Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He invites the Jews to repentance that is not feigned and pretended, but true and serious: if they do not do it, He threatens destruction by the Chaldeans, and describes it by depicting their terrible, first, army and approach, verse 7; second, siege of Jerusalem, verse 16; third, devastation of Judea, verse 23.
All these things a preacher will easily adapt to any war and divine punishment, and especially to the destruction of the world and the day of judgment. Let preachers learn here from Jeremiah to preach about the plagues threatening the commonwealth, prudently foreseen, to threaten and inculcate them, and with them to terrify and urge the people to repentance.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 4:1-31
1. If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to me: if you remove your stumbling blocks from my face, you shall not be moved. 2. And you shall swear: The Lord lives, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice: and the nations shall bless Him, and shall praise Him. 3. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns: 4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest perhaps my indignation go forth like fire, and burn, and there be none who can quench it, because of the wickedness of your thoughts. 5. Declare in Judah, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and sound the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say: Assemble, and let us enter the fortified cities. 6. Raise a standard toward Zion. Strengthen yourselves, do not stand still, because I am bringing evil from the north, and great destruction. 7. The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations has set out: he has gone forth from his place, to make your land a desolation: your cities shall be laid waste, remaining without inhabitant. 8. For this, gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament and wail: because the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord: The heart of the king shall fail, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be dismayed. 10. And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, have You then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace; and behold the sword has reached to the very soul? 11. At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A scorching wind in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not for winnowing and not for cleansing. 12. A full wind from these shall come to me: and now I will pronounce my judgments against them. 13. Behold, he shall come up like clouds, and his chariots like a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe to us, for we are laid waste! 14. Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved: how long shall harmful thoughts remain in you? 15. For a voice declares from Dan, and makes known affliction from Mount Ephraim. 16. Say to the nations: Behold, it has been heard in Jerusalem that watchmen come from a far country, and give their voice against the cities of Judah. 17. As keepers of fields they are set against her round about; because she has provoked me to wrath, says the Lord. 18. Your ways and your thoughts have brought these things upon you: this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it has reached your heart. 19. My bowels, my bowels, I am in pain, the senses of my heart are troubled within me: I will not be silent, because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle. 20. Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the land is laid waste: suddenly my tents are destroyed, in an instant my curtains. 21. How long shall I see the fugitive, hear the sound of the trumpet? 22. For my foolish people have not known me: they are senseless children, and without understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. 23. I looked upon the earth, and behold it was void and nothing: and at the heavens, and there was no light in them. 24. I looked at the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled. 25. I looked, and there was no man: and all the birds of the sky had departed. 26. I looked, and behold Carmel was a desert: and all its cities were destroyed before the face of the Lord, and before the face of His fierce anger. 27. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be desolate, yet I will not make a full end. 28. The earth shall mourn, and the heavens above shall grieve: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, nor am I turned away from it. 29. At the noise of the horseman and the bowman every city has fled: they have entered the thickets and climbed the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and no man dwells in them. 30. But you, when you are laid waste, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself in scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, and paint your eyes with antimony, in vain shall you make yourself fair: your lovers have despised you, they will seek your life. 31. For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, anguish as of one giving birth: the voice of the daughter of Zion, dying and stretching out her hands: Woe is me, for my soul faints before the slayers!
Verse 1
1. If you return (it is a future tense); so the Hebrew and the Roman, namely from your idols and sins, to me seriously and constantly, not falsely or lightly and inconstantly, as you have done until now, return. — So the Roman reading in the imperative. For although in the Hebrew it is the future tense, yet it is often taken for the imperative: Vatablus, however, and a Castro take it in the future as "you will return," that is, you will come back into my favor, so that you may rest with me, and be secure lest by ene-
mies you be captured. The Septuagint translate: If you return to me, He will return, supply, God to you.
You shall have removed your stumbling blocks, — that is, idols. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, St. Thomas. Second, Lyranus and Dionysius: stumbling blocks, they say, that is, sins by which you offend God, and which cause you to stumble and fall into various misfortunes, evils, and afflictions.
You shall not be moved. — In Hebrew, you shall not emigrate, you shall not go into the Babylonian captivity, which otherwise hangs over you.
Verse 2
2. And you shall swear: The Lord lives. — "You shall swear," that is, you shall worship God, swearing by the living God, or by the life of the true God (for this is what the Hebrew means, "The Lord lives"), not by the life of idols, which are dead. Note: By the oath he understands every formal worship of God; it is a synecdoche; for the chief part of divine worship is the oath. Thus in Psalm 63:12 it is said: "All who swear by Him shall be praised," that is, who worship Him. So St. Jerome and Theodoret.
St. Jerome notes here that an oath, to be lawful, must have three companions: first, truth, so that it not be false, that is, so that you do not swear what is false, doubtful, uncertain, or fictitiously, deceitfully, ambiguously; second, judgment, so that it not be rash; that is, that it be made from a necessary cause, discreetly, after deliberation, providently, reverently. Whence Philo, in his book On the Decalogue, past the middle: "The one about to swear, he says, should consider how pure he is in soul, body, and tongue; the first from iniquities, the second from sins, the third from evil speech; for it is wrong that anything base be uttered through the mouth by which that most holy name is pronounced: furthermore, that it be done not in a profane and unclean place, but in a fitting place and time. He who despises these things, let him know that he is wicked, impure, and will be punished with dire vengeance." So Philo. Third, justice, lest it be unjust, lest we unjustly harm someone, or swear something injurious; otherwise if any of these three is lacking, it is not an oath, but perjury, that is, an unjust and impious oath, says St. Jerome, and it is found in Decretals XXII, Question 2, chapter Advertendum. So also St. Thomas here, and in II-II, Question 89, article 3.
The nations shall bless him. — "Him," namely the people Israel. So the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Vatablus; and in him their God. So the Septuagint and Theodoret, that is: The nations seeing Israel, so devoted a worshiper of his God, swearing so reverently by Him, will say: How pious and upright is Israel! May God do for me and mine as He has for Israel: blessed be Israel and the God of Israel; and whenever they see a man, they will say: He is like an Israelite. So Vatablus.
Verse 3
3. Break up for yourselves fallow ground, — that is: Just as fallow ground is made, that is, just as uncultivated land is newly broken by the plow, and cleared of thorns and brambles so that seed may be sown in it; so cleanse the field of your heart from idolatry and vices as from thorns by repentance, so that the true worship of God may be sown in it, and
the seed of the word of the law and of God's grace, and that you may become a new creature of God (Galatians 6:15): "That clean seeds may receive clean fields. For how can one hear the word of God, and conceive seeds, and bear fruit, whose mind is full of the miseries of the world?" say St. Jerome and Theodoret. Whence Tertullian, book 1 Against Marcion, chapter 20, reads: "Renew for yourselves a new renewal;" and in his book Against the Jews, chapter 3: "Innovate for yourselves a newness." Hence also allegorically St. Justin, Against Trypho, says that the Jews are here admonished to acknowledge Christ, who will be for them a beautiful and rich fallow ground in their hearts. The Chaldean translates: Do good works for yourselves, and do not seek salvation in sins. You may fittingly apply these words to the renewal of spirit and vows, which Religious and all those eager for spiritual progress ought to make repeatedly. See on this passage Viegas on Revelation 12, Commentary 3, section 18, number 8.
Verse 4
4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, — circumcise yourselves in heart, not in flesh: inwardly, not outwardly, for God looks upon and regards the heart, while men look upon outward things. Whence, explaining, he adds:
Remove the foreskins, — that is, the impurities and sins of your hearts: for to the Jews the foreskin was unclean, and the Gentiles were called "the uncircumcised." Therefore Symmachus translates: Purify yourselves for the Lord, and remove the wickedness of your hearts. Indeed this is the circumcision of which the Apostle says in Romans 2:28: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he who is one inwardly is a Jew, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God," namely, that alone is true circumcision acceptable to God. Therefore one must circumcise the eyes, hands, feet, tongue; but especially the heart, that is, the will, the intellect, and the memory — from the eyes, vain, deceitful, and shameful looks; from the hands, touches; from the feet, wrongful journeys; from the tongue, oaths, lies, slander, obscene words; from the will, depravity, hardness, carnality, and whatever displeases God must be cut away. For this, however, there is required continual reflection, struggle, and mortification. For, as St. Ephrem says, Exhortation to Piety, tome 1: "The war of soldiers is brief, but that of the monk (and likewise the Christian) lasts until he departs to the Lord." Again, a strong resolution and a great desire to cut away vice. Wisely Ephrem says in the same place: "If you wish to slay a lion, seize it firmly," that is: If you wish to cut away a vice, attack it strongly and directly, so as to root it out entirely. If one is sometimes overcome and falls, let him rise again courageously and conquer: "You are wounded, O soul, do not despair of yourself. For often though the boxer has fallen, he still in the end carries off the crown," says the same Ephrem, Exhortation 42, tome 2.
And be kindled. — He alludes to thorns, which easily catch fire. For thus sins kindle the wrath of God. Isaiah 9:18: "It is kindled as
a fire the wickedness, and shall devour the brier and the thorns." And Isaiah 10:7: "And the light of Israel shall be a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and his thorn and his brier shall be devoured."
Verse 5
5. Cry aloud. — The Hebrew reads: cry, fill, that is, cry fully and loudly that the Chaldean enemies are at hand. For the Hebrews often use a verb in place of an adverb.
Verse 6
6. Raise the standard, — so that those who are in the field may know the enemy is at hand, and withdraw into the city.
Strengthen yourselves, do not stand still, — that is: Do not be dismayed in spirit or body, but flee strongly and swiftly into the city and safe places; for those who are dismayed in spirit tend to stand stupefied or hesitating. It can secondly, with the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and the more recent interpreters, be translated: Hasten, do not delay to withdraw.
Hugh, Lyranus, and Dionysius think these words are said ironically, because they fled in vain into the city where they would be captured, unless they had fled to the fortress of repentance.
Because I am bringing evil (that is, the Chaldean destroyers) from the north, — that is, from Chaldea through Syria and Dan, which are to the north of Judea; for by this route the Chaldeans came into Judea.
Verse 7
7. The lion has come up (that is, Nebuchadnezzar, savage and cruel as a lion; for he is the one) the destroyer (in Hebrew monomaschit, that is, the slayer and destroyer) of nations. — Hear Lucan, in book 1, graphically depicting the fury and bearing of a lion preparing for war: As in the scorching fields Of Africa, a lion seeing his foe at close quarters, Crouches down uncertain, while he gathers all his rage: Then when he has goaded himself with the lash of his fierce tail, And raised his mane, and with a vast and heavy growl Has roared, then if the light javelin of the Moor Should pierce him, or hunting-spears enter his broad chest, Heedless of so great a wound, he charges through the steel.
Therefore the Egyptians, signifying something terrible and formidable, depicted a lion: "Because this animal, being most powerful in strength, strikes fear into all who have looked upon it," says Horus Apollo, Hieroglyphica 20.
Verse 9
9. The heart of the king shall fail — of Joakim, Joachin, and Zedekiah. So Theodoret, that is: When Nebuchadnezzar approaches, the kings of Judah, the princes, and the priests will be struck with such fear that they will be unable to help and protect the people either by counsel or by arms.
And the prophets — the false prophets, who prophesied prosperity to the Jews, seeing that they were deceived and that the enemy is at hand, shall be dismayed. So the Chaldean, Hugh, Lyranus, and Dionysius.
Verse 10
10. Alas, alas! — In Hebrew it is a single exclamation of grief and astonishment, aha, on which see chapter 1, verse 6.
You have deceived (that is, You have permitted to be deceived) this people, — through the false prophets, of whom he spoke in the preceding verse, predicting peace for Jerusalem. So Theodoret, the Chaldean, Hugh, Lyranus.
Second, St. Jerome: "You have deceived me," he says, because in the preceding chapter, verse 17, You promised peace, while here You threaten destruction; for Jeremiah did not understand that the promise in the preceding chapter was not for his own time, but for the time of Christ; but this seems hardly probable.
And behold the sword has reached to the soul, — to the very life and the loss of life, or to the inmost parts, to the heart. Third, even to the princes themselves, the priests and prophets, who are as it were the soul of the people, says Maldonatus.
Verse 11
11. A scorching wind, — that is, the army of the Chaldeans, which will devastate everything like a scorching wind, will come from the desert.
The ways of the daughter of my people, — that is, from the desert which is the route from Babylon, that is, leads to my daughter, that is, to Jerusalem, and that "not for winnowing and for cleansing," but for destroying her, so as to ravage, devastate, and burn everything. So St. Jerome.
Verse 12
12. A full spirit (that is, a mighty, complete, powerful spirit of whirlwind and warlike tempest of the Chaldeans, with which I will engulf the Jews) from these (desert places) will come to me — in my service. This is the voice of God. So St. Jerome.
Second, from the Hebrew it can be translated more forcefully with Vatablus: a wind more full and more vehement, namely, than a wind for cleansing and winnowing, will come to me. For it should be noted that God uses a twofold wind, that is, a twofold punishment: one for winnowing, cleansing, and correcting; a second for utterly destroying. He used the first when He punished Manasseh and other Jews; the latter when through Nebuchadnezzar He overthrew Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judea.
Now I will speak my judgments with them. — Vatablus, Isidore, and a Castro think these are the words of Jeremiah. Better, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, St. Thomas, and Lyranus judge them to be the words of God, as are the preceding words; for this is what He says: "And now," that is, then (for He speaks as if that time were already present) "I will speak my judgments," that is, my severe reproofs with them. I will speak, I say, not by voice, but by action; not with words, but with blows, namely, I will inflict upon them just and deserved punishments. See Canon 29.
Verse 13
13. Behold, he shall come up like clouds (namely, dark and thick with enemies), — the dense and dark army of the Chaldeans.
His horses are swifter than eagles. — Just as eagles in their first charge fly swiftly, powerfully, and loftily, and swoop upon other birds, striking them down and tearing them; so also the Chaldean horsemen will swoop into Judea, and will strike it down and tear it apart.
Note: The Chaldeans are here compared first to a lion, verse 7; second, to a scorching wind, verse 11; third, to a cloud and whirlwind, verse 13; fourth, to eagles, in the same place; fifth, to keepers of fields, verse 17.
Verse 14
14. How long shall harmful thoughts remain (in Hebrew thulin, you will cause to spend the night, that is, you will retain in your mind) in you? — For "harmful" Aquila likewise translates anopheles, that is, "of harm"; Symmachus, adikias, that is, "of injustice"; the Septuagint, ponon, that is, "of toils and sorrows." For the Hebrew word on or aven signifies all these things.
Verse 15
15. For a voice declares from Dan. — Note: "Dan," formerly Lais, afterwards Paneas, then named Caesarea Philippi by the tetrarch Philip, in honor of Emperor Tiberius Caesar, as Josephus testifies in Antiquities 18, chapter 3. It is the northern border of Judea toward Babylon, just as Beersheba is the southern border of Judea. Whence the expression, "from Dan to Beersheba," that is, through all Judea. Second, after the tribe of Dan comes the tribe of Ephraim, through which one comes to Jerusalem, that is: The enemy Nebuchadnezzar is at hand; I am now amazed to see fugitives and to hear messengers from Dan announcing that the Babylonians are approaching; even messengers from Ephraim, who announce that the "idol," that is, the standards of the Chaldeans inscribed with the idol Bel, is approaching. So Theodoret and St. Jerome. By "idol" can also be understood the fire which the Chaldeans worshipped and carried before their camps. For this was visible from afar to spectators. So Sanchez. Others, like Maldonatus, by "idol" understand the idolatrous Chaldeans, or Nebuchadnezzar himself, who caused himself to be adored as an idol in the golden statue (Daniel 3:5). But this idol of himself was erected by him later.
Note: For "idol" the Hebrew is aven, which signifies first, affliction, grief: whence others translate: A voice announcing affliction, or calamity, coming from Mount Ephraim. Second, aven signifies sin, and the idol which is the cause of affliction and grief.
Mystically, "from Dan" in Hebrew means the same as "judgment," "Ephraim" means "fruitfulness": therefore the judgment of the Lord will come upon Judah, that is, the land offending the Lord, from Ephraim, that is, from the abundance of God's wrath with an abundance of punishment.
Verse 16
16. Say to the nations. — So it should be read with the Roman editions, not "stir up the nations," as the Plantin editions and others read. The meaning is, that is: Let all the nations receive instruction and caution from the punishment of Jerusalem, that they may guard themselves against Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, when they see them besieging Judea so closely, diligently, and obstinately, that they seem to be not so much men as "keepers" of fields and vineyards: and this will happen not so much by their own strength and purpose, as by the fault of Jerusalem, namely because of her sins. So St. Jerome and Theodoret.
Vatablus and Isidore translate: Tell about the nations, namely the Chaldeans; proclaim in Jerusalem that watchmen are coming — in Hebrew notserim, that is, the soldier-guards of Nebuchadnezzar, who guard him, just as today the Swiss are called and serve as bodyguards and protectors of princes. Whence just as from Caesar they are called Caesareans, from the Praetor Praetorians, so from Nebuchadnezzar, who in Hebrew is called Nebuchadnetser or notser, abbreviated, they are called notserim, as if you would say, Nebuchadnezzarians. So Vatablus.
The Chaldean translates: armies of the peoples, plundering like grape-harvesters. He took notserim for botserim, that is, grape-harvesters: for the letters nun and beth are similar.
Verse 18
18. Your ways (that is, your evil actions and sins) have brought these things upon you.
This is your wickedness: because it is bitter, because it has reached your heart, — that is: Your bitter wickedness has penetrated your heart and the depths of your soul. Note: The Hebrew ki, that is, "because," is redundant as a pleonasm. Maldonatus interprets differently: Ki, he says, means the same as "wherefore"; whence he translates and explains it thus: Your wickedness was the cause why mar, that is, this bitter thing, namely this calamity, has penetrated even to your heart, just as in verse 10 he said the sword had reached even to the soul.
Verse 19
19. My bowels are in pain. — In Hebrew it is: my bowels, my bowels, I am in pain. Note that these are not the words of God, as St. Jerome holds, but of Jeremiah, that is: Because of this calamity of my people, I Jeremiah, compassionate toward them, am wholly struck in the innermost senses of my soul, so that my belly and the rest of my bowels ache, are shaken, and resound with pangs like a mournful harp, as Isaiah says of Moab (chapter 16, verse 11). So St. Jerome and Theodoret. Hence some understand by "bowels" the heart: for the heart is the bowel, that is, the vessel and receptacle of the soul; whence, explaining, he adds: "And the senses of my heart are troubled," says Hesychius.
Nazianzen, Oration 40 On Holy Baptism, and Gregory, Homily 10 on Ezekiel, take "bowels" to mean the mind: "He felt pain in his bowels, who felt the affliction of the mind;" whence he adds: "And the senses of my heart are troubled," says St. Gregory. But this seems to be a mystical interpretation: for in the literal sense the bowels are properly understood here.
The senses of my heart are troubled. — In Hebrew: The walls of my heart, that is, my inward parts, repeat: I am in pain; my heart is in tumult within me, that is, it leaps and palpitates, as usually happens in those who are terrified and stricken. Whence Aquila translates, echladsei, that is, "it is in tumult"; the Septuagint, maimasssei, that is, "it fluctuates" (although the Complutensian edition reads me piezei, that is, "it oppresses me") my soul.
Because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet (of the Chaldeans). — He does not say he saw the trumpet with his eyes, but heard it in his mind; because he only foresaw it in spirit through prophecy.
Verse 20
20. Destruction upon destruction is called for, — that is: After famine, the sword assailed the Jews, says Lyranus, and after the siege, captivity, says Maldonatus. Second, Vatablus and Hugh, that is: The devastation of the two tribes came after the devastation of the ten tribes. Third, and most plainly, this phrase signifies a heap of calamities succeeding one another, not by chance, but as if summoned and sent by God upon the impious Jews. So St. Jerome.
My tents are laid waste, suddenly my curtains, — that is, the temple is laid waste, which was like the tabernacle of Moses, covered with skins, say Lyranus and Dionysius. Second, the "tents" are the houses and fortified cities, which the Chaldeans will destroy as easily as tents made of skins, says a Castro. Third, and most simply, that is: All the land, that is, all the fields are devastated, and the shelters made of skins in them for keeping watch, whether over flocks, or for guarding grapes and fruits, are likewise devastated.
Note: "Skins" means the same as tents or shelters made of skins. Finally, by catachresis, "tents" and "skins" here can signify any houses and cities. For the first dwellings of the wandering patriarchs were tents. So Maldonatus.
Verse 21
21. How long shall I see the fugitive? — So also the Septuagint translate: the fugitive, namely the Jewish people fleeing from the face of the Chaldeans. Correctly: for they read nas; now with other vowel-points they read nes, that is, a standard. So the Chaldean and Vatablus, that is: How long shall I see the standard, and hear the trumpet and the tumult of the enemy: that is, how long will the war last, and the din, fear, and horror of war?
Verse 22
22. Because they are foolish. — God replies, that is: It will last as long as the Jews persevere in their folly, so as not to acknowledge me.
They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. — Thus sinners and the worldly see and understand clearly earthly and transient things, but do not perceive heavenly and eternal things: they are wise for committing vices, most unskilled for acquiring virtues: in worldly matters they are lynxes, in heavenly matters moles. St. Basil, Homily 8 on the Hexaemeron, compares such people to owls, which have keen eyesight in darkness, but are blind in the light. The devil does this. A type of this was Nahash, king of Ammon, who said to the citizens of Jabesh Gilead (1 Samuel 11): "On this condition I will make a covenant with you, that I may gouge out all your right eyes."
For Nahash in Hebrew means the same as serpent, that is, the devil. The left eye is that by which we see earthly things; the right eye, that by which we behold heavenly and eternal things. This foul covenant, therefore, the infernal Nahash strikes with many, so as to gouge out the right eye and preserve the left: so that they may see keenly in human affairs, but be blind in divine things.
On the contrary, holy men are blind to the world, but seeing before God, of whom St. Chrysostom says, Homily 24 on Genesis: "The eyes of faith, he says, when they see those ineffable goods, do not even perceive these visible things;" and Homily 52 on the Acts: "No one who sees invisible things sees visible things."
Verse 23
23. I looked upon the earth, and behold it was void and nothing. These are the words of the Prophet, that is: I Jeremiah foresee so great a calamity for Judea that the land is to be utterly desolated of all livestock and wild animals, so that even the birds will fly away from it, and to men in the deepest affliction and disturbance the sun and sky will seem to grow dark, the mountains and hills to move; and the gloomy and cloudy sky and the desolate land will seem to mourn this slaughter of men. So St. Jerome and Theodoret. See Canon 33.
Vatablus and Lyranus interpret otherwise: The earth, they say, and the mountains, that is, the inhabitants of the land and the mountains; or the mountains, that is, the princes; and the hills, that is, men of the lower order, were moved and troubled.
Note: For "void and nothing" the Hebrew is tohu vavohu, which our translator renders in Genesis 1:2 as "formless and void"; the Chaldean: empty and desolate; Symmachus: synkechymene, that is, confused, that is: The Chaldeans will reduce Judea to that desolation and solitude in which the earth was created by God (Genesis 1), so that it will seem to return to its original chaos.
Tropologically, a certain wise man, meditating on the glory and greatness of heaven, when he had ascended there in mind, and then looked down upon the earth as if it were a mere point and despised it, said: "I looked upon the earth, and behold it was void and nothing."
Verse 25
25. I looked, and there was no man. — Because nearly all men in Judea were either slain or carried off by the Chaldeans, or had scattered in flight.
Symbolically, Cosmas Magalianus elegantly treats this passage in his commentary on 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 5, note 2: The earth, he says, is void when it lacks men endowed with virtue, for whom it was made; when therefore we encounter everywhere proud lions, grasping harpies, and voracious wolves instead of true men, does not the earth seem formless and void? For, as Epictetus says: "He is not worthy of the name of man who is not devoted to virtue." Hence Jeremiah says: "I looked, and there was no man." Diogenes the Cynic, walking in the Athenian marketplace in broad daylight with a lantern held before him, when asked what he was doing, replied: "I am looking for a man, and cannot find one." The true man, therefore, is the one described in Ecclesiastes 12:13: "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole of man;" or, as the Septuagint translate: In this consists every man. He therefore who fears God, he alone is a true man; the rest, as profligates and intem-
And every bird of the sky departed. — Which Grotius refers to the birds being shaken by the military clamor disturbing the air and dropping their wings.
But it would be better to say this pertains to the description of universal desolation. "He looked, says St. Jerome, and gazed this way and that, and not even a bird could be found. That this is true, the whole world now shows: when the multitude of men is slaughtered, the birds too, which usually follow the inhabitants, depart and perish."
Verse 26
26. I looked, and behold Carmel, — the most fertile mountain of Judea, by which he means all Judea, as I said at chapter 2, verse 7. Was a desert. — That is, it is to be forsaken, because it was devastated. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, Lyranus. But Vatablus and Pagninus take "Carmel" as a common noun, and translate: the pasture land or fertile place has become a desert. But it amounts to the same meaning, which the Chaldean clearly expresses by translating: Behold, the land of Israel, which was planted like a paradise, has been turned into a desert.
Verse 27
27. I will not make a full end. — Judea will not be completely or utterly consumed, because they left some in it to cultivate the land: or rather, because the Jews were brought back from captivity after seventy years. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, and others.
Verse 28
28. The earth shall mourn, and the heavens grieve, — that is: The earth will seem to mourn in its desolation and squalor. "It will mourn," therefore, means it will be made desolate. "The heavens will grieve," that is, they will grow dark, as the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate, so that the air and skies will seem dark to the afflicted Jews, and strike sorrow into them. See what was said at verse 23.
Because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, — that is: These plagues and terrors will certainly come upon the Jews: because I have spoken them and threatened them, not rashly, nor from sudden anger, but after long thought and deliberation; and therefore I do not repent of my decree and my threat, I will not change it, nor revoke it.
Nor am I turned away from it. — I will not be turned away, I will not desist from my purpose of avenging and punishing the Jews.
Verse 29
29. They entered the thickets. — Into the steep woods and rocks the Jews withdrew, fleeing the Chaldeans. In Hebrew it is: they entered abim, clouds, that is, places as high as clouds. Second, the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Pagninus, deriving abim from the root aba, which means to thicken, making dense, translate: they entered into thick groves or forests; the Septuagint: into caves.
Verse 30
30. When you clothe yourself in scarlet. — He alludes to Jezebel, who, when Jehu the enemy entered Samaria, "painted her eyes with antimony and adorned her head," so that like a harlot she might lure Jehu into love of her: but in vain; for Jehu sought her life and her kingdom. The meaning therefore is: O Israel, once my people, who now adorn yourself so carefully with garments, necklaces, rings, antimony, like a harlot — do you think your lovers will then be favorable or helpful to you? You are mistaken, for those very ones will strip you of your garments and goods and every ornament. Therefore in vain "shall you make yourself fair"; in Hebrew titiappi, that is, you will paint yourself, you will put on a false appearance with cosmetics, so as to seem beautiful and attractive.
Note: These lovers are foreign nations, especially the Chaldeans, whose friendship the Jews courted by worshipping their idols. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus.
They will seek your life (soul), — to destroy it.
perate, wear only the mask of a false man.
Verse 31
31. For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor. — This is the voice of Jeremiah about the city devastated, afflicted, and suffering like a woman in labor.
Anguish as of one giving birth, — In Hebrew and Chaldaic, mabkira, of one bearing a firstborn, that is, of one giving birth to a firstborn: for bechor means firstborn. Hence the Septuagint translate prototokouses, of a woman giving birth for the first time, who, not yet having experienced childbirth, nearly dies at the first pain, and barely able to breathe, collapses with arms spread and extended in a faint. In the same way will the daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem, act when she sees her children slain.
(The voice therefore of her) dying and stretching out her hands (for thus it should be read with the Roman editions, the Hebrew, and the Septuagint, not "dying and stretching out," as the Plantin editions read; the voice will be this): Woe is me, for my soul faints. — Thus St. Jerome calls Zion, or Jerusalem, the native inhabitants, namely the citizens, and the mothers of Jerusalem. Vatablus and the Rabbis translate instead of "stretching out," "clapping her hands together" in grief.
Because of the slain. — Our translator reads harugim, and so also the Septuagint. Now with other vowel-points they read horegim, that is, the slayers, that is: Jerusalem will grieve most intensely because of the cruelty of the Chaldeans slaying the Jews. So Vatablus, the Chaldean, and Pagninus.