Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jeremiah, when his fellow citizens in Anathoth threatened him with death and crucifixion, threatens them with destruction in the name of God. Hence first, he recalls the covenant of the people with God made at Sinai, and threatens them with disaster for violating the covenant. Second, God, at verse 14, forbids Jeremiah to pray for the people, who says: My beloved in my house has committed many crimes, and I planted him as a beautiful olive tree, but he made himself a wild olive. Third, Jeremiah as a type of Christ says he is led like a lamb to the slaughter, and that they cast wood into his bread, verse 19: hence, at verse 20, he implores and obtains God's vengeance on his own and Christ's persecutors.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 11:1-23
1. The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah, saying: 2. Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 3. and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Cursed is the man who does not hear the words of this covenant, 4. which I commanded your fathers, on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Hear My voice, and do all things that I command you, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God: 5. that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I answered and said: Amen, O Lord. 6. And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and outside Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant, and do them: 7. for solemnly protesting I protested to your fathers, on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even to this day: rising early I protested, and said: Hear My voice: 8. and they did not hear, nor inclined their ear: but each one walked in the depravity of his evil heart: and I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they did not do. 9. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10. They have returned to the iniquities of their former fathers, who refused to hear My words: and these therefore have gone after foreign gods, to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made void My covenant, which I made with their fathers. 11. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold I will bring upon them evils, from which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to Me, and I will not hear them. 12. And the cities of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go, and shall cry to the gods to whom they offer libations, and they shall not save them in the time of their affliction. 13. For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah: and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars of confusion, altars to offer libations to the Baals. 14. Therefore do not pray for this people, and do not take up praise and prayer for them: because I will not hear in the time of their cry to Me, in the time of their affliction. 15. What is it, that my beloved in my house has committed many crimes? Shall holy flesh take away from you your wickedness, in which you have gloried? 16. The Lord called your name a fruitful, beautiful, fair, and goodly olive tree: at the voice of a word, a great fire was kindled in it, and its branches were burned. 17. And the Lord of hosts who planted you, has spoken evil against you, for the evils of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves to provoke Me, offering libations to the Baals. 18. But You, O Lord, have shown me, and I knew: then You showed me their doings. 19. And I was like a gentle lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I did not know that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood into his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more. 20. But You, O Lord of Hosts, who judge justly, and test the reins and hearts, let me see Your vengeance on them: for to You I have revealed my cause. 21. Therefore thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and you shall not die in our hands. 22. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon them: the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine. 23. And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation.
Verse 2
2. Hear, etc., you, O Jeremiah, and your fellow Prophets.
Verse 4
4. I BROUGHT THEM OUT, etc., FROM THE IRON FURNACE, that is, from the most harsh servitude, by which, as in a furnace of molten iron, they were burned and afflicted in the making of bricks in Egypt. So St. Jerome. For slaves and the poor and lowly people customarily labor, sweat and toil in furnaces where iron is smelted, as can be seen in Liege and in the Ardennes. Hence in Genesis XV, 17, this servitude was prefigured to Abraham by the smoking furnace.
Tropologically, the same furnace of tribulation is golden for the good and for martyrs, as for the three youths in Babylon, Wisdom III, 6; for the wicked it is of iron. So St. Ambrose on Psalm CXVIII, sermon 20.
Verse 5
5. That I may establish. The Chaldean and Vatablus say, that I may confirm and preserve. Second and better, that I may raise up, as it were cause to revive my covenant made with you, which seems to be nearly dead. For formerly God had brought their fathers into the land promised by the covenant; but because He had expelled them from it for their sins, and had allowed them to be led captive to Babylon, this covenant seemed broken and violated: for God had sworn to Abraham that He would give him and his posterity the land of Canaan forever, Genesis XII, 7. He says therefore that He will renew this covenant, that is, He will bring them back to their land by right of return, if in turn they keep the covenant, that is, its conditions, namely, that they worship not idols, but God, and observe His law. So Maldonatus.
AS IT IS THIS DAY, as this day demonstrates, namely that you possess the land promised by God, flowing with milk and honey, that is, most fertile.
AND I ANSWERED (I the Prophet) AND SAID: AMEN. The Septuagint has, let it be so, that is, that I may say these things to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, namely that God wishes to renew the covenant with them, and that cursed shall be he who does not keep the words of his covenant, that is, the law which they covenanted to observe. So Origen, Lyranus and Vatablus.
Verse 6
6. PROCLAIM, etc., OUTSIDE JERUSALEM, outside the city in the fields. Second and better, the Hebrew, Chaldean and Vatablus say, proclaim in the streets, squares, and marketplaces of Jerusalem, so that the word 'foris' is a local ablative from the noun 'forum' (marketplace). So a Castro.
Verse 7
7. SOLEMNLY PROTESTING I PROTESTED. That is, I solemnly and vehemently protested, and I forewarned even with witnesses, namely heaven and earth, and yourselves, called and invoked (as I did through Moses, Deuteronomy chapter IV, 26, and chapter XXXII, 1, and through Joshua, chapter VIII, verse 32, and often elsewhere), that if you violated the covenant and the law, I would inflict these punishments, so that you cannot complain, when I punish you, that you did not know this, that you were not warned. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo and St. Thomas.
RISING EARLY. That is, vigilantly, with the greatest zeal: for what we do zealously, we do at the earliest morning.
Verse 8
8. In the depravity of his heart. In Hebrew בשרירות bisrirut, that is, in the hardness and obstinacy of their heart, which they followed rather than my warnings.
AND I BROUGHT UPON THEM THE WORDS OF THE COVENANT, the curses and punishments, assigned to the covenant or to the violators of the covenant, Deuteronomy chapter XXVII, 13 and following. So the Chaldean, Theodoret, Hugo and St. Thomas.
Verse 9
9. A CONSPIRACY HAS BEEN FOUND AMONG THE MEN OF JUDAH, as if to say: They have betrayed and surrendered themselves to idols, defecting from Me; not by chance, not by weakness, but by a certain conspiracy and alliance, or plot, as the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theodoret translate, and, as the Chaldean says, by rebellion made against Me, namely under Jehoiakim, says Vatablus, or rather under Manasseh, IV Kings chapter XXIII, verse 15. So Lyranus and a Castro.
Verse 13
13. For according to the number of your cities, as if to say: You had as many gods as cities, indeed as many as streets and squares, as if to say: Not in Jerusalem alone, but in each city of Judea; and in Jerusalem itself not one in one place, but very many, namely in all the squares you set up and worshipped individual idols, as household gods and tutelary deities. This is what Ezekiel says, chapter XVI, verse 31: "You have built your brothel (that is, your idol) at the head of every street." So St. Jerome.
Second, and more forcefully, as if to say: Individual cities adopted individual idols as their own, different from those of other cities, so that there were as many kinds of idols as there were cities in Judea, says St. Jerome: "And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem," that is, from all the surrounding nations, to which roads led from Jerusalem, you borrowed idols, and worshipped the gods of all nations. For from Moab you received Chemosh; from the Assyrians and Chaldeans Baal, not one but very many; from Egypt golden calves, the Sun, the Moon, etc. Ezekiel expressly reproaches them for this in chapter XVI. Thus we see today that from one heresy, for example Luther's, three hundred have been born, and each of its cities has its own sect, by which each is divided and cut off from the others.
Verse 14
14. Therefore do you. This is the voice of God to Jeremiah, as if to say: You, O Jeremiah, do not take up praise for Jews so impious, that is, as the Chaldean and Septuagint say, a prayer, which should begin with praise of God, His benefits and triumphs, to win God's benevolence.
St. Chrysostom, in homily 14 on the Epistle to the Romans, notes that these things are said threateningly to terrify the people, as if to say: Do not exhaust yourself, O Jeremiah, praying in vain for a people so impious, because I will not hear you, unless that is, you by your prayers overcome and soften this wrath of Mine, as Moses did in a similar case, Exodus XXXII, 10 and 11. God therefore here absolutely did not will, indeed did not want, Jeremiah to cease from prayer for the people; knowing which, Jeremiah continued to pray for them.
IN THE TIME OF AFFLICTION. Our translator reads with בעת beet; some now read בעד bead, that is, for their affliction.
Verse 15
15. What is it. God complains about the idolatry perpetrated even in the temple. For thus Manasseh placed and worshipped idols in the temple of God, IV Kings XXI. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, St. Thomas, Lyranus. It can also be translated from the Hebrew thus: What is it that my beloved in my house has committed the abominations of many, namely of idols or peoples? As if to say: Why has he placed many idols of many nations in my temple, and worshipped them with their various rites? So Sanchez.
Second, Pagninus translates, what is there for my beloved any longer in my house, since he has committed many abominations? As if to say: I will cast him out of my house, which he has so defiled. For thus a husband says to an adulterous wife: What is my wife doing in my bed, when she has so many lovers?
Third, Hugo and Isidore explain it thus, as if to say: Why does my beloved Jeremiah so assiduously pray and prophesy in my temple, in which the people themselves commit so much crime?
Fourth, Kimchi and Vatablus thus, as if to say: What reason is there for God (or Christ) my beloved, says Jeremiah, to dwell any longer in this my temple of Jerusalem, in which the people themselves worship idols?
But the first sense of our translator is the best, and you may rightly apply it to clerics and monks living dissolutely in a monastery, which is the house of God.
SHALL HOLY FLESH, as if to say: Victims and sacrifices will not take away your wickedness. So the Septuagint, St. Jerome, Theodoret and others generally. This sense is plain and genuine.
Otherwise the Chaldean and Vatablus translate: "Holy flesh," that is, sacrifices and all worship of God will pass away and be taken from you, because you have offered execrable sacrifices to idols.
Third, Pagninus and Vatablus, as if to say: "Holy flesh," that is, holy men, that is, priests, will be taken away from you and led into captivity.
Fourth, Sanchez: "Holy flesh," that is, execrable flesh, which you have offered to idols, does not remove stains from you, but contaminates you more; so that there is an antiphrasis in the word 'holy,' such as there is in the word 'sacred,' when it is said: "The accursed hunger for gold:" "sacred," that is, execrable.
IN WHICH YOU HAVE GLORIED. He changes the gender, because previously the people were understood, now the city.
Verse 16
16. THE LORD CALLED YOUR NAME A FRUITFUL OLIVE (in Hebrew, a green olive), that is, He made you such that you could rightly be so called, as if to say: You were, O Judah, like a green and flourishing olive tree to the Lord, when you worshipped Him in complete peace, and in abundance of goods, happy and blessed and most renowned among the nations.
Note: The Church and the Saints are compared to the oil tree and the olive, first, for the solidity of virtue. For the wood of the olive tree is weakened neither by storm, nor by decay, nor by age: hence among the ancients it was a symbol of eternity. Hence Elijah and Enoch, as candidates of eternity, are called olives, Zechariah IV, 14: "These are, he says, the two sons of the oil of splendor, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth;" and Apocalypse chapter XI, 4: "These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing in the sight of the Lord of the earth;" because namely these two, with unbroken spirit, will resist the Antichrist, and will yield to no labors, threats or torments.
Second, for fertility, for the olive is most fruitful. Hence Psalm LI, 10 says: "But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God." Hence also here Jeremiah says: "The Lord called your name a fruitful, beautiful, fruit-bearing, fair olive tree." Hence the Apostle, Romans XI, 17, says the Gentiles from a barren wild olive were grafted into the good and fertile olive tree.
Third, for the richness of grace, devotion and charity of the Saints, which gives richness, that is, value, to good works. Hence it is said in Isaiah V, 1: "A vineyard was made for my beloved on the horn of the son of oil." Where Symmachus translates, on the horn in the midst of olive trees; the Septuagint, on the horn in a rich or fertile place. Where Isaiah designates the strength and power of the vineyard, that is, of the Church, by the horn; the richness and grace by oil.
Fourth, just as the leaves of the olive tree never fall, but are always green: so the beauty of good works never perishes in illustrious Saints, but their virtue is always green. Hosea XIV, 6: "I will be as the dew, Israel shall spring forth as the lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Lebanon, and his glory shall be as the olive tree." Where St. Jerome says: "When the Lord has sprinkled us with the dew of His grace, we shall sprout, indeed we shall blossom as the lily, and shall send our roots like the trees of Lebanon, which as much as they rise upward in the air with their tops, so much do they plunge their roots into the depths, so that they are shaken by no storm."
Fifth, because of peace; for the olive is a symbol of peace. Hence the dove bringing Noah a branch of olive signified the end of the flood, and peace of the earth and of men with God; for the Saints are peaceable with all. Therefore, as the pagans narrate, or rather fable, when Neptune and Minerva contended over precedence, and Neptune alleged that he was the inventor of water, the most useful thing; and Minerva brought forward in her defense that she had discovered the fruitful olive plant; Neptune lost the case, and the verdict was given for Minerva: because the olive tree signified fertility, and its cause, peace, than which they said nothing was more pleasant, nothing more useful, nothing more suited to a tranquil, happy and blessed life.
Sixth, because of mercy: for this is what the olive signifies. For the proper virtue of the Saints is mercy. Hence Solomon made two Cherubim from olive wood, and placed them in the oracle, III Kings VI, 31, to signify that mercy leads to heaven, and places its devoted ones in heaven.
Seventh, because of the beauty, brilliance and splendor of virtue. Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 19: "Like a beautiful olive tree in the fields, and like a plane tree I am exalted beside the water."
Finally the olive, with its small and pale leaves, but abundant fruit, indicates that the Saints flee honor and ostentation, but inwardly are nourished by the solid fruit of virtue. For the olive symbolically teaches that fruit is to be preferred to leaves, advantage to display, usefulness to splendor. For who would not prefer the slender and outwardly humble olive to any great plane tree or oak luxuriant with foliage? There is an elegant fable on this subject in Phaedrus, book III:
Once upon a time, he says, the gods chose the trees they wished to have under their patronage. The oak pleased Jupiter, the myrtle Venus, the laurel Phoebus, the pine Cybele, the tall poplar Hercules. Minerva, wondering why they chose barren ones, asked the reason. Jupiter said: Lest we seem to sell the fruit for the honor. But by Hercules let anyone say what he will, the olive is dearer to us because of its fruit. Then thus the father of the gods, and sower of men, said: O daughter! You are rightly called wise by all, for unless what we do is useful, glory is foolish.
Wise Minerva therefore, choosing for herself the fruitful olive, teaches that all the leafy pageantry of glory is vain, unless it is made fruitful with the succulent fruits of usefulness.
AT THE VOICE. The Septuagint, deriving the Hebrew word המולה hamula from מול mul, that is, to circumcise, translate, at your circumcision or cutting, by which namely you made a schism under Rehoboam from Judah, O Israel, you fell into these disasters. But better our translator and all others derive hamula from המל hamal, that is, to speak, as if to say: Because of your idolatry, a great voice will be raised against you, that is, a terrible command of God like thunder. For the voice of God is soft and gentle, by which He called you "a beautiful olive tree," and promised you happy and favorable things: but the great and terrible voice of God is that by which He utters threats, and which is followed by devastation and destruction, just as lightning and thunderbolts follow after thunder. So Sanchez.
Again, the great voice, that is, the command and decree of Nebuchadnezzar, and the clamor of the Chaldeans, who will set fire to you and destroy your city with conflagration. So Lyranus, St. Thomas and Vatablus. For the Hebrew hamula signifies a clamor, noise, tumult, such as that of soldiers in camp and in the storming of a city, especially when citizens still resist from houses and towers. For then the soldiers shout: Fire, fire! and set houses ablaze, as we have seen done in Antwerp and elsewhere.
Note: The word 'great' can refer both to 'word' and to 'fire' (and then the sense is plain: a great fire was kindled), for the punctuation here varies.
Third, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo and St. Thomas understand "at the voice of a great word" as: because of your boasting and blasphemous pride you will be burned.
Fourth, "at the voice of a great word," that is, at the fame by which they spoke of the Jews as the most fortunate commonwealth, all nations entered into friendship and commerce with them, and thence, from commerce namely with idolatrous nations, the fire of idolatry was kindled, which Judea learned from them, and which burned and devastated everything.
Thus tropologically, says St. Gregory, homily 21 on Ezekiel, from the favor and love of praise, in the heart the flame of pride is kindled, which consumes everything. "For the great voice of speech is the favor of the flatterer," which devours all things well done and well said, when they are done from the love not of God, but of praise. Hence it is written in Proverbs XXVII: "He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be like one who curses."
ITS BRANCHES. He persists in the metaphor of the olive tree, to which he compared Jerusalem. For just as fire devours the olive tree with all its branches, so the Chaldeans devastated the city with fire, with the temple, palaces and streets.
Verse 17
17. HE HAS SPOKEN EVIL AGAINST YOU. He has decreed to punish, destroy and lay you waste.
Verse 18
18. But You. Rabanus, St. Jerome, Theodoret and others understand these things literally of Christ: but it is clear from what follows and what precedes,
especially verses 14 and 21, that these things are said literally of Jeremiah, who complains about the plots, and the death prepared for him by his fellow citizens of Anathoth, because he so freely prophesied to them and threatened destruction.
Allegorically, it is certain from the consensus of the Church that under the person of Jeremiah these things are said of Christ, and that because of Christ these things happened to Jeremiah, and were written, and this is what St. Jerome means. Hence he concludes thus: "That we may be freed from all difficulty of interpretation, let us follow this rule, that all the Prophets did most things as types of Christ, and whatever was fulfilled according to the present time in Jeremiah, this was prophesied of the Lord for the future." So also Theodoret, Rabanus, St. Thomas, Lyranus and Vatablus.
Verse 19
19. And I was like a gentle lamb. In Hebrew אלוף alluph, that is, companionable, gentle; the Chaldean, chosen; the Septuagint, innocent; the Syriac, simple; the Arabic, straying, or mad; but incongruously. Sixth, it can be translated: I like a lamb leader, or guide of the flock, to signify Christ, who preceded all martyrs by His example, and animated them by His passion to bravely seek death for God, says Viegas on Apocalypse XII, page 516. Seventh, Vatablus, Pagninus and Kimchi translate: As a lamb and as an ox is led to the slaughter; so also I. Jeremiah therefore was pure and meek like a lamb, and was a type of the true Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world, namely Christ, who was the leader of the flock of the Church, and was immolated for it, as Isaiah teaches, chapter LIII, 7.
Hence Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, prefigured. First, in the sacrifice of Abel, who offered the firstlings of the sheep, that is, lambs, to the Lord, and therefore pleasing to God, he himself as an innocent lamb became a victim to God, when slain by the fratricide Cain, he was the first virgin and martyr of the world.
Second, in the ram or male lamb, which Abraham substituted and sacrificed for Isaac, Genesis XXII, 12. For thus in Christ's passion, when His humanity was substituted for His divinity before the Jews and torturers, it was His humanity that suffered and was immolated.
Third, in the paschal lamb, about which I spoke at length on Exodus XII. For indeed "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. The Lamb redeemed the sheep, the innocent Christ reconciled sinners to the Father."
Fourth, in the perpetual sacrifice. For daily the Hebrews, according to the law of Exodus XXIII, 38, sacrificed a lamb to God both in the morning and in the evening: and this is the morning and evening sacrifice, which David frequently offers and recalls in the Psalms, and the Prophets. So Origen, Cyril and Euthymius, on John chapter I, 29.
Fifth, in the other sheep and lambs, which by law had to be offered at every feast.
Sixth, because by Isaiah, chapter LIII, 7, and by Jeremiah here, Christ is compared to a lamb. Hence John the Baptist, pointing out Christ to the Jews, that is, the Messiah promised to them: "Behold, he says, the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sin of the world." Note here: Christ is called "the Lamb of God," because by God, that is, by God's command and will, He was immolated for the redemption of men, just as it is called the sacrifice of Abraham, which Abraham offered to God, say Theophylactus, Euthymius and Maldonatus. Or because He Himself was offered and immolated to God: or "of God" that is, divine because of the divinity which was in Him: or, as Clement of Alexandria, book I Pedagogue V, and from him Toletus say, because He was made a child for us, and the infant of the Father. For we call children lambs. The words of Clement are: "Since Scripture calls children and infants lambs. God who is the Word, who for us was made man, who wished to be made like us in all things, it called the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the infant of the Father," as if to say: Christ is the Lamb of God, that is, the Son of God. For 'lamb' denotes a son, just as in Genesis XLIX, 'cub of the lion' is said to mystically signify the Son of God, which many ancient writers noted: thus here he calls Him not a sheep, not an ox, but a lamb, to signify that this man is the Son of God, not the Father, not the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, 'the infant of the Father' is said improperly by Clement: for Christ being equal to the Father, and co-eternal with Him, cannot rightly be called the infant of the Father, insofar as He is God. But insofar as He is man, this can rightly be said of Him.
John the Baptist is followed by John the Evangelist, who repeatedly calls Christ the Lamb, and delights wonderfully in the word 'lamb,' so much so that in the Apocalypse he names Him the Lamb twenty-seven times, as can be seen in the Biblical Concordances. Hence also St. Peter, looking to Christ's innocence, says that we were redeemed "by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish."
Because of these figures and prophecies of the lamb concerning Christ, it was an ancient custom to depict Christ in the form of a lamb, whom the precursor points to with his finger, as the Sixth Council held in Trullo, Canon LXXXII, teaches, where it also commands this custom to be retained, and adds the reason: "So that through it (the Lamb), comprehending with our minds the humiliation of the Word, we may be led to the memory also of His life in the flesh, and of His passion, and saving death, and of the redemption of the world which was accomplished through Him." And the Roman and Latin Church always retained this usage, although the Greeks, because of the calumnies of the Iconoclasts, sometimes forbade Christ to be depicted in any form other than the human.
For at Rome and also in other Latin Churches, "in ancient cemeteries and tombs one can see Christ depicted and sculpted in mosaic work as a lamb," and also that images of lambs were customarily made from sacred wax; in the Roman Order collected by Gelasius (as is the more established opinion) from the ancient usage of his Church, these things are recorded: On the same Sunday after the white garments, that is, on the Octave of Easter, within the city of Rome wax lambs are given by the Archdeacon in the church after Mass and communion to the people, etc. This antiquity indeed, preserved in the Roman Church, never afterwards interrupted, has continued up to now," says Cardinal Baronius, in the year of Christ 692, page 914. Note here the use of blessed wax lambs, as customary and ancient.
It is likely that this dates from Gelasius, who lived more than 1100 years ago, about the year of Christ 500. Namely, when the baptized would put aside the white garment received at baptism on the Sunday of White Garments, they received in its place this wax lamb blessed by the Pontiff, that they might be reminded to always keep before their eyes and preserve the Lamb Christ and His innocence received in baptism.
Hence Pope Sergius, in the year of Christ 701, "ordained that at the time of the Lord's Body, 'Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us,' should be sung by the Clergy and people," says Anastasius the Librarian, and from him Baronius. Thus indeed the Church wished to constantly set before us the idea, memory, love, worship and innocence of this Lamb.
Finally, tropologically, through this image of the lamb, Christ shows how blessed meekness is to be sought, and how powerful and unconquered it is. For Christ, as the firstborn Lamb of God, loves little lambs, loves ewes, loves innocent lambs, loves virgins, loves martyrs, loves soldiers; and through meekness He makes them victors over enemies, superior to all torments, all temptations. This therefore is the secret which Christ teaches us through the lamb, namely that meekness and patience are the shields of the faithful in defensive warfare, and invincible weapons and missiles in offensive warfare, by which all adversities and all adversaries are overcome, indeed subjugated. For meekness not only conquers enemies, and not only overcomes anger, envy, and impatience; but also all concupiscence, as Cassian and the ancient ascetics teach; indeed, Truth itself clearly proclaims: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth," Matthew chapter V, 4.
I DID NOT KNOW, namely, before You, O Lord, revealed it to me, as if to say: I did not think they would be so wicked, and so hostile to me, as to destine me for death. Thus allegorically, Christ did not know, insofar as man, without the Father's revelation He did not know the plots of the Jews; second and rather, He did not know, that is, He dissembled, as if He did not know their plots; third, He did not know, that is, led to death saying nothing, just as if He did not know where they were leading Him; just as a lamb, when it is led to the slaughter, does not complain, does not flee, because it does not know where it goes; otherwise Christ was not ignorant of where He was being led, indeed He had foretold His passion and cross beforehand, Matthew XX, 18 and 19. So Hugo, Maldonatus and others.
Learn, O Christian, and imitate this example of the immaculate Lamb, gaze constantly upon this mirror, and express it in your conduct. Thus have done all who were zealous for Christian perfection, and from it they learned to bear injuries, blows and words with a silent and meek spirit. Hear examples from the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter VIII.
There was a certain monk who, the more anyone insulted or provoked him, the more he had recourse to patience, saying: "These are they who give us occasion for our perfection; but those who flatter us, deceive us and overturn the path of our feet."
Another did not reproach the one who injured him, but himself, saying: "Because these things happen to me on account of my sins."
A third, if anyone had detracted from him, would send him gifts.
A fourth, Zacharias, trampling his own cloak, said: "Unless a man has been thus trampled upon, he cannot be a monk."
A fifth, St. Anthony predicted to Ammon: "You have much to progress in the way of God." And leading him out of his cell: "Go, he said, and insult this stone, and strike it without ceasing;" which when he had done, St. Anthony asked him, "whether the stone had responded to him at all?" But he said: "No;" to whom the Saint replied: "So also you are to reach this measure, that you consider no injury is done to you."
A sixth, book V, chapter VII On fortitude, overcame all injuries and tribulations, giving thanks to God in them: and so "God, he says, seeing his patience, removed all warfare of temptation from him."
A seventh, in the same place: "The virtue of a monk, he says, appears in temptations."
An eighth, St. Syncletica: "In temptation, she says, say: Chastising the Lord has chastised me, and has not given me over to death. If you are iron, through the fire applied to you, you will lose your rust; if you are gold, through fire you will be more proven. Remember this: We have passed through fire and water; what remains is what follows, that we may be brought into refreshment. You have obtained the first; await the second, doing what pertains to virtue."
Such a lamb was St. Ignatius in life and in death. His word in life was: "I desire meekness, by which all the power of the prince of this world is weakened." But his word in death was: "I am the wheat of Christ, let me be ground by the teeth of beasts."
LET US PUT WOOD INTO HIS BREAD. In Hebrew, let us corrupt, destroy, cut down the wood, that is, the tree, in the bread, that is, with his bread, that is, with his food and fruit, says R. Kimchi, as if to say: Let us kill Jeremiah, so that he perishes, and with him his most grievous prophecy, as if Jeremiah were a tree to be cut down: the bread, that is, his fruit, is his teaching, preaching and threats, hence it follows: "Let us cut him off (like a tree) from the land of the living." This exposition fits the Hebrew well enough; but it disagrees with our translation, with which the Septuagint and Chaldean agree.
Second, the Chaldean, St. Thomas, Hugo, Lyranus, Pagninus and Vatablus, rendering 'let us corrupt the wood in his bread' by a hypallage, translate: let us corrupt his bread with wood, namely poisonous and deadly, as if to say: Let us infect his bread and food with poison and poisoned wood, and thus kill him with poison: hence by this wood, they understand the yew tree, whose wood, leaves, berries and flowers Theophrastus, Pliny book XVI, chapter X, Dioscorides, Galen and others teach to be lethal: so much so, says Pliny, that those who sleep under it die. Hence Virgil: Do not plant the yew tree near your dwellings.
Indeed hence Maldonatus, Calepinus and others think that poison is called 'toxicum' from the yew (taxus), as if 'taxicum'; but others better derive 'toxicon' from τόξον, that is, arrow; and this is what Pliny says: "There are also those who say that the poisons called 'taxica,' which we now call 'toxica,' are those with which arrows are dipped to be poisoned." Dioscorides attributes this poison of the yew to the excessive cold of the yew, like hemlock. Better Matthiolus, in book VI of Dioscorides, chapter XII, attributes it to excessive heat, because the yew has bitter bark and leaves, sweet and pungent berries, is evergreen, causes deadly fevers and intestinal discharges, and finally little birds that eat yew leaves turn black, all of which are signs of excessive heat, as if to say: Let us infect, cut off and cut down Jeremiah's bread and food with yew.
But since wood is not usually placed in food, but rather poison; which in Hebrew is called ראש ros, and because all the Fathers understand this passage as referring to the wood of the cross; hence Third and most aptly, "let us put wood into his bread," so that, in place of bread, we may feed him wood, that is, a club or a cross; let us crucify him. Thus it is commonly said: I will feed you with a cudgel, that is, I will beat you with a cudgel, you will taste sticks, you will eat fists. Or, if you translate, let us corrupt the wood in the bread, explain by a hypallage: let us corrupt his bread into wood, that is, let us pervert his bread, and cast it into wood, so that instead of bread he may eat wood, that is, cudgels or the cross; hence the Syriac translates, let us corrupt the wood in his bread, or, let us spoil his bread with wood. More clearly the Arabic, let his flesh be corrupted by a beam, and by wood his strength, or gigantic power. For thus most aptly here Jeremiah prophesies the cross of Christ, as St. Jerome and Theodoret teach here, and Justin in Against Trypho; Tertullian in the book Against the Jews, chapter X; Cyprian, book II Against the Jews, chapter XV; Ambrose in the Title of Psalm XXXV; Gregory, book III Morals chapter XII, and others generally.
Fourth, Tertullian, book III Against Marcion chapter XIX, and Lactantius, book IV of the Institutes chapter XVIII, explain by a hypallage thus: "Let us put bread," that is, the body of Christ, which is our bread in the Eucharist, "into the wood of the cross;" or, as Abbot Joachim here: "Let us put wood into the bread," that is, the cross into the flesh of Christ, blasphemy into His doctrine, detraction into His life, scandal into His religion, so that no one may believe in Him and His teaching, whom they see to be crucified; so also St. Thomas, Andreas, Capella and Maldonatus.
Note: The words of Tertullian are these: "This wood (of the cross) Jeremiah also indicates to you, preaching to the Jews who would say: Come, let us put wood into his bread, that is, into his body. For thus God in your Gospel also revealed, calling bread His body: so that from this you may now understand that He gave the figure of His body to the bread, whose body He had formerly figured in the bread of the Prophet, with the Lord Himself later to interpret this Sacrament." These words the Calvinists ignorantly and perversely twist against the truth of Christ's body in the Eucharist, when in fact they manifestly establish it; for Tertullian says that in Jeremiah by bread is understood the body of Christ, which was affixed to the wood of the cross, and adds that Christ Himself thus explained the prophecy of Jeremiah, when He said of the Eucharistic bread: "This is My body which will be given up for you," that is, crucified. Where it is clear that by bread in Jeremiah here, material bread is not understood, which would signify the body of Christ (as the Calvinists wish); for thus it would follow that bread was crucified, and not the body of Christ. What therefore Tertullian says, "so that from this you may understand that He gave the figure of His body to the bread;" he assigns the figure to the bread, as is clear from the words, not to the body, and Calvin himself is forced to admit this in Claudius Sainctes' Apology Against Beza, page 139. The meaning therefore of Tertullian is, as if to say: Christ in the Eucharist gave His body under the figure and species of bread, to conform Himself to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and to explain it. For Jeremiah by a figure called the body of Christ bread, saying: "Let us put wood into his bread," that is, into the body of Christ; for this figure which is in the word bread, Christ explained and interpreted, when He hid His body in the Eucharist under the figure and species of bread (not of a melon, or of any other thing) and said of it: "This is," not bread, but "My body." That this is the meaning of Tertullian is most clearly taught by Pamelius in book IV Against Marcion chapter XL, number 662; indeed even the Magdeburg Centuriators openly profess that the figure in Tertullian does not fall on the word 'body' but on the word 'bread.'
Verse 20
20. BUT YOU, O LORD OF HOSTS (Lord of armies, most powerful Lord), WHO JUDGE JUSTLY, AND TEST THE REINS AND HEARTS, who explore and penetrate and see through the affections and thoughts of each person, and likewise their volitions and understandings; for the reins are the seat of the affections and concupiscence, just as the heart is of thoughts: and because the will is the source of rational affections, the intellect of thoughts and counsels: hence rightly by the reins you may understand the will and appetite, by the heart the intellect. The Platonists held the same view. Among whom Proclus, in the book On the Soul and the Demon, teaches that nature and experience attest to everyone that God knows the secrets of hearts. For everyone, he says, when secretly tormented by grief, pain, fear, love, temptation, affliction, invokes God, as though His witness and inspector, and earnestly begs help and deliverance from Him. Tertullian proves the same by the same reasoning in his book On the Soul. For this natural testimony of the soul is implanted in it by God, who is the first truth.
From this passage St. Augustine, in the Sentences, number 21, rightly infers that those who judge the secret intention of their neighbor usurp the judgment of God, and sin by rash judgment: "It is rash, he says, to judge the secrets of the heart, and it is unjust to reproach from suspicion one whose good works alone are seen, since God alone is the judge of what is unknown in man; because He is just and the true inspector."
LET ME SEE (cause me to see) YOUR VENGEANCE, that is, proceeding from You; second, "Your," because I have revealed my cause to You, that is, I reveal, commit, and transfer it to You, I resign to You all my right and all the injury done to me: therefore avenge not so much my injuries as Yours, inflicted by the citizens of Anathoth who are my adversaries; and I desire this from zeal for justice and for the example of others, not from hatred or desire for revenge, as David also desired in Psalm XCIII, 2. St. Augustine says admirably, in the Sentences, sentence 245: "It is from benevolence, he says, not from malice, when the just man rejoices that vengeance has fallen upon the wicked; because it is not the destruction of the sinner that pleases him, whom he wished to be corrected; but the justice of God, by which he knows that many can be converted."
Verse 21
21. THUS SAYS THE LORD, these things I say, for the Lord here speaks of Himself in the third person, as if to say: Because you, O Jeremiah, have revealed and committed your cause to Me, I will do what you ask of Me, and I will take vengeance on the men of Anathoth, your enemies.
You shall not prophesy (do not prophesy) in the name of the Lord (but in the name of Baal, as we do; or rather, do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, namely that such great calamities are hanging over us), and you shall not die, we will not kill you: speak pleasing things to us, and we will spare you.
Verse 23
23. There shall be no remnant of them, I will destroy all the offspring and posterity of the men of Anathoth. He speaks only of the impious and wicked, who were persecuting Jeremiah to death: for otherwise God promised, chapter IV, verse 27, that He would not make a complete end.
The year of their visitation, the year of punishment and destruction.