Commentary on Jeremiah 3.56–3.72

[56] “Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder to the nations (or: without price) for all your sins, in all your borders. And I will bring your enemies (or: I will make you serve your enemies) from a land which you do not know; for a fire is kindled in my fury; it will burn upon you.” “All your substance”, he says, “I will hand over to your enemies without any price, for the sins which you committed in all your borders. Therefore I will bring your enemies, or make you serve in the land of Chaldea, because my fire, once kindled in my fury, will burn in you and cannot be put out; for you provided the material of your burning, so that my fire may consume your wood and hay and stubble that are in you.” And so the cause of the burning is not in the Lord but in those who supplied fuel for the fire. [57] “You know, O Lord; remember me and visit me and defend me from those who persecute me; do not take me up in your patience; know that for your sake I have borne reproach! Your words were found, and I ate them (or: from those who reject your words; consume them), and your word became to me (or: will be to me) the joy and gladness of my heart, for your name is called upon me, O Lord God of hosts!” What we said, “you know”, is not in the Septuagint. Happy is that conscience which bears reproach for God's sake. Hence he says: “Your words were found, which you spoke by my mouth, and I ate them, that is, they were turned into food for me”; or, according to Symmachus: “I received them, so that those which had long been my reproach might be turned into my joy.” Hence the Babylonians too confess that what Jeremiah had foretold was fulfilled. Or the sense is this: “I felt distress, I suffered the miseries of a persecuting people, but yet I rejoiced to have obeyed your commands, and for your name I endured hard things.” [58] “I did not sit in the assembly of those who make merry, and I boasted (or: I was afraid) before your hand; I sat alone, for you have filled me with bitterness. Why has my pain become perpetual (or: why do those who grieve me grow strong), and my wound desperate, refusing to be healed (or: my wound is grievous; how shall I be healed)? It has become to me like the deceit of faithless waters (or: like a lying water that has no faith).” The Hebrews think this is said in the person of Jerusalem: that she sat alone and was filled with bitterness and her pain became perpetual, and that, as waters pass by, so the words of the prophets, by which they promised themselves prosperity, passed away falsely. But it is better to take these words as said in the person of the prophet, a holy man, who did not sit in the assembly or the secret of those who make merry, because he feared the hand of God hanging over him, or rather boasted that he had no fellowship with the wicked. “I sat alone”, he says, according to what is written: “I have not sat with the assembly of vanity, and I will not go in with those who do wicked things. I have hated the church of evildoers, and I will not sit with the impious”; and in another place: “I am alone until I pass on.” “Before your hand”, he says, “I sat alone, while I fear you, while I always expect your hand hanging over me. I would not sit in the assembly of those who make merry, but swallowed my bitterness, so as to prepare joy for myself in the future. Nor had I intervals in my pain, but was weighed down by continual misery, so that I expected no remedies. For those who grieved me prevailed, and my wound became grievous. But in this I had consolation, that it was like lying and passing water. For as passing waters are seen while they flow and slip away, so every onslaught of my enemies passed away with your help.” May the Lord grant us too not to sit in the assembly of those who make merry and do not consider the future, nor to yield to adversity, but always to fear God's sentence and say with the prophet: “I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness!” “Let the assembly, not of the wise but the secret circle of the merrymakers, rejoice in the present time; for me let it be good to cling to God, to put my hope in the Lord, to be filled with reproaches and to wait for the sentence of my judge, which, when the end comes, will show in deed that all sadness and bitterness has passed away like flowing waters.”

[59] “Therefore thus says the Lord: If you turn, I will turn you, and you will stand before my face; and if you separate the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth. They will turn to you, and you will not turn to them. And I will make you to this people a bronze wall, strong; and they will fight against you and will not prevail, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. And I will free you from the hand of the most wicked and redeem you from the hand of the mighty (or: the pestilent).” It is clear that it was not Jerusalem but the prophet who said the preceding words. The Lord answers him: “If you turn the people from sins, I too will turn you from tribulation to joy, and you will stand before my face, as the angels stand in God's presence, daily seeing his face; and if you separate the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth. And do not think”, he says, “that there is no reward for good work: if you separate all my saints from the number of sinners by your words, you will be as my mouth and be joined to my commands. For they ought to be your imitators, and not you theirs. And do not fear and say, Why has my pain become perpetual and my wound grievous or desperate, so that I despair of being able to be healed? For I will make you a bronze and very strong wall, so that you may resist the adversary with all your strength and have me as helper, and I will free you from the hand of the most wicked or pestilent, and redeem you either by my blood or, for the present, by my help.” Let us consider what great reward the word of the teacher has, if it can free anyone from error and lead him out of the number of sinners!

[60] “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Do not take a wife, and let there be no sons and daughters for you in this place! For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers of whose stock they were born in this land: They will die of deadly diseases; they will not be lamented and will not be buried; they will be as dung on the face of the land; and they will be consumed by sword and famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.” If, in a time of impending captivity, the prophet is forbidden to marry a wife, so that he may not have tribulation of the flesh and, on top of his own grief, be tormented also by the miseries of wife and children, how much more does the apostle command, because the time has been shortened and the end is at hand, that even those who have wives should be as though they had none! Hence the reproach of the new heretic is superfluous, by which he reproves our teaching that second and third marriages come not from the law but from indulgence. For it is one thing to do what is good in itself, another for something to be allowed so that we may not do worse. For he himself also gives the reasons why he wishes young widows to marry, adding: “For some of them have already turned aside after Satan.” And at the same time this teacher of continence and perpetual chastity, who blasphemously makes himself equal to God, praises third and fourth marriages, which I would call not so much marriages as consolations of miseries and the last plank of the shipwrecked; unless perhaps he grants indulgence to his Amazons, so that they may experience the wars of lust even into decrepit old age. Why the prophet is kept from marrying a wife the reason is plain: because, with the siege near, all would perish by pestilence and sword and famine, and the number of the dying would be so great that the duty of burial would be overcome, and the corpses would lie like dung, to be torn by birds and beasts. And this is to be noted: that to waste away with diseases and long sickness is the anger of God; hence Jehoram too, son of Jehoshaphat, is consumed by sickness, and the apostle teaches that those who have violated holy things fall sick and waste away and die.

[61] “For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of feasting, nor go to lament, nor console them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, mercy and compassion. And great and small will die in this land; they will not be buried nor lamented, and they will not cut themselves nor make themselves bald for them. And they will not break bread among them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them the cup to drink, to comfort anyone for his father and mother. And you shall not enter the house of feasting, to sit with them and eat and drink.” The apostle commands that with those who turn from God one should not even take food; and further: “Do not even say Greeting to such a one!” And the Saviour forbids the apostles to greet anyone on the road; hence Elisha too forbids Gehazi, as he went to heal the boy, to greet anyone. It is the custom for mourners to bring food and prepare a feast, which the Greeks call perideipna, and our people commonly call parentalia, because the due rites are celebrated for parents. Divine Scripture also says elsewhere: “Give wine to those who are in mourning”, namely so that they may forget their grief. So the prophet is commanded not to console anyone of the people, not to mix in the feasts of God's enemies, not to celebrate the rites over the funerals of the dead. For it is one thing to die by the common law of nature, another to be slain by the sentence of God. “I have taken away”, he says, “my peace from this people, and they are unworthy of mercy; I will spare no age, but great and small will perish alike, so that they will lack even burial.” “They will not cut themselves”, he says, “nor make themselves bald for them.” This was the custom among the ancients, and remains to this day among some of the Jews, that in mourning they cut their arms and make themselves bald; which we read that Job too did. Hence the prophet too is told not to break bread among them, nor go in to comfort anyone for the dead, not to give drink, not to enter the house of feasting, and not to mix with those who are prepared for God's sentence. And if this is said of mourners, what will become of the heretics, whose word spreads like a cancer and who daily lay low in the church the corpses of those they deceive?

[62] “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will take away from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And when you announce to this people all these words, and they say to you: Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity, and what is our sin which we have sinned against the Lord our God? you shall say to them: Because your fathers forsook me, says the Lord, and went after other gods and served them and worshipped them, and forsook me and did not keep my law. And you too have done worse than your fathers.” When the church has sinned, all joy and all gladness are taken from it, of which the apostle says, “Rejoice; again I say, rejoice”; the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, of whom it is written: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom.” “And if”, he says, “the people asks you why it suffers these things, and seeks the causes of its miseries, you shall answer them: Because your fathers forsook me, says the Lord” (those who preside over you in the churches), “and went after other gods” (whose god is the belly and avarice and luxury, and whose glory is in their shame), “and served them” (for by whatever one is overcome, of that he is also the slave), “and worshipped them” (for each one worships what he loves), “and forsook me and did not keep my law.” It belongs properly to priests not only to teach the law but to do it, so as to teach the peoples subject to them and the flock entrusted to them not by words but by examples. And lest perhaps they should say, “It is an unjust sentence that the fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge”, he adds: “But you too have done worse than your fathers”, so that just punishments may be brought upon those who have sinned worse than their fathers.

[63] “For behold, each of you walks after the depravity of his evil heart, so as not to hear me. And I will cast you out of this land into a land which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, who will give you no rest.” Once forsaken by the Lord, they do things that are not fitting, going after the desires of their evil heart, from which come forth the worst thoughts; and therefore they are separated from the church, to go into a far land, which neither they nor their fathers knew before they sinned, to serve other gods there, who are not gods but are thought so by the error of those who worship them. And by adding “day and night” he shows the perpetual perseverance of sinners in crime, while by day they serve outrages and by night lust. “Who will give you no rest”, he says: no doubt he means the false gods, of whom he said, “and there you will serve other gods.” Whatever we sin, then, whatever we do day and night and the evil works we commit, it is the command of the demons, who never give us rest and always drive us to add offences to offences and make a heap of sins.

[64] “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, The Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but, The Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands to which he had driven them; and I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers.” The future restoration of the people of Israel and mercy after captivity are plainly foretold, which according to the letter was partly fulfilled under Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest and Ezra, and according to the spiritual understanding is described as to be fulfilled more truly and perfectly in Christ. “The time will come”, he says, “when it will no longer be said that the people was brought back from Egypt through Moses and Aaron, but brought back from the land of the north when Cyrus, king of the Persians, released the captives.” “And from all the lands”, he says; which will be fulfilled not in the time of Cyrus but at the last end, as the apostle says: “When the fullness of the nations has come in, then all Israel will be saved.” We can also say this of the persecutions which befell our people from the days of Nero (of whom the apostle writes, “And I was delivered from the mouth of the lion”) up to the times of Maximinus: how the Lord had mercy on his people and brought them back to their land, no doubt the church, which he gave to their fathers, the apostles and apostolic men.

[65] “Behold, I will send many fishers, says the Lord, and they will fish for them; and after this I will send them many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the caves of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, and their iniquity was not concealed from my eyes. And I will first repay double their iniquities and their sins, with which they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” The interpretation of this chapter differs. For the Jews hold that the Chaldeans are signified, who are described under the name of fishers, and afterwards the Romans, who are compared to hunters and hunted the unhappy people from the mountains and hills and caves of the rocks. And the Lord says he did this because he looked on their ways and repaid the iniquities by which they defiled the land, venerating images, and polluted his inheritance with the abominations of idols. But our interpreters, more rightly and better, think that the prophet prophesied these things of the future. For because he had said above, “I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers”, he now shows how they are to be brought back: that first he sends the apostles, to whom the Saviour said, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”, and afterwards hunters, whom we can take to be either men of the church or angels, who, when the time of the end has come, hunt all the saints from the mountains of lofty doctrines and the hills of good works and the caves of the rocks, the apostles and apostolic men. For not only is Christ the rock, but he also granted to the apostle Peter to be called rock; and those who rest in his teachings are rightly said to have been carried over from the rock. And he shows that either the apostles or those who are to be hunted afterwards had sins and received double for their iniquities; for “the servant who knows his master's will and does not do it will be beaten with many blows.” And it should be known that “first” is put in the Hebrew and left out in the Septuagint edition. And when he says, “I will first repay double their iniquities and sins”, he implies that after they have received evils they will also receive good things. But those who are to be carried over afterwards defiled the Lord's land with the carcasses of their idols and filled his inheritance with their abominations, so that the whole world may become subject to God and be preserved not by its own merit but by his mercy.

[66] “O Lord, my strength and my might and my refuge in the day of trouble (or: of evils)!” All the strength of men without the power of God, who is Christ, is reckoned weak and nothing; hence we must flee to God and say: “O Lord, you have been our refuge from generation to generation”; and in another place: “He who dwells in the help of the Most High will abide in the protection of the God of heaven.” The day of trouble or of evils must be understood as that of which the apostle too speaks: “to deliver us from the present evil age”, and, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

[67] “To you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say: Truly our fathers possessed lies, vanity, which did not profit them.” The Septuagint: “To you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say: How false were the idols our fathers possessed, and there is no profit in them!” After Israel has been cast out and carried off by the fishers and hunters, the multitude of the nations is consequently called to faith and confesses that it, or its fathers, lived in former error. And those who say, “How false were the idols our fathers possessed, in which there is no profit!”, confess that the things to which they are passing are true and supported by every protection.

[68] “Shall a man make gods for himself, and they are not gods?” This too the nations say, who have come to the Saviour from the ends of the earth, mocking the ignorance both of themselves and of their ancestors, by which they thought that gods were made by man, when it belongs to God to make men. [69] “Therefore, behold, I will show them this time; I will show them my hand and my power, and they will know that my name is the Lord.” The hand of God, through which he made all things, and the power, of which the apostle said, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”, is shown to the nations when the passion of the Son has been completed. And he fittingly said, “I will show them this time; I will show it openly, and not as before in shadow and image and prophecy of things to come, so that, after they have known, they may know my name and hear from the Son: Father, I have made your name known to men.”

[70] “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond, engraved on the breadth of their heart (or: on the breast of their heart) and on the horns of their altars.” Of the nations which had been converted to the Lord it was said above, “Behold, I will show them this time, I will show them my hand and my power”; now he speaks of Israel, which has been cast off: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond”, and so on. Why this was left out by the Septuagint I do not know, unless perhaps they spared their own people, as it is clear they did in Isaiah too: “Cease therefore from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reckoned exalted”; and many things of this kind, which, if I wished to set them all out, would need not a book but books. The sins of the nations have been blotted out, because, converted to the Lord from the ends of the earth, they heard that word: “Praise the Lord, all you nations; praise him, all you peoples; for his mercy is confirmed upon us, and the truth of the Lord endures for ever”; and of them he had said to Moses: “Let me alone, that I may destroy this people, and I will make you a great nation.” But the sin of Judah, indelible and, so to speak, to be abolished by no means, is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond, which in Hebrew is called “samir”: not that there is any point called “samir”, but because the diamond stone, which got this name from being untamed and unbreakable, has such polish and smoothness that one can write on it without any hindrance with an iron pen, so that the hard material of iron writes on a harder tablet of diamond, and what is written lasts for ever. For they themselves said: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” Hence it is also carved or engraved on the horns of their altars, so that the works of sacrilege may persist in eternal memory. But if this is so, where is that which the doting old woman fabricates, that a man can be without sin if he wishes, and that God's commands are easy?

[71] “When their sons remember their altars and their groves and leafy trees on the high mountains, sacrificing in the field, I will give your strength and all your treasures as plunder, your high places because of your sins in all your borders. And you will be left alone, bereft of your inheritance which I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know; for you have kindled a fire in my fury; it will burn for ever.” These words too are not found in the Septuagint, for the same reason, I think, which we gave above: namely, so that the sentence against them should not remain for ever. “You will be left alone”, he says, “bereft of your inheritance which I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know”, either under the Babylonians or, as is truer, under the Romans. For they themselves kindled the fire and provoked the most merciful Lord to fury, and the fire of his fury will burn for ever. I am ashamed of the contentiousness of our own people, who find fault with the Hebrew truth. The Jews read against themselves, and the church does not know what is in its favour. Hence let us, who are sons of the apostles, remember the iniquities of the former people and testify that they suffered justly. The “high places”, which in Hebrew are called “bamoth”, can also be taken against the heretics, who have set their mouth on high, and their tongue has gone over the earth; who burst out into such madness that they alone remained without the grace of the Holy Spirit and lost the Lord's inheritance, namely the former truth of the faith. Hence an everlasting burning is prepared for them, and slavery to the demons, who are enemies and avengers.

[72] “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts (or: has hope) in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he will be like a tamarisk in the desert, and he will not see when good comes, but will dwell in dryness in the desert, in a salt and uninhabitable land.” If every man who trusts in man is cursed, and Paul of Samosata and Photinus, although they proclaim the Saviour holy and exalted in all virtues, yet confess him to be a man, then they will be cursed for having hope in a man. But if it is objected to us that we too believe in him who says, “But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do; you do the works of your father”, we shall answer with the apostle's word: “Even though we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” In short, the same apostle writes at the beginning of his letter to the Galatians: “Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me.” For if death has been swallowed up in victory, why should not the lowliness of the flesh, which was assumed for human salvation, have passed into the majesty of the Godhead, so as to make both one, and so that we worship not the creature but the Creator, who is blessed for ever? Cursed, then, is not only he who has hope in man, but he who makes flesh his arm, that is, his strength, and thinks that whatever he has done belongs not to the Lord's mercy but to his own power. For one who does this, his heart departs from the Lord, asserting that he can do what he cannot. “And he will be like a tamarisk” (which in Hebrew is called “aroer”, or, as Symmachus interpreted, “a fruitless tree in the wilderness”), “and he will not see when good things come”, which the multitude of the nations will see, “but he will dwell in dryness in the desert.” This is said of the people of the Jews, who dwell in the desert and bear no fruit, and are in a salt land, which bears no fruit, and uninhabitable, which has not God as its guest, nor the protection of angels, nor the grace of the Holy Spirit, nor the knowledge of teachers.