Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God commands Jeremiah to stand in the gate of the temple, and there to rebuke the idolatry of the Jews, and to assert that they will not escape destruction either on account of the sanctity of the temple or on account of the frequency of their sacrifices. First therefore, verse 1, He overthrows the vain confidence of those saying "The Temple of the Lord." Second, verse 11, He says they have made the temple a den of thieves; He therefore threatens them with a destruction similar to Shiloh. Third, verse 16, He forbids Jeremiah to pray for them or to oppose His wrath, because they offer cakes to the queen of heaven. Fourth, verse 21, He rejects their victims. Fifth, verse 30, He says they will be slain in Topheth, because they have burned their children there to the idol Moloch.
This sermon has, as it were, two parts: the former refuting the false presumptions of security of the Jews, chapters 7 and 8, verses 1-17; the latter convincing the Jews of the certainty and justice of the imminent punishment, chapter 8, verses 18-22; chapter 9, 1-26.
Having therefore prefaced with a preamble or introduction to the sermon in which he received from God a command to take his station at the entrance of the temple and to address those entering, verses 1-2; and having given a summary of exhortation and promise, verse 3; he undertakes the first part, refuting the false presumptions of security of the Jews.
FIRST, the confidence placed in the temple. This is dispelled by showing, first, that the graces promised to the temple are understood as joined with the piety of those who frequent it, verses 4-7; second, that the same are by no means to be expected by its profaners, verses 8-10; third, that certain punishments rather threaten here, already forewarned by a similar example, verses 11-15; fourth, that this sentence of judgment has been so decreed by God that neither is it lawful for the Prophet to intercede for the convicted, nor to hope that by prayer for the people on account of the few who may be in it, he can avert the destruction consecrated to them, for all are corrupt, and people of every age and sex are occupied in sacrifices to idols, which are to be offered to false gods, verses 16-20.
SECOND, the hope derived from sacrifices. This is snatched away by indicating, first, that obedience is held by God as of greater value than victims, verses 21-22; second, that the crime of disobedience among the Jews has hitherto been common and is presently repeated, verses 24-28; third, that the idolatrous profanation, introduced into the temple and its vicinity, is the cause both of the lamentation commanded to the Prophet, verses 29-31, and of the decreed divine destruction, verses 32-34; and of the violation to be inflicted on the tombs and bones of the dead, chapter 8, verses 1-2; and finally of the despair of the survivors that will follow, verse 3.
SECOND, the hope derived from sacrifices. This is snatched away by indicating, first, that obedience is held by God as of greater value than victims, verses 21-22; second, that the crime of disobedience among the Jews has hitherto been common and presently repeated, verses 24-28; third, that the idolatrous profanation, introduced into the temple and its vicinity, is the cause both of the lamentation commanded to the Prophet, verses 29-31, and of the decreed divine destruction, verses 32-34; and of the violation to be inflicted upon the tombs and bones of the dead, chapter 8, verses 1-2; and finally of the despair of the survivors that will follow, verse 3.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 7:1-34
1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2. Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and preach there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah, you who enter through these gates to worship the Lord. 3. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your pursuits good, and I will dwell with you in this place. 4. Do not trust- in lying words, saying: The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord it is. 5. For if you will truly direct your ways and your pursuits: if you will execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6. if you will not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, and will not shed innocent blood in this place, and will not walk after strange gods to your own hurt: 7. I will dwell with you in this place; in the land which I gave to your fathers from age to age. 8. Behold, you trust for yourselves in lying words, which will not profit you: 9. to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer libations to the Baals, and to go after strange gods whom you do not know. 10. And you have come and stood before Me in this house, in which My name has been invoked, and you have said: We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations. 11. Has this house then, in which My name has been invoked, become a den of thieves in your eyes? I, even I am He: I have seen it, says the Lord. 12. Go to My place in Shiloh, where My name dwelt from the beginning: and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel: 13. and now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord: and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, and you have not heard: and I have called you, and you have not answered: 14. I will do to this house, in which My name has been invoked, and in which you have confidence; and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15. And I will cast you away from My face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim. 16. Therefore do not pray for this people, nor take up praise and prayer for them, and do not resist Me: because I will not hear you. 17. Do you not see what these people do in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and to pour libations to strange gods, and to provoke Me to anger. 19. Do they provoke Me to anger, says the Lord? Is it not rather themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? 20. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold My fury and My indignation is kindled against this place, against men, and against beasts, and against the trees of the field, and against the fruits of the earth, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. 21. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your holocausts to your victims, and eat the flesh. 22. For I did not speak to your fathers, and I did not command them, on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning holocausts and victims. 23. But this word I commanded them, saying: Hear My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people: and walk in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. 24. And they did not hear, nor incline their ear; but they walked in their own desires, and in the depravity of their evil heart: and they went backward and not forward, 25. from the day that their fathers went out of the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising daily at dawn and sending them. 26. And they did not hear Me, nor incline their ear; but they hardened their neck; and they did worse than their fathers. 27. And you shall speak to them all these words, and they will not hear you: and you shall call them, and they will not answer you. 28. And you shall say to them: This is the nation that has not heard the voice of the Lord their God, nor received discipline: faith has perished, and has been taken away from their mouth. 29. Cut off your hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high: because the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation of His wrath, 30. because the children of Judah have done evil in My eyes, says the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which My name has been invoked, to defile it: 31. and they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom: to burn their sons, nor is it lawful for a convicted person to intercede, nor to hope that by prayer for the people on account of the few who may be in it, the destruction consecrated to them can be averted, for all are corrupt, and people of every age and sex are occupied in sacrifices to idols, which are to be offered to false gods, verses 16-20. and their daughters in the fire: which I did not command, nor did I think of in My heart. 32. Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and it shall no longer be called Topheth, and the Valley of the son of Hinnom: but the Valley of Slaughter, and they shall bury in Topheth, because there will be no other place. 33. And the carcass of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive them away. 34. And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be a desolation. because it is not the place that sanctifies the people, but the people who sanctify the place. The author of the sermon to the Brethren in the Desert, attributed to St. Augustine, sermon 10: "Behold, he says, we are in solitude, we are in the desert; yet the place does not make saints, but good works will sanctify the place and us." And shortly after: "For the Angel sinned in heaven, Adam sinned in paradise; and yet no place was holier than that. For if places could bless their inhabitants, neither man nor Angel would have fallen from their dignity." Finally St. Augustine in the Sentences, number 6: "The true confession of one who blesses, he says, is when the sound of the mouth and of the heart are the same. But to speak well and live badly is nothing other than to condemn oneself by one's own voice." And number 76: "He rightly sings in God's praise whose works agree with his voice. For when the hymn is finished, the voice is silent. But in good deeds, the persevering life never ceases to proclaim His glory, whom it rejoices to see at work within itself." attributed to St. Jerome writes that Gehenna means the same as the valley of grace, from ge, that is, valley, and chen, that is, grace, or chinnam, that is, freely. For in hell there is no place for grace, but for justice and vengeance.
Verse 2
2. Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord (stand in the Eastern gate of the temple, which was the most famous and most frequented, say Vatablus and Isidore), AND PREACH THERE — so that you may be heard by all who go out and come in.
3 and 4. Make your ways good (correct your morals). Do not trust in lying words (which the false prophets thrust upon you) SAYING: THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD THEMSELVES — (so the Hebrew), namely the Jews are, that is, they belong to the Temple of the Lord: because in their city they have the temple, and in it they worship God, as if to say: Therefore they will not be devastated by the Chaldeans, for God will not allow His temple to be defiled. But they are deceived: for God chose not the nation for the sake of the place, but the place for the sake of the nation, 2 Maccabees 5:19. For God seeks a spiritual temple, in which dwell true faith, holy conduct, and the chorus of all virtues, says St. Jerome, as if to say: This feigned ceremony or temple will not benefit you, unless you cease from thefts, adulteries, murders, and idolatry. Whence follows verse 9: "To steal, to kill," as if to say: Since you still steal, kill, etc.
Note: They repeat "the Temple of the Lord" three times because there were three parts of the temple, and as it were three temples, namely the court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. So Vatablus, Isidore, and the Hebrews; or, as the Chaldean and Hugo say, on account of the three annual feasts at which they were required to visit the temple: for the Jews thought that by this practice they expiated all their crimes; or, as Lyranus says, on account of the firmness of the hope which the Jews placed in the temple. Others give a fourth and simplest explanation: because they said it very frequently, and shut the mouth of Jeremiah with "the Temple of the Lord."
But by the temple they understand all the external and public worship of God, which was conducted in the temple: for through it the Jews thought they could appease God and expiate all their sins. A similar passage is Isaiah 56:1. Rightly St. Jerome says to Paulinus: "It is praiseworthy not to have been in Jerusalem, but to have lived well in Jerusalem. And from Jerusalem and from Britain alike the gate of heaven lies open. Do not look to the trappings and vain names of Catos. To be a Christian is a great thing, not to appear one."
St. Bernard also speaks excellently in his sermon On Wood, Hay, and Stubble: "Nowhere, he says, is there security, brethren, neither in heaven, nor in paradise, much less in the world. For in heaven the Angel fell in the very presence of the Divinity; Adam in paradise from the place of delight; Judas in the world from the school of the Savior. I say this lest anyone flatter himself on account of this place, because it is said: This place is holy."
Symbolically and prophetically, He said "the Temple of the Lord" three times, speaking of three buildings of the temple: He calls those liars who vainly promise themselves a third temple, namely first, that of Solomon; second, that of Zerubbabel; third, that of the Messiah, whom they await in vain, as Peter Nigri argued against the Jews at Regensburg, and from him Vilalpando, volume 2, part 2, book 5, distinction 14, chapter 68, page 575.
Verse 5
5. IF YOU WILL WELL DIRECT. — Correct with the Roman editions, the Hebrew, and the Septuagint: if you will well direct, that is, if you make straight your ways, that is, your actions.
Verse 7
7. I will dwell with you in this place. — The interpreter reads sachanti in Qal, that is, I will dwell; but now they read siccanti in Piel, that is, I will cause you to dwell, I will firmly establish you in this land.
Mystically, God dwells with us: first, through the constancy of faith. Ephesians 3:17: "That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts." Second, through the harmony of fraternal love. Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them." Third, through obedience to the commandments. John 14:23: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and We will come to him, and We will make Our abode with him." Fourth, through contemplation, Revelation 3:20: "I stand at the door, and knock; if anyone hears My voice, I will come in to him, and will sup with him." So St. Thomas.
Verse 8
8. YOU TRUST FOR YOURSELVES IN LYING WORDS — in vain, wicked, and lying things, which follow, namely "to steal, to kill," etc., and especially in this, that after these crimes "you have said" and you say: "We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations."
TO STEAL, TO KILL, etc. — That is, as the Septuagint has it, you steal, you kill, etc., and as the Chaldean translates, you are thieves, murderers, etc., and meanwhile you have come and you come into the temple, and you say: We are freed from our crimes, and from their punishments, by entering the temple; and therefore no plague will come upon us, "because," that is although, we have done such abominations. So Vatablus, Pagninus, Maldonatus, and others. For this was their vain confidence, which they boasted at verse 4, "the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord."
There is a triple Hebraism here. First, because the infinitive is used for the indicative or past tense: "to steal" means you steal or you have stolen. Second, because the servile letters, that is, conjunctions, are understood: for indeed, however, etc., according to Canon 24. Third, because "because" is used for "although." Thus "because" and "since" are sometimes used for "although," as in Psalm 77:20: "Can God prepare a table in the desert? since He struck the rock, and waters flowed:" since, that is, although. The meaning therefore is: although God, having struck the rock, gave us water, can He therefore also give us bread? Isaiah 12:1: "I will confess to You, O Lord, since You were angry with me," that is, I will praise You, even though You were angry with me. Indeed, these causal words sometimes signify not the cause but the effect, as in Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me," which the Septuagint and Christ, in Luke 4:18, translate, "on account of which He anointed me," where in the Hebrew is iaan, which in sound and meaning is related to the word lemaan, which is in our passage. In Hebrew, for "to steal" there is haganob, that is, for stealing; whence some translate thus: By stealing, killing, etc., will you come before Me? Others: Will you steal, kill, etc., and come before Me? Most clearly they translate: By stealing, killing, that is, after you have stolen, killed, etc., will you come into My temple and say: We are delivered? This sense agrees with the version of our Interpreter, and with the meaning explained a little above. And so Vatablus, Maldonatus, Pagninus, and others explain it.
WE ARE DELIVERED. — So the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and the other interpreters. The Septuagint alone translates: We have abstained from doing all these abominations; as if to say that the lying words in which they trusted were this, namely that, while they were stealing, killing, etc., they nevertheless denied that they had stolen, killed, etc.
We have not sinned — that is, although we have done so, as I said at verse 8. Sanchez takes "because" not as adverbs, but as pronouns, as if to say: We are delivered, that is from that, namely the sin, which we committed. But the text does not have "we committed" but "we should have committed." Add that the Hebrew lemaan is not a pronoun, but an adverb meaning "because" or "on account of." Others explain thus: You come into the temple to give thanks that your thefts and murders have succeeded well for you. Others translate: so that we may do, that is, so that we may steal and kill more. For the Hebrew lemaan, when it precedes an infinitive, properly means the same as "in order to" or "for." Others: so that you may do, as if to say: You ask nothing in the temple except help for stealing, killing, etc., or, as if to say: Since so easily, namely by the mere entering of the temple, you are freed from sins and punishments, hence in security you will repeat and perpetrate them. So the Chaldean and Isidore. These versions show the greater impudence of the Jews in their sins: our version, however, is simpler and more fitting.
Finally St. Jerome, Hugo, Lyranus, and Dionysius explain it thus: These Jews are so impious that they say they have been freed from sins and plagues through their abominations, that is, through their thefts, murders, contempt of God, and idolatry: for they think that by their obstinacy and audacity they overcome, indeed bind the hands of God, so that He does not dare, or does not deign to punish people so wicked and lost: just as naughty boys sometimes by their insolence overcome and, as it were, paralyze the gentle hands of a soft teacher, so that he does not chastise them, fearing they may become worse.
Verse 11
11. HAS THIS HOUSE THEN BECOME A DEN OF THIEVES IN YOUR EYES? — so that, namely, in the temple as in their cave and den, thieves, murderers, perjurers, etc., of whom mention has preceded, may dwell. So Vatablus, Hugo, St. Thomas, the Chaldean; or, as Lyranus says: Just as thieves have caves for refuge, so these people think themselves pure and safe if they visit the temple, and there offer sacrifices even from plunder. But they are deceived, "because I am He" who "has seen" their crimes, which they think either hidden or expiated through sacrifices offered in the temple. I am He who has noted them down, to avenge and punish them shortly. For their victims cannot blind Me, or veil My eyes. To this Christ alludes, Matthew 21:13, saying: "It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves."
Verse 12
12. GO TO MY PLACE IN SHILOH, WHERE MY NAME DWELT — that is, as the Chaldean says, My majesty, that is, I Myself; for the Ark, before the temple was built by Solomon, was in Shiloh, a city of the tribe of Ephraim. But God devastated Shiloh on account of the sins of its inhabitants, Psalm 77:60; and He here threatens to devastate Jerusalem with the temple in like manner because of the sins of the Jews. Whence He adds:
Verse 13
13. AND I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU, RISING EARLY. — "Early," that is, timely, diligently, vigilantly. Second, "early," that is, opportunely. For in the morning the mind is more apt for hearing and thinking about rational matters, and those things which are of God. So St. Jerome. Thus even now God awakens us in the morning through Angels, and exhorts us to good. Hence Plutarch, in his book That a Prince Requires Learning, says: The king of the Persians had one chamberlain whose duty it was to enter in the morning and say to the king: "Arise, O king, and attend to those things which Oromasdes," that is, your good genius, "wished you to attend to."
Verse 18
18. THE CHILDREN GATHER WOOD — as if to say: All who are in the family contribute something and cooperate in idolatry, namely each contributes what is proper to himself. For it is proper for children to gather straw and wood, for men to light the oven, for women to knead cakes. So great is their zeal, so great their ardor for worshipping idols.
THE WOMEN KNEAD DOUGH. — In Hebrew it is: they put dough, or a lump and paste; for he calls dough flour, water, salt, and butter mixed and kneaded together, from which they made cakes.
TO THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. — The interpreter reads in Hebrew lemalcat, but now with other vowel points they read limlechet, that is, to the work; or, as others translate, to the service of heaven, as if to say: They make round and star-shaped cakes and imprint on them the figure of stars, to signify that they offer them to the queen of heaven and of the stars: the work of heaven is therefore what the star-shaped cakes are called, which are like the stars of heaven. The Septuagint translates, to the host of heaven; Vatablus, to the machinery of heaven; the Chaldean, to the star of heaven.
Now by these words Vatablus understands the sun; Kimchi and Pagninus understand Saturn, who is also called Moloch and Melchom.
Most aptly St. Jerome and St. Thomas say, "to the queen of heaven," that is, to the Moon, whom the Gentiles called Diana or Phoebe, as though she were the sister of Phoebus, that is, of the Sun: for the king of heaven is the Sun or Jupiter. The queen therefore is the Moon, on account of her magnitude and splendor, and because she rules the night: whence the Moon is also called from shining (lucendo), because she alone shines at night, says M. Varro; and from that she was called the night-shiner. That the Jews sacrificed to her is clear both from this passage and from chapter 44, verses 17, 18, 19, and 25.
Thus the Gentiles of old used to offer to the Moon a kind of cake, which they called bous, that is, an ox, from its resemblance to horns. Similarly others offered to Diana, that is, the Moon, amphiphontas, that is, cakes, with lit candles affixed all around them, in the temple called Munichia, according to the testimony of Pollux, book 6, chapter 14, Hesychius, and Eustathius.
With these Epiphanius compares, in heresy 79, the Collyridian heretics in Arabia, who had certain women who, in a decorated chariot or seat, covered with a spread veil, used to set forth a collyris or cake on a certain feast day for several days, and to offer it to the Blessed Mary as to a goddess, and thence all assembled together would partake. For he condemns this idolatry: for to the Blessed Virgin hyperdulia is owed and fitting, not latria, and consequently not sacrifice.
Furthermore, after Christ the philosopher Prodicus, according to St. Epiphanius, taught that the Moon was God. Similarly the Manicheans also worshipped the sun and the moon, according to St. Augustine, book 14 Against Faustus, chapter 11. For they taught that the throne of Christ was in the sun, wisdom in the moon, the spirit in the air, as the same Augustine reports, book 20 Against Faustus, chapter 6. Moreover, Muhammad in the Quran established the worship of Cubar, that is, of the moon. Finally, among Christians there remained relics of paganism, while, during a lunar eclipse, as though from a fainting of the soul, they would call it back to its light and fullness. St. Ambrose at Milan and St. Augustine in Africa suppressed such cries, as he himself testifies in sermon 245 On Time. For the Gentiles believed that the moon during an eclipse was seized by a dragon's mouth; and so, lest the dragon devour and swallow it, they would shout, thinking they could frighten the dragon with their clamor so that it would disgorge it.
Finally, it is probable, as Sanchez holds, that Moloch or Melech, or Melchom, was the sun, which is Melech, that is, king of heaven, and that from this the Moon, which is the sister of the Sun and Phoebe, was called Melcha, that is, queen. This is confirmed, first, because the moon precedes the sun, just as the god Moloch was preceded by Remphan, that is, the morning star, or the gem in the crown of Melchom representing the morning star, as St. Jerome teaches in his commentary on Amos chapter 5, Lyranus, Bede, and the Gloss on that passage in Acts chapter 7: "You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan." Second, because Melchom had a crown sparkling with gems like stars, 1 Chronicles 20. Moreover, the rays of this crown seem to have been like the rays of the sun, as were the crowns of the kings of the Persians. Third, because the Gentiles and Jews immolated their infants to Moloch, burning them with fire, because they thought the sun was of a fiery nature. Whence Ovid says:
You, eternal fires, and inviolable divinity, I call to witness.
I discussed Moloch at length in Leviticus chapter 18, verse 21.
Verse 19
19. DO THEY PROVOKE ME TO ANGER? IS IT NOT RATHER THEMSELVES? — as if to say: They think that by this idolatry they stir up bile or grief in Me (for the Hebrew caas signifies not only anger, but also grief, sadness, and every disturbance and affliction of the soul); they are deceived, I am impassible, but they can destroy themselves, and they provoke and draw upon themselves My wrath and vengeance, so that they will be angry with themselves and indignant that by their crimes they have brought shame upon themselves. So St. Jerome and Vatablus.
Verse 20
20. BEHOLD MY FURY, etc., IS KINDLED AGAINST THIS PLACE. — For "is kindled" the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate, is poured out; Vatablus, is melted like lead. It is a metaphor from furnaces in which iron and metals are smelted, as if to say: Just as fire smelts iron, melts it, and pours it out like a fiery torrent: so also My indignation boils over and speaks forth, and will soon be poured out upon the Jews. By anthropopathy anger, indignation, and fury are attributed to God, because God punishes sinners sharply as a man does, but a man from anger and passion, God from reason and justice.
Verse 21
21. ADD YOUR HOLOCAUSTS TO YOUR VICTIMS — that is, to your peace offerings, and then according to custom eat according to the law, Leviticus chapter 7, verse 16, eat. It is irony, as if to say: These holocausts will not appease Me, nor will they profit you, because I count them as nothing, as long as you do not correct your morals.
Verse 22
22. FOR, etc., I DID NOT COMMAND THEM ON THE DAY WHEN I BROUGHT THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, CONCERNING HOLOCAUSTS. — That this is true, says St. Jerome, is clear from Exodus, where God first gave the Jews the Decalogue on tablets of stone, as being chiefly His worship and pure religion; then after the offense of the idolatry and the worshipping of the calf, He subsequently commanded that they should sacrifice rather to Him than to the demon and the calf, and He prescribed certain victims of sheep, cattle, and goats to be sacrificed. For although in Exodus chapter 20, verse 24, God commands an altar to be made, yet He determines or prescribes no victims to be offered on it; for He prescribed those later in Leviticus. He merely commands therefore that the victims which they wish to offer voluntarily, they should offer on an earthen altar. Again, in Exodus chapter 29, He did indeed prescribe victims to be offered at the consecration of the priests, but those concern the priests rather than the people; and they are ordered to be offered not for the people, but for the consecration of the priests. But after the worship of the golden calf, Exodus chapter 32, immediately in Leviticus He prescribed certain holocausts, and certain peace offerings, and sin offerings to be sacrificed to Himself.
The same teach Irenaeus, book 4 Against Heresies, Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas, Dionysius, and Lyranus, as if to say: I prescribed the manner and method of sacrificing in Leviticus for the Jews, not for My own sake, as though I needed them, or delighted in the smell of flesh, as the Gentiles thought their gods, that is, demons, delighted in them (certain Fathers also thought the same, who held that demons lived on and were nourished by the vapors of these victims, and had a spiritual body: among whom St. Augustine, a man of such great genius and learning, expressly teaches this, in City of God, book 10, chapter 11). But I prescribed them for your sake, namely so that by them I might keep you in My worship, lest you should fall away to golden calves and idols and the sacrifices of the nations; whence at the beginning of the Law I only commanded that you should hear Me, never intending to prescribe sacrifices, but to leave them to your own choice, as before the Law I left them, had I not known you to be inclined toward the sacrifices of the nations. So Theodoretus, Hugo, St. Thomas, and the Fathers generally.
Sanchez responds differently, that God did indeed prescribe sacrifices in the desert, but did not wish these precepts to have binding force until the Hebrews, having entered Canaan and subdued the Canaanites, should possess it quietly and peacefully; for not until then was a definite place for the tabernacle and altar determined by God, in which these sacrifices were to be offered. The same teach Abulensis, in his commentary on Joshua chapter 18, question 1, and Serarius, question 11, on Joshua chapter 18, and indeed Moses himself teaches the same, Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses 4 ff.
The former explanation, as it is the more common, so it is the more genuine, and exhausts every difficulty.
Verse 24
24. AND THEY WENT BACKWARD AND NOT FORWARD — that is, first, they turned away from Me and from My will, as those who turn their backs on their masters; second, they went backward and did not advance; whence, explaining verse 28, he says: "And they did worse than their fathers;" third, they go back to the past, like the Egyptian flesh-pots, and despise future things, and therefore they suffer adversity, and nothing succeeds for them.
On the contrary, the Apostle admonishes us to forget what is behind and reach forward to what lies ahead, going from virtue to virtue.
Verse 28
28. FAITH HAS PERISHED. — Faith in God and true religion has perished in most of the Jews. So St. Jerome, Theodoretus, and Rabanus; second, "faith has perished," that is, truthfulness, fidelity, because almost all meditate and speak deceits and lies.
Verse 29
29. CUT YOUR HAIR — namely you, O Jeremiah, to signify and by this gesture represent that the Jews, who were as it were the hair, ornament, and crown of God, are to be cut off and cast away by God, to be scattered to every wind and region of the world, and as refuse to be trampled by the nations, and cast upon the dung heap, and there to rot; for Ezekiel signified the same thing by this cutting of hair, chapter 5, verse 1. So Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyranus, and Dionysius. Whence Maldonatus supposes that Jeremiah, like a Nazirite, had hitherto had unshorn hair. Sanchez agrees; for although, he says, in the Hebrew the words are feminine, yet they are taken for masculine; for God commands the Prophet to assume the wailing of women, that is, loud and resounding: for men in mourning rather groan than wail. Again, there is an allusion to the professional mourning women, who presided over lamentation, as if to say: Wail like the professional mourners.
But, because what immediately preceded was: "And you shall say to them, etc., cut your hair," etc. Hence the second interpretation is better: "cut," namely you, O Jerusalem, with your children and Jewish inhabitants; for in the Hebrew all these words are feminine.
Note: The ancients used to shear their hair, first as a sign of mourning; second, as a sign of servitude; for shorn hair was a sign of subjection for slaves, as it also is for women subject to their husbands, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 6 and 10, as if to say: O Jerusalem, you will be captured; therefore as a captive, shear your hair.
TAKE UP A LAMENTATION ON HIGH — as if to say: Place the shorn hair before you, so that with eyes directed straight at it you may weep as over the dead: so Lyranus and Hugo; second, the Septuagint, reading sephataim instead of sephaim, translate: Take up a lamentation on your lips, that is, speak in the manner of one lamenting; third, Vatablus, Pagninus, and Kimchi, reading sephaim, translate: Take up a lamentation upon the heights and mountains, as if to say: Look at the high places where you worshipped idols, for which you are now being devastated: there therefore weep where you sinned; fourth and best, "take up a lamentation on high," that is, cry out straight upward, stretch out the strong voice of lamentation to an upright place, that is, a high and lofty place, namely upon the mountains, so that you may be heard by all; for this is what the Hebrew sephaim demands.
HE HAS ABANDONED THE GENERATION OF HIS WRATH. — God has abandoned the nation of the Jews, against which He is angry, against which He rages and, as it were, is furious. This generation of God's wrath is called by Paul, Romans 9, "vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." The sinner therefore is like the target of God's fury, at which He aims and hurls all His weapons and arrows.
Verse 30
30. THEY HAVE SET THEIR ABOMINATIONS — that is, idols and the statue of Baal in the temple, as is clear from Ezekiel 8:3, namely Manasseh did this, 2 Kings 21:4 and 5. So St. Jerome and Theodoretus.
Verse 31
31. THE HIGH PLACES OF TOPHETH. — "High places," namely altars, which they erected as high places on lofty hills or mountains. So the Septuagint and others.
You will ask what Topheth is? I say first: Topheth was not an idol, as Theodoretus and Lyranus would have it, but a grove or wood, in which was a shrine or temple of Moloch. Topheth was situated in Gehennon, that is, in the most pleasant valley of the sons of Hinnom near Jerusalem, which was irrigated by the springs of Siloam.
I say second: The Hebrew Topheth can be derived first from the root pata, that is, to allure, to seduce; whence Theodoretus, question 26 on 2 Kings, says Topheth signifies a fall; second, St. Jerome says: Topheth is interpreted as breadth, from the root pata, that is, he widened: for it was the widest and most spacious place of the wicked; third, others derive Topheth from the root iapha, that is, he was beautiful: for it was a most pleasant valley; fourth, Francisco Forerius, on Isaiah 30, thinks it is called Topheth as if mopheth, that is, a portent: for it was like a portent that they immolated their own children there to the idol Moloch; fifth and best, Topheth is named from toph, that is, a drum, which these idolaters beat, so that the cries of the little ones being killed would not be heard by their parents. So R. Abraham, Lyranus, and others. Wherefore it is fabulous and ridiculous what Hugo the Cardinal writes from the Hebrews on Isaiah chapter 30, verse 33, namely that Gehenna is a Greek name, Topheth a Hebrew one, which signifies tophoi (which the Italians call tufi), hollow stones in the manner of pumice, among which an unquenchable and perpetual fire was nourished. For it is clear that Gehenna is a Hebrew name, not Greek, just as Topheth is Hebrew, not Latin tophes. Of the same kind is what the author of the book On Hebrew Names writes.
I say third: St. Jerome holds, on chapter 32, that in Topheth they immolated children to two idols, namely Baal and Moloch; but it is truer that they immolated only to Moloch, who is also called Melchom, who is also Baal, that is, the god of the Ammonites; for Baal was a common name for gods. But who was Melchom? Arias, on Amos chapter 1, thinks he was Mercury, whom the Ammonites worshipped as Melech, that is, king, or as Malach, that is, guide of souls, and messenger of the gods: for in Hebrew malach means messenger. But I reply that he was Saturn, who was called Moloch or Melech, that is, king, or Melchom, that is, their king. For to Saturn they used to immolate their dearest friends and children, especially to avert some grave calamity, both the Phoenicians or Canaanites, and the Carthaginians who descended from them. So Eusebius, book 4, Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 7, Philo, book 1 of the History of the Phoenicians, Curtius, book 4, and Diodorus, book 20.
Thus Pyrrhus, after the capture of Troy, sacrificed Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, and Ulysses sacrificed Astyanax, the firstborn of Hector, for a happy return to their homeland; Seneca celebrates their funeral rites in his Trojan Women.
Jeronimo Osorio, book 4, chapter 6, and Herodotus, book 7, write that it was the custom among the Persians, in thanksgiving to the gods, to bury alive underground boys and girls, the sons and daughters of natives, and that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, did this with fourteen sons of noble Persians. Thus the Mexicans in our own century used to slaughter twenty thousand men annually for the demon, before they were subjugated by the Spaniards: indeed they used to form a certain idol out of flour mixed with human blood on a certain feast day, and after its adoration, cutting it into the smallest pieces they would distribute them individually, and each person would devour his portion, thus consummating the sacrilegious sacrifice. See what was said about Moloch in Leviticus 18:21.
I say fourth: This place was contaminated and destroyed by Josiah, 2 Kings 23:10, in the 12th year of his reign: therefore now, while Jeremiah was prophesying, Topheth had been overthrown. Jeremiah therefore taxes not present but past idolatry, as if to say: In Topheth you sinned, in Topheth also you will be punished. Whence the Hebrews and St. Jerome consider Topheth to be called Gehenna, that is, a place of punishment; because in that valley, where the Jews had sacrificed their children to Moloch, God destroyed them, as He threatened them in the following verse and in chapter 19, verses 6, 11, and 12. Finally, from that place, on account of a similar cruelty and burning, hell is called Gehenna by Christ, Matthew 5:22, and by Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 33; just as the place of the Blessed is called gan eden, that is, the valley or garden of delights, that is, paradise. So St. Jerome.
Hence the Jews hand down, or rather in their fashion fable, as St. Thomas narrates on Isaiah chapter 30, last verse, that in Topheth are the jaws of hell, or the vents of the fire of Gehenna, as the Poets imagine of Etna; because there, they say, two palm trees perpetually smoke. It is astonishing that the Jews followed so cruel a worship of an idol, neglecting the very easy worship of the true God. Whence Hercules, says Macrobius, book 7, Saturnalia, when an oracle demanded human victims, persuaded the Italians to offer wax images instead of living men.
Verse 32
32. AND IT SHALL NO LONGER BE CALLED TOPHETH. — He alludes to the root iapha, that is, he was beautiful, as if to say: Topheth shall no longer be called Topheth, that is, a place of beauty, pleasantness, and grace (for this is what Ennom signifies): but of slaughter, because there very many Jews will be killed and buried, "because there will be no other place" for burial, on account of the multitude of corpses.
Verse 33
33. CARCASS — that is, a corpse, that is, corpses.
Tropologically, those immolate their children to Moloch who spend their talent, strength, time, and works on lust, gluttony, and ambition: wherefore they too will descend into Topheth, and there will be burned with Lucifer. Truly St. Augustine in the Sentences, sentence 136: "All, he says, depraved desires are the gates of hell through which one goes to death: he submits to its dominion who rejoices that he has obtained for his enjoyment what he desired to his own ruin."
Verse 16
16. Therefore do not pray for this people — so impious, rebellious, and hardened. God feels Himself bound by the prayers of the pious, so as not to punish the wicked. Thus He says to Moses, Exodus chapter 32, verse 10: "Let Me alone that My fury may blaze." Moreover, God wishes and rejoices that He is resisted in vengeance, and that His hands are bound. For this is what He grievously complains about, Ezekiel chapter 13, verse 5: "You have not gone up against the breach, nor set up a wall for the house of Israel;" and chapter 22, verse 30: "I sought among them for a man who would build a hedge, and stand opposed against Me on behalf of the land so that I would not destroy it; and I found none."
NOR TAKE UP PRAISE FOR THEM — namely praise of God, that is, prayer; for the first part of prayer ought to be the praise of God and thanksgiving. Again: "Prayer is a sacrifice to God, an aid to the one who prays, a scourge to the devil," says St. Augustine. Vatablus translates: Do not take up a cry for them; for the Hebrew ranan means to cry out with a strong and effective voice; whence also Christopher a Castro thinks that frogs (ranae) received their name from the Hebrew ranan; for frogs are noisy creatures. Second, Sanchez says: Neither take up praise for them, that is, he says, do not bring an offering or sacrifice for them. For just as God is praised by voice, so also by gift, and especially by sacrifice. Thus Isaiah 60 says: "All from Sheba shall come, bringing gold and incense, and proclaiming the praise of the Lord."
Verse 14
14. I WILL DO TO THIS HOUSE, AS I DID TO SHILOH — just as I overthrew My tabernacle in Shiloh, when I allowed the Ark to be captured in the time of Eli by the Philistines because of the sins of the Shilonites and of Israel; and then under Jeroboam I abandoned all of Israel, and consequently Ephraim, in which Shiloh was; and I transferred Myself and My worship with the Ark to Judah and Zion, and finally I allowed all ten tribes to be led captive into Assyria because of their idolatry: so much more will I inflict the same destruction and Babylonian captivity upon you, O Jews, who have had the worship of God, and who perpetrate crimes graver than the Israelites, and I will bring devastation both upon this temple and upon the city and its inhabitants. So Theodoretus and others.
Verse 15
15. AS I CAST AWAY, etc., EPHRAIM — that is, the ten tribes, which by the Prophets are called "Ephraim:" first, because among them the mightiest was the tribe of Ephraim; second, because their first king Jeroboam was from Ephraim; third, because he established his royal seat in Samaria, which was in Ephraim.
Note: God cast away Ephraim, first, when He transferred the Ark with its worship from Shiloh to Judah and Zion, as I said; second, in the 6th year of Hezekiah, which was the 9th year of Hoshea king of Israel, when the ten tribes were captured by the Assyrians, 2 Kings chapter 17, verse 6.