Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He rebukes the vanity of idols and their punishment. First therefore, he exhorts them not to worship the signs of heaven and idols, because these are nothing other than gods made by hand. Second, verse 10, he sets against these the true God, whom he teaches must be worshipped, because He alone made and governs all things that are in heaven and on earth. Third, verse 17, he teaches that the Jews who worshipped idols will be devastated: hence he prays to God not to rebuke them in fury, as an enemy; but in mercy, as a father.
This appears to be an admonition to Jeconiah and the Jews carried off to Babylon, lest they imitate the idolatry of the Chaldeans; for this reason Jeremiah speaks in Chaldean, verse 11. So say the Chaldean, R. Solomon, Lyranus, and Isidore. Jeremiah therefore prophesied these things at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, as I said in the Chronological Table.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 10:1-25
1. Hear the word which the Lord has spoken concerning you, O house of Israel. 2. Thus says the Lord: Do not learn according to the ways of the nations: and do not fear the signs of heaven, which the nations fear: 3. because the statutes of the peoples are vain: because a workman with an axe has cut wood from the forest. 4. He has adorned it with silver and gold: he has fastened it with nails and hammers, that it may not fall apart. 5. They are fashioned in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak: they must be carried, for they cannot walk. Therefore do not fear them, because they can do neither evil nor good. 6. There is none like You, O Lord: You are great, and Your name is great in might. 7. Who would not fear You, O King of nations? For Yours is the glory: among all the wise of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. 8. They will alike be proved foolish and senseless: the teaching of their vanity is but wood. 9. Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the craftsman, and of the hand of the metalworker: violet and purple are their clothing. All these are the work of craftsmen. 10. But the Lord is the true God: He is the living God, and the everlasting King, at His indignation the earth trembles: and the nations cannot endure His threatening. 11. Thus therefore you shall say to them: The gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. 12. He who makes the earth by His power, who prepares the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretches out the heavens. 13. At His voice He gives a multitude of waters in the sky, and raises clouds from the ends of the earth: He makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth wind from His storehouses. 14. Every man has become foolish by his knowledge, every craftsman is confounded by his graven image: for what he has cast is false, and there is no breath in them. 15. They are vain, a work worthy of ridicule: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 16. The portion of Jacob is not like these: for He who formed all things, He it is: and Israel is the rod of His inheritance: the Lord of hosts is His name. 17. Gather up your confusion from the land, you who dwell under siege. 18. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will cast far away the inhabitants of the land in this time, and I will afflict them so that they may be found. 19. Woe to me for my destruction, my wound is grievous! But I said: Truly this is my infirmity, and I will bear it. 20. My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken, my children have gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. 21. Because the pastors have acted foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they have not understood, and all their flock is scattered. 22. Behold, the voice of a report comes, and a great commotion from the land of the north: to make the cities of Judah a desolation, and a dwelling place of dragons. 23. I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not his own: nor is it in a man to walk and to direct his steps. 24. Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment: and not in Your fury, lest perhaps You reduce me to nothing. 25. Pour out Your indignation upon the nations that have not known You; and upon the provinces that have not called upon Your name: because they have devoured Jacob, and consumed him, and destroyed him, and wasted his glory.
Verse 2
2. DO NOT LEARN ACCORDING TO THE WAYS OF THE NATIONS. — In Hebrew: do not learn the ways, that is, the customs and rites, of the nations; especially in what follows:
AND DO NOT FEAR THE SIGNS OF HEAVEN. — Note: The gentiles worshipped the stars as gods, deceived by their beauty, and because Plato in the Epinomis, and following him Origen, Book 1 of First Principles, chapter 7, judged them to be animate, and St. Augustine hesitates in the Enchiridion, chapter 58, where he wonders whether the sun, moon, and other stars are to be made blessed with us. Therefore they worshipped, feared, and revered them, as though they governed the sublunary world and were the cause of all things and actions in it, even free actions: hence also, as Virgil says: A black sheep for winter, a white one for favorable west winds, they offered them, that they might not harm but benefit. So says St. Jerome. For they believed all things were governed by the power of the stars, not by divine providence: hence they feared and worshipped the stars more than God (for "fear first made gods in the world"); especially since they heard from some natural philosophers that man is, as it were, a work and product of the stars: for when he is born, he receives his spirit from the sun, his body from the moon, his blood from Mars, his intelligence from Mercury, his desire from Jupiter, his lust from Venus, and his humors from Saturn. Moreover, they heard from certain astrologers that the stars have eyes and ears, and see and hear with them.
For thus among others writes Julius Firmicus, Book 2 of the Mathesis: "Now I will briefly explain which stars see others, and which hear them. Aries does not see Leo, but hears him: but Leo sees Aries, but does not hear him. Aries sees Cancer, and likewise
and hears: but Cancer does not see Aries, but hears him. Leo both sees and hears Taurus. Similarly Leo, Aries, and Gemini see Virgo slightly, but hear her: Virgo sees Gemini slightly, but hears fully. Cancer both sees and hears Libra. Leo neither sees nor hears Scorpio; but Scorpio sees Leo, and equally hears him. Virgo looks sideways at Sagittarius, but does not willingly hear him. Sagittarius both sees and hears Virgo. Libra sees Aquarius, but is not seen by Aquarius; yet they hear each other. Pisces and Scorpio do not see each other, but hear each other," etc. And he claims to have excerpted these things from the books of Abraham.
If even wise men believed these ravings, what would the common people not believe? Others said that the stars were not causes, but certain and fateful signs: as if the sky were a book in which God had inscribed our deeds and actions, and everything that would happen throughout the entire course of the world's age. So says Origen, quoted by Eusebius, Book 6 of the Preparation, chapter 9, who introduces the patriarch Jacob speaking thus to his sons: "I have read in the tablets of heaven whatever will befall you and your sons."
The same teaches Plotinus, a fellow student of Origen, Book 6 On Fate. Sirenius also considers this probable, Book 9 On Fate, chapter 35: "The Egyptians, he says, when representing fate, painted a star, because fate is measured by the course and disposition of the stars," says Horus Apollo, Hieroglyphics 3.
These are the things that judicial astrologers pursue. But this astrology is condemned here by Jeremiah and Ecclesiastes; see St. Augustine, who sharply attacks it, in On Christian Doctrine, chapters 21, 22, 23, and Pico della Mirandola, in his 12 books against it, and Pererius, Book 2 on Genesis, and our own Alexander ab Angelis, who recently refuted the astrologers in five books. The stars were indeed made for signs, but it is immediately explained how: "That they may be for days and years," Genesis 1:14. Also as signs of rain, flood, heat, cold; but only conjectural ones, and which often deceive. So comets, because they are of a fiery nature, signify and cause heat, drought, barrenness, winds, and blasts; and from these, pestilence, famine, and war, as Aristotle teaches, Book 1 of the Meteorology, chapter 7; Seneca, Book 7 of Natural Questions; Damascene, Question 15 on Genesis, and others. Damascene adds, Book 2 On the Faith, chapter 7; St. Thomas, Part 2, Question 36, article 7, reply 3; Bonaventure in the Second Book, distinction 14, Part 3, last Question, penultimate reply, that comets foresignify the death of kings and princes, whether this happens supernaturally by the ordination and intention of God and the angels, as Damascene and Bonaventure hold; or naturally, as others hold; because, as Albert the Great says, although a comet marks and causes deaths of both poor and princes, nevertheless the deaths of princes are more noted than those of the poor: or because princes are of a more delicate constitution and eat richer foods, and therefore the air infected by comets harms them more: or finally because princes foresee the calamities of the kingdom, and are so disturbed and grieved by them that they fall into languor and impending disaster before others.
So says Christopher a Castro, Book 1 of the Proem to the Minor Prophets, chapter 16. There is an amusing example of an astrologer, who, when asked by a prince about to go hunting about the weather, affirmed that it would be clear: but a peasant meeting the prince as he went out affirmed that rain was imminent: when it came, the prince made the peasant his astrologer, and ordered the astrologer to become a peasant. Hear the epigram on this matter: The astrologer said the sky would be cloudless, as the prince sought the woodland thickets: the plowman, accustomed to turning the soil with his oxen, said on the contrary that rain would fall from the clouds. The prince had scarcely entered the wood dense with holm oaks, when suddenly the waters of rain poured down. The prince praises the plowman, and orders him to teach the stars, but commands the astrologer to take up the rake.
Indeed, in this age too it would be fitting for some astrologers to become "rakeologists." King Alfonso of Aragon, generous to all learned men, passed over only the astrologers. When asked why, one who seemed to know more said: "The stars, he said, rule and impel fools; the wise command the stars. It therefore follows that foolish princes honor astrologers, not wise ones, among whom Alfonso holds his name." So says Aeneas Silvius, Book 4 of His Deeds.
The poet Accius, quoted by Gellius: "I put no faith, he says, in augurs, who enrich other men's ears with words, so that they may fill their own houses with gold."
Julius Caesar was most skilled in astronomy, on which he published distinguished books: and yet he could not foresee or avoid his own fate and murder.
Bion used to say "that astronomers are most ridiculous, since, while they do not see fish swimming beside them on the shore, they claim to see those that are in the sky." So Stobaeus, Sermon 78.
When a certain astrologer in the marketplace had displayed stars painted on a tablet and was saying: Here are the wandering stars for you; Diogenes, hearing this, said: "Do not lie, good man; for the stars do not err, but these do," pointing to those sitting nearby. Ibidem.
When Thales, while contemplating the sky, fell into a ditch, his maidservant rightly said he deserved it, since he gazed at heavenly things while ignorant of what was placed at his feet. Ibidem.
Ariston said "that of the things philosophers investigate, some pertain to us, some nothing, and some are above us." He meant that moral philosophy concerns us, sophistry has nothing to do with us, because it contributes nothing to the improvement of life,
but rather produces quarrels and contentions; and that astronomy, astrology, etc., are entirely above us. Ibidem.
Favorinus used to sting the judicial astrologers with a clever dilemma: "Either, he said, they predict adverse or prosperous events. If they predict prosperous events and are wrong, you will be miserable by waiting in vain. If they predict adverse events and lie, you will be miserable by fearing in vain. If they answer truly, and the events are not prosperous, you will already be miserable in mind before fate makes you so. If they promise happy events, and these are going to happen, then there will plainly be two disadvantages: the expectation will weary you, keeping you in suspense with hope, and hope will have already plucked the flower of future joy for you. Therefore one should by no means make use of such men who claim to foretell the future." So says Aulus Gellius, Book 14, chapter 1.
Hear also Alciato, Emblem 103: Icarus, you who were carried through the heavens and the air, until the melted wax cast you headlong into the sea; now the same wax and burning fire revive you, that you may by your example teach certain lessons: Let the astrologer beware of predicting anything: for the impostor will fall headlong, while he flies above the stars.
Nicetas Choniates reports, Book 1 On the Reign of the Emperor Isaac, that an astrologer predicted victory and triumph for Alexius Branas, if he should engage with Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat, who supported Isaac's faction. He therefore entered into battle with him, in which both Branas and the astrologer were killed.
In the year of the Lord 1544, Muley Hassan, king of the Tunisians, a most avid observer of the stars, having divined from the stars that the loss of his kingdom and a cruel death were threatening him, departed from Africa to avoid it; but by that very departure he brought down upon his own head the disaster he wished to avoid.
Finally, Albert the Great (or whoever the author is) in the Speculum, citing Albumasar, and Peter of Ailly, Archbishop of Cambrai, in the year 1400, in his book On the Harmony of Astrology and Theology, held that from the disposition and conjunction of the stars it was possible to foresee and predict the universal flood in the time of Noah: likewise the birth of Christ from the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and from the horoscope of Virgo, which was in effect when Christ was born, and signified the change of religion to be made by Christ. All of which Sixtus of Siena powerfully refutes, Book 6 of the Library, chapter 10, and Book 5, chapter 81.
BECAUSE THE STATUTES OF THE PEOPLES (concerning the rite of worshipping idols, as is clear from what follows) ARE VAIN, — because the idols are vain: that is, representing nothing true, or if they represent anything true such as stars, Jupiter, Mars, they have nothing of divinity; therefore the gods are vain: for idols are of two kinds, and vain in two ways, as I have already said. Jeremiah speaks here more of the former kind, which represent nothing true, as is clear from the following verses. The Syriac translates: Because the fears of the nations are nothing. Fears, that is, the idols which the nations fear, that is, revere and worship. The Arabic: Because the religion of the nations is useless.
Verse 3
3. BECAUSE A WORKMAN HAS CUT WOOD FROM THE FOREST. — He describes the emptiness of idols from their material and construction, because they are nothing but wood cut from the forest, and the work of the craftsman's hand "with an axe," that is, with an axe, that is, an adze, understood as hewn and polished: for this is the work of the craftsman, namely the carpenter, and third, adorned with gold, and fastened with nails. Therefore idols are nothing other than gods made by hand.
Verse 5
5. IN THE LIKENESS OF A PALM TREE, — that is, the idol is smooth, erect, tall, unbending, beautiful, leafy like a palm tree, that is: Idols are beautiful on the outside, but within they are lifeless, speechless, and senseless.
Verse 6
6. THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU, O LORD. — This is an apostrophe of Jeremiah to God, by which he compares Him to and sets Him above idols; hence he says: "Who would not fear You, O King of nations?"
Verse 7
7. FOR YOURS IS THE GLORY, — namely the kingdom, so that You may be honored and worshipped as King and God of the nations, most greatly to be feared. Hence the Chaldean translates: for Yours is the kingdom. Allegorically, that is: O Christ, King of nations, what nation will not fear You, will not worship You as its glory? So says Lyranus.
Verse 8
8. THE FOOLISH WILL BE PROVED (that is, it is easy to prove and convict them of being fools, from the fact that) THE TEACHING OF THEIR VANITY IS WOOD, — because they teach that wooden idols are gods and should be worshipped: which is the most vain and the most stupid thing. Or, as Sanchez says, that is: The wood from which they fashion idols, to which they pray, easily accuses them of stupidity and vanity. For in reality it teaches and shows them to be vain and stupid, who consider a piece of wood and a tree trunk to be God and a divine being, and to have knowledge and providence over all things.
Verse 9
9. BEATEN (silver). — In Hebrew merucka, that is, beaten metal, which is the best kind, or extended into plates, which is usually rolled up so it can be transported more conveniently: hence our translator renders it as "beaten" (involutum); or rolled, that is, capable of being rolled, beaten, which can easily be rolled, spread out, and bent by the silversmith, so that the wooden idol may be overlaid and plated with it.
IS BROUGHT FROM TARSHISH. — Tarshish was a city of Cilicia; from it the neighboring sea, and eventually any sea, even the Indian, was called Tarshish; and from this Africa and Carthage, which long ruled the sea and flourished in naval affairs, is called Tarshish. Here Tarshish means India, or certainly Africa, as the Chaldean translates, which Ezekiel, chapter 27:12, teaches was abundant in silver.
AND GOLD FROM OPHAZ. — The Chaldean, Sanchez, and others hold that Ophaz or Ophas, or by apheresis Pas, is the same as Ophir, as if through dialect the letter r were changed to s (just as the Parisians say pese instead of pere), while the vowel a was changed to i: for the Hebrews very easily interchange vowel points; thus according to the Chaldean's and others' opinion, Ophas is Ophir.
Moreover, Ophir is a region, named after Ophir the son of Joktan, Genesis 10:29. Vatablus and Arias think Ophir is Hispaniola and Peru: the Hebrew and the Septuagint support this, 2 Chronicles 3:6, where they call the gold of Solomon the gold of Parvaim, as if of the Peruvians.
Again, if you make the letter vav, which is the first in Ophir, the last, from Ophir you make Peru: for vav to the Hebrews denotes not so much the vowel u, as o. Therefore Ophir seems to be Peru; but against this stands, first, that in Peru there are no elephants, nor peacocks, nor apes, nor thyine wood, which were brought from Ophir, 1 Kings 10. Second, that Solomon's fleet set sail for Ophir from Ezion-geber, a port of the Red Sea, 2 Chronicles 8, which is close to Goa and the East Indies: for if this fleet had sailed to Peru and the West Indies, it would have set sail from Joppa and through the Mediterranean Sea, sailing directly to Peru; otherwise, setting sail from Ezion-geber, it would have had to go around the Arabian Gulf, the Cape of Good Hope, and all of Africa, in order to reach Peru.
Others therefore hold that Ophir is Angola in Ethiopia; whence Josephus teaches that this fleet, besides gold, also brought Ethiopian slaves.
Others hold that Ophir is Sofala, which is on the route for those sailing to Goa; hence the Septuagint translates: Sophar (for the letter r is easily changed to l, as Beliar to Belial). Others, such as Josephus in Genesis 10, and St. Jerome in the Hebrew Questions, and Gaspar Varrerius, in his book On Ophir, think that Ophir is the Golden Chersonese, or rather the entire coast contained between Pegu, Malacca, and Sumatra, and this is probable: for around these places in the East, not the West, Havilah, the brother of Ophir, son of Joktan, grandson of Noah, seems to have dwelt, Genesis 10:29. The ancients support this, as they generally hold that the river Pishon, which in Genesis 2:11 is said to flow around the land of Havilah, is the Ganges: for the Ganges is in the East Indies, not the West; hence Maffei, Book 16 of the Indian History, teaches from Chinese records that the Peguese trace their stock to the Jewish exiles who, condemned by Solomon to the gold mines of Ophir, first settled in those regions. But more on Ophir in the book of Kings.
Moreover, from Ophir the best gold is called obryzum, as if Ophirisum, says Isidore, and the same teach St. Jerome and Eucherius. Second, obryzum is so called because it gleams with its splendor, as the same Isidore says, Book 16 of the Etymologies, chapter 17. Third, Pliny, Book 33, chapter 3: The test of gold, he says, is fire, so that it glows red with the same color as fire, and they call it obryzum, not from reddening, but because it is most refined, absolutely pure, as it were tried gold, that is, tested and purified, as Seneca teaches, Book 2, Epistle 23. Or certainly, as Hermolaus from Phocion on the said passage of Pliny says, obryzum is called as if exeuzon, because when tested by fire it shines more, gleams, and glows red like fire: and this seems truer, both because it is closer and more fitting, and because in both cases there is the same letter b, not p, which is in Ophir but not in obryzum. However it may be, the gold of Ophas, Pas, Ophir, obryzum, is the best and most excellent gold; hence the Arabs also call gold Fes; from this John Leo in the Description of Africa, Book 3, thinks that the city of Fez was so named because, when the foundations of the city were being laid, a heap of fes, that is, of gold, was found there.
Mercerus, Forster, and others think differently, namely that gold called pas, or ophas, or uphaz, or muphas (for all these are the same) is named not from a place, but from a quality, and means, as it were: Strong and solid gold, both because it is purified and because it is dug from the best vein; for pas or ophas is said to come from the root pazaz, that is, he strengthened, solidified, whence paz, that is, strong, solid; for muphas clearly seems to be the hiphil passive participle from the root pazaz already mentioned. But against this stands what Jeremiah says here: "Gold is brought from Ophas." Therefore Ophas is the name of a place, not a quality of gold. Again, pazaz does not mean to strengthen, to solidify, as the Rabbis would have it; but to become soft, to be ductile, soluble, pliable, easily malleable like gold: for so our translator and the Septuagint render it, Genesis 49:24; and puts, which is related to pazaz, means to scatter, to spread apart. Therefore from the gold of Ophas or Pas is derived the verb pazaz, that is, to be ductile like the gold of Ophas: for the best gold, such as that of Ophas, can be bent, drawn, and extended into the thinnest leaves, as Pineda rightly observes, Book 4 On Solomon, chapter 18, where however he distinguishes Ophas from Ophir, as some others also probably distinguish these two places, and judge the gold brought from Ophas to have been better than the gold brought from Ophir: although the Chaldean thinks otherwise, as I said at the beginning.
Moreover, muphas is not a participle from pazaz, but by crasis it is the same as meophaz, that is, from Ophas, namely brought from there.
THE WORK OF THE CRAFTSMAN, — that is, gold and silver are fashioned by the work of the goldsmith, or the metalworker, or the silversmith, to make an idol from them, or rather to gild or silver-plate one already made of wood, as was described above: and by the work of another craftsman, namely the tailor, it is clothed in purple and violet, that is, a garment of violet and purple color. For idols made of pure gold are not usually clothed in violet, being a cheaper material; but those made of wood, decorated with golden borders or plates, are usually clothed in the same.
ALL THESE ARE THE WORK OF CRAFTSMEN, — that is: There is absolutely nothing in idols that has not been made by the hands of craftsmen, whether you consider their material and substance, or their garments and ornaments: therefore idols have nothing of life and reason; much less do they have anything of godhead and divinity.
Verse 10
10. THE NATIONS CANNOT ENDURE HIS THREATENING. — In Hebrew zaamo, His indignation, that is, His vengeance. He contrasts God with idols, in that He grows angry and punishes, but they do not.
Verse 11
11. THUS THEREFORE YOU SHALL SAY TO THEM, — that is, to the idols, and to the worshippers of idols, namely the Chaldeans:
THE GODS WHO DID NOT MAKE HEAVEN AND EARTH, LET THEM PERISH FROM THE EARTH. — Note that Jeremiah here speaks in Chaldean:
Elahaia di shemaia, vearka la abadu, iebadu meara umin techot shemata, that is, the gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from the things that are under heaven, because they unjustly occupy these things as if they were their own: for they are the creatures of God. So we say of a false possessor of a house: It is not fitting for him to dwell in a house not his own, or which another has built. Hence it seems that Jeremiah wrote this in the first year of Zedekiah to Jehoiakim and others carried off to Babylon, so that they might respond with these words to the Chaldeans who were inviting the Hebrews to worship their idols. So say the Chaldean and others. Maldonatus adds that Jeremiah speaks in Chaldean in order to mock the idols and idolaters: for we are accustomed to mock barbarians by using their own barbarous speech. Note in passing regarding the Chaldean that where the Hebrews say artsa, that is, earth, the Chaldeans say now arka, now ara.
So St. Eustratius (whose relics I venerated at Rome in the church of the German College), a commander of soldiers under Diocletian in Armenia, when compelled by the prefect Lysias to worship idols, replied fearlessly: "No man who was of sound mind ever judged that accursed demons and deaf images should be worshipped. For it has been said: The gods who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish."
Wherefore, burned with fire and torn with rods, he uttered no cry, nor showed any change of countenance, as if he were suffering in another's body, and mocking the tyrant, and having endured the most bitter sufferings of every kind, at last approaching the pyre as if approaching a banquet, he flew from it, pure with the flame, as it were, to God. The Church celebrates his feast on December 13.
Similarly, St. Perpetua and St. Felicity, with their companions Satyrus, Revocatus, and Secundolus, condemned to the beasts, going to the amphitheater, sang through the streets joyfully and fearlessly: "All the gods of the nations are demons; but the Lord made heaven and earth." Whereupon, at the command of the Prefect, they were struck with many blows; yet with even greater spirit and vocal power they repeated the same verse, praising and glorifying God. And nobly entering the amphitheater, soon St. Perpetua and Satyrus were torn by lions, while St. Felicity was torn by leopards, and they flew to heaven, in the year of the Lord 203, under the Emperor Severus. Therefore St. Augustine frequently celebrates these two women, and their fortitude and love for God, as in Book 1 On the Soul, chapter 10, on Psalm 47, Sermon On the Time of the Barbarians, and elsewhere.
Similarly, St. Publia, the mother of St. John Chrysostom, after her husband's death, establishing a choir of virgins and being made abbess, when Julian the Apostate was passing by, sang out with her virgins in a louder voice that verse of David: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold;" and: "Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them." Julian, indignant, ordered them to be silent. But at Publia's command, they sang more strongly and boldly: "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered." Therefore Julian ordered Publia to be struck with blows and her cheeks to be bloodied. But she, considering this insult as the highest honor, returned home and continued to mock the tyrant with spiritual songs, as was her custom. So Theodoret, Book 3 of the History, chapter 17, and the Roman Martyrology on October 9.
Verse 12
12. HE WHO MAKES, — supply, that is: Our God, however, is He who prepares, that is, as the Hebrew and Chaldean have it, who founds the world in wisdom.
Verse 13
13. AT HIS VOICE, — that is: At His command, rain is produced in the air: or at the thunder, which is the voice of God, rain follows, Psalm 29:3: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of majesty has thundered, the Lord is upon many waters."
AND HE RAISES CLOUDS, — that is, vapors. FROM THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, — that is, from the sea, which is, as it were, the boundary encircling the earth. So says Theodoret. Hugh, St. Jerome, Lyranus. Or from the outermost surface of the earth: for from this vapors ascend, some from mountains. Most aptly Sanchez says: The end or limit of the heavens is called that part of the sky which appears to us as the farthest, because the common people think the sky ends there: so also the farthest part of the earth is called that which the common people judge to be the farthest; for from there at a distance in the evening vapors seem to rise, from which rain is generated.
HE MAKES LIGHTNING FOR THE RAIN, — that is: God is wonderfully powerful, who causes rain to follow and mingle with the fiery lightning, indeed, as Pagninus translates, amid the lightning: for thundering and lightning clouds are like roaring lions, and like artillery shaking the earth. The rain immediately soothes, dissolves, and, as it were, tames these.
HE BRINGS FORTH WIND FROM HIS STOREHOUSES, — as it were from the treasury or secret receptacles of His omnipotence: for we do not know where the winds come from. Or secondly, "from His storehouses," that is, from His riches: for among the riches of God are also the winds.
Note here the contrasts between idols and God, which clearly show that God is truly God, not the idols. First, idols are dead things, namely stones or wood: but God is "the living God." Second, idols began in time: but God is "the everlasting King." Third, idols are fashioned by man with axe and plane like other manufactured things: but God, unbegotten, created heaven and earth, and consequently also the material from which idols are made. Fourth, idols do not feel, do not know, can do neither good nor evil: but God feels, knows, sees, and provides for all things; hence from His storehouses He produces at the fitting time winds, lightning, rains, etc. Fifth, idols cannot avenge their despisers: but God, most powerful and equally jealous, avenges the contempt shown to Him, so that no one can endure His wrath and vengeance. Whence the conclusion is left to be drawn: Therefore idols are to be laughed at and despised; but God is to be feared, loved, and worshipped.
Mystically St. Jerome says: Clouds are teachers and preachers; God brings these forth from the ends of the earth, that is, from a humble condition and self-abasement: on account of which He makes them effective, so that they are like thunder and lightning, which soon dissolve and resolve into the contrition and tears of their hearers, and the transformation of their lives.
Verse 14
14. EVERY MAN HAS BECOME FOOLISH BY HIS KNOWLEDGE. Vatablus says: man becomes brutish because of his knowledge, namely when he wishes to fully investigate the causes of rain, lightning, and winds, of which God alone has the knowledge and providence. So say St. Jerome, Lyranus, Hugh, and Dionysius. So in Psalm 139:6, it is said: "Your knowledge is become wonderful to me; it is strengthened, and I cannot reach it." Certainly the generation, circulation, and movement of winds, so varied and contrary, has tormented and still torments the minds of all natural philosophers: and to this day no one has been able to fully assign their cause. Hence Virgil, in Aeneid 1, imagines them as being released from Aeolia by Aeolus.
Second and more fittingly: "Man has become foolish by his knowledge," namely his own knowledge, by which, since he cannot penetrate the power of stars, winds, and lightning, he marveled at them and worshipped them as rulers of the world and as gods, and made idols for them; for he is treating of idols in the present passage. So say the Chaldean, St. Thomas, and Lyranus.
Again, man is foolish in his own knowledge, by which he carves idols and melts gold to fashion an idol from them: for it is foolish to think one can manufacture God, and that what has been manufactured by a craftsman is God, when rather the craftsman himself, and his art and knowledge, rather than his product, should be considered divine. Hence it follows: "Every craftsman is confounded by his graven image; for what he has cast is false, and there is no spirit in them." So say a Castro and Sanchez.
Morally: "Man is foolish, says St. Thomas, because of the knowledge of God. First, on account of the elation of heart, Romans 1: Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Second, on account of the curiosity of inquiry, and excessive mental fatigue; hence King Agrippa said to Paul: Much learning is driving you to madness, Acts 26. Third, on account of the uncertainty of knowledge. Isaiah 47: Your knowledge and your wisdom have deceived you. Fourth, on account of the perversity of works. Wisdom 2:21: For their malice blinded them." Thus far St. Thomas.
CONFOUNDED, — the maker of the graven image, that is, the idol, is put to shame. FOR WHAT HE HAS CAST IS FALSE, — that is: Because the graven image which he made deceives and falsely claims to be God.
Verse 15
15. IN THE TIME OF THEIR VISITATION (that is, punishment), THEY SHALL PERISH, — the idols, and the idolatrous Chaldeans (for of these he speaks), namely when Darius and Cyrus devastate Babylon. Otherwise Theodoret says: "They shall perish," when the Apostles root out idolatry; and plainly, says St. Thomas, "they shall perish" on the day of judgment.
Verse 16
16. THE PORTION OF JACOB IS NOT LIKE THESE, — that is: God, who is the hereditary portion of Israel, is not like the idols: "My portion, says David, is God forever," Psalm 73:26; Psalm 16:5; Numbers 18:20; because Israel possessed God, the worship of God, His friendship, His law, and all good things. Conversely, Israel is "the rod of His inheritance," that is, God's heritage; because God possessed this people descending from the patriarchs, as His own by hereditary succession, Deuteronomy 32:8-9. For since they measured and divided inheritances with rods and measuring lines, rods and lines signify a hereditary portion, Psalm 74:2; Psalm 105:11.
Second, Israel is to God a shebet, that is, a rod, or the scepter of God's inheritance, because God established His kingdom in Israel. So say St. Jerome, Rabanus, and St. Thomas.
Tropologically, the portion of the miser is money, of the lustful person, lust, of the proud, dominion; but the true Israelite, despising all things, desires to possess God alone, and says: "My portion, O Lord, I have said, is to keep Your law," Psalm 119:57. Hence such a person is the dwelling place, seat, and temple of God; the other is the dwelling of dragons, that is, of demons, verse 22.
Verse 17
17. "Gather," namely, you O Babylon, as Vatablus and Kimchi say: or rather, as Theodoret, Lyranus, St. Thomas and others with St. Jerome say: You, O Jerusalem and Judea! WHO DWELL UNDER SIEGE, — who are soon to be besieged. The Chaldean and others translate: who dwell in a fortress, or a fortified place; the Septuagint: in chosen things, that is, in a chosen place, gather your confusion; the Chaldean: your merchandise; Maldonatus and Sanchez: your idols, Isaiah 46:1. The Septuagint: your substance, that is, all your riches and resources that will profit you nothing, except for your confusion: for all these things in which you trusted will not deliver you from the Chaldeans, but will go with you into captivity. So says St. Jerome. It is irony, or rather sarcasm, that is, a hostile mockery. See chapter 11, verse 14.
Verse 18
18. I WILL CAST FAR AWAY (in Hebrew kolea, that is, as if hurling with a sling), THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND (of Judea): AND I WILL AFFLICT THEM SO THAT THEY MAY BE FOUND, — in the city and in tribulation, so that they cannot escape, but will be caught and captured by the Chaldeans. So says St. Jerome. Others, such as the Chaldean and Vatablus, read iimtseu, that is, so that they may find, namely the distresses and punishments which I have threatened them with; or, as Theodoret says, so that they may find themselves and God, whom they have lost by denying Him. Some read: so that they may not be found, that is, so that they may not survive, but may die and perish. But the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Roman texts read: so that they may be found.
Verse 19
19. WOE TO ME FOR MY DESTRUCTION! — That is: I grieve for my destruction. This is the voice of Jerusalem, that is, of the people of Jerusalem. Hence it adds: BUT I SAID: TRULY THIS INFIRMITY (that is, affliction and wound) IS MINE (that is, it has come upon me through my own fault; therefore) I WILL BEAR IT, — I will patiently endure what I have brought upon myself. So says St. Jerome. It can also be translated with Vatablus: How shall I be able to bear this infirmity?
Note here the frequent and implicit enallage, that is, the change of the speaking person, in the manner of a dialogue: for now God speaks, now the people, now the Prophet.
Morally: "The divine chastisement, says St. Thomas, should be borne patiently: first, on account of the disposition of the one who strikes. Proverbs 3: My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, and do not grow weary when you are corrected by Him. Second, on account of the consciousness of guilt. Micah 7: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him. Third, on account of the expectation of reward. James 1: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.
Fourth, on account of the uselessness of murmuring. Lamentations 3:39: Why has a living man murmured, a man for his sins?" Thus far St. Thomas.
Verse 20
20. MY TABERNACLE IS LAID WASTE (my place, my seat; that is, Jerusalem itself is devastated, and) THE CORDS, — that is, the villages and neighboring towns which sustained and nourished it like cords, are torn apart, and there is no one to build and restore them. For in ancient times the first dwellings of the patriarchs were tents; hence any houses and cities are called tabernacles.
Verse 21
21. BECAUSE THE PASTORS HAVE ACTED FOOLISHLY, — namely the priests, and also the kings and princes. So says the Chaldean. He transfers the blame for the captivity of the people to the priests and princes.
THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND, — they did not foresee the evils coming upon them and the threats of the Prophets, they did not act prudently to avoid them. So say St. Jerome and Rabanus.
THE VOICE OF A REPORT (that is, a loud and clear voice, so that it is easily heard) BEHOLD IT COMES, AND A GREAT COMMOTION, — that is, a great tumult of war: Behold, the noise and roar of the approaching Babylonian, and of his horses, weapons, and chariots is heard. So says St. Jerome. These are the words of Jeremiah.
Verse 23
23. I KNOW, O LORD, THAT THE WAY OF MAN IS NOT HIS OWN. — He signifies that the Chaldeans came to devastate Judea not so much of their own accord as stirred up by God, that is, as St. Jerome says: "What we suffer from the Babylonians is not from their strength, but from our deserts and Your indignation." Hence in the Hebrew it reads: it is not for that man, that is, for that distinguished man, namely Nebuchadnezzar, his way: for when Nebuchadnezzar was planning to make war on the Ammonites, God diverted him and, as it were, pushed him toward Jerusalem so that he might devastate it, Ezekiel 21:19 and 22. See chapter 36 and the comments on chapter 6, verse 4. And consequently it was not in the power of the Jews to resist him or turn him away.
Otherwise Hugh, Lyranus, and Dionysius say, that is: I know that man is weak and blind among so many enemies; whence he easily slips and sins: I therefore beg that You consider his weakness, and since You wish to punish us, do not punish severely, but gently and mercifully. Hence St. Augustine refers this to the correction of the predestined, not to the damnation of the reprobate, Book 2 On the Merits of Sinners, chapter 17. Hence he says: "The Prophet adds: Correct me, O Lord; but yet with judgment, not in Your fury; as if to say: I know that it pertains to my correction that I am less helped by You, so that my steps may be perfectly directed; nevertheless, do not deal with me in this way as if in fury, by which You have determined to condemn the wicked, but as in judgment, by which You teach Your own not to be proud."
Hence Francis Suarez and other Scholastics explain it thus: "The way of man is not his own," that is, the works of grace, which lead to eternal life, are not in man's power without the inspiration of God and
His aid, because God must rouse man to these things by His prevenient grace: for if in natural things we need the direction of God, then much more in supernatural things.
Therefore heretics ignorantly twist this passage against free will. First, because, even by their own admission, it does not speak of every man, but only of Nebuchadnezzar, that is: I know that Nebuchadnezzar cannot come or conquer Jerusalem unless You help him: "For the horse is prepared for the day of battle; but the Lord gives salvation," Proverbs 21:31. Second, even granting that he speaks of every man, as Maldonatus and others hold, he nevertheless does not deny free will, but only signifies that it needs God's help, and is directed by God and subject to God's providence: and especially that the Jews and other men cannot escape the hands of the Chaldeans and other enemies except by God's guidance and provident governance.
Morally, learn here to rely in all things on God and God's direction; for, as it is said in Psalm 37: "By the Lord the steps of man shall be directed, and He will approve his way;" and Proverbs 16: "The heart of man disposes his way; but it is the Lord's to direct his steps." Hence Theodoret, explaining Psalm 55: "Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will nourish you: Have God, he says, as your pilot and charioteer, and let your affairs depend on His providence. For in this way you will remain unshaken and unchangeable."
Therefore St. Catherine of Siena, dying, left to her followers this memorable instruction: "A Christian must have great trust in God's providence, knowing that all things that happen to him or to others proceed from divine providence; not from any hatred of His, but from His extraordinary love." And St. Augustine at the end of Book 1 of the Soliloquies: "Firmly, he says, believe in God, and commit yourself entirely to Him, as much as you can; do not wish to be, as it were, your own master and in your own power,
but profess yourself to be the servant of that most merciful and most beneficial Lord. For He will not cease to lift you up to Himself, and will permit nothing to happen to you that does not benefit you, even if you do not know it." Therefore, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so let our eyes be directed toward the Lord our God, and always depend on Him and His pious and diligent providence.
So did St. Gregory the Great commit himself to God, and this he learned in the monastery, where he gave himself entirely to God and to His contemplation. Hence, made Pope, he accomplished so many and such great things so successfully in thirteen years, and this always with poor health, that one reading his deeds and life in John the Deacon is astounded.
Moschus also relates a remarkable example in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 201, about a noble young man of Constantinople, whose dying parent, distributing all his possessions to the poor, left Christ as his guardian, and Christ did not fail him: for He procured for him a rich and noble bride beyond all expectation. I said more on this matter in Exodus chapter 33, verse 17.
Verse 24
24. CORRECT ME, O LORD, BUT YET WITH JUDGMENT, — that is, moderately, with measure and restraint, gently and with discernment: for this is the Hebrew mishpat, so that You may not in Your anger utterly destroy me and reduce me to nothing. In Hebrew: do not diminish us, that is, reduce us to a small number. Similar is chapter 30, verse 11. This is the voice of Jerusalem.
Verse 25
25. POUR OUT. — He has taken both the words and the thought from Psalm 79:6. JACOB — that is, Israel, namely the Jews. THEY HAVE WASTED HIS GLORY (all the beauty and magnificence of the temple, the houses, and the streets of Jerusalem). — The Chaldeans have. The Septuagint, instead of "glory" (decus), translates "pastures," that is, the marketplaces and other places of the city, in which the citizens, like sheep in pastures, were nourished with every delight.