repentance, preferring to save the converted rather than to destroy the sinners. Regarding the transmigration, which all others have translated with a consistent voice, the Seventy have expressed captivity. But after the beginning of Jeremiah's prophecy, in the thirty-fifth year of his prophecy, Ezekiel, who was in Babylon with those who had been captured with him, began to prophesy.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:1

  The Prophet Jeremiah, for whom this prologue is written, was seen among the Hebrews to be certainly more rustic in style than Isaiah and Hosea and certain other prophets, but equal in meanings, which the same Spirit obviously prophesied. Furthermore, his simplicity of speech happened from the place in which he was born. For he was from Anathoth, which is up to today a village three miles distant from Jerusalem, a priest from priests and sanctified in his mother's womb, dedicating with her virginity a man of the Gospel to the Church of Christ. This boy began to prophesy the captivity of the city and Judea both not only by the Spirit, but also with eyes of flesh. The Assyrians had already transferred the ten tribes of Israel, and now colonies of gentiles had taken possession of their lands. For this reason he prophesied only in Judah and Benjamin, and he lamented the ruins of his city in a fourfold alphabet, which we have presented in the measure of the meter and in verses. Besides this, the order of visions, which is entirely confused among the Greeks and Latins, we have corrected to the original truth. And the Book of Baruch, his scribe, which is neither read nor found among the Hebrews, we have omitted, standing ready, because of these things, for all the curses from the jealous, to whom it is necessary for me to respond through a separate short work. And I suffer because you think this. Otherwise, for the benefit of the wicked, it was more proper to set a limit for their rage by my silence, rather than any new things written to provoke daily the insanity of the envious.

  Prologue to Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:1

  (Vers. 4, 5.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you: I have made you a prophet to the nations. Not that Jeremiah existed before his conception, as some heresy suspects, but that the Lord foresaw him to be. To whom things not yet made already exist, according to what the Apostle spoke: Who calls those things that are not, as those that are (Rom. IV, 17). But what is sanctified in the womb, we should understand according to the words 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 (Galatians 1:15). John the Baptist is also sanctified in the womb, and receives the Holy Spirit, and is stirred in the womb, and speaks through the mouth of his mother (Luke 1). And when it is said, I have made you a prophet to the nations, it means that we are going to read about the prophet in him later, that he prophesied not only in Jerusalem, but also to many nations around. Some understand this place to be about the Savior, who was specifically the Prophet of the Gentiles; and through the Apostles, he called all nations. For he was truly sanctified in the womb before being formed in the virgin womb, and before coming out of his mother's womb; and he was known to the Father, who is always in the Father, and in whom the Father is always.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:1-3

  (Chapter 1, Verses 1 onwards) The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah concerning the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: the word of the Lord that came to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. And it came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem, in the fifth month. The other prophets, such as Isaiah, Hosea, and Joel, were before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, or of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. Others were after the captivity, such as Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah. However, Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied as the captivity was imminent: one of them in the land of Judah, the other in Babylon. Jeremiah began prophesying when he was still a young boy, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah. And he prophesied during his reign for nineteen years, and afterwards under his son Joachim for eleven years, and under Zedekiah, who was the last of the kings of Judah, for eleven years, until the fifth month when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians. But the three months of Joachaz and Jehoiachin (one of whom was taken to Egypt and the other was taken with his mother to Babylon) are included in the aforementioned years: thus, from the beginning of his prophecy until the captivity of Jerusalem, in which he himself was also taken captive, he prophesied for forty-one years, except for the time when he was taken to Egypt. Here, he prophesied in Taphnis, as is contained in this very volume. According to the words of Jeremiah, the Septuagint placed, 'The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah' (Jeremiah 43:8), in this sense, that the words of Jeremiah are the word of the LORD. He belonged to the class of priests who lived opposite the north of Jerusalem, in the third mile, and the village of Anathoth. At the same time, there was the wonderful mercy of the LORD, that even with the captivity approaching and the Babylonian army besieging Jerusalem, He still prompts the people to repentance, preferring to save the converted rather than to destroy the sinners. Regarding the transmigration, which all others have translated with a consistent voice, the Seventy have expressed captivity. But after the beginning of Jeremiah's prophecy, in the thirty-fifth year of his prophecy, Ezekiel, who was in Babylon with those who had been captured with him, began to prophesy.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:4-5

  (Vers. 4, 5.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you: I have made you a prophet to the nations. Not that Jeremiah existed before his conception, as some heresy suspects, but that the Lord foresaw him to be. To whom things not yet made already exist, according to what the Apostle spoke: Who calls those things that are not, as those that are (Rom. IV, 17). But what is sanctified in the womb, we should understand according to the words 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 (Galatians 1:15). John the Baptist is also sanctified in the womb, and receives the Holy Spirit, and is stirred in the womb, and speaks through the mouth of his mother (Luke 1). And when it is said, I have made you a prophet to the nations, it means that we are going to read about the prophet in him later, that he prophesied not only in Jerusalem, but also to many nations around.". Some understand this place to be about the Savior, who was specifically the Prophet of the Gentiles; and through the Apostles, he called all nations. For he was truly sanctified in the womb before being formed in the virgin womb, and before coming out of his mother's womb; and he was known to the Father, who is always in the Father, and in whom the Father is always.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:5

  It was not that Jeremiah existed before he was conceived, as some heretics suppose, but that the Lord foreknew Jeremiah to be coming, the Lord to whom what does not yet exist is already present, in accordance with what the apostle said of him: "who calls that which is not as though it were." But we also ought to understand Jeremiah's consecration in the womb according to the apostle's word: "When it pleased him, he set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might proclaim him to the nations." John the Baptist similarly was consecrated in the womb, where he received the Holy Spirit and leaped and spoke through his mother's mouth. Furthermore, when the Lord says, "I appointed you a prophet to the nations," he wants it to be understood that we will eventually read in him the prophet who will prophesy not only to Jerusalem but also to a multitude in the entire company of nations. Some understand this as referring to the Savior, who was himself a prophet to the nations and called all peoples through the apostles. For it is certainly true of him that before he was formed in the virginal womb of his mother and before he came forth from her, he was consecrated in the womb and was known to the Father, he, indeed, who is always in the Father and the Father always in him.

  SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:2.1-3

• Jeremiah 1:6

  But what is sanctified in the womb, we should understand according to the words 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 (Galatians 1:15). John the Baptist is also sanctified in the womb, and receives the Holy Spirit, and is stirred in the womb, and speaks through the mouth of his mother (Luke 1). (Verse 6.) And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a child. LXX: And I said, O Lord God, I do not know how to speak, for I am young. He detests the office that he cannot sustain due to his age, with the same modesty that Moses himself says he has a thin and weak voice (Exodus IV and 6). But he, as if he were seized with great and robust age, is caught up; forgiveness is given to this childhood, which is adorned with modesty and shame.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:7-8

  (Vers. 7, 8.) And the Lord said to me: Do not say, I am a boy, for you shall go to all whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, saith the Lord. Do not consider your age, says he; for by another prophet speaking, you have learned: The wisdom of a man is in his gray hairs (Wis. 4:9): Let it be only your will that you continue; you will have me as a companion, by whose assistance you will accomplish all things: open your mouth and I will fill it (Psalm 81:10). And do not consider the multitude of those to whom and against whom you are about to speak, but me, who am with you, so that I may rescue you, says the Lord. But the Lord does not deliver in order that the Prophet may be free from persecutions and hardships, for we read of him enduring many things; but rather that he may endure everything with patience and not be overcome by distress.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:7-8

  You should not consider the matter of age, he said, for you have learned through another prophet's words that "a man's gray hair is his wisdom." May you only be willing to continue, for you will have me as a companion by whose assistance you will accomplish everything: "Open your mouth, and I will fill it." Neither should you consider the number of those against whom you are about to speak, but consider me only, who is with you to deliver you, says the Lord. The Lord delivers, however, not so that the prophet will be free of persecutions and difficulties, for we read that he was severely afflicted. Instead, the Lord liberates one who suffers everything to overcome these tribulations rather than yielding to them.

  SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:4.1-2

• Jeremiah 1:9

  (Verse 9) And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. It is to be noted that here the hand of God is sent, which touches the prophet's mouth, and it is said to him: Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth; but in Isaiah it is written: And one of the seraphims flew unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged (Isaiah 6:6-7). For there, because he was of solid and perfect age, he himself confesses openly that he has unclean lips, and he dwells in the midst of a people with polluted lips. So, one of the Seraphim is sent, who does not touch his mouth with his hand, but with tongs and a burning coal, to take away his iniquities and cleanse his sins. Now, it is the hand of God Himself that is sent, through which all things are accomplished, and which is called the arm in another place: not to take away sins, which he had not committed many in his childhood; but to bestow the grace of speech. Furthermore, Ezekiel devours the book, both inside and outside, containing both divine mysteries and simple history. Jeremiah's mouth is touched, and the words of the Lord are given to him, so that he may receive confidence in preaching. And beautifully, according to the letter, a hand is sent, so that seeing the likeness of human limbs, it does not fear the touch of the hand.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:10

  (Verse 10) Behold, I have appointed you today over nations and over kingdoms, to uproot and to destroy, and to scatter, and to demolish, and to build, and to plant. This addition that we have made from Hebrew, 'and to scatter,' is not found in the Septuagint. And it must be considered that two joys follow four sorrows. For good things cannot be built unless evil things are destroyed: and the best things cannot be planted unless the worst things are uprooted. For every plantation that the heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted, and any building that does not have its foundation on the rock but is constructed on sand will be dug up and destroyed by the word of God. But that which Jesus will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the coming of His presence, namely all sacrilegious and perverse doctrine, He will utterly destroy forever. Moreover, He will dissipate and overthrow those things that are exalted against the knowledge of God and rely on their own wisdom, which is foolishness before God, so that humble things may be built up and in place of the high things that have been destroyed and uprooted, new things may be constructed and planted that are in accordance with the teachings of the Church. And let that which the Apostle says be fulfilled, 'You are God's building, you are God's field' (2 Corinthians 3:9). Here they understand this place as being above the person of Christ: for Jeremiah interprets high of the Lord, who destroyed the kingdoms of the devil, which he had shown to him on a high mountain: he will destroy the opposing powers, wiping out the handwriting of errors on the cross. Concerning which, in the Psalm, after the truth of the stories, he speaks tropically: Why do the nations rage, and the people meditate on vain things? The kings of the earth stand up, and the princes gather together in one (Psalm 2:1-2). For these things having been uprooted, destroyed, and lost, and having been dragged down into the depths, the Church of God is built and planted. However, there is no doubt concerning the person of Jeremiah. For we read in the following (Ad. cap. XXV) that he should take a cup full of pure wine in his hand; and he is ordered to offer it to all the nations around.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:10

  It is important to observe here that two joys succeed four sorrows. The good cannot be built up unless the evil is destroyed, nor can the best be planted unless the worst is eradicated. For "every plant that the heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted," and every building that does not have its foundation on rock but was built on sand is undermined and destroyed by the word of God. But that which Jesus will consume by the breath of his mouth and destroy by the coming of his presence, indeed, all sacrilege and perverse doctrine, he will annihilate forever. Furthermore, he will depose and scatter all who elevate themselves against the knowledge of God, trusting instead in their own wisdom, which is foolishness to God, so that the lower dwellings may be prepared for them and that those who are conformed to the truth of the church, having previously been destroyed and plucked up, might be planted and established in the higher places, such that what the apostle said will be fulfilled: "You are God's edifice, God's field." Many people understand this passage to refer to the person of Christ. For the name Jeremiah means "the heights of the Lord," the Lord who destroyed the kingdoms of the devil, who had shown them to him on a high mountain, and destroyed the adversarial powers as well, canceling the bond of errors on the cross. It is also said in the Psalms concerning these things, after the figurative truth of history: "Why do nations murmur and the people meditate in vain? The kings of the earth stand by and the princes convene as one." The church of God is planted and built for those who were plucked up, destroyed, dragged down and lost. But about the person of Jeremiah, there is no doubt, for we read subsequently that he took a chalice full of wine and all the nations were commanded to drink.

  SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:6.1-5

• Jeremiah 1:11-12

  (Verse 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. For the watching rod, the Septuagint translated it as a nut-stick. Therefore, we must work so that the Latin reader understands the Hebrew etymology briefly. Seced is called a nut: but watching or watch or to watch is called Soced. And in the later [books], the leopard is placed in this position as a vigilant guardian. From this, therefore, because it is called a nut, due to the similarity of the word to the understanding of 'watchful', it alluded to the name: which indeed is also written in Daniel according to Theodotion, so that the dividing and cutting of the trees (namely oak and mastic) is appointed to adulterous priests. Likewise, in the beginning of Genesis, from the man who is called Is (), the woman is called Issa (), as some kind of mannish woman, because she is taken from man. For the nutcracker staff, the vigilant rod, the Eagle and Symmachus; but they transferred the almond to Theodotius. The rod, however, keeps watch, considering all the sins of the people, in order to strike and rebuke the transgressors. Therefore the Apostle writes to the sinners: What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and the spirit of gentleness? (1 Corinthians 4:21). This is the rod, or staff, that David speaks of: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4). Beautifully he placed, they were consoled. For in this way the Lord corrects, so that he may amend. And just as a nut, or an almond, has a very bitter shell, and is surrounded by a very hard shell, so that when the bitter and hard parts are removed, the sweetest fruit is found: in the same way, all correction and the labor of self-restraint seem bitter for the present: but they produce the sweetest fruits. Hence that old saying: The roots of letters are bitter, the fruits are sweet. A certain rod and nut are understood to symbolize the Lord, of whom Isaiah says: 'A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse' (Isaiah 11:1). Therefore, even the rod of Aaron, which was thought to be dead, is said to have blossomed at the resurrection of the Lord.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:13-14

  (Vers. 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 north. And the Lord said to me: From the north evil will be opened (or kindled) upon all the inhabitants of the land. To some degrees, the torments are given to the sinners, so that they may gradually come to salvation. Those who do not want to be corrected by the striking rod are thrown into the bronze and burning pot, as Ezechiel writes more fully, which is kindled from the face of the north (Ezech. XXIV), signifying the king of Babylon and the city of Jerusalem. And it is beautifully inserted: From the North, evil things will ignite upon all the inhabitants of the earth: either the land of Judah, or certainly the entire earth, about which it is written in the Apocalypse: Woe to all the inhabitants of the earth (Apoc. VIII, 13). For the holy ones are not inhabitants of the earth: but rather strangers and pilgrims, of whom one says: I am a stranger upon the earth; and a pilgrim like all my fathers (Psal. XXXVIII, 13). And another: My days are few and evil, in which I sojourn on the earth (Gen. XLVII, 9). And Peter also writes the Catholic Epistle to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia (1 Peter 1). And according to mystical interpretations, Solomon speaks of the harsh north wind (Proverbs 25:23), which is called the east wind by those who have lost the warmth of faith due to its coldness.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:15-16

  (Verse 15, 16.) For behold, I will gather all the families of the kingdoms of the North, says the Lord, and they shall come and each one shall set their throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and over all its surrounding walls, and over all the cities of Judah. And I will speak my judgments with them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and worshiped foreign gods and bowed down to the work of their own hands. Without a doubt, many nations and the kings of each nation were subjected to the Babylonian king, who, besieging Jerusalem, placed their thrones and tents around it, so that none of those who were closed in could escape. 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 speak to them that my judgments were right, and that each one received what they deserved: not for the other vices to which human nature is subject, but especially for idolatry, by which they deserted me and worshipped the works of their own hands. Some interpret this passage in a positive way, namely that those who have been refined in the bronze furnace and purified through torments will afterwards become princes of Jerusalem; and after the Lord has shown compassion to them, then he will rebuke them because, when he deserted them, they worshipped idols. But this is a violent and wicked interpretation: so that an ignorant handler does not commit slander.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:17

  (Verse 17.) So gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. And Job is commanded to gird up his loins (Job 4); and to the Apostles (Luke 12), that with girded loins, which Elijah (2 Kings 1) and John the Baptist (Matthew 3) had mortified with haircloth belts, they may hold lamps in their hands, namely for the proclamation of the Gospel. Therefore, whoever is going to speak the words of God must gird up his loins, knowing that all the power of the devil is in the loins (Job 40); and let the righteous man say in the Psalms: My loins are filled with illusions (Psalm 37:8). And when he has girded his loins, let him hear what is written: Arise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten you (Ephesians 5:14); that being always vigilant and rising from sleep, he may speak the things that God has commanded him. Do not be afraid of their face: for I will not make their appearance fearful to you. Whether as the Septuagint and other interpreters have: lest I make you afraid. And the sense is according to our translation: Do not be afraid of their face: for with me as your helper, you will not be able to fear them. According to the Septuagint: Do not be afraid of their face, have the confidence of my command. For if you do not offer what you have, in order to stop being afraid, I will abandon you and deliver you to fear, and in a way it will seem that I make you afraid while I abandon you to fear. But this signifies that truth should always be loved: and the multitude of men should not be feared, who, when rebuked, do not endure it; but they lay snares for the one who rebukes them. And what follows in the Septuagint: 'For I am with you to deliver you,' says the Lord, is not found in the Hebrew. And the meaning is: I will deliver you, not so that no one lays snares for you; but so that, enduring the snares, you do not transgress.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:18-19

  (Verse 18, 19) For I have set you today (or Behold I have made you on this day) as a fortified city, and as an iron column, and as a bronze wall over all the earth: to the kings of Judah, to its princes, and to its priests, and to the people of the land. And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you. The divine word describes why the Prophet should not be afraid. I, he says, have set, or made you today, that is, in the present life, until it is called today, as a very strong city: not as one house, nor a tower, or any walls (Matthew 5); but as every city that is situated on a mountain cannot be hidden. About which it is written: Glorious things are said of you, O city of God (Psalm 86:2). And: I am a strong city, a city that is under attack (Isaiah 27:3). And, in a column, it is said of a pillar of iron, about which the Apostle writes: The pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15). Thus Peter and John, who were considered pillars of the Church, gave the right hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas. And not only this, but it is said to be a bronze wall, which is not damaged by rust and does not perish when beaten by rain, but becomes stronger with age. But you are such against kings and princes and people, not of any place, but of the land; those who have earthly wisdom and do not know heavenly things, who have the image of the earth and not of the heavenly. These, he says, will fight against you and will not prevail. Why, I ask? What is the cause of such great strength that neither kings, nor princes, nor priests, nor people can prevail against one? It follows: Because I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you. If at any time the kings of Judah, who are called confessors, and their princes, and the priests, and the people, namely the bishops and presbyters and deacons, and the lowly and ignoble commoners, should rise up against the holy man, let him have firm faith and cease to fear: for with the help of the Lord, he will prevail.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:1

  (Chapter 2, 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 Septuagint, but it was added under asterisks in the edition of Theodotion, who interpreted the Hebrew word Carath () as clama; or praedica, meaning 'read'. And it signifies both reading and crying out and preaching because of its ambiguity. However, we should understand the ears of Jerusalem as the ears of its inhabitants.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:2

  (Vers. 2.) Thus says the Lord: I have remembered your youth, the kindness of your betrothal, 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 betrothal. This is said more fully in Ezekiel (Ezek. I), when the Lord joins Jerusalem to himself in marriage, and under the persona of a wife, unites her with his embraces: either to show a more ardent affection, he calls her a girl, a young woman, and betrothed. For what we have not yet obtained, we desire to obtain more. 'When,' he said, 'you followed me in solitude; and, like betrothal and dowry, the adornments of the Law were distributed to you as necklaces of words. And all of this does not refer to his merit, but to his mercy, through which he also obtained charity. This also which we have placed, in the desert, in a land which is not sown, is not found in the Septuagint.'

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:3

  (Verse 3.) Holy is Israel to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest: all who devour him shall be guilty; evil shall come upon them, says the Lord. When Israel speaks of the first fruits of the Lord's harvest, it shows that the people are gathered from the nations after the first fruits; according to what is written in another place: Remember your congregation, whom you have possessed from the beginning (Psalm 73:2). However, the first fruits are always owed to the priests, not to the enemies. What follows is this: All those who devour him will sin: evil will come upon them, says the Lord. This is its meaning: Just as those who devour the offerings (Numbers 5) are not from the priestly lineage, they are guilty of a sinful act, so those who defile Israel will be subjected to great evil: as it is written in the twenty-sixth psalm by the holy David: While evil men approach me to consume my flesh, my enemies who trouble me have become weak and fallen (Psalm 26:3-4). For indeed, those who carry out the sentence of God will not be exempt from punishment, and evils come upon them; for scandals must come, but woe to him through whom the scandals come (Mat. XVIII).

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:4-5

  (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 did your fathers find in me of iniquity, that they went far from me, and went after vanity, and became vain? This meaning is also testified by another prophet: O my people, what have I done to you, and how have I been a burden to you? Answer me: for I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and delivered you from the house of slaves (Micah 6:3-4). However, both names, Jacob and Israel, are used: not according to the twelve tribes, but according to the entire people. For Jacob himself was later called Israel. But the sins of the fathers do not have an effect on their children, although the children, having the likeness of the fathers, may be punished for their own sins and the sins of their parents. We often read that God has mercy on the children because of the holy fathers. However, the fathers of the sinful people have forsaken God, and not for a short time, but for a long time. And they have followed vanity, that is, idols, which are of no benefit to their worshippers. And they have become like them, as it is written: Let them become like those who make and trust in them, and all who trust in them.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:6

  (Verse 6) And they did not say, Where is the Lord who led us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through an uninhabited and impassable land, through a land of thirst and the shadow of death, through a land in which no man walks, nor does any man dwell. For son of man, they interpreted as the seventy sons of man; and for the shadow of death, it was added from Theodotion, the shadow of death. And while this is evident according to history, it should be considered in light of the anagoge, that as long as we are in this world and are led out of Egypt, we ascend gradually, and first we pass through the deserts and the uninhabitable land, which the holy one ought not to inhabit, and the impassable land, to show the difficulty of the journey. You are thirsty for the earth, where we always desire greater things and are never content with the present. And it is an image, or rather a shadow of death: for we are always in danger, and everywhere the devil sets his traps. On the earth where no man has walked, who is perfect in Christ. For we will all rise to become perfect men, to the measure of the fullness of Christ's age. Neither does he who is a man of God or the Son of Man ever reside in it, but always hastens to greater things. From this it is clear that there is no perfection in the journey, but in the end of the journey and in the dwelling place that is prepared for the saints in heaven, and about which it is said: Those who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God (Psalm 133:1). Therefore, it is in vain that this new heresy suspects perfection to be here, where there is a battle and a contest, and an uncertain outcome of future events.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:7

  (Verse 7) And I led you into the land of Carmel, that you may eat its fruit and its goodness; and when you entered, you polluted my land and made my inheritance an abomination. For the labor of a very hard journey, I gave you abundance of all things. Indeed, Carmel, which is called Chermel in Hebrew, signifies this, and in our language it means the knowledge of circumcision. Just as that people defiled and violated the holy land and the fertile land of all things with idolatry, so we, receiving the knowledge of true circumcision, eat its fruits; and with negligence creeping in, we pollute God's land and make his inheritance abominable.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:8

  (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 so many benefits, they turned the privileges of dignity into contempt, so that the priests would not seek the Lord, so that the teachers of the Law would ignore him whom they should teach, and the shepherds (or rather, preachers) would become transgressors through negligence, and the prophets who dispute among the people would not speak to God, but to idols, and would worship their own creations. But we must use words against the masters of our order, who devour the people of God like bread, and by their evil deeds do not invoke the Lord.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:9

  (Verse 9) Therefore I will still contend with you in judgment, says the Lord, and I will reason with your children. So that it may not seem that I strike with power, as if contending with equals in 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 (Psalm 50:6; Romans 3:4). And he testifies that he has done this many times in the past, and he demonstrates a similar stubbornness in the children of evildoers. However, it secretly signifies that the ancient denial of God, even their children followed in the coming of the Lord.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:10-11

  (Vers. 10, 11.) Go to the islands of Kittim, and see: and send to Kedar, and consider carefully, and see if such a thing has happened: if a nation has changed its gods (or its own gods). And certainly they are not gods: but my people have changed their glory into an idol (or something that will not profit them). He makes a comparison of that which is incomparable, and gives the true God to liars. Go, he says, to the islands of Kittim: which we should understand as either Italy or the Western lands: because the island of Cyprus, which is called by this name, is near the land of Judah. Of which both Zeno and the leader of the Stoics were. But the region of Cedar is one of solitude and of the Ismaelites, who are now called the Saracens: against whom the prophecy of the very Prophet himself is covered in the farthest parts (infra ad cap. XLIX); and of whom David mentions, saying: I have dwelt with those who dwell in Cedar: my soul has traveled much (Psal. CXIX, 5). And the meaning is: Either go to the West, or send into the wilderness, and see if any nation has done what you have done. For they did not despise their gods, neither the wooden and stone ones, nor did they change them in comparison to gold, but following the ancient error, they held onto what they had received from their ancestors. And certainly this is true, since none of their gods exist, but rather they are man-made idols. But my people have exchanged the truth for a lie and have preferred an idol to me, which will not be able to help them in times of need. We can also say this against those who pursue vices with more zeal than virtues, whom the Apostle warns, saying: I speak as a human, because of the weakness of your minds. Just as you presented your members as servants to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as servants to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Romans 6:19).

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:12-13

  (Verses 12, 13.) Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. LXX: The heavens were astonished at this, and were greatly alarmed, and the rest likewise. The heavens to whom it was said: Listen, O heavens, and I will speak. (Deut. 32:1): and, Hear, O earth, the words of the Lord (Isaiah 1:2), seeing that the commands of God are trampled upon, it shudders, and cannot hide its astonishment. For every creature groans and laments over the sins of men. But God's people have done two things against Him. First, they have forsaken God who is the source of life, and He gave them a commandment, saying: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt' (Exod. XX, 2). Second, it is written in the same place: 'You shall have no other gods before me'; for this reason they have followed demons, whom He calls broken cisterns, because they are unable to keep God's commandments. And this must be noted, that the fountain is perpetual, and it has life-giving waters. But the cisterns and lakes, either from torrents or from muddy waters, are filled with earth and rain. The gates of heaven are called those, of which it is also written in the twenty-third psalm: Lift up your heads, O gates, and the king of glory will enter. Concerning which the Septuagint translated: Lift up your gates, O princes: of which more will be said in its proper place. And what Aquila and Symmachus interpreted as 'coelos', and LXX and Theodotion as 'coelum', should not be confused. For in Hebrew, 'Samaim' is a common noun, and both the plural and singular forms are referred to as 'coeli' with the same name, just like Thebes, Athens, and Salonae.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:13

  Let him "possess his vessel in sanctification and honor," let him drink of his own wells, not out of the dissolute cisterns of the harlots that cannot hold within them the pure waters of chastity.

  LETTER 128.3

• Jeremiah 2:13

  O blessed change! Once the body wept, but now laughs forevermore. Once it desired the broken cisterns of which the prophet speaks, but now it has been satisfied in the Lord, the fountain of life.

  LETTER 108.22

• Jeremiah 2:14

  (Verse 14) Is the Israelite a servant or a native? I believe that from this place, the Jews who were filled with pride said to the Savior: We are the seed of Abraham and have never served anyone. How do you say, 'You will be free' (John 8:33)? Ignorant that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin, and each one serves the one by whom they are overcome. Therefore, the ones born from the friend of God, Abraham, by their own vice, became like the sons of Ham, to whom it was said: 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant shall he be to his brothers' (Genesis 9:25).

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:15

  (v. 15) So why did he become prey? The lions roared against him and gave forth their voice. They made his land a desolation; his cities are burned and no one lives in them. The divine speech asks a question in order to answer it. But indeed, the lions can be understood as the princes of Babylon, who made their land a desolation and destroyed their cities with fire. Or certainly, by way of anagoge, we can understand the lions as adversarial powers or the leaders of heretics, who devastate the land of the Church and lay waste to all her cities with heretical fire, the fire about which it is written: "All of them are adulterers, their hearts are like an oven" (Hosea 7:4). For they truly give their voice, and in this same prophet under the figure of the partridge they cry out: They gather what they have not brought forth: they make riches, but not with judgment (Jerem. XVII, 17). Therefore, her cities have been devastated and destroyed: because they do not have God as an inhabitant, as the Scripture says: And there is no one who dwells in them (Ibid., 4).

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:16-17

  (Verse 16, 17.) The sons of Memphis and Taphne have defiled you, even to the crown. Is it not because you abandoned the Lord your God at the time when He was leading you along the way? This that we have said, is not found in the Septuagint at the time when He was leading you along the way. However, he names two great cities of Egypt, Memphis and Taphne, and he says that their sons defiled Israel even to the crown, in the sense in which Isaiah expressed it: From the sole of the foot to the crown, there is no soundness in it (Isaiah 1:6). For there was such a great lust among the Egyptians, who are of large bodies, that they spared no member, but defiled everything. Literally, it refers to the idols of the Egyptians; spiritually, to the teachers of a perverse doctrine, who defile the purity of the Church with their filthiness. These things happened to them because they abandoned their Lord God, especially at the time when they should have followed him as their leader.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:18

  (Verse 18.) And now, what do you want, on the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Shior? And what do you want on the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river? Concerning Shior, we have interpreted it as turbid, because the Hebrew word signifies that. The common edition has it as Geon. Therefore, because he had previously mentioned the sons of Memphis and Taphnis, who had violated Israel up to the crown: now he more clearly mentions Egypt itself. There is no doubt that the Nile has turbid waters, and it signifies the river of the Assyrians, as Scripture says, that the promised land extends from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. But those who abandon Christ, the source of life, and dig for themselves the pits of heretics who cannot contain the waters of doctrine, must necessarily submit to the lions who reduce their land to a wasteland and destroy all the Churches. They will be polluted even to the top, and drink turbid waters from the streams of the Assyrian river and the North wind, from which evil is kindled upon the earth.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:19

  (Verse 19.) Your wickedness will reprove you, and your apostasy will rebuke you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to have forsaken the Lord your God, and that you have no fear of me, says the Lord of hosts. It should be noted that after wickedness or apostasy has fully satisfied the one who commits it, and has come to the point of being nauseating like the quails, it instructs the one who does penance: commanding them to see what they have left behind, and what they have followed; and how, spurning what is good and sweet, they have chosen what is evil and bitter. But all this has happened because he has forsaken his Lord God, and his fear is not with him. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. IX): and because he did not have it, he is delivered to evil and bitterness.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:20

  (Verse 20.) You have broken my yoke from the age (or your own) and shattered my chains (or yours); and you said, 'I will not serve.' For on every high hill and under every leafy tree, you lay as a prostitute (or were spread out in fornication) there. This is spoken as if to a prostitute, Israel, who has broken the marriage covenant and said, 'I will not serve.' It is understood to mean the Lord, or husband. But on every high hill and under every leafy tree, she has prostrated herself to idolatry. For pleasant and lofty places are always dedicated to idols. This can also be said of those who, originally Christians and educated in sacred Scriptures, afterwards, desiring secular literature, which is signified by the hills, and pleasant eloquence (according to Al. in pleasant eloquence) which is displayed in leafy trees, prostrate themselves before demons, who under the pretense of knowledge and lofty wisdom, pollute the souls of believers and trip up the feet of anyone passing by.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:21

  (Verse 21.) But I planted you as a choice vine, all true seed; how have you turned into a corrupt, foreign vine to me? Septuagint: But I planted you as a fruitful vine, all true; how have you turned into a bitter foreign grapevine? For the fruitful vine, or the chosen one, is called Sorec in Hebrew: which is mentioned in the song of Isaiah (Isaiah 5). And it is of the best kind of grapevine: with which branch Israel says that the Lord has planted himself; and he marvels at how the true seed and the chosen vine have turned into bitterness: and therefore has become a foreign vine; and no one is secure, if even the planting of the Lord and the true seed and the vine of Sorec are so changed by their own fault, that they depart from the Lord through bitterness and become a foreign grapevine. And in this we must consider the clemency of the Savior, that he who said in the Gospel, 'I am the true vine' (John 15:1), also gave to his disciples and to the people who believe in him, that they may be chosen or true vine, if they desire to remain in what has been planted.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:22

  (Verse 22) If you wash yourself with niter, you will multiply for yourself the herb borith, you are stained in your iniquity before me, says the Lord God. As for the herb borith, which we render in Hebrew, the LXX translated it as 'poan' to signify the herb of fullers, which grows in green and moist places according to the custom of the province of Palestine; and it has the same power for washing away stains as niter. But our niter and the herb of the fuller is repentance. The book of Ecclesiasticus, which also rebukes and rebukes and corrects wrongdoers, has the similarity of sharp nitre. However, one who is stained with light stains of sins is cleansed by lighter admonitions. But serious sins, which lead to death, cannot be diluted by nitre or the herb Borith: but they require more severe torments. For the work of each person will be tested by fire, and it will be revealed in the fire (1 Cor. III). And he added beautifully: You are spotted in your wickedness in my sight: for even if you seem clean to men, you are not clean to me, who know the consciences of each one. Hence it is said in another place: Not every living thing shall be justified in your sight (Psalm 42:2).

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:23

  (Verse 23) How can you say, 'I am not defiled; I have not gone after the Baals'? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done - a restless young camel running here and there, (valley in Hebrew is called Ge, which is translated as 'multitude' in our language, and can be referred to as the tomb of the multitude). In vain you have made your plea; you have all the signs of guilt, yet you deny having worshipped the idols of the Baals (below, in verse 19). Look at the valley of the sons of Hinnom, where the waters of Shiloah flow, and there you will see the temple of Baal, whom you have worshipped instead of God. And what is added: know what you have done uncovers the closed eyes of the denier, so that he may see what he is ashamed to look at. According to tropology, we accuse the impudence of those who do not want to confess their own faults by their works. For such people do not walk in the narrow and confined way that leads to life; but in the broad and spacious way, through which many enter, which leads to death (Matthew VII). Therefore it is appropriately named a πολυάνδριον, or according to the history, because a multitude of people were killed and lost there due to the evil of idolatry.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:24

  (Verse 24.) The swift courser, unfolding its paths: the wild donkey accustomed to solitude, attracted by the desire of its own soul, drew the wind of its love: none shall turn her away: all who seek her shall not be lacking. In her monthly flow they shall find her. In the evening her voice howled, unfolding her paths over the waters of solitude, carried by the wind of her own soul: she was handed over: who shall turn her back? All who seek her shall not labor: and in her humility they shall find her. In this place, the Septuagint edition differs greatly from the Hebrew truth: nevertheless, both have their own meaning. As stated above, I am not defiled; but as if speaking to a woman who has behaved shamefully, it describes her fornication. How, it says, like a light deer, which we called a runner in common language, and even more significantly, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translate it as swift courses, it explains her ways, and she is carried swiftly to her pasture. And just as a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness draws in the wind or the breath of its own desire (for among the Hebrews, both wind and breath are called the same, Ruah), so Israel, or rather Jerusalem, was carried away with all urgency to the desire of lust, and burned with love for all idols; and there is no one who can turn her away from this impulse by their warnings: not because the incapacity of the Prophets did this, but the wicked malice of the one who desires it. Whoever, he says, seeks it, will not labor greatly. In menstruation and in its impurity they will find it. For which reason Aquila, νεομηνίαν, that is, the kalends, Symmachus, month, and Septuagint and Theodotion, interpreted it as "humility". Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the meaning here is: The harlot Jerusalem, according to that woman who is described in Proverbs, at evening she wailed with her voice, and provoked lovers to lust, opened the ways to the most shameful acts, and spread her legs to every passerby (Prov. V and VI). It was a place having the charm of flowing waters, which becomes more delightful when there is solitude all around, so that no one sees those engaged in sexual acts. In her desire, he said, her soul was filled with a spirited air, either being led by a perverse spirit or seeking the refreshment of love: or certainly she sang songs of her own depravity. She is given over, he said, to her vices and lust: no one can turn her away: all who wish to find her will find her in the lowliness of immorality: so that she can never be satisfied with the love of pleasure.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:25

  Nothing makes God as angry as when people from despair of better things cling to those that are worse. Indeed, this despair in itself is a sign of unbelief. One who despairs of salvation can have no expectation of a judgment to come. For if he dreaded such, he would by doing works prepare to meet his Judge. Let us hear what God says through Jeremiah: "Withhold your foot from a rough way and your throat from thirst," and again, "shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?"

  LETTER 122.1

• Jeremiah 2:25

  (Verse 25.) Keep your foot from nakedness, and your throat from thirst. And you said, I have despaired, I will not do it. I have loved strangers, and will follow after them. LXX: Turn your foot away from the rough path, and your throat from thirst. She said, I will act boldly because I have loved strangers, and I will follow after them. They who will celebrate the Passover are commanded to have shoes on their feet (Exodus 12). And the Apostle (Ephesians 6) preaches to have feet shod ready for the Gospel: lest while they walk through the solitude of this world, they be exposed to venomous creatures, which are to be trodden upon and crushed by the Gospel foot. We prevent our throat from being thirsty, when we fulfill the commandments of the Savior saying: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). By this despair of evil, she denied that she would do what the Lord commanded, and she explained the reason, saying: I have loved strangers, and I will follow them, thinking that by this impudent confession she could avoid sins. Furthermore, next to the road of sinners there is a rough path, which is turned into a smooth path by the Lord. Let anyone who follows heretics be noted for the praise of this verse; for he said, I have despaired, whether I act boldly in evil, and I will be strengthened in my error. However, it is necessary for someone who follows a different doctrine from the Church to love those who are different and to follow their footsteps, whether they are demons or the leaders of heretics who are alienated from God.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:26-27

  (Verse 26, 27.) Just as a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so were the people of Israel and their kings, leaders, priests, and prophets ashamed. Even though the faces of thieves are shameless and bold, they are still embarrassed when caught in the act. And so, when Israel says to a piece of wood, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You have given birth to me,' they are calling their own creations their parents, and they are ashamed when caught in their idolatry. And let us not say this about him of the common people: He sets up kings and princes, and priests, and their prophets. Let us use this testimony against our leaders, and against those who are considered leaders in the Church, when they have been caught in shameful sins. They turned their back to me, and not their face. Those who reject the words of God, turn their back against Him and not their face. For when a master gives a command, the sign of obedience is if the servant listens with head lowered. But if they turn their back, it is a sign of contempt; as it is written in another place: And they turned their shoulder, wanting to go away (Zach. VII, 11). So much have they despised my commands, that they did not even want to hear, but showed their arrogance with their body language. And in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us. Those who did not perceive through blessings will perceive through torments that God.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:28

  (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 request to seek help from one whom you have despised in times of peace. And it should be read with the emotion of rebuke: Let your gods deliver you, whom you made for yourself. So that when God, the Creator of mankind, becomes a man, man may make a god, and the necessity may prove what power those whom you worshiped with confidence before possess. According to the number of your cities, your gods were the gods of Judah. Each individual city worshipped either the same gods or different ones, so that they did not seem to have agreement in impiety, but rather, by fighting against each other, superstition followed different errors. And what follows is that, according to the number of roads, they sacrificed to Baal in Jerusalem, as added by the seventy translators.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:29

  (Verse 29) What do you want to contend with me in judgment? You all have forsaken me, says the Lord. Human perversity is inclined to make excuses for itself, so that whatever it rightfully endures, it may seem to endure unjustly; and it may attribute its own fault to the judgment of God. Therefore, in vain, you present complaints, and an unjust cause to the judge, when it is because of your impiety that you suffer. And what follows: And you have all acted unjustly against me, is added by the Septuagint.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:30

  (Verse 30) Without cause, I struck your sons: they did not receive discipline. For this reason, you did not receive the 70. And the sense in Hebrew is: Those who were struck did not want to receive discipline. But in the Septuagint: Therefore, I struck your sons so that you may be taught by their death. And lest you say: You did not want to correct sinners, learn from the blows inflicted upon your sons, because I desired to heal you with a more severe remedy. Your sword devoured your prophets. Not mine, but yours: not my sword, but yours, devoured, which you endured for your sins. Moreover, the 70 do not have yours: but they have simply interpreted 'your sword devoured your prophets' to show either an enemy sword or my sword, through which your sins were stabbed. As a destructive lion is your generation. LXX: As a destructive lion, and you did not fear. The sword, he says, which devoured your prophets; undoubtedly this signifies Baal and the soothsayers of idols, like a lion he ravaged everything: and yet your generation, which should have improved through the punishment of a few, continued in all wickedness. But in the Septuagint the sense is this: The sword of the Lord, which showed the sword of the adversaries, devoured and tore apart your false prophets, like a lion, which fiercely tears apart the prey it finds, and yet you were not able to be converted to better things through the punishment of your prophets.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:31

  (Verse 31.) See the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a barren land? Why then said my people, We are gone, we will come no more at you? LXX: Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a land full of darkness? Why do my people say, We will not serve, we will not come to you? And Moses saw the voice of God (Exod. XXXIII), and John the Apostle says that he has seen and touched the word of God (I John I). But he wonders how the people of Israel had treated God as if it were a wilderness, when they followed idols as if they were the bustling city. It is a late land, which does not receive the showers of teachings, nor the discipline of the Gospel; and it is full of thorns, because it had not been cultivated. Therefore, the once people of God are more wicked in that they have turned away from the Lord and do not want to return to their Lord anymore. It is a great offense not to seek to appease the one you have offended.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:32

  (Verse 32.) Will the virgin forget her adornment, and the bride her breastplate? My people have forgotten me in countless days. Through these things we learn that Christ is the bridegroom of the virgin Church, which has no blemish or wrinkle. But if he is the bridegroom, his words are, as John the Baptist speaks: He who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29). Therefore, he loses his adornment who departs from the Lord, and loses the understanding of the teachings, which is symbolized in the breastplate. Wherefore also John the Evangelist leaned on the breast of the Lord (John 13), and among other things, the chest of the victims is separated for the priests (Numbers 18). But as the number of times in which we forget the Lord increases, so does the greater punishment of sin, which neither the length of the ages can subdue.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:32

  It is the virgin Mary of whom God by the mouth of Jeremiah speaks, saying, "Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire?" Concerning her we read of a great miracle in the same prophecy—that a woman should compass a man and that the Father of all things should be contained in a virgin's womb.

  Against Jovinianus 1.32

• Jeremiah 2:33-34

  (Verse 33, 34) Why do you insist on showing your good path in seeking affection, when you have also taught your wicked ways? And on your wings (or in your hands) the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent is found. I did not find them in ditches (or pits), but in all of these (or under every oak tree). In vain, he says, you desire to defend yourself with the art of words, and to show your works as if they were good, so that you may deserve affection. Moreover, you have also taught others your ways, and you have become an example for all evil works, and on your wings (or in your hands), indeed, the blood of the innocent is found, whom you sacrificed to idols, or whose souls you lost through the likeness of sacrifices. We placed the poor, from Hebrew, who are not found in the Septuagint. However, he says, the poor and innocent ones, I did not find slain in ditches, which is usually the result of the plots of robbers: but in all the things I mentioned above, whether under the oak, which in Hebrew is called Ella (): which indeed also signifies this; so the meaning is: In all these things, whether under the oak or terebinth, under whose shade and foliage you enjoyed yourself as if in pleasant places of idolatrous crimes.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:35-36

  (Ver. 35, 36) And you said: I am without sin and innocent: and therefore let your anger turn away from me. Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: I have not sinned: how despicable you have become, repeating your ways too much (or how greatly you have despised). This should be used against those who refuse to acknowledge their own sins: but in the time of affliction and distress, they claim to unjustly endure what they endure: and they provoke the wrath of God even more, because the greater sin is not to mourn what they have done, but to offer empty excuses for their sins. He said, 'I will argue with you in court for what you have said, 'I have not sinned': as if this sin is any greater, to have something in one's conscience and to speak it out in one's words. Let the new heresy hear that the wrath of God is even the greatest, not to humbly confess one's sin, but shamelessly boast of righteousness.'

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 2:37

  (Verse 37.) And you will be confounded by Egypt, just as you were confounded by Assyria: for you will also go out from there, and your hands will be on your head: because the Lord has broken your confidence (or hope), and you will have nothing prosperous in it. In order to avoid the attack of the Egyptians, they fled to the Assyrians, whose defense was in vain, for we read that they were defeated by the Egyptians. Again, in order to escape the wrath of the Assyrians, they used the help of the Egyptians; whom the Assyrians overcame, as the history tells. Therefore, they are rebuked because, having abandoned hope in the Lord, they rely on the assistance of men, which is totally broken and so destroyed that they cannot find any usefulness in it. Hence it is said: 'And you shall leave this, that is, Egypt, just as you left Assyria; and your hands shall be upon your head, and you shall grieve in vain for having expected help from the Egyptians.' Let us remember the story when Thamar was corrupted and violated by her wicked brother Amnon, and she put her hands sprinkled with ashes on her head, and thus she returned to her house (II Kings XIII).

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 3:1

  (Chapter III - Verse 1) It is commonly said (for which the Seventy have translated 'only said'). If a man divorces his wife and she goes and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be considered defiled and polluted? (or that land?) And you have committed adultery with many lovers (or shepherds.) For the word 'Reim' (), which is written with four letters Res, Ain, Yod, Mem, signifies both lovers and shepherds. And if we read Reim, it means lovers; if Roim, it means shepherds. But return to me, says the Lord (or you have returned to me, says the Lord). In Hebrew, even after fornication, he accepts the repentant, and exhorts them to return to him. But in the Septuagint, it does not invite to repentance, but reproaches the impudence of the prostitute who dares to return to her husband after adultery. And what it says: and that woman will be defiled, for which in Hebrew we read the land, provides an example, and speaks more clearly about the land of Israel, which is compared to the adulterous woman. Let us use this testimony against those who abandon the faith of the Lord and, hindered by the errors of heretics, after many fornications and deceptions of souls, pretend to return to the ancient truth: not to remove the venom from their hearts, but to deceive others.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 3:2-3

  (Verse 2, 3.) And you have polluted (or killed) the land with your fornications, and in your evils (Alternative: in malice): therefore the drops of rain have been withheld, and the late rain has not come (or you have had many shepherds to stumble). The land has been killed (or polluted), because of the killing of those who perished in idolatrous fornication. Hence the blessing of all things has been taken away, so that they would suffer the drought of the word of God. Whether they had shepherds through whom they offended God, so that those who should have been teachers, to prevent others from error, became authors of impiety. The forehead of a prostitute has become yours, and you were not ashamed. LXX: The appearance of a prostitute has become yours: you have become without shame towards everyone. Because above (To chapter II, 35) he had said: I have not sinned, and yet he had sinned more by denying his own crimes: therefore now he accuses [you] as if [you were] a shameless and excessively impudent woman: so that [you] do not carry [yourself] with a shameless expression only towards one or two, but [you] are not ashamed before anyone. Let us use this language against the assembly of heretics, who boast in their errors.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 3:2

  (Version 2.) Lift up your eyes and see where you have not fallen. On the roads you were sitting, waiting for them like a robber in the wilderness (or like a deserted raven). For it is written in Hebrew, Arabic, and can also mean Arabs, that this people, devoted to robbery, still raids the borders of Palestine today, and they besiege the roads for those descending from Jerusalem to Jericho: of which the Lord also mentions in the Gospel (Luke 10). So lift up your eyes, O Jerusalem, and look around, and see where you are not laid low by fornication. For just as thieves are accustomed to lay traps for travelers in the evening and in deserted places, so you, sitting by the brothel of Proverbs, were sitting in the streets in the evening, in order to destroy the souls of those who commit fornication. Therefore, the whole land is polluted with your fornications. And significantly, next to these who promise to abandon heretical errors, it is commanded that they lift their eyes straight ahead. For unless they begin to see straight, they cannot condemn their former wickedness.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 3:3

  No, a widow must take every precaution not to overstep by an inch the bounds of chastity. For if she once oversteps them and breaks through the modesty that becomes a matron, she will soon riot in every kind of excess. So much so that the prophet's words shall be true of her, "You have a whore's forehead, you refuse to be ashamed."

  LETTER 123.9

• Jeremiah 3:3

  When they go out, they do their best to attract notice and with nods and winks encourage troops of young fellows to follow them. Of each and all of these the prophet's words are true, "You have a whore's forehead. You refuse to be ashamed." Their robes have but a narrow purple stripe, it is true. And their headdress is somewhat loose, so as to leave the hair free.

  LETTER 22.13

• Jeremiah 3:4-5

  (Verse 4, 5.) Therefore, at least from now on, call me, my Father, you are the leader of my virginity: will you be angry forever, or will you persist until the end? Let the heretics be ashamed who do not want to convert to better things, nor return to their Father and Creator, and let them hear: At least from now on, call me, my Father, you are the leader of my virginity. He himself embraces your soul with his affection, and teaches how one should pray and repent. However, the more merciful he who shows the way to salvation after fornication, the more wretched the prostitute who does not want to receive health after wounds. Behold, you have spoken, and you have done evil, and you have been able. For words of repentance, with words of pride you blasphemed: and you fulfilled your evil intention, and you showed your strength against a man, so that you could do what you discussed in speech.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 3:6-10

  (Verse 6 and following) And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the adulteress Israel has done? She went upon every high hill and under every leafy tree and committed adultery there. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw that I had dismissed the adulteress Israel and had given her a bill of divorce. But her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and committed adultery. She defiled the land with her adulterous acts and committed adultery with stone and wood. And in all this, 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. And when a murderer is punished, he receives indeed what he has done, but others are deterred from the crime. Therefore, when the ten tribes, which were called Israel, were captured by the Assyrians and taken to Media, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which should have feared similar things and turned their whole minds towards God, overcame the crimes of the ten tribes. And they followed idols to such an extent that they placed a statue of Baal in the Temple of God, which is called an idol by Ezekiel, set up for zeal and emulation of the Lord. But it speaks under the figure of two sisters, because from one are generated Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the stock, and the former is called the adversary, the latter the rebellious one. For the former completely turned away from God, immediately worshipping golden calves in Dan and Bethel. But the latter, in whose possession was the Temple and the true religion of God, gradually departed from the Lord (3 Kings 12). And for this reason, she is called the rebellious one. According to the spiritual interpretation, prophecy about heretics is this: those who, thinking themselves wise in heretical cunning, ascend the mind of pride with knowledge of a false name; and, defiled by the pleasures of this flesh, expose their fornication under every leafy and pleasant tree. When they are delivered to the devil for the destruction of the flesh, it often happens that the house of Judah, that is, the confession and true faith, is not at all frightened by their example but commits much greater evils. And they contaminate the land of the Church with the ease of their fornication, committing adultery with stone and wood, following the teachings that are against God. But if an ecclesiastical man wishes to correct someone who has gone astray, and to cut away the rotten flesh, and to bring back to repentance those who have followed falsehood: and nonetheless they continue to adhere to the ancient error under the guise of Ecclesiastical truth, it can be said of them: In all these things, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned back to me with her whole heart, but in deceit. But this prophecy was fulfilled during the time of Josiah, a righteous king, under whom Jeremiah began to prophesy.

  Commentary on Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 3:10

  "And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly." It is a smaller sin to follow evil that you think is good than not to venture to defend what you know for certain is good. If we cannot endure threats, injustice and poverty, how shall we overcome the flames of Babylon? Let us not lose by hollow peace what we have preserved by war. I should be sorry to allow my fears to teach me faithlessness when Christ has put the true faith in the power of my choice.

  Against the Pelagians 1. PROLOGUE. 2

• Jeremiah 3:11

  (Verse 11.) And the Lord said to me: He has justified his soul, the one who turned away from Israel, by the comparison of the one who acted treacherously in Judah. Israel is more just, he said, in comparison to Judah: because she perished immediately in the beginning, while the other could be corrected by her sufferings. Let us observe that the new heresy is compared to the old, in which Israel is said to be justified in comparison to Judah. And it is not surprising that the name of justice is attributed to one sister of a nation, when even Sodom receives the name of justice in comparison to Jerusalem, as the Lord says through Ezekiel: Sodom has been justified by you (Ezek. 16:55): and the tax collector becomes just by comparison to the Pharisee (Luke 18).

  Commentary on Jeremiah