Commentary on Jeremiah 5.37–5.54

[37] "And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law which I have given you, to hear the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you, rising early by night and sending them, and you have not listened, I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth." It is placed, then, in our power either to do or not to do something, yet only in such a way that whatever good work we will, seek, and accomplish, we refer to the grace of God, who according to the apostle has given us both to will and to accomplish. But if it is enough to walk once in the law that was given us through Moses, as the foolish heresy supposes, how is it that he added, "to hear the words of my servants the prophets"? They certainly were sent after the law, and not once but often, not idly and from one at ease, but always and from one who cares. "I have sent you," he says, "my servants daily, rising even by night; if you will not listen to them, I will make this house" (that is, the temple of God) "like Shiloh," where the tabernacle was. And when the temple has been destroyed, the city in consequence will be a curse to all the nations of the earth. As, when the temple was built on the threshing floor of Ornan and on Mount Moriah, that is, "of vision," on which Abraham is said to have offered his son Isaac, the worship at Shiloh ceased and sacrifices were no longer celebrated there, so, when the church was built and spiritual victims offered in it, the ceremonies of the law ceased, and the city of the Jews was given as a curse to all the nations of the earth; from which the Lord has freed us, as the apostle says: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us."

[38] "And the priests and the prophets (or: false prophets) and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets (or: false prophets) and all the people seized him, saying: Let him die the death, because he has prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, without an inhabitant." The priests and prophets, whom the Seventy more plainly translated "false prophets," are angry with Jeremiah because he preaches the truth, and because, with the temple overthrown and the city deserted, their religion would perish and the profits that came from religion. Therefore they seize him and, with the people agreeing, destine him to death because he said in the name of the Lord, "This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, without an inhabitant." If ever, then, because of the Lord's commands and the truth of the faith, priests or false prophets or a deceived people are angry with us, let us not care much, but carry out God's sentence, thinking not of present evils but of future goods.

[39] "And all the people gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. And the princes of Judah heard these words, and they went up from the king's house to the house of the Lord and sat at the entrance of the new gate of the Lord." Jeremiah was prophesying the words of the Lord in the temple and had said, "I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse to all the nations of the earth," and at once, when a riot was stirred up by the priests, prophets, and people, the whole crowd gathered against the prophet in the temple, where the prophet was held by the hands of the priests, prophets, and crowd. When the princes of the city, who were in the royal house, heard this, they crossed or went up from the king's house to the house of the Lord. And it is to be noted that going to the house of the Lord is always a going up. And they sat at the entrance of the new gate of the Lord; for it was the princes' duty to sit at the gate of the Lord's house and there learn the truth of a matter and a riot. The gate is called "new" because those who sat in it and presided over the judgment resisted the slanders of the priests and false prophets.

[40] "And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying: A sentence of death for this man, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears." While the princes of the city, who had run from the king's palace to the temple to calm the people's riot, sat in the gate of the temple, the new gate, and an assembly of the people had gathered, the priests and false prophets accuse him; and the prophet would have perished, as far as it depended on the priests and prophets, if the accusers had themselves had the power of judgment. From this we understand that, out of envy of holiness, those who seemed devoted to religion were crueler to the prophet than those who were in charge of public affairs.

[41] "And Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying: The Lord sent me to prophesy to (or: against) this house and to (or: against) this city all the words that you have heard. Now therefore make your ways and your pursuits good, and hear the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent of the evil that he has spoken against you (or: and the Lord will rest from the evils that he has spoken against you). But I, behold, I am in your hands; do with me what is good and right in your eyes (or: as is fitting for you). Yet know and understand that if you kill me, you bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants; for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears." When the princes of the city sat in the gate in the presence of the people, and the priests and prophets accused the prophet Jeremiah and pressed a capital charge, Jeremiah speaks to the princes and to all the people whom the faction of the priests and false prophets had stirred up, prudently, humbly, and steadfastly at once. Prudently, in that he said he had been sent by the Lord to speak against the temple and the city and to give advice that, if they were willing to hear his advice and repent, the Lord too would change his sentence. Humbly, in saying: "Behold, I am in your hands; do with me what is good and right in your eyes!" Steadfastly: "In truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears." And in other words he says: "If you are angry that I have spoken against the temple and the city of the Lord, and the safety of the city and the temple is your concern, why do you add sins to sins and make both the city and its inhabitants guilty of my blood?" If ever, then, we too need humility in the straits of necessity, let us take it up in such a way that we do not desert truth and steadfastness. For it is one thing to insult a judge proudly, which is a sign of folly, another so to avoid an impending danger that you take nothing away from the truth.

[42] "And the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets: This man is not deserving of death, because he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God." The people, who had earlier been tripped up by the priests and false prophets, joins the princes of the city and speaks for Jeremiah, that he is by no means guilty of death, but prophesied in the name of the Lord and from his mouth; for the untaught crowd quickly changes its opinion when it has received a reason. But the resentment of the accusers, especially the priests and false prophets, cannot be changed; and so, while they keep accusing and persist in the accusation, the people changes, because he had given them hope of the Lord's pardon if they made their ways good and heard the voice of the Lord their God, so that the Lord too would bend his sentence.

[43] "And some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to the whole assembly of the people, saying: Micah of Moresheth was a prophet in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become a heap of stones, and the mountain of the house a wooded height. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah condemn him to death? Did they not fear the Lord and entreat the face of the Lord, and the Lord repented of the evil he had spoken against them? So we are doing great evil against our own souls." The princes of the city and the people understand the truth of the case; but the elders, whose proper task it was to know old things, recall the history and the prophecy of Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied under King Hezekiah, and compare it with the prophecy of Jeremiah for which a capital charge is pressed against him; and they show that Micah said heavier things, and yet suffered nothing from the righteous King Hezekiah, but that, when they turned to repentance, the Lord turned his sentence to good. For Micah said: "Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become a heap of stones, and the mountain of the house a wooded height"; while Jeremiah said: "I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth." And they give advice, thinking that what Micah had foretold would by no means happen, because for a long time it had not happened on account of the people's repentance; and that what Jeremiah had spoken would also by no means come to pass if, according to his advice, they made their ways and pursuits good and heard the voice of the Lord their God, so that the Lord would not bring the evil he had threatened. At the same time they break the rage of the accusers and join themselves with them, saying, "So we are doing great evil against our own souls"; not that they ought to do it, but that, if they did, they would harm not the accused but their own souls, which they could have freed by a change of sentence.

[44] "There was also a man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. And King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and princes heard these words, and the king sought to kill him; and Uriah heard and was afraid and fled and went into Egypt." What follows, "And King Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan son of Achbor, and men with him into Egypt," is not in the Seventy. Then it continues: "And they brought Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him with the sword and threw his body into the graves of the common people. But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over into the hands of the people to be killed." It is asked why, when Uriah son of Shemaiah of the town of Kiriath-jearim prophesied the same things as Jeremiah, he, terrified with fear, fled to Egypt and, dragged back from there, was killed, while Jeremiah, who certainly had not fled but boldly persisted in his earlier sentence, could escape and was freed both by the judgment of the people and princes and by the counsel of the elders against the accusers, the priests, and the false prophets. To this we must answer briefly that the judgment of God can by no means be known, when, in the same case and with the same sentence, one is punished and another freed. Unless perhaps we can answer that Uriah was slain to the condemnation of the accusers and the people, while Jeremiah was preserved by God's judgment to preach to the remnant of the unhappy people and draw them back to repentance. We read this in the Acts of the Apostles too: that the apostle James at once suffered Herod's sentence and was crowned with martyrdom, while Peter and the other apostles were preserved for teaching the Lord's doctrine. And the prophetic steadfastness is to be noticed: Uriah, even when dragged back from Egypt, did not change his sentence, but, seeing death threatened against him, nonetheless spoke what the Lord had commanded. And that he was afraid and fled and went into Egypt is a sign not of unbelief but of prudence, that we should not expose ourselves to dangers in vain; otherwise we read that the Lord and Savior too slipped out of the hands of his persecutors, and commanded the apostles: "When they persecute you in this city, flee to another!" It is also asked how Jehoiakim king of Judah, of small power, weakened, and about to perish at any moment, had the power to send into Egypt and bring Uriah out from there. This is easily solved if we consider that he had been made ruler by Necho king of Egypt, and that this prophecy was given at the beginning of his reign. And although Jeremiah was freed by the Lord's help, yet it is reckoned as a reward to the one through whom the Lord freed his prophet, namely Ahikam son of Shaphan; as we shall read later, when Jeremiah is freed from the danger of death in the muddy cistern by the counsel and protection of the eunuch Ebed-melech.

[45] "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying." This is not in the Seventy's edition, and many think it is the beginning of the following passage; which is by no means so, but it is to be joined to the preceding one, so that we may believe that whatever is reported as said and done happened at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign; hence he had the power to send into Egypt as to a friendly king. The Seventy seem to me to have left out this title for this reason, so as not to seem to say it a second time; for they had already put at the beginning: "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying."

[46] "Thus says the Lord to me: Make yourself bonds and chains (or: collars, which in Hebrew are called mutoth and in common speech are called boiae), and put them on your neck, and send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. And command them to speak to their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus you shall say to your masters." The previous vision came to the prophet at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah; but this one under Zedekiah, who reigned last in Jerusalem and under whom the city was taken and overthrown. Jeremiah is commanded to put chains or wooden yokes, which, as we said, in Hebrew are called mutoth, on his neck, and to send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon by the envoys who had come to Zedekiah, and to command them to tell their masters that they must serve and obey King Nebuchadnezzar, as the prophet's following words set out. And lest perhaps the envoys and the kings of these nations should answer, "Why do you not command this to your own people?", he says similar things to King Zedekiah too, and to the priests and prophets. The ever-allegorical interpreter, always fleeing the truth of history, interprets this place of the heavenly Jerusalem: that its inhabitants must take on bodies of their own accord and descend into "Babylon," that is, the "confusion" of this world, which lies in the evil one, and serve the Babylonian king, no doubt the devil; and that if they will not do this, they will by no means bear heavy bodies, but will perish by sword, famine, and pestilence, and will not be men but demons. He said this (I say it so that his defenders may not slander us); but we, let us follow the simple and true history, so as not to be wrapped in clouds and conjuring tricks. [47] "I made the earth, and man, and the beasts that are on the face of the earth, by my great strength and my outstretched arm, and I gave it to whom it seemed right in my eyes." Although Scripture speaks these things anthropopathōs, as we human beings can speak and understand, yet the "strength" of God and his "arm" is he of whom the apostle too says, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God," and Isaiah: "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" The evangelist John too writes: "All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made." David also says in his song: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and all their power by the breath of his mouth." And what he says, "I gave it to whom it seemed right in my eyes," signifies that all things have been given to the human race by God's grace. "I made," he says, "the earth and man and the beasts": the order is reversed; for in Genesis the animals are made first and man last, but here he names man first and afterwards what is subject to man.

[48] "And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; moreover, I have given him the beasts of the field also, to serve him. And all the nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son." How unhappy is Israel, when in comparison with it Nebuchadnezzar is called "servant of God"! It is written in the Gospel: "The world was made through him, and the world did not know him; he came to his own, and his own did not receive him." Rightly, then, the Creator hands his creation over to whom he will; indeed, even the devil, of whom Nebuchadnezzar went before as a type, confesses: "All these things have been handed over to me." And what he added, "moreover, I have given him the beasts of the field also, to serve him," we should either understand simply of every kind of animal (for with man are handed over also the things that are subject to him), or certainly take "beasts" as the wild nations, which also served, though they had not known how to serve before. His "son" and "son's son," according to the Hebrew, he calls Belshazzar and Evil-merodach, of whom Daniel writes.

[49] "Until the time of his land and of himself comes." Finely, so that Nebuchadnezzar's empire should not be thought perpetual, he says that he too is to be captured by the Medes and Persians; for this is what is signified by "until the time of his land and of himself comes." But this too is not in the Seventy.

[50] "And many nations and great kings will serve him." He did not say "all" (for this is properly due to Christ's rule), although according to Symmachus one does not read "many nations and great kings will serve him," but "many nations and great kings will subject him to servitude," so that he too, whom all nations had served before, should serve the Medes and Persians. What we have set down from the Hebrew, "I have given him [the beasts], to serve him. And all the nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son, until the time of his land and of himself comes, and many nations and great kings will subject him to servitude," is not read, as we have already said, in the Seventy's edition.

[51] "But the nation and the kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and whoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit that nation with sword and famine and pestilence, says the Lord, until I consume them by his hand." Not only does the Lord subject sinful nations to Nebuchadnezzar, but the apostle too says of sinners: "whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme"; and in another place: "I have handed such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved." He also warns that we must obey the authorities, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake, so as not to be condemned by them.

[52] "You, then, do not listen to your prophets and diviners and dreamers and augurs and sorcerers, who say to you: You will not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land and drive you out, and you will perish. But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will leave it in its own land, says the Lord, and it will till it and dwell in it." In this place too the allegorical interpreter raves and exhorts those set in the heavenly Jerusalem not to listen to their prophets and diviners, dreamers, augurs, and sorcerers, but rather to serve Nebuchadnezzar and take on the body of humiliation, infancy, the wailing and cradles of little children; for if they do this, when their servitude and the condition of human mortality are completed, they will return to their land and dwell in it and do the works they did before. And he says he suspects that those who despised God's commands, weighed down with human bodies, will become demons and unclean spirits and will by no means receive their former seat. But let us explain simply: there are prophets among the nations who pretend to foretell the future by a divine spirit; and diviners, of whom there is also the common proverb, "the wise, they say, divine"; and dreamers, who imitate Joseph and Daniel; and augurs, who by the flight of birds and the cries of omen-birds announce what is to be done or not done; and sorcerers, whom we can call poisoners or servants of the phantasms of demons, who in Hebrew are called chasaphim. "All these," he says, "deceive you and trip you up, so that you will not serve the king of Babylon." For it is much better to accept servitude willingly and have a friend whom you serve, and to till your native land, than to serve as captives by force and necessity. [53] "And I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying: Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and you will live. Why will you die, you and your people, by sword, famine, and pestilence, as the Lord has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you: Do not serve the king of Babylon; for they speak a lie to you, for I did not send them, says the Lord, and they prophesy in my name falsely, so that I may drive you out and you may perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you." After all the nations he passes to Zedekiah king of Judah and speaks in the same words with which he threatened the nations; for one who sinned like the other nations, or more, did not deserve the privilege of the Israelite nation. And indeed, because the rebellious people disdained to listen, it was consumed by sword, famine, and pestilence. It is to be observed in holy Scripture that it calls "prophets" instead of "false prophets" those who prophesy falsely in the name of the Lord. "And they do this," he says, "so that I may drive you out and you may perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you"; so for those who are deceived and those who deceive the destruction is alike. What we have set down from the Hebrew, "under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and you will live. Why will you die, you and your people, by sword, famine, and pestilence, as the Lord has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you," is not in the Seventy; and therefore I warn the prudent reader to understand how much is missing, passage by passage, in the Greek and Latin manuscripts.

[54] "(And) to the priests and to this people I spoke, saying: Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: Behold, the vessels of the Lord will return from Babylon now shortly; for they prophesy a lie to you" (what we have put, "now shortly," is not in the Seventy, nor what follows) "Do not listen to them, but serve the king of Babylon, that you may live! Why should this city be given to desolation?" After the nations and the king he speaks to the priests and the people, since he had already announced destruction to the prophets above, saying: "so that I may drive you out and you may perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you." He says the same things he had said to the king and the nations: that they should not listen to the words of their prophets, who say that the vessels which had been carried away with Jeconiah, the princes, and his mother are to be brought back to the Lord's temple even now; and he warns them to serve the king of Babylon and live, so that the city, submitting willingly, may by no means be given over to burning. And in this is the Lord's mercy: to hand them over to a lighter punishment, so that they may not suffer a heavier. [55] "And if they are prophets, and the word of the Lord is in them, let them meet" (and what follows, which we shall add, to the end of this passage, is not in the Seventy) "the Lord of hosts, so that the vessels which were left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars and the sea and the stands" (for which the Hebrew has mechonoth) "and the rest of the vessels that remained in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem: for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem: They will be carried to Babylon and will be there until the day of their visitation, says the Lord, and I will cause them to be brought up and restored to this place." These things, as we said, are not in the Seventy, but have been translated from the Hebrew truth; in place of which they put something else that was not written, saying: "For thus said the Lord: And the rest of the vessels which the king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah from Jerusalem will enter Babylon, says the Lord," giving the sense rather than the words; perhaps thinking it irrational that God should speak to pillars and a sea and stands and the rest of the vessels that had remained in Jerusalem; as if we did not read that the Lord rebuked the morning worm and spoke to the sea: "Be silent and be still!" And what he says, "let them meet me," or "the Lord of hosts," shows that a true prophet can resist the Lord by prayers; as Moses too stood in the breach against the Lord to turn away the wrath of his fury, and Samuel did the same. And the Lord says to Moses: "Let me alone, and I will strike this people!" When he says "let me alone," he shows that he can be held back by the prayers of the saints. "Let the prophets meet me," he says, "and show that whatever they predict is fulfilled in deed, and then the prophecy will be proved by its truth." The pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels we read of in Kings and at the end of this prophet's book, where the vessels carried to Babylon are listed, when Zedekiah was captured and the city burned and the temple overthrown.