Commentary on Jeremiah 2.8–2.35

[8] “Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem, and in Tekoa sound the trumpet, and over Beth-haccherem raise a signal (or: a standard), for evil has been seen (or: has appeared) from the north, and great destruction!” No one is unaware that Jerusalem lies in the tribe of Benjamin. We also see daily with our own eyes that Tekoa is a village situated on a mountain, twelve miles from Jerusalem. Between them is another village, which in the Syriac and Hebrew language is called Bethacarma, itself set on a mountain. What he says, then, is this: “Because Nebuchadnezzar is about to come from the north, and captivity is near, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, seize your arms and sound the trumpet in Tekoa, and in Beth-haccherem raise a standard, so that you may be able to resist the enemies!” Benjamin is interpreted “son of the right hand”, Tekoa “trumpet”, Beth-haccherem “house of the vineyard”. Let us refer all this to the church, so that, if it has sinned and the onslaught of persecution comes, it may prepare itself to resist.

[9] “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a beautiful and delicate woman. Shepherds and their flocks will come to her; they have pitched (or: will pitch) their tents against her round about; each will feed those who are under his hand. Sanctify (or: prepare) war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon!” The beauty of Jerusalem, which is Zion itself, is described, so that the one name means the whole city and the other the citadel of the city. For Zion is interpreted “citadel”, that is, watchtower, and it is compared to a beautiful woman; and as lovers come to her, so shepherds are said to come to it. And quite elegantly, in the Hebrew, the word written with four letters, resh, ayin, yod, mem, if read “reim”, signifies “lovers”, if “roim”, “shepherds”, so that either, according to the metaphor of a beautiful woman, lovers are understood, or, according to the overthrow of the city, shepherds; some of whom hasten to defile a harlot, others to besiege and overthrow a city. In the shepherds and their flocks let us understand the princes and the army of the Chaldeans. They will pitch their tents round about in the siege of the city, and each will feed those who are under his hand, namely his squadrons and companies. These princes, or shepherds, will say to their flocks: “Sanctify war against Jerusalem, for it is the Lord's command. Arise and let us go up at noon, not by night and ambush, but let us fight in full light; for no one can resist us.”

[10] “Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the evening shadows have grown longer (or: have failed). Arise, and let us go up by night and destroy her houses (or: foundations)!” Those say: “Arise and let us go up at noon and fight in clear light”; these answer: “Woe to us, for the evening shadows have grown longer”, according to that line of Virgil: “And now the rooftops of the farms smoke in the distance, and longer shadows fall from the high mountains.” And the sense is: “If we suffer these things by day, what shall we suffer by night?” And again those who had said above, “Sanctify war against her and arise”, now urge themselves to fight, saying: “Arise and let us go up by night, so that the enemies may know that victory depends not on the time but on strength, and let us destroy the houses which are fortified in vain by the strength of walls.”

[11] “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Cut down her tree (or: trees); pour out (or: carry together) a mound against Jerusalem!” “Therefore”, they say, “we are sure of victory, because it is the command of the Lord, ordering the Chaldeans: Cut down trees and carry together a mound for the siege works to come!” By this it is shown that the city is not to be taken at once by encirclement, before he comes, but by a long siege, as we read later.

[12] “This is the city of visitation (or: lying); all oppression (or: calumny) is in her midst. As a cistern (or: a pit) makes its water cold, so she has made her wickedness cold.” The Lord commands that the trees be cut down and mounds be poured out round about, because the time of her visitation has come, for her to receive for her sins; the greatest of which is sycophancy, oppressing the innocent by false accusation. As, then, a cistern or pit makes its water cold, so in the midst of Jerusalem the wickedness that is in her has lost all the warmth of life. And this is to be noted: that the saints are called fervent in spirit, but evils are cold; hence it is also written that in the last days, when iniquity has multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. I think that this too is the meaning of “I have been likened to those who go down into the pit.” Let the Latin reader understand this, so that it may suffice to have said it once: lacus does not mean “pool” as among the Greeks, but “cistern”, which in the Syriac and Hebrew language is called “gubba”. In the present place, for “pit”, which all likewise translated, the Hebrew says “bor”.

[13] “Iniquity and destruction will be heard in her; before me continually are sickness and wounds. Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you a desert, a land not inhabited!” The Septuagint: “Impiety and misery will be heard in her, before her face. By every pain and scourge you will be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you a pathless land that is not inhabited.” Through these words we learn that the Lord scourges every son whom he receives; and therefore Jerusalem is taught by blows and torments, so that she may be corrected and the soul of God not depart from her and she be reduced to a wilderness. If ever, then, we lie under frequent distresses, let us remember for our consolation this little verse: “By every pain and scourge you will be instructed, Jerusalem.”

[14] “Thus says the Lord of hosts: They will glean the remnant of Israel thoroughly, as in a vineyard; turn back your hand, like a grape-gatherer, to the basket!” The Septuagint: “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Glean, glean as in a vineyard the remnant of Israel; return like a grape-gatherer to his basket!” Some take these words in a good sense, others in a bad. In a good sense: “When Jerusalem has been laid waste, a remnant will be saved.” In a bad sense thus: “Let not even one cluster or small bunch remain in the vineyard; let everything be gathered; and whatever you find, throw it into the basket like a grape-gatherer, so that, as he carries the clusters to the winepress, so you may drag the captives to Babylon.”

[15] “To whom shall I speak and testify, that he may hear? Behold, their ears (or: your ears) are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them, and they will not receive it!” They cannot hear because they would not circumcise their ears; nor yet is the inability free from punishment, which comes from contempt and unbelief. If anyone, then, does not receive the words of God and has no understanding of his commands, he is of uncircumcised ears. At the same time it should be noted that circumcision in the Scriptures is spoken of in three kinds: in the foreskin, in the heart, and in the ears. Hence the Lord too says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” It is by our will, then, that we do not receive the word of God, and therefore it becomes a reproach to us, so that what had been given for salvation is turned by our fault into punishment.

[16] “Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord; I have laboured in holding it in.” The Septuagint: “And I have filled up my fury and held it back, and I have not consumed them.” According to the Hebrew it is said in the person of the prophet: that he foresees the coming wrath of God, is full of the Lord's fury and anger, can no longer bear it, and dares not intercede with the Lord for the sinners. But according to the Septuagint a new sense is set down: that the Lord himself speaks and says, “I have filled up my fury by striking the sinful people”, and yet he held it back and did not pour it all out, so that a remnant may be saved. This seems to me to contradict itself: for if he filled up his fury, how did he hold it back from filling it up?

[17] “Pour it out (or: I will pour it out) upon the child in the street and upon the gathering of young men together; for the husband will be taken with the wife, the old man with the one full of days. And their houses will pass to others, fields and wives together.” Either the prophet in the spirit commands the coming Chaldean to pour out the Lord's fury upon the children and not to spare even the innocent age, or he certainly tells what was done to the gathering of young men together, who had taken up arms to resist. For the husband will be taken with the wife: the sweetest names will suffer captivity together. The old man with the one full of days: so old age is not the last age, but that of those who are “full of days”, whom in our language we call “past it” or “decrepit”. It follows: “and their houses will pass to others” by the evil of captivity, “fields and wives together”, so that both the wife and the property pass to the enemies. Whatever we understand of Jerusalem according to the letter, let us refer according to the spiritual understanding to the church, if it has offended God.

[18] “For I will stretch out my hand over the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. For from the least to the greatest all are given to avarice, and from the prophet to the priest all practise deceit. And they healed the wound of the daughter of my people with disgrace, saying: Peace, peace! and there was no peace.” Where the Hebrew says, “I will stretch out my hand over the sinners” or “the inhabitants of the land”, the Septuagint always writes “I will lift up”; both are the posture of one who strikes, according to what is written: “and still the hand of the Lord is stretched out” or “lifted up”. The inhabitants of the earth are always in fault; hence in the Apocalypse it is often said: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth!” From the least to the greatest all are given to avarice, according to the apostle's saying: “The root of all evils is avarice.” And from the prophet to the priest all practise deceit, some by prophesying a lie, others by perversely interpreting God's law; for the prophet says in another place too: “Seek the law from the priests.” “And while they did such things”, he says, “they announced every prosperity to my people, and, as if wishing to heal the wound and disgrace of my daughter, said: Peace, peace, when there was no peace at all.” This is properly to be understood of the priests and teachers who promise prosperity to the rich and to those they see set in the highest honour, and proclaim God as merciful, while rather preparing them for punishment and wrath. [19] “They were confounded, because they committed abomination; rather, they were not confounded with confusion, and they did not know how to blush.” This must be read more closely according to the Hebrew. “And when they had done such things,” he says, “were they confounded? Did they blush in their crimes? Rather they increased their contempt and did not know how to blush” (he put “did not know” here for “would not”), “or, through excessive contempt and the habit of ingrained evil, they could not even understand it.”

[20] “Therefore they will fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they will collapse, says the Lord.” “Because”, he says, “they did not know how to blush, and had not only no work but not even knowledge and a sense of repentance, therefore those who formerly stood will fall among them; they will collapse by their vices, and when the time of their visitation and punishment comes, they will be joined to all who are falling.” It is a great impiety not only not to guard against sins but not even to want to understand them, and to have no discernment between good and bad works.

[21] “Thus says the Lord: Stand on the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk in it; and you will find refreshment (or: purification) for your souls. And they said: We will not walk (or: we will not go). And I set watchmen over you: Hear the sound of the trumpet! And they said: We will not hear. Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation (or: you who feed flocks; or, according to Symmachus: and know the testimony that is in them), how great things I will do to them! Hear, O earth!” The gospel parable, if it is understood, will give the understanding of this place: in it the good merchant is said to sell all his pearls, so that with their price he may buy one most precious pearl; that is, that through the patriarchs and prophets we come to him who says, “I am the way.” We must therefore stand in the prophets, and contemplate most diligently, and ask about the ancient or everlasting paths (which are worn by the footsteps of many saints, and which in Greek are more expressively called tribous) which is the good way in the gospel, and walk in it; and when that way has been found, it gives refreshment or purification to the souls of believers. But they answered on the contrary: “We will not walk on the way of the gospel”, the prophet saying this properly of the faithlessness of the Jews. And at once he adds: “And I set watchmen over you” (no doubt the choir of the apostles is meant, according to Ezekiel: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel”), “and I commanded you to hear the sound of the trumpet”, either the commands of the gospel or the teaching of the apostles, according to Isaiah: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice like a trumpet, you who bring good news to Jerusalem.” They said, “We will not hear”, and when invited to the supper would not come. Therefore it is said: “Hear, you nations!” The apostles too followed this, when they spoke in Lycaonia: “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you; but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations.” “And know, O congregation”, not the Jewish one but that of all nations; or, “you who feed flocks”, bishops and presbyters and every rank of the church; or, “know the testimony that is in them”: for the testimony of God is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones, to whom the Lord too says, “Do not fear, little flock”, and, “Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.” “Know, then, how great things I will do to the people that does not believe.” And as for what is added, “Hear, O earth”, the whole world is called to hear, as we read also at the beginning of Isaiah, “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth”, what the Lord will do to the people of the Jews.

[22] “Behold, I will bring evils upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts (or: of their turning away), because they have not heard my words and have rejected my law.” He calls “evils” the punishments and penalties of those who suffer them, not upon the nations, who are called to the truth of the gospel, but upon the people which answered, “We will not hear.” And it is to receive the fruit of its thoughts or turning away, as David says: “You will eat the labours of your hands.” And the cause is evident: because they did not hear the Lord's words and cast away his law.

[23] “To what purpose do you bring me incense from Sheba and sweet-smelling cane from a far land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me.” No one doubts that incense comes from Sheba; hence too that line of Virgil: “and a hundred altars burn with Sabaean incense.” As for the “cane”, which in Hebrew is called “cane” and for which the Septuagint and Theodotion translated “cinnamon”, the prophetic word shows that it comes from a far land, so that we may understand India, from which many spices come across the Red Sea. Physicians call this kind of spice kassia arōmatikē. And the sense is: “In vain you bring me spices of sweetest odour for making the ointments commanded in the law, and kindle burnt offerings, you who do not do my will in the law”, according to what was said above: “they have not heard my words and have rejected my law.” This fits properly those who offer sacrifices from robbery and the stripping of the wretched, and think they redeem their sins by alms out of iniquity, though Scripture says: “The ransom of a man's soul is his own riches”, which are gathered not from iniquity but from labour and justice.

[24] “Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks (or: weakness) before this people, and they will stumble on them (or: be weakened in it), fathers and sons together, neighbour and friend, and they will perish.” We see fulfilled all that the Lord threatened that people with: for daily they stumble in their blasphemies and have nothing strong in them, but all is weakness among them. The sons follow the blasphemies of the fathers and daily receive that imprecation: “His blood be upon us and upon our children”; and not only they, but their neighbours and friends, all who follow the law and the prophets according to the letter that kills and not according to the Spirit that gives life. And all will perish together, because they sinned together.

[25] “Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people comes from the land of the north, and a great nation will rise from the ends of the earth. They will seize bow and shield (or: javelin); it is cruel (or: shameless) and will have no mercy; its voice will roar like the sea, and they will ride on horses, prepared like a man for battle against you, daughter of Zion.” This is prophesied properly of the Babylonians, who are to come against the people of Jerusalem; and the whole array of their armour and the charge of the fighters is described, so that, shaken by the terror of the voice, they may do penance and appease the most merciful God. In short, he gives them an opening for entreaty when he says: “against you, daughter of Zion.” We can apply this testimony in a time of persecution, when all the devil's rage is stirred up against us and there is no mercy, and they overwhelm those who resist like the waves of a most violent sea.

[26] “We have heard the report of it; our hands have grown feeble; anguish has seized us, pains as of a woman in labour.” The people answers, against which the prophet, or rather the Lord through the prophet, threatened the Babylonians: that before they come they are overcome by fear and cannot lift their hands, and anguish has seized them like the pain of a woman in labour; than which pain they affirm that nothing they have felt is more grievous.

[27] “Do not go out into the fields, and do not walk on the road, for the sword of the enemy, terror is on every side!” The gospel teaches that one must not go out into the field nor come down from the height of the housetops, but hear that saying, “Save yourself on the mountain”, to which in Isaiah and Micah we are told to go and ascend. But according to the letter it is commanded that they should not go outside nor desert the walls, but protect themselves with strong fortifications. [28] “Daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth and sprinkle yourself with ash; make mourning for an only son (or: a beloved one), bitter (or: pitiable) lamentation; for suddenly the destroyer (or: misery) will come upon us (or: upon you).” Because he had said above, “Do not go out into the fields and do not walk on the road, for the sword of the enemy, terror is on every side”, and had forbidden flight too, he teaches what they should do: namely, turn to repentance and have this as their firmest and safest armour. Where we said, “make mourning for an only son”, for “only son” the Hebrew writes “iaid”, which means “solitary” rather than “only-begotten”. For if it were “beloved” or “lovable”, as the Septuagint translated, “ididia” would be put, which is also the name God gave to Solomon. Nothing is more painful than to lose one son, or an only son. And for what we interpreted, “for suddenly the destroyer or misery will come upon us”, the Septuagint put “upon you”, though God spoke much more mercifully in testifying that whatever was to come upon his people would come upon himself too. “Destroyer” properly signifies either Nebuchadnezzar or the devil.

[29] “I have made you an assayer among my people, a strong one, and you will know and test their way. All these princes are turning aside (or: disobedient), walking deceitfully (or: perversely); bronze and iron; they are all corrupted. The bellows has failed in the fire” (which the Greeks more expressively call physētēr), “the lead is consumed; in vain has the founder (or: silversmith) smelted, for their wickednesses are not consumed. Call them rejected silver, for the Lord has rejected them!” The prophet is given to the unbelieving people as an assayer, “strong”, which in Hebrew is called “mabsar”, which sounds either “fortified”, according to Aquila, or “shut in” and “surrounded”, according to Symmachus and the Septuagint, like a very strong city, so that he may fear no plots of the people. “So that, when you have tested”, he says, “and known the way of the sinning people, you may then understand that silver mixed with bronze can by no means be purified.” For as lead is mixed with metals that are adulterated and corrupted, so that the foreign matter may be separated, and, if perhaps it has not been purified, all the lead is consumed and reduced to nothing, so every eloquence of doctrine and every prophetic word perishes in those who despise to hear. Let us say this also of those who, like deaf asps, stop their ears so as not to hear the voices of the charmers. For in vain did the silversmith or founder smelt: for their wickednesses were not consumed. Hence they are called not “silver” but “rejected silver”, because the Lord has cast them away. The princes are those who withdraw from the Lord, or are disobedient, who walk perversely and deceitfully. [30] “… saying: Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim (or: read) there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah, you who enter through these gates to worship the Lord!” This is not in the Septuagint edition, but was added from the Hebrew out of Theodotion. The prophet is commanded to stand in the gate of the Lord, through which the multitude of the people enters to worship the Lord, so that by this occasion they may be able to hear what the Lord commands. By this we understand the hardness of the people of the Jews: that they regarded the prophets as liars and madmen, since they are compelled to hear the words of the Lord because of the occasion and the crowds of the place, and not because they are the words of the Lord.

[31] “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make good (or: direct) your ways and your pursuits (or: your devices), and I will dwell with you in this place (or: I will make you dwell in this place).” The most merciful physician wishes to heal the wounded with every remedy. When he says, “make good” or “correct your ways”, he shows that they are perverse and have nothing good in them. And because it is natural that each one loves his native soil and holds nothing sweeter than his homeland, he promises rewards to the obedient. “I will dwell”, he says, “with you, so as to make you secure in your dwelling; or, I will establish you yourselves” (according to Symmachus) “in a firm dwelling”; he who says: “and I will establish you in this place.”

[32] “Do not trust in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is it! For if you make good (or: direct) your ways and your pursuits, if you do justice between a man and his neighbour, do not oppress (or: wrong) the stranger, the orphan and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own harm, I will dwell with you (or: make you dwell) in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from age to age.” What the Septuagint added at the beginning of this chapter, “in lying words, which will not profit you at all”, is not in the Hebrew. He commands both the people of the Jews then and us today, who seem to be established in the church, not to trust in the splendour of buildings, gilded ceilings and walls clothed with marble veneer, and say: “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is it.” For that is the temple of the Lord in which true faith dwells, holy conduct and the choir of all virtues. In short he adds: “If you make your ways straight and your thought does not go after error, and you follow justice and do no evil, nor shed innocent blood by causing simple people to stumble, and do not walk after other gods by worshipping perverse doctrines which you have feigned from your own heart to your own harm, I will either dwell with you in this place, which you call the temple of God, and in the land which I gave to your fathers, namely the apostles and apostolic men, or certainly make you dwell in a firm station from the beginning to the end.” This can also fit those virgins who boast of their chastity and parade it with a shameless face, when their conscience holds something else, and who do not know that apostolic definition of a virgin, that she be holy in body and spirit. For what profit is the chastity of the body when the mind is defiled, if she does not have the other virtues which the prophetic word has described?

[33] “Behold, you trust for yourselves in lying words, which will not profit you: to steal, to kill, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to pour libations to the Baals and to go after other gods whom you do not know; and you came and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and said: We are delivered (or: we have ceased), because we have done all these abominations.” The sins that follow show that they trust in the temple in vain. For what profit is it boldly to enter the threshold of God's house, to stand with neck erect, and to have not only the heart but the hands polluted by theft, murder, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, and the worship of gods one does not know? No one doubts that these things happen spiritually in the church, when people, considering the prosperity of the present time, do not reckon their sins, and think that God does not see because punishment does not follow at once; rather they burst out into such madness that they think themselves delivered, because after evil works they have even withdrawn from the worship of the Lord.

[34] “Has this house (or: my house), in which my name is called upon, become a den of robbers in your eyes? I, I am he, I have seen it, says the Lord.” I think this place is taken up in the gospel: “It is written: My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers”, or, as is written in another gospel, “a house of trade”. The church of God is turned into a den of robbers when thefts, murders, adulteries, perjuries, sacrilege, the invention of heresy and all crimes are found in it; when its leaders burn with the torches of avarice, and a cheap, or certainly not cheap, little cloak possesses the wealth of former kings. Hence he adds: “I, I am he, I have seen it, says the Lord: my eyes have looked on what you think hidden; the darkness of treasures does not escape my knowledge.” He who, though he was rich, became poor for us, now blushes at our riches and says: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have your consolation!”

[35] “Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name dwelt at the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.” He teaches the present from the past, and to those who say, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”, and rejoice in the splendour of a precious house, he recalls the history of Shiloh, where the tabernacle of God first was, of which it is written in the psalm, “And he rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh”: so that, as that place collapsed into ruins and ashes, so the temple too would fall when it became the dwelling of like sins. As Shiloh, then, is an example to the temple, so the temple is to us, when the time of that testimony comes: “When the Son of Man comes, do you think he will find faith on the earth?”