耶利米書註釋 第 1 章 第 3/12 段

'For I will not hear you,' he says. And teaching how justly he turns away from them, he added:

'Do you not see what these do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Their sons gather wood, and their fathers kindle fire, and their women knead dough, to make cakes for the host of heaven;'

'and they poured out drink offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger.'

These people had within their houses raisins, dates, and certain other such things, and these they offered to the idols.

Concerning these things he also speaks through another prophet:

'And they loved cakes with raisins.' He says, therefore, to the prophet: Do not be vexed, as though you were not persuading me by your intercession.

'For while you entreat, those people, as a whole populace, are provoked, giving heed to the service of demons.'

Then he shows that he himself receives no harm from their lawlessness, but they themselves draw destruction upon themselves through it.

'Is it me they provoke to anger, says the Lord, and not themselves, that their own faces may be put to shame?' He also tells the manner of their shame;

for he threatens not only the destruction of human beings, but also the ruin of cattle and plants, and the desolation of the land;

and he also forbids the worship according to the Law.

'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:'

'Gather together your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh.'

'For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, concerning any matter of whole burnt offerings and sacrifices;'

'but this word I commanded them, saying:'

'Hearken unto my voice, and I will be to you a God, and you shall be to me a people; and walk in all my ways which I command you, that it may be well with you.'

For since they had learned in Egypt to sacrifice to idols, and He wished to draw them away from those practices (for through all the prophets He casts these things out), yet condescending to their weakness, He says, 'Eat flesh,' meaning: 'Even while abolishing the sacrifices, I will not forbid you to partake of flesh.'

to partake — that is, to slaughter and to pour out the blood upon the ground, and to eat it not as sacrificial victims but as common flesh.

For He forbade the performing of sacred rites outside the appointed place.

'You shall eat them as the gazelle and the deer' — that is, like those things which are not brought to the altar.

Then He recounts also the disobedience of their fathers: that, though I gave them this counsel,

'They walked in the imaginations of their evil heart.'

'And they went backward, and not forward.'

(v. 25) 'From the day that their fathers went forth out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day.'

For on account of their own transgression they were delivered up — now to the Moabites, now to the Ammonites, at other times to the Midianites, and often to the Philistines.

And He displays also His own tender care:

for 'I ceased not,' He says, 'continually to address them through the prophets, and to urge them toward the better;'

and yet they persisted in gainsaying, and became worse than their fathers — they who from those very fathers inherit their words of contradiction.

'Yet reprove them plainly nonetheless, and say:'

'This is the nation which hearkened not to the voice of the Lord their God, neither received instruction.'

And the cause of their disobedience is this: 'Faith has failed, and is cut off from their mouth.' Then He bids them to lament, and to take on a mourner's garb, and to shave the head, as of a chosen people now rejected.

And, showing that His wrath is just, He lays bare the greatest instance of their impiety.

'For many,' He says, 'have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.'

This Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, dared to do;

and those who came after emulated the impiety that had been so daringly committed.

And the divine Ezekiel is a witness, who, being carried in the spirit from Babylon to Jerusalem, declared that he beheld such transgressions within the temple;

and he charges them with offering up even their sons and daughters as whole burnt offerings to the demons.

'But this,' He says, 'I commanded them not, neither did it come into my heart.' For He who permitted the sacrifices of irrational beasts on account of their weakness — how could He have endured to legislate concerning such murderous defilement? And by the altar of Topheth He means a certain idol so called.

It is interpreted as 'enclosure,' or 'devouring.'

And in this place He says that a multitude of them shall be slain, and set forth as food and a feast for the birds and the wild beasts;

and moreover that the name shall be changed, and it shall no longer be called the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slain;

and He foretells that the city shall be made desolate of all gladness.

And that the Babylonians, when they come, shall not only deliver the living over to slaughter, but shall also outrage the priests and kings long since dead, and, digging up their tombs, shall leave their bones unburied, so as to be exposed to the sun, and the moon, and the stars.

'Whose worship,' He says, 'they loved, yet from these they shall obtain no succor.'

'Because they chose,' He says, 'death rather than life.'

Having spoken these things, and things like them, at greater length, He again extends His hand, exhorting them to repent.

'Does not he that falls arise, and does not he that turns away return?' Then upon the disobedient He pronounces rebuke. (v. 5)

After these things He indicts their impenitent disposition.

'For they say,' He declares, 'There is no man that repents of his wickedness, saying:'

for this the following words make plain.

'They all go on according to their own will, as a horse rushing into battle.' For, having forsaken the divine law, they follow their own reasonings.

According to the Greek rendering, however, it must be understood that there is neither due season nor satiety in their course;

for even a horse, using its impetus and neighing, after its exertion breaks into a sweat;

but these took no satiety of their evils.

With this thought the following words also accord.

'Even the stork in the heaven knows her appointed time;'

'the turtledove, and the swift, and the swallow, the sparrows of the field, observed the times of their coming;'

'but my people knew not the ordinances of the Lord.'

From the irrational creatures He heightened the accusation;

for the birds, He says, know the difference of the seasons;

and now they migrate hither, now thither, by nature finding what is needful;

but these, though they have been given a share of reason, do not reap the benefit of the law.

Now the 'asida' is a bird;

though some say that the kite is so called.

'How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?' It is the utmost folly not to perceive one's own derangement, nor, while transgressing the law, to recognize one's sin.

'In vain has the lying pen been to the scribes.' By 'pen' and 'measuring-line' He often calls the inheritance;

and He says that this people derives no profit from the letters of the law, because it has loved falsehood.

'For this cause,' He says, 'they shall be put to shame, those who name themselves wise.'

'And I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall inherit them.'

By 'inheritors' He called the enemies, as those who should receive the lordship over that people's possessions.

And He says that He will do this because of the common transgression of all — both of the priests and of the false prophets — who, promising peace, hindered the people from repenting.

And He threatens them also with barrenness of the land, and cowardice, and flight.

And by 'deadly serpents' He calls the enemies, upon whom, He says, no charm can be worked;

'for they do not yield to our entreaties.'

Then He foretells also the captivity.

'Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off.'

'Is not the Lord in Zion, or is not her king there?' Everywhere, He says, the God of all is present;

By these words He has signified the long duration of the siege, and the seventy years' bondage.

But it behooves us to make of their chastisement an occasion of profit.

For 'whatsoever things were written aforetime,' according to the divine Apostle, 'were written for our instruction, that through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope;' which may we attain in Christ Jesus our Lord;

with whom to the Father belongs glory and might, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

'For the breaking of the daughter of my people am I broken.'

Pangs have prevailed over me, as over a woman in travail.

The prophet laments both the transgressions boldly committed by the people and the calamities brought upon them on this account, and he recounts them.

He calls the city 'the daughter of the people,' for they themselves built it.

for they themselves built it up;

and by 'crushing' he means the blow that comes from sin.

Now Gilead was a priestly city.

For this reason the divine prophet asks for a fountain of tears sufficient for his grief, that day and night he might bewail the evils of his kinsmen.

He also asks for some remote lodging within, at the farthest edge of the wilderness, and longs to dwell there,

so as not even to hear of the evils boldly perpetrated by the people.

For all of them, he says, violate one another's marriages, and their assembly is one that ventures upon every kind of lawlessness;

for this is what 'an assembly of the faithless' means. (3)

And they have bent their tongue like a bow.

Falsehood and not faithfulness has prevailed upon the earth, for out of evils have evils gone forth. By these words he showed the unchangeableness of their wickedness;

for evils, he says, succeed evils;

and the cause of these things is neglect of things divine.

And they have not known me, says the Lord. And showing still more plainly the wickedness that governed them, he counsels them neither to trust a friend nor even a brother;

since both these and those employed deceit and treachery, and were stripped bare of truth.

To the accusation he adds usury also, as being ventured contrary to the law.

Usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit.

And again he makes mention of their contempt for God.

They refused to know me, says the Lord.

Behold, I will smelt them in the fire, and I will test them.

By 'smelting' and 'testing' here he has named war, and the things that spring from it.

For you have tested us, O God, you have tried us in the fire as silver is tried. But those words he spoke of the company of the godly;

for having been tried in the fire they were shown to be approved;

but here the smelting exposes what is counterfeit.

For, he says, they speak words of peace, but they devise treacherous things.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; or on a people such as this shall not my soul take vengeance? For it were absurd that so great a judge should leave such wickedness unpunished.

or on a people such as this shall not my soul take vengeance? For it were absurd that such a judge should leave so great a wickedness unpunished.

For he called the punishment a 'visitation';

and the phrase 'my soul' he set down according to human custom;

for the Divine is not composed of body and soul;

for it is uncompounded, and simple, and without form. He speaks in such a way as we are able to hear.

Then he charges these very people to lament also the desolation of the roads and the mountains.

For not only, he says, are they bereft of men, but also of cattle and of birds.

For the birds delight to frequent inhabited places;

but in the wilderness there is a great scarcity even of these.

He threatens also captivity, and the desolation of the city, and says that it will become a dwelling-place of serpents.

For such wild beasts, when men are present, are continually destroyed;

but when men are absent they multiply and become more numerous.

Who is the man that is wise, that he may understand these things, and to whom is the word of the Lord's mouth, that he may declare to you for what cause the land has perished,

and has been burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through it?

He bids those who have been counted worthy of the divine grace to reprove, and to teach the causes of the desolation;

and he himself does this, and tells them that they forsook the law given for salvation, and made use of vain reasonings, and preferred the service of idols.

By these words he has made plain their bitter and grievous life.

And I will scatter them among the nations, which neither they nor their fathers knew;

and I will send the sword after them, until I have utterly consumed them by it.

as their punishment, slaughter in war, and life in captivity;

for those who escaped the war they led away as prisoners of the spear.

And increasing their dread, he commands that the mourning women also be summoned, and that they pour forth streams of tears.

He enjoins the women too, since gladness no longer has any place, to teach their daughters to lament;

and he brings in the cause of the lamentations as well.

For death has come up through your windows;

it has entered into your land, to cut off the infants from within, and the young men from the streets.

By 'windows' he means the devices of error;

for through those they received the error, and the blow inflicted by it.

Nor would one err in naming the bodily senses—sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch—the windows of the soul;

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 wantonly plucks death;

and the truthful tongue procures salvation for the soul, but the lying tongue works its destruction;

and the rest likewise it is easy to perceive.

And the corpses of men shall be as an example upon the face of the field of your land, and like grass behind the reaper, and there shall be none to gather it.

The things that befall you will become an occasion of much profit;

for this is what he means by 'example';

and the phrase 'like grass behind the reaper' signifies the unspeakable multitude of the dead;

and since there were some among them—some boasting in wealth, others in wisdom, and others in bodily strength—he counsels them not to take pride in these things, but in the knowledge of God and in righteous conduct;

and since they also thought highly of themselves on account of circumcision, in order to humble their haughty brow he shows that many other nations too are circumcised;

and he foretells also their coming calling and salvation.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will visit upon all who are circumcised in their uncircumcision.

Upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon the sons of Moab, and upon all who clip the hair about their faces, who dwell in the wilderness.

The Idumeans, deriving their lineage from Esau, were circumcised according to the law given to Abraham;

the Ammonites and the Moabites, as neighbours, emulated this kinship;

those descended from Ishmael and from Keturah likewise were circumcised according to the ancestral law;

these, then, he calls those who shave around the sides of their face;

for it was their custom to pluck out the hair of their cheeks.

As for the Egyptians, the sojourning of the people among them taught them circumcision;

and he joined Judah to them, restraining their arrogance.

But in what follows he lays a still greater accusation against them;

for he did not accuse the uncircumcised nations,

but the Jews, who were circumcised in body yet had an uncircumcised heart.

'Do not learn according to the ways of the nations, and do not be afraid of the signs of heaven.'

By 'ways of the nations' he means the ancient error;

and he mocks the fashioning of idols, saying that some are made of wood, others of gold and silver, and that they require the hammer and nails and the other tools;

and that they need craftsmanship, and the hands of those skilled in these things;

and that the silver is mined from one place, the gold from another.

By 'Tarshish' he means Carthage;

indeed even now those who love wealth seek after the African.

These things, then, being of such a nature, it is not right to hold them in reverent fear;

for they can neither profit nor harm.

Having thus shown the idols to be ridiculous, the prophet weaves a hymn to the God of all.

'Whence is any like unto Thee, O Lord? Great art Thou, and great is Thy name in might.' (7)

'Who shall not fear Thee, O King of the nations?' Here he laid low the presumption of the Jews.

'The Lord's portion is His people Jacob;'

but he named the God of all 'King of all the nations,' foretelling the knowledge of God that would come to the Gentiles.

'For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, whence is any like unto Thee, O Lord?' Then again he brings forward into the midst the gods of the nations, and shows that they derive their existence from craft and matter.

And he returns once more to the hymn of God.

'But the Lord is the true God, the God of the living, and the eternal King.'

And God is both the Giver of life, and the God of the living, and the eternal King.

'Who looks upon the earth, and makes it tremble.' Then he commands them to speak to the so-called gods:

'Let the gods, who did not make the heaven and the earth, perish from the earth, and from under this heaven.'

For it is proper to God to create, not to be created by another.

If, therefore, the Son is created, He is not God;

but if He is the Creator and Maker of all things, then He is truly God;

for the prophet speaks the following words also concerning Him:

'The Lord who made the earth by His power, He set up the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding He stretched out the heaven.'

not to be fashioned by another.

'For He provides the rain,' and produces the crashings of the thunders, 'and brings up clouds from the ends of the earth.'

For He raises up the water of the sea as He wills, and by means of it constitutes the clouds.

'He made lightnings for rain.' For these are signs of the rain.

'And He brought forth winds out of His treasuries.' His treasuries are His will.

For He Himself spoke, and it came to be;

He commanded, and they were created; and, 'All that the Lord willed He has done, in heaven and on earth.' The true God, then, is the Creator of all these things.

But the greater part of mankind fell into folly, and some fashion gods, while others worship the things made by them.

And he foretells also the ceasing of the error:

'They are vain, works wrought in mockery' — that is, the idols — he added;

'in the time of their visitation they shall perish.'

For the apostolic preaching utterly blotted out the memory of these things;

and we behold the fulfilment of the prophecy.

'Not such is the portion of Jacob;'

'for He who formed all things, He Himself is his inheritance, and Israel is the rod of His inheritance.'

'The Lord of hosts is His name.'

'Thou,' he says, 'wast not taught this error;'

'for from of old I chose thee, and I counted thee worthy of My special care.'

'He gathered from without thy substance, which dwelt among the chosen.'

Having called the patriarch out of the land of the Chaldeans, He brought him over into Palestine, and led out his race, set free from bondage, out of Egypt;

this, then, the prophetic word also made clear:

'He gathered from without thy substance, which dwelt among the chosen' — that is, having chosen thee out of the other nations, He bestowed upon thee the chosen land.

'Behold, I trip up those who dwell in this land in affliction, and I will press them hard, that they may be reproved.'

'If they had run well, they would have been kept straight.'

But since their course was harmful, they are darkened, that, running to their destruction, they may be made to cease.

'A woe was found upon thy brokenness;'

by 'brokenness' he means sin.

'Punishment,' he says, 'followed upon thy wickedness, and thou hast received a grievous blow;'

then, in the person of the city, he composes a lament, teaching her what words she must use as she bewails her transgressions:

'Truly this is my wound, and it has overtaken me.' That is to say, The blow of sin has become for me the cause of my calamities.

'Thy tent is made wretched;'

'it has perished, and all thy tent-curtains are scattered.'

By 'tent' he means not only the divine temple, but also the houses, and the towers, and the enclosing walls.

'My sons and my flocks have gone forth from me, and they are no more;'

'there is no place for my tent, no place for my tent-curtains.'

I have become desolate in all things at once.

He speaks also of the teachers of wickedness.

For the shepherds acted foolishly, and did not seek out God.

By 'shepherds' he means the kings and the priests; for both these and those became the authors of the deception.

For both these and those became the procurers of the error.

And he says that the folly of the shepherds became the cause of the wandering of the sheep.

The sound of a report, behold it comes, and a great commotion out of the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, and a haunt of ostriches.

By 'ostriches' he means the great Libyan birds, which most people call camel-birds; for this creature also loves the desert.

For this creature also is a lover of the wilderness.

Then the prophet teaches who it is that leads Nebuchadnezzar.

I know, O Lord, that his way is not the man's own;

neither shall a man walk and direct his way and make straight his going.

And even if he had set out, he would not have accomplished the things he wished, since your right hand takes forethought for us;

for I know what things Sennacherib suffered.

But we beseech you, not to exact of us the penalties for our impiety even through that man;

but that you yourself chastise us, and bring upon us a fatherly discipline;

for this he says in what follows.

Chastise us, O Lord, but in judgment, and not in wrath;

lest you make us few.

Pour out your wrath upon the nations that have not known you, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your name.

For they have devoured Jacob, and consumed him utterly, and laid waste his pasture.

After this he charges him to say to all the people:

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who will not hear the words of this covenant,

which I commanded your fathers in the day when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.

This also, when giving the law, he added to the law:

Cursed be everyone who does not abide in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them. And he promises there also, and again here, that he will deem worthy of all care those who keep the divine commandments.

He also reminds them of the things spoken to their fathers, and of the disobedience of those men.

For they did not turn away from this, but continually walked in it.

Sometimes they served the Ammonites, sometimes the Moabites, and at other times foreigners.

A conspiracy was 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 were unwilling to hear my words.

The phrase 'A conspiracy was found' means that they are bound together and interwoven with their fathers, and travel in their path;

for this he also signifies through the words that follow.

And behold, they go after strange gods, to serve them. And these things they do, transgressing the covenant given to them.

For this reason I will encompass them with all manner of calamities, and even as they lament I will not count them worthy of sparing;

nor indeed shall they enjoy any succour from the gods whom they worship.

And he speaks also of the multitude of these gods.

For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they set up altars to shame, altars to burn incense to Baal.

Do not pray, he says, for this people, and make no request for them in supplication and prayer;

for I will not hearken to you in the time when they call upon me, in the time of their affliction.

For it is in the very midst of their punishment that they offer up their supplications:

Let us come before his face in confession. And here he shows their unsurpassable impiety.

Why has the beloved wrought abomination in my house? Both things declare the intensity of their impiety: both that she was called beloved, and that within, in the divine temple, they set up the images of gods that are not.

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; in whole burnt offerings you will take no pleasure;

a 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 of her other title also.

A fair olive tree, beautiful in appearance, the Lord called your name.

And he imposed this title upon her, urging her on to the bearing of fruit.

So too he often named her a vine.

At the sound of her circumcision a fire was kindled upon her.

Since he called her an olive tree, he also makes mention of cleansing;

for by 'circumcision' he means the cleansing.

So too the Lord in the sacred 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 been made worthless. For they were unwilling to bring forth good fruits;

and teaching that it is not the Babylonian who is mighty, but that he himself brings the punishment upon her, he added also these words:

And the Lord, the God of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you, in return for the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah;

because they did this to themselves, to provoke me by burning incense to Baal.

It is he himself, he says, your planter, who cut off the branches;

but you are the cause of these things, having sprouted not useful, but poisonous fruits.

For in him those things too were foreshadowed in outline.

O Lord, make it known to me, and I shall know.

That he speaks not only of the things done against him, the prayer bears witness;

he did not need a revelation to see the things then coming to pass;

revelation foreshows the things that are to be.

Then I saw their practices. (19)

But I, like an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, did not know.

The phrase 'I did not know' fits the prophet, as one who did not expect the grievous things.

'I have set you this day as a fortified city, and as a pillar of iron, and as a wall of brass' — he supposed that he would in no way undergo any grievous thing.

But the divine word did not promise this, but rather that 'You shall be stronger than the grievous things';

'For they shall fight against you,' He says, 'but they shall in no wise prevail against you';

'For just as,' He says, 'a lamb led to the slaughter knows not what it is to suffer, and follows those who lead it, having accepted its passion' —

'For they devised a device against me, saying' —

for by 'bread' he named his own body;

'For the bread,' He says, 'which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' This bread they nailed to the tree, supposing to extinguish the memory of him.

'But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, testing the reins and hearts, let me see your vengeance upon them';

'for to you have I revealed my cause.'

By 'reins,' as we have often said, he names the thoughts;

since the appetitive faculty, being in the reins, often stirs up the thought.

Yet not in vain did God permit the prophet to experience grievous things;

but since he often undertook to bring forward intercessions on behalf of the transgressors, God — wishing to persuade him not to reckon himself compassionate while reckoning the treasury of goodness harsh — permitted the uprising to come about;

and he, being exceedingly grieved, beseeches God to judge righteously and to demand satisfaction from the unholy ones;

But again the prophet, beholding the prosperity of those who live in wickedness, beseeches to be taught the cause of this.

'Yet I will speak judgments with you.'

'I know exactly,' he says, 'the righteousness of your verdict';

'yet I also do not think it absurd to bring a question before you.'

'Why is it that the way of the ungodly prospers? All who deal treacherously in treachery have thriven.' (2)

'You have planted them, and they have taken root';

'they have borne children, and produced fruit.'

But their godless disposition he made manifest by what follows, signifying it:

'You are near to their mouth, but far from their reins.' 'Only in words,' he says, 'do they bring forth your name';

'for from their thoughts they have cast out the memory of you.'

'And you, O Lord, know me, you have seen me, you have proved my heart.'