Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He predicts that the Jews and all nations will serve the Babylonians for seventy years, after which Babylon will be overthrown; whence, at verse 15, He gives them all the cup of God's wrath to drink. Then, at verse 30, He brings in God roaring against them like a lion, so that the slaughter of pastors and people will be so great that the dead shall not be mourned nor given burial.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 25:1-38
1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (this is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon). 2. Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day — this is the twenty-third year — the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking: and you have not listened. 4. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them: and you have not listened, nor inclined your ears to hear, 5. when He said: Return, every one of you, from his evil way and from your wicked thoughts: and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord gave to you and your fathers, from age to age. 6. And do not go after foreign gods to serve and worship them: nor provoke Me to anger by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you. 7. But you did not listen to Me, says the Lord, so that you provoked Me to anger by the works of your hands, to your own harm. 8. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard My words: 9. behold, I will send for and take all the tribes of the North, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon My servant: and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all the nations round about; and I will destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10. And I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment; and all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years...
[Vulgate text of Jeremiah 25:11-38, continuing the chapter]
Verse 3
3. IN THE THIRTEENTH YEAR OF JOSIAH. — For in that year Jeremiah began to prophesy; from that year to this fourth year of Jehoiakim, 23 years had already passed.
I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU, RISING EARLY. — For "early," the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint have "in the morning" or "at dawn," as if to say: Promptly, with the utmost care, diligence, and solicitude, at any time — even if it was necessary at night — I did not cease, like a good pastor, to warn and urge you.
Verse 6
6. BY THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS — that is, by idols: for these are the works which you made and fashioned with your hands.
Verse 9
9. BEHOLD, I WILL SEND FOR AND TAKE ALL THE TRIBES OF THE NORTH. — "Tribes," that is, the nations and peoples dwelling to the north of Judea, namely the Chaldeans, and their neighbors and subjects. For neighboring peoples are related to one another; for they descend from the same patriarch, or from his brother, who in the division of the nations at Babel chose and inhabited a region near his brother. Just as even now neighboring nations easily contract marriages and kinship. Furthermore, in "I will send," Dionysius understands evil angels; St. Jerome understands good angels, who would rouse the northern Chaldeans to destroy impious Judea. But more simply these words should be joined thus: I will send the tribes of the north, and I will take them as soldiers, to carry out My vengeance upon the Jews.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR MY SERVANT. — He calls him "servant," that is, the executioner and instrument of His just vengeance. Calvin therefore wrongly infers from this that God is the author of evil works, such as tyranny: for then He would be the author of sin. Tyrants therefore serve God, as do all evil wills: because God uses their tyranny and malice (which not God but they themselves produce), once it is present and foreseen, and directs it toward the just punishment of other wicked people, as St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and theologians generally teach.
Morally, learn here that we are handed over to tyrants and evil kings and prelates because of our sins. For this is what Job says, chapter 34, verse 30: "Who makes a hypocrite to reign because of the sins of the people." And Isaiah, chapter 3, verse 4: "And I will give boys as their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them." Hear two illustrious examples reported by Anastasius of Nicaea in Questions on Sacred Scripture, Question 15: "When the Emperor Phocas," he says, "through the executioner Bonosus was causing those bloodbaths, a certain holy monk said to God in prayer: Lord, why did You make him Emperor? And a voice came to him from God, saying: Because I did not find a worse one. There was also a certain wicked city in the Thebaid, in which a most pernicious man had pretended to become a monk. It happened that the Bishop of the city died: and to a certain man an angel appeared saying: Make the city elect as Bishop that stranger who lives there. So he went and did what he was commanded. But when that man was already puffed up because of the bishopric, the angel said to him: Why are you proud, and please yourself so grandly, O wretch? Truly you were not made Bishop because you were worthy of the priesthood, but because this city was worthy of such a Bishop."
Verse 10
10. AND I WILL DESTROY THE SOUND OF THE MILLSTONES — the noise of the mill and of those grinding. For in Judea (as still in Africa and elsewhere where there is no water or wind) there used to be domestic millstones, which two girls would turn by hand, singing meanwhile to relieve the tedium and labor; hence Christ says in Matthew 24:41: "Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one shall be taken, and one left." The "sound of the millstones," therefore, is here the singing of the girls who grind, as if to say: There will be no one to grind grain, and to sing while grinding, as they used to do before.
AND THE LIGHT OF THE LAMP. — Lamps were used at banquets, weddings, and festivals: also in the workshops of great cities for working or selling their wares in the evening, as if to say: I will take away all the joy of banquets, weddings, festivals, labors, and commerce from Jerusalem, and I will overthrow it.
Sanchez plausibly refers all these things to nuptial rejoicing and joy: for that is taken here as the type and exemplar of great happiness. At weddings, therefore, there were these four things. First, the voice and song of the bridegroom and bride, like an epithalamium, as is clear from the Song of Songs. Second, there were lamps, that is, torches and tapers, which shone before the bride and groom and their attendants (for weddings were celebrated at night). Third, there was the voice of joy and gladness, namely the voice of musicians singing in wonderful harmony with their voices, lutes, viols, and other instruments. Fourth, there was the sound of the millstone, that is, the singing of the girls who were grinding, and from the ground flour preparing and baking cakes and other sweets for the wedding feast. So among the Gentiles at weddings, all people and all things resounded with Hymeneal applause. For all, wishing the newlyweds happiness, would cry out and repeat: "Come, O Hymen, come, O Hymenaeus!"
However, the first meaning is plainer and more general; whence in Revelation 18:22, where these words are cited and repeated in the destruction of Babylon, it is added: "And no craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore."
Verse 11
11. AND ALL THESE NATIONS SHALL SERVE THE KING OF BABYLON FOR SEVENTY YEARS — that is, up to the seventieth year of the Babylonian captivity: for some nations served the Chaldeans for 50 years, others for 60, and others, like the Jews (who are properly the subject here) for 70 years. More on this in chapter 27, verse 7, and chapter 29:10. Similar is Exodus 12:40, where the Hebrews are said to have dwelt in Egypt for 430 years, not that they lived there for all those years, but that they lived there until the year 430, counting from the calling and departure of Abraham from Chaldea to the land of Canaan, Genesis 12:1. Similar also is Judith 16:28, where Judith is said to have remained in the house of her husband for 105 years, that is, until the 105th year of her age; for she did not remain 105 years after her husband's death, for then she would have lived 130 years.
I WILL MAKE THEM PERPETUAL DESOLATIONS — that is, long-lasting, namely for the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity. So often in Scripture "eternal" by hyperbole signifies a long time, though finite, or rather, destined to end.
the Chaldeans themselves shall serve others, namely the Persians, and thus I will repay them in kind.
Verse 13
13. WHATEVER JEREMIAH PROPHESIED AGAINST ALL THE NATIONS — as if to say: All the destructions of the nations I will turn back and redirect against Babylon itself, so that by the same measure with which it measured out to other nations and devastated them, the same shall be measured back to it.
St. Jerome explains it differently, as if to say: I will overthrow the neighboring nations and kings, because they served the Chaldeans by fighting against the Jews; or, as Sanchez says, because they made the Jews serve them, along with other nations and many powerful kings; hence I will justly punish them, so that the Chaldeans themselves may also serve others, namely the Persians.
Verse 14
14. BECAUSE THEY SERVED THEM — namely, the Chaldeans, whom He named in verse 12, as if to say: Because the Chaldeans proudly subjugated and made the people of God, namely the Jews, serve them.
Third, the Chaldean and Vatablus translate it thus: they served, that is, they shall serve — namely the Chaldeans — them, namely the nations which are many and have great kings, namely the Medes and Persians.
Verse 15
15. TAKE THE CUP. — Hugo and St. Thomas note that in a vision a cup of wine was shown and offered to Jeremiah by God, which signified the just measure of vengeance and punishments with which God, through the Chaldeans, was going to intoxicate the impious Jews and nations, as if with wine, driving them almost to madness by the force of their pain. This same cup Jeremiah in turn serves in a vision likewise to the Chaldeans themselves, that is, he predicts and threatens them. So Theodoret, Hugo, St. Thomas, and others. And this is because they themselves, as if drunk with the wine of error and crimes, stumbled and fell into the hand of an angry God. So the cup is taken in Psalm 75:8: "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup of unmixed wine, fully mixed. And He poured it out from this to that: but its dregs are not drained." And Isaiah 51:17: "You have drunk to the bottom of the cup of stupor, and drained it to the dregs." Whence Jeremiah immediately calls this cup a sword, when he adds: "They shall go mad because of the sword." He alludes to the symposiarch, or master of the feast, who was the president of the banquet and measured out and mixed each person's cup: for such a master of the feast in the world is God, about which more elsewhere. Sanchez adds that this cup is the one that was given to those condemned to death, so that they might endure it more bravely; and that it therefore signifies death.
Second, Sanchez thinks these things were done not through a vision but in reality by Jeremiah, and that therefore he, like Habakkuk (Daniel 14), was carried by an Angel through all these provinces with a cup full of divine fury; or rather, that to those who from each of these nations used to come to Jerusalem, especially for the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, or Tabernacles, he served this cup, so that when each returned to their own homes, they might teach their fellow citizens what commands from God Jeremiah had for those nations. This opinion is plausible; but the former, as it is more common, so it is easier and plainer. For it is difficult to conceive how so many and such distant nations could have flowed together to Jerusalem at one and the same time. Moreover, what follows — "and they shall drink, and be troubled, and go mad because of the sword" — clearly signifies that all these things were done not in reality but symbolically. For the nations did not actually drink a cup received from Jeremiah and then immediately become troubled and go mad because of the sword; for a cup is not a sword, nor does it produce a sword. The cup, therefore, and its drinking, were imaginary, not real: for Jeremiah seemed to himself to see that he received a cup from God, and at God's command served it to the nations; and when they refused it, he compelled the unwilling to drink and drain it. Once they had drained it, they were immediately troubled, and like drunkards began to draw swords against each other, and to destroy one another with blows and battles.
Verse 18
18. JERUSALEM. — From Jerusalem the plague of God begins, both because she, knowing and worshipping God, sinned more than the other nations; and because she is set up as an example to the others, so that each may measure its own plague from her, and expect a similar one. This is what God says in verse 29: "For behold, in the city upon which My name is called, I will begin to afflict; and shall you be as innocent and immune?" Hence St. Peter, alluding to this in his first epistle, chapter 4, verse 17, says: "It is time for judgment to begin at the house of God."
THAT I MIGHT GIVE (that is, predict and prophesy that they would be given over) THEM TO DESOLATION, etc. — So in chapter 1, verse 10, he heard from God: "Behold, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down," etc. — that is, to preach and prophesy that they would be rooted out and destroyed.
AS IS THIS DAY — as it will be, as the imminent day of destruction will soon demonstrate. So Lyranus and Maldonatus. Second, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, and Vatablus think these words were added when, after the destruction of the city, Jeremiah compiled his prophecies, formerly published, into one volume. But Jeremiah seems to have done this in this fourth year of Jehoiakim, not after the city was captured. I respond, therefore, "as it is" means: as this day of devastation is already beginning to be; for in this fourth year of Jehoiakim, he and his people were captured; therefore this prophecy began to be fulfilled in this year, but was perfectly fulfilled in the last year of Zedekiah. So Theodoret, Hugo, Vatablus, and Sanchez.
subjugated and made the people of God, namely the Jews, serve them. Which was nothing other than that by the just judgment and vengeance of God, quarrels and disputes arose among them which erupted into mutual slaughter. It is different with the chains of chapter 27, verse 2; for these Jeremiah actually sent to the nations, as will be clear there.
Verse 20
20. TO ALL IN GENERAL. — In Hebrew col haereb, that is, to all promiscuously, or to every mixture, that is, Jews and foreigners who had fled and mingled with the Egyptians.
OF AUSITIS. — The Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint: of the land of Uz, which is a region of Arabia and Idumea, or a land bordering it, where Job lived, chapter 1, verse 1. The Prophet here names all the regions that were to be devastated by the Chaldeans.
AND THE REMNANT OF ASHDOD — that is, the city of Gath, which is near and borders Ashdod. So St. Jerome. Second, others say "remnant" means those who would be left from the destruction of Ashdod carried out by Sennacherib (Isaiah 20:1), or by Pharaoh Neco when he killed Josiah (4 Kings 23:29). Third, and best, a Castro thinks the remnant here means the cities and towns neighboring and subject to Ashdod, such as Gazara (1 Maccabees 14:34), the Cherethites, and others. A similar phrase is found in chapter 47, verse 5, and Amos 1:8.
Verse 22
22. AND TO ALL THE KINGS OF TYRE. — There was one king of Tyre, as also of Sidon; but here they are called kings in the plural, because this destruction extended to his successors. For this devastation and domination of the Chaldeans lasted for 70 years, as is said in verse 14. "Tyre and Sidon," says St. Jerome, "are the principal cities on the Phoenician coast, which were also conquered by the Babylonians coming upon them, and of which Carthage is a colony. Whence the Carthaginians are also called 'Poeni,' a corruption of 'Phoeni,' whose language is in great part akin to the Hebrew language."
TO THE KINGS OF THE LANDS OF THE ISLANDS, WHO ARE BEYOND THE SEA — that is, the kings of the islands, to reach which one must cross the sea; because they are situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Cyprus, Rhodes, and other islands which Nebuchadnezzar conquered. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, and Vatablus. Second, islands and islanders in Scripture are used to mean any remote peoples; for the Jews considered such people to be islanders, being themselves inexperienced in ships and seafaring. So Sanchez.
Verse 23
23. DEDAN, AND TEMA, AND BUZ. — These peoples, says St. Jerome, are in the desert, neighboring and mixed with the Saracens or Arabs. These are the regions of the Hagarenes, about whom, as well as about Elam, see chapter 30: "And all who have their hair cut at the corners," about whom I spoke at the end of chapter 9.
ZAMBRI AND ELAM. — These are regions of Persia, or of the wilderness, that is, of Arabian Desert, says St. Jerome.
Verse 26
26. EACH ONE AGAINST HIS BROTHER. — Supply, says St. Jerome: I gave, and from Me you, O Jeremiah, shall serve and give this cup, this strong drink of My wrath and vengeance, so that all may rage, vomit, and go mad — so that, namely, one may fight against another, and they may wage mutual wars against each other, and destroy one another, like drunkards and madmen. He alludes to banquets where the cup is passed around until all are drunk, as if to say: In like manner, here one shall pass the cup of My wrath to another; one shall attack, devastate, and kill another.
One may ask: Why did God command all these nations neighboring the Jews to be destroyed? Theodoret answers, first, because they were the cause or occasion of idolatry for the Jews, and enticed them to it either by persuasion or by example. Second, Lyranus gives the reason that by their destruction God would deprive the Jews of the hope of fleeing to them and imploring their aid against the Chaldeans and other enemies. Third, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, and Dionysius: Because, they say, these nations rejoiced in the destruction and ruin of the Jews, and even helped the Chaldeans in it — for Jeremiah gives this reason in what follows. Fourth, Sanchez: Because, he says, these nations harassed the people of God and forced them to serve.
These reasons are partial, applying to certain nations, not universal for all that are named here. For the kings of the Medes, of the islands, of Tyre, of Sidon, etc., were not enemies but rather friends and allies of the Jews. Fifth, therefore, generally and adequately, the reason for the destruction of all these nations was that God, the measure of their sins now being full, according to His custom willed and decreed to punish and destroy them. This is what is said in verse 30: "The Lord shall roar from on high," as if carrying out a universal judgment of the world: "A shout like that of those who tread the grapes shall be raised against all the inhabitants of the earth. For the Lord has a controversy with the nations; He enters into judgment with all flesh: the wicked I have given to the sword, says the Lord." For this reason God willed to transfer the monarchy of the Assyrians and hand it to the Chaldeans. For in order for the Chaldeans to make themselves monarchs and subject all nations, it was necessary for them to attack and crush them in war. So afterward, when the measure of the world's sins was again full — after about two centuries — He raised up the Greeks and Alexander, and after them the Romans, and then the Goths, Vandals, Alans, Turks, etc., to carry out universal vengeance and, as it were, purge and expiate the world. They were therefore, as it were, the purifiers of the world: hence Jeremiah calls them soldiers and priests of God, and Isaiah calls them the rod of God, just as Attila said he was the scourge of God.
THE KING OF SESACH SHALL DRINK AFTER THEM. — "The king of Sesach" is not the king of Egypt, as Lyranus thought, on the grounds that Sesach was the proper name of some king of Egypt, as appears in 3 Kings 14:23 and 2 Chronicles 12:2; for that does not fit this passage. For the Pharaoh whom Nebuchadnezzar defeated was called not "Sesach" but Vaphres. Nor is it the king of Ethiopia, as the Antiochene Arabic translates: for no one else translates it so. "The king of Sesach," therefore, is the king of Babylon, as is clear from chapter 51, verse 41, who is the last to drink the cup of God's wrath. So St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas, Vatablus. "Sesach," therefore, is Babylon, and this because Sesach was either the most powerful city of Babylon, or a goddess of Babylon; and more likely, as St. Jerome and the Hebrews say, because Sesach is the same as Babel by an alphabetical reversal, which the Hebrews call atbash, whereby they exchange the last letters with the first in reverse order — namely, in Babel they exchange beth, the second initial letter of the alphabet, with shin, the second final letter; and kaph, the eleventh initial letter, with lamed, the eleventh final letter.
And Jeremiah does this because, as St. Jerome says, he wished to speak these things covertly and obscurely, out of fear of the Chaldeans already in power, lest, if he had openly named Babylon and said it was to be devastated, he might provoke their madness — already threatening Judea — all the more against it and against himself. But the Prophet quite openly in verse 12 and elsewhere prophesies the destruction of Babylon. I would rather say, therefore, with a Castro, that the king of Sesach is here called the king of Babylon through the anagram already described, because this king was to be punished after all the others. Therefore, to him as the last to be punished, he elegantly assigns the last letters of the alphabet. Second, he does this so that by this confusion of letters he may signify the confusion of things to come in Babylon. Third, the Hebrew Sesach, meaning "your fine linen," signifies that the king resplendent in fine linen and purple is to be stripped of them and cast down to the lowest depths. Hence the Syriac and Alexandrian Arabic translate: the greatest king. Again, St. Jerome in Hebrew Names, from Jeremiah: "Sesach," he says, "means the linen of sackcloth, or if you prefer, of a sack." For sac in Hebrew means sack, not stone; indeed, the word sac passed from the Hebrews into almost all languages, just as keren, meaning horn. This etymology fits this passage well, as if to say: O Babylon! I call you Sesach, that is, the linen of sackcloth, or linen and sackcloth: because your fine linen and royal purple will be exchanged for mourning and servile sackcloth, when Cyrus captures and devastates you. Finally, Sesach can be translated as "your number six." For ses in Hebrew means six. Hence sosan and susanna (lily) is so called from its six petals. So Pagninus, as if to say: Your Sesach approaches, O Babylon! — that is, your number six, your end, your ruin and destruction. For six is the symbol of the consummation and end of things; because in the first six days of the world God completed and finished the work of creating the universe, and in six days the whole week runs its course to the end, and consequently all times. And at the sixth millennium of years, the course of the world will also end, as the Fathers generally assert. Hence Christ also willed to be crucified and to die on the sixth day (Friday), at the sixth hour. Moreover, he alludes to Susa, the royal capital of the Persians, as if to say: Sesach shall pass into Susa, that is, the end of the Babylonian empire shall pass into the beginning of the Persian monarchy, who will rule in Susa. For Susa was named not from the river Susus, as some wish, but from the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Persian susan, meaning lily, because in that place there is an immense abundance of lilies. So Athenaeus, Book II; Stephanus, book On Cities, and others. Hence also the Susine oil made from lilies, of which Pliny speaks in Book XIII, chapter 1; who also, in Book VI, chapter 27, reports that the city of Susa was founded by Darius the son of Hystaspes. There was the royal palace of Cyrus, of white and variegated stone, with golden columns, and ceilings adorned with gems, containing a representation of the sky, marked with twinkling stars, and many incredible things. There Ahasuerus celebrated a banquet of the greatest riches and delights, Esther 1. Furthermore: Sesach, that is, your fine linen, shall pass into Susa, that is, into the lily — meaning the Babylonians shall pass into Persia and the Persians: for the Babylonians were wealthy and splendid in fine linen (Ezekiel 23:6). The emblem of the Persians was the lily, as now it is of the French.
In a similar way, Julius Caesar, when he wished to write something secret, would exchange letters, substituting the first for the fourth: hence for A he would write D, which is the fourth from A. And Augustus for A would write B, for B would write C, and so on: the witnesses are Suetonius and Isidore, Book I of Etymologies, chapter 15.
Furthermore, that the Greeks and Latins borrowed this technique of anagrams from the Hebrews, both ancient and modern authors teach. Isaac Tzetzes in his Prologue to Lycophron reports that Lycophron, an ancient and elegant poet, was thoroughly skilled in Hebrew letters, and from them made his anagrams, and that for this reason he was dear to Ptolemy Philadelphus not so much for his poetry as for these anagrams, by whom he was called by anagram: Ptolemaios — from honey, honey-sweet.
Plato in the Cratylus: Hera, he says, that is, Juno, is the same as aer (air) by anagram: for the pagans venerated air under the name of Juno as a goddess.
So "from the face of the eagle" is the same as "from the face of Cyrus," who ordered the emblem of the eagle to be borne before him, which afterward other kings of Persia imitated. So also the eagle alone was introduced into the battle line of the Romans by Gaius Marius, says Pliny, Book X, chapter 4; for previously the Romans bore in their standards the images of wolves, minotaurs, horses, and boars indiscriminately. So Constantine bore the sign of the cross before his army on his standard, as St. Ambrose testifies, epistle 29. Hence it is clear that this opinion about the dove as an emblem on the standards of the Chaldeans, supported by so many ancient and modern authorities, is not without foundation, as some maintain.
Verse 27
27. BE DRUNK. — This drunkenness signifies the disturbance, stupor, helplessness, despair, and near madness of a mind struck with fear and miseries; in which state they would vomit out all their goods and all their happiness, honor, and joy, indeed their blood, soul, and life. Hence this cup and this drunkenness He immediately calls a sword, saying: "Nor shall you rise because of the sword"; because just as a drunken man, out of control, falls and crashes to the ground, so you too, with the sword of the Chaldeans raging, shall fall into destruction and perpetual death.
Eustathius on Homer, Iliad alpha, verse 55, celebrates these anagrams and gives many examples, of which take a few: Atlas — talas (wretched); thymos (spirit) — mythos (word); ochlos (crowd) — lochos (cohort); arete (virtue) — erate (lovable); phlyaros (trifles) — phlauros (worthless). So a Latin poet plays with an anagram on the word Roma, as if it were mora (delay): Why does Rome so long delay her various clients? / Perhaps because, with its name reversed, Roma is mora (delay).
Better another, by a perfect atbash: Roma, he says, is amor (love); whence the entire verse is anagrammatic, and entirely atbash: Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor. As will be clear if one reads it backwards. Finally, that this technique of anagrams was transmitted from the Hebrews to the Greeks and Latins is taught by William Blancus of Albi, in his book On Anagrams.
Hence also the Holy Spirit, besides other reasons, at the baptism of Christ descended in the form of a dove in Palestine; because this form was most august there. But why was this? The Greeks think they worshipped the dove in honor of Rhea, who presides over rains: for pia means "I flow." For the Assyrians believed that the nature of things properly consists of air and water; hence for water they worshipped fish, for example Dagon; for air, from which rain descends, they are believed to have worshipped a bronze dove.
More clearly, Diodorus Siculus and others think they worshipped the dove in honor of Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians; or rather, that they worshipped Semiramis under the image of a dove, because, as Guidius writes, the story was that she had been nursed by doves (and hence she was called Semiramis, which word in Syriac means bird), and after death was converted into a dove. This seems to have been invented either for flattery, or, as Pierius notes, because of her lust, which was so great that she sought intercourse with her son, for which reason she was killed by him. For the dove is so libidinous that it breeds every month. Hence the ancients dedicated white doves to Venus, which accordingly Aeneas in the Poet calls his mother's birds. Hence, therefore, the Babylonians bore a dove on their standards and banners, and hence their army is called a dove, both here and in chapter 46, verse 13, joined with verse 16, and chapter 50, verses 15-16. Pierius has more on the dove, Hieroglyphics 22, and Guevara above.
Antonius Guevara proves this at length in his commentary on Habakkuk 1, number 154, and thus explains Psalm 68:13: "If you sleep among the sheepfolds," that is, between the lots and borders of your enemies the Philistines, you shall be "like the wings of a dove covered with silver," that is, you shall be white, untouched, and unharmed, like a white dove, whose "back feathers" are "in the pallor of gold," that is, are variegated with golden spots — as if to say: Even though you are surrounded by Philistine enemies, you will be a terror and object of reverence to them, no less than a white dove which none of them dares to touch.
The Babylonians and Syrians worshipped these same doves as a divinity; the witnesses are Xenophon in Cyrus the Younger, and Lucian in The Syrian Goddess. The Syrians, I say, especially those who inhabited Palestine; whence Tibullus: Why should I tell how the white dove, sacred and untouched, / Flies through the crowded cities of the Palestinian Syrian?
Verse 30
30. THE LORD SHALL ROAR FROM ON HIGH, as if to say: Just as a lion terrifies all with its roar, so God shall, as it were, roar, pronouncing and executing the sentence of destruction against Jerusalem, and shall make the Chaldeans roar and shout like lions, and encourage one another to invade it, and thus shall terrify all the neighboring nations.
Note: By "beauty" he means either Jerusalem, as the Chaldean says, or the temple, as other interpreters commonly explain: because there God was worshipped and, as it were, adorned with true faith, religion, and sacrificial victims.
CELEUMA — is properly a shout, not mournful, as St. Jerome would have it, but joyful — namely, the cheer of sailors and soldiers for rowing and fighting, and in Scripture of those who tread grapes to press out the must, all encouraging one another with a common effort and voice, when, at one person's command, all respond in unison, as if commanding and rousing each other to their common work. For celeuma is derived from the Greek keleuō, meaning "I command," as if to say: Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans will encourage one another with a common shout to the slaughter, trampling, and overthrow of the Jews, to kill them and press out their blood, like those who tread and press grapes in the winepress. For these, when the vintage is gathered, are accustomed to dance and attest their joy with songs. Hence Virgil: Now the exhausted vine-dresser sings at the last rows.
ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH — namely, of Judea, or of the land which is here decreed by God to be devastated. So Vatablus.
Verse 31
31. THE SOUND SHALL REACH (shall then reach all nations); — the Chaldean: tumult; the Septuagint: destruction; others: the clash of arms and the blast of trumpets; others: the report and rumor of war, so that all nations may hear and feel the rumor and also the battle cry of the Chaldean enemies.
This passage allegorically fits well the last judgment, when Christ shall send the angels with a trumpet throughout the whole world. So St. Jerome.
HE ENTERS INTO JUDGMENT (God disputes and submits to judgment) WITH ALL FLESH — that is, with every human being, namely presenting Himself to the judgment of all people, so that all people, examining the sins of the nations and the punishment inflicted by God, may judge that God justly inflicted so great a punishment upon them for so great sins. On this judgment of God, see Isaiah chapter 1:18 and chapter 43:44.
Verse 32
32. A GREAT WHIRLWIND SHALL GO FORTH. — This was fulfilled, says St. Jerome, when Nebuchadnezzar engulfed and devastated all the surrounding nations and the uttermost parts of the earth, like a whirlwind, suddenly and powerfully with his arms.
Verse 33
33. AND THE SLAIN OF THE LORD — slain by the Lord through the Chaldeans. ON THE DUNGHILL. — Supply: they shall be cast on the dunghill, and there they shall lie, to be devoured by dogs and wild beasts.
Verse 34
34. HOWL, O PASTORS. — The Chaldean: Howl, O kings and princes.
(Scaliger) says that atbash is the invention of the most inept Rabbis; that Sesach, therefore, is the name of a goddess. But St. Jerome and the ancient Rabbis, whom St. Jerome follows, are more to be believed than one modern Scaliger.)
AND YOUR DISSIPATIONS — supply and repeat: are completed, as if to say: Now you shall plainly be scattered, and you shall fall like precious vessels which, when falling, are smashed, shatter, and are scattered. For until now I held and preserved you in My hand, like precious vessels; but now I will let you fall, be broken, and be scattered, so that, just as you were vessels of honor, so now you may be vessels of dishonor.
Verse 35
35. FLIGHT SHALL PERISH FROM THE PASTORS (the pastors shall not be able to flee) — that is, the princes and nobles. 36. THE VOICE OF A CRY — shall be heard. 37. THE PEACEFUL PASTURES HAVE FALLEN SILENT (as though mourning and desolate they lie silent, and yield no fruits) — that is, the pastures formerly peaceful, and in peacetime most cultivated, most pleasant, and most fertile, like Tempe, and the paradise of delights.
Verse 38
38. HE HAS ABANDONED — namely, God has abandoned the temple, His habitation, which, like a lion its den, He previously guarded so that no one dared attack it; but with God, as it were, abandoning it and departing, the Chaldeans entered and devastated it. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugo, Lyranus. Otherwise Vatablus: Like a hungry lion, he says, with no prey, that leaves its den — so God, finding no prey or food in the temple, that is, no holy sacrifices, piety, or justice, abandoned it. Others explain it differently: Just as a lion abandons its cave when the forest in which it lives is set on fire and devastated — so God, when Judea was devastated, will abandon Jerusalem and the temple in which He dwelt. To this meaning what follows aptly corresponds: "For their land has become a desolation." But according to the first meaning, the word "for" in the Hebrew manner signifies not the cause but an accompanying sign, or even an effect. For here it is called a cause not a priori, but as it were a posteriori with respect to us, namely what makes us know and recognize it — as if to say: From the fact that the land is desolated, we know and clearly recognize that God has abandoned it. Furthermore, Sanchez understands the lion not as God, but as the kings and princes who are to be devastated by the Chaldeans, as if to say: The Chaldeans will so invade and ravage the kingdoms and regions of the princes, who seemed as terrible as lions, that no place of escape will be left to them. But then he should rather have said "they abandoned" (plural), not "He abandoned" (singular).
BECAUSE OF THE WRATH OF THE DOVE. — Lyranus, too credulous of Rabbi Solomon, translates "dove" as "drunkenness," as if to say: Because of the wine of the Lord's fury. So also the Chaldean: because of the sword of the enemy, which inebriates like wine. But in Hebrew it is yonah (dove), not yayin (wine).
Second, Pagninus and Vatablus translate: because of the wrath of the oppressor. But then it should be yoneh, not yonah. The Septuagint renders not the words but the sense, translating: because of the great sword.
Our translation and others, therefore, most correctly and properly translate: because of the wrath of the dove, in Hebrew haionah, that is, of that dove — namely, the famous and renowned one.
One may ask: What is this dove? St. Jerome and St. Thomas respond that it can be taken as Jerusalem, as if to say: The land of Judea was devastated before Jerusalem, and therefore Jerusalem itself, as the metropolis, was angered and groaned. But "because of the wrath" signifies an active and devastating wrath, not a passive one enduring devastation.
Second, Maldonatus thinks God is called a dove because He is most gentle, and yet was provoked and roused to vengeance by the multitude of sins. But Jeremiah here distinguishes the wrath of the dove from the wrath of the Lord's fury; for he says: "Because of the wrath of the dove, and because of the wrath of the Lord's fury."
Third, and genuinely, the same St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Pierius, Guevara, Capilla, Castrius, Maldonatus, and others understand by the dove Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans; and this first, because of the swiftness and constant, unceasing flight toward prey and slaughter — for the dove "cleaves a liquid path and does not move its swift wings." Second, as Hugo and St. Thomas say, by antiphrasis the dove here signifies the ferocity of the Chaldeans. Third, because God sent them from Babylon, as from a dovecote, to seek food in Judea, as in another's harvest field. Sanchez adds that the lion was the emblem and coat of arms of Judah and the Jews, Genesis 49:9, and that of it is said here in verse 38: "He has abandoned His shelter like a lion." Against this he sets the dove (as if to make it duel with the lion), which was the emblem of the Chaldeans — as if to say: The lion and the dove shall fight and duel, namely the Jews and the Chaldeans; but the dove shall conquer and crush the lion — that is, the Chaldeans shall crush the Jews. The lion shall therefore flee and abandon the land because of the wrath of the dove, whose onslaught it will not be able to withstand; because, indeed, in the dove and through the dove the Lord and the Lord's fury shall fight. Hence He adds: "And because of the wrath of the Lord's fury." Hence in verse 9, God called Nebuchadnezzar His servant. Fourth, because whereas the Persians detested white doves out of their hatred of leprosy, the Babylonians and Syrians worshipped them as a divinity; the witnesses are Xenophon in Cyrus the Younger, and Lucian in The Syrian Goddess. The Syrians, I say, especially those who inhabited Palestine; hence Tibullus: Why should I tell how the white dove, sacred and untouched, / Flies through the crowded cities of the Palestinian Syrian?
AND BECAUSE OF THE FIERCE ANGER (that is, the furious anger, actually raging, that is, fierce) OF THE LORD. — The conjunction "and" means "that is" — as if to say: "Because of the wrath of the dove, that is, because of the fierce anger of the Lord"; because the fury of the dove is the fury of the Lord. Or, as if to say: "Because of the wrath of the dove, or rather because of the fierce anger of the Lord." For a gentle dove does not roll such great wrath in its breast; it is therefore the fury of God, wishing to punish the crimes of the Jews, that instilled these wrathful passions in the dove, that is, in the Chaldeans. So Sanchez.
Mystically, St. Gregory, Book 32 of the Moralia, chapter 6: The dove, he says, is God, because He is simple, even-tempered, gentle, unchangeable, and when He is angry and punishes the Jews through the Chaldeans, He is not disturbed by anger. And St. Thomas: God, he says, who through patience has until now been a dove, will now be a lion because of the vehemence of His vengeance; whence Maldonatus and some others understand the dove here literally as God. This interpretation is not implausible.
SEIR.
30. THE LORD SHALL ROAR FROM ON HIGH, as if to say: Just as a lion terrifies all with its roar, so God shall, as it were, roar, pronouncing and executing the sentence of destruction against Jerusalem, and shall make the Chaldeans roar and shout like lions, and encourage one another to invade it, and thus shall terrify all the neighboring nations.
Note: By "beauty" he means either Jerusalem, as the Chaldean says, or the temple, as other interpreters commonly explain: because there God was worshipped and, as it were, adorned with true faith, religion, and sacrificial victims.
CELEUMA — is properly a shout, not mournful, as St. Jerome would have it, but joyful — namely, the cheer of sailors and soldiers for rowing and fighting, and in Scripture of those who tread grapes to press out the must, all encouraging one another with a common effort and voice, when, at one person's command, all respond in unison, as if commanding and rousing each other to their common work. For celeuma is derived from the Greek keleuō, meaning "I command," as if to say: Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans will encourage one another with a common shout to the slaughter, trampling, and overthrow of the Jews, to kill them and press out their blood, like those who tread and press grapes in the winepress. For these, when the vintage is gathered, are accustomed to dance and attest their joy with songs. Hence Virgil: Now the exhausted vine-dresser sings at the last rows.
ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH — namely, of Judea, or of the land which is here decreed by God to be devastated. So Vatablus.
BECAUSE OF THE WRATH OF THE DOVE. — Lyranus, too credulous of Rabbi Solomon, translates "dove" as "drunkenness," as if to say: Because of the wine of the Lord's fury. So also the Chaldean: because of the sword of the enemy, which inebriates like wine. But in Hebrew it is yonah (dove), not yayin (wine).
Second, Pagninus and Vatablus translate: because of the wrath of the oppressor. But then it should be yoneh, not yonah. The Septuagint renders not the words but the sense, translating: because of the great sword.
Our translation and others, therefore, most correctly and properly translate: because of the wrath of the dove, in Hebrew haionah, that is, of that dove — namely, the famous and renowned one.
Hence also the Holy Spirit, besides other reasons, at the baptism of Christ descended in the form of a dove in Palestine; because this form was most august there. But why was this? The Greeks think they worshipped the dove in honor of Rhea, who presides over rains — for pia means "I flow." For the Assyrians believed that the nature of things properly consists of air and water; hence for water they worshipped fish, for example Dagon; for air, from which rain descends, they are believed to have worshipped a bronze dove.
More clearly, Diodorus Siculus and others think they worshipped the dove in honor of Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians; or rather, that they worshipped Semiramis under the image of a dove, because, as Guidius writes, the story was that she had been nursed by doves (and hence she was called Semiramis, which word in Syriac means bird), and after death was converted into a dove. This seems to have been invented either for flattery, or, as Pierius notes, because of her lust, which was so great that she sought intercourse with her son, for which reason she was killed by him. For the dove is so libidinous that it breeds every month. Hence the ancients dedicated white doves to Venus, which accordingly Aeneas in the Poet calls his mother's birds. Hence, therefore, the Babylonians bore a dove on their standards and banners, and hence their army is called a dove, both here and in chapter 46, verse 13, joined with verse 16, and chapter 50, verses 15-16. Pierius has more on the dove, Hieroglyphics 22, and Guevara above.
Second, Maldonatus thinks God is called a dove because He is most gentle, and yet was provoked and roused to vengeance by the multitude of sins. But Jeremiah here distinguishes the wrath of the dove from the wrath of the Lord's fury; for he says: "Because of the wrath of the dove, and because of the wrath of the Lord's fury."
Third, and genuinely, the same St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Pierius, Guevara, Capilla, Castrius, Maldonatus, and others understand by the dove Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans; and this first, because of the swiftness and constant, unceasing flight toward prey and slaughter — for the dove "cleaves a liquid path and does not move its swift wings." Second, as Hugo and St. Thomas say, by antiphrasis the dove here signifies the ferocity of the Chaldeans. Third, because God sent them from Babylon, as from a dovecote, to seek food in Judea, as in another's harvest field. Sanchez adds that the lion was the emblem and coat of arms of Judah and the Jews, Genesis 49:9, and that of it is said here in verse 38: "He has abandoned His shelter like a lion." Against this he sets the dove (as if to make it duel with the lion), which was the emblem of the Chaldeans — as if to say: The lion and the dove shall fight and duel, namely the Jews and the Chaldeans; but the dove shall conquer and crush the lion — that is, the Chaldeans shall crush the Jews. The lion shall therefore flee and abandon the land because of the wrath of the dove, whose onslaught it will not be able to withstand; because, indeed, in the dove and through the dove the Lord and the Lord's fury shall fight. Hence He adds: "And because of the wrath of the Lord's fury." Hence in verse 9, God called Nebuchadnezzar His servant. Fourth, because whereas the Persians detested white doves out of their hatred of leprosy, the Babylonians and Syrians worshipped them as a divinity.
Antonius Guevara proves this at length in his commentary on Habakkuk 1, number 154, and thus explains Psalm 68:13: "If you sleep among the sheepfolds," that is, between the lots and borders of your enemies the Philistines, you shall be "like the wings of a dove covered with silver," that is, you shall be white, untouched, and unharmed, like a white dove, whose "back feathers" are "in the pallor of gold," that is, are variegated with golden spots — as if to say: Even though you are surrounded by Philistine enemies, you will be a terror and object of reverence to them, no less than a white dove which none of them dares to touch.
Mystically, St. Gregory, Book 32 of the Moralia, chapter 6: The dove, he says, is God, because He is simple, even-tempered, gentle, unchangeable, and when He is angry and punishes the Jews through the Chaldeans, He is not disturbed by anger. And St. Thomas: God, he says, who through patience has until now been a dove, will now be a lion because of the vehemence of His vengeance; whence Maldonatus and some others understand the dove here literally as God. This interpretation is not implausible.
AND BECAUSE OF THE FIERCE ANGER (that is, the furious anger, actually raging, that is, fierce) OF THE LORD. — The conjunction "and" means "that is" — as if to say: "Because of the wrath of the dove, that is, because of the fierce anger of the Lord"; because the fury of the dove is the fury of the Lord. Or, as if to say: "Because of the wrath of the dove, or rather because of the fierce anger of the Lord." For a gentle dove does not roll such great wrath in its breast; it is therefore the fury of God, wishing to punish the crimes of the Jews, that instilled these wrathful passions in the dove, that is, in the Chaldeans. So Sanchez.