Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here begins the second book, or section, of the oracles of Jeremiah, namely the deeds and words spoken by him after Josiah, under Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, as I said in the chronological table. In this chapter, therefore, the Prophet is sent to the royal house, and there he warns the king of Judah (who this was I will say at verse 1) and the princes to do justice for the poor, otherwise he and his kingdom will be overthrown; for a kingdom is established as if on the foundation of justice, and is overthrown by injustice. Then he narrates in order the fall and fate of all the sons of Josiah, or rather prophesies them: namely, Shallum, that is, Jehoahaz, verse 10 — that he will die in Egypt; Jehoiakim, verse 13 — that he will be buried with the burial of a donkey; Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, verse 24 — that he will be captured with his mother and will die in Babylon.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 22:1-30
1. Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2. and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David — you, and your servants, and your people who enter by these gates. 3. Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment and justice, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the slanderer; and do not sadden the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, nor oppress them unjustly; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4. For if you truly do this thing, kings of the line of David sitting on his throne shall enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses — they, their servants, and their people. 5. But if you will not hear these words: I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a desolation. 6. For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: Gilead, you are to Me the summit of Lebanon — may I not make you a desolation, cities uninhabitable! 7. And I will consecrate against you a destroyer and his weapons; and they will cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire. 8. And many nations will pass through this city, and each will say to his neighbor: Why has the Lord done this to so great a city? 9. And they will answer: Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped foreign gods, and served them. 10. Do not weep for the dead man, nor mourn over him with weeping; lament rather him who departs, because he will not return again, nor see the land of his birth. 11. For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He shall not return here again; 12. but in the place to which I have transferred him, there he shall die, and this land he shall not see again. 13. Woe to him who builds his house by injustice, and his upper rooms not by right judgment; who oppresses his neighbor for nothing and does not give him his wages. 14. Who says: I will build myself a spacious house and roomy upper chambers; who opens windows for himself, and makes cedar paneling, and paints it with vermilion. 15. Will you reign because you rival the cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and execute judgment and justice, and then it went well with him? 16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy, for his own good; was it not therefore because he knew Me, says the Lord? 17. But your eyes and heart are set on avarice, on shedding innocent blood, on slander, and on the course of wicked deeds. 18. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not mourn for him, saying 'Alas, my brother!' or 'Alas, my sister!'; they shall not lament for him, saying 'Alas, lord!' or 'Alas, his glory!' 19. He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey — rotted and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20. Go up to Lebanon and cry out; and in Bashan lift up your voice; and cry out to the travelers, for all your lovers have been crushed. 21. I spoke to you in your prosperity, and you said: 'I will not listen.' This has been your way from your youth, that you have not listened to My voice. 22. The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity; then you will be confounded and put to shame for all your wickedness. 23. You who dwell in Lebanon and nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, pains like those of a woman in labor! 24. As I live, says the Lord, even if Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would tear him off. 25. And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26. And I will cast you, and your mother who bore you, into a foreign land where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27. And to the land to which they lift up their souls to return, they shall not return. 28. Is this man Jeconiah a broken earthen vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure? Why have he and his offspring been cast out and thrown into a land they did not know? 29. O land, land, land — hear the word of the Lord! 30. Thus says the Lord: Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his offspring shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.
Verse 1
1. Go down — that is, go: for 'to descend' in Scripture means 'to go.' Of the king — namely, the one who in the preceding chapter had sent messengers to Jeremiah, that is, Zedekiah. So say St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, and Dionysius. To Zedekiah, therefore, these words are addressed from verse 1 to verse 10, where begin the words spoken under Jehoiakim to Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin. But in that case there would be here a great and harsh hysteron proteron (for Jehoiakim preceded Zedekiah), especially since all things in this chapter are connected so that one seems to flow from another. Therefore we shall say more correctly that this king is Jehoiakim, whom Pharaoh Necho, after leading his brother Jehoahaz away to Egypt, had established as king of Judea. To Jehoiakim, therefore, He commands that he and his officials administer justice to everyone, especially strangers, orphans, and widows, so that his kingdom may be happy and stable; otherwise He threatens him with destruction.
Verse 5
5. I have sworn by Myself (through Myself).
Verse 6
6. Gilead, you are to Me the summit. — Mount Gilead is the summit and beginning and noblest part of Lebanon, for it is rich in resin, myrrh, and spices, as is evident from Genesis 37:25, where Jacob struck a covenant with Laban, setting up a pile of stones as a permanent witness of the covenant. Hence this mountain was called Gilead, that is, 'heap of testimony.' Hence Gilead here signifies either the temple, as Hugh holds; or Jerusalem, as St. Thomas and Vatablus hold; or rather, as is clear from verses 1 and 6, the royal house and lineage, whose citadel and palace, like Mount Gilead, was elevated on Mount Zion, next to the temple in which were the tablets of the Decalogue, the Ark, and other memorials of the covenant struck (for this is the meaning of Gilead) between God and the people. Furthermore, just as in Gilead and Bashan, because of the dense forests, there were lions and most ferocious beasts, so too in this royal house the kings were fierce like lions (Ezekiel chapter 19, verses 1ff). Consequently, by Lebanon, as St. Jerome, Rabanus, the Chaldean, Theodoret, and Castrius teach, he means Jerusalem and from there all Judea, as if to say: O royal house, which in nobility, authority, dominion, beauty, and height are the summit of Jerusalem, just as Gilead is the summit of Lebanon — may I not be held true, unless I reduce you to desolation together with all Jerusalem and its cedar houses cut from Lebanon, so that you become desolate like uninhabitable cities.
Note: Scripture is accustomed to call cities and nations by foreign names, especially when they are alienated from God; thus Jerusalem is here called Lebanon. Note secondly: 'If' in Hebrew is a particle of swearing and has the force of 'not'; it is an aposiopesis, as if to say: I swear that I will not do this; and if I should do otherwise, let Me not be held God, let Me not be held true.
Tropologically, Gilead the summit of Lebanon, that is, of the Church, refers to the priests, who minister the law and the Sacraments, which are the memorials of the covenant struck through Christ between God and men. Let them see to it that they do not lock these away but administer them properly, lest like cedars they be thrown down from their height and handed over to the fire. So Dionysius and a Castro.
Verse 7
7. I will sanctify — that is, I will decree by public authority, says Maldonatus. So it is said: "Sanctify a war" (Joel 3:9); and "Sanctify a fast" (Joel 1:14); and "Sanctify nations against her" (below, chapter 51:27) — that is, cause the nations to wage war against her. Secondly, "I will sanctify" means I will set apart and prepare them for war. So the Chaldean, Theodoret, and Vatablus, so that they may carry out the just and holy sentence and vengeance of God, say St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh. Thirdly, "I will sanctify," because, just as war and the laws of war were sacred and prescribed by the Lord (Deuteronomy 20:1), so also soldiers were enrolled in war by a sacramentum, that is, a sacred oath, without which oath it was unlawful to serve in the military, says Plutarch (Problem 38). Fourthly, "I will sanctify" means I will consecrate them as though they were priests, so that they may immolate and slay you, the impious, as victims for the expiation of My justice (Jeremiah 46:10; Zephaniah 1:7). See what was said at chapter 6:4.
The destroyer — that is, Nebuchadnezzar. In Hebrew it is maschitim, that is, devastators, namely the Chaldeans. A man (that is, men) and his weapons — as if to say: Who will slay men however well armed, says Maldonatus. Secondly and better, 'and his weapons' should be referred to 'I will sanctify,' as if to say: I will bring in the destroyer "and his weapons;" the Septuagint reads "and his axes," so that they may cut down the choice cedars — that is, the magnificent houses that tower in you like cedars in Lebanon and are made of cedar — and cast them into the fire.
Verse 10
10. Do not weep for the dead. — Vatablus says: for dead men, namely the Jews, as if to say: For the Jews it is harder to lack a homeland than to lack life; they would rather die than be exiled from Jerusalem. But in Hebrew here we have lemet, that is, 'the dead one' — not Jehoiakim, as Pagninus holds; not Zedekiah, as St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh hold; not Jehoahaz, as Lyra holds; but Josiah, the best of kings, whose death and funeral were still being celebrated with the universal mourning of all. So Theodoret, St. Thomas, Castrius, and Sanchez, as if to say: Do not mourn Josiah, slain by Pharaoh, since he died piously and gloriously; weep rather for his son, who will be far more wretched in the most miserable captivity, to which he will go out and be led — weep, I say, for Shallum.
Tropologically, happier is the one who has died than the one who departs from Jerusalem, that is, from holy Religion and the congregation, and apostatizes, never to return. This one, therefore, is more to be mourned as a fool (Sirach 22:10). So a Castro. Morally, St. Thomas says: One should not weep much over the dead. First, because of the uselessness of mourning. Sirach 38:21: "Do not give your heart to sadness, but drive it away from you." Second, because of the universality of death. 2 Samuel 14:14: "We all die, and are like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." Third, because of freedom from guilt. Wisdom 4:11: "He was snatched away lest wickedness should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul." Fourth, because of rest from labor. Revelation 14:13: "Henceforth the Spirit says that they may rest from their labors." Fifth, because of the attainment of glory. 2 Corinthians 5:1: "For we know that if our earthly tent we dwell in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Thus far St. Thomas.
Verse 11
11. Shallum. — You ask: Who is this Shallum? Note that Josiah had four sons. The firstborn of Josiah, says Scripture (1 Chronicles 3:15), was Johanan; the second was Jehoiakim, also called Eliakim and Jeconiah, who had a son Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah) who was king after him; the third was Zedekiah, also called Mattaniah; the fourth was Shallum. Vatablus answers that Shallum here is Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim. Secondly, St. Jerome and Lyra think he is Zedekiah, who is called Shallum, that is, 'consummation' — namely, of the Jewish kingdom, because under him the scepter and kingdom of the Jews came to an end. In a similar way, the Hebrews write shalom at the end of books, as if to say: This book is finished and completed. Just as shalom marks the end of a book, so Shallum was the crown and end of the kingdom. Thirdly, St. Thomas, from verse 18, thinks he is Jehoiakim or Eliakim. But I say, with Theodoret, Jansenius, Prado, a Castro, Sanchez, and others, that Shallum is Jehoahaz, who was the third-born son of Josiah and was immediately appointed by the people to succeed him in the kingdom, but after three months was carried off to Egypt by Pharaoh and died there, as is said here. See 2 Kings 23 and 24.
This is proved: for that Jehoahaz is not Johanan, the firstborn of Josiah, who died young and never reigned; for Jehoahaz was younger than both Johanan and Jehoiakim. Again, Jehoahaz is not Jehoiakim or Zedekiah, as is clear from 2 Kings 24. Therefore Jehoahaz is Shallum. See Jansenius on chapter 6 of the Gospel Harmony. You will say: How then does 1 Chronicles 3:15 list Shallum as the fourth son of Josiah? I answer that he is listed as the fourth, even though he is the third, because he reigned only three months, while the other two each reigned eleven years.
Genesis 37:25, where Jacob struck a covenant with Laban, setting up a pile of stones as a permanent witness of the covenant; hence this mountain was called Gilead, that is, 'heap of testimony.' From this, Gilead here signifies either the temple, as Hugh holds; or Jerusalem, as St. Thomas and Vatablus hold; or rather, as is clear from verses 1 and 6, the royal house and lineage, whose citadel and palace, like Mount Gilead, was elevated on Mount Zion, next to the temple in which were the tablets of the Decalogue, the Ark, and other memorials of the covenant struck (for this is the meaning of Gilead) between God and the people. Furthermore, just as in Gilead and Bashan, because of the density of the forests, there were lions and most ferocious beasts, so also in this royal house the kings were fierce like lions (Ezekiel chapter 19, verse 1ff).
Consequently, by Lebanon, as St. Jerome, Rabanus, the Chaldean, Theodoret, and Castrius teach, he means Jerusalem and thence all Judea, as if to say: O royal house, which in nobility, authority, dominion, beauty, and height are the summit of Jerusalem, just as Gilead is the summit of Lebanon — may I not be held true, unless I reduce you to desolation together with all of Jerusalem and its cedar houses cut from Lebanon, so that you become desolate like uninhabitable cities.
The destroyer — Nebuchadnezzar. In Hebrew it is maschitim, that is, devastators, namely the Chaldeans. A man (that is, men) and his weapons — as if to say: who will slay men however well armed, says Maldonatus. Secondly and better, 'and his weapons' should be referred back to 'I will sanctify,' as if to say: I will bring in the destroyer "and his weapons;" the Septuagint reads, "and his axes," so that they may cut down the choice cedars, that is, the magnificent houses which tower in you like cedars in Lebanon and are made of cedar, and cast them into the fire.
Tropologically, happier is the one who has died than the one who departs from Jerusalem, that is, from holy Religion and the congregation, and apostatizes, never to return. This one, therefore, is more to be mourned as a fool (Sirach 22:10). So a Castro. Morally, St. Thomas says: One should not weep much over the dead. First, because of the uselessness of mourning. Sirach 38:21: "Do not give your heart to sadness, but drive it away from you." Second, because of the universality of death. 2 Samuel 14:14: "We all die, and like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." Third, because of freedom from guilt. Wisdom 4:11: "He was snatched away lest wickedness should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul." Fourth, because of rest from labor. Revelation 14:13: "Henceforth the Spirit says that they may rest from their labors." Fifth, because of the attainment of glory. 2 Corinthians 5:1: "For we know that if our earthly tent we dwell in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Thus far St. Thomas.
under him the scepter and kingdom of the Jews came to an end. In a similar way, the Hebrews write shalom at the end of books, as if to say: This book is finished and completed. Just as shalom marks the end of a book, so Shallum was the crown and end of the kingdom. Thirdly, St. Thomas, from verse 18, thinks he is Jehoiakim or Eliakim. But I say, with Theodoret, Jansenius, Prado, a Castro, Sanchez, and others, that Shallum is Jehoahaz, who was the third-born son of Josiah and was immediately appointed by the people to succeed him as king, but after three months was carried off to Egypt by Pharaoh and died there, as is said here. See 2 Kings 23 and 24. This is proved: for that Jehoahaz is not Johanan, the firstborn of Josiah, who died young and never reigned, since Jehoahaz was younger than both Johanan and Jehoiakim. Again, Jehoahaz is not Jehoiakim or Zedekiah, as is clear from 2 Kings 24. Therefore Jehoahaz is Shallum. See Jansenius on chapter 6 of the Gospel Harmony. You will say: How then does 1 Chronicles 3:15 list Shallum as the fourth son of Josiah? I answer that he is listed as fourth, even though he is the third, because he reigned only three months, while the other two each reigned eleven years.
Verse 13
13. Woe to him who builds his house by injustice. — He speaks of Jehoiakim, who succeeded Jehoahaz. So St. Jerome and all the rest except Theodoret, who understands it of Jehoahaz. The Prophet therefore rebukes Jehoiakim's injustice and ambition in his excessive desire to build with tributes and other unjustly obtained means. Whence he says: "He oppresses his neighbor for nothing;" in Hebrew, he makes his neighbor serve or work for free and without pay. He therefore censures his injustice: that he compelled his neighbors, whether friends or the poor, to labor on his buildings without paying them their wages, against the law (Leviticus 19:13). Furthermore, he censures his ambition. First, when he says: "I will build myself a spacious house" — in Hebrew middot, that is, 'of measurements,' namely great ones, meaning a very vast palace, says Vatablus. The Septuagint translates it as 'a measured house,' that is, as Theodoret says, proportioned in length, breadth, and height.
So Nero built his palace here at Rome so vast and splendid that his house seemed to be Rome, and all of Rome seemed to be his house. We still see its vast ruins and remnants. Hear Suetonius in his Life, chapter 31: "In nothing was he more ruinously extravagant than in building. He set up a colossus bearing his own likeness, one hundred and twenty feet high. So vast was the extent of the building that it had triple porticoes a mile long, and also a lake, like a sea, surrounded by buildings designed to look like cities. In the remaining parts everything was overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-of-pearl shells. The dining rooms had ceilings paneled with ivory tiles that could revolve to scatter flowers, and were fitted with pipes to sprinkle perfume from above. The principal dining room was circular, and revolved perpetually day and night, like the heavens." But what was the outcome of such ambition? At last, "exhausted and impoverished, he turned his mind to slander and plunder." For, as the Poet says: To build houses and feed many mouths Is the direct road to poverty. Likewise it is commonly said: "A king in want is a great slanderer."
Similar to Nero was Gaius Caligula, of whom Suetonius writes in his Life, chapter 37: "He desired to accomplish nothing so much as what was said to be impossible. And so massive structures were thrown into the deep sea, rocks of the hardest flint were cut through, plains were raised to the height of mountains with earthworks, and mountain ridges were leveled by digging — all with incredible speed, since delay was punished with death. And not to enumerate each item, the immense fortune — that entire sum of two billion seven hundred million sesterces left by Tiberius Caesar — he consumed in less than a single year. Therefore he turned his mind to plunder."
The same madness afflicted Tarquinius Priscus, king of the Romans, who by a long and dangerous building project so tormented the common people that nearly all of them, fleeing from the drudgery, took their own lives. So Pliny, book 36, chapter 5. So these men: They build in gold and raise their seats to the stars. Utterly vain, and unaware how unpopular they are in the public eye, to whom in the end the one who finds approval is "he who is sparing with his own money, frugal with public funds, and moderate in private building projects," says Tacitus, books 1 and 6.
Just so, in this as in other things, Augustus Caesar was moderate. As Suetonius says, chapter 72: "He lived in a modest house, remarkable neither for spaciousness nor for elegance; the porticoes had short columns of Alban stone, and the rooms had no marble or remarkable pavement; and even the house of his granddaughter Julia, lavishly built by her, he razed to the ground." For at Rome buildings had grown to such a size that they rose to four or five stories, and they would pile the largest houses upon the largest houses, as Aristides used to say. Therefore Augustus Caesar, lest the city should suffer from the collapse of such massive buildings, forbade anyone to build higher than seventy feet. Nero enacted the same rule after the city was burned.
"The Roman people," says Valerius Maximus, book 8, chapter 1, "punished M. Aemilius with a heavy fine when L. Cassius accused him of the crime of having built too lofty
a villa in the territory of Alsium, with a heavy fine." Noteworthy is the decree of the Emperor Constantine, book 6, chapter 'On private building': "If anyone, after this law, strips a city and transfers its ornaments — that is, marbles or columns — to the countryside, let him be deprived of that property." The wise man should therefore restrain this unbridled desire for building ("which is not satisfied by building," says St. Bernard).
Truly St. Jerome, in Epistle 17 to Marcella, inviting her to Bethlehem, writes: "Where, he asks, are the wide porticoes? Where the gilded ceilings? Where the houses clothed in the sufferings of the wretched and the labors of the condemned? Where the basilicas built like palaces with the wealth of private individuals, so that the worthless little body of a man may walk about in greater luxury, and as though anything could be more ornate than the world, they prefer to gaze at their own roofs rather than at heaven? Behold, in this little opening of the earth (in the cave of Bethlehem), the Creator of the heavens was born; here He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, here He was seen by the shepherds, here He was pointed out by the star, here He was worshipped by the Magi. And this place, I think, is holier than the Tarpeian Rock, which, having been struck by lightning from heaven so many times, showed that it displeased the Lord."
Finally, Plato said of the people of Agrigentum and Megara: "They build as though they will live forever, and feast as though they are about to die." But Christians should build in heaven, not on earth; and therefore follow that precept of St. Jerome: "Study as though you will live forever; live as though you will die tomorrow." Let Prelates remember the weighty saying of Pope Pius V: "The building of the material Church is the ruin of the spiritual Church" — inasmuch as Prelates, too absorbed in the construction of temples, consume all their time, cares, and resources on it, which they ought to spend on the poor and on winning souls for God. Groaning over these things, St. Bernard says, Sermon 4 on the Missus est: "I see some raising walls with great care while neglecting morals."
Secondly, from the spacious upper rooms, and, as the Septuagint says, airy ones, which, as Vatablus translates, were open to the winds and cooling; for this is the Hebrew meruchim, from the root ravach, that is, to breathe, to ventilate — these were summer dining rooms for catching the breeze. These Jehoiakim made "not in judgment," that is, not in equity, but by oppression of his subjects and the poor.
Thirdly, from cedar paneling — that is, that he covered the walls with cedar boards. Fourthly, that they were painted with sinopis, that is, with red ochre and vermilion, the best of which is dug out near Sinope, a city of Pontus, says Pliny (book 35, chapter 6). Hence it is called sinopis.
Note: Vermilion among the ancients was held in great, indeed sacred, esteem; for it was the color not only of princes but also of gods, as Pliny teaches (book 33, chapter 7), where he writes that the face of the very statue of Jupiter was customarily painted with vermilion on feast days, as were the bodies of those celebrating triumphs among the Romans — and that Camillus triumphed in this way; also that the nobles of the Ethiopians dyed their entire bodies with it. Homer too commends ships stained with red ochre among the Trojans. For this reason Jehoiakim used vermilion. For vermilion represents the color of blood; and so, when mixed with white lead, it vividly reproduces the rosy color of human flesh. Hence they painted both gods and men with vermilion mixed with white lead.
Hence, justly, Jehoiakim, who unjustly prepares so many houses for himself, will lack a house and a tomb in death; for, as is said in verse 19, he will be buried with the burial of a donkey. Let princes take note of this — those who oppress the poor with taxes, labors, and other burdens in order to build gardens, fountains, and palaces for their own curiosity, pleasure, and display rather than for necessity or usefulness. Let them hear Sirach 21:9: "He who builds his house at others' expense is like one who gathers his stones in winter" — that is, to build in winter, an inopportune time; hence such buildings do not last long, just as those which are built at unjust and others' expense do not. Rightly the Poet says of Alexander the Great: One world is not enough for the youth of Pella; He will be content with a sarcophagus. So Rehoboam, when he wished to burden the people with excessive taxes, lost half the kingdom.
But let Christians build in heaven, not on earth; and therefore follow that precept of St. Jerome: "Study as though you will live forever; live as though you will die tomorrow." Let Prelates remember the weighty saying of Pope Pius V: "The construction of the material Church is the ruin of the spiritual Church" — inasmuch as Prelates, too absorbed in the building of temples, consume all their time, cares, and resources on it, which they ought to spend on the poor and on winning souls for God. Groaning over this, St. Bernard says, Sermon 4 on the Missus est: "I see some raising walls with great care while neglecting morals."
and from him Baronius in the year 540 relates that Bishop Injuriosus of Tours on this account rebuked Clothar. Clothar, he says, the king had decreed that all the churches of his realm should pay a third part of their revenue to the treasury. Although the holy bishops had reluctantly agreed and subscribed, Blessed Injuriosus, manfully refusing, disdained to subscribe, saying: "If you wish to take what belongs to God, the Lord will swiftly take away your kingdom; for it is unjust that the poor, whom you ought to feed from your own granary, should have your granaries filled from their pittance." And angry at the king, he departed without even taking his leave. Then the king, moved and also fearing the power of Blessed Martin, sent after him with gifts, asking pardon and condemning what he had done, and at the same time begging that through the power of the bishop Blessed Martin he would obtain forgiveness.
The Emperor Theodosius, his treasury exhausted by wars, imposed a new tax beyond the customary one on the cities. From this arose a sedition at Antioch, to the point that the people pulled down the statue of Placilla, wife of Theodosius, and subjected it to insults. Wherefore Theodosius, furious, threatened the city with fire; but, mollified by the speech of Flavian, bishop of Antioch, he relented from his anger. So Nicephorus, book 12, chapter 13.
Therefore Tiberius Caesar wisely replied to governors and tax collectors who urged him to burden the provinces with tributes: "A good shepherd shears his sheep, not flays them." And Darius, father of Xerxes, remitted half the customary tribute for the people, and thus wonderfully won the hearts of all, says Plutarch in his Apophthegms of Kings and Emperors. Alexander Severus (says Lampridius) "rarely distributed gold and silver to anyone except the soldier, saying it was sacrilege for a public steward to divert to his own pleasures and those of his courtiers what the provincials had paid." How shameful is that Homeric demoboros basileus, people-devouring prince! For to seize money from the people is the same as seizing their life. For, as the Comic Poet says: "Money is the soul and blood of mortals."
For greedy princes, then, the treasury is "a storehouse of plunder from citizens and a receptacle of bloody spoils," says Pliny in his Panegyricus. Alexander used to say, as Plutarch testifies: "I hate the gardener who pulls up vegetables from the root." And the people indeed hate the prince "who clips their wings so they cannot grow back," as Cicero says (book 4, To Atticus, letter 2). Hence it often happens that "your greed breaks the peace more than their impatience with compliance," says Tacitus (book 4, Annals). For, as the Wise Man says (Proverbs 30): "He who wrings too hard draws blood." So too of Vespasian, who hunted for profit and revenue from even the most sordid things, it was said: "Let Flavius go to Morbonia with his urinal tax," as Suetonius testifies in his Life. Maecenas brilliantly advised Augustus: "Great wealth is acquired not so much by seizing it, as by not wasting (not squandering) much" — Diodorus testifies to this, book 52.
Edward III, king of England, when the collectors of a tax imposed on the people once brought before him, for his pleasure, an enormous pile of money collected from that tax, suddenly seemed to see a demon playing around the pile. Because of this, abhorring such money as an accursed thing, he immediately ordered it removed from his sight and restored to the people. So Polydorus, book 8 of the History of England.
Chilperic, king of the Franks, in the year of the Lord 510, by the counsel of Fredegund imposed new levies throughout his entire kingdom, so that every landowner had to give from his own land one amphora of wine per arpent and one bushel per juger. The people, greatly oppressed, cried out to the Lord. Then the Lord sent a plague upon the king's household, and the king himself fell ill, and two of his sons died. Terrified, the king burned the tax rolls and forgave the tribute. So the Annals of Regino, monk of Prum, book 1, year 510.
In the year of the Lord 1441, the shellfish (commonly called mussels) at Sluys, after a certain kind of tax had been imposed on their collection, ceased to appear and stopped arriving. This was held to be a certain miracle. For after the tax was removed, they returned again. So Jacob Meyer, Annals of Flanders, book 16, year 1441.
William Rufus, king of England, having struck a tribute agreement with his elder brother Robert, to whom the principality of Normandy had fallen and who was already leading an army against him, succeeded his father in the kingdom. He was most infamous for his greed, inasmuch as he seized the revenues of bishops and of very many churches. On account of this, his departing spirit was said by the most holy man Ancelm to have been seen paying the penalty before St. Alban, the protomartyr of England, says Volaterranus, book 3 of Geography, page 86.
Wherefore St. Louis, king of France, was most gravely displeased with one of his courtiers who urged him to exact new taxes from the kingdom; for he feared divine vengeance, according to the saying of Micah: "Hear, O princes of Jacob, etc., who violently strip the skin from them," etc. To which crime the prophet appends the punishment: "Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones." Therefore the same king in his testament thus admonishes his son and heir Philip: "Do not command taxes upon your subjects, or impose burdens, unless necessity presses and the manifest good of the kingdom compels you, and do this not voluntarily but for a serious reason. If you do otherwise, you will be considered not a king but a tyrant."
Baronius relates from the Acts of St. Nicon, in the year of Christ 969, that a chamberlain of the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, who was extorting money in the name of tribute from the citizens and from the monastery of St. Nicon, was beaten by St. Nicon during the night; indeed, St. Nicon threatened him with death unless he desisted. Whereupon the man, having returned the gold he had scraped together, mounted his horse and immediately departed.
Verse 15
15. Will you reign because you rival the cedar? — Pagninus translates: Because you mingle yourself with the cedar,
Gregory of Tours, book 4 of the History of the Franks, chapter 2,
that is, will you make your kingdom stable with cedar houses? or do you wrap yourself in imperishable cedar as though you will last forever? For, as Pliny says (book 13, chapter 5), speaking of cedar: "From it comes the most excellent resin; and in its timber there is a kind of eternity. Accordingly, images of the gods were commonly made from it. At Rome, the Apollo Sosianus in his shrine is made of cedar." And book 16, chapter 39: "Wood anointed with cedar oil," he says, "is proof against both moth and decay." And chapter 40: Cypress, cedar, and ebony are proof against decay and age. The temple of Diana at Ephesus, which all Asia joined in building and which took four hundred years to complete, was roofed with cedar beams. Remarkable is the temple of Apollo at Utica, where the Numidian cedar beams have endured just as they were placed at the first foundation of the city, for 1,188 years."
Secondly, the Chaldean translates: Do you think yourself the first king? As if to say: Do you wish to compare yourself to King David, who in holiness and power was like the tallest cedar? So Isidore; or, as Lyra says, as if to say: Do you wish to compare yourself to Solomon, who in buildings and glory and riches, like a cedar, excelled among all kings? But St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugh, and St. Thomas explain it best, as if to say: Do you wish to compare yourself to your father Josiah, who was a cedar in the glory and loftiness of his kingdom, won by holiness and justice, not by the plundering of subjects, as you do, O Jehoiakim? So Persius says: "And having spoken things worthy of cedar" — meaning immortal fame.
He ate and drank — that is, Josiah was rich in provisions, delights, and all good things, and was prosperous, because he exercised justice. 16. For his own good. — Vatablus: Then it went well with him, as if to say: Therefore he was fortunate, as if to say: When Josiah judged justly for the poor, he looked after not so much the interests of the poor as his own. For by justice the throne of a king is established; by injustice and plunder it is overturned.
Secondly, from the Hebrew, for 'his own' one can translate 'his,' namely the poor man's, as if to say: Josiah, in judging the cause of the poor, looked not to his own advantage, as tyrants do, but to that of the poor man. So Sanchez. Was it not because he knew Me? — not merely speculatively, but also practically, by loving, worshipping, and obeying Me; as if to say: The reason Josiah was so devoted to justice and to the poor is that he loved Me and strove to please Me, to whom he knew justice and the poor were dear and a matter of concern.
Verse 17
17. The course of wicked deeds — as if to say: Your father Josiah ran toward the good, but you, Jehoiakim, rush headlong toward evil. For 'course' the Hebrew is merutsa, which also means oppression, by which he exacted immoderate labors from his subjects. So Vatablus.
The question is asked: Did Jehoiakim die in Babylon or in Jerusalem? St. Jerome here and Rabanus, the Seder Olam, and Prado on Ezekiel chapter 19 answer that Jehoiakim died in Babylon, and they prove this from 2 Chronicles 36:6, where Jehoiakim is said to have been led to
Verse 18
18. They shall not mourn for him. — The just punishment of the proud tyrant Jehoiakim was that when dead he would lack both burial and mourning — both the private mourning with which brothers and relatives bewail a dead sister or brother, saying: 'Alas, my brother!' 'Alas, my sister!' — and the public mourning with which subjects lament their lord and king, saying: 'Alas, Lord!' 'Alas, our illustrious king!' — or, as the Hebrew has it, 'Alas, his glory!' As if to say: Troy has been, and the great glory of the Trojans — the glory of the sons of Josiah.
Verse 19
19. He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey. — The Arabic translates: He shall be buried in the tomb of a she-donkey, which signifies greater contempt. Hugh takes the burial of a donkey to mean, first, hell, in which the rich man Dives was buried (Luke 16); second, infamy, because, he says, the memory of the wicked stinks after death like a corpse. But these are mystical interpretations. Similar is the saying of Olympiodorus on Ecclesiastes chapter 6: A teacher, he says, who teaches well but lives badly will be buried with the burial of a donkey; he lived like a horse and mule without understanding, and will die and be buried like a horse and mule. Literally, therefore, the meaning is what the Chaldean expressed: Just as they cast out the carcass of a donkey, so they will cast out his carcass — which Cicero (Philippic 1) called "being carried out in an unburied burial," and Suidas: "Like some horse, you will have your tomb in a pit." He speaks of Jehoiakim, as if to say: Jehoiakim the king will not be buried, but once killed will be cast outside the city into a field or dunghill, just as a dead donkey is cast out, as is clear from chapter 36, verse 30. So too were Belshazzar, Pompey, and other glorious princes buried. Did not the Wise Man truly say: "In these four things the way is slippery: on ice; on a wet and filthy place; in glory and ambition; in womanly beauty"? Remarkable and memorable is what Pliny writes (book 36, chapter 12): that by the just judgment of God it came about that the builders of the Egyptian pyramids are unknown — because these builders, in their insane constructions (which, transferred to Rome, still amaze those who behold them), exhausted the resources of kings while seeking eternal fame among posterity. So too at Rome the magnificent palaces of Augustus, Tiberius, Decius, Diocletian, etc. have been overturned, so that one can scarcely know in what
Babylon; hence what is said here, that he was cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem, is merely to say: outside, not in the city, not in the tomb of his fathers; but cast out dead in a foreign region, says Prado. But I answer that Jehoiakim died in Jerusalem. This is proved: first, because it is sufficiently indicated here; second, Josephus expressly asserts it (Antiquities 10.8); third, Jeremiah, Theodoret, Hugh, St. Thomas, Lyra, Abulensis, and a Castro hold this view. To the passage in Chronicles, Lyra answers that Nebuchadnezzar 'led,' that is, planned, intended, and began to lead Jehoiakim to Babylon; but, changing his plan, brought him back to Jerusalem and killed him there. Secondly and better, I answer that Jehoiakim was led to Babylon in the third year of his reign, when Daniel was carried off — and this can be gathered from the Hebrew of Daniel 1:1; but soon Jehoiakim came to terms with Nebuchadnezzar and, promising him tribute, was sent back to Jerusalem. There, rebelling again in the eleventh year of his reign, he was intercepted in Jerusalem by bands of Chaldean raiders (as stated in 2 Kings 24:1) — who were part of the army and soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar whom he himself had sent against Pharaoh — and in it he was killed, dragged beyond the gates, and cast unburied like a donkey on a dunghill, to be torn by birds and wild beasts (Jeremiah 36:30).
Rotted and cast forth. — Note: For 'rotted' (as the Septuagint also translates), the Hebrew is sachob, that is, 'dragged'; Vatablus and the Chaldean translate 'lacerated,' namely from being dragged, and thence 'rotted,' as our Vulgate renders it. For from dragging follows laceration and tearing apart, and from laceration follows putrefaction. Hence the Septuagint elsewhere translates diaspao, that is, to tear asunder, pull apart, rend. Therefore Jehoiakim was not extracted putrid from a tomb, as St. Thomas holds, but remained entirely unburied, cast into a field, and there putrefied. Hence Sanchez judges that there is here a hysteron proteron: for first Jehoiakim was cast out, then he putrefied. Symmachus translates: He was cast out like dung; Theodotion: Rejected like dung.
Note secondly: King Jehoiakim was punished with so unworthy and infamous a penalty both for his other crimes, and because he himself treated Jeremiah shamefully and burned his prophecies; for Jeremiah assigns this as the reason for his punishment, chapter 36, verses 29 and 30. The Scholastic History adds, and from it Abulensis and Sanchez, that Jehoiakim renounced God and the worship of God, and therefore on his corpse was found the mark of the idol Codonazar, which he had worshipped. But they do not cite an ancient and certain source for this story; wherefore it seems to be a Rabbinic invention.
Furthermore, learn here how miserable an end impious princes have when God punishes them. The first heretical emperor was Constantius: he perished struck by sacred fire, says Pomponius Laetus. After him Julian, who fell in battle against the Persians, pierced by an arrow, as Aurelius Victor attests. Valens, routed by the Goths, hiding in a hut, was burned by the enemy. Zeno, seized by the falling sickness, was buried alive by his wife Ariadna, as Cedrenus attests. After him came Basiliscus, who together with his wife and children perished of hunger, says Procopius (book 1, Vandals). The Emperor Anastasius, a heretic, having learned from an oracle that he would perish by fire, dug a cistern in his palace into which he could retreat in case of conflagration; but he perished struck by a sudden bolt of lightning, as Baronius relates from Pomponius Laetus and others.
What shall I say of Heraclonas? He, contaminated by heresy and lust, was so punished by God that, his groin being turned upward and perpetually straining toward his face, he urinated continually. To divert the urine, he was accustomed to place a board against his belly, says the same Pomponius. Shall I pass over in silence Heracleon, son and heir of Heraclius in impiety? His nose was cut off, and the tongue of his wife Martina was cut out; both were finally deprived of power and sent into exile, says the same Pomponius. What shall I mention of Constans and Philippicus? The former was killed by a domestic servant in the bath; the latter was deprived of both power and sight by the senators, says the same Pomponius. Arnulf, son of Carloman, when he turned his mind to plunder and the spoiling of churches, was struck by God with the louse disease and perished, says Liutprand (book 1, chapter 9). Huneric, king of the Vandals in Africa, when he raged against the orthodox, likewise expired, eaten away by worms swarming everywhere, as Victor of Utica testifies (book 3, Vandals). I pass over Leo, Constantine Copronymus, Nicephorus, Leo VIII, Michael, Theophilus, and other Emperors of the East, whom the histories relate felt the vengeance of God as heretics and impious men. See Thomas Bosius, book 22, On the Signs of the Church.
Verse 20
20. Go up to Lebanon. — The speech is addressed not to Jehoiakim, as Dionysius holds, but to Jerusalem (for 'go up' in Hebrew is feminine). She is told ironically to climb the highest mountains — namely Lebanon and Bashan — and from there cry out to those passing by and implore their help, that they might avert the final destruction threatening Judea and Jerusalem, since their friends the Egyptians have been equally crushed by the Chaldeans and cannot bring aid to the Jews. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Theodoret, Hugh, Lyra, and Vatablus. For Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, had established Jehoiakim as king of Judea; hence Pharaoh at that time was the master of Syria and Judea. But soon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar, coming from Chaldea, fought with Pharaoh at the Euphrates and routed him, as is clear from Jeremiah 46:2; and promptly took Syria and Judea from him, and carried off Jehoiakim, the king whom Pharaoh had established. After eight years, when Jehoiakim again rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar killed him. For this is what is said in 2 Kings 24:7: "And the king of Egypt did not venture out of his land again; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt." Therefore the Jews could no longer hope for help from the Egyptians. Indeed Nebuchadnezzar, growing in victories day by day, after
capturing Zedekiah and after the destruction of Jerusalem, entered Egypt and subjugated it, and killed Pharaoh, as will be clear from chapter 44. In a similar way, Judea, being situated in between, shared in the wars between the kings of Asia and Egypt — namely between the Seleucids and the Ptolemies in the time of the Maccabees, as I said on Daniel chapter 11.
Cry out to the travelers. — In Hebrew meabarim, that is, cry out from Abarim, the mountain of Moab onto which Moses ascended to die (Deuteronomy 32:49). The Chaldean: cry out to the fords. Theodotion: cry out to the sea. Vatablus: call out to those beyond the river, that is, the Egyptians, who dwell beyond the Jordan and the Red Sea. Symmachus: cry out from the opposite side. Our Vulgate: "Cry out to the travelers" — for abar means to cross over, and the preposition min, that is 'from,' is often taken for 'to' and for any other preposition.
Verse 21
21. In your prosperity — that is, in your abundance. The Septuagint, instead of bescalot, read kescalot; for they translate: In your fall, in your ruin. This is your way from your youth. — "Way," that is, your habit; as if to say: From the time of Moses, when you began to be My congregation, you began at the same time to be rebellious against Me. So St. Jerome and others. See what was said at chapter 22:2. This is what Isaiah says, chapter 48:8: "I called you a transgressor from the womb."
Verse 22
22. All your shepherds (in name only, but in reality robbers) the wind shall pasture. — Note first: by 'shepherds' he means kings, governors, teachers, and priests; by 'lovers,' the Egyptians, as I said. Second, to be pastured by the wind means to pursue frivolous, vain, and empty things; as if to say: Your princes will be frustrated in their hope and in the help of the Egyptians, which they expect. So Hugh and Lyra: therefore they will vainly nurse and comfort themselves with this hope; they will be fed, as it were, on the wind of vanity, and like chameleons will feed on air. Similar is the proverb, though in a different case: To hunt or feed on wind (Proverbs 10:4): "He who relies on lies feeds on winds" — that is, he labors vainly, fruitlessly, and unsteadily.
Secondly, with St. Jerome and the Chaldean, it can be explained thus, as if to say: Your princes will be scattered here and there to every wind. Thirdly, the Hebrew tirem can be translated 'will feed upon'; again, instead of tirem one can read teroem, that is, 'will crush,' as if to say: They will quickly be crushed, as though the wind had blown them away. Fourthly, others translate: All your shepherds will think of, or, will love the wind. For raa, which in Hebrew means 'to pasture,' in Syriac means 'to think' and 'to love.'
Symbolically, the shepherds of the Church are sometimes fed by the wind of pride. Isaiah 57:13: "The wind shall carry them all away; a breeze shall take them up." For all your wickedness — on account of all your wickedness.
Verse 23
23. You who dwell in Lebanon — O nation, you who live in Jerusalem as though in Lebanon, because from the cedars of Lebanon you make for yourself nests, that is, houses and palaces, and who, like a cedar of Lebanon, excel and are celebrated among the other nations; as if to say: You who now abound, glory, and pride yourself in your delights and riches, how will you groan when your bitter end and destruction comes?
Note: To dwell in Lebanon is to live proudly, securely, and opulently, as though one inhabited Lebanon, a lofty and fertile mountain. The same is signified by 'nesting in the cedars.' It is a metaphor from birds, which consider themselves safe when they nest in tall trees; hence chapter 30:16, Jeremiah says: "When you have exalted your nest like an eagle, from there I will bring you down."
How will you groan? — So also the Septuagint translates. In Hebrew it is nechant in the niphal, that is: How will you entreat? How will you beg for grace and mercy? For chanan in the qal means 'to have mercy,' while in the niphal passive it means 'to beg for mercy, to pray, to sigh, to groan.' Perhaps also the Translator, with the Septuagint, instead of nechant read nahit, that is, 'how will you lament?' — for nacha means 'to lament.' Or, as Maldonatus suggests, instead of nechant they read neenacht by metathesis, for anach means 'to sigh.' Now Pagninus and others translate nechant as: How gracious will you be? or, What grace will be yours? — namely from your most beautiful palaces, when they are burned. Or, as Vatablus says: How pleasing or acceptable will you be (namely to God), when your pains come, so that He might rescue you from them? But these meanings are cold and less fitting and convenient.
Verse 24
24. As I live, says the Lord, even if Jeconiah were... — From the impious father Jehoiakim he passes to the impious son, namely Jehoiachin. Whence he says: Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim — and his successor in the kingdom, who in Hebrew is here called contemptuously Coniah: for the first letter yod is taken away from him, to signify his casting down and captivity; just as the letter he is added to Abram, and he is called Abraham, to signify his exaltation, that he would be the father of a great multitude. Secondly, Coniah, meaning 'preparation of God,' signifies that he was destined and prepared for punishment and captivity. So St. Jerome.
A signet ring on My right hand. — Note: The ancients wore rings, first, for sealing; second, for adornment; third, as a sign of mutual love, as between bride and groom (Song of Songs 8:6); hence they wore it on the fourth finger of the left hand. So too even now a ring is customarily placed on the finger next to the little finger, which is therefore called the 'ring finger,' because it is the finger of the heart. For this reason the Egyptians decreed that this finger should be adorned with a ring as with a crown. Priests about to sacrifice would anoint the same finger with perfumes. The reason was that anatomists report a small nerve originating from the heart, passing through the back to this finger and terminating there. So Pierius, Hieroglyphica 36. The meaning, therefore, is this: Even if Jeconiah were as closely united to Me as a ring, and as the ring finger and the finger of the heart, I would still tear him from Me and cast him away. Furthermore, even if Jeconiah were as necessary and close, dear and precious to Me as a signet ring, which is never removed from the hand of the one who wears and seals with it (which in truth he is not), nevertheless, because of his crimes, I would tear him from Me and transport him with his mother and princes to Babylon, where he will die.
2 Kings chapter 24. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh. Some think Jeremiah alludes to friends who engrave those whom they love or revere on the bezel of a ring, as Cicero relates of Epicurus in his book On the Ends: "His image," he says, "our intimate friends have not only on tablets, but also on cups and rings." So our Sanchez on Isaiah 49:16, and on this passage: The ring, he says, is used metonymically for the image engraved on the bezel of the ring. This image was of those whom they loved most deeply, so that through it they might keep them always, as it were, before their eyes.
Tropologically, Prelates and priests, like signet rings, seal the faithful with the image of Christ. If by their bad example they seal them with the image of the devil, they will be thrust into the eternal prison of hell: "For he whom his life destroys cannot be saved by his teaching," say Hugh and a Castro.
Verse 25
25. And into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. — 'And' here means 'that is'; this is clear from the preceding context. A similar usage occurs in Acts 7:20; Daniel 14:13, and elsewhere.
Verse 27
27. To the land to which they lift up their souls — to the land, namely Judea their homeland, for which they yearn and which they desire with their whole soul, and to which they most ardently aspire, they shall not return; for Jeconiah, his mother, and his kinsmen will die in Babylon. Note: The soul is lifted up in hope and desire, because through desire the soul seems to be raised, as it were, toward the thing wished for and toward its attainment, and through hope toward the thing itself. So St. Jerome. Tropologically, the Babylonian captivity is the captivity of hell, in which the gravest punishment is the inability to depart, but to be eternally exiled from heaven and earth, to dwell forever with devouring fire, with dragons and demons.
Verse 28
28. Is he an earthen vessel? — In Hebrew it is etseb, that is, a carved image, or rather an idol (so called because it brings sorrow and disturbance to its worshippers), contemptible and broken. Vatablus: a stump. Symmachus: refuse, or rubbish. As if to say: Is Jeconiah, who was adored by his people like an idol, now in captivity worthless, cast down, and crushed like a vessel, or like an earthen idol if it is smashed? For Jeconiah reigned only three months.
Let princes note: unless they found their wealth, glory, and kingdom on the fear of God, these will not be stable, but they themselves together with them will be crushed and cast away like cheap and useless vessels. So too priests, if they become foolish and fail to fulfill the duties of their rank, will be thrown on the dunghill like salt that has lost its savor.
Verse 29
29. O land, land, land! — Note: He repeats the word 'land' three times because Judea was three times warned by God — namely in the threefold calamity of three kings: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin. He repeats 'land' to move them more deeply and teach them that they are about to be desolated and deprived of a king; for although Zedekiah succeeded Jeconiah, he was nonetheless wicked and therefore unfortunate, so that under him the Jews were worse off than if they had lacked a king altogether. Now Theodoret takes 'land' literally: for, he says, since the Jews, who are endowed with reason and speech, do not hear the voice of God, He addresses the land, which lacks a soul — as I discussed on Isaiah 1:2. Secondly, and more properly, by 'land' understand the inhabitants of the land; for He calls them 'land' to indicate, first, that they are earthly — they think not of heaven but of earthly things; second, by the word 'land' He warns them to consider that from this land they will be hurled into Babylon, and after death into the abyss of hell beneath the earth. The Wise Man prudently said: "Never regret having obeyed these three: Truth, especially divine truth; one who gives good counsel; and the cock that rouses you from sleep."
Write. — Note that the Prophets prophesied not only by word but also in writing, especially to preserve the memory of the prophecy; for Isaiah (chapter 8:1) and Habakkuk (chapter 2:2) are commanded to write down their prophecies, when they prophesy concerning things far in the future. Secondly, as Capella notes, the Prophets posted certain prophecies at the doors of the temple for all the people to read, as Hosea implies (chapter 8:12). Thirdly, "write" means 'write down, all of you,' as if to say: You, O Jews, who are accustomed to record in your genealogical book the succession of your families and offspring, especially those of royal lineage — write Jeconiah in it, but as childless.
Childless. — In Hebrew ariri, that is, bereaved of children, who is alone like a tamarisk in the desert, which in Hebrew is called arar. So the Chaldean, Vatablus, and a Castro. Hence Symmachus translates 'empty'; the Septuagint and Theodotion, 'disowned'; Aquila, 'not increasing.' For although Jeconiah will have a son Shealtiel, and will beget seven others as a captive in Babylon, as is clear from 1 Chronicles 3:15, nevertheless he will have neither these nor others to succeed him in the kingdom. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh. For Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, was not a king but a leader of the people returning from Babylon, and that only for the journey and at most for the rebuilding of the city, temple, and houses; for shortly afterward he himself returned to Babylon and died there. The leadership of the Jews was held by Jeshua, son of Jozadak, and other High Priests succeeding one another, until Herod, as Eusebius expressly teaches (book 1, History, chapter 5), Josephus (Antiquities 11.4), and others. So today God says to many impious princes and nobles: Write this man down as childless — and so very many most noble families perish.
Sanchez explains it differently, drawing on St. Jerome: Jeconiah, he says, is called childless and unfortunate because during his lifetime he will have no son who holds the scepter or has power in the land of Judah. Whence he says: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days. For none of his offspring shall sit (namely, during his lifetime) on the throne of David." But the former explanation is the common one and is more straightforward and serious.
You will object: Christ descended from Jeconiah and reigned in the house of David (Luke 1:32); therefore Jeconiah was not a childless king. I answer: Christ's kingdom was not temporal — which is what Jeremiah is speaking of — but spiritual. You will object secondly: Zedekiah succeeded Jeconiah as king. I answer: Zedekiah was not of the seed, that is, the offspring of Jeconiah, but his uncle, worse than his nephew. Hence in a very short time both the king and the kingdom under him utterly perished. So St. Jerome.
because during his lifetime he will have no son who holds the scepter or has power in the land of Judah. Whence he says: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days. For none of his offspring shall sit (namely during his lifetime) on the throne of David." But the former explanation is the common one and is more straightforward and serious.
You will object: Christ descended from Jeconiah and reigned in the house of David (Luke 1:32); therefore Jeconiah was not a childless king. I answer: Christ's kingdom was not temporal — which is what Jeremiah is speaking of — but spiritual. You will object secondly: Zedekiah succeeded Jeconiah as king. I answer: Zedekiah was not of the seed, that is, the offspring of Jeconiah, but his uncle, worse than his nephew. Hence in a very short time both the king and the kingdom under him utterly perished. So St. Jerome.
Morally, note here the remarkable freedom of the Prophet to rebuke even kings and princes. So Nathan freely rebuked David for the murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 12:1), and Elijah rebuked King Ahab (1 Kings 18:18): "It is not I," he said, "who have troubled Israel, but you and your father's house, who have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals." Then, approaching the whole people assembled at Ahab's command: "How long," he said, "will you limp between two sides? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him" (verse 21). The same to King Ahaziah: "Because," he said, "you sent messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, as though there were no God in Israel, etc., therefore you shall surely die" (2 Kings 1:16). So Elisha to King Joram: "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and your mother." And: "As the Lord of Hosts lives, in whose presence I stand, if I did not respect the face of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not have looked at you or given you any regard" (2 Kings 3:13-14). So Jehu the prophet to Jehoshaphat, otherwise a pious king: "You give help to the wicked (Ahab)," he said, "and join in friendship with those who hate the Lord; and therefore you deserve the wrath of the Lord. But good deeds have been found in you," etc. (2 Chronicles 19:2).
So Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, rebuked King Joash and the princes: "Why do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? It will not profit you. You have forsaken the Lord, so that He might forsake you." And therefore he was stoned by them, saying: "May the Lord see and require it" (2 Chronicles 24:20). So the prophet sent to King Amaziah: "Why," he said, "have you worshipped their gods?" etc. To which the king replied: "Are you the king's counselor? Be silent, lest I have you killed." Then the prophet: "I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this evil and moreover have not heeded my counsel" (2 Chronicles 25:15). So Azariah rebuked King Uzziah when he was burning incense: "It is not for you, Uzziah," he said, "to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests. Leave the sanctuary!" And when the king threatened him, he was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:18).
So Isaiah rebuked Hezekiah for showing his treasures to the Babylonians (Isaiah 39:3), and Manasseh for his idolatry — and therefore was sawn in two by him. So John the Baptist rebuked the Pharisees: "Brood of vipers," he said, "who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" (Matthew 3:7); and Herod: "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife" — and therefore he was beheaded. So Christ rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23, the whole chapter, and often elsewhere). So Paul to the high priest who ordered him struck: "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall" (Acts 23:3). So St. Stephen rebuked them before the people: "Stiff-necked," he said, "and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, etc. Your fathers killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become" (Acts 7:51). So St. Ambrose rebuked and reformed Theodosius; St. Bernard rebuked and reformed William, Duke of Aquitaine. So Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, repelled the Emperor Numerian coming to the church and wishing to view its sacred mysteries, saying: "It is not permitted for you, polluted by the sacrifices of idols, to enter the church and to behold the divine mysteries with contaminated eyes." Offended by this, the Emperor had him tortured and killed; but the Emperor himself was shortly afterward killed by his own father-in-law. So Nicephorus, book 6, chapter 33.
Finally, fittingly and with equal freedom, Blessed Peter Damian applies these oracles and threats of Jeremiah concerning Jehoiachin to Cadalus, Bishop of Parma and antipope, who called himself Honorius II: "Why," he says, "through ambition to attain the pinnacle and inaccessible height, have you stirred up nearly the whole world in the quarrel of your condemnation? — so that they cry out in the words of Jeremiah: 'O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days.' And you in turn may fittingly reply in the words of the same Prophet: 'Woe is me, my mother, why did you bear me a man of strife, a man of discord throughout the whole earth?' For indeed, when every religious man shrinks from undertaking the burden of so toilsome a See, and would not consent to be placed there at any man's entreaty, why do you not only not prepare to flee from the 'burden of burdens,' as Pope St. Leo used to say, but even eagerly strive to thrust yourself in, voluntarily offering prayers and money? Rightly are you called Cadalus — as it were, casus laou, that is, 'the fall of the people.' O heaven! O earth! O tragedy unheard of in all previous ages — that a foreign bishop, despising his own see, without God's knowledge, without Peter's knowledge, without the knowledge of the Roman Church, should plot against the Roman Church! The Apostolic See had a possession in Babylonia from which it received each year enough balsam to supply with unfailing fuel the lamp that hung gleaming before the altar of Blessed Peter. This possession the Pope sold for money and lost the annual supply of aromatic resin he used to receive. Some time later, when this same Pope was standing before that holy altar as if devoutly praying, behold, a certain terrible and aged old man struck him a violent blow and said: 'You have extinguished my lamp before me, and I will extinguish your lamp before God.' He immediately collapsed and shortly afterward breathed his last. Which of the two Popes, I ask, seems to you to deserve the harsher punishment? — the one who presumed to extinguish the lamp of the holy altar, or you, who strive to darken the entire universal Church through the beginning of your furtive promotion?"
Finally, he concludes with these verses and predicts his swift death: Smoke-like, life flies away; unforeseen death draws near; The swift end of your completed life hangs over you. I do not deceive you — you will die within the year you began. So he himself writes to Cadalus, book 1, epistle 20, and to the same, epistle 21: "Through Jeremiah it is said, chapter 5: 'Shall I not visit upon these things, says the Lord?' For indeed, just as by way of augmentation we say: 'the Holy of Holies';
so the Roman Church being sold for a price — that is the sin of sins. When Caesar Augustus died, the grieving Roman people cried out: 'Would that he had either not been born, or not died!' But of you, Cadalus, we rightly say: 'Would that you had either not been born, or had died at once!' The Emperor Diocletian, as Eutropius testifies (book 9), laid aside the insignia of imperial dignity and, not far from Salona, for nearly nine years until his death, lived as a private citizen in the pleasant cultivation of a green little garden. When he was earnestly pressed by Herculius and Galerius to resume the empire, shuddering at it as at some plague, he said: 'If only you could see at Salona the vegetables planted by our own hands, you would certainly never judge that this burden should be placed on our shoulders again.' Kings of the nations flee the pinnacles of imperial dignities, and the priests of God pant after — not the priestly rod, but the royal, nay the tyrannical rod — over the human race."