Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues with the subject matter and metaphor of the divorced adulteress, by which he means the Synagogue worshipping idols, and invites her to repentance. Second, at verse 7, he shows that Judah sinned more gravely than Israel. Third, at verse 14, he soars to Christ, and through Him promises the Jews pardon, grace, and glory. Fourth, at verse 20, he returns to his own times, and exhorts the Jews to return to God, and prescribes for them a form of repentance, which the Jews embraced under the leadership of the pious King Josiah, during whose reign Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Tropologically, it is easy to apply these things to any sinful soul, according to Canon 45.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 3:1-25
1. It is commonly said: If a man puts away his wife, and she departs from him and marries another man, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be polluted and contaminated? But you have fornicated with many lovers: yet return to me, says the Lord, and I will receive you. 2. Lift up your eyes to the heights and see where you have not been defiled: you sat in the roads, waiting for them like a robber in the desert: and you polluted the land with your fornications and with your wickedness. 3. For this reason the drops of rain have been withheld, and there was no late rain: the forehead of a harlot woman has become yours, you refused to blush. 4. Therefore at least from now on call me: My Father, the guide of my virginity you are: 5. will you be angry forever, or persevere to the end? Behold, you have spoken, and done evil things, and prevailed. 6. And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the apostate Israel has done? She went upon every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there played the harlot. 7. And I said, when she had done all these things: Return to me: and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw, 8. that because the apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce: and her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also herself. 9. And by the ease of her fornication she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10. And in all these things her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood, says the Lord. 11. And the Lord said to me: The apostate Israel has justified herself in comparison with the treacherous Judah. 12. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, apostate Israel, says the Lord, and I will not turn my face away from you: for I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever. 13. But acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God: and you have scattered your ways to strangers under every leafy tree, and have not heard my voice, says the Lord. 14. Return, backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am your husband: 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 feed you with knowledge and doctrine. 16. And when you shall be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: nor shall it come upon the heart, nor shall they remember it: nor shall it be visited, nor shall it be done any more. 17. At that time they shall call
In this second discourse, which extends to the end of chapter 6, after an initial rebuke there follows an exhortation to repentance (chapter 3:6-25; chapter 4); the justice of the impending vengeance is shown (chapter 5), and its execution is announced (chapter 6).
The greater wickedness of the Jews, increased by other crimes, 8-11; he exhorts to repentance: First, by proposing the reason and manner of conversion, 12-14. Second, by adding promises, both of the people being led back to their homeland and governed by better shepherds, 14-15; and of the Church being freed from legal observances, and expanded among the nations, and united from Jews and Israelites, 16-18.
Third, with inserted instructions: first, on divine clemency, through the tolerance of long-frustrated expectation, 19-20; second, on the misery of sinners, through a vivid depiction of those acknowledging their shame, 21-25.
This discourse seems to have been delivered not long after Josiah had begun his reformation and restored the worship of God to its purity, when the people, although not yet improved, were conceiving hope for happier times. He shows by various arguments that this hope would be vain unless they averted the evils threatening them by improving their life and morals.
Therefore, having prefaced a rebuke in which the Prophet sets forth the idolatry and impenitence of the Jews, 6-7; and having exaggerated
Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord: and all nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall walk no more after the depravity of their most wicked heart. 18. In those days the house of Judah shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together from the land of the north, to the land which I gave to your fathers. 19. But I said: How shall I place you among the children, and give you the desirable land, the excellent heritage of the armies of the nations? And I said: You shall call me Father, and shall not cease to walk after me. 20. But as a woman who scorns her lover, so has the house of Israel scorned me, says the Lord. 21. A voice was heard in the roads, the weeping and wailing of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God. 22. Return, backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to you: for you are the Lord our God. 23. Truly the hills were liars, and the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. 24. Shame has devoured the labors of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25. We shall sleep in our confusion, and our ignominy shall cover us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day: and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.
Verse 1
1. It is commonly said. — In Hebrew lemor, that is, "by saying," supply "it is said"; although Vatablus and the Hebrews refer it to the end of the preceding chapter: "The Lord has crushed your confidence," namely by saying what follows: "If he shall put away" etc. But this is less correct: for to say "return" is not to crush confidence, but to increase it.
That woman will be polluted and contaminated. — In Hebrew, "that land," that is, The land would be considered polluted by the intercourse of such a divorced woman, if the former husband took her back, as stated in Deuteronomy 24:4. So Vatablus. Our translator renders "woman" instead of "land," because the polluted woman polluted the land, and this aptly corresponds to the rejected and polluted people of Israel, that is: Once divorced, she can neither be recalled nor return to her husband without sin and infamy and disgrace to both, indeed to the whole land, according to the law of Deuteronomy 24:5; yet you, not only divorced but also adulterous, return to me; I will gladly receive you, indeed I will endure this infamy, I will bear this disgrace, and moreover if necessary I will redeem you. Maldonatus, however, thinks that the woman is metaphorically called "land" because she is cultivated, sown, and bears fruit by the man as a field. But the former sense is more suitable and clearer.
With lovers. — The Septuagint reads, with shepherds: for they read roim.
Verse 2
2. Lift up your eyes to the heights. — In Hebrew sephaim, that is, to the hills and high places, that is: Look around in every direction at the mountains and hills, as far as your sight can reach, and everywhere you will see the traces of your fornication, that is, of your idolatry.
Waiting for them like a robber. — In Hebrew caarabi, that is, like an Arab, that is, like a robber, because the Arabs both now and then were given to robbery, says St. Jerome. The Septuagint read keoreb, that is, like a crow or rather a raven, which sits in the roads to feed on the carcasses of donkeys or horses thrown there: for so you too were eager to worship dead gods as if they were corpses. The sense of our version is, that is: You sat, O harlot, in the roads like a robber toward evening, to slay by your intercourse the souls of the fornicators, Proverbs 7:9, namely citizens and foreigners, whom you led away to your idols, just as the armed Gileadites led away those going to Jerusalem, to their golden calves, Hosea 6:8-9.
Second, others explain it thus: You sat like an Arab, namely a merchant, who pitches a tent on public roads to sell his goods or buy from passersby: for thus you, O Israel, displayed your idols publicly, to drive all who passed by to worship them. So Isidore, Theodoret, St. Thomas, Hugh, and Lyranus. The former sense is more genuine and forceful. This is what Ezekiel says in 16:31: "You built your brothel at the head of every road."
Verse 3
3. For this reason the drops of rain have been withheld, and the late rain was not, — that is: By your crimes you have closed heaven against yourself so that it would not rain; and thus you have brought upon yourself famine and barrenness.
Learn here that public sin, when it goes unpunished, contaminates the whole land and commonwealth, and is therefore punished by God with a public calamity. For, as Sanchez rightly says, in a public sin everyone is considered to sin publicly, while some tolerate it, some pretend not to notice, some approve, some defend it, and some even imitate it.
Note: In Scripture the "late rain" is that which falls in Palestine in springtime (in March) when the crops are ripening; just as the "early rain" is that which falls in October immediately after sowing, and waters the sown seeds and makes them sprout; namely through drops, as it says here, continuous and gently falling; whence it is called here: "Drops of rain;" for in these two seasons rain is most necessary for the crops.
The forehead of a harlot has become yours, you refused to blush. — He alludes to shameless harlots,
who inscribed their names not only on their rooms in the brothel, but also on their foreheads, as the purple-clad harlot Babylon did in Revelation 17:5. See the commentary there, and Martin de Roa, Book 4 of Singularia, chapter 10: "To ingratitude, says Xenophon in Book 1 of the Cyropaedia, shamelessness especially seems to be a companion, which is the greatest guide to every baseness." Menander:
He who knows neither how to blush nor how to fear, That man holds the first place in all shamelessness.
The Emperor Caligula used to say that nothing pleased him more in his own nature than his shamelessness. A remark more worthy of an executioner than an emperor. For shame recalls many, even wicked men, from their crimes.
Thus Achilles in Homer calls Agamemnon "dog-faced." And again: "Having the eyes of a dog, the heart of a deer," signifying shamelessness combined with cowardice.
Aristogeiton, the Athenian orator, was called "Dog" because of his shamelessness. So Volaterranus, Book 13, chapter 4.
Vatinius, who was twice defended in public trials by Caesar who had reconciled with him, was most shameless. For by constant abuse, as Seneca says, he had learned to have no shame.
Well known is the shameless and public licentiousness of Diogenes and the Cynics, like dogs.
Gaius Fimbria was a man of the most desperate audacity, who killed Crassus, and who at the funeral of Gaius Marius had Quintus Scaevola, a most holy man, wounded; and when he learned that the blade had not penetrated deeply into his body, he brought charges against him. When all were astonished that he was accusing the Pontifex Maximus, the best citizen of the whole city, and were waiting to hear the charge, he said he was accusing him because he had not received the whole weapon in his body, as Cicero relates in his defense of Roscius.
Finally St. Gregory on Penitential Psalm 1: "That, he says, is a true sign of open desperation, if shame does not follow sin." So much for the rest.
Verse 4
4. Therefore at least from now on (being now invited and entreated by me) call me, My Father, the guide of my virginity you are, — that is, you are my father, who from childhood, when I was a young girl neglected by mother and father, and cast off in squalor, like a father took me up, raised me, and guided me. Second, the "guide of virginity" can be understood as the bridegroom, that is: You are to me both father and bridegroom, whom I married as a virgin and young woman, and therefore loved most dearly: for a bridegroom succeeds to the role and care of a parent. For a parent transfers the care of his daughter to the bridegroom when he betroths her to him and delivers her to be led to his home. The bridegroom of a virgin bride is therefore like a father. So Theodoret and Sanchez. And this beautifully alludes to the first origin of woman from man; for Eve, the wife of Adam, since she was formed from his side, appears to have been her husband's daughter. Trismegistus agrees with Jeremiah, whose words in the Poimandres about God are: "God raised His voice in a holy word: You, to whom a portion of mind has been granted, recognize your lineage, and consider your immortal nature: for which reason he who knows himself, being composed of life and light, passes into God; since life and light is the father of all, from whom man was born." Hence seems to have originated that saying: "Know thyself;" by which man is admonished to remember his divine origin and undertake actions worthy of God.
Verse 5
5. Will you be angry forever, or persevere to the end? — The Chaldean, St. Thomas, Vatablus, and a Castro explain it thus, that is: O Lord! Do not always be angry with me, nor persist in the remembrance and punishment of my sins. These are the words of God, which He teaches the people to say to Him, and by them to invoke Him, that He may have mercy on them. For God is more eager for reconciliation than are sinners themselves, says St. Chrysostom, Homily 44 on Genesis. For such is His incredible mercy that when He is angry with us for our sins, He composes for us the prayer by which we may appease Him; for these words depend on the preceding: "Call me My Father," etc.
Second, however, more probably Theodoret, Lyranus, Dionysius, and Sanchez explain it of the bride thus, that is: Will you, O Judah, forever offended and angry, withdraw and flee from me? Will you forever maintain this will of yours to sin? Whence the Septuagint translate: Will it remain forever, or will it be kept unto victory? Supply: your falsehood and deception, says Theodoret, that is: Will your deception persevere forever, as if you hope thereby to be the victor, so that by your stubbornness you may overcome me and my patience, and I, wearied, may dismiss and neglect you?
Behold, you have spoken, — that is: Behold, as soon as you shall have spoken and prayed what I have told you, although you have done many evil things; "you have prevailed," that is, you will prevail, that is, you will overcome me, you will conquer and bend me, and you will wrest from my hand the scourge I direct at you, and you will draw me back to my former love for you. Prophetically, the past tenses are used for the future.
Second, Sanchez, following the explanation given shortly before, explains it as a severe reprimand of the words and deeds of the harlot bride: that she has impiously and shamefully not only spoken but also acted, and that what she had said she would wickedly do, she has fulfilled in deed; nor has she yet been satisfied, wearied, or exhausted in strength, but she clings to new crimes again in soul and body. For this is the force of "and you have prevailed," that is, you are still capable, with an untiring and unbroken spirit for sinning.
Verse 6
6. Apostate. — So Israel, or the ten tribes, is called, because from the beginning of their schism and kingdom, openly and by common consent, and that continually and perpetually, they turned away from the true God and His wor-
ship, and that continually for three centuries: whence all their kings were impious and idolatrous. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Augustine (City of God, Book 17, chapter 23), Rabanus, and Isidore. For the true Church and religion were enclosed in Judah and the kingdom of David; for God willed to establish in Judah and Zion, as the kingdom, so also the temple and the priesthood, on account of Christ who would be born from Judah; just as now the true Church is established in Rome and in the Roman Empire: when it fails in great part, the Church will fail, and Antichrist will come. Whence Optatus of Milevis, Book 3 Against Parmenian, said "The Republic is not in the Church, but the Church is in the Republic," that is, in the Roman Empire. Hence the Church, says Eusebius (Demonstration, Book 3), always prays for the preservation of the Roman Empire, that the Church may be preserved and propagated together with it. Israel therefore "went its own way," that is, wherever its desire and lust led it.
Verse 7
7. Her treacherous sister Judah. — Israel is called "apostate," but Judah "treacherous," because Judah retained the worship of God, although she more often secretly and deceitfully, and sometimes even publicly, defected to idols under Manasseh, Ahaz, and other impious kings: for this is the treachery of Judah.
Verse 9
9. And by her ease, — because she was so inclined and ready for fornication, that is, for worshipping idols.
Verse 10
10. In falsehood, — that is, deceitfully and with pretense.
Verse 11
11. Has justified herself, — that is, Israel, the ten tribes, sinned less than Judah, the remaining two tribes, so that in comparison with Judah, Israel might seem just. Thus in Luke 18:14, it is said: "This one (the Publican) went down to his house justified rather than the other," compared to the Pharisee. Similarly, "no living person shall be justified in the sight of God" (Psalm 142:2), that is, "in comparison with God," as Job says in chapter 4:17. With an entirely similar scheme of his two harlots, Oholah (the ten tribes) and Oholibah (Jerusalem), Ezekiel narrates and condemns the fornication, that is, the idolatry of the latter compared to the former (Ezekiel 23 and 16:51), and says that the latter justified the former, and even Sodom. For although the sins of Israel were more numerous, and their idolatry continuous, yet in Judah it was more grievous: first, because in Judah there was greater knowledge of God and truth — for in it God had established, as in His own house, the kingdom, priesthood, temple, prophets, and teachers; second, because when Judah saw Israel being punished by God and led into captivity for idolatry, it nevertheless followed the same path; third, because with even greater ardor at times, especially under Manasseh, it practiced idolatry more than Israel, and at that time killed all God's prophets — this is what the word "went mad" signifies.
Verse 12
12. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north. — Rabbi Solomon thinks Jeremiah was in Babylon, Hugh and Lyranus think he was in Israel, others that he sent an envoy there. But I say that by "go and proclaim" he is only commanded here to turn his face as well as his feet (whence Sanchez says: "go," that is, "come now," as if it were an adverb of encouragement) toward Israel, that is, the ten tribes
(for this is the "apostate") toward the north, that is, in northern Assyria where they were captive; so Lyranus, Dionysius, and others; and that he should exhort and invite them with a stentorian voice to the worship of God, so as to provoke Judah to emulation, and threaten it that unless it repents, He will leave it and go to Israel, to be worshipped by them. Thus Christ went from the Jews to the gentiles. St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh the Cardinal think that the discourse here is addressed to the two tribes captive in Chaldea and the ten tribes dwelling in Assyria, and that their liberation and return is foretold: but St. Thomas and Vatablus think the discourse is addressed to the ten tribes, and that their return from spiritual captivity through Christ and the Apostles is predicted. But what I said is more correct.
For I am holy. — In Hebrew, because chasid; the Septuagint, because merciful, that is, because I am merciful, to pour out my grace and kindness upon you poor ones, if you repent and return to me.
Verse 13
13. You have scattered (Chaldean: you corrupted; Septuagint: you poured out) your ways, — namely so as to scatter yourself, and wander going now to this, now to that idol. Otherwise Lyranus and a Castro say "ways" means feet, by which we go through the roads, that is: You scattered, that is, you spread your feet like a harlot to every fornicator (Ezekiel 16:25). This metaphor signifies the profuse idolatry of the Jews.
Verse 14
14. Return (not from Babylon, but from idolatry), backsliding children, — that is, you who are departing from me; the Septuagint has: apostates. He speaks not to Israel, as Vatablus supposes, but returns to Judah, to whom he began speaking at verse 1 and following. Otherwise Sanchez says: "return, you who are turning back;" that is, return earnestly, so that with all your soul's effort you may return to me.
St. Augustine says excellently in the Sentences, vol. 3, no. 71: "The remedies of conversion to God must not be deferred by any hesitations, lest the time for correction be lost through delay. For He who promised pardon to the penitent did not promise tomorrow to the procrastinator." And no. 235: "There is no place in God to flee from Him, except to Him. He who wants to escape from Him when offended, let him flee to Him when appeased." And no. 240: "With the mercy of God, the confession of the penitent avails greatly, by which the sinner makes Him favorable through confessing, whom he does not make ignorant through denying."
I am your husband. — In Hebrew baalthi, that is, I have been married to you, I have possessed you as a husband, and, as the Septuagint has it, I have had dominion over you, namely through the old law. So Theodoret and Hugh. Although Lyranus, Dionysius, and Vatablus think Jeremiah is speaking of the Church of Christ: for God in Christ was to be its husband. But in Hebrew it is the past tense, not the future. Therefore the former sense is simpler and plainer.
I will take you one from a city, and two from a family, and bring you into Zion, — that is: I will choose a few from the individual cities and families of the Jews
I will choose, so that the remnant of them may be saved through Christ. Note: The Prophet, or rather God, is not speaking here about the return of the Jews from Babylon under Cyrus and Ezra, as the Hebrews, Theodoret, Hugh, and St. Thomas suppose: for at that time not one or two, but 42,000 returned, nor was the ark then rebuilt, nor were all nations gathered to the Lord (He does, however, allude to that, and touches upon it in passing); but He rises and soars to Christ, as is clear from what follows, especially verses 18 and 19; whence by Zion he understands the Church, by shepherds the Apostles and similar men: for a great part of the happiness of a people consists in having good shepherds and rulers. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyranus, Vatablus, Rabbi Solomon, and all the Hebrews, says Vatablus. Whence Rabbi Samai, cited by Galatinus (Book 9, chapter 2), thinks the allusion here is to Joshua and Caleb, who alone entered the promised land, that is: In like manner, at the time of the Messiah, very few Jews will accept Him, and will enter that heavenly promised land. See also Eusebius, Demonstration, Book 2, chapter 54.
Verse 16
16. They shall say no more: The ark of the covenant. — By the ark understand all the sacrifices and sacraments of the old law and its legal prescriptions: these therefore will cease along with the ark, as shadows, when Christ, who is the truest ark of wisdom and divine grace, shall have appeared, or rather, when the cover of the ark, that is, the mercy seat, shall have appeared, namely Christ, reconciling God to the ark, that is, to the Church.
Nor shall it come upon the heart. — No one will think of it, no one will speak of it, that is: In the time of Christ the Jews will no longer boast of the ceremonies of the Mosaic law.
Nor shall it be visited. — For they used to visit the ark as an oracle, to seek answers and favors from God.
Nor shall it be done any more, — namely the ark, or anything similar to the ark. So Lyranus, Dionysius, Vatablus. Otherwise the Chaldean says: The ark will not be visited in the time of the Messiah, nor will there be a carrying forth of the ark to battles, as was done under Eli. Others say: it shall not be done, that is, there will be no more sacrificing; for thus Virgil says in Eclogue 3: "When I shall make a sacrifice with a heifer for the crops, come yourself." The first sense is the plainest.
Verse 17
17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord. — Some understand by Jerusalem the city itself, whose name God made famous after the return of the Jews from Babylon. So St. Thomas and Hugh. Second, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, Vatablus, and Lyranus understand the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, the Church of Christ, to which all nations will flow in the name of the Lord, because they invoke His name. Third, and best, understand Jerusalem itself, inasmuch as in it, as on a throne, Christ sat, reigned, and taught, and from there sent the Apostles to preach. Whence it is called the Mother of the Church, and the Fountain of grace, "for from Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," just as formerly the ark of the covenant with the Cherubim was the throne of God, and therefore it was said to God: "You who sit upon the Cherubim;" for the ark was a type of the Church.
Tropologically, the soul of the just is the throne and seat of God. So Jerome.
Verse 18
18. The house of Judah shall go, — that is: The dissension that usually exists between Judah and Israel will be no more; but all, having laid aside their hatreds, will come to the Church, and in it will be united. "Therefore the house of Judah shall go," that is, the Apostles and other Christian Jews will go to the Israelites, who were once led away to the north, that is, to Assyria; again, who mystically grow cold and stiff in the northern land of sin, and will lead them to Jerusalem, that is, to the Church, so that they may enjoy in it all the spiritual blessings promised to their fathers, and finally possess the heavenly Jerusalem. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Lyranus, Vatablus.
To the land which I gave to your fathers. — Note: The land promised and given to the fathers is Jerusalem, to which many Jews and Israelites came, when the Church of Christ first began there, and the Apostles remained in it for about nine years. Then Jerusalem, that is, the Church which began there, was spread through all nations, and thus wherever the nations are converted, there they come to the Jerusalem promised to the fathers, that is, to the Church, which began in Jerusalem. Hence the Prophets often rise from the earthly Jerusalem to the spiritual one.
Mystically, the cold north signifies the kingdom of the devil; Assyria, the kingdom of the world, in which we serve the devil, sin, and concupiscence; the promised land is the kingdom of Christ and paradise, says St. Jerome.
Verse 19
19. How shall I place you among the children? — These are the words of God as if exulting and marveling, that is: How many children, O Zion, that is, O Church, which will begin in Zion from the Jews, shall I give you, and how beautiful and desirable (for this is the Hebrew tsebi, discussed in Daniel 8:9), a "heritage," namely the whole earth of the "armies" (so it should be read with the Roman edition), that is, of the most powerful, most warlike, and most numerous "nations!" So St. Jerome.
Theodotion translates: I will give you an illustrious heritage of the strength of the mightiest of nations, that is, the Church of Christ, who is the leader and ruler of all nations that believe in Him, says St. Jerome. Others by the name "armies" understand the angels, who are the leaders and guardians of the nations.
The Septuagint translate: I will give you a chosen land, the heritage of God almighty of the nations, that is, the heritage of the nations, which is the heritage of God almighty, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Anagogically: I will give you the heavenly heritage, in which St. John saw a great multitude that no one could number. So Vatablus, Dionysius, and others.
The heritage of the heavenly homeland, says St. Thomas, is glorious: first, in the splendor of the divine vision, Psalm 35:10: "In Your light we shall see light;" second, in the sweetness of divine love, Psalm 22:5: "My overflowing cup, how excellent it is!" third, in the familiarity of divine conversation, Wisdom 8:18: "Excellence in the communication of His words;" fourth, in the magnificence of operation, Sirach 43:27: "There are glorious works and wonders;" fifth, in the greatness of exultation, Zechariah 8:13: "I will save you, and you shall be a blessing;" sixth, in the consolation of fellowship, Ezekiel 31:9: "All the trees of delight that were in the paradise of God envied it," etc.
You shall call me Father, — namely your God, not idols. So commonly the interpreters: St. Jerome, however, Rabanus, and Lyranus think these are the words of Christ, whence by "me" they understand Christ.
Morally, God is called Father, says St. Thomas: first, by creation, Matthew 11:25: "I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;" second, by adoption, Romans 8:15: "You have received the spirit of adoption of the sons of God, in which we cry: Abba Father;" third, by instruction, Isaiah 38: "The father shall make known Your truth to the children;" fourth, by correction, Proverbs 3:12: "For whom the Lord loves, He corrects; and as a father in his son He delights." St. Augustine says excellently in the Sentences, no. 237: "From Him from whom man has his existence, in Him he has his well-being." And no. 236: "There are two lives, one of the body, another of the soul. As the life of the body is the soul, so the life of the soul is God. And just as the body dies if the soul departs, so the soul dies if Christ departs."
Verse 21
21. A voice was heard in the roads. — These are the words of God, desiring the conversion of the Jews from idols, as many, being instructed by Jeremiah and the Prophets, especially when they had fallen into captivity and other calamities, and therefore wept and groaned, were converted. So Theodoret, Rabanus, and Hugh. Others take these words as referring to the Jews repenting that they had crucified Christ (Acts 2:37). Lyranus and Dionysius take them as referring to those captured by Titus after Christ's death. But what I said is more correct; for the Prophet returns in his usual manner to the Jews of his own time, and preaches to them. See Canon 4 and 5.
Verse 22
22. Return, backsliding children, — that is, penitent ones. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyranus. But in Hebrew it is scobabim, that is, ones who turn away, wanderers, inconstant, returning to their vomit; the Septuagint translate: apostates; the Chaldean: you who harden yourselves against conversion.
And I will heal your backslidings, — your sins and idolatries, by which you have turned from me to idols and similarly rebelled, that is: I will pardon all your past rebellions. In Hebrew there is a beautiful wordplay between scubu, that is, "return," scobabim, that is, "you who turn away" or "rebels," and mescubothechem, that is, "your turnings away" or "your rebellions."
And (supply, "say"): Behold, we come to you. — This is a mimesis, by which He prescribes for them the manner and form of repentance. So St. Jerome. The Jews embraced this, and actually carried it out under King Josiah (2 Kings 22-23).
Verse 23
23. Truly the hills were liars. — Truly the many gods we worshipped on mountains and hills were liars. It is a metonymy. In Hebrew it is: in vain from the hills, that is, from the idols of the hills, supply, we hoped for help; now taught by the experience of so many evils, we acknowledge and profess that "truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel," not in idols.
Verse 24
24. Shame has devoured the labors of our fathers, — that is, idolatry, which brings us shame, was the cause why our fathers were punished and devastated in all things; or, as Theodoret says, why they consumed and sacrificed to idols all good things, even their sons and daughters. Whence Pagninus translates: Baal consumed the labors of our fathers. So today Bacchus and Venus consume the labors and wealth of many. A tyrant, says Plutarch, permits and causes his citizens to grow rich; but then sucks out through taxes the wealth they have collected, and enriches himself with it; so also does the devil, who is the first and greatest tyrant, and plunders and pillages all the goods of his subjects. St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Lyranus understand these words as referring to the sin of killing Christ, on account of which the Jews perished with all their goods. This is true, but allegorical.
Second, and more genuinely, Maldonatus and others explain it thus: "Shame," that is, devastation and calamity bringing shame and disgrace to sinners, "has devoured the labors of our fathers from our youth," that is: Already from our childhood we experience that our fathers labor in vain; for everything goes badly for them, everything is devastated, because they have departed from the Lord. Let us therefore learn from our parents' misfortune, and return to the Lord. Otherwise "we shall sleep in our shame," that is, in our poverty and devastation, wretched, anxious, confused, as the mockery and reproach of God and men, "we shall sleep," so that not even at night will we have rest from our miseries. Second, "we shall sleep," that is, we shall die in the same state: "And our ignominy shall cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God." Whence it is clear that the "shame" of verse 24 is not sin itself, but the effect and punishment of sin.
Morally, learn here what repentance is, and how it transforms sinners into different men. Repentance corrects the errors of past life, reconciles God, amends scandals, changes the mind, and thus makes a different person. Isaeus, having devoted his early life to pleasures, when he reached manhood, as if transformed into another person, adopted a marvelous severity of morals. When someone asked him "whether the shining gold he showed him was pleasing to his eyes, he replied: I have ceased to be troubled by my eyes." When asked "which
fish, or which bird was the most delicious to eat: I have likewise ceased, he replied, to pursue such things." And he added: "For I sensed I was gathering fruits from the gardens of Tantalus;" indicating that all such pleasures, by which youth is captivated, are nothing other than dreams and shadows. So Philostratus, in the Lives of the Sophists.
Polemo, a young man of utterly dissolute luxury at Athens, who took delight not only in allurements but even in his very infamy; having risen from a banquet not after sunset, but after sunrise, and on his way home seeing the open door of the philosopher Xenocrates' school; heavy with wine, anointed with perfumes, his head crowned with garlands, clad in a transparent robe, he entered the school packed with learned men, and not content with such a disgraceful entrance, he even sat down, to mock the most brilliant eloquence and the wisest precepts with the wantonness of his drunkenness. Then, as was natural, when everyone was indignant, Xenocrates kept his expression unchanged, and dropping the subjects he had been discussing, began to speak about modesty and temperance. Compelled by the gravity of his discourse, Polemo came to his senses; first he tore the crown from his head and threw it away, shortly after he drew his arm back inside his cloak, as time went on he dropped the gaiety of his convivial countenance; at last he put off all his luxury entirely, healed by the most salutary medicine of a single speech, and from the basest debauchee he became the greatest philosopher. His mind had wandered in wickedness, but not dwelt there. So Cicero, book 4 of On the Ends, Valerius Maximus, book 6, chapter 11, Laertius in the Life of Polemo, book 4, Horace, Satire 3, book 2, and Suidas.
There is a famous example of the young man whom St. John the Apostle entrusted to a certain bishop, who, having been treated too indulgently and seduced by wicked companions, finally became the chief of bandits; whom afterwards St. John, seeking him out, so converted by his charity and tears that, having become entirely holy, he was deemed worthy to be set over the Church by the same Apostle. Therefore St. Augustine rightly says, in his book On Repentance: "Repentance, he says, heals diseases, cures lepers, and raises the dead, increases health, preserves grace, gives the lame their step, restores sight to the blind, puts vices to flight, adorns virtues, fortifies and strengthens the mind."
Hear also Peter Chrysologus: "Who, he says, sinned more enormously in the world than Paul? Who more gravely in religion than Peter? Yet they through repentance merited to attain not only the ministry, but even the mastery of holiness." Emperor Otto IV, excommunicated by Innocent III, found a rival in Frederick II, and was never again fortunate; near the end of his life, struck with unspeakable contrition, absolved by Bishop Sifrid of Hildesheim, he rested in peace, and Pope Honorius ratified the absolution. So great is said to have been the dying man's repentance that he ordered his cooks to press his neck with their heels, and to trample him as the vilest creature. So Crantzius, book 7 of the Saxon Chronicle, chapter 37.