Commentary on Jeremiah 6.13–6.22

[13] "From afar the Lord appeared to me (or: to him): And I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you, having mercy. Again I will build you, and you will be built, virgin Israel. Again you will be adorned with your timbrels (or: take up your timbrels) and go out in the dance of those who play. Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; plant plantings and gather the vintage! For there will be a day on which the watchmen on Mount Ephraim will cry: Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God!" Because Israel had offended the Lord and said, "We have no king but Caesar," and "Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours," and had departed far from God, therefore the Lord appeared to him after a long time (not at the time of Zerubbabel and Ezra, after they were captured again), but loved him with an everlasting love, which will be ended by no end, and drew him, having mercy; for he was saved not by merit but by mercy. "And again," he says, "I will build you, and you will be built, virgin Israel." Let us understand this properly in the church; for they rave who sigh for their golden and jeweled Jerusalem, consecrating their own avarice under the mystery of the Lord's city. "Again you will be adorned with your timbrels, so as to sing to the Lord in the churches, all the flesh of evil works in you being consumed, and you will go out in the dance of those who play with the crowds of the Gentiles. You will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria": by no means in valleys and low places, but on the mountains of Samaria, which after the captivity of the people of Israel were possessed by foreigners, to whom it is said: "Plant plantings and gather the vintage!" Then came the day of the Lord on which the watchmen cried out (namely the apostles and apostolic men) on the mountain of Samaria and the mountain of Ephraim, of which the one means "guard," the other "fruitfulness." What then do the watchmen of Samaria say, or rather what do they cry on Mount Ephraim? "Arise, you who lie down; leave low things; spurn the offerings of victims" (a sacrifice to the Lord is a troubled spirit); "let us go up to Zion, that is, to the church, where there is watching and contemplation of God; and when we are in Zion, or rather have gone up to it, we shall go up together to the Lord our God." [14] "For thus says the Lord: Exult with gladness, Jacob, and neigh against the head of the nations; sound out, sing, and say: Save, Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel!" Significantly, not all Israel is saved, but the remnant of Israel, the Lord commanding and saying: "Exult with gladness, you who are of Jacob, and neigh at the head of the nations," referring all things, "because the tail has once been turned into the head; sound out and sing and say." What is it they are commanded to say? "Save, Lord, your people." Which people? Certainly the remnant of Israel, which has been saved according to election, of which Paul too, taking up the testimony of Isaiah, speaks: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah."

[15] "Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth"; what follows, "at the feast of the Passover, and it will beget many sons," is not in the Hebrew but is read only in the Seventy; for which among the Hebrews is written: "among whom will be the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and the one giving birth together, a great assembly of those returning here." The remnant of the people of Israel is gathered by the apostles and apostolic men, of whom we read above, "The watchmen will cry on the mountain," and to whom it is commanded, "Sound out and sing and say," so that the remnant of Israel may be saved. And the Lord himself promises that he will bring them back from the land of the north, which is the harshest wind (by name it is called dexter), from unbelief, from the cold of the Lord's love, and gather them from the ends of the earth, not at another time but at the feast of the Pasch, that is, the days of the Lord's passion; when the Lord was crucified, and that was fulfilled which he himself promised in the Gospel: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself." Then it begot a great people, so that the word of Isaiah was fulfilled: "For a nation is born at once"; for on one day three thousand, on another five thousand men believed. And as for what is written in the Hebrew, "among whom will be the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and the one giving birth together, a great assembly of those returning here": although it was fulfilled according to the letter too, in that the blind saw and the lame walked, yet it can better be understood by anagogy, that those who before were blind with unbelief afterwards believed in the Savior; and the lame, to whom Elijah once said, "How long will you limp on both feet?", afterwards walked; and "the people that sat in darkness and the shadow of death saw a great light"; and the lame ran, and the pregnant woman bore sons, a great church of those returning to the faith. The Jews think this was fulfilled when under Ezra, after the day of the Passover, they went out from Babylon to return to Jerusalem; in which there was a type and not the truth; for they will not be able to prove that everything we have read and are about to read was fulfilled at that time. [16] "They will come with weeping (or: go out), and in mercy I will bring them back, and I will lead them by torrents of water on a straight way, and they will not stumble (or: go astray) on it, for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." If we read according to the Hebrew, "they will come with weeping" (for this is what iabu indicates), we shall say that sometimes weeping is a sign of excessive joy, as in the saying, "I weep for joy." But if according to the Seventy, who said, "they will go out with weeping, and in mercy (or: in consolation) I will bring them back," we shall give the sense that is also said in the Psalms: "Going they went and wept, carrying their seeds; but coming they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves." For they wept when they were led captive, and received the greatest consolation when they were brought back by the Lord's mercy. And the Lord led them by the apostles and apostolic men, full of waters and of a most abundant river, on a straight way, namely of faith, not in the faithlessness of the Jews. "And they will not stumble on it," he says, because they have ceased to be blind, to whom it was once said, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, We see; your sin remains." We can also understand Christ as the "straight way," on which whoever walks will not stumble. "I have become a father to Israel," he says, which has been brought back, "and Ephraim is my firstborn"; for where sin once abounded, grace has superabounded. Scripture testifies that Ephraim is a type of the people gathered from the Gentiles. For he was the younger son of Joseph and took away the birthright from Manasseh, who was firstborn by nature; but in the mystery of the cross, with hands crossed, he who stood at Jacob's left received the blessing of his right hand, and he who had stood at the right, blessed with the left, was put in second rank. And as Jacob took the birthright from Esau, so Ephraim took it from Manasseh; and the whole people of the ten tribes was called Ephraim, because Jeroboam son of Nebat, of this tribe, first obtained the kingdom in Samaria.

[17] "Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the islands far away, and say: He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock; for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and freed him from the hand of one mightier (or: stronger) than he. And they will come and give praise on Mount Zion and flow together to the good things of the Lord, over grain and wine and oil and the young of the flock and the herd; and their soul will be like a watered garden (or: like a fruitful tree), and they will hunger no more. Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance (or: virgins), and young men and old together; and I will turn their mourning into joy and comfort them and make them glad after their sorrow. And I will make drunk the soul of the priests with fatness (or: of the sons of Levi), and my people will be filled with my good things, says the Lord." The calling of the nations is plainly shown when Scripture says: "Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the islands far away, and say!" What do they declare to the islands situated far away? That the Lord, who scattered Israel, will himself gather him (so it was by no means by the power of the enemies that they were scattered, but by the Lord's will) and keep him as a shepherd his flock (for the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep), because the Lord redeemed Jacob at the price of his blood and freed him from the hand of one mightier or stronger. By this the hostile powers are shown to be stronger than the nature of human frailty, and, as far as strength goes in each, they are stronger by nature, but we are stronger by faith, if only we deserve to be freed by him who can bind the strong man and plunder his house. "And they will come," he says (no doubt freed from the hand of the mighty), "and praise their deliverer on Mount Zion," that is, in the church, "and flow together to the good things of the Lord," the abundance of all things, which is perceived not in the crops and foods of this flesh but in the variety of virtues. "Over grain," he says, "and wine and oil" (from which the Lord's bread is made, and the type of his blood is fulfilled, and the blessing of sanctification is shown, as Scripture says: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions") "and the young of the flock," who in the church are simple, "and of the herd," which are horned and toss their adversaries. And so that we may know that these blessings belong by no means to the body but to the soul, there follows: "and their soul will be like a watered garden," or "like a fruitful tree," which is planted by the streams of water, and the Lord's paradise of delights. "And they will hunger no more": not with that hunger of which it is written, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," but with that which is changed by fullness and shuts out want of all things. "Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance" (of whom the apostle writes, "For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ") "and young men" (to whom John says, "I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one") "and old," to whom the same testifies in mystical speech, "I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning." "And I will turn," he says, "their mourning into joy" (so that the resurrection gladdens those whom the cross had terrified) "and comfort them and make them glad after their sorrow" (according to what the Lord says: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted"), "and I will make drunk the soul of the priests," who have the knowledge of God, from whose mouth they seek the law of the Lord, who believe in him to whom the prophet sings: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." What follows according to the Seventy, "of the sons of Levi," is not in the Hebrew, and it is plain that this is said not of those priests who are sons of Levi, but of those of whom Melchizedek went before as a type. And the "drunkenness" of priests is proved in the apostles too, when they were fervent in faith and were said to be full of new wine; hence the place where the Lord was arrested is called Gethsemane, which in our language means "valley of fatness." And when the priests have been made fat with the Lord's teaching and, made drunk at Joseph's banquet, have said, "Your cup that makes drunk, how splendid it is," then this too will be what the Lord now promises: "And my people will be filled with my good things." All these things are given now in part; but then they will be given in full, when we see face to face and the body of our humiliation has been changed by the glory of the resurrection.

[18] "Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, of lamentation, weeping, and mourning, of Rachel weeping for her sons; and she would not be comforted over her sons, because they are not." The Seventy: "Thus said the Lord: A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and weeping and mourning, of Rachel weeping for her sons; and she would not be quieted, because they are not." Matthew took the testimony neither according to the Hebrew nor according to the Seventy; for we read in him after the description of the slaughter of the infants: "Then was fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great wailing, of Rachel weeping for her sons; and she would not be comforted, because they are not." From this it is plain that the evangelists and apostles did not follow anyone's translation from the Hebrew, but, as Hebrews from Hebrews, expressed in their own words what they read in Hebrew. Rachel, the mother of Joseph, when she was coming to Bethlehem, was suddenly seized by the pains of childbirth and bore a son, whom the midwife, because the mother was dying in labor, called Benoni, that is, "son of my pain"; but his father Jacob changed the name and called him Benjamin, that is, "son of the right hand." The question is, then, how the evangelist Matthew transferred the prophet's testimony to the killing of the little children, when it is plainly written about the ten tribes, of which Ephraim was the chief; whereas Ephrathah is by no means in the tribe of Ephraim but in the tribe of Judah; for it is also Bethlehem, "house of bread," whence the names of both agree: Bethlehem is called "house of bread," Ephrathah "fruitful" (karpophoros), which we can call "fruitfulness." Because, then, Rachel was buried in Ephrathah, that is, in Bethlehem (as both holy Scripture and the inscription of her tomb testify to this day), she is said to weep for the children who were killed near her and in her regions. Some of the Jews interpret this place thus: that when Jerusalem was taken under Vespasian, countless thousands of captives were sent to Rome by this road, by Gaza and Alexandria; others, that in the last captivity under Hadrian, when the city of Jerusalem was also overthrown, an innumerable people of different ages and both sexes was sold at the market of the Terebinth; and that therefore the Jews hold it accursed to visit that very famous market. Let them say what they like; we shall say that the evangelist Matthew rightly took the testimony for the place where Rachel is buried, and that she wept for the sons of the surrounding villages as if her own.

[19] "Thus says the Lord: Let your voice rest from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord, and they will return from the land of the enemy (or: of the enemies); and there will be hope for your last things, says the Lord, and the sons will return to their own borders." According to the letter this has not yet happened (for we do not read that the ten tribes, which are in exile in the cities of the Medes and Persians, have returned to the land of Judea), but according to the spirit it was fulfilled in the Lord's passion and is being fulfilled to this day, when Israel is saved from the whole world and it is said to Rachel: "Let your voice rest from weeping and your eyes from tears!" And the sense is: "Stop weeping, for the Lord has regarded your former works; and your sons will return from the land of the enemy; do not be held by your present grief! For there is hope in your last things, says the Lord, and your sons will return to their borders, which their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had." But we understand it better of the little ones: that they have the reward of the blood shed for Christ, and instead of the land of Herod, the enemy, they hold the kingdom of heaven, and have returned to their former seat, when, in place of the body of humiliation, they have received a glorious body. This is the last hope, when the righteous will shine like the sun, and the infants who were once little ones and nursing will rise, without growth of years and without the injuries and labor of the body, to the perfect man, to the measure of the fullness of Christ.

[20] "I have surely heard Ephraim going into exile (or: lamenting): You have chastised me, and I was instructed like an untamed bullock (or: like a calf, and I did not learn); turn me, and I shall be turned, for you are the Lord my God. For after you turned me (or: after I was captured), I repented; and after I knew (or: after you showed me), I struck my thigh (or: I groaned); I was confounded and blushed (or: from the day of confusion, and I showed you), because I bore the reproach of my youth." God says what he heard Ephraim saying and lamenting. No one doubts that this means the ten tribes, over which Jeroboam son of Nebat first ruled, who made the golden calves in Dan and Bethel, so that the people, led astray by this error, would stop worshiping and adoring the God of Israel. "You have chastised me," he says, "and I was chastised." Every correction profits for salvation, which at present seems to be of sorrow and afterwards brings peaceful fruits. And what he says, "like an untamed bullock," or "a calf, and I did not learn," signifies that he was instructed with much labor and many blows to turn to repentance, and did not profit. "Turn me," he says, "and I shall be turned"; so even the very act of repenting we cannot accomplish unless we rely on God's help. "For after you turn me and I am turned to you, then I shall know that you are the Lord my God, and not my errors and sins. And after you turned me, I repented." See how great is God's help and how frail the human condition, that this very thing, that we repent, we cannot accomplish unless the Lord first turns us. "And after," he says, "you showed me either repentance itself or the knowledge of you, or I knew you, I struck my thigh"; which is the sign of one who grieves and laments and weeps over his former error, to strike his thigh with his hand and confess that he was foolish before. "I was confounded," he says, "and blushed," or "from the day of confusion." For what time is not one of our confusion, if we recall our old sins and remember all that we have done wrong? And what the Seventy said, "and I showed you," signifies that after he groaned and recognized his offenses, he came to such progress that he even showed God to others who did not know him, according to what David too says in repentance: "I will teach the wicked your ways, and the impious will turn to you." "Because I bore," he says, "the reproach of my youth": he says he sinned through the ignorance of age, so as to obtain pardon more easily, according to what David too sings: "Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances!" Hence in what follows the Lord calls him "a little child" and "abounding in delights"; he says this because of the greatness of the riches and the fertility of the land in which the tribe of Ephraim luxuriates to this day.

[21] "Is Ephraim an honored (or: beloved) son to me, a delightful child? For since I spoke of him (or: my words are in him), I will still remember him; therefore my inward parts are troubled over him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord." When Ephraim repents and says at the beginning, "You instructed me and I was instructed like an untamed bullock," and at the end, "because I bore the reproach of my youth," the Lord answers and supports him, turned to him with a full mind, with such an oracle: "Ephraim is my beloved son, whom I loved so much from the beginning that I preferred him to his brother Manasseh." An honored son, who against the order of nature received the honor of the firstborn by the Lord's favor; a delightful child, of whom it is written, "The sons of Ephraim, bending and shooting the bow, turned back in the day of battle"; against whom and to whom the whole book of the prophet Hosea is; whom Jacob blesses. Let us take "delights" in this place according to what is said in the psalm: "Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart," for which the Greek and Hebrew have "abound in delights"; hence the paradise in Eden is called the paradise "of delights." "Because," he says, "my words were in him, I will still remember him with remembrance." Lest the blessing be thought gratuitous and conferred out of the giver's indulgence rather than the merit of the one on whom it was conferred, he says: "I will remember him, because my words were in him, not in his mouth, not on his lips, but in the depth of the heart's affection; for which reason also my inward parts are troubled over him"; to whom he also speaks through Hosea: "What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Israel? Shall I make you like Admah and like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my inward parts are troubled. I will not execute the fury of my wrath, and I will not destroy Ephraim." "I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord." "My words were indeed in him, and he received all my commands with an eager mind and kept them in his heart; yet I will surely have mercy on him"; to show that all human righteousness needs God's mercy.

[22] "Set up watchtowers for yourself, put bitternesses for yourself, direct your heart into the straight way by which you walked; return, virgin Israel, return to these your cities! How long will you be dissolved in delights, wandering daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: a woman will encompass a man." The Seventy: "Set up watchmen for yourself, make punishment, give your heart to your shoulders; the way by which you walked, return, virgin Israel, return to your cities mourning. How long will you turn away, despised daughter? For the Lord has created salvation in a new planting; in salvation men will go about." Where we said, "How long will you be dissolved in delights?", Symmachus put, "How long will you sink into the deep?" I have set out both editions in full, to show that this most obscure passage, which contains the sacraments of the church, was either not known or omitted by the Seventy (or whoever else translated this prophet). The Hebrew word sionim is rendered either "watchmen" or "watchtowers," as Aquila and Symmachus interpreted. So I wonder what the common edition meant by putting "Zion" for sionim, that is, "watchmen," and confusing the reader's understanding, so that he would think that after Ephraim God's word had suddenly turned to Zion and the tribe of Judah, when the whole speech is continuously to Ephraim, to whom he also spoke above, "I have surely heard Ephraim," and "Ephraim is an honored son to me," or "a delightful child"; to whom he now also says: "Set up watchtowers or watchmen for yourself, to announce to you that so great a happiness of all things is coming." And what follows, "bitternesses," which in Hebrew are called thamrurim, for which Symmachus interpreted "changes," indicates that she should weep either for old sins or out of the greatness of joy, and turn to God with her whole mind, and set or direct her heart into the way by which she set out, for by that way she would return. And what the Seventy said instead, "give your heart to your shoulders," signifies that she should join her thoughts to works, or contemplate the shoulders of those carrying her and bringing her back from captivity; which Isaiah sets out more fully, asserting that they will be brought back on camels and chariots and litters. "Return," he says, "virgin Israel, return to your cities, which you left as a captive! How long will you be dissolved in negligence and wander in deep error? Look at what I am about to say, and attend carefully to where so great a blessedness is to be hoped for you; hear what you never knew before! The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: without a man's seed, without intercourse and conception, a woman will encompass a man in the bosom of her womb, who, though by the growth of age he will seem to advance in wisdom and age through wailing and infancy, will yet be held as a perfect man in a woman's womb for the usual months." Hence Symmachus and Aquila too interpreted according to our edition. What the common edition meant in this place I could say, and find some sense, were it not sacrilege to argue about the words of God by human sense. Theodotion, also agreeing with the common edition, interpreted: "The Lord has created a new salvation; in salvation man will go about," putting the singular for the plural. And at the same time this too is to be noted, that the birth and conception of the Savior is called God's "creation."