Commentary on Jeremiah 4.28–4.39

[28] "Cursed be the day on which I was born; the day on which my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man (or: the person) who brought the news to my father, saying: A male child is born to you, and made him glad as with joy! Let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew and did not repent; let him hear a cry in the morning and wailing at noon, who (or: because he) did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave and her womb an everlasting conception. Why did I come out of the womb, to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in shame?" Those who think that souls were in the heavens and were cast down from a better into a worse state use this and similar testimonies, namely that it would have been better to dwell in the heavens than on earth and to take on the body of humiliation, seeking new, or rather already old, arguments for their heresy. But we, reading the words of blessed Job, "Cursed be the day on which I was born, and the night on which they said, Behold, a male," and "Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, A boy is born to you," fit this testimony to it: namely, that it is better not to be than to live in torments, according to what is written: "Death is rest to a man whose way God has shut up," and again: "Why is light given to the wretched, and life to those who are in bitterness of soul?" And in the Gospel we read it said simply: "It would have been better for him if he had not been born"; not that one who has not been born exists, but that it is better not to be than to be badly. For it is one thing not to be at all, another, while one exists, to be tormented without any respite; just as we prefer a quiet death to a wretched life. Hence Amos too calls the day a day of darkness, a day of affliction; and Jacob, because he lived in labor and distress, calls the days of his life few and evil; and the apostle Paul says, "to rescue us from the present evil age," and again, "redeeming the time, because the days are evil." The Hebrews reckon the fifth month, in which Jerusalem was taken and the temple overthrown, as the month of Jeremiah's birth, by certain tangled and incredible arguments; if they could prove it, I do not know how they would interpret the testimony of Job, unless perhaps they suppose that day too was a prefiguring and prophecy of the future overthrow of the temple. As for his calling down the likeness of the overthrown cities, I think it is said of Sodom and Gomorrah; and all the time in mourning, so that there is a cry in the morning and wailing at noon. What he adds, "who did not kill me in the womb," they think refers to God; "so that my mother might have been," he says, "my everlasting conception." All these things are said hyperbolically. Finally he sets out the reasons why he prefers death to life, and not to be at all rather than to be badly, adding: "Why did I come out of the womb, to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in shame?"

[29] "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Phassur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying: Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us; perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works and he will withdraw from us." Above, the high priest Phassur or Phaschor, who struck Jeremiah, had Emmer as his father; this Phassur is the son of Melchiah. I say this so that no one may think he is the same man. King Zedekiah sends to the prophet, unwilling that either the people or the princes should know, so as to learn by a secret message through envoys what sentence the Lord has on the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people. And what he adds, "for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us," shows that Zedekiah asks this of the prophet when Jerusalem is already besieged. And it must be noted that in the prophets, especially Ezekiel and Jeremiah, the order of kings and times is by no means kept, but in reverse: what happened later in history is told first, and what was done first is told later. For it is one thing to write history, another prophecy. So in the present place Zedekiah, who was captured with the city of Jerusalem, is described as sending to Jeremiah, and at the time when Jerusalem was being besieged; and afterwards the history of Jehoiakim his brother, who was king before him, is told, and of Jehoiachin, that is, Jeconiah, who was the son of Jehoiakim; of whom we shall speak in what follows.

[30] "And Jeremiah said to them: Thus shall you say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war (or: the arms of war) that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you around the walls, and I will gather them (or: gather them) into the midst of this city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong (or: lofty) arm, in fury and in indignation and in great wrath, and I will strike the inhabitants of this city; men and beasts shall die of a great pestilence." "In vain," he says, "you want to resist the besieging Chaldeans and prepare weapons of war, which you will use only in the middle of the city, so as to seem armed. But while they besiege you, I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and strike you with my fury and indignation, so that you and everything that breathes will die by famine and pestilence in the middle of the city." And we read that this did happen: without any ring of battle or clamor of fighters, the city was taken by siege alone, so that they had none to conquer, only those to capture. "Better off," he says, "were those wounded by the sword than those killed by famine."

[31] "And after this, says the Lord, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants and his people, and those who are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he will strike them with the edge of the sword, and he will not relent, nor spare, nor have mercy." What we have translated, "into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies," is not in the Seventy; and for what we said, "he will not relent nor spare nor have mercy," the Seventy translated, "I will not spare nor have mercy." It is better according to the Hebrew, that the cruel and inflexible sentence should seem to be the Babylonian king's rather than the Lord's. First the prophecy was about the whole city; now it is foretold specifically to Zedekiah and to those of his people who remain after the pestilence, sword, and famine, that he is to be captured by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, and killed by the sword with his friends, and is to hope for no mercy from him whose treaty and bond he abandoned by perjury.

[32] "And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and deserts to the Chaldeans who besiege you will live, and his life will be his as a spoil. For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says the Lord; it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire." To those who had been sent by the king and had come to the prophet to ask him to inquire of the Lord for them, he had given the earlier answer, and what they were to report to King Zedekiah; now he exhorts them to answer the people, and gives the advice to desert to the Chaldeans against the king's will, which, as everyone knows, was dangerous for the prophet. Hence he also calls down death on himself and says, "Cursed be the day on which I was born," and "Why did I come out of the womb, to see labor and sorrow?" Not that it is a light thing to advise those not yet captured to hand themselves over to captivity of their own accord, as if those about to suffer shipwreck were ordered to seize oars and planks and throw themselves into the waves before the shipwreck and the breaking up of the ship; but that it is more bearable to live as captives somehow than to be consumed by sword, famine, and pestilence. There are some who expound this place by tropology thus: that it is better to give oneself to secular studies, and especially philosophy, than to remain in that church in which there is a famine of the word of God and the whole people dies by the sword of the heretics, by want of doctrine, and by the plague of heresy.

[33] "And to the house of the king of Judah: Hear the word of the Lord, house of David! Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment in the morning, and rescue the one oppressed by force from the hand of the slanderer, lest perhaps my indignation go forth (or: so that it may not go forth) like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it"; and what follows, "because of the wickedness of your pursuits," is not in the Seventy. Because he had said above, "And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord," he now consequently adds, "And to the house of the king of Judah," so that "you shall say: Thus says the Lord" is to be understood. For by one clause both what precedes and what follows are joined, so that the sense is: "And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord, (and to the house of the king of Judah you shall say: Thus says the Lord)." The word is addressed specifically to the royal house, by whose fault above all the city is besieged, so that it may correct its error by repentance and obtain the Lord's mercy. "Judge," he says, "judgment in the morning" (not in the darkness of iniquity, but in the light of justice) "and rescue the one oppressed by force from the hand of the slanderer, so that you do not respect persons in judgment, but, when the rich oppress the poor, the command of God may prevail with you more than the power of the persecutor. And if," he says, "you do this, the fire of my fury will by no means be kindled in you, nor find material to consume." And in this place the incredible mercy of God is shown: of those of whom he had said above, "For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good; it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and fire will burn it," now, when the Lord's sentence is already pressing, he calls them to salvation; not that he does not know that the city of Jerusalem is to be taken, but so that free choice may be preserved to man, and they may be seen to perish not through ignorance of the future but by their own will. So too the Savior knew that the people would deny him and that he would be crucified, since he had often foretold this to the apostles; and nonetheless he admonished them, wishing to correct them to repentance, so that whatever they suffered afterwards would befall them by their own fault, not by the harshness of the one who threatened.

[34] "Behold, I am against you, inhabitant of the solid and level valley, says the Lord, you who say: Who will strike (or: terrify) us, and who will enter our houses? And I will visit upon you"; what follows, "according to the fruit of your pursuits, says the Lord," is not in the Seventy; "and I will kindle," he says, "a fire in its forest, and it will devour everything around it." For "inhabitant of the solid and level valley" the Seventy translated, "Behold, I am against you who dwell in the level valley of Sor"; for which Symmachus interpreted "rock," Theodotion "besieged," Aquila's first edition "solid," his second "Tyre"; for Sor or Sur in the Hebrew language means "Tyre," "flint," and "hemmed in." He speaks against Jerusalem, which is encircled by siege, or which, like Tyre by the great sea, is so surrounded by the Babylonian army that it cannot escape; or certainly which, like a very hard rock, thinks itself impregnable and strong because of the solidity and greatness of its walls and says: "Who can terrify us, and who will enter our houses?" when on the contrary God says: "I will visit you; you will not be able to escape my eye. I will visit you for destruction and repay you the fruit of your wickedness; and I will kindle a fire in your forest, not the Babylonian, as you think, not the king of the Chaldeans, but my wrath will accomplish all this." He calls Jerusalem and the whole region round about a "forest," because it has no fruit-bearing trees of good works and so is prepared for burning. And he finely calls it a "level valley," because it is open to enemies, and not "a high mountain," which is hard to climb; as Isaiah too says, "The vision of the valley of Zion." Whatever is prophesied of the royal house and the metropolis, let us refer to the order of the church and the leaders of the churches, at least those who have given themselves to pride, riches, and wantonness. Nor will it at once be freed from destruction because it is a royal house; just as very few of those who were of David's line were found to please the Lord as David himself did, Hezekiah and Josiah, and a great part of the princes and the royal line provoked the Lord's wrath against the whole people.

[35] "Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak this word there and say: Hear the word of the Lord, king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter by these gates! Thus says the Lord: Do judgment and justice, and free the one oppressed by force from the hand of the slanderer; and do not grieve or oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow unjustly (or: impiously), nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you indeed do this word, there shall enter by the gates of this house kings of David's line sitting on his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you do not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation." This vision, or rather this word of the Lord, came to the prophet either before Zedekiah sent messengers to him, or at least after he had instructed the messengers what they should report to the king. Jeremiah is commanded not to speak to the king through messengers, but to go to the palace himself and speak to him there. At the same time let us notice the divine wisdom: through messengers he orders sad news to be announced, mixed with prosperous news if the king will repent; but here, since he himself is commanded to go, he does not announce sad things and the captivity now about to come, but warns him what he must do to escape the impending sentence of God. It is the proper task of kings to do judgment and justice and to free those oppressed by force from the hand of slanderers, and to give help to the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who are more easily oppressed by the powerful. And to lay on them a greater care for God's commandments, he added: "Do not grieve them"; that is, not only rescue them, but do not even allow them to be grieved by others through your connivance; "and do not shed innocent blood in this place." For to punish murderers, sacrilegious persons, and poisoners is not shedding of blood but the ministry of the laws. "If," he says, "you do these things, O kings of Judah, you will hold your former power and enter the gates of Jerusalem with pomp; but if you will not do them, O royal house, it will be not so much the Lord's cruelty as your own will that the whole city is reduced to desolation." Whatever has been said to the royal house, let bishops and their associates, presbyters and deacons, and the whole order of the church understand: that if they do what has been commanded, and among other things do not shed innocent blood by scandalizing the least ones and striking the consciences of individuals, they will keep the dignity given them by the Lord; but if they will not do it and despise it, they themselves reduce the church to desolation. And they of David's line enter through the gates of Jerusalem and sit on his throne (David being interpreted "strong of hand") and ride in chariots and on horses when they rein in both their own and the people's disturbances and enter the church with composed step and with a choir of many virtues singing together on every side. And so that we may believe this is true, he swears by himself, who, according to the apostle, has no other greater by whom he can swear.

[36] "For thus says the Lord concerning the house (or: to the house) of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, the head (or: the beginning) of Lebanon; surely I will make you a desolation, uninhabited cities. And I will consecrate against you a slayer, a man and his weapons, and they will cut down your choice cedars and throw them (or: cast them) into the fire. And many nations will pass by this city, and each will say to his neighbor: Why has the Lord done thus to this great city? And they will answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped strange gods and served them." Scripture records Gilead beyond the Jordan, which the half tribe of Manasseh possessed; on this mountain Laban overtook the fleeing Jacob, and according to Genesis the mountain received its name, "heap of witness," because there Jacob and Laban swore over a heap of gathered stones. The head or beginning of Lebanon is a high mountain, all planted with cedars, according to David's song, "And the Lord will shake the cedars of Lebanon," and elsewhere, "I saw the wicked exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon"; and in Zechariah we read: "Open your gates, Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars!" In the present place, then, since he was speaking to the royal house, he speaks figuratively to the temple, or to the house of the line of Judah, because it is itself on a height, or because from the temple and sanctuary remedies for all sins were sought; hence the same prophet records: "Is there no balm in Gilead, or is there no physician there? Why has the healing of the daughter of my people not come up?" He threatens, then, the royal house and the city of Jerusalem and the temple, which he calls the head of Lebanon, that it is to be reduced to desolation with all its cities, not by the power of the Babylonian king but by the command of the Lord, who says: "I will consecrate against you a slayer." Nebuchadnezzar and his whole army are called "holy" because he carries out the sentence of God. "And they will cut down," he says, "your choice cedars" (all the powerful men and princes of the city) "and throw them into the fire, so that the all-devouring flame consumes them. And when all has been destroyed, many nations will pass through the city and the temple, which they were not permitted to enter before, and each will say to his neighbor why the Lord has done to the famous and great city so sudden and so great an overthrow. And those who are asked," he says, "will answer and set out the causes of the ruin, saying: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped idols in place of God." Let the royal house of our city hear this too, and its princes and cedars, which raise their tops to the clouds and say in pride, "Who will not see us?", that they will quickly be consumed by the Lord's flames if they will not obey his commands. The consecration of the slayer and his weapons is one thing, that of the priests and those who minister to the Lord another.

[37] "Do not weep for the dead, nor mourn over him! Weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he will not return again nor see the land of his birth! For thus says the Lord to Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will not return here again, but in the place to which I have carried him, there he will die, and he will not see this land again." Josiah, a righteous king, had three sons, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. The first of these Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, led captive into Egypt, and he died there; and he made his brother Eliakim king in his place (and changed his name to Jehoiakim). When he died his son Jeconiah reigned, who was led into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, with his mother and princes; in his place his uncle Zedekiah reigned, who, when Jerusalem was taken, was led to Babylon. The question therefore is who this is, who is not to be wept for and is to be led into captivity and never return, since three were captured and carried off. The Hebrews think this fits all of them, that is, Jehoahaz, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, and that all the sons of Josiah are called Sellem or Shallum, which is interpreted "consummation" or "completion," because the kingdom of Judah ended in them. To me, however, it seems to be said properly of Zedekiah, about whom the prophecy of the present and the preceding passage is; in whom the kingdom of Judah truly ended, under whom the city was taken, and who is written to have been led to Babylon and to have died there. He is Shallum, that is, "consummation" and "completion," the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father. Jeconiah, on the other hand, was not the son but the grandson of Josiah, the son of Jehoiakim; so that from the beginning of the vision, when King Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah Phassur the son of Melchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, up to this passage, we should understand everything as said to King Zedekiah and about him. [38] "Woe to him who builds his house in injustice and his upper rooms not in judgment, who oppresses his friend for nothing and does not pay him his wages; who says: I will build myself a broad house and spacious upper rooms; who cuts out windows for himself and makes ceilings of cedar and paints them with vermilion! Will you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice then, when it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good; was it not so because he knew me? says the Lord. But your eyes and heart are set on avarice and on shedding innocent blood and on slander and on the course of evil work." The Seventy: "O you who build your house not with justice, and your upper rooms not in judgment! With him his neighbor works for nothing, and he will not pay him his wages. You have built yourself a small house, airy upper rooms, set off with windows, joisted with cedar and smeared with vermilion. Will you reign because you contend against Achaz your father? They will not eat and they will not drink; it was better for you to do judgment and good justice. They did not know, they did not judge the judgment of the lowly nor the judgment of the poor. Is not this not to know me? says the Lord. Behold, your eyes are not right nor your heart good, but set on your avarice and on shedding innocent blood, and on iniquity and murder, to do them." I have set down both editions in full, so that the Hebrew truth and the difficulty of the common edition may be more easily recognized. The word is against Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, of whom we spoke above, whom Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, appointed in place of his brother Jehoahaz, whom he led bound into Egypt. We read in the history of both Kings and Chronicles that Jehoiakim the son of Josiah reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, reigned cruelly and was impious, and afterwards died; yet his burial is not recorded, although holy Scripture has the custom of recording all kings as both dead and buried. But this one it specifically records as dead and not buried, of which we shall speak later. He laments, then, the said king, because he trusts in injustice and thinks the royal dignity perpetual, makes himself upper rooms, oppresses friends and does not pay workers their wages, and thinks the building of his palace eternal. "Can you," says the divine word, "reign forever because you wish to compare yourself to the lofty cedar, that is, to your father Josiah, a righteous king? Your father," he says, "both ate and drank and enjoyed royal wealth; yet he did not offend God in having riches, but pleased him in doing judgment and justice, and therefore it was and will be well with him both in the present age and in the future. He judged," he says, "the cause of the poor and needy and for the relief of those whom he heard, and properly for his own good. All these things turned out prosperously for him because he knew me, says the Lord. But your eyes, O Jehoiakim, turn aside to avarice, to shedding innocent blood, to slander, and to the course of evil work." What sense the Seventy's version has I cannot understand. For while the rest agrees in some measure, what is added, "Will you reign because you contend against Achaz your father?", for which the Hebrew has araz, a word that means "cedar," plainly has no sense; and what follows, "they will not eat and they will not drink," and the rest, which are so scattered and confused that without the truth of the Hebrew reading they have no meaning. We can, however, take this place figuratively against the heretics, who build themselves a house not great and very broad with the abundance of the church, but small; and they build not with justice and judgment, desiring to plunder what belongs to others. Hence it is said: "You have built yourself a small house, airy upper rooms," which are carried about by every wind of doctrine, "and set off with windows"; for they have no lasting building nor solid firmness. "And joisted," he says, "with cedar": they seem indeed to have a most beautiful framework, but against the rains and the storm of persecutions they quickly rot and fall. "And smeared with vermilion": for they too promise the Lord's passion and blood, but they do not reign forever, because they contend with and provoke to anger araz, that is, "the cedar," their father. For every heretic is born in the church, but is cast out of the church and contends and fights against his parent. And what he adds, "they will not eat and they will not drink," means "the body and blood of the Savior," and the rest like it. And he says that all the error comes from their not having known God and not having right eyes, but their heart is prone to avarice, to plunder others' goods and shed the blood of the deceived; for this is to commit murder. Obscure things must be discussed at greater length.

[39] "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not lament for him: Alas, my brother, and alas, sister! They will not resound for him: Alas, lord, and alas, glorious one! With the burial of an ass he will be buried, rotting and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem." What we have set down from the Hebrew, "They will not lament for him: Alas, my brother, and alas, sister," is not in the Seventy. And it is said properly against Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the riddle that before seemed hidden is opened, and the ambiguity among the three brothers is resolved, so that the word is not about Jehoahaz or Zedekiah but properly about Jehoiakim, who, as the Hebrew history relates, was killed by raiding bands of the Chaldeans, Syria, the Ammonites, and the Moabites; hence in Kings he is written to have died, and his burial is passed over in silence. In the book of Chronicles we read that he was bound with chains and led to Babylon, and nothing further is reported of him. And he finely says that he is to be buried "with the burial of an ass," to signify in other words that he will be unburied, that is, torn by beasts and birds. For this is the burial of an ass.