Fragmenta in Jeremiam

Indeed the hills and the strength of the mountains were false, etc. He mentions mountains and hills, since in those ancient times they built temples and precincts in them and erected altars, offering most pleasing sacrifices to the demons. And shame consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth. By shame they mean the truly inglorious and most dishonorable idolatry, and the error in this matter, which also consumed the labors of their fathers; for they expended their sheep and their calves in sacrificing to the demons, and together with their possessions they suffered a loss of wisdom. Woe is me! that my soul faints over the slain. Run about in the streets of Jerusalem. In these words you see one who is in travail over the slain, and who readily wishes to pity Jerusalem, but is somehow restrained by himself, and almost checks his divine serenity because of the excess of sin; yet nevertheless he seeks to commiserate the sins, and wishes to put an end to the things that come from wrath in one respect? For he commanded that one man be shown as faithful among those who run about in her. And I said: Perhaps they are poor, because they were not able, etc. The preeminent and more sacred element among the Jews is deservedly lamented, but it drew upon itself a more violent wrath. And Christ himself will clarify this, saying, Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go about over sea and dry land to make one proselyte, etc. To whom shall I speak and bear witness?

For they reviled the word of Christ, saying to those who heard him about him: "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him? Do you not see what they themselves do in the cities of Judah?" So then they have been punished by a holy decree. For having transferred reverence to creation and worshipped the works of their own hands, they themselves have drawn upon their own heads the consequences of divine wrath. For nets are not unjustly spread for winged creatures, according to the scripture. The wise were put to shame. By "wise" he seems here to indicate the luminaries of the Greeks, both poets and writers, who have a well-endowed and elaborate tongue, practiced in the refinements of speech for charm, but whose heart has no share in true wisdom. For as the all-wise Paul writes, "They were vain in their reasonings, and their unintelligent heart was darkened." Claiming to be wise, they became foolish, and so forth. Therefore they are wise, as far as concerns voice and tongue, but unwise in heart. And the wisdom of this world is folly before God, according to the scripture. "A beautiful olive tree, well-shaded in appearance." For the soul of man is utterly ruined by departing from God and being completely deprived of his grace and assistance. For it is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. "To you, nations." For even if they have become insolent and disobedient, and have a mind full of folly, yet they are saved and glorified by Christ.

The first of these were the victorious martyrs, whose glory shines brightly over the whole world. And it will be like wood. For it does not take pride in wealth, nor, having become empty of vain pretensions, does it hold its head high; for these are things of vanity and nothing else. For it is a sure pledge for salvation to trust in God, who is all-powerful; but to place hope in other things is vain and useless. Behold, like clay. For it easily reshapes what has come from it into whatever it chooses. Are not these the words? etc. He calls fire the evangelical and saving proclamation, or also the participation in the Holy Spirit itself, which is likened to fire. And indeed the all-wise John the Baptist speaks thus about him and about our Savior Jesus Christ: "I baptize you with water for repentance," etc. So Christ rightly said: "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I want if it is already kindled?" And you have turned back. Do you see how he does not tolerate the types being set aside, or rather the truth itself being insulted as if still in shadows? For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, according to what is written. But the Jews, dragging back those who had once been set free, and subjecting them again to the yokes of slavery, have not preserved the irrevocable; and they have given offense by this, dishonoring the power of the mystery, even though it was still in types.

We are justified because we have brought nothing as an exchange for the life in Christ through grace as a gift, nor have we purchased the glory of freedom, but we gain the thing through the Lord's gentleness and philanthropy. "If you give," etc. For because they, emboldened by the Egyptian auxiliaries, opposed the Babylonians, they were grieved by this after the capture of Jerusalem and Samaria, and they turned against them and conquered them without toil. "To return," etc. When God pursues, no one will rescue the one in danger; but wherever one might be, there he will encounter the wrath. "Behold, I avenge Ammon." This is from Cyril and also from Apollinarius. Some say that Ammon is Alexandria, so called long ago, as it is also said in Nahum: "Are you not better than Ammon, which dwells among rivers? Water around her, whose wealth is the sea, and water her walls; Ethiopia is her strength and Egypt, and there was no end to her flight; and the Libyans became her helpers, and she herself will go into exile." But the present times are older than the foundation of Alexander. Perhaps, then, a city existed there before Alexander, and he rebuilt it after it had ceased. Some say that the Egyptians call Zeus Ammon, from which the Ammoniac region is also named; he calls him her son, as deified by her; for the statue is handmade, which, he says, the Babylonians will take, along with the other gods he brings in. The phrase "against Pharaoh and Egypt" has the verb "I avenge" in common. And he sent angels to the nations.

He called "a band" what Jeremiah called "angels," and Symmachus rendered as "a message"; it could also be understood as "a siege." The divine will summons many nations against Idumea, and he called the motion proceeding from it "angels." For, stirred up by God to war, they incited one another, as Obadiah says; for they invaded Idumea together with those from Israel and the surrounding nations. Turning to Idumea, he says: Behold, I have made you small among the nations, but nevertheless, having become contemptible, you thought yourself great in your difficulties, not knowing that you will be captured even if you raise your dwelling like an eagle. And with the words "and Idumea will be impassable" and those that follow, Obadiah again spoke in harmony: "And the house of Esau will become stubble, and it will be burned up among them, and there will be no fire-bearer in the house of Esau." The proverb also prevails among the pagans: "Not even a fire-bearer was left," for those utterly destroyed. For someone used to go before, carrying fire, and purifying the armies before the engagement, and it was a law that no enemy should lay a hand on this man. We have healed Babylon. They call Jerusalem "Babylon" in these passages, as one eager to imitate that city's ways, and in no way falling short of the land of the nations, at least with respect to complete habituation and the refusal to honor the law, that is, the benefit of prophetic instruction.