Commentary on Jeremiah 1 part 1/12

For my part, I supposed that the prophecy of the divine Jeremiah stood in no need of interpretation.

But since many of the zealous have charged me to interpret this book also, saying that the greater part of readers are ignorant of the prophecy's meaning,

having implored the divine grace to be my fellow-worker, I shall attempt to fulfil what has been enjoined.

I shall take care to be as concise as possible;

and of the clearer passages I shall make a paraphrase in summary,

while those requiring fuller treatment I shall be diligent to expound.

First of all, however, I shall state the subject-matter of the prophecy.

King Josiah had for his father the impious Amos, and for his grandfather Manasseh, who had become the teacher of his father's impiety; but he himself, walking the opposite path to theirs, became a member of the company of the godly.

He had sons who did not emulate their father's virtue, but imitated the impiety of their forefathers.

Foreseeing these things, therefore, the God of all in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign appointed the prophet, and commanded him to foretell the calamities that were to come upon the city and the people.

He continued to prophesy these things not only for the remaining time of Josiah, but also under Jehoahaz, who being Josiah's son succeeded to the kingdom, and under Jehoiakim, who was this man's brother and Josiah's son;

and indeed also under Jeconiah, who was Jehoiakim's son and Josiah's grandson;

and likewise under Zedekiah, who also himself had Josiah for his father;

so that the whole time of the prophecy was two and forty years, lacking a few months.

He foretells also the siege that came about at the hands of the Babylonians, and the famine that fell upon them, and the overthrow 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 moreover the manifold punishments of very many other nations as well.

'The word of God which came to Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests, who dwelt in Anathoth.'

His descent he drew from his lineage,

but the gift he received from the grace above.

He states also the time of the prophecy.

'For in the days,' he says, 'of Josiah son of Amos king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.'

He makes mention also of those who reigned thereafter, down to the final siege.

Then he teaches also the things spoken by the God of all.

'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:'

'Before I formed you in the belly I knew you;'

'and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you.'

For this knowledge went before it.

For He knew, and then He sanctified.

Since He knows all things before their coming to be.

The word 'I sanctified' He has here set down in the sense of 'I set apart.' Then He states also the use for which He chose him.

'I have appointed you a prophet unto the nations.' For not only the affairs of the Jews, but also those of the other nations, does he foretell.

The prophet recognized the One conversing with him;

for which reason he names Him by the more authoritative title.

'I am He who is.' He imitates also the reverence of Moses, saying that his youth was not fit for prophecy.

But He drives out from him also his fear.

'For be not afraid,' He says, 'of their presence;'

'nor be dismayed before them.'

Then He teaches also the ground of the courage.

For having commanded them to make disciples of all the nations, and foreknowing, as God, how the reasonings arise in their hearts, how was it possible for eleven poor men, destitute of eloquence, to transform the whole inhabited world?

He resolved the doubt and cast out the fear, saying:

'And lo, I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age.' This same thing He also said here to the prophet, that 'I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.' And the deed confirms the word.

'For He stretched forth His hand,' he says, 'and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me:'

'Behold, I have put my words into your mouth.'

'Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow, and to build up, and to plant.'

For he foretold not only the captivity of the Jews, but also the freedom that would be granted by Cyrus.

For which reason 'to root out' and 'to overthrow' He has set down for the grievous things,

while 'to build up' and 'to plant' for their opposites.

After this He shows him a rod of walnut, or, according to the Syrian and the Hebrew, of almond.

For thus both the one and the other named the rod;

'You have seen well, for I am watchful over my words to perform them.'

By 'watchfulness' He calls the rousing up unto punishment, and by 'sleep' He calls long-suffering.

'Awake, why do You sleep, O Lord?' And again:

'And the Lord awaked as one that sleeps.' And the almond rod hints at the swiftness of the punishment;

for before the other trees this tree comes into flower.

But according to the Seventy, it is to be understood thus:

The fruit of the walnut has indeed a bitter and rough husk;

but the edible part is hidden beneath it.

So too instruction has things grievous and painful in its outward appearance;

but the things that follow are profitable.

Then He shows him also a caldron heated from beneath, and its face from the face of the north; and He calls Jerusalem a caldron,

and by 'fire' the Babylonian, for He names him 'from the north;'

for Babylon lies to the north of Jerusalem;

and the divinely-inspired Ezekiel likewise names Jerusalem a caldron,

and its inhabitants 'flesh.'

'For behold,' He says, 'I call together 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 her walls, and against all the cities of Judah.'

And showing the justice of what came to pass, He adds:

'And I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, in that they forsook me, and sacrificed to strange gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.'

But what is more senseless than this impiety? And what more just than this punishment? For they, forsaking their own Maker, deified their own things made.

But He, having borne long with them for a very great while, stripped them of His own grace.

But stripped of this, they became slaves to unholy men.

He commands him to gird up his loins, that is, to array himself in a well-girt and manly fashion.

And by calling to mind the promises already made, He casts out his fear.

He declares that He will make him like an iron pillar, a brazen wall, and a most strongly fortified city, and render him invincible—not only against the priests of the Jews and the rulers, but even against the kings themselves and the whole multitude of their subjects.

He promises him not peace and repose, but struggles and victory.

For they shall fight against you, He says, but they shall not prevail against you;

because I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord.

This same promise He made also to the Church;

for to the most divine Peter He said:

Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. He did not say, 'They shall not make war';

but rather, 'Though they war, they shall not prevail.' For it is the adversaries who procure the victory.

After this he is commanded to say to those who dwell in Jerusalem:

I remembered toward you the mercy of your youth, and the love of your espousals;

in your following after the Holy One of Israel in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown, says the Lord.

By 'youth' he designated the beginning of the calling of Judea;

for at that time they themselves, being oppressed in Egypt, groaned aloud;

but He had compassion, and using Moses as His minister, set them free;

and the phrase 'the love of your espousals' He set down in irony;

for the Jews never had perfect love toward their Benefactor.

For they loved Him, he says, with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to Him;

but their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.

Which is as much as to say, 'From thence I chose you before the other nations, and you were designated my people.'

So too the blessed Moses said:

And the Lord's portion became His people Jacob, the lot of His inheritance Israel. — The firstfruits of His produce. For before all others He chose him.

For which reason also He said to Pharaoh:

Israel is my firstborn son; and through another prophet He speaks thus:

As a grape-cluster in the wilderness I found Israel, and as an early fig upon the fig tree I found their fathers. — All that devour him shall offend; I will bring evils upon them, says the Lord. For those who warred against Israel did not war as though ministering to God;

but as though able to prevail over God Himself.

So too 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 very reason He threatens punishment upon them also.

And being God all-holy, He says to lawless men:

Wherein have I sinned? What wrong have I done? Speak, convict me.

'What ground of accusation had your fathers, that they forsook me their Benefactor, and served idols made by hands? And yet I delivered them from the bondage of the Egyptians;

and I led them through a trackless land, and in a waterless wilderness I bestowed upon them a stream of abundant waters, and I brought them into the promised land, mother of fruits of every kind;

yet, not even after enjoying these things did you acknowledge your Benefactor;

but you imitated the abomination of your fathers.'

Then, dividing them by each rank, He brings forward His accusation.

'Where is the Lord?' This is the most unholy thing of all:

that those who should have been guides became the leaders in error.

And they that hold to the law knew me not. Here He accuses the scribes and teachers, as being those who expound the law, yet are the first to transgress it.

And the shepherds acted impiously against me. Thus He named the kings.

And the prophets prophesied by Baal. He calls the false prophets 'prophets,' just as He calls those that are no gods 'gods.'

And they went after that which is unprofitable.

He showed the excess of their madness;

for having forsaken the Giver of all manner of good things, they served the pernicious idols.

And I will contend with the sons of your sons.

'I will judge you and your descendants';

but rather, 'I will contend both with you and with them';

and by 'Chettim' He calls Cyprus and the islands round about it, and through these the western regions;

and by 'Kedar,' those who dwell in the wilderness toward the rising sun;

and through these He hints at the eastern regions;

and He teaches that those peoples followed the customs of their fathers, and the gods they had been taught to reverence;

but these people denied the true God.

not because the elements are endowed with reason;

but because these things, as embracing the whole creation, the blessed Moses called to witness.

For he said: Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak;

and let the earth hear the words from my mouth.

For my people have committed two evil things:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of the water of life, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

By 'broken cisterns' He designated the idols.

For the cistern is made by hands, and has no water welling up of itself;

but it receives that which is born of the clouds and gathered from this side and that;

and if it be cracked and broken, it at once loses what has been collected from heaven.

Such is the nature of the idols.

For it borrows its substance from matter and craftsmanship;

and the beauty it derives from these, time takes away;

but the true God is the fountain of ever-flowing life.

'That Israel was freed from the bondage of the Egyptians,' He says, 'all men knew;

and that he lived as a distinct polity, enjoying my providence, was plain to all.'

For he was conspicuous and greatly regarded.

What then was the cause of the captivity? Why did they become an easy prey to the kings who came against them? For he called the kings 'lions.'

And these things you have suffered not only at the hands of the Assyrians.

'The sons of Memphis and of Tahpanhes have known you and mocked you.'

They who once endured those far-famed sufferings for your sake,

whom in the end I delivered over to the depth of the sea.

Then he teaches the cause of their weakness:

'Has not your forsaking of me done these things to you? says the Lord your God.'

Then he also indicates the beginning of their apostasy.

'In the time when I led you in the wilderness.' For as soon as you were delivered from the Egyptians, you forsook me and deified the calf.

'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 the rivers?' When they were warred upon by the Syrians, they called the Assyrians into alliance;

but when the Assyrians made war against them, they fled for refuge to the Egyptians.

For by 'Gihon' he means the Nile.

'Your apostasy shall chastise you, and your wickedness shall reprove you;'

'and know and see that it is a bitter and evil thing for you to have forsaken me, says the Lord your God.'

'And I have taken no pleasure in you, says the Lord your God.'

'Me,' he says, 'you did not call into alliance, but those others.'

Something of this sort those also suffered who crucified the Saviour;

for having denied him, they said that they had no king but Caesar, and for that very reason he handed them over to Caesar.

'For of old you have broken your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said:'

Your practices are of the old fashion;

for from of old you broke the yoke of the law and followed the customs of the lawless nations.

And you preferred the altars and the sacred groves to the polity according to the law.

'But I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true.'

And not without purpose has he added the word 'wholly';

but since there were among them godly men, both the divine prophets and those who followed them;

it is as if to say: I wished you all to be such, for I cared equally for you all.

'How are you turned into bitterness to me, you strange vine?' If it had remained true, it would not have been strange;

but since it was changed into bitterness, it is no longer called true, but strange.

So also the great Moses said:

'For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their branch of Gomorrah;'

But since they outraged the divine husbandry and were turned into bitterness, and instead of grapes brought forth thorns, Christ, who according to the flesh is from them, calls himself the true vine, saying:

'I am the true vine;' and those who have believed in him he called the branches.

'Though you wash yourself with nitre and heap up much soap for yourself, you are stained in your iniquities before me, says the Lord.'

By 'soap' he means the cleansing agents that grow from the earth;

and by these he teaches figuratively that the sprinklings prescribed by the law do not effect release from sins;

but sincere repentance and a turning away from wickedness do.

After this he exposes her shamelessness.

'I am not defiled, and I have not gone after Baal, have I?' Then he shows the openness of her impiety:

'See your ways in the burial-place, and know what you have done.' By 'burial-place' he means the region of the tombs.

For in that place they burned their sons and daughters to the idols.

'Late did she wail with her voice.' He has put 'late' for 'tardily';

after the experience of her sorrows, he says, she gained a perception of her lawlessness.

This too the prophet says afterward, showing the ten tribes lamenting and saying:

'After the captivity I repented.' 24.

'She widened her ways over the waters of the wilderness.'

By 'waters of the wilderness' he named the idols, as things that make desolate and are the cause of utter destruction.

the false prophets pretended to foretell.

For the phrase 'was inspired' he has applied to the false prophets.

'She was given over; who shall turn her back?' For since God has given her over, who will avail? So also through the great Moses he says:

'All who seek her shall not grow weary;'

'in her humiliation they shall find her.' For they became easy to subdue, having embraced impiety.

After this he teaches that, though often counselled to depart from her harmful course, she brazenly resisted to his face, openly confessing her apostasy.

'But for this reason,' he says, 'I will clothe them all together with shame—both kings and rulers and priests and those who prophesy lies;'

'and they shall be likened to a thief caught in the very act, and blushing deeply.'

For the gods fashioned out of wood and stone they called fathers and begetters;

'but to me they gave their backs, and turned away from me as from an enemy.'

'And in the time of their calamities they shall say:'

'Arise and save us.' This especially is of the utmost shamelessness—that while enjoying good things they are sick with ingratitude,

but when in want, they ask to partake of these things.

'For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal.'

Having thus shown the honour paid to gods that are not, and their multitude and their weakness, he gently rebukes the ungrateful ones:

'Why do you speak against me? You have all been impious, and you have all transgressed against me, says the Lord.'

He also reminds them of the chastisements brought upon them.

'In vain have I smitten your children;'

Neither when benefited did you acknowledge your Benefactor, nor when chastened did you turn away from impiety.

'And I even delivered over to slaughter those responsible for the error.'

'Have I become a wilderness to the house of Jacob, or a barren land, that my people has said:'

'We shall not be lorded over, and we will not come to you?' He says these things ironically.

'Am I, then,' he says, 'like the idols? Have I, like them, brought forth for them no good fruit, and is it for this reason that they have run away from serving me?' And he passes over to another image, and says that he has cared for every bride of the world and taken thought for every maiden's breast-band;

but the people that had been called neglected their guardian.

Then again, ironically (verse 33):

'What good thing wilt thou yet devise in thy ways, that thou mayest seek love?' What further, He says, dost thou wish to add to the things already spoken, as though to procure My affection toward thee?

Not so. None of these things moves Me to love; on the contrary, it works hatred.

For thou hast not only run aground upon impiety, but hast also dared bloodshed.

'For in thy hands,' He says, 'was found the blood of innocent souls.'

'And they sacrificed their sons to the demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the graven images of Canaan; and the land was defiled with murder in the blood.'

'Not in the diggings did I find them, but on every oak.' For not as the burglars do this in secret, so did these too attempt to escape notice while transgressing; rather, every hill and every grove received their impiety.

And being shameless and abominable, they even denied the things done openly.

'But let His anger be turned away from me.'

'Behold, I enter into judgment with thee for thy saying,'

'Because thou hast greatly despised the repeating of thy ways.'

For the shamelessness matches the lawlessness.

And there is this further point too, namely: 'Just as when ye called the Assyrians into alliance ye gained nothing from that aid, so now too, having fled for refuge to the Egyptians, ye shall enjoy no benefit from thence.'

For this He makes clear through what follows.

'And thou shalt be put to shame by Egypt, even as thou wast put to shame by Assur.'

(verse 37) 'For from thence also shalt thou go forth, and thy hands upon thy head;'

It is characteristic of women who mourn to place their clasped hands upon their head.

And the cause of the evils is: 'Because the Lord hath rejected thy hope, and thou shalt not prosper in it.' For hadst thou set thy hope in God, thou wouldst have gathered the ripe fruit of hope;

but since thou didst put thy confidence in men, thou didst fail of thy hope.

After these things He teaches that every woman who departs from her husband and joins herself to another cannot return to her former husband, since the law forbids this;

'but thou, having forsaken Me who was lawfully joined to thee, wast joined to unholy demons;'

then again, having perceived the harm, thou wast returning to Me, and I was not thrusting thee away.

'But if thou thinkest that I say these things at random,' (part 2)

'Lift up thine eyes straight before thee, and see where thou wast not defiled.'

For this He says to her through Ezekiel also: 'And I found thee defiled in thy blood;' and thus too the Syriac rendered it.

And He says in what follows that: 'Not only didst thou receive those who came, but thou also wentest forth seeking them;'

'and like crows thou didst sit beside the ways, awaiting their coming, and thou didst fill the land with pollutions, employing many shepherds in place of one.'

For He called the idols 'many shepherds'; for just as those fathers of falsehood were called gods, having plundered the divine appellation, so also were they named shepherds, having stolen the name of the true Shepherd.

'Thou hadst the look of a harlot, thou wast shameless toward all.' For just as those who sell their beauty scrape all modesty from their brows and offer themselves alike to all;

so didst thou preserve goodwill toward none, but while reaping from Me the bounty of good things, thou wast enslaved to the idols.

But when falling into misfortunes and perceiving the weakness of those idols, thou wouldst seek My help.

'Be Thou to me a protecting God, and a house of refuge to save me.'

'Will it remain for ever?' Meaning: thy falsehood, and the mockery of thy words.

'Or shall it be preserved unto victory?' Or dost thou think by these means to prevail and to conquer? Then ironically:

'Behold, thou hast spoken and done these evil things, and thou hast prevailed.' Meaning: Reckon that thou hast mocked and hast escaped, having dared to transgress in such ways.

And after these things He says that God spoke to him in the days of Josiah the king:

'Hast thou seen what the habitation of Israel did to Me?' Since those were absent (for they were in servitude in Babylon), He teaches the prophet the justice of the punishment.

'She went upon every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and there played the harlot.' Then He shows His own goodness and long-suffering.

'And I said after she had done all these things, Return unto Me; and she returned not.'

Willingly, therefore, she drew destruction upon herself, having neither from the beginning embraced the polity according to the law, nor after the impiety been willing to turn back.

From this point He heightens the accusation against the tribe of Judah.

'Her faithless sister Judah saw her faithlessness, and saw that, for all the things in which the habitation of Israel was caught committing adultery, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorcement into her hands.'

'And her faithless sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot herself also.'

Having beheld, He says, both the wickedness of her sister and the punishment brought upon her because of it, she did not flee the imitation of that wickedness;

but followed in those footsteps of hers.

'And her harlotry became as nothing.'

For she supposed, He says, that she was doing nothing unlawful;

and by 'harlotry' He calls idolatry;

for having forsaken God, who was named their bridegroom, they served the idols.

And she defiled the land with murder, sacrificing her children to the demons;

and she committed adultery with the stone and the wood. He rendered plain the accusation of harlotry.

Then through more words He teaches that she did not abominate her sister's impiety, though she had beheld the utter destruction;

and that the ten tribes have some more excuse than the tribe of Judah, since Judah, having seen the misfortunes of those, persisted in doing the very causes of the misfortunes;

for which reason the prophet is bidden to prophesy to those others.

'For go,' He says, 'and read these words toward the north, and say, Return unto Me, O habitation of Israel, saith the Lord.'

'And I will not set My face against you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not be wroth with you for ever.'

for after the great transgression He seeks only repentance;

and He teaches also the manner of this.

'Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.'

For the beginning of health is the perception of sickness.

And, 'Thou hast poured out thy ways to strangers.' Having forsaken God and Lord and Maker and Benefactor, thou wast joined to strangers;

and who are these? 'Under every shady tree.' He showed the unprofitableness of the error;

for the plants that were made into gods are fruitless.

'But My voice thou didst not obey, saith the Lord.' For in giving the law He said, 'There shall be to thee no other gods besides Me.' (verse 14)

'Return, ye backsliding sons, saith the Lord.'

And He names the apostate ones 'sons,' because of His unspeakable goodness.

'And I will take you, one out of a city, and two out of a family, and will bring you into Zion.'

(verse 15) 'And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, and they shall shepherd you, feeding you with knowledge.'

These things came to pass typically in the case of Zerubbabel.

For they returned under Cyrus the Persian, having as shepherds Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, and Jesus the son of Josedek the high priest;

And piety together with good order adorned them both.

In truth, however, it was after the incarnation of our God and Saviour that this prophecy received its fulfilment.

And He appointed them shepherds according to His own heart—the holy Apostles.

'Simon son of Jonah, do you love Me? Feed My sheep.' And that the prophecy has this meaning, what follows bears witness.

In those days and at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered together unto it in the name of the Lord, unto Jerusalem;

and they shall no longer walk after the imaginations of their evil heart.

But this did not come to pass after the return from Babylon;

for at that time the nations did not forsake their impiety.

After the incarnation of our God and Saviour, the divine Apostles carried the message of salvation across the whole inhabited world;

to Jerusalem all men run together.

Then he teaches that after the return from Babylon the tribes shall no longer be divided asunder, but shall return in one body and possess their ancestral land.

Then the prophet, delighting in these gracious promises, says:

And I said, So be it, O Lord.

Having said these things in between, the prophet brings the divine promise to its conclusion.

For 'I will set you among 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 the nations. Thus did He name the land of promise.

And He named Him the Almighty God of the nations, teaching that He is the God of all and the Maker of all, and that the nations too shall enjoy the knowledge of God, and that the grace of the Spirit shall pass over unto them.

After this He counsels them to acquire toward their Father the tender affection that children have, and to enjoy the divine care.

Then He brings the charge that, like a wife committing adultery and transgressing against her husband, they had played the harlot—not only the ten tribes, but also the tribe of Judah—and had broken their covenant with the Bridegroom;

and He foretells also the repentance of the ten tribes;

for the calamity of captivity had implanted in them an awareness of their transgression.