Interpretatio in Jeremiam

OF THE BLESSED THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRUS, INTERPRETATION OF THE PROPHECY OF THE DIVINE JEREMIAH.

PREFACE.

I indeed thought that the prophecy of the divine Jeremiah did not need interpretation. But since many of the zealous urged me also to interpret this book, saying that most people are ignorant of the meaning of the prophecy, having besought the divine grace to be my fellow-worker, I shall attempt to fulfill what was commanded. And I shall take thought for conciseness as much as possible; and of the clearer matters I shall make a paraphrase in summary, while those things that need fuller treatment I shall endeavor to unfold. First, however, I shall state the subject of the prophecy.

VOLUME 1.

PREFACE.

Josiah the king had as his father the impious Amos, and as his forefather Manasseh, who had become the teacher of his father's impiety; but he himself, walking the opposite way from them, became of the portion of the pious. He had children who did not emulate the virtue of their father, but imitated the impiety of their forefathers. Foreknowing these things, therefore, the God of all, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, appoints the prophet and commands him to foretell the calamities that were to come upon the city and the people. And he continued foretelling these things, not only for the remaining time of Josiah, but also in the time of Jehoahaz, who, being a son of Josiah, succeeded to the kingdom, and in the time of Jehoiakim, who was the brother of the latter and son of Josiah; and moreover also in the time of Jeconiah, who was the son of Jehoiakim and grandson of Josiah; and likewise also in the time of Zedekiah, who himself also had Josiah as his father.

so that the whole time of the prophecy is forty-two years, lacking a few months. He foretells also the siege that was made by the Babylonians, and the famine that came upon them, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and the burning of the divine temple, and the enslavement of the people. He prophesies also the return of the captives, and the destruction of the Babylonians, and indeed also the manifold punishments of many other nations; he foretells also the giving of the New Covenant, and the cessation of the Old, and the calling of the nations, and the salvation of the inhabited world that was to come. CHAPTER 1.

The word of God, which came to Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests, who dwelt in Anathoth. The prophet partook of a double grace, priestly and prophetic; and the one he drew from his lineage, the other he received from the gift from above. He states also the time of the prophecy. 2. For in the days, he says, of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. He makes mention also of those who reigned thereafter, up to the final siege. Then he also teaches the things spoken by the God of all. 4, 5. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you. Not unjust is the

election; for foreknowledge preceded this. For he knew, and then he sanctified. Since he knows all things before their coming into being. And the word "I sanctified" he has used in place of "I set apart." Then he also states the purpose for which he chose him. "I have set you as a prophet to the nations." For he foretells not only the affairs of the Jews, but also those of the other nations. 6. And I said, "O Lord, the one who is, behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am young." The prophet recognized the one speaking with him; for this very reason he names him by the more authoritative title. For when the great Moses once asked and desired to learn the divine name, the Lord said, "I am the one who is." He imitates also the reverence of Moses, saying that youth is not sufficient for prophecy. But the Lord urges him not to put forward youth as an excuse, but to do what was commanded. He also drives out his fear. 8. "Do not be afraid," he says, "before their face, nor be dismayed in their presence." Then he also teaches the cause of his courage: "Because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." This the Lord God also said to the inspired Moses; for when he dreaded his ministry and said, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?" the Lord said, "Because I will be with you." This same promise he gave as a sure pledge also to the holy apostles. For after commanding them to make disciples of all the nations, and foreknowing, as God, how reasonings rise up in their hearts, how is it possible for eleven poor men, deprived of all eloquence, to transform the whole inhabited world—

He resolved the ambiguity and cast out fear, having said: "And behold, I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age." This he also said here to the prophet: "I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." And the deed confirms the word. 9, 10. For he stretched out his hand, it says, and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words into your mouth. And he also teaches what these words are: Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow, and to build, and to plant. For he foretold not only the captivity of the Jews, but also the freedom granted by Cyrus; and he foretold to very many other nations as well, not only misfortunes of every kind, but also the salvation granted through the incarnation of the Master Christ. For this reason he placed "to root out" and "to overthrow" in reference to sorrowful things, but "to build" and "to plant" in reference to their opposites. After this he shows him a rod of walnut, or, according to the Syrian and the Hebrew, of almond. For thus both this one and that one named the rod; and when the prophet was asked and answered what it was that appeared, the Master said to him: 12. You have seen well, because I have watched over my words to perform them. And he calls "watching" the rousing up for punishment, and "sleep" the long-suffering. For the blessed David says: "Awake, why do you sleep, Lord?" and again:

And the Lord awoke as one who sleeps." The almond rod hints at the swiftness of the punishment; for before the other trees, this tree blossoms. But according to the Seventy, it must be understood thus: the fruit of the walnut has a bitter and rough husk, but the edible part is hidden beneath it. So also instruction has painful and grievous things in what appears, but beneficial things in what follows. Then he shows him also "a cauldron being heated, and its face from the face of the north"; and he calls Jerusalem the cauldron, and the Babylonian the fire, for he names him from the north; for Babylon lies to the north of Jerusalem. And the divine Ezekiel also calls Jerusalem a cauldron, and those who dwell in it the meat. Then he teaches more clearly the things said parabolically. 15. For behold, he says, I summon all the kingdoms of the kings of the earth from the north, says the Lord; and they shall come, and each shall set his throne at the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls, and against all the cities of Judah. And showing the justice of what happens, he adds: 16. And I will speak with my judgment against them concerning all their wickedness, in that they abandoned me, and sacrificed to foreign gods, and worshipped the works of their hands. But what is more foolish than this impiety? And what is more just than the punishment? For they, having abandoned their own Maker, deified their own handiworks. But he, having been long-suffering for the greatest time, stripped them of his own grace. And stripped of this, they served impious men.

He commands him to gird his loins, that is, to equip himself with a ready belt and manfully; and reminding him of the promises already made, he casts out fear. He says that he made him like an iron pillar and a bronze wall and a most strongly fortified city, and set him up unconquerable, not only against the priests of the Jews and the rulers, but also against the kings themselves and the whole multitude of their subjects. And he promises him not peace and quiet, but struggles and victory. 19. For they shall fight against you, he says, and they shall not be able to prevail against you; for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord. This promise he also made to the Church; for he said to the most divine Peter: "On this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." He did not say, They shall not fight; but, "Fighting, they shall not prevail." For the adversaries do indeed pursue victory.

CHAPTER 2.

After these things he is commanded to speak to those who dwell in Jerusalem: 1, 2. Thus says the Lord: I remember the mercy of your youth, and the love of your perfection; in that you followed the Holy One of Israel in the wilderness, in a land not sown, says the Lord. He called the beginning of the calling of Judea its "youth"; for at that time they groaned, suffering hardship in Egypt, but he had compassion and, using Moses as his servant, set them free. And the phrase "the love of your perfection" he has set down ironically; for the Jews never had a perfect love toward their benefactor. And David, our hymn-writer, also teaches us this:

For they loved him, he says, with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him; but their heart was not upright with him, nor were they faithful in his covenant. 3. Israel is holy to the Lord. That is, I chose you before the other nations, and you were accounted my people. So also the blessed Moses said: And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, the cord of his inheritance, Israel. —The firstfruits of his produce. For before all others he chose him. For this reason he also said to Pharaoh: Israel is my firstborn son; and through another prophet he says thus: As a grape in the desert I found Israel, and as the early fruit of a fig I found their fathers. —All who eat him shall transgress; I will bring evils upon them, says the Lord. For those who warred against Israel did not fight as those serving God, but as those who thought they could prevail over God himself. So also Sennacherib said: Let not your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying that the Lord will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand. For this reason he threatens punishment upon them. Then he says to all the people: 5. What transgression did your fathers find in me, that they stood aloof from me far off, and

They went after vain things, and became vain. Who is sufficient to hymn the Master's love for humanity as it deserves? For he does not judge as a judge, but as one accountable he offers a defense, and he wishes to be convicted if he has not done something that ought to be done; and being God, all-holy, he says to lawless men: In what have I sinned? In what have I done wrong? Speak, convict me. What did your fathers have to charge against me, that they abandoned me, their benefactor, and enslaved themselves to handmade idols? And yet I delivered them from the slavery of the Egyptians; and I led them through an impassable land, and in a waterless desert I granted them a stream of abundant waters, and I brought them into the promised land, which is the mother of fruits of every kind. For through Carmel he indicated the whole land of the promise; but not even after enjoying these things did you recognize your benefactor; but you imitated the abomination of your fathers. Then, by the division of each order, he brings the accusation. 8. The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? This is the most impious thing of all: that the guides became leaders of error. "And those who clung to the law did not know me." Here he accuses the scribes and teachers, as interpreting the law but being the first to transgress it. "And the shepherds were impious against me." He has named the kings thus. "And the prophets prophesied in Baal." He calls the false prophets prophets, just as again he calls those who are not gods gods. "And they went after the unprofitable one." He showed the excess of their derangement; for abandoning the provider of goods of every kind, they served the harmful idols. 9.

Therefore I will yet enter into judgment with them, says the Lord, and with the sons of their sons I will enter into judgment. He persists in his gentleness; for he did not say, I will judge you and your descendants, but, I will enter into judgment both with you and with those; instead of, I will try the case, and I will convict them of transgressing the law. And showing the excess of their lawlessness, he urges them to examine the way of life of the nations, both of the western and of the eastern, and to know whether any of those changed their ancestral gods; and he calls Cyprus, and the islands around it, and through them the western parts, Chettieim; and Kedar, those who inhabit the desert toward the rising sun; and through these he hints at the eastern parts; and he teaches that those men followed their ancestral customs, and the gods they were taught to worship; but these men denied the true God. Therefore he said that the heaven was astonished, and the earth shuddered; not because the elements are rational, but because these things, as containing the creation, blessed Moses called to witness. "For attend, he said, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words out of my mouth." 3. For my people did two evil things: they forsook me, the fountain of the water of life, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water. He called the idols broken cisterns. For the cistern is handmade, and it does not have water welling up; but it receives what is born from the clouds and gathered from here and there; and if it is also cracked and broken, it immediately destroys what has been collected from heaven. Such is the nature of idols.

For its substance is derived from matter and craft, but the beauty it receives from these things time takes away; the true God, however, is a fountain of everlasting life. Then, in the form of a question: 14, 15. Is Jacob a slave, or is Israel a houseborn servant? Why has he become a prey? Lions roared against him. Because, he says, he was freed from the slavery of the Egyptians, all knew; and that he also lived by himself, enjoying my providence, was clear to all. For he was conspicuous and admired. What, then, is the cause of the captivity? Why ever did he become easy prey for the kings who came against him? For he called the kings lions. These, he says, also divided his land and burned the cities. But you have suffered these things not only at the hands of the Assyrians, but also at the hands of the Egyptians. For he says further: 16. The sons of Memphis and Tahpanhes knew you and mocked you. Those who for your sake endured those much-vaunted things, whom in the end I handed over to the sea's deep. Then he teaches the cause of their weakness: 17. Did not these things do this to you—your forsaking me? says the Lord your God. Then he also indicates the beginning of the apostasy: "In the time when he led you in the wilderness." For immediately, once you were released from the Egyptians, you forsook me and made the calf your god. 18. And now what have you to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Gihon? And what have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of rivers? When they were being warred against by the Syrians, they called the Assyrians to their aid; but when the Assyrians marched against them, they fled to the Egyptians; for he calls the Nile Gihon. 19.

Your apostasy will discipline you, and your wickedness will convict you; and know and see that it is bitter and evil for you to have forsaken me, says the Lord your God. And I did not take pleasure in you, says the Lord your God. Me, he says, you did not call upon for alliance, but those others. Therefore I handed you over to them. Those who crucified the Savior suffered something of this sort; for having denied him, they said they had no king but Caesar, for which reason he handed them over to Caesar. 20. For from of old you broke your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said, I will not serve you. Your practices are of ancient fashion; for from the beginning you broke the yoke of the law and followed the customs of the lawless nations. And you preferred the altars and groves to the constitution according to the law. 21. But I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true. He did not add "wholly" without reason, but because there were among them pious men, both the divine prophets and those who followed them; instead of saying, I wished all of you to be such, for I took care of all equally. "How have you turned to bitterness for me, the vine that is alien?" If it had remained true, it would not have been alien; but since it was changed into bitterness, it is no longer true, but is called alien. Thus also the great Moses said: "For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their branch is from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, their cluster of bitterness." Hence they also offered gall to the Master.

But since they insulted the divine planting and turned to bitterness, and instead of grapes sprouted thorns, the Christ who came from them according to the flesh calls himself a true vine, saying: "I am the true vine"; and those who have believed in him he named "branches." 22. If you wash yourself with natron, and multiply for yourself plants, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord. He calls "plants" the filth that grows from the earth; and he teaches figuratively through these things that the sprinklings according to the law do not procure release from sins, but rather sincere repentance and departure from wickedness. After this he exposes her shamelessness. 23. How will you say: I have not been defiled, and I have not gone after Baal? Then he shows the manifest nature of her impiety: "See your ways in the burial-place, and know what you have done." He calls the place of tombs a "burial-place." And there they used to burn their sons and daughters to idols. "Late with her voice she howled." He has used "late" in place of "slowly"; after the experience, he says, of grievous things, she came to a perception of her lawlessness. This the prophet also says after these things, indicating the ten tribes lamenting and saying: "After the captivity I repented." 24. She widened her ways upon the waters of the desert. By "widened" he taught the insatiability of her impiety. And he called the idols "waters of the desert," as making desolate and bringing about utter destruction. "In the desires of her soul she was carried about by the spirit." For the things they wished to hear, these the

They pretended to foretell, as false prophets do. For he has applied the phrase "was carried by the Spirit" to the false prophets. "It has been handed over; who will turn it back?" For when God has handed it over, who will suffice? So also through the great Moses he says: "All those who seek her shall not grow weary; in her humiliation they shall find her." For they became easy to capture, having embraced impiety. After this he teaches that often, when she was advised to depart from the harmful path, she grew bold outright, confessing her apostasy. But for this reason, he says, I will clothe them all together in shame—kings, rulers, priests, and those who prophesy falsely—and they shall be likened to a thief caught in the act, and blushing deeply. For the gods fashioned from wood and stone they called fathers and begetters; but to me they gave their backs, and turned away as from an enemy. "And in the time of their calamities they shall say: Arise, and save us." This is the height of utter shamelessness: while enjoying good things, to be sick with ingratitude; but when lacking them, to ask for a share in them. Then ironically: 29. And where are your gods, which you made for yourself? Will they arise and save you in the time of your affliction? He also teaches the multitude of these. For according to the number of the cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal. Having thus shown the honor paid to gods that are not, both their multitude and their weakness, he gently rebukes the ungrateful: 29. Why do you speak to me? All of you have acted impiously, and all of you have dealt lawlessly against me, says the Lord.

He also reminds them of the chastisements that had been brought upon them. 30. "In vain I struck your children; you did not receive discipline." Neither when you were being benefited did you recognize your Benefactor, nor when you were being disciplined did you desist from impiety. But I also handed over to slaughter the very authors of the deception. 31. "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Was I a wilderness to the house of Jacob, or a land made desolate, because my people said: We shall not be ruled over, and we shall not come to you?" He says these things ironically. "Is it," he says, "that I am like the idols? Is it that I have not, in like manner as they, brought them any good fruit, and that for this reason they have fled from my service?" But he moves on to another image as well, and says that every bride of the world has taken thought for herself, and every virgin has cared for her breast-band; but the people that was called has slighted its guardian. Then again ironically, 33. "What good will you still practice in your ways, to seek love?" "What else," he says, "do you wish to add to the things already spoken, as though to procure my affection for you? 'Not so.'" None of these things moves them to love, but on the contrary produces hatred; for you have not only lapsed into impiety, but you have even dared murder. 34. "For in your hands," he says, "was found the blood of innocent souls." The blessed David also said this: "And they sacrificed their sons to the demons, and poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the graven images of Canaan, and the land was defiled with blood." And teaching that they did these things not even in secret, but dared them openly, he added:

I did not find them in the breaches, but upon every oak." For just as burglars do this in secret, so these men did not try to escape notice while breaking the law, but every hill and every grove received their impiety; and being shameless and abominable, they denied even what was done openly. 35. For you said, he says: "I am innocent; but let his wrath be turned away from me." For this very reason he added: "Behold, I enter into judgment with you in that you say, 'I have not sinned.'" And he does not say, "I will judge you," but "I enter into judgment with you," meaning, I plead my case and I convict you as lying and shamelessly denying it. 36. "Because you have greatly despised to repeat your ways." For the shamelessness is fitting for the lawlessness; and by this he hints at something else as well, that just as when you called the Assyrians to an alliance, you gained nothing from their aid, so now too, having fled to the Egyptians, you will enjoy no benefit from there. For he makes this clear through what follows. "And you shall be put to shame by Egypt, just as you were put to shame by Assyria." 37. "For you shall also go out from there, and your hands shall be upon your head." It is characteristic of mourners to place their hands clasped together upon the head. And the cause of the evils: "For the Lord has thrust away your hope, and you shall not prosper in it." For if you had hoped in God, you would have gathered the ripe fruit of hope; but since you trusted in men, you have missed your hope.

CHAPTER 3.

After this he knows that any woman who departs from her husband and is joined to another cannot return to her former husband, since the law forbids this; but you, having abandoned me, who was joined to you according to the law, were joined to unholy demons; then, having again perceived the harm, you were returning to me, and I did not thrust you away. But if you think I say these things idly, 2. Lift up your eyes straight ahead, and see where you have not been defiled. Instead of, You have been polluted. For this he also says through Ezekiel to her, "And I found you defiled in your blood"; and thus the Syrian also interpreted it. And he says in what follows, that Not only did you receive those who came, but you also went out seeking; and like the crows you sat by the roads, awaiting their presence, and you filled the earth with defilements, having used many shepherds instead of one. For he called the idols many shepherds; for just as those fathers of falsehood were called gods, having plundered the divine title, so also they were named shepherds, having stolen the name of the true Shepherd. "A harlot's look has become yours, you have acted shamelessly toward all." For just as those who sell their beauty scrape the shame from their foreheads, and present themselves alike to all; so you preserved your goodwill toward no one, but while gathering from me the abundance of good things, you served idols. And falling into calamities, and perceiving their weakness, you sought my help. 4.

Did you not call me a house, and father, and leader of your virginity? Did you not long ago give me these terms of kinship, sometimes calling me father, sometimes a virgin husband, sometimes an inviolable house? For thus also the blessed David says: "Be to me a God for protection, and a house of refuge to save me." 5. Will it not endure forever? That is, your falsehood, and the mockery of your words. "Or will it be kept for victory?" Or do you think that by these things you will prevail and conquer? Then ironically: "Behold, you have spoken and done these evil things, and you were able." That is, consider that you have mocked and escaped, having dared to transgress in such ways. After this he says that God spoke to him in the days of Josiah the king: 6. Did you see what the dwelling of Israel did to me? Since those people were absent (for they were serving in Babylon), he teaches the prophet the justice of the punishment. "She went upon every high mountain, and under every leafy tree, and there she played the harlot." Then he shows his own goodness and long-suffering. 7. And I said after she played the harlot these things, Return to me, and she did not return. Willingly, therefore, she drew destruction upon herself, neither having embraced from the beginning the conduct according to the law, nor wishing to return after her impiety. From here he increases the accusation of the tribe of Judah. 8. And

Her sister, faithless Judah, saw her faithlessness, and she saw that because of all the things in which the dwelling place of Israel was caught committing adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce into her hands. And faithless Judah, her sister, was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also. Having seen, he says, her sister's wickedness and the punishment brought upon her because of it, she did not flee from the imitation of wickedness, but followed in her footsteps. 9. And her harlotry became as nothing. For, he says, she supposed she was doing nothing unlawful; and he calls idolatry harlotry; for having abandoned God, who was named their bridegroom, they served idols. "And she bloodied the land, sacrificing her children to demons; and she committed adultery with stone and wood." He made the charge of harlotry clear. Then through more words he teaches that she did not loathe her sister's impiety, having seen her utter destruction; and that the ten tribes have some pardon more than the tribe of Judah, since having seen those disasters, she continued doing the causes of the disasters; for which reason the prophet is commanded to foretell to them. 12. For go, he says, and read these words toward the north, and you shall say, Return to me, dwelling place of Israel, says the Lord. And I will not set my face against you, because I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not be angry with you forever. The Master's love for humanity is immeasurable; for after great lawlessness he seeks only repentance.

He also teaches the manner of this one. 13. Only know your iniquity, that you have acted impiously toward the Lord your God. For the beginning of health is the perception of sickness. And, You have poured out your ways to strangers. Having abandoned God, and Lord, and Maker, and Benefactor, you joined yourself to strangers; and who are these? Under every leafy tree. He showed the profitlessness of the error; for the plants made into gods are unfruitful. But you did not obey my voice, says the Lord. For when giving the law he said, You shall have no other gods besides me. 14. Return, sons who have departed, says the Lord. He calls them both departed and sons, because of his ineffable goodness. For I will be lord over you. For again I will take care of you, and deem you worthy of every guardianship. And I will take you one from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you into Zion. (15.) And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall shepherd you, shepherding with understanding. These things happened typically in the time of Zerubbabel. For they returned under Cyrus the Persian, having as shepherds Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jesus the son of Josedek, the great priest; and piety and good order adorned both. In truth, however, after the incarnation of our God and Savior the prophecy received its fulfillment. For the Master chose from the Jews one from a city, and two from a family; and he appointed them shepherds according to his heart, the sacred apostles. Therefore indeed he also said to the most divine Peter: Simon son of Jonah, do you love me? Shepherd my sheep. And that the prophecy has this meaning, what follows testifies. 17.

In those days, and at that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; and they shall no longer walk after the evil thoughts of their own heart. But this did not happen after the return from Babylon; for the nations did not then abandon their impiety. After the incarnation of our God and Savior, the divine apostles carried the saving proclamation across the whole inhabited world; and those who had been enslaved to their former error departed from it, and they worship the God of all things, and all run together to Jerusalem as to a divine throne. Then he teaches that after the return from Babylon the tribes shall no longer again be divided apart, but shall return together and possess the land of their fathers. Then the prophet, delighted at the good promises, says: 19. And I said, So be it, Lord. Having said these things in the midst, the prophet concludes the divine promise. "For I will set you as children." For again, he says, you shall be called my children. "And I will give you a choice land, a renowned inheritance, of God the Almighty of nations." He called the land of promise this. And he named him God Almighty of nations, teaching that he is God of all things and creator of all things, and that the nations also shall partake of the knowledge of God, and the grace of the Spirit shall pass over to them. After these things he counsels them to acquire the affection which children have toward a father, and to enjoy the divine care.

Then he brings a charge, that they zealously pursued a woman, an adulteress transgressing against her husband—not only the ten tribes, but also the tribe of Judah—and that they broke the covenants made with the bridegroom. And he foretells also the repentance of the ten tribes; for the calamity of captivity instilled in them a sense of their transgression. 21. For a voice, he says, was heard from the lips of weeping and supplication of the sons of Israel, because they did wrong in their ways, they forgot God, their Holy One. And having seen their repentance, he urges them to persist in it, and says: 22. Return, you returning sons, and I will heal your brokenness. And he does not only promise the healing, but also teaches with what words they must speak, all but saying: Say these things: "Behold, we shall be your servants, for you are the Lord our God." We renounce error, we abhor the slavery of demons; you alone we know both as Lord and God. 23. Truly the hills were a lie, and the strength of the mountains. But through the Lord our God is salvation for the house of Israel. Through experience itself we have learned that you alone are the provider of good things; but the groves and the hills are harmful and destructive. 24. But shame has consumed the labors of our fathers from their youth, their sheep, their sons, and their daughters. He showed also the excess of the honor they brought to idols; for along with oxen and sheep they also burned up their sons and their daughters; and that not only did they reap no profit from there, but along with the loss of their souls they also gathered shame; for this he says through what follows: 25.

We slept in our shame, and our dishonor covered us, because we sinned against our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we did not listen to the voice of the Lord our God. And the divine Apostle says that shame is the fruit of sin; and he speaks thus: "What fruit then did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed?" Chapter 4.

Having thus taught them to entreat, he promises them also the enjoyment of good things, if they would forget the idols (for these he calls abominations), and transfer their reverence to the God who is; so that they should no longer make oaths by idols, but by him, speaking truth and not lying. For this is what he says: 2. If you swear, "As the Lord lives," in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness. But in the holy Gospels the more perfect things concerning these have been legislated: "For it was said," he says, "to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but you shall render to the Lord your oaths. But I say to you, do not swear at all." But to the Jews, as being weakly disposed, he urges them to swear by him, so that by the habit of swearing they might be taught to worship him alone; and he promises, if these things come to pass,

so that the nations will bless in him, and in him they will praise God in Jerusalem; for when these were pious, many of those in the neighboring regions learned piety. From here he transfers the word from Israel to Judah, and says: 3. Break up for yourselves fallow ground, and do not sow on thorns. Cultivate, he says, your souls; pull up by the root the memory of idols. For these he calls thorns. 4. Be circumcised to your God. Then he teaches what kind of circumcision is God's: "And circumcise the foreskin of your heart, men of Judah, and those who dwell in Jerusalem." He has clearly taught that the visible circumcision is a type of the hidden one, and that the circumcision of the body is superfluous when the inner one exists. Starting from this, the divine Apostle wrote to the Romans: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is the circumcision outwardly, in the flesh, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not from men but from God." For he heard God saying through the prophet: "Be circumcised to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart, men of Judah, and those who dwell in Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and be kindled, and there be no one to quench it before the face of the wickedness of your practices." For you alone can quench it by repenting; but if you do not make use of repentance, no one is able to deliver you from punishment.

Doubling down, he urges them to speak to Jerusalem and to every tribe of Judah, so as to sound the trumpet and signal to all the enemy's approach, so that they may flee for refuge into the walled cities, and especially into Zion, as being more strongly fortified; and he presses them, saying: 6. Hurry, do not stand still, for I am bringing evils from the north, and a great crushing. He says these things more figuratively; and he calls Nebuchadnezzar a lion, and Babylon a fold; from there he will rush forth and set the cities on fire and ravage the countryside. 8. For this reason, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and beat yourselves, and wail, because the fury of the Lord's anger has not turned away from you. He foretells also the cowardice of the king, both of Jehoiakim and of Jeconiah after him, and lastly of Zedekiah. He foretells also the fear of the rulers and priests. And after these things the prophet says to the Master: 10. Surely you have utterly deceived the people of God and Jerusalem, saying, There will be peace, and behold, the sword has reached even to their souls? The prophet did not say these things truthfully, but since the false prophets were promising peace, saying that God was promising this, exposing their falsehood, he used these words. 11. In that time they will say to this people, and to Jerusalem, As a spirit of wandering in the wilderness, the way of the daughter of my people is not to purity, nor to holiness. 12. A spirit of fullness will come to me from these.

Through experience itself, he says, they will learn in the time of calamities that what was spoken through the false prophets was a spirit of error, not pure, not holy, nor a spirit of fulfillment—that is, not completing the Trinity—from which the present evils came upon me. "But now I will speak my judgments to them." That is, the calamities which I will justly bring upon them. And he enumerates these, likening the chariots to a cloud and a storm, and the swiftness of the horses to eagles. He foretells also the lamentation that will come: "Woe to us, for we are in misery." And after this he advises them to reap salvation through repentance. 14. For wash, he says, your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved; how long will your evil thoughts remain in you? For the wickedness of your thoughts has been the cause of these evils for you. 15. For a voice announcing from Dan will come, and pain will be heard from the mountain of Ephraim. Dan, which is now

called Paneas; this was in the land of Israel, and the history of the Kingdoms bears witness: "from Dan even to Beersheba"; and both this and the mountain of Ephraim lie to the north of Jerusalem; and from there the Babylonian made his march. And this prophet is a witness, and the fourth book of the Kingdoms; and they say that the men of Nebuchadnezzar led the captives away to Reblatha of Emath. And Reblatha is a village of what is now called Emesa; so that it is clear that he calls great Emath Emesa; and the other Emath, Epiphaneia; for thus even to the present it is called in the local tongue. Since, therefore, running from there they expected grievous things;

16, 17. Behold, gatherings are coming from a land far off, and they have given their voice against the cities of Judah. They have become like those who guard a field against it round about. For just as, he says, those who guard seeds or vineyards carefully guard these things and prevent travelers from passing through them, so these men will besiege Jerusalem and will allow no one to escape. The prophet also teaches, and the fourth book of Kingdoms, that they even built a wall round about with hewn stones, so that none of the inhabitants could run away. These things, he says, you will suffer "because you neglected me, says the Lord." 18. Your ways and your practices have brought these things upon you; this is your wickedness, that it is bitter, that it has touched even your heart. You will endure things worthy of what you dared, and you will reap what you have sown. Having foretold these things, the prophet grieves on their behalf and laments, and says that his belly aches and the senses of his heart; and he imitates a mother torn apart at the destruction of her children. 19, 20. For my soul rages, he says, my heart is torn, I will not be silent; for my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of war. And he calls upon misery and destruction. For the trumpet signifies these things, it foretells these evils; and he says also that the land has suffered misery, and the tent has been torn apart, and the curtains have been rent; and through these things he hints at the destruction of the city. He also explains the multitude of those who flee, and says from the person of God: 22. Because the leaders of my people did not know me, they are foolish sons, and not understanding.

And so that they might not be thought worthy of pardon as being fools, he immediately added: "They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have not known." For this is the most grievous thing of all, that they used their understanding for nothing, like drunkards with wine, and murderers with iron. 23–25. I looked upon the earth, and behold, it was nothing; and upon the heaven, and its lights were not. I saw the mountains, and behold, they were trembling; and all the hills were in confusion. I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the heaven were terrified. Those who fall into calamities are accustomed to suffer these things; for neither does the light seem to them to be light, nor the day to be day, nor pleasant things to be pleasant. All things have been changed for them into the opposite. 26. I saw, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all the cities were burned with fire from the face of the Lord, and from the face of his wrath they were destroyed. It is likely that Carmel itself was also laid waste in the enemy's assault; but I think that here Carmel is figuratively named for Jerusalem, because of the multitude of its inhabitants. 27. Thus says the Lord: All the land shall be a desert; but I will not make a complete end. He means all the land of Palestine; and he promises the recall. Then he exhorts: 28. For these things let the earth mourn, let the heaven above be darkened, because I have spoken. For the creation is in accord with the Maker. "I have set myself in array, and I will not repent." The phrase "I will not repent" he has set down in a human way; for the Divine is impassible; it is instead of, I have determined to punish. "I have rushed forth, and I will not turn back from it," that is, from the impulse. And he teaches what this is:

because of fear of both the horsemen and the archers they all turned to flight, and some tried to take courage in the mountains, others in the groves; and many, abandoning even the cities, occupied the peaks of the mountains. Then, addressing Jerusalem: 30. And you, wretched woman, what will you do? That is, Where will you flee? What place will you occupy? "Though you clothe yourself in scarlet, and adorn yourself with golden ornament; and though you paint your eyes with stibium, your beauty will be in vain; your lovers have thrust you away; they seek your life." They had been accustomed to beautify themselves at the festivals of the demons; he reminds them of that adornment, and teaches that all those things are profitless and harmful. For they enjoyed no alliance from the demons; rather, these became the cause of those evils to them. 31. For I heard a voice as of a woman in travail; your groanings, as of one giving birth to her firstborn. By the image of pain he set before them the measure of it. "Woe is me, for my soul faints over those who have been slain." He fulfills the divine law, "to weep with those who weep," and grieves together with those who are punished. And we, having rested here, entreat those who will read the book to flee from the deception of the demons, and through all things to serve God. For thus we shall be able both to enjoy his providence in the present life, and to attain the good things to come; by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the all-holy Spirit be glory, honor, and might, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. TOME II.

CHAPTER 5

1. Run to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in her broad places, if you can find a man in her; if there be found one who does justice and seeks faith, and I will be merciful to her, says the Lord. Beyond measure was their impiety, and beyond measure the loving-kindness of the Master. For they with one accord rushed into lawlessness, but he promises pardon to all even on account of one man living according to the law. The words "See, and know, and seek" stand for "Search with all diligence." 2. "As the Lord lives," they say, yet they swear upon falsehoods. For not even in what was said before did he simply command that the oath be transferred to him, but that one swear with truth. Then the prophet says: 3. "And your eyes are upon faith." That is, You bear witness to what I say, for you look upon all things. "You have chastised them, and they have not grieved; you have consumed them, and they were unwilling to receive discipline." The former phrase indicates moderate chastisement; the latter, "you have consumed them," an intensified one. But nevertheless nothing profited them, because of their stubborn disposition; for this is what he says in what follows: "They made their face harder than rock, and they were unwilling to turn back." By these words he declares their shamelessness and disobedience. 4, 5. And I said: Perhaps they are poor, because they were unable, and they have not known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God. I will go to the great ones, and I will speak to them, because they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of God. He called the priests and the teachers of the law "great ones.

But the others he calls poor, as not possessing the wealth of divine knowledge; yet he accuses both of lawlessness, for this is what he adds: "And behold, with one accord they broke the yoke, they burst the bonds." The prophet has not said these things idly; but since the Master promised loving-kindness, that if he found even one doing justice and seeking faith, he teaches that he sought, as he was commanded, but found all having broken the yoke of the law. 6. Therefore a lion from the thicket struck them, and a wolf destroyed them even to their houses, and a leopard kept watch over their cities. He calls Nebuchadnezzar a lion, and a wolf, as I think, Nebuzaradan the chief cook, who later was sent and burned the city, and enslaved the divine temple and those left behind; and a leopard I consider to be called Antiochus Epiphanes; for the divine Daniel also saw the Macedonian kingdom likened to a leopard; by all these, he says, you were hunted because of your error concerning idols. Then judicially: 7. With which of these shall I be propitious to you? And he also speaks of the forms of lawlessness. For not only, he says, do you and your children swear by the gods that are not, but you also put others under oath; and I was granting you an abundance of good things. For this is what he says: "And I filled them." And besides these things you also break into others' marriages, so that your lust is likened to female-mad horses. Then by way of conclusion: 9. Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord; or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a nation? These things, he says, can I overlook?

And how is it possible to corrupt the sentence of the just one? For this reason he brings it forth, and commands both to destroy the walls and to raze the bulwarks; and he mingles justice with goodness. 10. For he says, Do not make a complete end; leave the supports of it, because they belong to the Lord. By these words he hints at the calling back and the second building. And he foretells the cause of the sorrows, that transgressing the law and becoming ungrateful toward their benefactor they grew bold, and supposed that they would be stronger than the sorrows. 12. For he says, Evil shall not come upon us, and we shall not see sword and famine. For the false prophets were the cause of these things; for he accuses them in what follows. 13. Your prophets were for the wind; and the word of the Lord was not in them. And "for the wind" makes clear the vanity and falsehood of what was said; for they did not partake of the divine Spirit. For this reason he says to the prophet that the word which I utter through your tongue will consume them like fire; and he also shows the manner of the punishment. 15. Behold, I bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord, it is an ancient nation. He means the Assyrians; and he calls them an ancient nation, since their kingdom is the oldest of all; for Nimrod after the flood was the first to reign over them. Then he also mentions the foreignness of their speech. And he likens the quiver to an open tomb, because of the deadly nature of the arrows and the sure aim of the archery. And he speaks also of the ravaging of the land, and the sacking of the houses, and the slaughter of men.

He foretells also the destruction of the enemies and their recall. 18. For he says, I will not make you a complete end. And since they were sick with insensibility and did not see their own transgressions, but said: 19. For what reason has the Lord our God done all these things to us? he commands the prophet to say to them, "Because you forsook me and served other gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours." And the verdict of the punishment is just. Since, he says, you have denied my kingdom, I will deliver you over to other masters. He commands them to hear these things earnestly, and calls them fools and senseless, since they did not use the senses of the body as they ought. "For they have eyes," he says, "and they do not see; they have ears, and they do not hear." He shows that they are even more irrational than inanimate things. For the sea, he says, keeps its bounds; I set bounds for it, not a wall of adamant, but the most worthless sand; yet though it is stirred up and troubled, it does not overstep its bounds, but approaching them it goes backward.

But these men, honored with reason, loved unreason. 23. For to this people, he says, a heart has become disobedient and rebellious. For they do not perceive the good things provided by me; for I continually supply them with the early and the late rain. And then they also enjoy the fruits of the earth. For this is what he said: "At the time of the fulfillment, commands of harvest." For he has used his will as a kind of command; and he grants them the fruits of the earth in full. But nevertheless, seeing you transgressing the law, I also deprived you of these good things. 26, 27. For there were found in my people impious men, and they set snares to destroy men, and they caught them. As a snare set full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. By these words he has indicated their secret plots. He speaks also of the wealth that comes from injustice, and the arrogance that arises from wealth, and the lawless life, and the injustice against orphans and widows. And after these things he adds: 29. Shall I not visit for these things, or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a nation? It is alien, he says, to my righteous judgment, the overlooking of such things. 30. Astonishment and horrors have come to pass on the earth. Whenever we see something done lawlessly beyond all expectation, we are accustomed to say these things: I was astonished at this, I shuddered when I heard this. Then he states the causes of these things. 31. Your prophets prophesy unjust things—that is, false things. "And the priests clapped their hands." This is a sign of consent. "And my people loved it so." He has shown the evil agreement of all.

And what will you do after these things? This means: when the punishment is brought upon them; and he makes this clear through what follows in chapter 6.

For he exhorts the tribe of Benjamin—and this tribe was joined to that of Judah—to signal with the trumpet and to be ready for battle, since the enemies from the north are rushing against Jerusalem. For he calls her beautiful and delicate: beautiful, because of the beauty of her dwellings; delicate, because of the luxurious living of those who dwell in her. 3. Shepherds shall come and their flocks, and they shall pitch their tents against her, and each shall pasture his own herd with his own hand. He calls the kings shepherds—those who campaigned with Nebuchadnezzar—and herds and flocks, the armies subject to them; and through these things he has indicated the siege of the city. Then he speaks also of the noonday formations, and the evening assaults, and the nighttime attacks, and he exhorts them to cut down the forest as unfruitful; for it is wholly false in its own dominion; and these things happen also to those previously mentioned. 7. As a cistern cools its water, so she cools her wickedness. The city consecrated to God, and receiving those who live with lawlessness, ought to have taught lawfulness; but now the opposite is charged against her, that she has become a teacher of impiety; and just as the cistern changes the water to a cold quality, so she has changed those who come to her to wickedness; yet he calls the city, not the buildings, but those who dwell in it.

Impiety and misery will be heard in her before my face continually." They did not even fear my indwelling, but dared every impiety while I was watching. Then he introduces an exhortation and counsel. In pain and scourge (8) be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, and I make you an untrodden land, which will not be inhabited. These things also reveal the ineffable loving-kindness of the Master; for while threatening her with gloomy things, he promises release from them if she changes. But since they did not accept the instruction,

he calls the enemies vintagers; and he commands them to gather them all together, as the fruit of a vine, and he teaches the reason. (10) To whom shall I speak, and testify, and he will hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear. Behold, the word of the Lord has become to them a reproach; they will not wish to hear it. He calls ears uncircumcised that receive all things without distinction. Such were these also: readily receiving the pleasant things offered by the false prophets, they did not wish to attend to the divine words, but mocked and jeered at the prophets. Then he teaches the excess of his long-suffering. (11) I have filled my wrath, and I restrained, and I did not complete them. Instead of: I rushed to punish, and again I deemed them worthy of pity and spared them. And he threatens to bring common punishment upon both young and old, and men and women, since all in common loved lawlessness, and those deemed worthy of the priesthood, along with those who dared to foretell false things. And he speaks also of the things dared by these. (14)

And they healed the crushing of the people's wound for dishonor, despising me, and saying: "Peace, peace." Then, by way of question: "And where is peace?" When it was necessary, he says, to treat the passions with harsher remedies, they wore them down with the promise of peace. Where, then, is the fulfillment of their words? For instead of peace they see utter destruction. And he shows also the excess of their shamelessness. For having been put to shame, he says, as though they had foretold false things, they do not endure to blush. For this is what he says: 15. Nor, as being put to shame, were they ashamed, and they did not know their dishonor. But nevertheless, he says, they will pay the penalty in time for what they dared. "For in the time of their visitation they will be weak, says the Lord." From this he teaches also the disobedience of the Jews, and proclaims beforehand the calling of the Gentiles. 16. Thus says the Lord: Stand on the roads, and see; ask for the everlasting paths, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find sanctification for your souls. Many are the roads—the holy prophets; but the truly good way is our Lord himself; for we hear him saying: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." Each of the prophetic ways, however, leads to this one; for Moses the lawgiver also points this out, saying: "The Lord our God will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers, like me," and the rest. And David the king and prophet, and indeed also Isaiah, and Micah, and Ezekiel, and each of the prophets points out this way.

And just as there is one road, the one leading to the greatest cities, which we are accustomed to call the royal and kingly road, and onto it certain paths from villages and fields feed in, so there is one road leading to the Father, the only-begotten Son of God; and, as it were, certain paths—the blessed prophets—lead onto this road those who choose to travel by them. The prophetic word therefore commands the Jews to search out the prophetic roads, and through them to learn the good road, and to walk in it. But they contradict, as is their custom, and do not do what is commanded. For he says, "They said: We will not go." Nevertheless he offers them another exhortation. 17. I have set watchmen over you; hear the sound of the trumpet. Again he calls the prophets watchmen; for he also says to Ezekiel: "I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel." And he calls the preaching of the apostles a trumpet; and those called watchmen foretold this as well; but nevertheless the Jews again contradict, and say outright, "We will not hear." Having therefore shown their contradiction, he foretells the obedience of the Gentiles. 18. Therefore the nations heard, and those who shepherd the flocks among them. He calls shepherds those who lead them, and not only those deemed worthy of spiritual leadership, but also the kings and the

rulers; for these also received the divine proclamation. Thus too did the divine apostles Barnabas and Paul: for having entered a certain synagogue and spoken at length with the Jews, then perceiving their disobedience they said: "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the end of the earth." The outcome therefore corresponds to the prophecy. Here, however, the prophetic word threatens the disobedient Jews with a punishment suited to their contradiction; and it also forbids the worship according to the law. Why do you bring frankincense to me from Sheba, and cinnamon from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not pleased me. But if even while the law prevailed these things were considered superfluous, the Jews have raged in vain, after the cessation of the law busying themselves with the superfluities of the law as though they were necessary. And again he foretells the weakness to which they were yoked, not only opposing servitude, but also appearing defiled to all. From here he transfers the prophecy to the Babylonian, and to the kings who campaigned with him, and recounts their strength, and their full armor, and the harsh and beast-like character of their mind. And he also speaks of their cowardice. For, he says, our hands were paralyzed, distress seized us, pangs like those of a woman giving birth.

And he urges them not to go out beyond the cities, since the enemies are stationed before them. And he urges Jerusalem to put on sackcloth, and to cast dust upon their heads, and to imitate the mourning for an only-begotten child. Then he enjoins the prophet to see their lawless deeds. 27. For, he says, I have given you as a tester among my people that is shut in; and you shall know when you test their way. This means: You do not grow weary going around many cities and fields; for in Jerusalem all are gathered together because of the war. And he shows him the perversity of their mind. 28. All are disobedient, walking crookedly, as bronze and iron. All are corrupted. This means: counterfeit, having nothing genuine. 29. The bellows have failed from the fire; the lead has failed; the silversmith smelts silver in vain; their wickednesses have not been melted. He calls the pedagogical word a silversmith; fire and lead he calls the punishment itself; and the bellows, the divine utterance through which the punishment is brought. And the craftsmen of silver are accustomed, when they wish to purify the silver, to add lead, so as to consume the counterfeit by means of it. The Master says, then, that I have used every kind of method, wishing to change them, and I have brought various disciplines to bear, and they are incurably disposed. Hence he adds: 30. Call them rejected silver, because the Lord God has rejected them. He has persisted in the turn. No device, he says, has overcome their wickedness; and he says these things, not accusing nature, but the will.

For he is the maker of nature, and he would not have accused what he made; but of their free choice those men are the authors.

CHAPTER 7.

After these things the prophet teaches how he was commanded to stand in the gates of the divine temple, and to bring the prophetic word to all who entered. And this had both counsel and a promise of good things. 3. Amend your ways and your practices, and I will settle you in this place. He also accuses the false prophecy. 4. For do not trust, he says, in yourselves, or in false words; because

they will not help you at all when they say, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord it is. For deceiving them they said, How is it possible for anyone to prevail over the divine temple? But he himself enjoins them not to trust in these words, but to embrace the change of life for the better, and to fear judgments, and to deem worthy of care those who need it, and to cease from their former murder and from the worship of idols. For doing these things, he says, you will not be sojourners, but you will remain in the land of your fathers. But daring the opposite, and walking through every lawlessness, you will reap fruits corresponding to your practices; for I do not look to false repentance, nor do I endure false words; for I see all that is done. "For behold, he says, I have seen, says the Lord." Nor will I endure that the house consecrated to me be a den of robbers. Then from what has happened he confirms what has been said. 12.

Because you went to my house that is in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell there formerly, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. Shiloh is a place situated in the ten tribes; but when the Assyrians made war against them, this place also was destroyed. The Master therefore exhorts them not to trust in the temple, but in the life according to the law. For this reason he adds that both the house will suffer the same things and they themselves will receive the punishment of their brothers. 15. For I will cast you away from my face, just as I cast away your brothers, all the seed of the sons of Israel. And he forbids the prophet also to offer any intercession on their behalf. "For I will not hear you," he says. And teaching that he justly turns away from them, he added: 17, 18. Do you not see what these people do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle a fire, and their women knead fat, to make cakes for the host of heaven; and they poured out libations to other gods, in order to provoke me to anger. They had within raisins and palms and certain other such things, and these they offered to the idols. Concerning these things he also says through another prophet: "And they loved cakes with raisins." He says therefore to the prophet, Do not be vexed, as though you do not persuade me by your intercession. For while you plead, those men provoke me, caring for the worship of demons with one accord. Then he shows that he himself receives no harm from their lawlessness, but they draw destruction upon themselves through it. And he says: 19.

Do they provoke me, says the Lord, and not themselves, so that their faces may be put to shame? And he also states the manner of the shame; for he threatens not only the destruction of men, but also of cattle, and the corruption of plants, and the desolation of the land; and he also forbids the worship according to the law. 21, 22, 23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Gather your whole burnt offerings together with your sacrifices, and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this word I commanded them, saying: Hear my voice, and I will be to you a God, and you shall be to me a people, and you shall walk in all my ways which I command you, so that it may be well with you. And through these things it has also been shown that the superfluous parts of the law were added because of the weakness of the Jews. For since they had learned in Egypt to sacrifice to idols, wishing to turn them away from those things (for through all the prophets he casts them out—but) condescending to their weakness, he says, "Eat meat," instead of, "And casting out the sacrifices, I will not prevent you from partaking of meats. For indeed in the law he declares that those who wish in their own cities or villages to eat meats

to partake, "to sacrifice and pour out the blood upon the earth, and to partake," not as of victims, but as of common meats. For he forbade sacrificing outside the appointed place. For this reason he says: "You shall eat them as a gazelle and a deer," that is, as those things not offered upon the altar. Then he recounts also the disobedience of their fathers, that when I advised these things; 24. They walked in the imaginations of their own evil heart. And he teaches also the fruits that sprang up from this. And they became backward, and not forward. (25.) From the day their fathers came out of the land of Egypt, and until this day. For they were handed over because of their own transgression, sometimes to the Moabites, sometimes to the Ammonites, at other times to the Midianites, and often to the Philistines. And he shows also his own care; for they did not cease, he says, continually conversing with them through the prophets, and urging them to better things; and they continued contradicting, and became worse than their fathers, who contradict those words; but nevertheless reprove them plainly, and say: 25. This is the nation, who did not hear the voice of the Lord their God, nor receive discipline. And the cause of the disobedience is, "Faith has failed, and is taken away from their mouth." Then he urges them to lament, and to take a mourning posture, and to cut off the head, as the chosen people having been rejected. And showing that the wrath is just, he lays bare the greatest name of impiety. 30.

Many, he says, set their abominations in the house in which my name is called upon it, to defile it. This Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, dared; and those after him also emulated the audacity of the impiety. And the divine Ezekiel is a witness—carried in spirit from Babylon to Jerusalem, and declaring that he saw such lawless deeds in the temple; and he accuses them of sacrificing their sons and daughters as whole burnt offerings to demons. "But this," he says, "I did not command them, nor did I intend it in my heart." For he who permitted the sacrifices of irrational animals to be made because of their weakness—how would I have endured to legislate concerning such bloodshed? And the altar of Topheth, he says, is so called after a certain idol. It is interpreted as enclosure, or consumption. And in this place he says that a multitude of them will be destroyed, and will be set out as food and a feast for birds and beasts; and moreover the name will be changed, and it will no longer be called the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the slain; and he foretells that the city will be made desolate of all gladness. Chapter 8.

And that the Babylonians, when they come upon them, will not only hand over the living to slaughter, but will also rage against the priests and kings who died long ago, and having dug up the tombs, they will leave the bones unburied, so that they lie exposed to the sun, and the moon, and the stars. Whose service, he says, they loved, and from these they shall not obtain help. 3. Because they chose, he says, death rather than life. Having said these things and those like them at greater length, again he extends his hand, urging them to repent. 4. Does not the one who falls rise again, and the one who turns away not turn back? Then he punishes those who disobey. 5. Why has this people and Jerusalem turned away with a shameless turning, and they were held fast in their own choice, and did not wish to return? He has clearly taught us that wickedness is a work not of nature but of choice. After this he accuses them of their unrepentant disposition. 6. For they say, he says, There is no man repenting of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? This reasoning becomes that of continual wickedness

For this is what the things that follow show. "The runner has ceased from his course, as a horse sweating in his neighing." But the Syrian interpreted this as follows: "All walk according to their own opinion, as a horse rushing into battle." For having abandoned the divine law, they follow their own reasonings. According to the Greek wording, however, it must be understood that there is no fixed time and satiety of the course; for a horse, using its impulse and its neighing, sweats after toil; but these took no satiety of evils. With this understanding the following also agrees. 7. And the stork in the heaven knew her time; the turtle-dove, and the cricket, and the swallow, the sparrows of the field, kept the times of their coming in; but my people did not know the words of the Lord. From irrational creatures he increased the accusation; for the birds, he says, know the difference of the seasons, and now move here, now there, finding by nature what is needful; but these, having partaken of reason, do not reap the benefit of the law. The stork, however, is a bird; but some say that the kite is called by this name. 8. How will you say, that We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? It is the height of folly not to perceive the awareness of one's own madness, nor to know one's sin when transgressing the law. "In vain was the false line made for the scribes." He often calls the inheritance a line and a measuring-cord; and he says that this is benefited nothing by the letters of the law, because they have loved falsehood. For this reason, he says, those who call themselves wise will be put to shame. 10.

And I will give their wives to others, and their fields to the heirs. He called the enemies "heirs," as those who received dominion over their possession. And he says he will do this because of the common transgression of all, both priests and false prophets, who, promising peace, prevented the people from repenting. And he threatens them also with barrenness of the land, and cowardice, and flight. And he calls the enemies deadly serpents, which, he says, cannot be charmed; for they do not yield to our entreaties. Then he also foretells the captivity. 19. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a far land. Then by way of question: "Is the Lord not in Zion, or is her king not there?" Everywhere, he says, the God of all is present; why then has he given them over to their enemies? "Because they provoked me with their carved images, and with foreign vanities." The cause of these evils, he says, was your conduct contrary to the law, and the impious worship of idols. 20. The summer has passed, and the harvest has gone by, and we have not been saved. By these words he has indicated the long time of the siege, and the seventy-year servitude. And it is fitting for us to make the instruction of these things an occasion of benefit. For whatever was written beforehand, according to the divine Apostle, "was written beforehand for our instruction, that through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope;" which may we obtain in Christ Jesus our Lord; with whom glory is fitting to the Father, and the might, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

BOOK 3. 21. At the crushing of the daughter of my people I was crushed. I was darkened with perplexity; pangs seized me, as of a woman giving birth. The prophet laments both the lawless deeds dared by the people and recounts the calamities brought upon them on account of these. He calls the city the daughter of the people, for they themselves built it; and the crushing, the blow that comes from sin. 22. Is there no resin in Gilead, or are there no physicians there? Why has healing not come up for the daughter of my people? He calls the priests physicians, and figuratively the resin the spiritual teaching. And Gilead was a priestly city; he finds fault, therefore, that although there were priests and legal ordinances, the city persisted in wrongdoing and did not accept repentance.

CHAPTER 9.

For this reason the divine prophet, weeping, asks for a fountain sufficient for his grief, so as to lament night and day the evils of his kinsmen. He also asks for some remote place within, at the edge of the desert, and desires to live there, so as not even to hear the evils dared by the people. For all, he says, dig through one another's marriages, and it is a gathering that dares every lawlessness; for this is what he means by "a gathering of those who set aside the law." 3. And they bent their tongue like a bow. Weaving deceit, spinning slander, plotting against their neighbor; for this is what he says: "Falsehood and not faith prevailed on the earth, because from evils evils went forth." By these words he made clear the unchangeableness of their wickedness; for evils, he says, succeed evils; and the cause of these is neglect of divine things. For this he has added:

And they did not know me, says the Lord.” And showing more clearly the wickedness that prevailed among them, he advises trusting neither friend nor even brother, since both these and those had used deceit and guile, and were stripped bare of truth. He adds to the accusation also usury, as being dared contrary to the law. 6. Usury upon usury, and guile upon guile. And again he mentions the contempt of God. They did not wish to know me, says the Lord. 7. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will refine them in fire, and I will test them. Here he has called war, and the things that grow from it, a refining in fire and a testing. So too the divine David, in the person of those in Babylon: “For you have tested us, O God; you have refined us in fire, as silver is refined in fire.” But those things he said of the order of the pious; for having been refined in fire, they appeared approved; but here the refining in fire exposes what is counterfeit. He goes through also the forms of wickedness, and likens the tongue to a dart, and says that their words are full of guile. For they speak, he says, peaceful things, but devise guileful things. 9. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the Lord; or shall my soul not take vengeance on such a people? For it is absurd for such a judge to leave such great wickedness unpunished. For he has called punishment a visitation; and he has set down “my soul” according to human custom; for the divine nature is certainly not composed of body and soul; for it is uncompounded, and simple, and without form, yet speaks as we are able to hear. Then he exhorts these same people, and the paths and the mountains, to lament the desolation.

For, he says, they are deprived not only of humans but also of cattle and birds. For birds linger in inhabited places, but in the wilderness there is a great scarcity even of these. He threatens both captivity and the desolation of the city, and says that it will become a dwelling-place of dragons. For such beasts, when humans are present, are continually destroyed; but when they are absent, they increase and become more numerous. 12. Who is the man who is wise, and let him understand these things, and the word of the mouth of the Lord be to him? Let him declare to you for what reason the land perished, and was burned up like a wilderness so that no one passes through it. He commands those who have been deemed worthy of divine grace to convict and to teach the causes of the desolation; and he himself also does this, and says to them that they abandoned the law given for salvation, and used vain reasonings, and preferred the worship of idols. 15. Therefore I will feed them with the bread of necessity and give them the water of gall to drink. By these things he has indicated the bitter and grievous life. 16. And I will scatter them among the nations, among whom neither they nor their fathers knew me; and I will send the sword after them, until I consume them in it. By these things he has indicated two

He threatens both captivity and the de[ath]... punishments, the slaughter in war, and life in captivity; for those who escaped the war they led away as captives. And intensifying their fear, he commands that the mourning women be summoned and that they let flow fountains of tears. He also enjoins the women, since there is no longer any place for gladness, to teach their daughters to lament; and he adds the cause of the laments. 29. For death has come up through your windows; it has entered into your land, to destroy infants within, and young men from the streets. He calls the devices of error "windows"; for through them they received error, and the blow brought on through it. And one would not err in calling the senses of the body the windows of the soul—sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch; for through these it is possible for both life and death to enter. For he who looks with self-control reaps life, but he who looks licentiously plucks death; and the truthful tongue procures the soul's salvation, while the lying tongue traffics in destruction; and the rest one may likewise easily understand. 30. Thus says the Lord: And the dead of men shall be a example on the face of the plain of your land, and as grass behind the reaper, and there shall be no one to gather. The things happening to you will be an occasion of great benefit; for this he calls an example. And the phrase, "As grass behind the reaper," shows the unutterable number of the dead; and since there were some among them who boasted in wealth, others in wisdom, and others in bodily strength, he exhorts them not to pride themselves on these things, but on the knowledge of God and just action.

Since they were also proud of circumcision, he humbles their arrogance and shows that very many other nations are also circumcised; and he foretells their future calling and salvation. 25, 26. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will visit upon all those circumcised in their foreskins. Upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon the sons of Moab, and upon all those who cut the hair on their faces, who dwell in the wilderness. The Idumeans, who trace their descent from Esau, were circumcised according to the law given to Abraham; and the Ammonites and Moabites, being neighbors, emulated their kinship; and those descended from Ishmael and Keturah were themselves also circumcised according to the ancestral law. These, then, he calls those who cut the hair on their faces; for they are accustomed to pluck out the hairs of their cheeks. The Egyptians were taught circumcision by the people's dwelling among them. And he joined Judah to them, humbling their pride. But in what follows he brings a greater accusation against them: "For all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, and every house of Israel is uncircumcised in their hearts." He teaches, therefore, both the ancient Scriptures and the benefit of spiritual circumcision, and the formlessness of physical uncircumcision. For he did not accuse the uncircumcised nations, but the Jews, who were circumcised in body but had an uncircumcised heart. Chapter 10.

2. Thus says the Lord: Learn not the ways of the nations, and be not afraid of the signs of heaven. He calls the ways of the nations the ancient error; and astronomy and astrology he has called the signs of heaven, which he does not permit them to follow, but rather to trust in the Master of heaven. And he ridicules the manufacture of idols, and says that some are made of wood, others of gold and silver, and that they need a hammer, and nails, and the other tools; and that they need craft, and the hands of those who know these things; and that silver is mined from one place, and gold from another. And Tharsis he calls Carthage; and this silver is especially praised; indeed even now the lovers of wealth seek the African. These things, then, having such a nature, it is not right to reverence; for they can neither help nor harm. Having thus shown the idols to be ridiculous, the prophet weaves a hymn to the God of all things. "How is there any like you, O Lord? Great are you, and great is your name in power." 7. Who will not fear you, O king of the nations? Here he has destroyed the pride of the Jews. For he did not say: The Lord's portion is his people Jacob; but he has named the God of all things king of all the nations, foretelling the knowledge of God that will come to the nations. "For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, how is there any like you, O Lord?" Then again he brings the gods of the nations into the middle, and shows that they have their substance from craft and matter. And he returns again to the hymn of God. 10.

But the Lord is the true God, the God of the living, and an eternal king. The idols, he says, do not live; but God is both the provider of life and the God of the living and an eternal king. "At his wrath the earth shall be shaken, and the nations shall not endure his roaring." So also the blessed David says: "He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble." Then he commands those who are called gods: 11. Gods, who did not make the heaven and the earth, let them perish from the earth and from beneath this heaven. For it is proper to God to create, not to be created by another. If, then, the Son is created, he is not God; but if he is the creator and maker of all things, he is truly God; for the prophet says the following things also about him: 12. The Lord who made the earth in his strength, he himself set upright the inhabited world in his wisdom, and in his understanding he stretched out the heaven. These things are proper to God, not to be fashioned by another. 13. For he provides rain, and produces the crashes of thunder, and brings up clouds from the end of the earth. For he lifts up the sea water as he wills, and by this forms the clouds. "He made lightnings for rain." For these are significant of rain. "And he brought out winds from his treasuries." His treasuries are his will. "For he himself spoke, and they came to be; he himself commanded, and they were created;" and, "All things that the Lord willed he did, in the heaven and in the earth." The true God, then, is the creator of all these things.

But most people have fallen into irrationality, and some make gods for themselves, while others worship what is made by these. He also foretells the cessation of their error; for having said, "15. Vain are the works that are mocked," that is, the idols, he added, "In the time of their visitation they shall perish." For the apostolic preaching utterly destroyed the memory of these things, and we see the fulfillment of the prophecy. "16. Such is not the portion of Jacob; for he who formed all things, he is his inheritance, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name." You, he says, were not taught this error; for from the beginning I chose you, and deemed you worthy of my peculiar care. "17. He gathered your substance from outside, dwelling among the chosen." Having called the patriarch from the land of the Chaldeans, he brought him to Palestine, and having freed his race when it was enslaved in Egypt, he led it out. This, then, the prophetic word also declared: "He gathered your substance from outside, dwelling among the chosen," that is, having chosen you out from the other nations, he bestowed on you the chosen land. "18. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will trip up those who dwell in this land in affliction, and I will press them hard, so that they may be convicted." If they were running well, they would be directed aright. But since their course is harmful, they are darkened, so that running to destruction they may cease. "19. Woe was found at your destruction; grievous is your wound." He calls sin "destruction," and "woe" the punishment.

The punishment, he says, followed your wickedness, and you received a painful blow; then, in the person of the city, he composes a lament, teaching her what words she ought to use in bewailing her transgressions; and he says: "Truly this is the wound, and it has come upon me." That is to say, The blow of sin has become for me the cause of my evils. 20. Your tabernacle has been brought to misery; it is destroyed, and all your curtains have been scattered. He calls "tabernacle" not only the divine temple, but also the houses, the towers, and the enclosures. "My sons and my sheep have gone out from me, and are not; there is no place of my tabernacle, nor a place of my curtains. I have become desolate of all things at once. He speaks also of the teachers of wickedness. 21. For the shepherds have acted foolishly, and have not sought God. He calls kings and priests "shepherds"; for both these and those became the cause of the error. The history of Kings and Chronicles teaches these things more clearly. "Therefore all their pasture did not understand, but they were scattered." Here he calls "pasture" not the grass, but the flocks; and he says that the folly of the shepherds became the cause of the wandering of the sheep. 22. A voice of hearing, behold, it comes, and a great shaking out of the land of the north, to appoint the cities of Judah for destruction, and a bed of sparrows. He calls "sparrows" the great Libyan birds, which most people call ostrich-sparrows; for this creature too loves solitude. Then the prophet teaches who it is that leads Nebuchadnezzar. 23. I know, Lord, that the way of man is not his own;

Neither shall a man walk and make his way straight, and direct his course. That man, he says, would not have rushed against us without your will, Master; and even if he had rushed, he would not have accomplished what he wished, since your right hand provides for us; for I know what Sennacherim suffered. But we beseech you, do not exact from us the penalty for that man's impiety either, but discipline us yourself, and bring upon us a fatherly discipline; for this is what he says in what follows. 24, 25. Discipline us, Lord, but in judgment, and not in wrath, so that you may not make us few. Pour out your wrath upon the nations that do not know you, and upon kingdoms that have not called upon your name. For they have devoured Jacob, and consumed him, and laid waste his pasture. It is clear, then, both from what has been said and from what is added, that the words "I know, Lord, that a man's way is not his own" neither subject our freedom of will to a natural slavery, nor place our affairs under the necessity of fate; but they plainly teach us how the Master God holds the rudders of the whole world, and wisely steers, and supplies good things, and disciplines justly, when after great long-suffering he sees them persisting in wickedness.

CHAPTER 11.

After this he enjoins that all the people be told: 3, 4. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers on the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. This he also added when legislating in the Law; for he said: "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the Law, to do them." And he promises both there and again here that he will deem worthy of all his care those who keep the divine commandments. He also reminds them of what was said to their fathers, and of their disobedience. "For they turned away their ear," he says, "and each man walked in the uprightness of his own evil heart." By "uprightness" here he does not mean correctness, but the wickedness that followed in succession in evil; for they did not turn away from it, but walked in it continually. "And I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they did not do." For he delivered them over to various punishments; at one time they served the Ammonites, at another the Moabites, and at another time strangers. 9, 10. And the Lord said: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah, and among those who dwell in Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their former fathers, who did not wish to hear my words. "A conspiracy has been found" stands for: they are bound together and entangled with their fathers, and they walk in their fathers' path; for he signifies this also through what follows.

And behold, they themselves walk after foreign gods, to serve them. And they do these things, transgressing the covenant that was given to them. For this reason I will surround them with all kinds of calamities, and I will not deem them worthy of pity when they lament; nor indeed will they obtain any help from the gods whom they serve. And he speaks also of their multitude. 13. For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the exits of Jerusalem, they set up altars to shame, places of sacrifice for burning incense to Baal. Because of the excess, then, of their impiety, he prevents the prophet from offering intercession on their behalf. 14. For do not pray, he says, for this people, and do not think fit to entreat in petition and prayer on their behalf; for I will not listen to you in the time when they call upon me, in the time of their affliction. For it is in that very punishment that they offer their petitions; for this reason also the prophet David gives assurance, saying: Let us come before his face with confession. But here he shows the insuperable nature of her impiety. 15. What has the beloved done in my house, an abomination? Both things make clear the intensity of the impiety—both being called "beloved" and setting up the images of non-existent gods within, in the divine temple. Do not prayers and holy meats remove your evils from you? Or will you escape by these? Clearly the prophetic word and statement has taught us that the Master seeks a good deed; for this also the divine David cries out: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; but a body you prepared for me. And again:

For if you had desired sacrifice, I would have given it; you will not be pleased with whole burnt offerings. The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise." And since he called her beloved, he speaks again also of her other appellation. 16. "A beautiful olive tree, fair to look upon, the Lord called your name." He applied this appellation with a view to fruitfulness, urging it on. Thus he also often named her a vine. "At the sound of her circumcision fire was kindled against her." Since he called her an olive tree, he also makes mention of purification; for he calls purification circumcision; thus also the Lord in the holy Gospels says: "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit is cut off and cast into the fire." —"Great is the affliction upon you; her branches have become useless." For they were unwilling to bring forth good fruits; and teaching that it is not the Babylonian who is strong, but that he himself brings punishment upon her, he added these things as well: 17. "And the Lord, the God of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you, instead of the wickedness of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah; because they made this for themselves, to provoke me to anger by burning incense to Baal." He himself, he says, your planter has cut off your branches; but you are the cause of these things, having sprouted not useful but poisonous fruits. And the prophet teaches through what follows what sort of things they will dare against him, and against the Master Christ. For in him those things too were foreshadowed. 18. "O Lord, make it known to me, and I shall know." That he speaks not only of the things that happened against him, the prayer bears witness; he did not need revelation in order to see the things then happening.

For they came upon him; but the revelation shows beforehand the things that are to come. "Then I saw their practices." 19. But I, like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know. The "I did not know" fits the prophet, as one who did not expect the painful things; he did not attend closely to the Lord's promises, but having heard, "I have set you in this day as a fortified city, and as an iron pillar, and as a bronze wall," he supposed that he would in no way be tried by gloom. But the divine word did not promise this, but that you shall be stronger than the painful things: "For they shall fight against you," it says, "and they shall not be able against you; because I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord." But to the Lord Christ the word is fitting in another sense. For just as, it says, the lamb led to slaughter does not know what it will suffer, and follows those leading it, having accepted the passion. "Because they devised a device against me, saying: Come, let us cast wood into his bread, and let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall no longer be remembered." This does not fit the prophet at all; for how could wood be cast into bread? But to the Lord Christ the word of the prophecy is very much appropriate; for he called his own body bread: "For the bread," it says, "which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." This bread they nailed to wood, thinking to extinguish his memory. Then the prophet: 20. But you, Lord of hosts, who judge just things, who test kidneys and hearts, may I see the vengeance from you upon them.

because I have revealed my cause to you. "Kidneys," as we have often said, he calls the thoughts, since the desiring faculty, being in the kidneys, often stirs up the reasoning. Not without purpose, however, did God permit the prophet to experience sorrows; but since he had often undertaken to offer intercessions on behalf of the lawless, wishing to persuade him not to consider himself humane but the treasury of goodness harsh, he permitted the uprising to take place; and he, having grieved exceedingly, implores God to judge righteously and to exact penalties from the impious. And the Master accepts the supplication, and gives the answer, and threatens punishment, and says that some will be slain in war, and others will be destroyed by famine.

CHAPTER 12.

But again the prophet, beholding the prosperity of those who live with wickedness, implores to be taught the cause of this. 1. You are righteous, O Lord, that I will plead with you; nevertheless I will speak judgments with you. I know, he says, precisely the justice of your verdict; nor do I think it improper to bring a question to you. "Why is the way of the impious prosperous, all who transgress transgression have prospered?" 2. You planted them, and they took root; they bore children, and produced fruit. Through these things he indicated their prosperity; but through what follows he indicated their godless mind, meaning: "You are near to their mouth, and far from their kidneys." In their words alone, he says, do they offer address to you; for from their thoughts they have cast out your remembrance. 3. And you, O Lord, know me, you have seen me, you have tested my heart.

For you know not only what is visible, but also my thoughts that escape notice. "Gather them together as sheep for slaughter, and sanctify them for the day of their slaughter." By "sanctify" he means "set apart." For the one who wishes to be sanctified sets himself apart; therefore the Syrian also has rendered "prepare" instead of "sanctify." 4. How long will the land mourn, and all the grass of the field be dried up because of the wickedness of those who dwell in the land? Beasts and birds have vanished, because they said, "God will not see our ways." Because of their lawlessness the land has remained desolate, O Lord; for they suppose that you do not look upon them, nor see the things they dare to do. 5. Your feet run to evil, and they will exhaust you. How will you prepare yourself upon horses, and in a land of peace you have trusted? The Syrian interpreted this as follows: "Running with foot soldiers, you were defeated," and how will you be able to stand against horsemen? What he means is this: the neighboring enemies—Moabites, Ammonites, Idumeans, and foreigners—waged war on foot; and often you were defeated fighting against them. How then, he says, will you be able to stand against the Babylonians, who are drawn up on horses? According to the Greek interpretation, it must be understood thus: that the course you ran because of your wickedness has exhausted you and stripped you of strength; and being deprived of vigor and strength, how will you be able to stand and array yourself against those who wage war with very many horses? I have set forth both meanings, offering to those who will read the choice of the better one. How will you do in the swelling of the Jordan? The Syrian spoke thus:

How will you cross the Jordan when it is in flood?" Figuratively he called the multitude of the enemy army a river in flood; and he reminded them also of the events in the time of Joshua the son of Nun: that when I cared for you, you crossed that river in flood. 6. "For even the house of your father, and those who dealt treacherously with you, even they cried out after you; and these very men have gathered together against you." For many, as is likely, even from the ten tribes that had already been taken captive, were campaigning with the enemies. "Do not trust that they speak good things to you." Such was Rabshakeh, using the Hebrew tongue and blaspheming against God. Having said these things in between, the prophet takes up the prophecy concerning the Master, and foretells the utter destruction of the Jews, and says in the person of God: 7. "I have abandoned my house; I have left my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of its enemies." He shows his own goodness, and by convicting them of their abomination he teaches: for he himself uses affectionate words, and calls the hostile one his beloved soul; but she does the works of enemies and plotters; for what follows makes this clear. 8. "My inheritance has become to me as a lion in the thicket." For instead of a bride she became a beast, and devoured the bridegroom. "She gave her voice against me." The Gospels teach the truth of the prophecy; for we learn from there that they cried out, "Away, away, crucify him." —"Therefore I hated her." He showed the justice of the punishment. 9. "Is my inheritance to me a hyena's cave? Or a cave round about her?

In the preceding interpretations, he called the temple a cave of robbers because of the lawlessness of those who served in it; but here he calls it a cave of a hyena, not only the city but also the regions around it, that is, Judea; and again he accuses the lawlessness that was committed against him. For to me, he says, it became a cave of a hyena. Then he foretells its final destruction. "Go, gather against it all the beasts of the field, and let them come and eat it." For when the Romans received dominion over the inhabited world and gathered an army from various nations, some they slaughtered, and others they led away as captives. And he says that the teachers of the law were the causes of the impiety; for he adds: 10, 11. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have defiled my portion; they have given my desirable portion into a desolate wilderness. It has become a desolation of destruction. For the high priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, having deceived the people and crucified the Master, prepared beforehand for the Jews those much-heralded evils. And he teaches this more clearly: "For my sake the whole earth has been utterly destroyed." He means the whole land of Israel; for because of the things done against him

...having happened, at that time their land was made desolate by their enemies; but now they have been utterly deprived of their renowned mother city. "For there is no man laying it to heart." That is, they do not employ pious reasonings. 12. Upon every pass of the desert they came, suffering hardship in the desert. The Syrian interpreted the pass as a footpath; every, he says, desert they filled with footpaths, suffering hardship and fleeing from the enemies; for it is characteristic of those in flight not to use the customary roads. "For the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; there is no peace for all flesh." He speaks both of the things that happened to the Jews, and from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth of Israel. But he also foretells the things brought upon the nations at various times; against whom he also foretells near the end of the prophecy. 13. You sowed wheat, and you shall reap thorns. He enjoins them not to trust in the fruitfulness of the land, but in the good conduct of the land; for he who practices evil reaps thorns from it. "Your lots shall not profit you." Again he called lots the good fortune, in which he advises them not to trust. "You were put to shame from your boasting, from reproach before God." The things you think exalt you, that is, wealth, power, these will fill you with shame when you are judged before God. For having enjoyed his gifts, you repaid him with the opposite. 14. Thus says the Lord concerning all the wicked neighbors, the shepherds who touch my inheritance, which I divided to my people Israel.

The Idumaeans, and Moabites, and Ammonites, and Philistines were always bitterly and hostilely disposed toward the Jews; they rejoiced, then, when they saw the calamities that had been brought upon them. For this reason he foreteaches them about the coming restoration of the Jews. And he calls their rulers "shepherds." Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, and I will cast out the house of Judah from their midst. (15) And it shall be, after I have cast them out, that I will turn back and have mercy on them, and I will settle each one in his inheritance and each one in his land. By these words, having foretold the return that took place in the time of Cyrus and Darius, he also foreteaches what will happen after these things. (16, 17) And it shall be, if they diligently teach my people my way, to swear by my name, "As the Lord lives," just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. But if they do not turn back, I will utterly pluck up that nation with plucking up and destruction, says the Lord. He also spoke of the complete rejection of the nation of the Jews. "For I will utterly pluck up that nation with plucking up and destruction, says the Lord." Chapter 13.

After these things the prophet is commanded to buy a linen loincloth, put it around his waist, and hide it by the river Euphrates, and he immediately fulfilled what was commanded. And after very many days had passed, he was ordered again to bring the loincloth; and he did again what the Master commanded him. And taking it in his hands, he found it ruined and useless for every use. Then he hears the Master saying: Thus I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the pride of Jerusalem, this great pride. This evil people, who do not wish to obey my words, and who walk in the uprightness of their own evil heart, and who walk after foreign gods, to serve them and to worship them; and they shall be like this loincloth, which shall no longer be used for anything. Through these things he signifies the stay in Babylon; for the Euphrates cuts through the middle of that city; and by the Euphrates, in the cleft of the rock, the loincloth was ordered to be hidden; and he calls Babylon the cleft of the rock; but there the people were useless, no longer being called the people of God, nor conducting themselves as their own, nor performing the services according to the law; but they were useless, like that ruined loincloth. However, through what follows, he also interprets the use of the loincloth. For just as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I clung to myself the house of Israel, and all the house of Judah, says the Lord, that they might become for me a named people, and a boast, and a glory; and they did not hear me.

He made clear the excess of his goodness through what was said, and taught the manner of the union, and that he himself wished to make them conspicuous and notable, but they through their transgression drew upon themselves reproaches. Thus also, having made his prophecy through deeds, he again foretells through another image what will happen. Jer 13:12-13. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Every wineskin will be filled with wine. And it shall be, if they say to you, "We do not know, will we not know, that every wineskin will be filled with wine?" And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am filling all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit as sons of David on his throne. Then he says: And the prophets and the priests, and all the people, with drunkenness. And teaching what the drunkenness is, he added: Jer 13:14. And I will scatter them, a man and his brother, and their fathers and their sons together, says the Lord. And showing also the unchangeableness of his anger, he added: "I will not spare and I will not pity, and I will not have compassion on their destruction," meaning "on their being destroyed." Drunkenness, then, he called the punishment; for those who fall into the greatest calamities resemble those who are stupefied, unable even to lament because of the excess of the suffering. Jer 13:15. Hear, and give ear, and do not be lifted up; for the Lord has spoken. Cease from your audacity and your mad arrogance; receive what is said as from God. Jer 13:16. Give glory to the Lord our God, before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains.

Anticipate," he says, "the time of punishment." The divine Apostle also counsels this: "So then, while we have time, let us work what is good." — "And you shall wait for light, and there shall be the shadow of death, and you shall be placed in darkness." For in that very punishment, though you entreat, you shall not obtain kindness. 17. And if you do not listen, your soul shall weep in secret because of the face of insolence; and weeping it shall weep, and your eyes shall bring down tears, because the flock of the Lord has been crushed. The phrase "shall weep in secret" hints at the excess of evils; for while enslaved to the enemies, you will not even dare to weep openly, but you will do this in hiding. He also exhorts the king and the rulers to lament the changes of affairs; and he reminds them of what has already happened. 19. The cities toward the south were shut up, and there was no one to open. Judah was carried away captive, it completed a complete captivity. Enslavement. For Sennacherib enslaved many cities of Judea; and these things, he says, they endured, paying the penalty for the offenses they committed. And he commands Jerusalem to see the multitude of the enemies coming from the north, and he adds: "Where is the flock that was given to you, the sheep of your glory?" Instead of, the multitude of the inhabitants. 21. What will you say when they visit you? That is, the enemies. "And you also taught them lessons against yourself, for your beginning." For when warred against by the Syrians, they called the Assyrians to alliance, when they ought to have sought the providence of God. "Pangs shall seize you, like a woman giving birth." He made clear the magnitude of the pain. 22.

And if you say in your heart, "Why have these things happened to me?" Because of the abundance of your iniquity your hind parts have been uncovered, to make a mockery of your heels. Such exposure puts to shame those who endure it. He says, then, "Because you were stripped bare, did not your transgressions and these calamities give birth to them for you?" 23. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, and the leopard its spots, then you also will be able to do good, having learned evil. True, then, is the saying that custom is a second nature. For by long habit I have wholly compounded things of the will with things of nature. For this reason he threatens that he will scatter them like dry sticks, carried hither and thither by a whirlwind. He also states the abundance of her sins: licentiousness, and recklessness, and the worship of idols; for he calls her alienation "porneia." Hence he added: "On the mountains, and in the fields, I have seen your abominations." Then, in a lamenting tone: "Woe to you, Jerusalem, because you were not cleansed after me! How long still?" For though you dared many transgressions, you were unwilling to make use of repentance; but I will no longer be long-suffering, but will bring on the punishment. It is better, then, to live according to the divine laws; but since we are human and prone to stumble, it is fitting to use the medicines of repentance, and through these to propitiate the Judge, and to escape the experience of the threatened punishments. May we also remain without experience of them, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be the glory and the might, with the all-holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

VOLUME 4, CHAPTER 14.

1. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. He brings upon them every kind of discipline, in order to check the course of their wickedness. And the prophet recounts the lamentations and the wailings that came about because of the lack of rain. For he says that both the springs and the wells and the reservoirs formed from the rains had failed; and the barrenness of the earth followed, and the cattle—not only the tame but also the wild—partook of the suffering. 5, 6. For the deer, he says, gave birth in the field and abandoned their young, because there was no herbage. Wild asses stood in the glens, they drew in the wind like a dragon. This too men do when they are thirsty, cooling the heat with the breezes of the winds. Then the prophet offers supplication and calls to mind their common sins, and by this propitiates God. "For to you," he says, "we have sinned." 8. O expectation of Israel, you save in time of troubles. For from you we all await mercy. "Why have you become like a stranger in the land, and like a native who turns aside to lodge?" The Syrian rendered "like a native" as "like a wayfarer." Why, he says, do you overlook us and seem like a stranger who despises the dwellings, as belonging to others, in which he dwells, and like a wayfarer passing by and taking no care for the things along the road? 9. Will you be like a man sleeping, and a man who cannot save? Neither does the sleeper hear those who call upon him, nor can one bound by weakness come to the rescue. Instead of: Do not defer your mercy; for you are able, and you are awake, and you are present everywhere, and you stand by all. For this is what he added:

And you are among us, O Lord, and your name has been called upon us; do not forget us. He also sets forth the judgment given by God: 10. They loved to move their feet, and they did not spare themselves. That is, into the path of wickedness; for this is what the following words also teach. And God did not delight in them. He says that he will also make mention of their iniquities, and will exact penalties from them for the impieties they committed. He also enjoins the prophet not to make prayers on their behalf, and says that he will neither pay attention to their fasting, nor accept the sacrifices offered by them, but will deliver them to famine and pestilence and slaughter. Having heard these things, the prophet brings forward the declarations of the false prophets, and says that they foretell the opposite, and promise peace to them, and an abundance of good things. But again the Master says to the prophet that they foretell false things, serving not divine words, nor having become instruments of grace, but speaking whatever they wish. For I did not command them, he says, and I did not speak to them, because they prophesy to you false visions, and divinations, and omens, and the inclinations of their own heart. He calls dreams visions, and omens the observation of birds; and divinations those that come from the operation of demons; and inclinations of the heart, the deception that comes from their own reasonings. Then he threatens these very men with death from sickness, and slaughter in war. For they shall die, he says, by a diseased death, and shall perish by the sword and by famine. And together with these, those also who followed their words.

But they will not even be deemed worthy of burial, since all alike fall into the same evils. Yet again the Lover of mankind, having foretold the gloomy things, urges them to use the medicines of repentance. "Bring down, he says, tears in your eyes day and night," because of the greatness of the evils that will be brought upon you. And the prophet recounts the tragedy of what has happened. 18. If I go out into the plain, behold, men wounded by the sword; and if I enter the city, behold, the pain of famine. He adds to these also the evils of captivity. "For prophet and priest have gone into a land which they did not know." And the blessed Daniel the prophet, and the divine Ezekiel, both priest and prophet, and besides these very many other priests, shared in the gloomy things. For God, providing for those impious men, sent along with them prophets as it were tutors and teachers, so that they might not turn aside completely into impiety. Having recounted these things, the prophet transfers his words to God: "Have you utterly rejected Judah, or has your soul departed from Zion?" In place of, your providence; for he has set down "soul" in a human way, for the clearer manifestation of the prophecy. And he says that the blow brought upon them is incurable, and he adds, saying thus: 20, 21. We know, Lord, our sins, the iniquities of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. Cease for your name's sake. In place of: Stop being angry with us; and do not look upon us, but upon your name. For we are called your people. "Do not destroy the throne of your glory." He has thus named Jerusalem.

And the Lord said in the holy Gospels, forbidding oaths, "Neither shall you swear by Jerusalem, for it is the throne of the great King;" for there he made his own manifestation. And he reminds them also of the covenant made with the fathers, and that from idols there is no help; but he himself supplies the rain brought down from above; for the creation is not without a pilot; for this is what he says: "And the heaven shall give its fullness; are not you yourself, Lord, and we shall wait for you? For you made all these things."

CHAPTER 15.

To these things again the Master answers, that "If Moses and Samuel stand before my face, my soul is not with them." And through these words he comforts the prophet. For do not think, he says, that I reject your intercession out of contempt for you; for I would not have yielded even to those when they pleaded, who wrought so many wonders. Yet he mentioned them both as elders and as having often persuaded him on behalf of the people. And

For Moses the Great, when God said concerning the making of the calf, "Let me alone, and in my wrath I will destroy them," brought a most earnest supplication, and reconciled the Master to those who had sinned; and indeed Samuel also did this same thing, and brought down abundant rain in the season of summer. Then he commands the prophet to dismiss the people who were standing by. 2. But if they say to you, he says, "Where shall we go out?" you shall say to them, "Thus says the Lord: As many as are for death, to death; and as many as are for the sword, to the sword; and as many as are for famine, to famine; and as many as are for captivity, to captivity." For I will subject them to these four calamities. And besides these, the dead shall become food for beasts and birds. 4. And I will deliver them into distresses to all the kingdoms of the earth. He foretells also the things that will happen after the return, and the things that will befall in the time of the Macedonians, and the utter destruction that will be brought upon them by the Romans. However, he teaches that the first things happened because of the audacity of Manasseh's impiety; but the judge is not unjust, nor does he exact the penalties of others, but as those who shared in the impiety and eagerly cooperated with the wicked king, he subjects them to the foretold evils. 5. Who will spare you, Jerusalem? And who will fear for you? Or who will turn back to ask after your peace? In place of: You will seem to all men to have suffered justly. For men are accustomed, whenever they see one of those living in extreme wickedness being punished, not only not to grieve with him, but even to rejoice with those who were wronged, as having been delivered from that man's wickedness. 6.

You have turned away from me, says the Lord; you shall go backward. What you have done, you shall suffer; and the phrase "you shall go backward" he has set in place of "you shall be humbled." "And I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will destroy you, and I will no longer spare them." For I will no longer employ my former longsuffering. Then, teaching that he is compelled to punish against his will, as it were grieving with them he says: "In the gates of my people they were bereaved of children; I destroyed my people because of their wickedness, and they did not turn back." They themselves drew destruction upon themselves, being unwilling to cease from wickedness. He says that because of the slaughter of the men the widows also were multiplied, and again for the same cause the mothers were deprived of their children. "For I brought," he says, "upon the mother of young men misery at midday; I cast upon her suddenly trembling and haste." "The one who bore seven was emptied, her soul grew faint." He has tragically depicted the calamity in various ways, in order to teach the stubborn and to persuade them to abandon their former impiety. "The sun set for her while it was still midday." For to those who mourn, the light too is called darkness; having said these things and others like them, the prophet laments and wails: "Woe is me, mother, that you bore me a man who is judged and disputed in all the land; I have not profited, nor has anyone profited me; my strength failed among those who curse me." The Syrian interpreted "I have profited" as "I have owed"; he says, then, that Neither have I owed, nor have I lent; and I have acquired many enemies, who continually revile and curse. For counsels, as a rule, are wont to give birth to disobedience.

Under the Greek interpretation, however, it must be understood thus: that I am worthy of Lamentations, having been brought into this life to no purpose; for neither did I benefit anyone, nor did I receive benefit from others; but I receive only curses from those who hear the prophecies. 11. "May it happen, Lord, when they are being set straight, if I did not stand before you in the time of their evils, and in the time of their affliction, for good toward the enemy." Hear them, he says, as they curse; often I brought supplications to you on their behalf. Then again from the person of God: 12, 13. "If iron shall be known, and a bronze covering. Your strength and your treasures I will give for plunder, as a recompense for all your sins in all your borders." Do not trust, he says, in bronze coverings, nor in iron ones; for I will hand over all your wealth to the enemies, and this shall be the repayment for your sins. And he adds to these things also the captivity that has taken place. Having foretold these things, the prophet endures danger from those who cannot bear to hear, having attempted to kill him, and he entreats the God of all, and says: 15. "Remember me, Lord, and visit me, and acquit me from those who pursue me." In place of: Do not hand me over to those who pursue me; for the innocent man is set free. "Do not take me into your long-suffering." Some copies have "cast me"; that is, by dealing forbearingly and postponing to punish those who do wrong, you grieve us who are wronged. "Know if I received reproach concerning you." 16. By those who set aside your words. For your sake, O Master, I have fallen into present griefs.

For in conveying your words I became hostile. "Bring them to an end, and your word will be to me for gladness and for joy of my heart, because your name has been called upon me." Since they think I prophesy falsely, but attend to the promises of the false prophets as though they were true, confirm my words by deeds, and in this way gladden me. Then he says that he shared neither table nor laughter with them, but esteemed the fear of God above all things; and because of their wickedness and because of the punishment, he continued in distress. But immediately the Master gladdens him, and says: 19. "If you turn, and I restore you, you shall stand before my face; and if you bring out the precious from the worthless, you shall be as my mouth." No small reward, he says, has been kept in store for you from me for having undertaken this labor; for if you turn any of those who are led astray, you will partake of great boldness before me. For this is what "you shall stand before my face" makes clear. And if you change any of the impious, and persuade them to choose what is better, you shall be likened to my mouth; for I by my word made the things that are, and you by your word will change the workers of wickedness to virtue. And he promised him again the unconflicted and unconquered, and reminded him of the promises made from the beginning. CHAPTER 16.

He enjoins him not to marry nor to beget children, since both those who beget and those who are begotten will be handed over to famine and pestilence and slaughter and slavery. And he urges him neither to rejoice with those who rejoice nor to grieve with those who grieve. "For I have taken away," he says, "my peace from this people, says the Lord, and my mercy and my compassions." 6. And great and small shall die in this land. He says that they will not even be deemed worthy of burial, nor will lamentations be made over them in the customary way, nor will those who mourn be granted any consolation; and he threatens the deprivation of every kind of gladness for the city, so that no voice be raised, neither of marriages nor of banquets nor of the other things, as many as make life pleasant for human beings. And when they inquire, he says, and say, "For what reason have we fallen into these evils?" remind them of their ancestral impiety, and teach them the things they have dared, and that they have sinned more grievously than their fathers, not conducting themselves according to my law, but following their own reasonings. For this reason: 13. I will cast you out from this land into a land which you did not know, you and your fathers, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, who will not give you mercy. Since you love gods that do not exist, I will drive you out of your ancestral land and hand you over to your enemies, so that with them you may serve your error. He promises, however, also the return; and he says that at that time no longer the former benefits

They will bring forward God and sing his praise, and they will not recount the deliverance from the slavery of the Egyptians, but all will marvel at the return from Babylon. 16. Behold, I will send many fishers, says the Lord, and they will fish for them; and after these things I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them upon every hill, and from the crevices of the rocks. By these words he has made clear the inescapability of the punishment, that the enemies, imitating fishers and hunters, will catch them all in their net, and will bring under their own power those who try to escape notice in the mountains. 17. For my eyes are upon all their ways; they were not hidden from my face, and their iniquities were not concealed before my eyes. I see all things; nothing that happens escapes me. 18. And I will repay to them first double for their iniquities and their lawless deeds, by which they defiled my land with the dead bodies of their abominations. As a lover of humanity he calls the punishment of sins double; for according to the account of the just man, they paid a penalty no longer according to their deserts. And he calls the slaughter of their sons and daughters, which they offered to idols, dead bodies of their abominations. Having thus shown the impiety of the people, he foretells the change of the nations. 19. The Lord is my strength, and my help, and my refuge in the day of evils; to you nations will come from the ends of the earth, and they will say, Our fathers acquired false idols, and there is no benefit in them.

Those who were deemed worthy of such great care and enjoyed both legal and prophetic teaching continued in impiety and lawlessness; but the nations, who did not enjoy this providence, but only heard the apostolic proclamations, fled from error and came to the light of the knowledge of God. And recalling the earlier proverb, I cry out to you: 20, 21. Will a man make gods for himself, and they are not gods? Therefore behold, I will make known to them my hand in this time, and I will make known to them my power, and they shall know that my name is Lord. I foretell to them, he says, long beforehand the things that are to come, and I pre-instruct them in my strength, that through cheap and few men I will accomplish their transformation.

CHAPTER 17.

Having thus foretold the transformation of the nations, he again accuses the impiety of the Jews. 1. The sin of Judah is engraved in writing, with a diamond nail, on the breast of their heart, and on the horns of their altars. Nothing is stronger than conscience; for the letters fixed in it are firm; for even if all men testify good things to their own conscience, the conscience of liars does not endure evil things, but is pricked and pierced, and brings forth an impartial verdict. This also he says here, that your deeds also accuse you, and your conscience bears witness with them. And he reminds them also of the groves and the altars, and the error that took place in them, and he threatens to hand over all their wealth together with their idols to the enemies. And he foretells also the desolation of the city.

After this he calls him wretched and thrice-wretched, and subjects to curses the one who has revolted from God and trusts in human power; and he likens him to certain fruitless and worthless plants, which grow in the wilderness and obtain no care at all. 6. For, he says, he is like the wild tamarisk in the desert, and he shall not see when good things come. And he shall dwell in salt places, in a desert land, in a salt land, which shall not be inhabited. But the word "in salt places" the Syrian rendered as "in dens"; and through all the things said he has made clear the profitlessness of such gain. And he likens the one who has trusted in God, and compares him to a plant continually watered, and not harmed by the most vehement heat, but always bearing its fruit in season. And he said these things not in vain, but exhorting them not to trust in the aid of the Egyptians, but through the change of their life to draw to themselves the divine favor. 9, 10. The heart is heavy beyond all things; and it is a man, and who shall know him? I am the Lord who searches hearts, who tests reins, to give to each according to his ways, and according to the fruits of their practices. To men, he says, the counsels of one's neighbor are incomprehensible; for the motions of the heart are hidden; but to me the Maker these things too are clear; for I judge not only deeds but also reasonings, and I bring forth an equal and just verdict. Again he has transferred the discourse to the Babylonian. 11. A partridge has called out, she has gathered what she did not bring forth; making his wealth not with judgment. The hunters tame partridges, and through their voice they call together those of the same kind;

But they, running together, fall into the snares. To this he likened the Babylonian, who tries to lord it over all men and gathers unjust wealth. And he foretells also the gloomy things that will befall him: "In the half of his days they shall leave him, and at his last he shall be a fool." The divine Daniel also taught us these things; for he fell into madness and became beast-like and was driven out of the kingdom. 12. A throne of glory exalted. But he was deprived also of the throne. Our high holy place from the beginning; the place of our sanctification. 13. The patience of Israel. But you, he says, Master, our sanctification, the splendor of our place, you have your dominion eternal. You, therefore, we shall await. For you will provide us release from our sorrows; for those who have abandoned you shall be filled with all shame. 14. Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for you are my boast. I bring myself to your providence, and I beseech to obtain salvation from you. 15, 16. Behold, they themselves say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. But I did not grow weary in following after you, and I did not desire the day of man; you know it; the things that proceed through my lips are before your face. They find fault with the slowness of the punishment, and think the prophecy false, since you defer the punishment; but I, not even seeing this insensibility of theirs, wished them to fall into evils; for this is what he says: I did not desire the day of man. 17. Do not become to me a stranger, sparing me in an evil day.

He calls the "evil day" the uprising that arose against him. And he prays to obtain God's care; and that those men be frustrated in their undertakings and put to shame, while he himself be shown to be stronger than their plot. After this the prophet is commanded to go to the royal gates and to charge everyone, both kings and private citizens, not to transgress the law concerning the Sabbath, but to honor this day with rest, and not to emulate the disobedience of their fathers. For if this is done, he says, you will enjoy the fruits of peace, and those who offer sacrifices to God in peace will come running together from every side. But if you transgress the law of rest and bring loads on the Sabbath day, I will deliver not only the gates but the whole city to fire.

CHAPTER 18.

Having thus concluded this discourse as well, he urges the prophet to enter the dwelling of the potter. The prophet does what was commanded, and sees the

a potter shaping some vessel; then, when it had fallen and been shattered, fashioning it anew from above. 4. For it fell, he says, the vessel which he himself was making from the clay, in his hands, and again he made it another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. Having thus shown that the potter has authority over the clay, and fashions it as he wishes, he says to the prophet: Tell them: 6. Can I not do to you just as the potter does, house of Israel? says the Lord. Behold, as clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hands, house of Israel. For just as he can both knead the clay and shape it as he wishes, so it is easy for me both to hand over to punishment and to grant salvation, and to deliver those in prosperity to calamities, and again to grant prosperity to those in misfortune. For what follows makes this clear. 7, 8. At one moment I will speak against a nation and a kingdom, to uproot them and pull them down and destroy them. And if that nation turns from its evils, I will also relent from the evils which I planned to do to them. Do not, he says, despair of salvation; for even if I condemn a nation and threaten the ultimate punishment, but see their repentance, I do not bring on the punishment, but extend mercy. And if again I promise an abundance of good things, but they despise it and embrace wickedness, I will not fulfill the promise of good things. Knowing this, then, he says, do not despair of the better things, but bring forth repentance and reap salvation. 11.

For behold, I, says he, am fashioning evils against you, and I am devising a device against you; let each one turn away from his evil way, and make your practices and your ways better. But he, being loving toward humanity, brought such remedies; yet they did not receive the physician's instructions. 12. But they said, says he, We will be strengthened, for we will go after our backslidings, and each one will do the things pleasing to his own heart. He calls "backslidings" the way of the worse. 13. Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask among the nations, Who has heard such very dreadful things, which the virgin daughter of Jerusalem has done? He calls her a virgin, not as though she were not unchaste, but as one adorned and priding herself on her beauty. 14. Shall breasts fail from a rock, or snow from Lebanon? Or does water turn aside, borne violently by the wind? The springs, says he, gush forth unceasingly, Lebanon has its snow continually, the water borne by the rush travels a worn path; but these have abandoned the way of the law, and there is no memory of my commandments among them; for what follows makes this clear. 15. For my people forgot me, they burned incense in vain, and they are weak in their ways by eternal cords, so as not to set foot on a path that has no way for travel. They devised, says he, tracks not worn from the beginning, and these they declared to be eternal ways; that is, they continue always using these. For this reason I will deliver their land to desolation; for this he added. 16. To appoint their land for destruction, and for an eternal hissing.

The hissing signifies the desolation of the city; for those who saw the city prospering and then behold it laid waste are accustomed to hiss, and by this to indicate the calamity. 17. As a scorching wind I will scatter them before the face of their enemies. They shall enjoy no sparing, he says, from their foes, but they shall hate them, just as one turns away from a scorching wind. I will show them a neck and not a face in the day of their destruction. For it is characteristic of captives and of slaves to bow down to the ground, so that their neck rather than their face is more visible. And it is possible to understand it in another way; for of those who have turned away we see not the face but the neck; therefore the word of God signifies their turning away.

Such then are the things threatened against them; but let their sufferings become medicines for us, so that, disciplined by the punishments of others and conducting ourselves according to the divine laws, we may have the Lawgiver propitious unto the ages. Amen. Volume 5. 18. And they said: Come, and let us devise a device against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Three things bear witness to him, the greatest: priesthood, prophecy, and understanding; and of each gift they know the power and the truthfulness. And though they ought to yield to what is said, they not only contradict but also contrive death. For come, he says, let us strike him with the tongue, and we will not listen to all his words. So greatly did the very words of God grieve them.

But the phrase "Let us strike him with the tongue" means "Let us weave slander against him." Perceiving these things, the prophet entreats God to become his judge, and reminds him of the many intercessions he had often brought on their behalf. Then he frames his speech in the optative mood, and foretells the death that will come from famine, and the slaughters that will be brought about by the enemies, and the other things that happen in wars.

CHAPTER 19.

Having said these things and things similar to them, he is commanded to take an earthenware jar and go out to the burial ground, with the priests and the elders of the people, and again to threaten the city with destruction, and to remind them of the worship of idols. He also foretold the evils that would be produced by the siege, and the scarcity of necessities; and after all these things, to shatter the jar and say: 11. Thus I will shatter this people and this city, just as an earthenware vessel is shattered, which can no longer be healed. He also threatens the royal house with overthrow, and the whole city with desolation, since they were offering libations and sacrifices to idols not only publicly but even in their own houses. And the very place of the idols will become a burial place of the slain. "For they will bury in Topheth, because there is no place to bury." And by this he indicated the multitude of the slain. And when the prophet returned, the Master commanded him again to present the prophecy to all in the consecrated court, and to prophesy to that city, and to all the subject cities and villages, desolation.

CHAPTER 20

1. When Pashhur heard this word—and he happened to be the chief priest—he not only maltreated the prophet but also imprisoned him. 2. For it says, Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah and cast him into the cataract. By this he means a certain underground place; and the temple built by Solomon had many such chambers. But bringing him out on the next day, he heard him again saying: "Did not the Lord call your name Pashhur, but rather a sojourner round about?" And he says that not only he but also his friends shall be taken captive as spoils of war, and shall be put to death after the captivity. And indeed he threatens that all the people shall be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar. Having said these things at greater length, then, the prophet is vexed at the insurrections continually raised against him, and, confident in the purity of his conscience, he uses boldness toward the Master, and says: 7. You deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived; you prevailed, and you were stronger. I fled, he says, from the prophecy; I said I was too young, and

Was it not enough for this service, that you also promised to make me stronger than those who war against me, and to show me like a bronze wall and an iron pillar? And now I have become a laughingstock; for this is what he says: "I became a laughingstock every day; I continued being mocked." 8. For with a bitter word I will laugh, I will call upon faithlessness and misery, because the word of the Lord became to me a reproach and a derision every day. What stings the prophet is not the miseries and outrages done to him, but the mockeries dared against the divine oracles. 9. And I said: I will surely not name the name of the Lord, and I will surely not speak in his name. This means: I will surely not prophesy, nor will I surely bring the prediction to those who disobey God. "And it became in my heart as a burning fire, and flaming, and confined in my bones, and I am exhausted on every side, and I cannot bear it." The divine Paul also endured this at Athens when he was silent; for, it says, the spirit of Paul was constrained as he observed that the city was full of idols. The prophet suffers this too; for the prophetic grace constrained him though he did not wish to speak. Then he recounts how not only were they maltreating and outraging him, but they were also devising another plot, trying to deceive him and to turn him away from God. For they said, he says: "Let us all, his friends, rise up against him; watch his intent, whether he will be deceived, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our vengeance from him." Who could worthily lament the devices of their wickedness?

The prophet, however, does not trust in himself, but sings of the divine assistance, and says: 11. The Lord is with me as a mighty warrior. And he teaches also the victory that comes from divine assistance: "Therefore they persecuted, and could not prevail; they were greatly ashamed, because they could not perceive their own dishonor, which shall not be forgotten throughout eternity." Then he asks again that God become judge, and exact from them penalties worthy of their undertakings; and being grieved, and greatly pained, and displeased with the present life, he first sings of the God of all things, and then curses the day of his mother's pangs. 13. For sing, he says, to the Lord, praise him, because he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked. He places the hymn first, in order to cast out every occasion for blasphemy. Then he says: 14, 15. Cursed be the day on which I was born; the day on which my mother bore me. And cursed be the man who brought good tidings to my father, saying: A male son has been born to you; let him not be glad. Men are accustomed, when they grieve exceedingly, to lay hold of those standing by, and to squeeze them with their hands; and sometimes also to dash their hands against them, since the pain compels it; this the prophet also has suffered. For out of the exceeding pain he laid hold of the day, a thing that has no substance, and of him who announced the birth to the father. And this was not even a particular person; and it is likely that no one even announced it. And he adds that it would have been better for me to die in my mother's womb, and to come forth dead, than to fall into these manifold calamities. CHAPTER 21.

1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Baasiah the priest. This is a different Pashhur; for this one was the son of Malchiah, whereas the one who was accused was the son of Immer. One must know, however, that the prophecies are not arranged in order; for here he prophesies the events under Zedekiah, but a little later the events under Jehoiakim and Jeconiah, who reigned before Zedekiah. Zedekiah, then, while besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, entreats the prophet to ask God for help; and the prophet is commanded to foretell these things: 4, 5. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am turning back the weapons of war in your hands, with which you will fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, who have shut you in from outside the wall; and I will bring them into the midst of this city. And I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with an uplifted arm, with fury and anger and great provocation. Your weapons, he says, will be of no avail to you, since I am commanding the enemies and arraying myself with them against you. Then he says that he will deliver all things over to famine and death and captivity, and along with these Zedekiah the king himself to the foot-soldiers and spear-bearers, and they will slaughter some and lead others away as captives taken by the spear; and to the people he enjoins that these things be said: 8. Behold, I have set before your face the way of life and the way of death. Then he teaches that the one who remains in the city and arrays himself against the enemies will walk the way of death.

But the deserter who goes over to them will enjoy his life. For he pronounced this sentence against the city, that it be delivered to the fire of the enemies. And after threatening these things, he exhorts the king and the rulers to take thought for justice, and to render an equal verdict of justice, and to come to the aid of those who are wronged, and in this way to check the punishment being brought upon them. 13. Behold, I am against you, the one who dwells in the valley of Sor, the plain, says the Lord. Instead of: lying between mountains in a hollow place; for thus the Syrian also interpreted it; and he means Jerusalem; for it has this position; and Sor is interpreted as "enclosure," and again as "rock"; and this city is enclosed by mountains. "Those who say: Who will strike us? Or who will come into our dwelling place?" He teaches their audacity and their vain boldness. Then he threatens that he will burn up its thicket with fire. And he calls the multitude of the dwellings and of the inhabitants a thicket.

CHAPTER 22. 1. After these things he commands the prophet again to go down to the palace, and to suggest to the king himself and to the rulers that they judge righteously, and render an undefiled verdict, and earnestly take thought for widows who lament and for those deprived of fathers, and abstain from bloodshed, and flee their former impiety; and to those who do these things he promises peace and prosperity and permanence for the kingdom. 5. But if you do not do these things with these words, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desert. He has added the oath for the confirmation of what has been said.

But the phrase "I have sworn by myself" shows the oath-taker's incomparability; for the divine Apostle also says: "Since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he said, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord." And he adds these things to the threat as well: 6. Thus says the Lord against the house of the king of Judah: Gilead, you are to me the beginning of Lebanon. He calls Jerusalem Lebanon, and Gilead the palace within it. There is also a place in Lebanon so named; and there is another Gilead in the land of Israel; but I think that now the palace is likened to the one in Lebanon, because of the impiety that was dared in them; for which reason he threatens them with utter desolation. 7. For I will sanctify, he says, destroyers against you. "I will sanctify" is used in place of "I will set apart"; for he says this also through Isaiah: "They are sanctified, and I lead them," in place of "set apart"; and I have set down the account concerning this at greater length in the interpretation of the divine Isaiah. "A man and his axe, and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

Since he mentioned Lebanon, he continued with the figurative expression; and he calls the rulers "cedars," those who pride themselves on their strength. Then he foretells the desolation of the city, and that those who see it will marvel, and when they inquire into the cause of the calamities, they will learn of the wickedness of the inhabitants, and that because of them the city received this sentence from God. And he urges them not to lament the dead, but the living, as one being deported and handed over to bitter slavery. 11, 12. Thus says the Lord concerning Shallum, son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father. He went out from this place. He will not return any more; in the place where they deported him, there he will die, and he will see this land no more. Shallum—not, as some have supposed, Jehoiakim, but Jehoahaz. For this one reigned instead of Josiah his father; and Pharaoh Necho led him captive to Egypt; for Jehoiakim was slaughtered in Jerusalem; and the prophet himself teaches us this, as does the fourth book of Kingdoms, and the second of Chronicles. 13. As one who builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without judgment. He does not blame the building, but the building unjustly; for he teaches this also in what follows: "With him his neighbor works for nothing, and he will not give him his wages." 14. You built yourself a house of proper measure. He has not used "proper measure" of something small, but of that which has the proportion of length and breadth and height.

For the greatness of the house is testified by what follows: "Spacious upper rooms, with windows set apart, and paneled with cedar, and painted with vermilion." 15. Will you reign because you rival the cedar? He called Josiah a cedar, since he possessed the enduring strength of kingship; but he reproaches Shallum, who is also named Jehoahaz, because he imitated the height of the cedar but did not emulate its incorruptibility, but rather despised his kingdom; and teaching that God does not reproach the building but the impiety, he added: "Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?" 16. He judged the cause of the humble and the poor, and then it was well with him; is not this to know me? says the Lord. This resembles the Gospel saying: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." For he said this here too: that to hate injustice and to defend those who are wronged is proof of knowing me for the one who does these things. 17. For behold, your eyes are not upright, nor is your heart good. Then he accuses him of greed and of murder; and in addition to these, of slander, through which he also carried out murders. 18. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah. Here the prophecy is set down in order; for after Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim reigned, being himself also a son of Josiah the king; and he foretells his destruction as well. "They will not lament for him, 'Alas, lord,' and, 'Alas, brother,

Nor shall they lament him, "O brother! Alas, brother!" 19. He shall not be buried; having rotted, he shall be cast out like dung beyond the gate of Jerusalem. And from this it is clear that Shelem is not Jehoiakim; for concerning that one he said, "He shall not see this land, but shall die in the deportation." But concerning this one, that "like dead birds he shall be cast out beyond the gate." Histories teach these things more clearly. Then he gives assurance to the city, and [tells it] to run to Lebanon and Bashan (these are mountains), and likewise to the region beyond the sea, and to cry out, and to bewail its own calamities, because it enjoyed no assistance from the idols; for he calls them lovers. 21. I spoke to you in your transgression, and you said, "I will not hear." For I advised her when sinning to depart from error, and you did not accept the counsel. "This is your way from your youth, because you did not hear my voice." From the beginning and from the start you practiced disobedience. 22. Wind shall shepherd all your shepherds. Both the wicked kings and the false prophets. "Your lovers shall go into captivity." For the enemies took even the idols themselves, being silver, as is likely, and gold. "Then you shall be ashamed and dishonored by all who love you." For you shall not obtain help from them. Then he reminds them of their former prosperity. 23. Dweller in Lebanon, nesting in the cedars. Instead of: being conspicuous, and notable, and celebrated by all.

You shall groan when pains come upon you like a woman in labor." Having joined these things to the prophecy concerning Jehoiakim, he foretells similar things also to Jeconiah. He was the son of Jehoiakim, and the grandson of Josiah; and having reigned only three months, he was led away captive with his mother, and ended his life in Babylon. 24, 25. As I live, says the Lord, even if Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, become a seal upon my right hand, I will pluck you from there. And I will deliver you into the hands of those seeking your life, and into the hands of those whom you fear from before their face, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. Since, not imitating the piety of their forefathers, they prided themselves on their kinship with them, bringing forward Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, and David, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, men distinguished in virtue, for this reason the God of all casts out the boldness of Jeconiah, and says: Even if he should become a ring, and be placed on my right hand, I will pluck him from there, and deliver him to the enemies. Let him not, therefore, take courage in the virtue of his forefathers, since he did not emulate their virtue. 26. And I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another land, into a land where you were not born, and there you shall die. And he has added that they shall not return to the land which they desire. He also states the cause of the punishment. "This man is a despised and rejected vessel." He accuses him of levity and readiness regarding unlawful words. 28.

And Jeconiah was dishonored, as a vessel for which there is no need. For he was cast out, both he and his seed, and was cast out into a land which he did not know. Then, since those who had received the words were not listening, he directs his words to the lifeless earth. 29, 30. Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord: Write this man down as a man cast out, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, ruling over Judah. He showed the end of the kingdom of the Jews; and the word is true; for let no one bring Zerubbabel into the middle; for neither did he reign over the people, but was a leader of the people and a general; and the Lord, deriving according to the flesh his lineage from him, did not sit on the Davidic thrones, but "above all rule, and authority, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come." The prophecy, then, possesses truthfulness. Chapter 23.