Homilies on Jeremiah 19.0–20.1

Homily 19. On “And Pashhur son of Immer, the priest, heard” as far as “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived.”

… of the meaning of Scripture, which comes to an eye that can take in the clarity of the sacred writings. I have said these things by way of introduction, rousing and awakening both myself and the hearers to attend to what has been read, so that we may ask Jesus to come and appear to us and teach us now the things written here.

“Jeremiah prophesied; and Pashhur son of Immer, the priest, heard the words of the prophecy. And though so many, in all likelihood, as far as the bare sequence of the prophecy goes, had heard Jeremiah, no other is readily recorded as having heard except Pashhur. Scripture took care to say whose son he was, that he was Immer's, and that he bore the title of priest, and what rank he had among the people, that he had been appointed overseer of the house of the Lord at the time when Jeremiah prophesied these words. And it is recorded that Pashhur, having heard the words of this prophecy, struck Jeremiah, and was not content with striking him, but also threw him into a certain dungeon. Scripture took care to say where this dungeon was, in the gate of Benjamin, and that the dungeon was in a place where there was an upper room, an upper room of none other than the house of the Lord. The Holy Spirit recorded that these things befell Jeremiah because of his prophecy, and befell him from Pashhur. Then it says: on the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah, having been brought out, said to Pashhur that the Lord has not called you by this name, Pashhur; another name has been given you: as to Jacob Israel, as to Abram Abraham, as to Sarai Sarah, so he has given you the name Emigrant. And he called you Emigrant for this reason, since the Lord says: Behold, I give you into exile with all — whom? Not with your wife and sons and daughters, but with your friends. And when you are given into exile, your friends will fall by the sword. Then, as though there were a difference among those who fall by the sword, whether they fall by the sword of enemies or by the sword of others, he says that the friends of the one who threw Jeremiah into the dungeon will fall by the sword of their enemies. And your eyes, he says, will see these things that are prophesied. And you and all Judah I will give into the hands of the king of Babylon, after your friends have suffered these things, and they will carry them away to Babylon and cut them down; for the king of Judah and those from Judah they will cut down with the sword, and ‘of their enemies’ is no longer added, as in the case of the former, who are said to be Pashhur's friends. Then he says: and I will give all the strength of this city, and all the treasures of the king of Judah, and all the labors of this city into the hands of their enemies, so that the enemies may plunder the treasures and take the things mentioned and lead Judah and its king to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, will go in captivity to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies.” The whole passage had to be summarized and made clear, not yet its deep meaning (if indeed we can grasp it), but the text and the letter itself, which even an ordinary person who attends carefully to the writings, and not in passing, can understand at least in this way. What, then, do these things mean? Here is the struggle, to present the meaning of these writings. And indeed I confess that by myself I cannot explain them, but need, as I said before, an appearing of the power of Jesus, as he is Wisdom, as he is the Word, as he is Truth, so that his appearing may make light on the face of my soul.

… The magicians of the Egyptians too had rods, which wished to discredit the rod of Moses and that of Aaron as not being from God. But the rods from God overturn those of the sophists and magicians: “Aaron's rod swallowed them up”; for it was enough for this even without the rod of Moses. “Pashhur,” then, “struck Jeremiah the prophet,” and it is said with emphasis: “and he struck Jeremiah the prophet.” “The prophet” is added too. Here, then, the one who struck Jeremiah struck the prophet. And it is recorded in the Acts that someone struck Paul at the command of Ananias the high priest. That is why Paul said, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.” And even now the Ebionites, at the command of a lawless high priest, the word, strike the apostle of Jesus Christ with blasphemous words. And Paul says to such a high priest, the word, “God is going to strike you.” And such a high priest is outwardly fair and a whitewashed wall. Christ says: “I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spitting.” The simple know these things only of that time, when Pilate scourged him, when the Jews took counsel against him. But I see Jesus every day “giving his back to the scourges.” Go into the synagogues of the Jews, and see Jesus scourged by them with the tongue of blasphemy. See those from the nations gathering, taking counsel against Christians, how they seize Jesus, and he “gives his back to the scourges.” Consider the Word of God insulted, spoken ill of, hated by unbelievers. See that “he gave his cheeks to blows,” and having taught, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other too,” he himself does it. So many strike and scourge him, and he is silent and does not speak. For it is recorded that he did not speak when he was scourged. And “Jesus has not turned away his face from the shame of spitting” to this day. Who of those who hold his teaching in contempt does not, as it were, spit on Jesus to this day, while he bears it?

It followed from the prophet's having been struck to tell of those who have been struck, for example the apostle, and if anyone else has been struck, and to set out also the things concerning Jesus himself. “Pashhur,” then, “struck Jeremiah the prophet, and threw him into the dungeon that was in the gate of Benjamin of the upper room.” The dungeon was of Benjamin, of the upper room. Jerusalem is the allotment of Benjamin, in which is the temple of God, as one who can listen to the divine readings will find from the allotment recorded in the book of the son of Nun. Since, then, the temple was in the allotment of Benjamin, which is interpreted “Son of the right hand” (for there is nothing left-handed about the temple of God), for this reason this man throws him “into the dungeon that was in the gate of Benjamin of the upper room of the house of the Lord.” Though there was “an upper room in the house of the Lord,” he “threw” the prophet “into the dungeon.” And let us pray that, taking Jeremiah now, we may bring him up to the upper room “in the house of the Lord.” I will show from Scripture that the upper room is the lofty and exalted mind, when it testifies to the saints that they received the prophets into upper rooms. In the third book of Kingdoms is recorded a widow who received Elijah the prophet in Zarephath of Sidon, who lodged the prophet “in her upper room.” And in the fourth, the woman who received Elisha prepared a room for him in the upper story. But the sinner Ahaziah fell from the upper room. And Jesus commands you too not to come down from the housetop. “When,” he says, such and such things happen, “then let him who is on the housetop not come down to take what is in his house.” The one who flees in persecutions is not told not to go up to the housetop, but not to “come down” from the housetop “to take what is in his house.” It is good, then, to be in upper rooms, good to be on housetops and to be somewhere above. And the wonderful apostles too, as is recorded in their Acts, when they were together devoting themselves to prayer and to the word of God, were in an upper room. And since they were in an upper room, they were not below. That is why “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them.” And Peter too, when he was sending up prayer to God, “went up to the housetop”; and if he had not gone up to the housetop, he would not have seen “a vessel coming down from heaven like a sheet let down from heaven by four corners.” And the woman who did works of charity, “Tabitha, which translated is called Dorcas,” was not below, but “in the upper room,” where Peter went up and raised her from the dead. And Jesus too, when he was about to keep with his disciples this feast, of which we keep the Passover as the symbol, when they asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover for you?”, said: “As you go, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him. He will show you a large upper room, furnished, swept, ready; there prepare the Passover.” So no one who keeps the Passover as Jesus [wishes] is below; he is above in a large upper room, in a swept upper room, in an adorned and ready upper room. And if you go up with him to keep the Passover, he gives you the cup of the new covenant, he gives you also the bread of blessing; he grants his own body and his own blood. That is why we urge you: “Go up on high; lift up your eyes on high.” And to me too, if I teach the divine word, the Word says: “Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem; lift it up, do not fear.” So much because of Pashhur, who, though there was “an upper room in the house of the Lord in the gate of Benjamin,” did not bring the prophet up to the upper room, but “threw him into the dungeon” below.

“And it came about on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the dungeon.” O Lord Jesus, come again; make these things clear to me and to those who have come for spiritual food. How does he bring “Jeremiah out of the dungeon” “on the next day”? For as long as this present day stands (and this whole age is today), the sinner throws the prophet down into the dungeon; but if the present day ceases and tomorrow comes, then, having repented, he brings him out of the dungeon. Then Jeremiah tells him what Pashhur will suffer. What does he tell him? “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but Emigrant. For thus says the Lord.” This Pashhur is going to be carried away to Babylon, as his sins deserve, not alone but with his friends too. For he is handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and goes away into Confusion and is punished for his sins, since “he threw the prophet into the dungeon.” Who, then, are the friends of Pashhur, whose name means “Blackness of mouth”? All who have received his words, who have been blackened together with his blackened mouth, who have received doctrines of blackness. “And they will fall by the sword of their enemies.” Those appointed over punishments are the ones who have the swords and make them fall; about whom the Word prophesies and says, “And your eyes will see.” These things that are prophesied, he says, “your eyes will see.” “And you and all Judah I will give into the hands of the king of Babylon.” Whoever of Judah is found so sinful as to be worthy of the king of Babylon, of Confusion, will be handed over to him. And the king of Babylon receives sinners. The king of Babylon, according to the history, is Nebuchadnezzar, but according to the higher sense, the evil one. The sinner is handed over to him, since he is both enemy and avenger. And that the sinner is handed over to him, let Paul teach you, where he speaks about Phygelus and Hermogenes, “whom I have handed over to …,” and about the man who committed sexual immorality: “When you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, I have decided to hand over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the …” … into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they carry him away to Babylon. “And they will cut them down with the sword. And I will give all the strength of this city.” It is easy to say that these things are prophesied about Jerusalem; for all its strength, and what follows, was handed over then to the king of the Babylonians. It is easy to say that these things are prophesied about “this city” when it was handed over to its enemies in the times of the Savior. And the sons of Jerusalem went away into captivity and the city was razed. But if you examine the matter and see a city not as stones but as people, you will see that that Jerusalem too, the people, was handed over “into the hands of the king of Babylon” because of their impiety and sin against Christ. And you are now Jerusalem. If, then, the Word now threatens Jerusalem, fear lest you, if you sin, are a sinful Jerusalem and are handed over, so that you are no longer Jerusalem but become Babylon and Confusion, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, takes you. “And all the labors” of Jerusalem he hands over. How does he hand over “all the labors”? If, after contending and struggling, you fall away and sin, all your labors have come into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. How all your labors? It will be said to you, if you fall after laboring much for the truth: “Did you suffer so many things in vain?” Above all, those who are conscious of having endured many labors for virtue ought to fear lest, if some sin occurs, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, take the labors they have performed as Jerusalem. And so that you may see more clearly how Nebuchadnezzar takes the labors of Jerusalem when she sins, I will use what is written in Ezekiel, which runs thus: “If the righteous man turns from his righteous deeds and commits a trespass, I will not remember the righteous deeds he has done.” Why? Because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, takes the righteous deeds done with labor and destroys them. “And all the honor” of Jerusalem he takes, when a man, being honored by God and “being in honor,” “did not understand” and sinned. If, then, you know that you are in honor, and having been called to honor you insult yourself again by sins, the Babylonian king takes the honor of Jerusalem. “And all the treasures of the king of Judah.” Jerusalem is rich; but if she sins, the Babylonian takes her treasures. “And they will plunder them and take them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, will go in captivity to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried.” The one caught in Confusion dies in Babylon; and the one disposed contrary to being buried with Christ is buried in Babylon. For it is possible to be buried well with Christ through baptism, according to “We were buried with Christ, and rose with him.” As being buried with Christ is a mystery, so it is a mystery for one who has become a sinner through lawlessness to be buried in Babylon. “And all your friends,” he says, “you will go there, to whom you prophesied lies.” The one who expounds the oracles of God badly and throws the prophetic words into a dungeon prophesies, but prophesies lies; for when someone expounds the prophetic words, if he speaks truly, he too prophesies, and prophesies truth; but if he lies, he is a false prophet, lying against the prophetic words.

And now the one section is finished; let us begin the second too; for it has no ordinary matters, right from its first words. And attending to the text, let us ask again for Jesus to come, and let us beg him to come more manifestly and brightly, so that he may come and teach us all whether the prophet spoke what follows truthfully, as one should think about a prophet, or falsely, which it is not permitted to say about a holy prophet. He says to God: “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived; you were stronger and prevailed. I became a laughingstock; all day long I continued being mocked. For I will laugh with my bitter word; I will call on faithlessness and misery; for the word of the Lord has become to me a reproach and a derision all day long. And I said: I will not name the name of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in his name. And there came in my heart as it were a burning fire flaming in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it, for I heard the blame of many gathering round about,” and clearly “saying: Rise up, and let us rise up against him, men his friends; watch his purpose, whether he will be deceived, and we shall prevail against him and take our vengeance on him.” But while they say this, the prophet says: “And the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; therefore they persecuted and could not understand; they were greatly ashamed, because they did not understand their dishonors, which will not be forgotten for ever.” This is the second section of the reading. How, then, does the prophet say, “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived”? Does God deceive? I am at a loss how to handle the saying. For if, because of God and his word, I look to him, what is to be said needs a noble handling. Having ceased to be deceived, the prophet says, “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived,” as though his elementary instruction and introduction had come about in a deception, and he could not have been instructed and introduced into godliness unless he had first been deceived, so that he might later come to perceive the deception. It is enough to give just one example useful for the matter at hand. We speak to children when we are bringing up children, and we speak to them not as to grown people, but as to children needing training, and we deceive the children by frightening them, so that they may stop the lack of discipline found in children; and we frighten the children by saying words of deception because of what belongs to their infancy, so that through the deception we may make them afraid and go to their teachers and recite and do what befits children's progress. We are all children to God and need the upbringing of children. That is why God, sparing us, deceives us (even if we do not perceive the deception before the time), so that, as though we had passed beyond infancy, we may no longer be trained by deception but by deeds. A child is brought to fear in one way, and one who has advanced in age and passed beyond childhood in another. For if I can train him by deception … so that God who deceives may say: “I will discipline them by the report of their affliction.” I will cite histories to show how God deceives for salvation and says certain things, so that the sinner may stop doing what he would have done had he not heard such words. Did the one who said, “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” speak truly, or not truly, deceiving with a deception that converts? If that conversion had not happened, it would no longer have been a deception but the truth, and the overthrow would have followed for Nineveh. It lay with the hearers either to be deceived and believe what was said as true, and so be benefited and not be overthrown; or, the saying not being true and they not deceived, but perceiving that what was said would not happen, to despise what was said as a deception and suffer, not “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” but, I dare to say, far worse than “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” For on the supposition that the Ninevites, having sinned, had not repented, perhaps “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” would have happened; but suppose this did not happen: something worse than this would have happened; they would have been handed over to eternal fire. That is why one punishment is stated in the law for those trained as children, while for those to whom “the fullness of time has come” other punishments are recorded. Compare the punishments of sinners under the law with the punishments of sinners under the Gospel, and you will see that they, as infants, heard of punishments fitting for them as infants, while we, as grown in age, hear of harsher punishments. If at that time there was an adulterer or an adulteress, the threat was not Gehenna, not eternal fire, but: he shall be stoned with stones: “Let all the congregation stone him.” The adulterer found in these things, the adulteress found in these things, will go away and say: “Would that the word had spoken so for me too: the people stoned me, and I had not been reserved for eternal fire.” For not only the adulterer is “liable to the Gehenna of fire,” but also the one who says to his brother, “Fool.” But if the one who says to his brother, “Fool,” “will be liable to the Gehenna of fire,” to what will the adulterer be liable? I look for some punishment greater than the Gehenna of fire. And perhaps I might say that Gehenna is for those … who can be cleansed. But just as, in the case of the good things of the righteous, “what God has prepared for those who love him has not entered into the heart of man,” so what he has prepared for sinners for committing sexual immorality, for committing adultery, “has not entered into the heart of man.” For if what the one who says to his brother “Fool” becomes liable to has entered into the heart, clearly what is prepared for those who have committed worse sins is greater than what enters into the heart. I cannot conceive of anything greater than Gehenna, but I only believe that there is something greater than Gehenna, that which is prepared for adulterers. So I come also to the other punishments under the law, and I take an apostolic saying agreeing with these, one that has kept silent about my punishment if I sin, since I do not wish, having accepted “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived,” to be deceived to good purpose. What does the apostle say? “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses; how much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled on the Son of God?” Name the punishment, O Paul; tell it. “But I do not tell it,” he says; the punishment of those who sin under the Gospel is greater than what can be told, greater than what can be heard, greater than what can be conceived. That is why the prophet was brought in as a child, having heard and been afraid and been trained, and after this, made perfect, says: “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived.” And you, as long as you are a child, fear the threats, so that you may not suffer things beyond the threats: the eternal punishments, the unquenchable fire, or perhaps something greater than this, laid up for those who have lived for the most part against right reason. May we never experience any of these, but, being perfected in Christ Jesus, may we be justified worthily of the heavenly feasts and of the Passover there, in the higher sense, in Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the power for ages of ages. Amen.

Homily 20. On “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived,” again in another way, as far as “who understands the reins and the hearts.”

All things written about God, even if at first sight they seem incongruous, must be understood as worthy of a good God. For who will not say that it is incongruous, when referred to God, that he has anger, uses wrath, repents, and even sleeps? But each of these, for one who knows how “to hear dark sayings,” will be found worthy of God. For his anger is not fruitless; but as his word disciplines, so his anger disciplines too; for those not disciplined by word he disciplines by anger. And it is necessary for God to use what is called anger, as he uses what is named word; for his Word is not such as the word of all. For no one's word is “a living being,” no one's word is “God,” no one's word was “in the beginning” with him whose word it was, even if … from some beginning. So too God's anger is called anger, not as anyone's anger. And just as the Word of God has something strange compared with anyone's word, and it is strange for him to be God and to be the Word as a living being, to subsist by himself, to serve the Father, so, since what is called his anger has once been named God's, it has something strange and foreign to all anger as defined. So too his wrath has something peculiar; for it belongs to the purpose of one who rebukes with wrath, wishing through the rebuke to turn back the one rebuked. A word also rebukes, as a word also disciplines; but a word does not rebuke as wrath rebukes. For those who have not benefited from rebuke by word will need rebuke by wrath. We were saying that there is also a repentance of God that at first sight seems incongruous, since it is written: “I repent that I anointed Saul king.” But you will inquire worthily into the repentance too, and not think that his repentance has any kinship with the repentance of those who repent. For as his Word had something exceptional, his anger something, his wrath something surpassing, and nothing about them was akin to things of the same name, in the same way his repentance too is homonymous with our repentance; and homonyms are things of which only the name is common, but the account of the being corresponding to the name is different. So only the name is common to the wrath of God and the wrath of anyone, and only the name is common to the anger of anyone and the anger of God. So too must repentance be understood. And whoever can will inquire what God's repentance effects, what it effected. It removed Saul, who reigned lawlessly, and raised up for the people a king after the heart of God; for he said because of that good repentance, “I have found a man after my heart, David son of Jesse.” But all these things are my introduction, because the beginning of the reading from Jeremiah runs thus: “You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived.”