Commentary on Jeremiah 5.56–5.66

[56] "And it came to pass in that year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah son of Azzur, the prophet from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord before the priests and all the people: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two more years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord." Those whom the Hebrew calls "prophets," that is, nebeim, the Seventy interpreted "false prophets," to make the meaning plainer. And in the present place he is called "prophet," that is, nebia, and not "false prophet." The word of the Lord comes under King Zedekiah, in the fourth year of his reign and in the fifth month (the prophet Ezekiel was not yet prophesying in Babylon to those who had been carried away with Jeconiah); and he has the confidence to speak in the Lord's temple against the prophet because he promises prosperity to the people, and lies are gladly heard, especially those that promise happy things. Jeremiah had said that the other vessels too, of the temple or of the royal house and of the whole people, which Nebuchadnezzar had left, were to be carried to Babylon; but this man, on the contrary, promises that even those that had been carried away are to be brought back.

[57] "which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took from this place and carried to Babylon. And Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon, I will bring back to this place, says the Lord; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." For this the Seventy translated: "and Jeconiah and the exiles of Judah, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon," briefly giving the sense of the Hebrew truth rather than the words. Hananiah "the prophet" (as he then seemed to the people) promises that not only the vessels but also King Jeconiah will be brought back to Jerusalem, and the yoke of the Babylonian king broken, that is, his empire destroyed, and this before two years were complete, so that the nearness of the promised time might increase the greatness of their joy.

[58] "And Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet in the sight of the priests and in the sight of all the people who stood in the house of the Lord; and Jeremiah the prophet said: Amen, may the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill your words which you have prophesied, so that the vessels of the house of the Lord and all the exiles may be brought back from Babylon to this place." He wishes that what the false prophet lies about might come true (for this is what "amen" signifies, a word the Lord often uses in the Gospel: "Amen, amen, I say to you"), and for the sake of the people's prosperity he desires that the other rather than himself should speak the truth. Hence another prophet also testifies, saying: "Would that I were not a man having the spirit, and spoke a lie instead!" Jonah, on the contrary, is saddened that he has proved a liar, and is rebuked by the Lord, because a prophet's being a liar is more useful than the ruin of so great a multitude. And so as not to seem to approve the false prophet's prophecy, under the example of others and without insulting the liar he adds the truth:

[59] "But hear this word which I speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people: The prophets who were before me and before you from the beginning prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms of war and of affliction and of famine. The prophet who prophesied peace, when his word comes, will be known as the prophet whom the Lord has sent in truth." Jeremiah could have said to Hananiah: "You speak falsely, you deceive the people, you are not a prophet but a false prophet." Had he said that, the false prophet could have turned the same words back on Jeremiah. So he does him no injury and speaks as if to a "prophet." "Not only," he says, "am I a prophet, and you, but there were many others before me and you, among them Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and the rest. They prophesied," he says, "against many lands and kingdoms, not small but great, announcing to them war and adversity and want of all things; and on the contrary there were others who promised peace and prosperity. The sentence of both was proved not by the flattery of falsehood but by the outcome of events." Under the example of others, then, he speaks of himself and Hananiah: that when the end of events comes, then the truth of the prophets will be shown. The Lord said the same through Moses, that a prophet is shown by the fulfillment of his prophecy. And it is to be noticed that he rebukes the liar not threateningly, not savagely, but with the confidence of truth, and defers it to the future, so that those who hear may await the outcome.

[60] "And Hananiah the prophet took the chain (or: the collar, which in Hebrew is called muthoth) from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the sight of all the people, saying: Thus says the Lord: So will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years from the neck of all the nations. And Jeremiah went his way." The Seventy did not translate "two years," and they did not call Hananiah "prophet" either, so as not to seem to call one a prophet who was not a prophet; as if many things in holy Scripture were not said according to the opinion of the time in which the events are reported, and not according to what the truth of the matter contained. Indeed, Joseph in the Gospel is called the Lord's "father," and Mary herself, who knew that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit and had answered the angel, "How will this be, since I do not know a man?", says to her son: "Son, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you in sorrow." At the same time we must consider Jeremiah's prudence, humility, and patience. The false prophet does injury by deeds and, seizing the yoke from his neck, breaks it (which he could not have done with an iron one); Jeremiah is silent and hides his pain; for it had not yet been revealed to him by the Lord what he should say; so that holy Scripture silently shows that the prophets by no means speak by their own will alone but by the Lord's, especially about the future, the knowledge of which belongs to God alone. "He went away," it says, "and departed on his way," as if defeated, and fulfilling the prophetic word: "I became like a man who does not hear and has no rebukes in his mouth."

[61] "And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the chain (or: the yoke) from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, saying: Go and say to Hananiah: Thus says the Lord: You have broken a wooden chain (or: yoke), and you will make (or: I will make) in its place yokes (or: chains) of iron. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations, to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon"; what follows, "and they shall serve him; moreover, I have given him the beasts of the earth also," is not in the Seventy. And in the present place, according to the Seventy, Hananiah is not written "prophet," nor in what follows, lest, as I said before, they seem to call a "false prophet" a "prophet"; but what is that to the Hebrew truth? After Jeremiah the prophet had gone his way and swallowed the injury in silence, the word of the Lord came to him, so that the prophet should not speak to the false prophet boasting of his lie in his own words, but say "Thus says the Lord"; although Hananiah too, breaking the wooden yoke, had spoken with the same authority in the Lord's sight: "Thus says the Lord"; for falsehood always imitates truth. And what he added, "You have broken wooden yokes and you will make (or: you have made) in their place chains of iron," shows that by refusing the lesser punishment he was the cause of a greater punishment among the people. In this place too the allegorical interpreter raves, calling the wooden yokes and chains ethereal and aerial bodies, namely of demons and opposing powers, and the iron yokes or chains our grosser bodies, woven of sinews and bones, flesh and veins; so that those who would not, from the heavenly Jerusalem, undergo lesser torments according to the quality of their sin are condemned to the chains of our bodies, and endure the wailing of infancy, the bonds and filth of swaddling clothes, and serve the devil, the king of Babylon, that is, of this world, as Scripture says, "The world lies in the evil one," together with the beasts of the earth, which are bound into the bodies of brute animals. The unlearned commentator and follower of Grunnian slander has compelled me to set out openly other men's faults, which before I used to speak of with reserve, leaving them to the reader's prudence.

[62] "And Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: Hear, Hananiah: The Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will send you away (or: cast you) from the face of the earth; this year you will die"; what follows, "because you have spoken against the Lord. And Hananiah the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month," is not in the Seventy, for which they put only: "And he died in the seventh month." Here too in the Seventy Hananiah is not called "prophet," although, according to the Hebrew, holy Scripture calls him "prophet"; though in rebuking him, "Hear, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you," Jeremiah left out "prophet"; for how could he call him a prophet whom he denied had been sent by the Lord? But the truth and order of the history is kept, as we said above, not according to what was, but according to what was thought at that time. "You have deceived the people," he says, "with a lie, so that they would not submit to God's sentence; therefore know that this year you will die!" If, when we die, we are freed from the prisons of bodies, according to that testimony which the heretics badly interpret, "Bring my soul out of prison," how is death now imposed on the false prophet as a punishment? This too is to be noted: that Jeremiah, having suffered injury from the false prophet, is silent while the word of the Lord had not yet come to him, but afterwards, sent by the Lord, he boldly rebukes the liar and announces his near death. And as for his dying in the "seventh" month, those who always interpret "rest" as shown by this number will perhaps pretend that he died in the "seventh" month so as to be freed from the evils of the body, according to what they bring forward as written: "Death is rest to a man." But we know that the bodies of believers are temples of God, if indeed the Holy Spirit dwells in them.

[63] "And these are the words of the book which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders of the exiles, and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried from Jerusalem to Babylon, after Jeconiah the king had gone out, and the lady (or: the queen), and the eunuchs and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem (or: from Jerusalem, or: the nobles), and the craftsmen from Jerusalem, by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Babylon, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have carried from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens (or: orchards) and eat their fruit! Take wives and beget sons and daughters; give wives to your sons and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters, and multiply, and do not be few in number. And seek the peace of the city (or: the land) to which I have carried you, and pray for it to the Lord, for in its peace will be your peace." This letter, or rather little book, of the prophet Jeremiah is sent to Babylon by Zedekiah's envoys Elasah and Gemariah, to those who had been carried away with Jeconiah and his mother by Nebuchadnezzar, so that on the occasion of the royal embassy the prophet might also accomplish his own work and warn the exiled people of what had been commanded him by the Lord. And he finely said, "Jeconiah the king had gone out, and the lady, the eunuchs and princes of Judah," and the rest, and "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have carried from Jerusalem to Babylon," so that they should be seen to have been carried away not by the power of the king of Babylon but by the Lord's will. And God's word is addressed first to the elders, then to the priests, third to the prophets, fourth to all the people, so that the prophet's letter too might reach those who were being warned in the order of their age. He warns them, not in his own words but in the Lord's, to build houses and live in them, to plant gardens or orchards and eat their fruit, to take wives and beget sons and daughters and multiply in the place of exile and not be few in number, and to seek the peace of the city or land to which the Lord had carried them, and pray for it to the Lord. And giving the reason he says: "for in the peace of that land will be your peace." Jeremiah, because the captivity was to follow Jerusalem after a short time, is commanded not to take a wife and not to have sons; hence it is said to us too through the apostle: "The time has been shortened; it remains that those who have wives be as though they had none." If, because of the shortness of the time, the use of wives is taken from those who have them, how much more are those who do not have them commanded not to take them! All this the prophetic oracle commands so that they will not give in to the false prophets, who promised them a return to Jerusalem after a short time, but will know that they will stay a long time in Babylon, so that they ought to take wives, plant orchards and sow gardens, build houses, and beget sons. And what he added, "Seek the peace of the city or land," and again, "for in its peace will be your peace," confirms the apostle's word in which he commands: "I urge, then, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high position, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and chastity." But according to the mystical sense: after we have been cast out of Jerusalem, that is, the church, because of our sins, and handed over to Nebuchadnezzar (of whom the same apostle says, "I have handed such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord," and again, "whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme"), we must not be careless, nor, sluggish in idleness, wholly despair of salvation; but first build houses (not on sand but on rock), and such houses as the midwives built in Exodus, because they feared the Lord; then plant gardens or orchards, such as the Lord too planted, the paradise in Eden, and put in it the tree of life, of which it is written: "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her, and he who holds her fast is blessed"; third, take wives, of whom one is wisdom, of which Solomon writes: "Love her, and she will keep you; embrace her, and she will exalt you," and in another place: "I sought her to take her as my bride, and I became a lover of her beauty." Nor is one wife, wisdom, enough for us unless we also have the others: courage, temperance, and justice, so that we may beget more sons from them. And let us give our daughters to husbands, so that the truth of faith, which is interpreted in the sons, may be joined to good works, which are referred to the daughters, and good works may be joined to soundness of faith. And begetting such sons and daughters, let us be multiplied in number, so that, putting away what belongs to little children and growing to the perfect man, we may deserve to hear: "I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning," and say with the apostle to our children: "For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel." Let us also seek the peace of the church, our city and land, so that we may deserve to return to it, from which we were carried away by the Lord's judgment to dwell in the error of "confusion"; for if it receives us, we shall have peace. At the same time the Lord's mercy is to be considered: he commands us to pray for our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us, so that we are not content with our own salvation alone, but seek the salvation of our enemies too.

[64] "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and do not heed your dreams which you dream; for they prophesy falsely to you in my name, and I did not send them, says the Lord." That there were prophets, or rather false prophets, and diviners and dreamers in Babylon among those whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away with Jeconiah and his mother, the prophet Ezekiel testifies, writing against those whom Jeremiah too commands are not to be believed. But at the time when this letter was sent, Ezekiel had not yet begun to prophesy in Babylon; for this word is sent at the beginning of King Zedekiah, while Ezekiel began to prophesy in the fifth year of Jeconiah's exile, which was the same year of Zedekiah's reign. But according to tropology, we should take as false prophets those who take the words of the Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit means; as diviners, those who pronounce the conjecture of their own mind and uncertain things about the future as if true, without the authority of the divine words; and as dreamers, those who do not hear that scripture: "Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids"; of whom the apostle Jude too speaks: "Likewise these dreamers defile the flesh and despise authority"; whose mind never keeps watch, but, weighed down with the sleep of arrogance and error, is surrounded by the horror of night; to whom the apostle Paul too says: "Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

[65] "For thus says the Lord: When seventy years begin to be fulfilled in Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill for you my good word, to bring you back to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of affliction, to give you an end and patience (or: hope). And you will call upon me and go (or, according to Symmachus, you will find) and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart; and I will be found by you" (or: "I will appear to you"). "Do not believe," he says, "your false prophets, diviners, and dreamers, who promise you a speedy return to Jerusalem! For unless seventy years are fulfilled (when Cyrus king of the Persians releases the captives), you will by no means return to your fatherland; and then I will fulfill my promises, to bring you back to this place; for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord." He says that he knows what he thinks, but that they, with their prophets, diviners, and dreamers, do not know; so knowledge of the future belongs to God alone. "To give you," he says, "an end and patience: an end of captivity and patience in your present labors, or hope of things to come. Then you will call upon me and go to Jerusalem and pray, and I will hear you." The Lord could certainly have fulfilled what he had promised without the calling upon and prayer of the captives; but he exhorts them to prayers so that they may deserve to receive what was promised. "You will seek and find me, when you seek with all your heart," according to the Gospel saying: "Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." According to anagogy, we live in the "confusion" of this age for as long as it takes us to deserve to receive the "rest" of the number seven, and, repentance having been accepted, God fulfills what he promised, and we are brought back to our place, the church; for the Lord seemed to strike so that he might heal. And he will give us an end of our labor and patience, and we will call upon him and return to the church and pray, and be heard; we will seek and find him, when we have sought him with all our heart, and then he will appear to us. Some interpret the "seventy years" according to what is written, "The days of our years in them are seventy years": when they are fulfilled, then we may return to the Lord with all our heart and be heard, and there may be an end of our labor and patience; for now we possess all things in shadow and image.

[66] ※ "And I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring back your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from the place to which I made you go into exile. Because you have said: The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon; for thus says the Lord to the king who sits on the throne of David and to all the people who dwell in this city, and to your brothers who did not go out with you into exile; thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send against them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are very bad. And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and give them to vexation in all the kingdoms of the earth, to a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations to which I drive them, because they have not heard my words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising by night and sending; and you have not heard, says the Lord. You therefore hear the word of the Lord, all the exiles whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon!" ※ Up to here it is not in the Seventy: the things I have marked in advance with asterisks; for the rest, in which either single verses or a few words have been omitted by them, overcome by weariness I have not wished to note, so as not to bore the reader. The Lord promises those who were in exile that after seventy years of captivity he will make them return from all the nations and all the places to which he drove them, and, the captivity being loosed, recover their former state and fatherland. "And since I," he says, "am going to do this of my own accord and to restore you at a fixed time, you are deceived in vain and think you have prophets in Babylon who promise you false things; know then that you should by no means hope for a return now, but build houses, plant orchards, take wives and beget sons, multiply in number, and wait for the promised time. Hear what the Lord says to Zedekiah, who now reigns in Jerusalem, and to all the inhabitants of his city, that is, to your brothers who would not obey my sentence and go to Babylon with you: that they will by no means be able to escape captivity, but will die by sword, famine, and pestilence, and he will make them like bad figs"; which Theodotion (and Aquila's first edition) interpreted "sudrinas," his second "very bad," Symmachus "last"; in Hebrew they are called suarim, but by scribes' error in the middle syllable, or letter, the Greek delta crept in for alpha, so that sudrim is read for suarim. And as the hamper or basket which had good figs is said to have had "first-ripe" ones, so the other hamper, which had bad figs, is written to have had "last" figs. "And I will pursue," he says, "those who are now living in the city of Jerusalem with sword, famine, and pestilence, so that, first by siege, at once, those who can remain and escape may be scattered into all lands and be an example of curse, astonishment, hissing, and reproach to all to whom I shall drive them, because they did not hear my words, says the Lord, which I spoke to them through my servants, rising by night and sending; and I never ceased to warn them to imitate you, who now in exile enjoy secure leisure until the Lord's promise is fulfilled. But you, who obeyed my sentence and handed yourselves over to the Babylonian king, hear what I am about to say." In this place too the raving interpreter dreams of the ruin of the heavenly Jerusalem and supposes that the prophecy is addressed to those who live in the Babylonian region of this world: that they did well to descend of their own accord into these bodies and, in the land of the Chaldeans, to build houses, plant orchards, take wives, beget sons, and by good works be restored after seventy years to their former place and the heavenly Jerusalem; but that those who would not descend to earthly things of their own will will suffer what the Lord threatens to Zedekiah and his people, who would not imitate their brothers or come to Babylon: that he will send against them the sword and famine and pestilence, that is, want of all things, and make them like very bad figs, which cannot be eaten at all, and pursue them with the everlasting sword and give them to vexation to all the kingdoms of the earth; that is, that they become not men but demons, aerial powers, and are among all the angels who preside over individual provinces a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach to all the nations; and that they will suffer this because they would not hear the words of the prophets in the heavenly Jerusalem, who exhorted them to descend to earthly things, take on the body of humiliation, and, having repented, possess their former place after the true sabbath rest. So he said; and when his disciples, the dung of the Grunnian family, hear these things, they think they are hearing divine mysteries, and they hold us, who despise these things, as brute animals, and call us pēlousious ("men of clay"), because, set in the mud of this body, we cannot perceive heavenly things.