Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God says He is inexorable, even if Moses and Samuel were to pray for the people. He therefore threatens them with the sword, dogs, the birds of heaven, the beasts of the earth, and the certain destruction of Jerusalem: hence the Prophet, in verse 10, laments that he is hated by his own people as a man of strife, one who reproves their crimes and foretells their destruction, but by God, in verse 19, he is strengthened and fortified, that he may be as a wall of bronze.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 15:1-21
1. And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My soul would not be toward this people: cast them out from My face, and let them go forth. 2. And if they say to you: Where shall we go forth? you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Those for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; and those for captivity, to captivity. 3. And I will visit upon them four kinds, says the Lord: The sword to slay, dogs to tear, the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4. And I will give them over to the fury of all the kingdoms of the earth: because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem. 5. For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will grieve for you? or who will go to plead for your peace? 6. You have forsaken Me, says the Lord, you have gone backward: and I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will destroy you: I have grown weary of relenting. 7. And I will scatter them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the earth: I have slain and destroyed My people, and yet they have not returned from their ways. 8. Their widows have been multiplied to Me above the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young man a destroyer at midday: I have sent upon the cities sudden terror. 9. She who bore seven has grown feeble, her soul has fainted: her sun has set while it was yet day: she has been confounded and put to shame: and their remnant I will give to the sword in the sight of their enemies, says the Lord. 10. Woe is me, my mother: why did you bear me, a man of strife, a man of discord in all the earth? I have not lent, nor has anyone lent to me: yet all curse me. 11. The Lord says: If your remnant shall not be for good, if I have not met you in the time of affliction and in the time of tribulation against the enemy. 12. Shall iron be allied with iron from the North, and bronze? 13. Your riches and your treasures I will give to plunder without price, for all your sins, and in all your borders. 14. And I will bring your enemies from a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in My fury, it shall burn upon you. 15. You know, O Lord, remember me, and visit me, and defend me from those who persecute me, do not in Your patience take me away: know that I have suffered reproach for Your sake. 16. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word became to me a joy and the gladness of my heart: for Your name is invoked over me, O Lord God of hosts. 17. I did not sit in the council of jesters, and I gloried because of the hand of Your face; I sat alone, because You filled me with threatening. 18. Why has my pain become perpetual, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? It has become to me like the deception of faithless waters. 19. Therefore thus says the Lord: If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before My face: and if you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth: they shall return to you, and you shall not return to them. 20. And I will make you to this people a strong wall of bronze: and they shall fight against you, and shall not prevail: for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. 21. And I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the hand of the violent.
Verse 1
1. IF MOSES AND SAMUEL STOOD, — meaning: Do not wonder, O Jeremiah, nor think that you are despised by Me, because I do not hear you, for so great are the crimes of the people, and so great their obstinacy in them, that I would not hear even Moses or Samuel praying for them. Note: Samuel and Moses are named here above others, because they were most holy and had the greatest care for the people, and were powerful with God, and so effective in prayer that they resisted His wrath, praying for the people, though ungrateful and rebellious toward them. For they were leaders and judges of the people, and mediators between God and the people, and most intimate with God, and with the most ardent charity they loved the people, even when rebellious and obstinate against them. For these two things, namely prayer and charity, especially toward rebels and enemies, befit those who govern, and bind God and as it were compel Him to hear their prayers. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, St. Thomas, Hugh, Rabanus, and Lyranus. See St. Gregory, Book 9 Moral. chs. 12-13.
Hence it is clear that the merits of the Saints are not equal.
Second, although Vatablus translates: If Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be toward this people; yet better our Vulgate, the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: If they shall have stood, etc., whence it follows that they can and do customarily stand before the Lord to pray for the people. For in Hebrew it is the future tense, which signifies a customary action: If he shall stand, that is, if he stands as he is accustomed to stand. Therefore the Saints pray for us after death even in Limbo, much more in heaven, and obtain many things for us, as we read Jeremiah did, 2 Maccabees final ch., 14. For the Saints live in perfect charity both of God and of neighbor, and they praise God and pray, not for themselves, therefore for us. So St. Jerome and Chrysostom, Homily 4 on Epistle 1 to the Thessalonians. Understand this of prayer in general. For in particular, Moses, Samuel, and the others in Limbo did not know what was happening here, except what they learned either by revelation of angels or of God, or from those who descended there after death. The same must be said of souls existing in Purgatory, and therefore we do not read that the living invoked these souls: for this is proper to the new law and to blessed souls, and is as it were a reward of their happiness.
You will say: God here says that He will not hear them, therefore He forbids them to pray. I reply, I deny the consequence, for He does not say He will not hear their prayers because they have no value; but because the sins of the people were so great that they were unworthy on whose behalf Moses and Samuel would be heard. Just as an angry father is accustomed to say to his son: Do not pray for that worthless servant, for he deserves nothing but beatings, and I will beat him with a stick: so also God does here. See what was said at ch. 11:14.
Morally learn here that for the prayers of the Saints to benefit someone, he must strive and collaborate with them: for if he persists in wickedness, another's prayers will profit him little or nothing. On this see St. Chrysostom at the place already cited.
My soul is not toward this people, — I will not be appeased toward this people, I will not love them. CAST OUT (proclaim) THEM (who are to be cast out) FROM MY FACE, — that is, from the land of Judea, where I am present in the temple. So the Chaldean, St. Thomas, Lyranus, and Vatablus. Or, 'from My face,' that is, from My protection and benevolence. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, St. Thomas.
Verse 2
2. Those for death, — that is, for pestilence; for thus death is distinguished from the sword and famine, Ezek. 14:15. Thus commonly with St. Cyprian and Tertullian we call pestilence mortality: for it leads very many to death. Now 'those for death,' namely who are destined, let them go 'to death: those for the sword,' let them go 'to the sword: those for captivity,' let them go 'to captivity.'
Verse 3
3. I WILL VISIT (bring upon them) FOUR KINDS, — that is, types of punishments, namely pestilence, the sword, famine, captivity. In Hebrew it is, I will set over them four families or kinships, that is, four nations, as Pagninus and Vatablus translate. Or rather, four related carnivores, namely the sword, dogs, birds, and wild beasts, so that by their power given them by Me, they may tear and devour them at their will and pleasure, as is clear from what follows. Our Vulgate calls these 'four kinds.' Otherwise Sanchez: I will visit, namely as a king on the day of battle inspects his armory, whether namely my four weapons already mentioned are sufficiently polished and sharpened to strike the Jews.
Verse 4
4. And I will give them over to fury. — The Septuagint: to anguish; the Chaldean: to commotion, so that namely they themselves, burning and raging with the anguish and terrors of conscience, like Cain trembling, may run about and wander here and there. So Vatablus; for this is the Hebrew saava. Otherwise St. Thomas, Maldonatus, Hugh: 'To fury,' they say, that is, to the burning hatred with which all nations will persecute the Jews, meaning: I will hand over the Jews to the burning rage of all kings. Yet otherwise Lyranus, meaning: I will strike them so that all the earth may be in ferment, that is, be anxious, burn, and tremble at so great a slaughter of the Jews.
BECAUSE OF MANASSEH. — For Manasseh, the most wicked king of Judah, led the people into idolatry, built altars to the idols of all nations, and raised what was both the public standard and example of idolatry, 4 Kings 21:2. Moreover, although Manasseh was converted and did penance for his crimes, yet this public crime of the people was not expiated by a worthy satisfaction, especially because the posterity of Manasseh imitated his impiety and idolatry, and therefore were punished. So the Chaldean and St. Jerome. Add that the king and the kingdom, or the people, are politically one: whence the sin of one is also reckoned as the other's, and is punished in the other.
Verse 5
5. FOR WHO WILL HAVE PITY ON YOU, JERUSALEM? — The Hebrew and the Septuagint: Who will spare you? meaning: No prince would spare you if you had committed against him the things you have designed against Me; therefore it is not fitting that I should overlook them and spare you. WHO WILL GRIEVE FOR YOU? — No one will sympathize with you, because all will say you are justly punished. WHO WILL GO TO PLEAD? — namely for God. So the Septuagint. Second, the Chaldean and Vatablus aptly translate: Who will greet you? to ask about your peace and welfare, that is, how you are doing and faring, meaning: No one will be found who will grieve for you, to ask about you and your troubles.
Verse 6
6. I HAVE GROWN WEARY OF RELENTING. — For 'relenting' in Hebrew is hinnachem, which has two meanings, namely to repent and to console. Whence first, R. Kimchi translates, I have grown weary of being consoled, that is, I can scarcely console myself because of your impiety and obstinacy. Second, and better translated, I have grown weary of relenting, that is, I have labored asking and inviting you through the Prophets to repent and to convert. This sense best fits the Latin version. Third, St. Jerome translates, I have grown weary of being entreated, that is, I am wearied by the prayers of others for you: therefore no one will now dare to plead for you: for from so many prayers poured out for you, I have, as it were, a numbed head, calloused ears, and a weary and as if stupefied mind.
Fourth, Maldonatus translates, I have labored in repenting, or, as Sanchez says, in having mercy, as if to say: I have often decreed to punish you, but led by repentance and mercy I revoked the sentence, hoping for your amendment; but I obtained nothing, I only wearied Myself: for I did this so many times that I can no longer restrain Myself or repent and change My sentence regarding your punishment; for I am wearied and overcome with disgust from relenting: therefore I will revoke My first sentence, and utterly overthrow and destroy you. So Rabanus, Hugh, and Vatablus. Whence the Septuagint translates, I will no longer let go, and this sense agrees very well with the Hebrew hinnachem.
Verse 7
7. I WILL SCATTER THEM WITH A WINNOWING FAN (that is, just as chaff is scattered in every direction by wind carried by the winnowing fan, so also I will scatter you) IN THE GATES (that is, through the gates of the cities of the whole) EARTH. — For by gates, through synecdoche, cities are often signified. So the Chaldean and Vatablus. Second and better, he calls the gates of the earth the furthest parts of the earth, by which one exits from the land to the sea, and from the sea enters the land, meaning: I will scatter you to the ends of the earth. So Maldonatus, St. Thomas, Lyranus. Or, as Sanchez says, the gates of the earth are the east and west, through which day and night enter the earth as through gates placed at its boundaries. Others explain it thus, meaning: I will impoverish them so that they will be forced to beg at gates and doorways.
I HAVE SLAIN, etc., MY PEOPLE — through the Chaldeans, in the time of Jehoiakim, or rather through Sennacherib and the Assyrians, in the time of Manasseh.
Verse 8
8. THEIR WIDOWS HAVE BEEN MULTIPLIED TO ME (that is, by Me) — of the people, namely, their husbands having been killed by the Chaldeans. ABOVE THE SAND OF THE SEA. — It is a hyperbole, meaning: Very many mothers have been bereaved by Me and made widows. I BROUGHT UPON THEM AGAINST THE MOTHER OF THE YOUNG MAN A DESTROYER, — who namely would destroy the young man by death, and consequently afflict the mother with bereavement and grief. And this not secretly, but 'at midday,' that is, openly and in broad daylight. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, St. Thomas. Or conversely, 'a destroyer,' who namely would kill the mothers, meaning: Just as I made women widows by slaying their husbands, so I made young men orphans by slaying their mothers. So Maldonatus.
Others explain 'mother' as the metropolis, or mother city, that is, the chief city, namely Jerusalem; this is called the mother of the young man, that is, of young men: for she herself was the mother and nurse of the most flourishing youth, meaning: I will bring against Jerusalem an enemy who in broad daylight will destroy and devastate her with her flower of youth. Third, the Chaldean and Vatablus explain 'mother' as the assembly or multitude of young men, that is, all the strongest: for these the Chaldean destroyers slew. But the first sense, as it is the plainest, is also the most genuine.
I SENT UPON THE CITIES SUDDEN TERROR. — In Hebrew it is: I will cause to fall upon her (Jerusalem and neighboring cities) the city and terrors, that is, the terrors of a city, or such as are customary in a besieged, seditious, and tumultuous city. It is a hendiadys. Vatablus translates: I overwhelmed her suddenly with both the enemy and terrors. But in Hebrew ir means 'city,' not 'enemy': unless you say ir also means 'watchman,' and by watchman you understand the enemy keeping watch and lying in ambush against Jerusalem.
Verse 9
9. She who bore seven has grown feeble (has been changed and bereft of children) — that is, very many. So the Septuagint. Moreover these words could be taken both of particular mothers, and of Jerusalem itself. Meaning: Jerusalem itself, which is like the great mother of the Jews, and which had very many children, that is, citizens, will be bereft of them when they are slain: for this is the enormous affliction of mothers, especially widows. Whence in histories we read that some mothers, when they received word that their sons had fallen in battle, themselves collapsed lifeless and dead.
St. Jerome notes on Isaiah chs. 4 and 54 that the number seven was familiar to the Hebrews because of the Sabbath, just as the number ten because of the Decalogue, and signifies multitude. Thus in 1 Samuel 2:5, in the Hebrew it says: 'Until the barren one bore seven,' that is, very many, as our translator renders it; and Proverbs 26:16: 'The sluggard seems wiser to himself than seven (very many) men who speak judgments;' and v. 25: 'Seven (very many) wickednesses are in his heart;' and Ecclesiastes 11:2: 'Give a portion to seven, and also to eight,' meaning: Give alms to many, indeed to very many more; for when a unit is added to the seven, it signifies a great and unusual multitude.
HER SUN HAS SET, — that is, her prosperity, meaning: In the midst of her course of prosperity, Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah were overthrown. So St. Jerome, the Chaldean, and Vatablus. In like manner, every fruitful mother in Judea, when she was in the flower of her age and could bear many children, her husband having been slain, as if the sun were setting, remained a widow and barren. Whence the Chaldean translates: Their glory has departed, against their will, and meanwhile while they stand they were confounded. Such is that saying of the poet: Once bright suns shone upon you.
A similar phrase is in Amos ch. 8, v. 9; Job 22:28, and ch. 29:3. Otherwise Theodoret, Hugh, St. Thomas, meaning: Because of sorrow the sun seemed to set for her, and to grow dark at midday. See Canon 32.
Allegorically, St. Irenaeus, Book 4, ch. 66, Cyprian, Book 2 Against the Jews, ch. 23, and Isidore, On the Passion of Christ, ch. 15, refer this to the universal eclipse of the sun which occurred at the death of Christ: for then the sun set, not for Christ, but for Judea, from which the sun turned its face in indignation because of the killing of Christ committed by her.
Morally: The sun sets at midday for young men who hoped for the years of Nestor and are snatched away by death in the flower of their age. For to these rightly applies that saying of the poet, akin to our Prophet: Suns may set and rise again: For us, when once our brief light has set, One perpetual night must be slept.
Mystically, Hugh understands by the setting of the sun the blindness of the Jews, about which Isaiah ch. 59:9: 'We looked for light, and behold darkness; for brightness, and we walked in darkness. We groped like the blind along the wall,' etc. In like manner, tropologically, the sun sets for a man when he falls into mortal sin: for then he loses Christ the Sun of justice, the grace and life of the soul, and falls into dreadful darkness, indeed into present and eternal death. So St. Jerome.
THE REMNANT (under Jehoiakim) I WILL GIVE TO THE SWORD, — so that under Zedekiah they may be slain by Nebuchadnezzar. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh.
Verse 10
10. WOE IS ME. — It is an exclamation, by which the Prophet from a natural sense of grief complains that he was born by some fate to be hated and reviled by all, because of his threatening prophecies; and he calls himself 'a man of strife and discord,' that is, one exposed to the injuries, hatreds, and insults of all, with whom everyone quarrels and contends. The Syriac translates, a man who is a judge, that is, one contending with all in judgment; the Arabic, a man who reproves. Thus Christ was to the Jews a man of strife, and set for the fall and the rising of many.
Thus those who wish to reform deformed and collapsed republics and religious orders are men of strife in the eyes of the libertines. A Spartan said in Plutarch: 'How is a man good who is a friend of the wicked?' And Scipio Africanus said of his rivals: 'Rightly do those making war against their country want me removed first.' Those therefore who devote themselves to the good of the state are men of strife.
Such a man of strife was St. Paul; whence he himself said: 'If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ;' and: 'We are blasphemed, and we entreat; we suffer persecution, and we endure; we have become the refuse of this world.'
Such a man of strife was the truly immortal St. Athanasius, who almost alone challenged the entire Arian world to combat and vanquished it.
Such a man of strife was St. Benedict, who at the beginning of his conversion, when he wished to bring certain old monks of a more lax life back to discipline by reproving them, incurred their hatred, to such a degree that they offered him poison in a cup, which he himself, making the sign of the cross over it, shattered, and leaving the monastery he withdrew into solitude.
Such men of strife were St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and More, and in this century our Holy Father Ignatius, whose presence everywhere stirred up storms of the impious and of demons. Whence he himself, taught by long experience, grieved and feared whenever prosperous news of the Society's progress was brought from all quarters; for he said: 'Persecutions are the scourge and whetstone of the Society,' by which its virtue must be sharpened and made illustrious: and if they should fail, he said he feared lest the Society grow languid, or less rightly and vigorously discharge its office. For if it should continue to perform this, it would be necessary for the hatred of many, even of Catholics troubled by envy or other vices, to be stirred up against it: just as when a surgeon cuts the leg of a sick person, it is necessary for him to feel pain and be agitated, so that he often rises up against the surgeon himself. Therefore his followers, especially the zealous and illustrious, should not marvel if they are called men of strife and disturbers of the world; but rather should rejoice and persuade themselves that this is the sure mark of their virtue and zeal, and of the fruit that will follow from it.
I HAVE NOT LENT. — For quarrels often arise from lending or borrowing. Theodotion translates: I owed no one, nor did anyone owe me, meaning: I have no commerce or business with anyone, that he should have reason to quarrel with me, and yet everywhere they curse me. So Theodoret and Lyranus.
Whence tropologically St. Jerome introduces Christ here protesting that no one wishes to accept from Him the loan, that is, the grace and gifts which He Himself offers to each person. Sanchez adds that no one wishes to pay and render the interest on the good things which they have received from God in such great number and quantity, namely acts of thanksgiving, and the use of those things which one ought to expend for God's glory. Nor to lend at interest, when He Himself is so eager and ready to pay the interest. Moreover, 'he who has mercy on the poor' lends to God, and makes God his debtor, Proverbs 19:17.
Verse 11
11. IF NOT YOUR REMNANT. — Note: These are the words of God consoling Jeremiah. Second, the word 'if' is that of one swearing; for the supplement is: May I not be held true or God, if I do not bring it about that the remnant, that is, the remaining and final times, that is, as the Chaldean says, the end of your life shall be happy. God did this when Nebuchadnezzar the enemy sought the friendship of Jeremiah, as one who favored him against Jerusalem, and when it was captured, received Jeremiah kindly, ch. 39:11, ch. 40:4. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh.
IF I HAVE NOT MET YOU, — meaning: If I shall not meet you and help you against your enemies. Otherwise the Chaldean, Lyranus, and R. Solomon translate, namely: If I shall not cause your enemy to meet you, namely Zedekiah, beseeching you to pray for him, that he may escape the hand of the Chaldeans. This is clear from ch. 21. R. Solomon and others take this of Nebuzaradan, who governed Judea for Nebuchadnezzar, and gave Jeremiah liberty and gifts, while the rest of the Jews were reduced to slavery, as is clear from ch. 40:4.
Verse 12
12. SHALL IRON BE ALLIED WITH IRON FROM THE NORTH, AND BRONZE? — That is, the iron and arms of the Jews will not be able to be allied with the arms of the Chaldeans, nor my bronze; but the latter, being stronger, will clash against and shatter the former, which the Flemish say: 'Gert teghen gert' [hard against hard]. This proverb teaches that among the obstinate and proud there can be no alliance or concord, but there are constant quarrels and disputes. The sense therefore is, meaning: The Jews are most hard, as you experience, O Jeremiah, and therefore their friendship and alliances made with the Chaldeans will not stand; do not think, O Jeremiah, that your threats against them will be in vain, because truly the Jews will refuse to ally themselves with and submit to the Chaldeans, but will rebel and want war, and therefore will be destroyed by them, and thus your threats will be fulfilled, and those who persecute you to the death and laugh at your threats and consider them fables will be punished. Whence Jeremiah seeks vengeance from God against them, v. 15; although for the simple people he asks for mercy and pardon. So St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyranus. The Syriac and Arabic agree; for they translate: I will cause you to fall into the hands of your enemies, who will come to you from the North, and into a powerful evil: for they are like iron and cruel (hard) bronze.
Hence second, R. David, Isidore, and Vatablus aptly explain from the Chaldean thus: Shall King Pharaoh, who is hard as iron, be allied with Zedekiah, strong as iron, to fight against Nebuchadnezzar, who is like the hardest iron, or steel, and comes from the North against Jerusalem? Meaning: No, because the hard will crash against one harder than themselves, the obstinate against one more obstinate, the proud against one prouder, and therefore will be crushed by him, just as steel tames iron, meaning: The Jews are hard as iron, therefore they must be subdued by a harder metal; for a hard knot requires a hard wedge.
Third, for 'shall be allied' in Hebrew is ieroa, from the root raa with double ayin, it means 'will crush, will shatter.' So Symmachus and Vatablus, meaning: Shall the Jews and Pharaoh, who are strong as iron, crush Nebuchadnezzar, who is likewise strong as iron, and you, O Jeremiah, who are strong as bronze, and who prophesy favorable things for Nebuchadnezzar against Pharaoh? Meaning: No; rather Nebuchadnezzar will crush Pharaoh and the Jews. So Lyranus and Vatablus.
Fourth, the Septuagint and Theodotion for the letter resh read dalet, namely for ieroa, they read iada, that is, 'he knew,' whence they translate: Shall iron be known, and the bronze covering your strength? Meaning: Do not trust or glory, O Jerusalem, in your strength, in iron weapons and bronze breastplates; for the Chaldean will lay waste and seize all these things. So Theodoret, although Delrio, at adage 844, tries to reconcile the Septuagint with our Vulgate and the Chaldean.
Fifth, Sanchez explains, meaning: Just as with iron, that is, with the iron disposition of the Jews, the iron and bronze from the North, that is, the iron disposition of the Chaldeans, cannot be composed and allied: so neither can the iron breast of the Jews, which is hard to your salutary warnings, be allied with your own likewise iron disposition, which I gave you, ch. 1, v. 18. But here both the mark of the simile and the entire rendering or application of the simile must be understood and supplied. Therefore the plain sense, as it is the most obvious, is also the fullest and plainest. Whence also follows: 'Your riches and your treasures I will give over to plunder; yours,' namely, O Jerusalem, who persecutes Jeremiah My Prophet. For God turns His manner and discourse to her.
Verse 13
13. I WILL GIVE FREELY, — without any price paid. So the Hebrew. IN ALL YOUR SINS, — because of your sins. So the Septuagint. AND IN ALL YOUR BORDERS, — that is, throughout all Judea. Second, and more fittingly with the preceding, meaning: On account of all your borders, that is, on account of the idols which you have erected in all your borders and streets, as is clear from ch. 2, v. 13.
Verse 14
14. And I will bring. — It can be translated from the Hebrew: I will cause you to pass into a land which you do not know, namely Chaldea. So Vatablus and Pagninus. Second, the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: I will cause you to serve in a land which you do not know; for instead of heebarti, they read heebadti: for dalet and resch are very similar, and differ only in one angle. FOR A FIRE IS KINDLED IN MY FURY. — That is, the fire of My fury is kindled. For thus the Hebrews often put the preposition 'in' for the genitive construction. Or by hypallage, meaning: My fury is kindled in fire, that is, like fire; 'and it shall burn upon you,' that is, it shall be inflamed for your destruction, and burn you and all that is yours. So Sanchez.
Verse 15
15. You know, O Lord (my humility and affliction: these are the words of Jeremiah to God; therefore), DEFEND ME. — In Hebrew hinnachem, that is, avenge me against those who persecute me, as he adds below. DO NOT IN YOUR PATIENCE (in Hebrew, do not in the length of Your nose, that is, in Your longsuffering by which You tolerate the Jews who persecute me, and delay vengeance) TAKE ME UP — and my cause and prayer, meaning: Quickly avenge me, that they may know I am a Prophet sent by You, lest both I and You endure their reproach any longer. So the Chaldean, Hugh, Lyranus, Dionysius, and others.
Vatablus translates: Do not in Your longsuffering, by which You endure my enemies, take me away from their midst: that is, may I not die before You have taken vengeance upon them: grant me this consolation, that I may not die unavenged, but may see before death that they pay the penalties they deserve.
Verse 16
16. YOUR WORDS WERE FOUND, (by me), AND I ATE THEM (that is, I eagerly absorbed and received them. So Lyranus; hence) Your word became to me a joy, — meaning: It was sweet for me to hear Your counsels and decrees; but after I suffered such dire things from the Jews because of them, they became bitter to me, just as for Ezekiel, ch. 3, v. 14, and for St. John, Revelation 10:9, who alludes to this. Otherwise St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, meaning: I rejoiced in sustaining such great evils, because I was obeying Your word and preaching it. The Septuagint translates, instead of 'I ate,' 'eat': for instead of ochelem they read ochlam, in the imperative: for thus they have: Eat, or consume them, and Your word will be to me a joy, meaning: Fulfill the threats proclaimed through me, that they may know I am a true Prophet, and then I will rejoice. So Theodoret.
FOR YOUR NAME IS INVOKED OVER ME, — because I have been called and am called, and truly am Your prophet, meaning: Because I am certain that as a prophet I hear Your oracles, who are the almighty God; hence they, being divine, were sweet to me.
Verse 17
17. I DID NOT SIT IN THE COUNCIL OF JESTERS. — That is, of impious scoffers who are accustomed to mock men and God. Or properly, meaning: When I began to act as a prophet, I abstained from laughter, secular games and jests: I was more serious, breathing compunction. AND I GLORIED. — Repeat through a Hebraism the negation 'not,' meaning: I did not glory because of the hand of Your face, that is, on account of the gift of prophecy, which You wrought in me by the touch of Your hand, ch. 1, v. 9, but I sat alone, deserted by all, because You committed to me a threatening prophecy, and, as the Hebrew says, one full of indignation. So the Chaldean, Pagninus, Dionysius, and Sanchez.
Second, without the negation, taking 'and' causally for 'because,' you may explain it thus: I did not delight, nor did I glory 'in the council of jesters,' and, that is because, I gloried and delighted in You alone, O Lord, in Your discourse, in Your oracles. For among the Prophets, the hand is a symbol of prophecy and oracles. But the former sense is demanded by what follows: 'Because You filled me with threatening,' for he calls the sad and threatening prophecy a 'threatening,' which elsewhere he calls a burden, meaning: This harsh and threatening prophecy about the destruction of my people took from me all matter for rejoicing and glorying, and filled me with grief and horror.
Tropologically St. Gregory, Book 4 Moral. 35: The hand of God, he says, is that which expelled us sinners from paradise; and the threatening is that by which He still threatens us sinners with hell. Therefore 'let the holy man cast from himself all the crowds of temporal desires, and hide himself in the great solitude of the mind, saying: Because of the hand of Your face I sat alone: because You filled me with threatening.' Thus the holy hermits sat in the desert, as St. Jerome, Climacus, Palladius, Theodoret, Cassian, and others record.
The more recent Hebrews and Vatablus distinguish these words differently, namely: I did not sit in the council of jesters, to exult; but because of Your hand I dwell alone, because You filled me with indignation. So also St. Gregory, Book 4 Moral. ch. 35.
Verse 18
18. MY WOUND IS INCURABLE, — that is, desperate, unable to be healed, meaning: Why do You leave me in this affliction as if hopeless, and do not console me? IT HAS BECOME TO ME (namely Your hand, about which v. 17), LIKE THE DECEPTION OF FAITHLESS WATERS, — that is, like a faithless and deceptive spring, which seems about to flow perennially, and yet fails, for example in summer, when men most need it, meaning: I thought, O Lord, that You would always help me with Your hand and aid, as You promised: and behold, in this wound and persecution, when I most need help, You abandon me. So the Chaldean, the Septuagint, Pagninus, and Vatablus. The Hebrew words are pathetic in the literal sense.
Second, Sanchez, meaning: 'It has become,' that is, it has come about (for the Hebrews use the feminine gender for the neuter, which they lack), namely that my abstaining from jests and the council of jesters, about which v. 17, in order to please You alone (which I believed would be advantageous, useful, and prosperous for me), has become like deceptive waters, which abandon the sad farmer precisely when the fields are most thirsty. For so also now I, when I am harassed by those whom I abandoned, am also forsaken by You, O Lord.
Third, Lyranus, meaning: 'It has become to me,' namely my wound, like faithless waters, which in the time of heat, when we most need them, fail; because the wound is present for me precisely when I most need consolation. Fourth, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, meaning: The Prophet bearing the type of Christ suffering; This wound does not last, but passes and fails, like faithless waters: but, how then does he mourn and call it incurable?
Hence fifth, St. Augustine, Book 2 Against the Letters of Petilian (who as a Donatist wished to prove from this passage that the baptism of the unfaithful and impious was deceptive and vain), ch. 102, and St. Thomas explain it thus, meaning: The wound, that is, my enemies, are like deceitful and faithless waters, so that I cannot trust them, but must always fear evils from them, as long as they survive.
I say therefore that this proverb refers to and explains the desperate wound (for the preceding discourse was about this), namely that it is incurable, like a chronic ulcer, which when it seems healed and covered over, inwardly festers, and with a deeper gangrene breaks out again: like certain deceptive torrents, or pools (which the Flemish call Doolaghen), which when they are thought to have dried up and to be passable on dry foot, give way beneath the one walking, and swallow and submerge him: for these are called faithless, because when they appear dry and solid, they bubble up and gush forth anew, like a marsh. So Delrio, at adage 843.
Verse 19
19. IF YOU RETURN (Maldonatus thinks this is said to the people, not to Jeremiah: because Jeremiah, he says, had not departed from God, nor did he need to return to His grace: the sense therefore being, meaning: If, O people, you return from your sins, I in turn), I WILL RESTORE YOU (that is, I will place you back in My grace), AND YOU SHALL STAND BEFORE MY FACE, — that is, I will bestow upon you every favor, I will gladly look upon you. But that these words are said not to the people, but to Jeremiah, is clear from what follows: 'They shall return to you, and I will make you to this people a wall of bronze.'
I say therefore, the phrase 'if you return' is future tense, and the sense is, meaning: If you return, O Jeremiah, from your distrust, faintheartedness, and impatience, to firm hope and constancy in Me, I will turn and restore you, so that you may stand firm before My face, and be My intimate and most dear prophet, and your salvation may be My concern. So the Chaldean, Vatablus, Origen.
Otherwise St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugh, St. Thomas, and Lyranus, meaning: If, O Jeremiah, you convert this people from their sins, I will convert you from your affliction, and you shall be most intimate with Me. Whence follows: 'If you separate,' etc. But the former sense is truer and more genuine.
Otherwise also Sanchez, meaning: If, O Jeremiah, you return to Me, as you have begun, or if you turn yourself away from the company of triflers and jesters, I will turn you, namely from those evils and disadvantages to which you complain you are exposed: and I will give you something exceptional among the Prophets, namely that you may continually stand before My face, that is, that you may be intimate with Me, and I may gladly look upon you, and daily adorn you with singular gifts.
IF YOU SEPARATE THE PRECIOUS FROM THE VILE. — The Syriac: If you bring forth the weighty from the defective (for example, a heavy and full-weight coin from one that is lighter and falls short of the just weight), or the honest from the depraved. First, the sense is, meaning: If you separate My precious word from the threatening but light, vile, and feeble words of the Jews, because they themselves are powerless and will not be able to carry out their threats, meaning: If you strongly and courageously, O Jeremiah, cling to My word and despise the threats of the Jews, you shall be as My mouth, that is, you shall be a prophet and herald most closely joined to Me, through whom I will declare and speak forth My secrets and decrees. This sense is most fitting, and best corresponds to what precedes and follows. Therefore, O Jeremiah, do as bees do, which gather flowers and leave the plants, and, as St. Augustine says, Tract. 46 on John, 'pluck the grape, avoid the thorn.'
Second, 'if you separate the precious,' that is, patience, constancy, and virtue, from your vile timidity; if you are constant, not timid: for virtues are precious, especially fortitude and magnanimity; but vices are vile, and especially fearful and fainthearted souls are vile. Here can be referred the exposition of Sanchez, suitable and fitting indeed: 'If you separate the precious from the vile,' that is, Me and My oracles from the games and trifles of the jesters, v. 17, so that you shun the latter, as you do, and follow and carry out the former, 'you shall be as My mouth,' that is, 'you shall stand before My face,' you shall receive oracles from Me, speak My words, and be 'as My mouth:' because you speak no differently than as I would speak, or than as has been prescribed to you by Me.
For the mouth is like an animated lyre, in which the teeth are like strings, the tongue the plectrum, says St. Ambrose, Book 6 Hexameron ch. 9, and the soul and spirit is God's breath, which moves and governs the mouth, and in it modulates as He wills.
Third, Maldonatus continues to explain these words as addressed to the people, meaning: If, O people, you have made a choice between true Prophets and false. But I have already said these words are addressed to Jeremiah.
Fourth, St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Theodoret, Hugh, St. Thomas, Lyranus explain it thus, meaning: If, O Jeremiah, you separate and convert the pliable and flexible Jews from the hardened ones; or rather, if you endeavor to make from the vile, impious, unbelieving, and rebellious, believers, obedient, just people, and thus separate them, etc., as the Hebrew says, lead them out from their past and from the present impiety of others still rebellious; you shall be My concern, dear and joined to Me as My mouth (thus we commonly say to one whom we greatly love: I love you as my eyes, as my heart), which announces and fulfills My will. Whence the Chaldean translates, you will fulfill the will of My word; and St. Jerome says, you will be as My law which converts souls; and Theodoret: You will be, he says, similar to My word: because just as I created all things by My word, so you by your word will convert the impious to virtue. The Arabic: you will be as the speech of My mouth. Otherwise Vatablus and Isidore: you will be as My mouth, that is, they say, whatever you say, I will certainly perform, as if I Myself had said it.
Chrysostom adds, Oration 3 Against the Jews: The mouth, he says, of those who convert their neighbors, is as the mouth of God, that is, such people are most like God and most closely joined to Him, just as the mouth is most like and most closely joined to the man. Second, such people are like Christ, and most similar to Christ, who is the mouth and Word of the Father: for Christ became man and was crucified for the purpose of converting souls.
Finally hear St. Gregory, Book 18 Moral. 23: 'If you separate, he says, the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth: for indeed the present world is vile to God, but the human soul is precious: therefore he who separates the precious from the vile is called the mouth of the Lord; because through him God brings forth His words, who by speaking what he can, tears the human soul from the love of the present age.'
For the rational soul is a most precious gem, worth more than heaven and earth and the whole world: for it is made in the image of God, and is the highest participation of God, and, as he says, a particle of the divine breath, and therefore St. Augustine and following him St. Thomas teach that the conversion and justification of a sinner is a greater, more difficult, and more powerful work than the creation of heaven and earth. Who therefore would not aspire to purify and save this gem, even at the cost of his own life? St. Thomas teaches this, I-II, Question 113, article 9. Virgil, holding Ennius in his hand and reading him, when asked what he was doing, replied: 'I am gathering gold from dung.' Let him who labors to convert a soul say this: From the dung of the world I gather and separate this gold, this soul, as the precious from the vile.
Hence St. John Chrysostom, Oration 3 Against the Jews, vol. 5, teaches that he who converts a soul offers God a greater and more pleasing gift than if he built a temple for Him: 'God destroyed one temple in Jerusalem, and has raised innumerable ones far more venerable. You, he says, are the temple of the living God;' and further on: 'For even if someone counted out an immense amount of money, he would have done nothing comparable to what he does who saves a soul. This is a greater alms than ten thousand talents, than this entire world, however vast it extends to the eyes on every side: since a man is more precious than the whole world; for his sake both heaven, and earth, and sea, and sun, and stars were created.'
THEY SHALL RETURN TO YOU. — That is, the very Jews who are hostile to you will become your suppliants, and will be subject to you, not you to them; indeed they themselves will seek you and your friendship, so that you may advise them and pray for them. This is clear from ch. 21; but you, strengthened by My power like a wall of bronze, will not care for nor seek them. Second, the Chaldean explains, meaning: They will obey your words and imitate you, you will not imitate their customs and errors.
Tropologically, such should be Prelates, pastors, and preachers, that namely with Jeremiah, ch. 5, v. 14, they should be like fire, which converts everything into itself and is itself converted into nothing: that is, that they should persevere in their state of virtue, and convert the people to their own charity and virtue; but they themselves should not be converted to it, that is, should not put on the vices and customs of the people, nor conform themselves to them.
Thus St. Monica, praying for her son Augustine the Manichean, saw an Angel saying to her: 'Where you are, there he also is,' signifying that he would become Catholic; and so when Augustine, hearing this, tried to evade it and said that this vision portended that she would one day become such as he was, namely a Manichean, she replied: 'No, she said, for it was not said to me: Where he is, there also you; but: Where you are, there also he,' as St. Augustine reports, Book 3 Confessions ch. 11.
Thus our Holy Father Ignatius said that his own and other Religious should so deal with secular people as to draw them from secular conversations and desires to their own, that is, religious and divine things; but that they themselves should not descend to their secular customs and conversations, and as it were become secularized with them. Wherefore this was his precept: 'Enter among secular people with what is theirs, but depart with what is yours,' meaning: At the beginning accommodate yourselves to secular people and descend to their conversations, but gradually and gently introduce higher and divine things, and fix them in their hearts. For thus the Apostle says: 'I became all things to all men, so that I might save all.'
Hence St. Thomas again infers that 'the Saints do not rejoice nor glory except in the good of virtue, especially in three things: first, in the suffering of tribulations. Romans 5: Not only so, but we also glory in tribulations. Second, in the conversion of neighbors. 2 Corinthians 7: I have much confidence in you, much boasting for you. Third, in the purity of conscience. 2 Corinthians ch. 1: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience.'
'Second, the Saints glory in God, namely first, in divine love, shown through the Passion of Christ. Galatians final ch.: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second, in divine knowledge. Jeremiah 9: In this let him who glories glory, to know and understand Me. Third, in divine imitation. Sirach 32: It is a great glory to follow the Lord; for length of days will be taken from Him.' Thus far St. Thomas.