Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He foretells a coming drought and famine (for with it he interweaves this drought throughout this chapter and the next) in Jerusalem, so that God appears to be like a tenant farmer in Judea, and like a traveler passing through and departing. Second, in verse 13, he prays for the people, although forbidden by God in verse 11, that He may have mercy on them so afflicted on every side.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 14:1-22
1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. 2. Judea has mourned, and its gates have fallen, and they have grown dark upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem has risen up. 3. The nobles sent their servants for water: they came to draw water and did not find it; they carried back their vessels empty: they were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads. 4. Because of the devastation of the land, since no rain came upon the earth, the farmers were confounded and covered their heads. 5. For even the doe in the field gave birth and abandoned her young, because there was no grass. 6. And the wild donkeys stood on the rocks and drew in the wind like dragons; their eyes failed because there was no grass. 7. If our iniquities testify against us, O Lord, act for Your name's sake, for many are our backslidings; we have sinned against You. 8. O Hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of tribulation: why will You be like a tenant farmer in the land, and like a traveler turning aside to lodge? 9. Why will You be like a wandering man, like a strong man who cannot save? Yet You are in our midst, O Lord, and Your name has been invoked over us; do not abandon us. 10. Thus says the Lord to this people who loved to move their feet, and did not rest, and did not please the Lord: Now He will remember their iniquities and visit their sins. 11. And the Lord said to me: Do not pray for this people for their good. 12. When they fast, I will not hear their prayers; and if they offer burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; for by sword, and famine, and pestilence I will consume them. 13. And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God: The prophets say to them: You will not see the sword, and famine will not be among you, but He will give you true peace in this place. 14. And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in My name; I did not send them, nor did I command them, nor did I speak to them; they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and deceit, and the seduction of their own heart. 15. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, saying: Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. 16. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem from famine and sword, and there shall be none to bury them: they and their wives, their sons and their daughters; and I will pour out upon them their own evil. 17. And you shall say to them this word: Let my eyes shed tears night and day, and let them not cease: 18. If I go out to the fields, behold those slain by the sword; and if I enter the city, behold those wasted by famine. The prophet also and the priest have gone to a land they did not know. 19. Have You utterly rejected Judah? Or has Your soul abhorred Zion? Why then have You struck us so that there is no healing? We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold, disturbance. 20. We acknowledge, O Lord, our impieties, the iniquities of our fathers, for we have sinned against You. 21. Do not give us over to reproach for Your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of Your glory: remember, do not make void Your covenant with us. 22. Are there among the graven images of the nations any that can send rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not the Lord our God, whom we have waited for? For You have made all these things.
Verse 1
1. THE WORD THAT CAME. — That is, the word which came to pass. It is an anastrophe.
CONCERNING THE DROUGHT, — that is, about the matter and threatened punishment of barrenness: in Hebrew for drought is הבצרות habbatsarot, that is, of restraints or withholdings, namely of water and rain. For Jerusalem uses only one spring, Siloam, says St. Jerome, and not even that perpetually; and to the present day, the lack of rains causes there a scarcity not only of crops but also of drinking water. It is therefore a metonymy: for the cause is put for the effect, since from the withholding of rains follows the scarcity of crops, thence the dearness of provisions, thence famine. You may ask when this drought occurred. St. Jerome thinks it occurred during the siege of Jerusalem itself. But at that time the drought and consequent barrenness of the fields would have harmed the besieging Chaldeans, not the besieged Jews, who could not go out from the city to the fields. Better, therefore, Sanchez thinks it occurred before the siege under Zedekiah: for then the nobles could send their servants to seek water in the fields, as is said in verse 3. For first God punished the Jews with drought, famine, and thirst; then with the sword of the Chaldeans, which is treated in verse 18.
for with a great destruction the virgin daughter of my people is destroyed, with a most grievous wound.
Verse 2
2. JUDEA HAS MOURNED. — The land is said to mourn when it lies parched, barren, desolate, and uncultivated.
ITS GATES HAVE FALLEN, — that is, they will fall when the Chaldean casts them down, and covered with dust and obscured they will not be visible. So Hugh and Lyranus. Second, as Vatablus says, the gates will lose their ancient splendor, will be of no value, and will be neglected because of the sorrow and affliction of the inhabitants. "The gates" therefore, that is, the splendor of the gates, and likewise the traffic of those passing through the gates, will fall. Third, "the gates," that is, the places of judgment which were at the gates, have fallen, or, as the Septuagint says, have become empty; because then no lawsuits, no cases were being conducted, since all were awaiting the enemy. So St. Thomas. Fourth and best: "Its gates have fallen," that is, as the Hebrew אמללו umelalu means, they have become weak, that is, they are desolate, so that no one passes through them, just as if they had collapsed, and this because of the drought and famine: for it is about the desolation of barrenness, not of destruction. So Maldonatus.
Verse 3
3. THE NOBLES. — In Hebrew אדירון addirehem, that is, their powerful men and grandees, as if to say: So great will the famine be that not even the grandees, sending their servants to remote places, will find water to drink, not even in cisterns, which were in frequent use in Judea and therefore frequently mentioned in Scripture.
TO DRAW WATER. — The Hebrew says, to נבים gebim, that is, as the Chaldean says, to cisterns; the Septuagint, to wells; others, to pools, so that they might draw water from there, as our translator renders it.
THEY WERE CONFOUNDED AND AFFLICTED. — The Hebrew says, they were confounded and ashamed: because having sent servants for water, they did not find it.
THEY COVERED THEIR HEADS. — The Jews were accustomed to cover their heads in mourning, which even now those do who follow a funeral in dark clothing. So the head of Haman, condemned to death, was veiled, Esther 7:8.
Verse 5
5. SHE ABANDONED — namely, the doe abandoned her offspring, which, with grass failing in such a great drought in Judea, she could not nourish; what then will the other beasts do? For the doe above all others loves her young.
THE WILD DONKEYS — who, like does and dragons, are dry and burning with the abundance of heat, as Pliny attests, Book 8, chapter 12; and therefore, parched by the drought, they will drink in the wind to moderate their thirst and hunger and cool their heat: for their eyes, weakened by starvation, will fail and grow dim, which are usually brightened when food returns the vital spirits, as the eyes of Jonathan, dimmed by hunger, were brightened when he took food, 1 Samuel 14:27.
Hear the Rabbis, and from them Isidore Clario: "Wild donkeys endure thirst for a long time and love solitude; but at last, unable to bear longer thirst and hunger, they look around to see where there might be grass or herbage, and with great longing in an elevated place they draw in air with rapid inhalation, as dragons are accustomed to do, whose breathing and suction is most vehement." Theodoret adds: "This indeed even humans do when they are thirsty, cooling their heat with the gentle breeze of the winds."
Mystically, St. Jerome takes these things as referring to the spiritual dryness and thirst of the Church, when the people waste away in spirit for lack of teachers. Whence the Prophet says: "The little ones asked for bread, and there was no one to break it for them." On the other hand, St. Gregory, Morals Book 20, chapter 29, explaining that passage of Job, "Brother of dragons," takes these words as referring to the perverse: "For the perverse, he says, draw in wind like dragons when they are puffed up with malicious pride."
Verse 7
7. IF OUR INIQUITIES TESTIFY AGAINST US — standing, as the Chaldean translates, and our consciences telling us that we are evil and worthy of such a punishment of drought; or, if our sins before God, as if in answer to His questioning, have responded against us, that is, as the Chaldean says, against us, and therefore have resisted us, the Septuagint translates, that is, have accused us in judgment before You, just as an accuser is accustomed to respond to the defendant and refute his excuses; so Isaiah says, chapter 3, verse 9: "The expression of their faces answers them," that is, their very face, as soon as it is seen and recognized, speaks and accuses their crimes, as if to say: Our sins are so great that they cry out for vengeance and declare us worthy of destruction. Yet You, O Lord, deal clemently with us, for You are merciful: for we confess that many are our backslidings and rebellions by which we have offended You. This is Jeremiah's prayer.
Morally, note here how great is the power of conscience, which, as Origen says, is "the corrector of the affections and the teacher of the soul." And so first, it is a bridle after sin: "Because an aversion to that which nature has condemned is implanted in us," says Seneca, Epistle 98. Second, it is a scourge after sin: "Because only when the crime is completed is its magnitude understood," says Tacitus, Book 14. "Since those who have sinned think that punishment is always before their eyes," says Cicero in his speech for Milo. Third, in the damned, conscience is a torturer: for it burns, strikes, lacerates, and lashes the soul.
Therefore St. Augustine, City of God Book 21, says: "Nothing can be imagined more blessed than tranquillity of conscience." Hence Pythagoras says: Do nothing shameful before companions, or witnesses, or yourself alone: let the greatest modesty be yourself to yourself. Moreover, as Cicero says: "Conscience is a sufficiently ample theater for virtue." And St. Augustine, Against the Letters of Petilian Book 3, chapter 7: "Neither does the acclaim of a praiser heal a bad conscience, nor does the insult of a reviler wound a good one." And on Psalm 31: "Just as a bad conscience is wholly in despair, so a good conscience is wholly in hope."
So in the hour of death and in God's judgment our sins will accuse us as well as the demons. Climacus recounts, Step 7, On Mourning, that Stephen, a holy man who for forty years in the desert, devoted to fasting, tears, and other virtues, had lived admirably, was struck with stupor in the hour of death: "And as if, he says, certain ones were demanding an account from him, with all who stood by listening, he said sometimes: Yes indeed, so it is; that is true; but for this I fasted so many years. And sometimes: No indeed, you lie; I did not do this. Then again: It is truly so, this is so; but I wept, but I served. And again: You accuse me truly. And in some matters he sometimes said: Yes indeed, and to these things I have nothing to say, therefore there is need of mercy. And it was indeed a dreadful and terrifying spectacle, that invisible and most fierce judgment. Some truly affirmed to me that when he was in the desert, he even fed a leopard from his hand." If these things are done in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?
Verse 8
8. O HOPE, — O Lord, who are the hope, that is, the expectation of Israel, in whom Israel has placed all its hope, especially in this tribulation and devastation that threatens it!
WHY WILL YOU BE LIKE A TENANT FARMER? — who has rented another's field for a price, to cultivate it and collect the fruits of a single year; who therefore drains the field's nourishment. Or "a tenant farmer," that is, a hired laborer, who less diligently cultivates the field of his master, as being another's, hired for wages, than if it were his own. In Hebrew it is cagger, that is, like a stranger, as the Syriac translates, or a guest and sojourner, as the Arabic translates, as if to say: Until now, O Lord, You dwelt in the temple and in Judea as a master in Your house and field; now You seem to have become a tenant farmer in it, who neglects the good of another's field: indeed You seem to have become a stranger, a traveler and sojourner, who neglects the things that are abroad and on the road, and only passes through a lodging, and after spending the night, does not care about the lodging: so You now neglect the temple and Judea as though it were another's field, or as though it were Your inn; You pass by us, You do not care whether Your lodging is to be devastated by the Chaldeans; indeed You abandon it and leave it to them to devastate: therefore remain with us and save us, since You are most mighty; lest the nations say You fled out of weakness, because You could not save us. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, St. Thomas, and Vatablus.
In like manner let us mystically utter these words with heartfelt sighing: "Why like a tenant farmer, etc.," when we do not find God dwelling in us or in the Church (some particular one) through stable grace; but quickly withdrawing His gracious presence from us, says Dionysius the Carthusian.
Allegorically Christ is the "hope" of Israel; for of Him Jacob says, Genesis 49:16: "I will wait for Your salvation, O Lord;" and: "He shall be the expectation of the nations," as if to say: When Christ comes to earth, He will be like a stranger in it, and will use the earth's hospitality for only a short time; and like a wandering man, strong and mighty, who will travel throughout all Judea preaching: and soon, with His preaching and course completed, leaving Israel, He will pass to the multitude of nations; leaving the temple, to the Church; leaving the earth, He will pass over and return to His heaven.
Indeed St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, and Lyranus take these words literally as referring to Christ, as if Jeremiah and the Jews invoke Him, so that through His future incarnation, labors, and merits He might interpose Himself before the angered Father and save Israel from being captured by the Chaldeans. Tertullian also explains it thus, Against Marcion Book 3, chapter 6, and Ambrose, or rather
Rufinus, Treatise on the Apostles' Creed, chapter 30.
In like manner in the Eucharist Christ is like a stranger; because He is clothed and covered with a foreign garment, namely the species of bread and wine, and He is a traveler turning aside to lodge; because He is our viaticum, strengthened by which we journey toward our heavenly homeland: whence when the species are digested and consumed, He Himself passes on and as it were vanishes from that place. Third, the Chaldean renders: O Savior of Israel, why does Your anger remain upon us, since we are only strangers and travelers on the earth? But it is clear from the Hebrew that not the people, but God is called a stranger here.
Tropologically, Christ and Christians are sojourners and strangers. First, because Christ came from heaven to earth as to a foreign land, and we received our soul from heaven. Whence heaven is our homeland and earth is exile. Second, because although Christ was the Lord of the earth and came to His own, yet His own did not receive Him as though He were a stranger. Third, because He did not use the perishable goods of earth except out of necessity, like a stranger: He had nowhere to lay His head; He had no home of His own, but lodged with Martha and others; He was captivated by no love of life or worldly things: to teach us to use them, not enjoy them, and to seek the heavenly homeland, as He Himself soon returned to heaven. Likewise all the faithful and saints are guests of the earth and citizens of heaven, especially because here they live among the impious and reprobate, whence earth is a weariness to them, heaven their desire.
Therefore St. Augustine, in his Sentences, number 17: "Everyone, he says, who belongs to the heavenly city is a stranger in the world, and while he uses temporal life, he lives in a foreign homeland; where amid many allurements and many deceits, to know and love God belongs to few." And number 113: "For a Christian, the proper cause of joy is not the present age but the future; and temporal things are to be used so that they do not hinder eternal things, so that on the road where strangers walk, what pleases is that which leads to the homeland."
For, as St. Basil says on Psalm 1:1: "Just as a traveler now comes upon meadows, now upon mountains, now upon pleasant places, now upon sad ones, but soon leaves them behind; so we too in this life pass through joys and sorrows alike; nothing is permanent."
St. Ambrose says the same on Psalm 1:1, and adds: "Just as those sleeping on ships are carried by the winds into port, though those who rest have no awareness of sailing, yet the course urges them to the end and drives them unknowing: so as the span of our life flows by, each one is led to his own end by a hidden course. Whence it is said: Rise, you who sleep. For you sleep, and your time marches on (note this and ponder it); and see to it that while you sleep, time does not pass by: therefore even if you sleep, let your heart keep watch. If your heart is not idle, your times are not idle; you are on the road, O man; walk, so that you may arrive, lest night overtake you on the road, lest the day of life be consumed before you hasten the progress of virtue. You are a traveler; all things of this life pass away, all things fall behind you, all things on this road you see and pass by."
And further on: "Therefore, as one placed on a road, let neither prosperity lift you up nor adversity break you. Hasten always to the end, hasten to arrive: yet choose the road before you run. There are two roads: one of the just, narrow; the other of sinners, broad, but leading to destruction."
And St. Bernard, Sermon 4 On Advent: "What, he says, do you, sons of Adam, have to do with earthly riches and temporal glory, which are neither true nor yours? If they are yours, take them with you; but when a man dies, he will take nothing with him, nor will his glory descend with him." Hear also the pagan Seneca, Epistle 121: "A great soul, he says, conscious of a better nature, takes care indeed to conduct itself honestly and industriously in this station where it is placed. But it judges none of the things around it to be its own, and uses them as a stranger uses borrowed things, hastening on his way."
The same author, Epistle 103: "Whatever things lie around you, he says, regard them as the baggage of a temporary lodging. You must pass through. Nature strips the departing one, just as it did the arriving one. This day which you dread as your last is the birthday of eternity." And further on: "Why do you love these things as if they were yours? You are only covered by them. The day will come that will strip you and lead you out from the companionship of a foul and stinking belly. Even now, therefore, fly up as much as you can, detached from other things." See the sayings of the Saints, who said they were strangers, which I noted on Hebrews 11:13, at the end.
Verse 9
9. LIKE A WANDERING MAN. — In Hebrew נדהם nidham, that is, astonished, fearful, one who out of stupor and dread wanders and runs about here and there, as if to say: You seem, O Lord, as though terrified to flee from us and wander here and there; of course our crimes terrify You, as does the calamity threatening us. The Syriac translates, like a diminished, abject man; the Arabic, like a failing, weak man; the Septuagint, like a sleeping man, that is, as if not seeing our affliction. So the Psalmist says, Psalm 43:23: "Arise, why do You sleep, O Lord?"
LIKE A STRONG MAN. — In Hebrew גבור gibbor, that is, mighty, strong as a giant, as if to say: You seem to us, O Lord, to be like a man who, though he appears to be strong as a giant or boasts of being strong and gigantic, yet cannot bring help: and lest God allow the nations to reproach Him, Moses prays in Numbers chapter 14:16, lest the nations say: God cannot free His people from the enemy; therefore He is not powerful: or if He was powerful when He formerly freed them, now with age that strength has grown old and feeble in Him. So Sanchez.
YET YOU ARE IN OUR MIDST, O LORD, as if to say: You seem to be a stranger among us, O Lord, as I said in verse 8; but in truth You are not, because You dwell in the midst of us.
AND YOUR NAME. — Note: For the name of God to be invoked over a people means to call that people God's people, God's inheritance, God's possession, God's children. See Canon 30.
Verse 10
10. Thus says the Lord to this people, who loved TO MOVE THEIR FEET, — that is, they loved to depart from the worship of God, and, wandering and unstable, to run now to these, now to those idols, now to the Egyptians, now to the Assyrians for help, now to this, now to that pleasure and sin. See chapter 2, verse 18.
Thus God responds to the Jews asking why He departs like a guest, as if to say: I depart from you because you depart from Me: I seem to you a wanderer and stranger because you, wandering and unstable, run off to My enemies. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus. St. Jerome notes that the feet of sinners are unstable, Lamentations 1:8, Proverbs 7:10, Genesis 4:14, and chapter 11, verse 2. On the contrary, to the Saints with Moses it is said: "But you, stand here with Me," Deuteronomy 5:31; Isaiah 57:20. See what was said on Lamentations 1:8.
Verse 11
11. DO NOT PRAY FOR THIS PEOPLE FOR THEIR GOOD, — so as to ask any good thing from Me for them. See chapter 7, verse 16, and chapter 11, verse 14. Grievous is the wrath of God, when He forbids requesting what is good and permits praying for evil and destruction.
Verse 13
13. AND I SAID: ALAS, ALAS. — In Hebrew it is one word, Aha, alas, concerning which I spoke on chapter 1, verse 6. Jeremiah excuses the people, saying they were deceived by the false prophets.
Verse 16
16. I WILL POUR OUT UPON THEM THEIR OWN EVIL, — that is, the punishment owed to their malice.
Verse 17
17. LET MY EYES SHED TEARS NIGHT AND DAY, AND LET THEM NOT BE SILENT, — let them not cease from tears, as if to say: Since I cannot persuade you that famine and the sword threaten you, at least I will weep over your coming calamity.
THE VIRGIN DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE. — It is a Hebraism: for so is called the congregation of the people tenderly loved by God, like a virgin daughter, inasmuch as they had not yet come into the power of enemies: hence she is called a virgin. These are the words and tears of Jeremiah.
Verse 18
18. THE PROPHET (namely the false and lying one, of whom verse 13), and the priest — who applauds him.
THEY HAVE GONE TO A LAND THEY DID NOT KNOW, — they went captive with the people they seduced, to Babylon. This is a just and fitting punishment for the false prophets who said in verse 13: "He will give you true peace in this place;" for against this place and land He sets the land they did not know. The Chaldean translates, they have turned to their commerce. The Hebrew שחר sachar also means to trade.
Sanchez takes it differently: for by the Prophet he understands a good one, namely one who was devoted to singing God's praises in the temple: for the priest, whose duty was to sacrifice, is joined to the Prophets, that is, the singers. This sense is harmonious and fitting: for Jeremiah sometimes understands by prophet a good one, sometimes a bad and false one.
Verse 21
21. DO NOT DISGRACE THE THRONE OF YOUR GLORY. — So connect these words with the Romans, the Septuagint, and the Hebrew, although St. Jerome and others punctuate differently, namely thus: Do not disgrace us: remember the throne of Your glory — which punctuation has a plain sense. He calls Jerusalem the throne of God's glory, because this was the capital city of God's people, of which Christ says, Matthew 5:35: "You shall not swear by Jerusalem, because it is the throne of the great King." And here, chapter 3, verse 17: "In that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord." Or rather, the temple: for there God was said to sit above the Cherubim and the mercy seat. So St. Jerome. Now the sense of our punctuation is, as if to say: Do not allow, O Lord, Jerusalem to be devastated and polluted, or rather the temple, in which You are said to dwell among us as on a glorious throne: for this disgrace is done not only to us, but also to Your throne, that is, to You; therefore: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to Your name give glory, lest the nations say: Where is their God?" Psalm 113:9-10. The Chaldean translates: Do not make vile the place of Your glory; the Septuagint: Do not destroy the throne of Your glory. So also Lyranus and St. Thomas, who has many mystical reflections here at the end of the chapter on the threefold throne of God: first, of glory; second, of mercy; third, of justice.
Verse 22
22. ARE THERE AMONG THE GRAVEN IMAGES OF THE NATIONS ANY THAT CAN SEND RAIN? — He returns to the beginning of the chapter, as if to say: Not from idols, but to You, O Lord, we look and pray for rain, that You may heal and avert the plague of drought sent upon us; for You are the giver of showers, and You the withholder.