Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jeremiah, having suffered so many evils and death-plots from his fellow citizens of Anathoth in the preceding chapter, wonders that he and other innocent people suffer so many evils, while his fellow citizens and other impious people abound in goods. God responds, at verse 3, that he should be of greater courage, for he will suffer even graver things in Jerusalem, and that He will eventually punish it most severely along with other nations. Finally, at verse 14, He threatens destruction also to the enemies of the Jews.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 12:1-17
1. You are indeed just, O Lord, if I dispute with You; yet I will speak what is just to You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper; it is well with all who deal treacherously and act unjustly? 2. You have planted them, and they have taken root: they grow and bear fruit: You are near to their mouth, and far from their reins. 3. And You, O Lord, know me, You have seen me, and You have tested my heart with You: gather them together as a flock for the slaughter, and sanctify them for the day of killing. 4. How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of the whole region be dried up, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it? The beast and the bird are consumed, because they said: He shall not see our last end. 5. If you have grown weary running with foot soldiers, how will you be able to contend with horsemen? And when you were secure in a land of peace, what will you do in the swelling of the Jordan? 6. For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have fought against you, and have cried after you with full voice: do not trust them when they speak good things to you. 7. I have left My house, I have abandoned My inheritance: I have given the beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies. 8. My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in the forest: she has raised her voice against Me, therefore I have hated her. 9. Is My inheritance to Me a speckled bird? Is it a bird dyed throughout? Come, gather together, all you beasts of the earth, hasten to devour. 10. Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden down My portion: they have given My desirable portion into a desert of solitude. 11. They have made it desolate, and it has mourned over Me: with desolation all the land is made desolate, because there is no one who reflects in the heart. 12. Upon all the ways of the desert the destroyers have come, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other: there is no peace for all flesh. 13. They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it will not profit them: you shall be put to shame by your fruits, because of the wrath of the fury of the Lord. 14. Thus says the Lord against all My wicked neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I distributed to My people Israel: Behold I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Judah out of the midst of them. 15. And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return and have mercy on them: and I will bring them back, each man to his inheritance, and each man into his land. 16. And it shall be: if being instructed they learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name: The Lord lives, as they taught My people to swear by Baal: they shall be built up in the midst of My people. 17. But if they will not hear, I will pluck out that nation with plucking and destruction, says the Lord.
Verse 1
1. YOU ARE INDEED JUST, O LORD, IF I DISPUTE WITH YOU, that is, You are more just than that I should dispute with You, and I know that after every disputation You will prevail, and will appear just: yet with Your leave, allow me to indulge my afflicted feelings somewhat, and to present my just, as it seems to me, expostulation and complaint: why namely the impious prosper, while the pious are afflicted. The same question is raised by Job chapter XXI, verse 7, David Psalm LXXII, 3, Habakkuk chapter I. The pagans also raised the same complaint, such as Claudian writing against Rufinus; for this Rufinus, born of humble origin, insinuating himself into the favor of Emperor Theodosius, was raised to the highest honors, and bore them with arrogance and tyranny, and reached such a point of insolence that he attempted to have Emperor Arcadius as his son-in-law; indeed by this way he was scheming to seize the Empire for himself. Therefore on the very day when he thought he would be declared co-ruler by Arcadius, surrounded by the army as a traitor to the Empire, he was torn apart and cut to pieces. Hence Claudian, recognizing from Rufinus' punishment that there is providence among the gods above, about which he had previously doubted, thus sings:
The punishment of Rufinus at last removed this turmoil, and acquitted the gods; no longer do I complain that the unjust have risen to the summit of affairs: they are raised on high so that they may fall with a heavier crash.
Thus many even now, overcome by adversities, cast off their hope, and soon their faith, in divine Providence, while they see and consider that those who more zealously pursued virtue are more sharply afflicted by the bitterness of fortune. Therefore they often have on their lips that saying of Hercules: "O unhappy virtue, was it so? When you were nothing but a name, I practiced you as something real, while you were a slave to fortune?"
Thus recently a certain Englishman concluded that the Orthodox of the Roman faith are neither dear to God, nor an object of His care, because He permits them to be so wretchedly harassed, imprisoned, deprived of goods and life in England. I also heard a Dutch Calvinist reasoning thus: God favors the Calvinists in Holland; for He makes them abound in peace and wealth: therefore they have the true faith and worship of God; for it does not seem credible that God would so favor His enemies and heretics. By the same reasoning he would have concluded that Islam and paganism are the true religion of God, since God has granted, and still grants, so many victories and kingdoms to the Turks and pagan emperors.
More prudently and modestly, Cato, seeing Pompey's affairs turn out unsuccessfully, and victory incline toward Caesar, said: that in divine matters there is much obscurity, since for Pompey, who was advancing his own interests against right, everything turned out prosperously; while for one who was pursuing the just cause of the republic, everything turned out adversely.
From this unhappiness of the good and happiness of the wicked therefore arose the threefold error of the pagans: First, of those who deny the gods, like that one who sings: Licinus lies in a marble tomb, but Cato in a small one, Pompey in none: do we believe there are gods?
Second, that gods indeed exist, but do not care about earthly and human affairs. Thus Pliny thought, book II, chapter VII: "It is laughable, he says, to think that whatever is supreme takes care of human affairs." And he adds the reason: "Are we to believe, or should we doubt, that it is not polluted by such a sorrowful and manifold ministry?" To which Clement responds, book VII of the Stromata, that God is neither polluted nor distracted by this care; because with the greatest tranquility and most placidly He manages all these things; because He Himself "is all mind, all light, all eye, seeing all things, hearing all things, knowing all things."
Third was that of the Stoic Balbus in Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods, "that God cares for individual men; but the gods, he says, care for great things and neglect small ones."
Plato refutes these in the Epinomis, where he establishes this foundation for his entire discourse on the gods: "That they care for all things, whether great or small." And Seneca, book I On Providence, teaches that nothing happens by chance, but there is some hidden divine counsel, by which all things that seem fortuitous are directed. And Cicero, book II On the Nature of the Gods, teaches that divine Providence is the conqueror and moderator of all matter. Most beautifully indeed Epictetus, book I of the Discourses, chapter XII: "There are, he says, those who deny that any Divinity exists. There are those who teach He exists, but is idle, careless, and provides for nothing. There are third parties, who say He both exists and provides, but only for great and heavenly things, and for no earthly ones. Fourth, for both heavenly and earthly things, but only in general, not for individuals and each one separately. But fifth, in which party Ulysses and Socrates stand, they assert and establish that from You, O God, I cannot be hidden or escape even in the smallest movement."
Thus also Cicero in the cited passage asserts "that not only the whole human race, but also individuals, are consulted and provided for by the immortal gods;" and adds: "The Stoics extend the majesty of God down to the perfection of bees and ants." Our Damascenus gives the reason: "It is necessary, he says, that the same one be both the creator and administrator of things; and these cannot or should not be divided. For thus one or the other would be subject to weakness, as if one could not create, the other could not administer and preserve." Golden is the maxim of St. Augustine in the Sentences, number 58: "The will of God is the first and supreme cause of all corporeal and spiritual movements. For nothing happens visibly and perceptibly, that is not either commanded or permitted from the invisible and intelligible court of the supreme Emperor, according to the ineffable justice of rewards and punishments, of graces and retributions, in this most ample and universal commonwealth of all creation;" and number 41: "The immutable reason contains the disposition of all mutable things, where without time those things are simultaneously present, which in time do not happen simultaneously;" and number 140: "God would create no angel or man whom He foreknew would be evil, unless He equally knew to what uses of the good He would commend them, and would adorn the order of the ages like a most beautiful poem, even with certain most beautiful antitheses;" and number 239: "Sometimes God instructs the good through the wicked, and through the temporal power of those to be condemned exercises the discipline of those to be freed."
YET I WILL SPEAK WHAT IS JUST. In Hebrew, I will speak judgments; the Chaldean translates, I ask the question of judgment from Your face, that is, I ask from You the cause and reason of Your judgment. Thus Job says chapter X, verse 2: "Show me why You judge me so."
Verse 2
2. You have planted them, You have established them, like trees that are deeply planted. THEY PROSPER, increased in riches, say the Chaldean, St. Thomas, Vatablus, and in offspring, say the Septuagint.
You are near, that is, as the Chaldean says, they constantly have You on their lips; but in their reins, that is, in their impure affections, mind and will You have no place; second, a Castro explains it thus, as if to say: "You are near to their mouth," namely giving them to satiety, that is, at their beck and call for their wishes, whatever they desire and ask; and You are far from their reins, because You do not even touch their backs with a light scourge, Lamentations III, 13.
Verse 3
3. And You, O Lord, (as if to say: You know, Lord), and YOU HAVE TESTED (that is, You have experienced) MY HEART to be pure, and that I have You, not only on my lips as the impious just mentioned, but also in my heart, desiring to obey and please You in all things: why then am I distressed and afflicted by them, while they enjoy peace and goods?
Gather, collect and heap goods upon them, and fatten them like sheep for the slaughter. For sheep, when they are to be killed, are customarily gathered into the fold and fattened there: so St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas; but in Hebrew it is copum hattikem, that is, as Vatablus says, drag them out for the slaughter.
Sanctify them, as if to say: Appoint a day of destruction, holy to Your justice, on which You may slay them like victims, and sacrifice them to Your justice. For thus the Poet says: "And he destines me for the altar." For to sanctify is to consecrate and dedicate to God. See what was said on chapter VI, verse 4.
Second, "sanctify," that is, separate, set apart "them" as a sacred thing (lest anyone touch it or apply it to another use) for the day of killing, as for a day of sacrifice most pleasing to God.
Verse 4
4. How long shall the land mourn? that is, be sterile and bristly like those in mourning, as if to say: How long will You endure, O Lord, that the impious by their crimes corrupt the land, bring destruction through the Chaldeans and sterility upon the land once blessed by You, so that not even birds can inhabit it? says St. Jerome. For so great is their impiety that they deny Your providence, saying that You do not see, that is, do not care about our last end, that is, as the Chaldean says, our end, namely death, devastation, destruction, which Jeremiah threatens us with in the name of God. St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, or, as Lyranus and Vatablus say, as if to say: God will not punish us in the end, that is, after death, because the soul will perish with the body.
Verse 5
5. IF RUNNING WITH FOOT SOLDIERS YOU HAVE GROWN WEARY (the Syriac and Arabic, and they have exhausted you), HOW WILL YOU BE ABLE TO CONTEND WITH HORSEMEN? This is a proverb, which was used against those who, when they cannot accomplish lesser things, attempt greater ones; or who, when they cannot bear lesser evils, will have to bear greater ones, as if to say: If your fellow citizens of Anathoth are so troublesome to you that you can hardly bear it, O Jeremiah, how will you bear the insults of the most wicked men of Jerusalem, with their king and princes? As if to say: Take courage, you have borne small things, you will bear greater ones. So the Chaldean, Lyranus, Vatablus, and this is clear from what follows; for it continues: "And when you were secure in a land of peace," as if to say: You seemed to yourself to be living securely at peace in your land and homeland, and yet they sought to kill you there; what then will you have to expect "in the swelling (the Syriac, in the strength and might; the Arabic, in the abyss, that is, the greatest depth) of the Jordan?" that is, in Jerusalem, where there are men proud and swollen like the swelling Jordan. So Lyranus and Vatablus.
This is a parable, or proverb, pointing to the same thing as the preceding one about running with horsemen. For proverbially "the land of peace" he calls Jeremiah's quiet and peaceful homeland Anathoth; but "the swelling of the Jordan" he calls the proud men of Jerusalem. For the Jordan, because it swells in summer and as it were becomes proud; hence among the Jews in proverbial and common speech it signified the proud and puffed up.
Second, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas understand these things as if God or the Prophet were speaking to the people of the Jews, as if to say: If your kinsmen, the neighboring Ammonites and Edomites, who fight as foot soldiers, have so often inflicted such great destruction on you; how will you resist the Chaldean horsemen, and how will you run with them, when they carry you across the swelling waves of the Jordan into Chaldea? So also Sanchez, who however refers these things to the end of the preceding chapter, and by the swelling of the Jordan aptly understands the numerous and glorious enemies of the Jews, namely the Chaldeans, who allied with themselves the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites separated from the Jews by the Jordan. These are called "the swelling of the Jordan," both because crossing the Jordan to invade Judea, they made it swell with such a multitude of soldiers and horsemen, and as it were grow proud; and because they themselves, like the swelling of the Jordan, or like the Jordan rising and overflowing its banks and flooding the fields, devastated and plundered all of Judea and all its fields. Thus chapter XLIX, verse 19, of Nebuchadnezzar going from conquered Judea against the Ammonites and Edomites, it says: "Behold like a lion he shall come up from the swelling of the Jordan to the strong beauty." Thus elsewhere Scripture often calls hostile forces an overflowing river, which violently destroys crops and houses, as in Isaiah VIII, 7, and LIX, 19; Jeremiah chapter XLVI, verse 7.
Third, Isidore explains it, as if God says: You did not know the counsels and secrets of your fellow citizens who wished to kill you, and how do you wish to search out and know My counsels about the happiness of the impious?
Fourth, the Chaldean explains it, as if to say: If I God have conferred so many goods upon Nebuchadnezzar and the impious Chaldeans as My foot soldiers, what will I do for your fathers, who like horses ran in My service and obedience? Namely, for their sake I will bestow upon you their children abundant blessings, like waters overflowing into the Jordan.
Thus morally, if God gave such great glory to His enemies, such as Nero, Decius, Diocletian, in this valley of tears; how much will He give to His children on the day of triumph and nuptials? says St. Augustine. The first sense is most genuinely the meaning. Moreover, that some people are so agile as to compete with horses in running is certain. For the Irish do this, who constantly exercise themselves in running and wrestling. Thus of Camilla Virgil sings, Aeneid XI: Thus speaks the maiden, and with fiery feet outstrips the horse in running.
Tropologically, "if with foot soldiers," etc., that is, if you have resisted visible enemies, namely the world and the flesh, with difficulty, how will you resist horsemen, that is, invisible demons, most powerful and swift? Again, if you cannot bear the contradictions of inferiors, how will you sustain the attacks of prelates and princes; learn therefore to overcome smaller things, so that you may become accustomed to overcoming greater ones. Hence aptly Capella and Delrio, in adage 836, adapt this proverb to those who, when they cannot govern themselves and their family, seek prelatures, and wish to govern Churches and commonwealths. Hugo adapts it to religious novices, who, when they are inferior to many in the world in piety and austerity of life, wish to compete with veterans, and proceed at an equal pace with them.
Verse 6
6. FOR EVEN YOUR BROTHERS, your fellow citizens of Anathoth, fought against you. This verse confirms the first exposition given for the preceding verse. Otherwise St. Jerome: Brothers, he says, that is, the Moabites, Edomites, and, as Theodoret says, some Jewish fugitives in the camps of the Chaldeans: for these fought with them against their homeland Jerusalem; so that 'you' would refer to Jerusalem. But this is contradicted by the fact that the preceding discourse refers to Jeremiah, not Jerusalem.
and what follows. For it continues: "For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have fought against you." With a similar device Ezekiel, chapter XVII, verse 3, calls magnificent Judea and Jerusalem 'Lebanon,' but proud Nebuchadnezzar he calls 'a great eagle with great wings.' By the swelling of the Jordan could also be understood the Chaldeans, and other enemies of the Jews, as I will presently say, as if to say: If in your own land you suffer so much from your own people, how much will you suffer when the proud Chaldeans and other enemies of yours invade you and your people with their full and entire army?
For God responds with these things to Jeremiah's complaint, as the Chaldean says, namely why the impious prosper, and lord it over the pious, and afflict them, as he himself was afflicted by his fellow citizens; He responds however by rebuking and raising him up to greater struggles, and so that he may blindly submit himself to the abyss of God's providence and His inscrutable judgments.
THEY HAVE CRIED AFTER YOU WITH FULL VOICE. Vatablus translates: They have called together after you a multitude, that is, a crowd of citizens, to persecute you.
Verse 7
7. I HAVE LEFT MY HOUSE (that is, the temple), I HAVE ABANDONED MY INHERITANCE (that is, Judea and the Jewish people, who were like the Lord's inheritance), I HAVE GIVEN THE BELOVED OF MY SOUL. That is, the temple and city of Jerusalem, which I loved as My own soul; in Hebrew it is, I have given the beloved of My soul, that is, the city which I loved with the whole affection of My soul, because of its crimes I have delivered into the hands of the enemy Chaldeans. So St. Jerome, Theodoret and the Chaldean. For it is clear that these are the words of God. For here there is a frequent enallage and change of persons, as there is of speakers in a play.
Allegorically, Christ abandoned the temple and the Jews, when He gave up His soul in the passion to be crucified by them. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus and others. Hence it follows:
Verse 8
8. My inheritance has become to Me, as if to say: Just as men in a forest, hearing the roar of a lion, flee: so I, says the Lord, the Jewish people who were formerly meek and obedient, but now from association with idolaters have become rebellious against Me, and savage against My poor ones and innocent Prophets, roaring like a lion (who when pressed by hunger recognizes no one, however beneficent, but tears apart with its jaws whatever it encounters), forced by blasphemous voices, I have left them and hated them; both in the time of Jeremiah, delivering them to the Chaldeans: so the Chaldean, Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyranus and Vatablus; and especially in the time of Christ, when with great cries they like a lion demanded that He be crucified: so St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus and others. I said something similar on Isaiah XVII. In the lion is noted the savagery and ingratitude of the people, who rebelled against God, as if they had received no benefits from Him, and raged against His Prophets.
Verse 9
9. Is it a speckled bird? Note: St. Jerome by the speckled bird, dyed throughout, understands the peacock, and thinks it signifies the beauty of Israel, which was so great that there was nothing good that was not seen in it. So also Rabanus, Hugo and St. Thomas, as if to say: Strip and devour this peacock, O beasts, that is, Chaldeans, because it is proud and rebellious against Me.
Here Sanchez agrees, who explains it thus: Has My inheritance, which I hear roaring, given Me the pleasure that a speckled bird dyed with various colors (which therefore Martial, book V, epigram 104, calls spotted, such as the peacock, parrot, etc.) usually gives its master, being vocal and melodious, so that I should not hate it? Has it not, instead of sweet song, uttered a roar like a lion against Me? Hence it follows: "Come therefore, gather together, all you beasts of the earth, hasten to devour." In the peacock is noted Israel's display of beauty, and its inconstancy: for the peacock, with its train spread out, is variegated with most beautiful eye-spots and swells with pride; but when it looks at its ugly feet, it lowers its train and deflates. Hence Martial, book XIII: You marvel whenever it spreads its jeweled wings.
Again in motion it now contracts, now spreads its feathers, and this frequently and variously; therefore "it is multicolored, and speckled, and changeable in color, never itself, always another, although always itself when another, to be changed as often as moved," says Tertullian, book On the Cloak, chapter III.
Hence tropologically Hugo thinks that by this changeable peacock are represented women painted and puffed up with jewels, antimony and white lead. Also hypocrites, who appear outwardly beautiful, while inwardly they are base and ugly: for these, like the peacock, look around and display themselves.
Second, very aptly "the speckled and dyed bird" is an exotic bird, distinguished with various colors, and adorned with unusual plumage, for example a red-spotted owl, which therefore other birds that are especially wild and rapacious, who are here called "beasts," persecute with envy, to plunder and devour, as if to say: In the same way other nations have persecuted and will persecute the Jews, and this will happen with God taking vengeance, and calling them and saying: "Come, gather together, hasten to devour." Note: The word 'speckled' signifies the inconstancy of Israel, that it worshipped now God, now idols. So St. Thomas, Kimchi and Capella. It alludes to the nature of birds, which love those of the same color, and fly with them, but hate and persecute those of different colors. For like delights in like, and likeness is the promoter of friendship, unlikeness of enmity, says Aristotle. Hence the proverbs: Jackdaw sits with jackdaw, cicada is dear to cicada, ant to ant, donkey to donkey, pig is beautiful to pig; thief recognizes thief, as wolf recognizes wolf.
Third, a Castro by this bird understands the Aesopian jackdaw, which having dressed itself in the feathers of other birds, when each one demanded its feather back, was left naked, of which Horace, book I, epistle 3: Lest if perchance the flock of birds should someday come to reclaim their feathers, the jackdaw might provoke laughter, having paraded in stolen colors.
as if to say: In the same way the Jews seized their goods from the nations, namely the Canaanites; but with God permitting it because of the crimes of the Jews, when the nations, namely the Chaldeans and Canaanites, reclaim them by war, the Jews will remain naked as they were before.
Fourth, Pagninus and Isidore translate: Has my inheritance, namely Israel, been given to a bird dyed in blood, that is, to the bloodthirsty Nebuchadnezzar?
Fifth, Lyranus translates: Is Israel a blood-stained bird, that is, wounded, bloodied and killed by the Chaldeans? R. Josephus approaches this view. Is Israel, he says, a bird dyed in blood, which when other beasts see it, they recognize that there is some carcass, and rush to it?
Sixth, Forerius on Isaiah XLVI, 11: "He compares, he says, here Jeremiah the Jews to rapacious birds, insinuating that, just as they like a flock of wild birds swooped upon the Lord; so also their enemies, like a flock of wild birds dyed in blood, were about to swoop upon them. For it preceded that they had raised their voice against the Lord like a lion."
Finally the Septuagint translates: Is My inheritance to Me the cave of a hyena? As if to say: Just as savage and unclean hyenas customarily gather at a cave to devour the corpses of the dead, so the Chaldeans will come to Judea, to satiate themselves with the blood of citizens and the bodies of the slain. Jerusalem is rightly compared to the cave of a savage and voracious hyena, because like it, it was full of and putrid with the corpses of Prophets and innocent people, whom it killed.
Moreover the Septuagint translates 'hyena,' because the Hebrew tsabua with zain, in Arabic means hyena, and is the same as the Hebrew זאב zeeb, that is, wolf; for the hyena is similar to a wolf, and is a sort of species of wolf, as I said on Habakkuk I, 8. But the Hebrews in this passage have צבוע tsabua, with tsade (not with zain), that is, a dyed bird, as our translator and others generally translate more correctly. Of these senses, the second is most genuinely correct, then the first.
Verse 10
10. MANY SHEPHERDS (that is, kings and princes; whom Nebuchadnezzar joined to himself) HAVE DESTROYED MY VINEYARD, that is, Judea. For thus he called enemies "shepherds," chapter VI, 3. For shepherds are not accustomed to pasture their flocks in their own vineyards, but if they desire vineyards, to invade others' vineyards. So Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyranus, Vatablus.
Allegorically these "shepherds" were Titus and the Romans overthrowing Jerusalem. So Theodoret. Otherwise the same Theodoret, Rabanus and Hugo understand these things literally; namely of the shepherds of the Jews, as if to say: The shepherds, leaders, princes and priests of the people, by their crimes and bad counsels destroyed Jerusalem; for he called these "shepherds," chapter II, 8, and chapter X, verse 21; but the former sense is more fitting.
Hence some allegorically understand by these shepherds the heretics, who devastate the Church, and are notably called "many," because while they depart from the one shepherd and teacher Christ, they slip into various and contrary sects; while namely they are proud, and one disdains to follow another, and each wishes to be the master, and to lead an army of disciples after himself. Thus Arius, establishing certain degrees in God, and asserting the Son to be less than the Father, left us Christ without true divinity. Sabellius, since he gathered from the unity of nature that there was only one person in God, asserted that the Father also was born and suffered. Nestorius, establishing two persons in Christ as well as two natures, taught that the Blessed Virgin was the Christotokos, that is, the Bearer of Christ, not the Theotokos, that is, the Bearer of God. Apollinaris denied in Christ a soul or mind, saying that its place was abundantly supplied by the divinity itself. Eutyches held that the two natures in Christ were so united that from two there remained one, the substance of the other in no way remaining; as if this could not happen without the consumption or separation of the other. Pelagius rejected the medicine of the grace of Christ prepared in His death, and denying the sin of newborn infants, and their captivity under the devil, did not believe Christ to be their redeemer. Valentinus held that Christ brought His body from heaven, passing through the Virgin as through a channel. Manes said it was phantasmal, and denied that Christ truly suffered and died.
MY DESIRABLE PORTION (My inheritance), beautiful, fruitful, enviable. Tropologically, such is the faithful soul. See therefore how dear and precious it is to God; for He calls it here "His desirable portion, His vineyard, His soul," which He uniquely loves, protects and adorns. Therefore whoever pollutes it with sin, and snatches it from God, and enslaves it to the devil, is supremely injurious and hateful to God: "If anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him," I Corinthians III, 17.
Verse 11
11. And it has mourned over Me. That is, mourning against Me it has complained that I have abandoned it and allowed it to be desolated. So Rabanus, Hugo, Lyranus and Vatablus; or, as the Chaldean, Hugo and Maldonatus: "The land mourned upon," that is, before Me, or to Me, as it were seeking help from Me in its desolation: for thus the land, when it gapes open from excessive drought, as with open mouth asks God for rain; or, as Sanchez, "it mourned," because in the destruction, though invoking Me with tears, it was nevertheless not heard.
All the land, namely of the Jews; for the word 'land' should be understood in a limited sense. THERE IS NO ONE WHO REFLECTS, as if to say: The land mourns, and yet there is no one who reflects, namely on the threats of the Prophets. So St. Jerome. The Hebrew: There is no one who lays it upon his heart, namely God, and the fear and law of God, and His terrible wrath, threats and plagues, that through fear of Him and of these they may return from evil, and please Him and reconcile themselves to Him.
Verse 12
12. Upon all the ways of the desert, because through all the ways the enemies were to come, to besiege Jerusalem; in Hebrew it is, upon all the high places the destroyers shall come, as if to say: Such will be the multitude, force and impetus of the enemies, that they will occupy and devastate everything, even the high and precipitous places: "there is no (there will be no) peace for all flesh," because this disaster will touch all the Jews; for 'all flesh,' as well as 'earth,' here is to be understood in a limited sense, namely of the Jews, about whom alone the discourse is. So St. Jerome.
Verse 13
13. THEY HAVE SOWN WHEAT, AND REAPED THORNS, they shall reap: it is a proverb, as if to say: The Jews began prosperously and hoped for prosperity; but they will suffer adversity, their happiness will be turned into misery, abundance into want, and properly, the sowing which they made will turn to barrenness, so that instead of wheat they gather thorns, and so that they reap few fruits and crops, which even these will not profit them, because the enemy will devastate them. So St. Jerome, St. Thomas and Lyranus. He alludes to the curse of Adam, Genesis III, 17: "Cursed is the earth in your work. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you." Therefore Theodoret thinks it is signified here that hope of harvest should not be placed in the goodness of the soil, but in its proper cultivation; for those who proceed with deceit, he says, or wickedly, instead of harvest gather thorns, namely anxieties, and torments of both conscience and mind.
Tropologically, Hugo thinks that here are noted those who teach, preach, and perform other spiritual duties with a view to temporal reward, namely wealth; for Christ called these thorns, Matthew XIII, 22.
Otherwise Vatablus translates: They sowed (namely the Prophets) wheat (of their admonitions), they reaped thorns (of persecutions), they fell sick (the Prophets from grief) because they had not succeeded, they were put to shame because of your fruits (because of your wicked works). For the Hebrew נחל nachala, from the root נחל nachal, means to inherit, as our translator renders; but from the root חלה chala, it means to be sick. In this sense it is signified that true heralds of the word of God often suffer persecutions, exiles, plunderings, tortures and death for the truth.
Again, for 'they have received an inheritance, and it will not profit them,' the Septuagint translates, their lots will not profit them, which St. Jerome and Epiphanius mystically apply to bad clerics: "This is said, says St. Jerome, also of Ecclesiastics. For what will the name of Bishop, and of priest, or the remaining Ecclesiastical order be able to profit them, when they are more weighed down by their dignities, and the powerful suffer powerful torments?" And to Nepotian: "Lest you have more than when you began to be a cleric, and it be said to you: Their clerical offices will not profit them." And St. Epiphanius, epistle to John, Bishop of Jerusalem: "It was fitting, he says, dearest, that we should not abuse the honor of the clergy in pride, but by the keeping of God's commandments and most diligent observance be what we are called. For if Scripture says: Their lots will not profit them; what arrogance of the clerical state can benefit us, who sin not only in thought and feeling, but also in speech?"
YOU SHALL BE PUT TO SHAME BY YOUR FRUITS, the fruits will disappoint your expectation, and thus as it were cover you with shame.
Verse 14
14. THUS SAYS THE LORD. God threatens the enemies of the Jews (for He passes to them), who first came in the army of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, namely the Philistines, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and the Jews dwelling among them (for this is what He says: "And I will pluck the house of Judah out of the midst of them"), with destruction by the Chaldeans, so that even by this means He may draw the Jews to love of Him. See Canon XLII. So St. Jerome, Theodoret and Lyranus. Otherwise Maldonatus explains these things of the Chaldeans, as if to say: I will eventually punish and overthrow the Chaldeans themselves through the Medes.
Verse 15
15. And I will bring them back, namely the Jews from Babylon through Cyrus. So Theodoret, Lyranus, Dionysius and Vatablus. Second, better St. Jerome and Rabanus explain it thus, as if to say: I will bring back the aforesaid nations, namely the Ammonites and Moabites along with the Jews, through Cyrus from Babylon; for that they were brought back from there is clear from chapter XXIX, verse 6, and I Ezra IX, where after the return the Jews contracted marriages with the Moabites and Ammonites.
Mystically, here is signified the calling of the nations to faith in Christ. Each man. That is, each one.
Verse 16
16. IF BEING INSTRUCTED THEY LEARN (the Moabites and Ammonites) THE WAYS OF MY PEOPLE, the faith and religion of the Jews. TO SWEAR, and consequently to worship the true God, not Baal; for the oath by synecdoche signifies all worship of God.
THEY SHALL BE BUILT UP IN THE MIDST OF MY PEOPLE. That is, they will act peacefully and prosperously, abounding in offspring, family and wealth, "in the midst of my people," that is, among my people. For they will be of my people and my Church, even though they may dwell in their own regions neighboring Judea.
Verse 17
17. I WILL PLUCK OUT THAT NATION WITH PLUCKING AND DESTRUCTION. That is, I will utterly overthrow and destroy them. When these things occurred, neither Sacred Scripture nor the histories tell us. Sanchez thinks these things were accomplished by the Maccabees; for Judas and Jonathan Maccabee conquered the Philistines, Ammonites and Edomites, I Maccabees V, 3, 6. But they devastated and subjugated those nations indeed, but did not completely destroy them.