Commentary on Jeremiah 2.70–2.91

[70] “Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging-place of travellers? And I will leave my people and depart from them.” The Septuagint: “Who would give me in the wilderness a last lodging, that I may leave my people and depart from them?” “It is better”, he says, “to live in the utmost solitude than to dwell among such great crimes of men.” Hence the Saviour too said in the gospel, “How long shall I bear with you?”, and in another place it is written: “At that time the one who understands …”

[71] “For they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors; and they have bent their tongue like a bow of falsehood and not of truth; they have grown strong in the land, for they have gone forth from evil to evil, and they have not known me, says the Lord.” Sinners pass from evil to evil when they exchange idol for idol and pass from sins to sins, or certainly pass from the evil of the siege to captivity. Of the saints it is said, “They will 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 did not know the Lord, and that there is an assembly of transgressors arming their tongue like a bent bow for blasphemy; and they have grown strong in the land, so that they deserve to hear: “You are earth, and to earth you will go.”

[72] “Let each one guard himself from his neighbour, and let him not trust in any brother of his; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend walks deceitfully; and a man will mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth; for their tongue has learned to speak falsehood (or: they have taught their tongue to speak falsehood); they have laboured to act wickedly (or: they acted wickedly and did not cease, so as to be converted). Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; in deceit (or: usury upon usury and deceit upon deceit) they have refused (or: would not) to know me, says the Lord.” This place must be used in a time of persecution and distress, when faith is rare or none, when neither brother nor neighbour is to be trusted, and a man's enemies are those of his own household, when, according to the gospel, the father will hand over the son and the son the father, and two are divided against three and three against two. And by adding, “they have taught their tongue to speak falsehood”, or “their tongue has learned to speak falsehood”, he shows that the habit of lying is in a way turned into nature, and that they act zealously to do wicked things. And what follows, “your dwelling is in the midst of deceit, in deceit”, is properly addressed to the prophet, that he lives in the midst of a lying people (or, as the Septuagint translated, “usury upon usury and deceit upon deceit”), and that they increase their crimes daily and do not repent of what they did before, but heap new deeds upon the past. Doing these things, they act with all zeal so as not to know the Lord, who commanded that these things should not be done. [73] “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will smelt (or: I will test) them and try them; for what else shall I do before the face of the daughter of my people (or: before the face of the wickedness of the daughter of my people)?” Whenever we lie under distresses, we receive evils from God and are tested by persecutions, so that whatever adulterated matter is in us may be smelted out by the heat of tribulations and miseries; for the silver of the Lord is tested by fire, proved in the earth, purified seven times.

[74] “Their tongue is a wounding arrow; it has spoken deceit; with his mouth he speaks peace with his friend, and in secret he lays an ambush for him. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord, or on such a nation shall my soul not be avenged?” Every heretic who wounds the hearts of hearers who do not know the scripture, “Keep your heart with all vigilance”, possesses a wounding arrow and speaks in deceit; and while with his mouth he promises peace to his neighbour, in secret he lays snares. The following verses, in which he says, “Shall I not punish these things, says the Lord, or on such a nation shall my soul not be avenged?”, he often uses in this prophet, so that, when he has listed the several evil works, he adds that he acts justly in what he does.

[75] “On the mountains I will take up (or: take up) weeping and lamentation, and over the beautiful places (or: the paths) of the wilderness a lament, because they are burned (or: have failed), so that no man (or: person) passes through; and they have not heard the voice of the owner (or: of possessions); from the bird of the sky to the cattle they have fled and gone away.” When the Babylonian comes and lays everything waste, the desolation of the province is prophesied: that there is lamentation on the mountains, weeping in the wilderness or on the paths of the wasteland, that everything has failed and been burned, and that there is no one to walk through the land, all having been slain, and nothing has remained that can breathe and live. Hence for “owner” the Septuagint translated “of possessions”, which in Hebrew is called “macne”; and “substance” here is taken not for ousia, that is, “essence”, but for wealth and riches. And by adding, “from the bird of the sky to the cattle they have fled and gone away”, he shows what we have often said: that the whole creation feels the anger of God, and not only the birds of the air but also the fish of the water fail. According to the figurative sense, weeping is taken up on the mountains and lamentation over the beautiful places of the wilderness when the leaders of the church sin and nothing of God's substance is found in it, nor is the voice of the Lord who owns the church heard through holy and apostolic men; and from the bird of the sky to the cattle, that is, from those who can rise on high to the irrational and simpler sort, they have withdrawn from the assembly of God.

[76] “And I will make Jerusalem heaps of sand (or: a deportation) and dens of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, because there is no inhabitant.” When the men of the church and all the teachers have failed, then Jerusalem is given over to deportation or to heaps of sand, so that the heretical word prevails in her and she becomes a den of dragons, and her cities are reduced to a wilderness, and there is no dwelling of the divine word in her, nor he who says: “I will dwell and walk among them and will be their God.”

[77] “Who is the wise man who may understand this, and to whom the word of the Lord's mouth may come, that he may declare it: Why has the land perished and been burned like a wilderness, so that no one 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 depravity of their heart and after the Baals, which they learned from their fathers.” The prophet asks whether he can find any of the wise in Jerusalem, and of those to whom the word of God comes and who can declare the Lord's will and give the reasons why Judea has been reduced to a wilderness and, all having been slain, no one is left to pass through it. And he brings in the Lord answering and giving the reasons: because they forsook his law, which he had given them, and did not hear his voice nor do what was commanded, but went after the depravity of their heart. So we must trust not in our own will but in the Lord; for the heart in men is depraved, and from our heart come forth evil thoughts. “And after the Baals”, he says, “they went, which they learned from their fathers.” Baal is the idol of the Sidonians and is singular in number; Baalim is plural. So neither the error of parents nor that of ancestors is to be followed, but the authority of the Scriptures and the command of God who teaches. [78] “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood (or: with distresses), and give them water of gall to drink, and I will scatter them among the nations which neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until they are consumed.” This can be prophesied of the near time, when they were taken captive by the Chaldeans; and properly of this present time, when they have been scattered among nations which neither they nor their fathers knew, and, divided over the whole world, they have been fed with wormwood, that is, with necessities and distresses, and received water of gall to drink; which signifies either the greatness of their evils and the everlasting yoke of captivity, or certainly that through ignorance of God's law they are to receive Antichrist instead of Christ. The sword is sent after them so that they may be consumed to destruction; or certainly a sword that divides them and does not allow them to agree in evil, so that they may perish in being evil.

[79] “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider (or: understand), and call the mourning women, and let them come; and send to those who are wise, and let them hasten (or: speak), and let them make haste and take up a lament over us (or: over you), and let our (or: your) eyes run down with tears, and our (or: your) eyelids flow with waters; for a voice of lamentation has been heard from Zion (or: in Zion).” Because of the coming captivity and overthrow of Jerusalem he orders the mourning women to be called, who in time of grief are accustomed, with tearful voice and beating their arms with their hands, to move the people to tears; for this custom remains in Judea to this day, that women with hair loosened and breasts bared stir all to weeping with a measured chant. God joins himself, with the feeling of one who suffers with them, or the prophet does, so as to say that whatever the people suffers he himself suffers and feels. And because he adds, “for a voice of lamentation has been heard from Zion”, there follows at once what that voice is.

[80] “How are we laid waste and greatly confounded? For we have left the land, for our tents have been cast down (or: we have gone away).” This is the voice of those lamenting Zion: “How are we laid waste and greatly confounded?” And at once they answer themselves and set out the causes of the devastation, saying: “Because we have left the land by our own fault and sin, and our tents have been cast down”, which they once possessed as if passing through. Let the crowds of believers too say this, once in persecution: that they were laid waste and confounded because they left the land of the Lord and deserted their tents.

[81] “Hear, then, O women, the word of the Lord, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters lament, and each her neighbour mourning; for death has come up through our windows, it has entered our houses, to destroy the little ones from outside and the young men from the streets!” In the preceding chapter he had said, “Call the mourning women and let them come, and send to those who are wise and let them hasten”; now he speaks as to those present, to the condemnation of the priests and teachers and of all the men, so that, since they have ceased from teaching, these women may hear the word of the Lord and receive the words of his mouth and teach their daughters and neighbours lament and the causes of their tears: “for death”, he says, “has come up through our windows, it has entered our houses.” Although this can also be understood spiritually, in that the death of sins enters through all the senses to the destruction of the soul, it can also be understood of the onslaught of the Babylonians: that such is their strength and speed in fighting that they do not wait to unbar the doors, but climb through windows and roofs to lay waste the houses of Jerusalem. And the little ones perish who are outside and go out of Jerusalem, and the young men, to whom John too writes, who do not enter by the strait and narrow way that leads to life, but walk through the streets, of which it is written: “How broad and spacious is the way that leads to death!”

[82] “Speak: Thus says the Lord: And the carcass of man (or: the corpses of men) will fall like dung on the face of the field (or: the plain), and like hay behind the reaper, and there is none to gather it.” The Hebrew word written with three letters, daleth, beth, resh (for it has no vowels in the middle), according to the context and the reader's judgment, if read “dabar”, signifies “word”; if “deber”, “death”; if “dabber”, “speak”. Hence the Septuagint and Theodotion joined it to the preceding chapter, so as to say: “to destroy the little ones from outside and the young men from the streets by death.” But Aquila and Symmachus translated lalēson, “speak”, so that God commands the prophet to speak what follows: “Thus says the Lord”, and the rest. And the sense is: when death has come up through our windows and entered the houses of Jerusalem, and the little ones and young men have perished outside and in the streets, then their carcasses, or the corpses of the dead, will be like dung on the face of the earth, and like stubble, which is left behind the reapers and, being useless, is not gathered. By this he wishes to show that there will be such slaughter in and around Jerusalem that there will be no one to bury those who fall. [83] “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, that I am the Lord, who practise mercy and judgment and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight (or: for in these is my will), says the Lord.” All the pride of men is taken away, while their wisdom and strength and wealth are reckoned as nothing; and this is the only glorying: to know and understand that he is the Lord, who practises mercy and judgment and righteousness on the earth; that all things are governed by God's providence and justice, and that the things which seem to us to have no reason are full of justice and reason. For these alone please God, and in these is his will. Where, then, are those who say that man is ruled by his own choice, and that the power of free choice was so given that God's mercy and justice were taken away? Hence the apostle too, taking up this testimony, sets it as an example: “Let him who glories glory in the Lord.” [84] “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will punish all who have the foreskin circumcised: Egypt and Judah and Edom and the sons of Ammon and Moab and all who are cut short in the hair, dwelling in the desert; for all the nations have a foreskin, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” Many peoples, from some part of the nations, and especially those that border on Judea and Palestine, are circumcised to this day, and above all the Egyptians and Idumeans, the Ammonites and Moabites, and the whole region of the Saracens which dwells in the wilderness, of whom it is said, “upon all who are cut short in the hair, dwelling in the desert.” So Judah, which is mixed with the nations named above, ought not to glory in not having a foreskin but being circumcised by the law of God, since others too do this, who do not keep the commandments of the law and do not know the God of Israel. Nor is circumcision, which was given as a sign, of any profit unless the Lord's commands are fulfilled; just as their hair signifies the nation, not the strength of bodies and the bravery of fighters. And what follows, “all the nations have a foreskin, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart”, has this sense: while, apart from the Egyptians, Idumeans, Ammonites and Moabites, and the Ishmaelites dwelling in the wilderness, of whom a large part is circumcised, all the other nations in the whole world are uncircumcised in the flesh, all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart, not in flesh; and this uncircumcision leads to death: for that one is of the flesh, this of the spirit.

[85] “Hear the word which the Lord has spoken concerning you, house of Israel! Thus says the Lord: Do not learn according to the ways of the nations, and do not fear the signs of heaven, which the nations fear; for the laws of the peoples are vain!” He speaks properly against those who venerate the heavenly bodies, and think that the human race is ruled by those things which were set as signs of years, seasons, months and days, and that earthly things are governed by the causes of heavenly ones. And when he says, “the laws” or “ordinances of the peoples are vain”, he shows that all human wisdom is futile and has no usefulness in itself.

[86] “For a tree from the forest is cut down, the work of the hands of a craftsman with the axe; he adorns it with silver and gold; he fastens it with nails and hammers so that it does not come apart (or: does not move). They are made in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak; they must be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, then, for they can do neither evil nor good.” A description of the idols which the nations worship. “A tree from the forest is cut down”: the material of idols, then, is cheap and corruptible. “The work of the hands of a craftsman”: since the craftsman is mortal, so too is what he makes. “He adorns it with silver and gold”, so as to deceive the simple by the gleam of both metals; an error which has come down even to us, so that we think religion lies in riches. “He fastens it with nails and hammers so that it does not come apart”, or does not move: how great is the power of idols, which cannot stand by themselves unless they are fastened with nails and hammers! “Made in the likeness of a palm tree”, they have the beauty of the metals and are adorned by the art of painting, but they have no usefulness to offer any fruits to the craftsman. “And they will not speak”: for they have nothing living in them, of which it is written: “They have mouths and will not speak; they have ears and will not hear.” “They must be carried”: stronger is he who carries than they who are carried; rather, in him there is sense, in this a figure without sense. “Do not fear them, then, for they can do neither good nor evil.” For many of the Gentiles worship demons so that they may not harm them, and entreat others to grant them benefits; hence too that line of Virgil: “A black sheep to Winter, a white one to the favouring Zephyrs.” Whatever we have said of idols can be referred to all doctrines contrary to the truth. For they too promise huge things and fashion from their own heart the image of a vain worship; they boast of great things, and, to deceive all the simple, they dazzle the eyes of the unskilled with senses as of gold and words gleaming with the splendour of silver, and are exalted by their inventors; yet there is no usefulness in them, and their worship belongs properly to the nations and to those who do not know God.

[87] “There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. Who will not fear you, O King of the nations? For yours is the glory; among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. They will be proved alike wise and foolish; their teaching of vanity is wood. Silver wrapped (or: beaten out) is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hand of the smith; blue and purple are their clothing; all these are the work of craftsmen (or: of wise men). But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his anger the earth will be shaken, and the nations will not endure his threat.” These words are not in the Septuagint, but in most copies have been added from Theodotion's edition; and though according to the letter they seem clear, according to the higher sense they have great difficulty. For none of those gods which are fashioned by heretical art is like the true God. All will fear him, who is King of the nations; for “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, and from it we advance to love. “Yours is the glory”, he says: in truth there is beauty, in falsehood foulness. Although the heretics, according to the wisdom of the world, which is being destroyed, seem to themselves to be wise, yet in all the kingdoms in which they tear the church none is like you, as the divine word says: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject.” They are at once wise and foolish: their teaching, according to the quality of their talent, is either cheap and compared to wood, or like silver for the charm of its eloquence. It is brought from Tarshish (either a region of India, as Josephus would have it, or certainly the whole sea is called Tarshish and has the likeness of the sky), and yet it is wrapped in the artifice of words; for if it lay open, it could not deceive. “And gold from Uphaz”: gold is called by seven names among the Hebrews, one of which is “ophaz”, which we can call “refined gold”, so that it may shine on the surface of the idols, which inside is wood and cheap material. They are covered with blue and purple, so as to deceive the eyes with their surface, while they promise themselves the colour of the heavens and the heavenly kingdoms. And yet all these are the works of the wise, who are thought wise in the world, but before God are foolish. “But the Lord our God is the true God”: all those, then, are lies. “And he is the living God”: so those things which are fashioned are dead. “And the everlasting King”: the shadows of the heretics prevail for a time, but in a long time they decay. “At his anger the earth will be shaken”: those who have earthly works and fashion earthly images; “and the nations will not endure”, not the people of the Lord but the multitude of the nations, who cannot bear the threat of God.

[88] “Thus, then, you shall say to them: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth, let them perish from the earth and from those things that are under heaven!” This must be said to the false gods and to those that are put together by artifice, for they made neither the heavens nor the earth; things which the fellow-workers of Christ, who are called gods and lords, fashion in great part through the church's teaching.

[89] “The Lord, who makes (or: made) the earth by his strength, prepares the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretches out the heavens. At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heaven, and raises (or: brings up) the clouds from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and brings out the wind (or: winds) from his storehouses. Every man has become foolish from knowledge; every craftsman is put to shame by his carved image, for what he has cast is false, and there is no breath in them. They are vain, a work worthy of laughter; in the time of their visitation they will perish. Not like these is the portion of Jacob; for he who formed all things is he, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.” He who makes the earth by his strength is God the Father; and he makes it by his strength, the Lord the Saviour; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, who is himself also the understanding, in whom 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 in our image and likeness!” “At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heaven”: for all the Lord's teaching flows from heavenly places, as David says: “A willing rain you will set apart, O God, for your inheritance, and it was weakened; but you perfected it.” “And raises” (or “brings up”) “clouds from the ends of the earth”: the clouds or mists, which the Lord commanded not to rain rain upon Israel, are brought up from the ends of the earth; one of which clouds said: “For I think God has displayed us apostles last of all, as men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.” “He makes lightnings for the rain”: for when the rain of doctrines has come from heaven and satisfied the dry hearts of men, then you will find flashes and clear lightnings of wisdom. “And brings out the winds from his storehouses”, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. “Every man has become foolish from knowledge”: though it be Paul, though Peter, though Moses and Abraham, in comparison with God all their wisdom will be reckoned as nothing; hence also “the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” “Every craftsman is put to shame by his carved image”, who has fashioned images from his own heart, and what he has cast is false. If every man is foolish from knowledge, everything he has made is foolish and false. “And there is no breath in them”: it should be noted that in this chapter too “wind” and “spirit” are called by one name among the Hebrews, “ruha”; and he means the spirit of sanctification, which cannot be found in the minds of heretics. “They are vain, a work worthy of laughter”: for who would not laugh on seeing the images of the heretics? For either what they say is rustic, and it is wood; or it is composed in fine speech, and silver is found; or certainly it is feigned from their own mind, and they promise the image of gold in vain. “In the time of their visitation they will perish”: heresy prevails for a time, so that the elect may be made manifest and proved; but when God's visitation comes and his eye has looked on foolish things, all fall silent. “Not like these is the portion of Jacob”, of those who supplanted the Jews and daily destroy the heretics. The portion of the saints is God, of whom the prophet says: “My portion is the Lord.” “For he who formed all things is he” who made and fashioned all things, in soul as well as in body; “and Israel is the rod of his inheritance”: everyone who is upright in God, or sees God with his mind, is the sceptre of his inheritance, whose name is “the Lord almighty”, or “of powers”; for this is what “Lord of hosts” means, which in the Hebrew is written “Lord sabaoth”. [90] “Gather up your shame from the land, you who dwell under siege; for thus says the Lord: Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will distress them, so that they may be found.” The Septuagint: “She has gathered from outside her substance, she who dwells in a fortress; for thus says the Lord: Behold, I will trip up the inhabitants of this land and distress them, so that they may be found.” Jerusalem is commanded to gather into the most fortified city whatever substance she has outside, and to prepare provisions for a long siege; for he is no longer threatening, as before, of a distant future, but of the near captivity, which is about to come at any moment. “Gather”, he says, “from outside and from the land, that is, from the fields, your substance to your shame. For whatever you have is worthy of shame; though you prepare these things, know the words of the Lord concerning them: Behold, at this turn, at this time, I will cast out, or hurl far like a sling, the inhabitants of this land.” For this the Septuagint interpreted “I will trip up and make to fall”; for the Hebrew word, that is “cole”, Aquila and Symmachus interpreted sphendonēsō. And the sense is: “Like a sling I will throw them away with all force, and so cause them to be besieged, and so distress and confine them, that all are found in the city and cannot escape the evil.”

[91] “Woe is me for my breaking, my grievous wound!” The Septuagint: “Woe for your breaking, your grievous wound!” According to the Hebrew, Jerusalem herself speaks, saying that she is grievously afflicted and bears an incurable wound; but according to the Septuagint the prophet speaks to Jerusalem and laments her for her breaking and her wound. [92] “But I said: Surely this is my sickness (or: my wound), and I will bear it (or: it has seized me).” Jerusalem herself speaks: “Whatever I suffer, I suffer by my own fault; I understand my wound, which has seized me; or, I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.”