Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues, as under the type of the liberation of Israel from Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria, to symbolically describe the freedom, joy, and blessings of the New Testament, and the multiplication of the Church through many earthly metaphors, the source of all which blessings is that a woman shall encompass a man. Finally, at verse 31, he promises to establish a new covenant with the Israelites by writing his law not on tablets but in their hearts, so that all may know the Lord. See Canons 8 and 19. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Lyranus, and Vatablus.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 31:1-15
1. At that time, says the Lord: I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people. 2. Thus says the Lord: The people that survived the sword found grace in the desert: Israel shall go to his rest. 3. The Lord appeared to me from afar. And in everlasting love I have loved you: therefore I have drawn you, having mercy. 4. And again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel: again you shall be adorned with your timbrels, and shall go forth in the dance of those who make merry. 5. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and until the time comes, they shall not gather the vintage: 6. for there shall be a day when the watchmen on Mount Ephraim shall cry: Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God. 7. For thus says the Lord: Rejoice with gladness for Jacob, and neigh against the head of the nations: shout, and sing, and say: Save, O Lord, Your people, the remnant of Israel. 8. Behold, I will bring them from the land of the North, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth: among them shall be the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together, a great company returning here. 9. They shall come in weeping: and in mercy I will bring them back: and I will lead them through streams of water in a straight way, and they shall not stumble in it: for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. 10. Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the islands that are afar off, and say: He who scattered Israel will gather him: and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. 11. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and delivered him from the hand of one stronger than he. 12. And they shall come and give praise on Mount Zion: and they shall flow together to the good things of the Lord, for the grain, and wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds: and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall hunger no more. 13. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, the young men and old together: and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them joyful from their sorrow. 14. And I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness: and My people shall be filled with My good things, says the Lord. 15. Thus says the Lord: A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of mourning and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not.
Verse 16
16. Thus says the Lord: Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: and they shall return from the land of the enemy. 17. And there is hope for your latter end, says the Lord: and the children shall return to their own borders. 18. Hearing I have heard Ephraim going into exile: You have chastised me, and I was instructed, like an untamed young bull: convert me, and I shall be converted: for You are the Lord my God. 19. For after You converted me, I did penance: and after You showed me, I struck my thigh. I was confounded and ashamed, because I bore the reproach of my youth. 20. Is Ephraim an honorable son to Me, is he a delicate child: for since I spoke of him, I will still remember him. Therefore My bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord. 21. Set up for yourself a watchtower, lay down for yourself bitternesses: direct your heart into the right way, in which you have walked: return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. 22. How long will you be dissolved in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall encompass a man. 23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: They shall yet speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I shall bring back their captivity: The Lord bless you, O beauty of justice, O holy mountain: 24. and Judah and all his cities shall dwell together therein, the farmers and they that drive the flocks. 25. For I have inebriated the weary soul, and every hungry soul I have filled. 26. Therefore I was as one awakened from sleep: and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me. 27. Behold, the days come, says the Lord: and I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men, and with the seed of beasts. 28. And as I have watched over them to pluck up, and to tear down, and to scatter, and to destroy, and to afflict: so I will watch over them to build up and to plant, says the Lord. 29. In those days they shall say no more: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge. 30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that shall eat the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. 31. Behold, the days shall come, says the Lord: and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 32. not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, says the Lord. 33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will give My law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know Me from the least of them even to the greatest, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 35. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for the light of the day, the order of the moon and of the stars for the light of the night: who stirs up the sea, and its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is His name. 36. If these ordinances shall fail before Me, says the Lord: then also the seed of Israel shall fail, so as not to be a nation before Me for all days. 37. Thus says the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out: then also I will cast off all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, says the Lord. 38. Behold, the days come, says the Lord: and the city shall be built to the Lord, from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner. 39. And the measuring line shall yet go out further in His sight upon the hill Gareb: and shall compass Goatha, 40. and the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the region of death, to the torrent Kedron, and to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, the Holy of the Lord: it shall not be plucked up, and it shall not be destroyed any more forever.
Therefore the modern Jews are mistaken, who take this chapter and the preceding and similar ones — such as Isaiah ch. LIV, Amos ch. IX, Zechariah ch. XIV, where a return from captivity, happiness, and abundance of temporal goods are promised to the Jews — crudely according to the letter as they sound, as if these things regard themselves and their present captivity, from which they are to be liberated through their Messiah, whom they have now been expecting with vain hope for 1600 years, and will continue to expect until the end of the world.
For first, the Prophets speak of the captivity then present, namely the Babylonian, which Cyrus and Zerubbabel dissolved, not of the Roman captivity through Titus, which has never been dissolved, nor will be. Indeed in this chapter, Jeremiah treats of the Assyrian captivity, which
was literally never dissolved, nor will be: therefore he speaks of its mystical dissolution, which Christ accomplished.
Second, that this Roman captivity of theirs would be perpetual, Daniel teaches in ch. IX, v. 27, where I confirmed the same with many arguments.
Third, that the Messiah has already come, and therefore it is in vain that another is expected by the Jews, is clear from the prophecy of Jacob, Gen. XLIX, 10, about the Messiah to come as soon as the scepter departed from Judah, which has already been fulfilled in Christ. See the comments there, and from Dan. IX, 25, and from Isaiah LIII, where the passion and death of our Christ is predicted as future in exactly the same manner as it is narrated as having happened by the Evangelists and other historians.
Fourth, that these promises about the dissolution and restoration of the captivity must be taken mystically, not crudely according to the letter as they sound, is clear: first, because that verse 15: "A voice was heard on high, etc., Rachel bewailing her children," pertains to the slaughter of the innocents by Herod in hatred of Christ, as St. Matthew teaches, ch. II, v. 18, and the very event itself shows. Second, that verse 22: "A woman shall encompass a man," can be referred to none other than the Blessed Virgin conceiving Christ. Third, that verse 31: "I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt" — plainly signifies that the old covenant entered into with Moses and the Jews, with the law given on Sinai, when they were led out of Egypt by God, was to be antiquated and abrogated, and in its place a new covenant was to be substituted, to be instituted and ratified by Christ, as the Apostle urges and explains, Heb. VIII, 8. For that old covenant was carnal, this new one is spiritual. Whence concerning it he says at verse 33: "I will give My law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know Me from the least of them even to the greatest: for I will forgive their iniquity." That all these things have been fulfilled through Christ, who ratified the new covenant in His blood, by which He propitiated God for our sins, and who gave to His own a clear knowledge of God and the Most Holy Trinity, and that they cannot apply to any other, is clearer than light.
Fifth, that this covenant to be ratified by Christ is with the Gentiles, and that this redemption of the Messiah regards the Gentiles, and that it would be spiritual, namely from the devil, sin, and hell, the Prophets teach: as Isaiah ch. LV, v. 4: "Behold, I have given Him (the Messiah) as a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the nations. Behold, you shall call a nation you did not know: and nations that did not know you shall run to you." And ch. LX, v. 3: "Nations shall walk in your light, and kings in the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see: all these have gathered together, they have come to you," O Jerusalem, that is, O Church of Christ. Ch. XLIX, v. 6: "It is a small thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel (indeed v. 5 clearly says: Israel will not be gathered). Behold, I have given you as a light to the nations, that you may be My salvation to the end of the earth." And v. 12: "Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, those from the north and from the sea, and these from the land of the south." See vv. 22 ff. And ch. XLIII, vv. 3 and 6, and ch. XLII, vv. 1 and 7: "I have given you, He says, as a covenant of the people, a light to the nations." And ch. II, v. 2: "In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And many peoples shall go, and shall say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths." Ps. II, v. 8: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance," etc.
Sixth, that the Jews are to be repelled from this covenant and its goods by Christ on account of their unbelief, and are to be blinded, Isaiah clearly predicts, ch. VI, v. 10: "Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest perhaps they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and I heal them." And ch. L, v. 1: "Where is the bill of divorce of your mother, with which I sent her away, etc. Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your sins I sent away your mother. Because I came, and there was no man: I called, and there was none who would hear." Hosea I, 6: "Call her name, Without mercy, for I will not continue to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them." And v. 9: "Call his name, Not my people, and I will not be your God." And v. 10: "And it shall be in the place (of the Gentiles) where it was said to them: You are not My people; it shall be said to them: Sons of the living God." And often elsewhere. Therefore all these promises about the Messiah, about the new covenant, about the dissolution of the captivity — namely of the devil and of sin — regard the Gentiles rather than the Jews: for few Jews converted to Christ have received these goods from God; but all will receive them at the end of the world, when they are converted to Christ. See Rom. IX ff.
Seventh, turning the argument against them: the Jews stubbornly press the letter. Let us press the same and turn it back against them: Jeremiah in this ch. XXXI names and addresses only Israel, Ephraim, and Samaria, that is, the ten tribes which were carried away to the Assyrians, and to them he promises liberation. Therefore these things do not pertain to the two tribes, that is, to the modern Jews, but to the Samaritans, and to the ancient kingdom of Israel, which was divided and separated from Judah under Rehoboam.
Eighth, the new covenant which is here promised to be ratified through the Messiah is the new law, as the ancient Rabbis explain, cited by Galatinus, bk. X, ch. X. For they themselves in the book Mechilta, explaining that passage of Exodus XII: "On the tenth day of this month," say: "There is no ברית berit, that is, covenant or pact, except the law, as it is said in Deut. ch. XXIX, 1: These are
the words of the covenant (that is, of the law: for Moses promulgates this in Deuteronomy), which the Lord commanded Moses, that he should strike with the children of Israel in the land of Moab: besides that covenant which He struck with them at Horeb." Likewise Exodus XXXIV, 28: "And he wrote on the tablets the ten words of the covenant;" "of the covenant," i.e., of the law: for the law was the condition of the covenant; whence he also explains this covenant through the law when he adds: "I will give My law in their bowels." If a new law was to be given through the Messiah, therefore the old and Mosaic law was to be abrogated by the same, and it would come to pass that circumcision, sacrifices, purifications, ceremonies, and other carnal precepts prescribed by the old law would be abrogated — that is, Judaism itself; and it would be changed into spiritual things, e.g., into circumcision of the mind and spirit, into the mortification of the passions, into the pure and chaste worship of God in spirit and in truth, that is, into Christianity. For this is what God promises: "I will give My law;" not in the body, but "in their bowels; and in the heart," not in the flesh, "I will write it."
Note: The preceding chapter dealt especially with the Church to be gathered from the Jews at the end of the world; because there he spoke of the two tribes, and their sins, desolation, and liberation through Christ: for few of them will be converted before the end of the world. But this chapter speaks of the ten tribes and Samaria, where immediately after Christ the Church flourished, and of the new covenant itself, which God entered into with us through the Incarnation of Christ. And so this chapter speaks of the beginnings of the Church of Christ, which immediately spread through Ephraim, that is, through Samaria, and being eagerly received there, was marvelously propagated, as is clear from Acts VIII.
Note, secondly, that Jeremiah and the Prophets rightly say that Zion, Jerusalem, Ephraim, Samaria, etc., have been brought back, redeemed, restored, and rebuilt through Christ: because Christ restored and renewed the old Church (which was in Judea and Samaria) as it was tottering, by the new one which He substituted for it, and indeed raised it to a nobler state and dignity; when from an earthly and carnal Israel, Judah, and Ephraim, He made a heavenly, spiritual, and divine Israel, Judah, and Ephraim. And so the Prophets fittingly console their fellow citizens and the people of their own time whom they address, by promising them these goods and gifts of Christ. See Canon VI.
Verse 1
1. AT THAT TIME. — These words of the first verse are referred to the preceding chapter by St. Jerome, Lyra, Hugh, and others, and they pertain to it.
Verse 2
2. FOUND GRACE. — The Septuagint, instead of חן chen, that is, grace, read חם cham, that is, hot, and translate: He found (God) the heated one, that is, the Hebrew people in the desert, burning with hunger and heat.
THE PEOPLE THAT SURVIVED THE SWORD. — That is, as the Hebrew and the Chaldean say, the Jews going out of Egypt, who escaped the sword both of Pharaoh and of God punishing the rebellious in the desert, found grace, and, as the Chaldean says, mercy before God, so that they might enter into rest in the Promised Land. So the Chaldean, Lyra, Vatablus, that is to say: Much more therefore
now "Israel shall go," that is, the faithful people, with Christ leading, "to rest," the eternal rest.
Otherwise St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh explain it, that is to say: The people of the Jews, who had survived the Roman or divine sword, found grace in the desert of the nations, so that among the multitude of the nations they might be saved in the Church of Christ.
Thirdly, Theodoret, St. Thomas, and Sanchez explain it thus, that is to say: From Babylon through the middle of the desert Israel returned to the rest of his homeland. But the first sense is the genuine one.
ISRAEL SHALL GO TO HIS REST. — Vatablus and Pagninus translate: God went before him (Israel), to prepare rest for him in Canaan, and so does the Chaldean. Our translator better renders it with the future "shall go," because the Hebrew and the Septuagint have "go," that is, "shall go": for the imperative is better taken as a future than as a past tense.
Verse 3
3. THE LORD APPEARED TO ME FROM AFAR. — That is, the Lord has withdrawn far from me. So St. Jerome.
Secondly, the Lord delays for a long time to appear to us, to free us from Babylon. So Hugh: or as Lyra says, He delays showing Himself until the end of the world: for then He will fulfill the promises made to the Jews, concerning their conversion and salvation through Christ.
Thirdly and best, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Sanchez, and a Castro explain it thus, that is to say: From a long time ago, already of old, the Lord appeared and favored me in Sinai and the desert; but now He seems to have abandoned me in the Babylonian, or rather the Assyrian, captivity. These are the words of the Synagogue, or of Israel, that is, the ten tribes, to which God responds: You are mistaken, My people; I have not abandoned you, "and," that is, rather, indeed, "with an everlasting love," in Hebrew olam, that is, from of old, from ancient times, "I have loved you," that is to say: With the same love as of old I have continued
those carried off by the Assyrians to Assyria never returned to Samaria.
Mystically, therefore, these things were accomplished through the Apostles in Samaria, about whom Isaiah ch. LII says: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who announces and preaches peace!"
to follow you with love, and that not by the merit of your life, but by My mercy alone.
THEREFORE I HAVE DRAWN YOU, TAKING PITY — that is to say: Therefore I have tried, and always try, now by coaxing, now by scourging, to draw you to Myself, because I have pity on you: for whom I love, I chastise. Others translate: I have drawn you with mercy, that is, with many benefits, according to that passage of Hosea XI, 4: "With the cords of Adam (that is, with the love and benefits by which men are accustomed to be enticed and drawn) I will draw them with the bonds of charity." Others finally translate thus, that is to say: Therefore I have long protected My mercy toward you; therefore I have exercised long patience and mercy toward you. So R. David. But the first sense is the genuine one. Here there is, as it were, a dialogue between God and the Synagogue. So St. Augustine, in his book On the Altercation of the Church and the Synagogue, vol. VI.
Verse 4
4. AND AGAIN I WILL BUILD YOU UP (I will restore you). YOU SHALL YET BE ADORNED WITH TIMBRELS. — Just as when you went out of Egypt, and after the blessed crossing of the Red Sea, you danced to the timbrel of Miriam: so now I will restore you to your former glory and festive joy, when I bring you back from Babylon and Assyria to Judea, say St. Thomas and Theodoret; see III Esdras V, 2. And far more so, when I bring you back into My Church, and build you up in it through Christ and the Apostles, according to what He promised through Amos, ch. IX, v. 11; for then you will serve Me, and give thanks in hymns and spiritual canticles. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyra, Vatablus. Here God responds to the Jews mourning in Babylon and saying, Ps. CXXXVI: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows in its midst we hung up our instruments. How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?" For here He promises to restore to them freedom, joy, songs, timbrels, and dances.
Verse 5
5. YOU SHALL YET PLANT VINEYARDS ON THE MOUNTAINS OF SAMARIA. — Because after the return three cities of Samaria were added to Judea, I Mach. X, 30. So St. Thomas. But this is an inadequate explanation: for not the Jews, but the Gentiles possessed all the rest of Samaria, I Esdras IV, 10. Therefore these things must be understood of the conversion of the Samaritans to the faith of Christ, and by vineyards, particular churches, that is to say: Many unto you,
O Zion, O Church of Christ, I will convert in Samaria through the preaching of the Gospel, so that you may found there many churches of the Samaritans. That this indeed happened is clear from John IV, 41; Acts VIII, 14.
For it is established that the Samaritans, that is, the ten tribes,
THE PLANTERS SHALL PLANT, AND UNTIL THE TIME COMES, THEY SHALL NOT GATHER THE VINTAGE. — In Hebrew and Chaldaic it reads: The planters shall plant, and they shall profane, or make common, that is to say: Just as formerly, according to Lev. XIX, 23, the fruits of trees were deemed unclean for the first three years, and the Jews were not permitted to eat them; but in the fourth year they were consecrated to the Lord, and in the fifth year they were profaned, that is, made common, and everyone, even the profane and laity, was permitted to eat them: so the Apostles and their like will cultivate the vineyard of the Lord for many years and with much patience, and will wait long-sufferingly for the fruit and the time of the vintage, which they will at last joyfully enjoy.
But since it is not labor, but rather the reward and fruit of the Church that is promised here; hence secondly, it is better explained thus, that is to say: Just as the Jews of old according to the law of Lev. XIX, so also the Apostles, through long labors of many years, will finally arrive at the desired time of vintage, and will enjoy the fruit of their labors, when they see so many unbelievers converted, who will gradually lose the habit of and forget paganism and Judaism, whom before they have been purified of it, they will not harvest, that is, they will not forcibly tear them from their former rites; but gently and gradually they will lead them away from these things, and then when they are fully purged, they will feast, that is, joyfully enjoy them, and will make them common to others, that is, they will share their joy and fruit — namely the conversion and holy way of life of those converts — with other faithful, as St. Paul did, Rom. I, 8.
Verse 6
6. FOR THERE SHALL BE A DAY ON WHICH THE WATCHMEN SHALL CRY — saying: Let us go up from Babylon to our homeland, to Jerusalem. So Theodoret, Hugh, St. Thomas. Secondly and better, St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyra, Vatablus, that is to say: The Apostles and other watchmen of the vineyards, that is, of the churches, traversing the mountains of Samaria while preaching the Gospel, will cry: Come, let us go up to the Church of Christ founded in Zion, that is to say: The Apostles will convert Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, to Zion, that is, to the Church
of Christ.
7. REJOICE WITH GLADNESS FOR JACOB. — In Hebrew לֵיעקוב leiaacob, that is, of Jacob, or for Jacob, that is to say: Rejoice and congratulate Jacob, that is, the Israelites and Samaritans, for the joy, freedom, and grace which Christ, Philip, Peter, and John brought to them, Acts VIII.
NEIGH BEFORE THE HEAD OF THE NATIONS — shout with jubilation before the nations, or in the presence of the nations, so that they may neigh in response to you, and likewise in the faith of Christ
St. Jerome, Rabanus, and Hugh; or, as a Castro says, "Israel" refers to the two tribes, "Ephraim" to the ten tribes: here therefore Ephraim is dear to Me as a firstborn.
He alludes to Jacob, who preferred Ephraim the younger to Manasseh the elder son, crossing his hands to place his right hand upon him, by which he signified that through the cross of Christ the Samaritans and the Gentiles would be first in the Church of Christ, and would be preferred to the Jews, who had been prior and superior in sonship, worship, and the temple of God.
Whence more effectively with Sanchez you may translate and explain this passage thus, that is to say: I through the Apostles have become a father to Israel, that is, to the Samaritans — a father, I say, that father from whom the Israelites took their name.
You will say: The Israelites, that is, the ten tribes, had already been transferred to Assyria, and in their place colonists were sent from Assyria to Samaria, who were called Cutheans; how then does he call them Israelites and Ephraimites here? I respond: The reason is that the original inhabitants of Samaria were Israelites, especially because many true Israelites either remained or returned to Samaria, as is clear from Jeremiah XLI, 18, and Tobit XIV, 6. Therefore the Cutheans merged with them into one nation, and wished to be called and regarded as Israelites: whence they also worshipped the God of Israel, as is clear from IV Kings XVII, 28. Finally, because having been converted to Christ they became genuine Israelites, that is, descendants and children of Jacob and Abraham according to faith and spirit, Rom. ch. IX, 7.
may rejoice. In Hebrew it reads: at the head of the nations, that is, first among the nations, or before the nations enjoy the Gospel, you, O Samaritans, therefore rejoice. Others translate: against the nations, namely those who resist the Gospel, or, as Lyra says, against the devil, who is the head of the nations.
SAVE, O LORD. — "Save" means "you have saved": so the Septuagint and the Chaldean. For it is the voice of those returning from captivity, and therefore not so much of those requesting future salvation, as of those giving thanks and rejoicing for salvation already received. The imperative is used for the past tense by Hebrew enallage. For this is what the Hebrew Hosanna means, which the Jews shouted to Christ as if inaugurating their Messiah and Triumphant King, Matt. XXI, 13. So Maldonatus, Sanchez, Caninius, and others. Hosanna therefore means the same, that is to say: You have saved us, and continue to save us. For You are all our salvation, You the everlasting Savior.
Verse 8
8. AMONG WHOM SHALL BE THE BLIND — that is to say: Every kind of person, without respect of persons, from the land of the North, that is, from Chaldea, shall return, even the blind, the lame, and the pregnant, who can hardly undertake a journey, especially such a long one. So the Chaldean, Hugh, St. Thomas, and Theodoret.
Secondly, and more properly, every kind of person from the land of the North, that is, from the kingdom of the devil, shall return through Christ to God and the Church, from which they had fallen through sin. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyra, and Vatablus. The Septuagint translates: I will gather them from the end of the earth at the solemnity of the Passover, as if after the day of the Passover the Jews went out from Babylon (though neither Esdras nor Josephus state this), just as Christ, slain at the Passover, immediately gathered many children to Himself. In Christ therefore this version of the Septuagint is verified.
Verse 9
9. THEY SHALL COME WITH WEEPING. — The faithful who come will weep, partly from spiritual joy and gladness, on account of so great a good and salvation; partly from contrition for their sins; partly, as Lyra says, from love and compassion for Christ, who suffered and was crucified for them. The Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: In weeping they went, namely into captivity, but in joy they shall return.
I WILL LEAD THEM THROUGH TORRENTS OF WATERS — namely through the teachings of the Apostles and Preachers, who like torrents will pour out the water of grace and sound doctrine. Secondly, through the Sacraments, which are fountains of grace. So Lyra. By these the faithful will be led into a straight and easy way without stumbling blocks. Thirdly and most plainly: "I will lead them through torrents of waters," that is, I will make them overcome all obstacles and all difficulties of the way, and will, as it were, smooth the way for them, so that all may come readily to the Church. This is what Isaiah promises in ch. XL, 4: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain."
BECAUSE I HAVE BECOME A FATHER TO ISRAEL (that is, to the two tribes), AND EPHRAIM IS MY FIRSTBORN. — "Ephraim," that is, the remaining ten tribes, say
Verse 11
11. FROM THE HAND OF ONE MIGHTIER — that is, from the power both of Nebuchadnezzar, and more properly of the devil.
Verse 12
12. AND THEY SHALL GIVE PRAISE ON MOUNT ZION (in the Church), AND THEY SHALL FLOW TOGETHER TO THE GOOD THINGS OF THE LORD (namely) FOR THE GRAIN, AND WINE, AND OIL. — That is, to the grain, wine, and oil. So Vatablus. Note the catachresis; for by these earthly goods are signified spiritual goods, which are begun here and will be completed in heaven. By grain and wine is signified the Eucharist: for it is "the grain of the elect, and the wine that makes virgins fruitful," Zech. IX, 17. By oil is signified the grace and anointing of the Holy Spirit: by the young of the flocks and herds, the multiplication of the faithful, both simple and wise.
THEY SHALL NOT HUNGER — that is to say: They will not lack the spiritual food of the word of God, of grace and of the Sacraments; but they will be fed and watered by these like a garden beside irrigating waters. It is a metonymy: for otherwise the faithful who consume these goods still hunger for greater grace; but in heaven all their hunger will be removed, through consummated grace and glory: for they will be inebriated from the abundance of the house of God, and He will give them to drink from the torrent of His pleasure.
Verse 13
13. THEN SHALL THE VIRGIN REJOICE IN THE DANCE. — Literally, to pass over other things, we see so many companies of virgins in monasteries singing praises to God in choirs.
Verse 14
14. I WILL FILL (that is to say: I will satisfy and copiously fill) THE SOUL (that is, the appetite) OF THE PRIESTS WITH FATNESS — namely with the grace of the Holy Spirit. He alludes to the ancient sacrifices, in which the fattest part, after that which was burned to God, fell to the priest, that is to say: I will feed the priests of the New Testament with richer victims than those of the Old Testament, namely with the Body and Blood of Christ; likewise with the gifts of the Holy Spirit — with which when the Apostles were filled, they appeared to be drunk, Acts II, 13. So Maldonatus. This fatness we have seen, and we see in Bl. Dominic, Vincent, Xavier, and other apostolic priests.
Verse 15
15. A VOICE ON HIGH. — In Hebrew, in Ramah. Ramah is the name of a city so called because it was situated on a high place. So the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and others. This city is in the tribe of Benjamin, near Gibeah and Bethel, and through it the Jewish captives were led from Jerusalem to Babylon, Jer. XL, 1.
You will say: Why does the Prophet mention mourning amid joy and jubilation? I respond: to signify that the joy which will follow such great mourning will be all the greater, and that this mourning will end in it; for he had said in verse 14: "I will turn their mourning into joy;" whence he adds in verse 16: "Let your voice cease from weeping," etc.
You will ask: what is this mourning and weeping?
First, Origen, homily 3 on various passages; the author of Questions on the Old and New Testament, found among St. Augustine, Quest. LXII, and Hugh, take this as referring to the slaughter of the Benjaminites on account of the violence done to the wife of the Levite, Judges XX, that is to say: Rachel, the mother of Benjamin, so mourned the massacre of her descendants that her laments were heard in the neighboring city of Ramah.
Second, some authorities cited by St. Jerome take this as referring to the lamentation of mothers at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.
Third, St. Jerome, Rabanus, the Chaldean, St. Thomas, Vatablus, Sanchez, a Castro, and Maldonatus think that here the text literally treats of the captivity, either the Babylonian captivity of the two tribes, or the Assyrian captivity of the ten tribes; and they explain it thus: Because, they say, Rachel was the mother of the tribe of Benjamin, which was one of the two carried off to Babylon; hence she represents the mothers bewailing the Babylonian captivity of the two tribes. R. Solomon adds that Rachel was buried in Judea near Bethlehem so that she might pray for her children at the hour when Nebuzaradan would drive them from their homeland to Babylon. Again, because Rachel was the mother of Joseph, the father of Ephraim, who was the head of the ten tribes; hence Rachel here represents the mothers in Samaria, bewailing the captivity of the ten tribes. But in that case it should have been said that Rachel wept in Samaria, or in Ephraim; not in Ramah. Again, St. Matthew, ch. II, 18, says that this prophecy was fulfilled in the mothers bewailing their infants whom Herod slew in hatred of Christ: therefore it was not fulfilled in the mothers bewailing the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians or Assyrians.
You will say: In those mothers it was fulfilled literally, in these allegorically: inasmuch as these weeping mothers were a type, or rather something similar to those weeping for their slain infants, as if Matthew were saying: The words of Jeremiah spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem also fittingly apply to Herod's infanticide; for the mourning and weeping of the mothers was similar in both cases. But against this stands the objection that the Jews led to Babylon on account of their sins cannot properly be said to be a type of innocent infants and Martyrs, who ascended not to Babylon but to heaven through death. Again, Scripture is not said to be fulfilled in something similar, or when something similar happens: for otherwise we would say that all the prophecies of Jeremiah spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem were fulfilled in the destruction of Constantinople, and of any cities that have been overthrown: again, that the passion of Christ was fulfilled in the passion of any martyr, which no one would say. For Scriptures cannot be said to be fulfilled in an accommodated sense only: for in that way, accommodating anything to any similar thing, we would be said to fulfill it. Add that this accommodated sense was not intended by the Holy Spirit.
I say therefore that Jeremiah indeed alludes in the names Israel, Ephraim, Zion, the land of the North, to the Babylonian and Assyrian captivity and its mourning, as I said in the synopsis of the chapter: but in reality he does not speak of it, but literally speaks of the weeping of the Bethlehem mothers on account of Herod's infanticide: for in this entire chapter he treats of the time and Church of Christ. So Theodoret, Hugh, Lyra, Vatablus, and others, indeed St. Matthew, II, 18.
Which passage the priest Juvencus learnedly expressed in verse:
Wretched mothers for the gift of offspring Beat the heavens loudly with their dreadful complaints.
Where note "for the gift": for these infants were, as it were, the offering of gladiators, and a spectacle slain in a childish arena, says Delrio, proverb 862.
Note that by Rachel, as a mother, all the matrons of Bethlehem are understood. It is a metonymy, by which a person signifies a place or descendants. For Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, who was mingled with Judah, and therefore Origen says that Herod slew infants not only from the tribe of Judah, but also of Benjamin.
and Rachel, buried in Bethlehem, possessed it, as it were, with her body, so that she might appear to be the great mother of all the people of Bethlehem.
Secondly, it signifies that the mourning was bitter, because Rachel was most desirous of and loving toward children, and consequently most grief-stricken at their death; especially because she had only two, and in the birth of one, namely Benjamin, she died in pain at Bethlehem, and therefore called him Benoni, that is, son of sorrow. A Castro adds that Rachel is, as it were, raised from the dead to mourn, as if the calamity were so great that the living were not enough to bewail it, and it was necessary to raise the dead for this purpose.
Thirdly, the voice on high, or in Ramah, signifies that the voice of those weeping was immense, and spread from a high place, was heard far and wide.
You will say: Ramah was quite far from Bethlehem; for it was situated in the tribe of Benjamin near Gibeon, as is clear from Joshua XVIII, 25, and Judges XIX, 1, 13, and 16; therefore it should have been said: A voice was heard in Bethlehem, not in Ramah: for in Bethlehem the infants were slain.
I respond that infants were slain not only in Bethlehem, but all around in the neighboring places. Therefore the Prophet, joined with the Evangelist Matthew who explains him, signifies that both tribes wept in this infanticide, namely Judah through Bethlehem, Benjamin through Ramah, and that the weeping in Bethlehem was so great that it was heard in Ramah; and there the people afterwards mourned the slaughter of their neighbors and infant relatives. For Ramah was on the border of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as is clear from the cited passage of Judges. Whence Maldonatus explains it thus: in Ramah, that is, as far as Ramah. Origen adds that infants were also slain in Ramah and in Benjamin, as I said shortly before.
BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT — because they are slain and dead.
16. THERE IS A REWARD FOR YOUR WORK. — He calls captivity and slavery, mourning and tears, a "work," says Maldonatus, that is to say: I will turn the mourning into joy; I will compensate the captivity with freedom and abundance of all things. But since the Prophet speaks not of captivity, but of infanticide; hence the reward of the work here should be taken as the reward of the patience of the mothers, and the martyrdom of the little ones. Whence St. Jerome in his Commentary translates: there is a reward for your children, that is to say: Do not weep, O Rachel, O Bethlehem, over the slaughter of your children; for your children will have a reward for the blood shed for Christ, namely the palm of martyrdom, and instead of the land of Herod their enemy they will possess the kingdom of heaven; and so they will return to their own borders, that is, to the heavenly homeland, when instead of the body of lowliness they will receive the body of glory. He calls this the last hope ("and there is, he says, hope for your last end"), by which the just and patient, and martyrs at the end of the world will attain the blessed and glorious life they hoped for, so that they may shine like the sun; and infants who were once small, without increase of age, injuries, or bodily labor, will rise as perfect men, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, says St. Jerome.
Whence note: He does not say: There is a reward for your will — for infants could not have had this — but "there is a reward for your work," that is, for your death and martyrdom. For by "work" he understands suffering. In like manner, even now Christian infants who are killed in hatred of Christ by Jews or infidels are martyrs, and merit the palm of martyrdom, not from any act of will, which they cannot have, but from the very work of martyrdom itself. For just as God in His generosity established the sacrament of baptism for infants, so that they might be justified by it ex opere operato: so He established martyrdom for them for the same reason. Whence theologians teach that martyrdom purges infants from original sin, and justifies them as if ex opere operato. For this is a baptism not of water, but of blood. Thus the Church honors St. Simon, the infant of Trent, who was tortured by the Jews on Good Friday in hatred of Christ. Thus among the martyrs of Trier she also honors the infants who were likewise slain in the common massacre of the whole city. Likewise the infants who were burned in that city of Phrygia, which on account of the faith of Christ was surrounded and set on fire by order of Diocletian, and was consumed in flames with all its inhabitants, about which Eusebius, bk. VIII of his History, ch. XI. Thus also as a martyr is honored that little boy who, in the time of the Emperor Justin, approached the pyre lit for Christians by the Jew Dunaan in the city of Najran in Arabia, and when he saw his mother thrown into it, immediately threw himself into the same fire and was burned. Baronius narrates this illustrious story at length, at the year of Christ 522.
Truly and elegantly St. Augustine, sermon I On the Innocents: "At the Lord's birth," he says, "mourning seizes not heaven, but the world: lamentation is appointed for the mothers, exultation for the angels, a passing over for the infants. It is God who is born: to Him are owed the victims of the Innocents, He who came to condemn the wickedness of the world. Lambs ought to be sacrificed, because the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world is to be crucified. But the mothers — the ewes — wail, because they lose their lambs bleating without a voice. A great martyrdom, a cruel spectacle." And further on: "They are pledges not entrusted, but created; not deposited, but exposed. The lamentation of the mothers was mingled, and the offering of the little ones was passing to heaven." Prudentius also, in his hymn for the same:
Hail, he says, flowers of the Martyrs, Whom on the very threshold of life The persecutor of Christ destroyed, As a whirlwind destroys budding roses. You, Christ's first offering, Tender flock of the sacrificed, Before the very altar in your simplicity You play with palms and crowns.
There exists here in Rome in the round church of St. Stephen a quatrain about the same, which because it is pious and festive, I will transcribe here:
Pure little souls, innocent little boys, Scarcely born, they give their little bodies to God who was born; They fight unarmed, and having set aside the small shield, They conquer cohorts which they know not how to strike.
Now more beautiful than lilies and little gems, Now more brilliant than fiery sparks, They soothe the blessed seats with their little voices. The fierce tyrant, of iron breast, Who laid murderous hands upon you, And defiled their steel on your sacred little necks. Alas! so is the little bird taken from the nest, So is the fawn snatched from the mother's teats, And so are the newly born little flowers gathered.
sorrow and detestation. So St. Jerome and Rabanus. Hence it is clear that our conversion begins from God and from the grace of God preventing free will; for the Prophet says: "Convert me, and I shall be converted." So against the Pelagians St. Augustine everywhere teaches, vol. VII, and from him the Council of Trent.
I BORE THE REPROACH OF MY YOUTH — of my wantonness, and of the sins which I committed as a youth. It is a catachresis: for youth is full of desires, ignorance, and sins; or take the days of youth literally as the earlier days, when the covenant of the Jews' marriage with God was still fresh, in the desert under Moses. Or, as Maldonatus says, he calls his youth the entire time in which he had not yet been chastised by God; but like an untamed young bull he did not bear the yoke of obedience.
Verse 18
18. I HAVE HEARD EPHRAIM GOING INTO EXILE. (It is the voice of God concerning Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes in captivity
Verse 20
20. IS EPHRAIM AN HONORABLE SON — the word "if" has the appearance of asking a question, but the force of an assertion. For God responds to the penitent Ephraim, and, as it were, rushes into his embrace, that is to say: "If," that is, is it not the case that, after Ephraim did penance, I have forgotten all the sins of his youth, and have remembered the love with which I once pursued him: and therefore I hold him as a son in esteem, honor, and delight, and, as the Hebrew has it, he is to Me a child of delights; the Chaldean says, a lovable child, whom I always bear in My eyes, mind, and memory? So St. Jerome and Rabanus. Thus St. Magdalene, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Pelagia, St. Paul, St. Matthew as penitents were children of delight to God and Christ. See here what penance accomplishes, namely that sinners formerly hateful to God now become His delight.
THEREFORE MY BOWELS ARE TROUBLED — that is to say: I love him so tenderly that I cannot remember him without My bowels being moved with the deepest compassion.
Verse 21
21. SET UP FOR YOURSELF A WATCHTOWER. — Some think this is said to the Jews going to Babylon, that they should erect stones as markers and watchtowers everywhere along the road by which they are led, so that, as if about to return shortly, they may know the way by which they should return. He calls these same stones "bitternesses," that is, signs of the bitter labor and sorrow which the Hebrews endured when they were led captive along that road to Babylon. So Sanchez and Maldonatus. But the Prophet speaks to Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, who never returned from captivity, as St. Jerome notes. The sense therefore is: "Set up for yourself a watchtower," that is to say: Watch and observe what sin is, how bitter it is to have abandoned the Lord, what present and eternal evils have come to you from it, how happy you were before sin. Hence "lay down for yourself bitternesses," that is, be contrite, grieve, and weep bitterly. Again, observe what was the occasion of your sin and misery, so that you may henceforth avoid it. See St. Gregory, XXXI Moralia, ch. XXXI. Secondly, as St. Jerome says: set up for yourself watchmen (for the Hebrew ציונים tsiunim also means this), who may announce to you beforehand that through Christ such great happiness of all things is coming; and lament your ancient sins,
Such a birth befitted God, that He should be born of none other than a virgin: such a birth also befitted a virgin, that she should give birth to none other than God."
For the miracle of the Incarnation accomplished in her encompasses many miracles within itself. The first is that a virgin conceives with her virginity entirely intact. The second, that the Holy Spirit overshadows the virgin; forms the body of the infant in a moment of time and infuses the wondrous soul. The third, that the body and soul are united with the Person of the Word at the same moment of time. The fourth, that God becomes man. The fifth, that the infant possesses all wisdom. The sixth, that He is conceived without original sin, full of all grace. The seventh, that the infant's most holy soul, as soon as it was created, sees the essence of God, and at the same time offers Himself to God for the cross and death on behalf of mankind. What greater miracles has the world ever seen? It saw of old in the time of Joshua the sun standing still, and in the time of Hezekiah moving backward: but now it sees God emptying Himself. It saw of old the greenness of the bush preserved in fire: now it sees the virginity of the mother preserved in conception. It saw the rod of Aaron suddenly flowering without human cultivation: now it sees the rod of Jesse without human effort bringing forth to the world the desired fruit. It saw the rod of Moses changed into a serpent: here it sees God transformed into a man similar to sinners. It sees the Red Sea opened and divided: here it sees God enclosed in the womb of a virgin. It saw manna raining from heaven: here it sees the Word of the Father descending from heaven into the bosom of the Mother of God. It saw Elijah ascending into heaven: here it sees human nature ascending to the divinity, and being united to the Person of the Eternal Word. Rightly therefore the Church sings to the Mother of God:
You who brought forth, While nature marveled, your holy Begetter.
Finally, St. Thomas, I part, Quest. XXV, art. 6, asks: "Whether God can make better things than He has made?" and responds: "God can make anything He has made simply better:" he excepts however three things in his response to objection 4, namely the Incarnation of Christ, the maternity of the Mother of God, and the beatitude of man. For God cannot make a better man than God-man; nor a better mother than the Mother of God; nor a better beatitude than the vision and possession of God. For "the humanity of Christ," he says, "from the fact that it is united to God; and created beatitude, from the fact that it is the enjoyment of God; and the Blessed Virgin, from the fact that she is the Mother of God, have a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God: and in this respect nothing can be made better than they: just as nothing can be better than God." Behold, this is the new and unheard-of thing in all ages that God created in the Mother of God.
Wherefore St. Ephrem, in his oration On the Praise of the Blessed Virgin, calls her "the most excellent miracle of the world." Others call her "the most sacred wonder, the heavenly prodigy, the miracle of miracles": indeed St. John, Apoc. XII, 1, calls her "a sign
prepare the way for Christ, and make straight His paths, as St. John the Baptist says: for I will make you return straight to your cities, which you left behind as a captive, namely to Samaria, Zion, and Jerusalem — not the earthly, but the spiritual ones; namely to the churches of Christ, which will be erected and established throughout the whole world in every province. Properly also, if you will, return from Assyria to your cities in Samaria, where you will see and rejoice that Christian churches have been erected, flourishing with all spiritual goods; for these were the first to receive the Apostles and Christianity, as is clear from Acts VIII; and therefore above others the Prophet here addresses Ephraim and the Samaritans, and invites them to this joy of His.
Anagogically, by these cities understand the churches and choirs of the just in heaven.
Morally learn here that one who wishes to convert from sin must ascend a watchtower, so that he may raise his mind to heaven, to heavenly and divine things, and from there look down upon this speck of earth and all earthly things that entice to sin: and then lay down bitternesses, that is, inflict sorrow upon his heart, laments and penalties upon his body, so that he may redeem and escape the eternal bitternesses of hell.
Otherwise Lyra takes these as the words of Christ, that is to say: Contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation, and the palms of the Innocent martyrs, which were signs of Christ already born, and direct your heart to the way of My Gospel, in which I, Christ, walked.
DIRECT YOUR HEART INTO THE RIGHT WAY. — St. Augustine truly says in Sentent. no. 245: "The heart is right with God when God is sought for God's sake."
Verse 22
22. HOW LONG WILL YOU BE DISSOLVED IN DELIGHTS? (that is to say: How long, O Ephraim, will you wander through delights and impieties, fleeing from your God, running to the gods and kings of the nations? Consider what I shall say, wherein your blessedness lies, whence the salvation of your misery is to be expected, the liberation from your captivity — not under Shalmaneser, but under the devil. Hear what you have never heard, enter upon a new way and life:) FOR THE LORD HAS CREATED A NEW THING (that is, He will do a new and unheard-of thing, as if a new work of creation, namely the work of the Incarnation and birth of Christ, without male activity. So Rabanus, and this is what follows): A WOMAN SHALL ENCOMPASS (the Arabic says, shall give life to) A MAN. — This new thing encompasses many new and wondrous things, says St. Bernard, homily 2 on the Missus est: "For in it," he says, "length is recognized as short, breadth
a great sign that appeared in heaven." Furthermore St. Fulgentius, in his sermon On the Praises of Blessed Mary: "Her integrity," he says, "increased through childbirth, and her virginity was enlarged rather than banished."
Rightly therefore St. Bernard exclaims, sermon 1 on the Vigil of the Nativity: "O birth alone without pain, alone ignorant of shame, unacquainted with corruption; not opening, but consecrating the temple of the virginal womb! O birth above nature, but for nature, surpassing the excellence of miracle, but restoring by the power of mystery! Brothers, this generation — who shall declare it? The angel announces, the power of the Most High overshadows, the Spirit comes upon her: the Virgin believes, by faith she conceives, the virgin gives birth, the virgin remains: who would not marvel? The Son of the Most High is born, God of God, begotten before the ages, the Word is born an infant: who could even marvel enough?"
Wherefore Francis Mayro, the Parisian Doctor who earned the surname of "the Illuminated," in his sermon On the Annunciation, teaches that the Incarnation is a greater work of God's power than creation. For, he says, the distance between God and man is greater than that between the universe and nothing: for in the Incarnation there is an infinite distance positively between God and man; but in creation, although from the side of the subject an infinite distance is said to exist, because it is made from no subject, nevertheless from the side of the creature produced, which has a finite perfection, the distance is positively finite. Therefore it is a greater thing to make a man into God than to make a being out of nothing. Rightly therefore St. Cyprian, sermon 3 On the Nativity: "O Lord," he says, "how admirable is Your name! Truly You are God, who works wonders. I do not merely admire the stature of this world, nor the stability of the earth, nor the individual days, nor the sun, etc.: I marvel at God in the womb of the Virgin, I marvel at the Almighty in a cradle; I marvel at how flesh adhered to the Word of God, how the incorporeal God put on the covering of our body, etc. Here stupor alone encompasses me, and with Habakkuk I sing: I considered Your works, and I trembled."
These are the new wonders which Jeremiah had predicted: "The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: A woman shall encompass a man." And St. Leo, sermon 2 On the Nativity: "Jesus Christ enters these lowly things, etc., in a new order, by a new birth. In a new order, because He who was invisible in His own nature was made visible in ours; the incomprehensible willed to be comprehended; remaining before all time, He began to exist in time; the Lord of the universe, with the dignity of His majesty veiled, took on the form of a servant: the impassible God did not disdain to be a passible man; and the immortal, to be subject to the laws of death. And He was begotten by a new birth, conceived of a virgin, born of a virgin, without the concupiscence of paternal flesh, without injury to maternal integrity." Wherefore Damascene, sermon 1 On the Nativity, calls the Mother of God "the workshop of miracles," indeed "the abyss." She herself therefore is the marvel of the ages, the wonder of nature, the prodigy of the universe. O new thing, never seen, never heard, never to be seen or heard again! A woman conceives God, gives birth to God, who is a man, indeed
the giant of eternity and immensity, as one extending Himself through all spaces of places and of times, who sustains heaven and earth, indeed encloses them in His palm: nor does God suffer anything, nor is the woman consumed by the rays of the divine majesty, nor is her virginity lost. "This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes," says St. Augustine. Christ was born God of the Father in heaven; the same was born man of His mother on earth; from the immortality of the Father, from the integrity of the mother; of the Father without a mother, of the mother without a father; of the Father without time, of the mother without seed; of the Father the beginning of life, of the mother the end of death; of the Father ordering every day, of the mother consecrating this day, on which a little Child was born for us, and a Son was given to us.
A WOMAN SHALL ENCOMPASS A MAN. — The Chaldean translates: The law, like a woman, shall guard like a rampart a man, that is, the people of Israel, lest they be captured by enemies; but this is a far-fetched invention, as is the interpretation of R. Judah, who in R. Solomon translates: A woman shall be turned into a man — that is, he says, the Synagogue, which was weak like a woman, shall become strong like a man, and like a man shall divide and possess the land of enemies.
Secondly, the Septuagint translates: The Lord has created for you salvation in a new plantation: in your salvation men shall go about; and Theodotion: The Lord has created a new salvation: in the salvation a man shall go about; as if they were saying: The woman, that is, salvation, shall encompass the people of Israel. Now the salvation is Christ the Savior, whom God will cause to be conceived of a virgin, whom all will follow and worship, so that from Him a new plantation may be born, that is, new plants, a new offspring of the faithful.
Thirdly, others translate תסובב tesobeb passively, namely not "shall encompass" but "shall be encompassed": for it is a poel form, which is both passive and active, and they explain it thus, that is to say: By the just and faithful as His spouses, Christ shall be encompassed.
Fourthly, following R. David, Oleaster, in Canon IV of the proem to Genesis, argues from what precedes: "Return, O virgin Israel, return to your cities." The woman, he says, is the Synagogue, which formerly fled from God, but now, converted through Christ, shall follow and embrace Him: but this is not new, because it has happened often. To this pertains the explanation of Sanchez: The woman, that is the Synagogue, which as the spouse of God committed adultery with idols, and therefore was led away from Judea to Babylon, shall again encompass a man, that is, shall return to the bridegroom's house and chamber, that is, to Jerusalem, and shall return to the temple of God.
Fifthly, Calvin explains it thus, that is to say: The Jews, captive and weak like a woman, shall encompass, that is, besiege and prevail against, a man, that is, the Chaldeans. But this too, like a fabrication, is also false: for the Jews did not prevail against the Chaldeans. It is remarkable that Calvin here and elsewhere so acts as the patron of the Jews, and twists these passages from the Christian sense to the Jewish sense. Surely not without reason was a book written against him with this title: Calvin the Judaizer.
For in exactly similar fashion the champion of the modern Jews, R. Abrabanel, explains it: The Synagogue, he says, now weak in the time of the Messiah, shall encompass a man, that is, the Gentile world and all nations, and shall dominate them, who now dominate her; just as a man dominates a woman. But none of these things is new, because they have happened more than once. Nor is any of these things literal, but all are mystical, and largely fabricated by the Jews, to avoid, indeed to overturn, the truth of the letter about the Virgin's childbirth: for it is far different for a woman to encompass a man, than for a woman to be turned into a man, or to dominate a man, or to return to him.
I say therefore plainly and genuinely: "new" — this is a new man, namely God-man, from a new virgin mother, by a new generation, namely without male seed, produced by the sole creation of the Holy Spirit, as is said here, that is to say: A woman, that is, the Blessed Virgin, shall encompass, and enclose in her womb, a man — in Hebrew גבר geber, that is, that strong and mighty man, or hero (whence some read instead of geber, גבר gibbor, that is, strong one) — whom Gabriel both by his name and by his mission announced to the Blessed Virgin. For Gabriel is composed of גבר geber and אל el, and signifies the strength of God, or the strong God. "She shall therefore encompass a man," that is, Christ, who, since He is God, cannot be enclosed in any places or boundaries. Secondly, because although Christ, as man conceived and being born, is in manner, stature, and age an infant, yet from the very first instant of His conception He is a man, perfect in wisdom, grace, and glory. Thirdly, because the child Christ is a strong man, who even then overcame the devil and all enemies, Isaiah IX, 4; for this infant shall be God, mighty, Prince of peace, Father of the world to come: who shall give to the new world a new law, a new covenant, and all things new. So St. Jerome, Rabanus, Hugh, St. Thomas, Lyra, St. Augustine (sermon 9 On Time), St. Cyprian (sermon On the Nativity of the Lord): and this is the common explanation of the Fathers, Interpreters, and orthodox Doctors, indeed also of R. Haccados and other Rabbis, whom a Castro and Galatinus cite, bk. VII, ch. XIV.
Note first: The word "shall encompass" most aptly explains the virginity of Blessed Mary in the conception, that is to say: This woman will not receive the offspring from a man (for she will be a virgin), but she will enclose within herself the gift given from heaven in the manner of a circle, entirely intact and perfect on every side, violated by no breach however small. For this reason in Song of Songs IV, 12, she is called "an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain." Christ therefore is the center, the Virgin the circle.
The same virginity of the Mother of God, from the word "new," R. Haccados and R. Joshua gather, in Galatinus, bk. VII, ch. XIV. For if a woman encompasses a man, that is, a male, it is not new, but an everyday occurrence. But it is new that a virgin should encompass a male. Just as therefore it was new that the first woman, namely Eve, was created from a man, namely from the rib of Adam: so it is even more new that the second Adam, namely Christ the man, was conceived and created from the second woman and virgin, the Mother of God. And so, just as the first virgin (Eve) was formed from the first virgin (Adam): so conversely, the second virgin (Christ) was formed from the second Virgin (Blessed Mary).
In the Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia and antithesis between שובבה scobeba, that is, the one who turns away, the rebellious one, and, as our translator renders it, the wandering daughter of Zion; and תסובב tesobeb, that is, she shall embrace, she shall encompass, as if God were saying: How long, O daughter of Zion, do you turn away from and flee Me, your husband, indeed your God? How long do you wander after idols like a harlot? Behold, from you I will create a daughter and a woman of women, the queen of heaven and earth, who will not flee from Me, your God and husband, but will embrace, as the Syriac translates, and will clasp and encompass Me both with her soul and with her womb. Imitate her — the words of this passage are, as it were, weighed with singular care.
Hear St. Augustine, sermon On the Birthday of the Lord: "The maker of man was made man, so that He who rules the stars might suckle at the breast, that bread might hunger, that the fountain might thirst, that the light might sleep, that the way might be wearied by a journey, that truth might be hidden by false witnesses, that the judge of the living and the dead might be judged by a mortal judge, that justice might be condemned by the unjust, that discipline might be beaten with scourges, that the cluster of grapes might be crowned with thorns, that the foundation might be suspended on a tree, that strength might be weakened, that health might be wounded, that life might die." These are the new and wondrous things enclosed in this sentence: "A woman shall encompass a man."
the Eucharist shall encompass, and truly embrace Christ Himself in His entirety. But this exposition, though new, seems to be not literal but symbolic.
23. THE LORD BLESS YOU — that is to say: The Israelites will come to the Church of Christ, and will pray well for her, saying: O dwelling, or beauty (for the Hebrew word נוה neve signifies both) of justice, O mountain of holiness, may the Lord bless you, that is, multiply your inhabitants, and adorn you with benefits.
Note: It is not the Lord, namely Christ, as St. Jerome, Hugh, and St. Thomas would have it, but the Church through Christ that is called happy here (as Rabanus, Lyra, and Vatablus rightly noted), because she is the dwelling of justice, since in her are Christ and all the just: likewise faith and the Sacraments, which justify — which neither the old law nor any other had. Secondly, she is called the mountain of holiness, that is, of all grace, virtues, and perfection. Thirdly, it is said that in her there is peace and concord among farmers, shepherds, citizens, and all people. These therefore are the fruits of the Incarnation of Christ, or of what He said: "A woman shall encompass a man."
Verse 24
24. AND THEY SHALL DWELL IN IT — in the mountain, that is to say: The Church will be a most spacious place; all people of every order will be able to dwell in it. See Isaiah ch. LIV, 2 ff.
Verse 25
25. I HAVE INEBRIATED THE WEARY SOUL, AND EVERY HUNGRY SOUL I HAVE FILLED. — "Weary," that is, thirsting and hungering for goods and earthly things, says Lyra, or rather, as St. Jerome says, for justice and salvation. "I have inebriated," that is, I will inebriate and fill with heavenly doctrine, grace, and consolation. Whence in Hebrew it reads: I have filled the sorrowful soul, namely with joy, that is, I have comforted it.
Whence R. Elias, in Galatinus, bk. VII, ch. XIV, when asked why the Messiah had delayed His coming for so long, responds that before the Blessed Virgin there were no virgins in Israel from whom He could be born: for all had been corrupted either by husbands or by adulterers. Therefore the Holy Virgin Mary came, to heal the corruption of those virgins, and to draw the Bridegroom of virgins into her womb and into the world. And this is the new thing that the Lord created in her. Let Helvidius therefore depart, along with his followers: Herostratus, to gain eternal fame and renown, set fire by night to the most famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, as Valerius Maximus attests, bk. VIII, ch. XV. So Helvidius, to acquire the name of a new teacher, attempted to destroy by the fire of his heresy not the shrine of the false Diana, but that most sacred temple of the divine Virgin, teaching that she did not remain a virgin in the conception and birth of Christ. Calvin, Luther, and the other Innovators do the same, who assert that two bodies cannot be in the same place so as to penetrate each other, not even by the power of God.
The meaning therefore of this entire passage: "How long will you be dissolved in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing," etc., is, that is to say: It is entirely fitting that all people, having renounced all delights, concupiscences, and sins, should take up a new life, cultivate chastity, and restrain and curb their loose and dissolute way of living by the discipline of the Gospel; when God is about to bring about such a great novelty, as to enclose His Son, made man for the sake of men, in the narrow confines of a virginal womb. Let the proud man restrain himself,
and compress and restrain the loftiness of his spirit, his pride, anger, envy: when God, high and immense, narrowed, lowered, and restricted Himself to the womb of a Virgin and the body of an infant. In the same way let the glutton restrain and curb his gluttony, the lascivious person his lust, the miser his thirst for gold, etc.
And so Jeremiah draws three lessons above all from the mystery of the Incarnation. First, that we must restrain the license of our morals with stricter discipline, since that eternal and immense God enclosed Himself within the womb of a woman for this reason; for this is why He says: "How long will you be dissolved in delights, O wandering daughter?" Second, that we must embrace chastity and purity, despising enticements; since God so loved it that He willed His mother to be a virgin. Third, that we should enter upon a new way of life in every kind of virtue; since God accomplished such a new miracle on our behalf, that a virgin should carry God-man in her womb. For the magnitude of so great a work and benefit — namely, the Incarnation bestowed upon us — demands this.
Finally, Alcazar in the Proem of the Apocalypse, note XIX, nos. 6 and 7, explains these words concerning the truth of the Eucharist, that is to say: "A woman shall encompass a man," that is,
St. Jerome notes that sometimes God, sometimes the people, sometimes Jeremiah is speaking, though without being named; for it is, as it were, a dialogue: here God speaks.
26. THEREFORE I WAS AS ONE AWAKENED FROM SLEEP. — It is the voice either of the people, as St. Jerome would have it, or rather, as Rabanus, Hugh, Lyra, and Vatablus say, of Jeremiah, that is to say: O Lord, You awakened me as from a heavy sleep while I was pondering and grieving over the evils of the people, by cheering me with such joyful promises about Christ, so that henceforth my sleep would be peaceful and sweet.
Vatablus explains it somewhat differently, that is to say: When I saw in a dream that prophecy about the coming Christ, I awoke at once, and the memory of such a dream was most pleasing to me.
Isidore also explains it differently, as the words of Christ, that is to say: So that these good things just spoken of might come to men, therefore I awoke from the sleep of death, and having been raised, I regarded the sleep of My death as brief and sweet.
Verse 27
27. I WILL SOW THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL WITH THE SEED OF MEN AND WITH THE SEED OF BEASTS. — That is, as the Chaldean says: I will multiply Israel with men and beasts, that is to say: I will give the teaching of Christ, adapted and suited to both men, that is, the wise, and to beasts, that is, the unwise; so that the uneducated as well as the learned
may be reborn, nourished, and grow in Christ. So St. Jerome. This is what the Psalmist says: "Men and beasts You will save, O Lord."
Verse 29
29. THE FATHERS HAVE EATEN A SOUR GRAPE. — It is a proverb, signifying that innocent children are punished for the sins not of Adam, but of their other, and specifically their own, parents — which was on the lips of the Jews in captivity. For they thought they were being punished on account of the golden calf, worshipped by their fathers in the desert, and on account of other sins of their parents, especially of Manasseh, IV Kings XXI, 11. So Theodoret. See the comments on Ezek. XVIII, 2.
God here refutes this proverb and promises and ordains that children shall not bear or atone for the crime of their parents, but each shall pay for his own. The ancients hold that this promise pertains to the New Testament and was fulfilled through Christ. So St. Augustine, bk. VI Against Julian, ch. XII; Leo, epistle 84; Gregory, XV Moralia, ch. XXII; Thomas, III, Quest. LXXXI, art. 2, reply 1. Understand this allegorically, and fully and perfectly. For Christ also abolishes in Christians even the original guilt of Adam through baptism. Otherwise, that these things are said literally to the Jews is clear from the very course of the discourse.
Vatablus explains it differently, that is to say: Christians will not accuse their parents, as the Jews do, but will most humbly attribute all their afflictions to themselves and their own sins, saying: "My fault."
Verse 31
31. A NEW COVENANT — a new Testament. By this passage the Jews are refuted, who insist that the old law and Judaism are not to be antiquated, but will last forever. For, as the Apostle says, Heb. VIII, Jeremiah, by saying "new," antiquated the old. Whence the ancient Rabbis cited by Galatinus teach that through the Messiah the law is to be renewed, that is, a new one introduced, namely the Evangelical law; and that the Messiah, in place of corporal and Mosaic circumcision, would introduce the spiritual circumcision of the heart and mind, as Jeremiah says here.
Verse 32
32. IN THE DAY THAT I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND — that is to say: I led Israel out of Egypt, not as a slave, but as a child led by the hand, as a father, and from this departure, on the fiftieth day, namely at Pentecost, I gave him the law, and I entered into a covenant, so that the Jews, mindful of such a great liberation, would keep it exactly.
AND I HAD DOMINION OVER THEM — that is to say: The Jews violated My covenant, even though I offered and promised them that I would be their Lord, and, as the Hebrew has it, their bridegroom and husband: for this is what the Hebrews call בעל baal. Whence Vatablus translates: And I performed the office of a true bridegroom toward them. It can secondly, with St. Jerome, Rabanus, St. Thomas, and Lyra, be translated and explained thus, that is to say: I as Lord punished them, and neglected them, as the Septuagint has it, whom St. Paul follows, Heb. VIII, 9. This is the first difference, says Maldonatus, which he assigns between the New Testament and the Old, namely that the old was made void and abolished, while the new will never be abolished. The second is that in the old covenant God had dominion, that is, He used severity: "For the law
works wrath," Rom. IV, 15, but in the new He will deal benevolently with the faithful in a spirit of love: because He will be appeased by the death of His Son. The third is what follows:
33. THIS SHALL BE THE COVENANT, ETC., I WILL GIVE MY LAW IN THEIR BOWELS. — Note: Just as God entered into the old covenant and pact with the Hebrews at Sinai, Exod. XIX and XXIV, by which He obligated Himself to be the God and protector of the Hebrews and to give them the land of Canaan, under this condition: if the people would obey Him and keep His laws; and that covenant was confirmed in Exod. XXIV with the blood of victims and a common banquet of the parties making the covenant; for Moses and Aaron, in God's place, ate with the people from the covenant victim — Moses being here as it were the herald and mediator between God and the people; in a similar manner and fashion God entered into a new covenant with Christians, whose herald and chief representative is Christ, by which covenant God in the entire Gospel obligates Himself to give Christians His grace, the forgiveness of sins, friendship, adoption as children, every help and assistance for living and acting well, and finally the very inheritance of eternal life, under this condition: if they obey Him, if they receive and observe the faith and law of Christ, which is brief and easy, namely of faith and the Sacraments. Hence it is called new; because it brings new promises, new precepts, new Sacraments, new grace, new life, a new man.
Note secondly: This new covenant Christ both instituted and also confirmed, first and properly, with His blood, making Himself a victim on the cross; secondly, with the banquet of the Eucharist, which He shares with all until the end of the world. Therefore not only on the mountain in that long sermon which Matthew records, ch. V, VI, VII, as Theodoret would have it, but throughout His entire life and throughout the entire Gospel, Christ instituted this covenant: where the parties making the covenant are God and the Apostles and other Christians; Christ is the herald.
Note thirdly: Just as the old covenant was promulgated on Mount Sinai at Pentecost, so the new was promulgated on Zion at Pentecost: and just as in the old the law of Moses was given on tablets of stone, as the condition of the covenant; so in the new the law of Christ was given, but on the tablets of the heart: the former written with a stylus, the latter with the Spirit of the living God; because through Christ grace and charity have been poured into our hearts, namely into our free will, through prevenient, accompanying, and sanctifying grace. Therefore free will is not abolished here, as Calvin would have it, but is entirely presupposed in the word "free"; and because, as I said, this covenant, like any other, requires a condition on our part, namely that we freely obey God who calls us, and cooperate with His grace, pursue justice, and persevere in it, if we wish to attain the heavenly inheritance. Therefore just as Moses descended from Sinai to the people, carrying the tablets of the law, so the Apostles descended from Zion to all nations, carrying in their minds the Holy Spirit and His doctrines and gifts, and proposed and communicated these to them.
Thirdly, St. Jerome explains it thus, that is to say: A man shall not teach his neighbor that there is one God, and that idols are not to be worshipped: for all will know this in the new law; whereas in the old, the Gentiles, and even the Jews often, worshipped idols.
Fourthly, St. Thomas explains it, that is to say: In the new law they will not seek Jewish or philosophical teachers, nor philosophical arguments, in order to arrive at the knowledge of God; but they will go to Sacred Scripture, the Apostles, and similar divine teachers and heralds.
Fifthly, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, in their commentary on Heb. ch. VIII, and St. Augustine, On the Grace of Christ, ch. XII, explain it thus, that is to say: Such will be the ease and grace of the Evangelical law, that great labor will not be needed to learn the things necessary for salvation; to such a degree that even children, as we see, immediately grasp them: because the precepts will be few, and the great illumination of God the teacher will be added. And this is what Jeremiah chiefly means to say, namely that so great will be the illumination of the Holy Spirit in the new law, and so ready His impulse to believe, hope, and love, that the external preaching of the faith, compared to that internal voice of the Holy Spirit, will seem to be little and almost nothing; yet it is clear that the external is also required: because for this God has placed pastors and teachers in the Church, Eph. IV, 11. Similar is I John ch. II, 27, where see St. Augustine.
Note: "They shall know" — that is, they shall properly come to know, and having known, they shall worship, fear, and love Him. It is a metalepsis. Wherefore St. Jerome rightly says here: "The knowledge of the one God is the possession of all virtues." Again, Aeschylus: "He is wise who knows fruitful things, not many things." And Lactantius, bk. II of the Institutions: "Sometimes the common people are wiser: because they know as much as is needed." And Seneca, epistle 89: "To want to know more than is enough is a kind of intemperance."
Note here four good things which God promises in the New Testament: for He promises first, that He will give and inscribe His law in our hearts; second, that He will be our God, and we will be His people; third, that all shall know the Lord; fourth, that He will be propitious to our sins.
I WILL GIVE. — Note: The thing which God promised us in His new covenant and testament is the Holy Spirit, or the law of grace and charity, breathed into and inscribed upon the mind. Whence St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. XXI: "What are these other laws," he says, "written by God in the hearts, if not the very presence of the Holy Spirit?" Conversely, in the old covenant the law written on tablets was not the thing promised, but the condition of the covenant. But note here: God does not by Himself alone write the Holy Spirit in the heart and mind, as He alone wrote the old law on tablets of stone; but He requires the consent and cooperation of free will, and this is the condition of the covenant, both new and old.
God therefore now inscribes His law and counsels not in books or tablets, or on fringes, as formerly among the Jews, but upon the very mind and intellect of Christians, when He imprints upon them faith and prudence in what is to be done, and frequent illuminations and inspirations, by which He shows the mind how beautiful is the law of Christ, how useful, divine, sweet, how base sin is, how easy penance, how pleasant a pious and Christian life is. Secondly, He inscribes these things upon the memory; when He imprints and refreshes the memory of these things in the person. Thirdly, He inscribes these things upon the heart and will, when He infuses into them pious affections, desires, impulses, readiness, and finally charity toward the law of God, so that the will says: "Lord, give what You command, and command what You will." So St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. XVII ff.
Verse 34
34. A MAN SHALL NOT TEACH HIS NEIGHBOR. — Not as if the private spirit of each person were the judge of controversies of faith and the rule of what is to be done: for this cannot be seen or known by others; and everyone will say that he has this spirit, and so in the Church there would be the utmost confusion and dissension, as we experience more and more every day among the Lutherans and Calvinists, indeed among the Calvinists themselves in Holland and elsewhere. This spirit therefore is not of God, but of the devil; inasmuch as, being contrary to himself, he cuts apart and tears the Church which is one, and from one Church makes a thousand, mutually contrary and conflicting.
First therefore, St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, ch. XXIV, explains it thus, that is to say: In heaven no one will teach another, because all will see all things in God. But the Prophet speaks of the grace of the New Testament, which is given to the faithful in this life, not in heaven.
Secondly, St. Ambrose in his commentary on Heb. ch. VIII thinks Jeremiah is speaking of the Apostles: for they were instructed not by man, but by Christ, and by God. But this too is too narrow.
Verse 35
35. WHO GIVES THE SUN FOR THE LIGHT (for a light, that is, for illumination) OF THE DAY, THE ORDER OF THE MOON AND STARS FOR THE LIGHT OF THE NIGHT — that is to say: God who has ordained for the moon and stars that they move and rise in a fixed order and law, to illuminate the night.
WHO STIRS UP THE SEA — who makes the sea roar, so that it rages with waves. In Hebrew it reads: who cleaves or divides the sea: for by its waves it seems, as it were, to be cleft. Otherwise Vatablus says: Who divided, he says, the Red Sea, so that, with Moses as leader, the Hebrews might cross and the Egyptians be drowned, Exodus XIV. God, I say, says and promises what follows:
Verse 36
36. IF THESE ORDINANCES SHALL FAIL — namely, the laws of nature, that is, the fixed motion of the sun, moon, and the agitation, waves, and flow of the sea, that is to say: If I keep a constant order in natural things, much more so in supernatural ones; and sooner
and Vilalpando, On the City and the Temple, part I, book I, ch. IX. The valley of dead bodies is the valley where the Assyrians were slain by the Angel in the time of Sennacherib, and their corpses lay prostrate there, IV Kings XIX. So the Chaldean. Or rather, according to Adrichomius and Vilalpando cited above: The valley of dead bodies is that which lies between Golgotha, or Mount Calvary, and the walls of Jerusalem, so called because the corpses, bones, and ashes of those who had been put to death or burned at Golgotha were thrown there. Whence also the cross of Christ and the bodies of the crucified thieves were cast down into this valley, and afterwards were covered over with the refuse of the city. For this reason St. Helena labored to unearth and find the cross there.
The valley of ashes (for so it should be read with the Roman editions, not "ashes" in the nominative, as the Plantin Bibles and others read) was the one into which the ashes of the altar and of the sacrifices were cast, say Theodoret and Vilalpando; which seems to have been the Kidron valley, namely near the torrent of Kidron, and near Zion and the temple: for the temple was surrounded like a moat, says Adrichomius. The entire region of death, that is, Golgotha, and the places near it, which were places of execution, say Maldonatus and Vilalpando (the Hebrew interpreter reads the words separately, thus: שדי מות sede mavet; but they now read it as one word, שדמות sedemot, that is, all the plains) — extending to the torrent of Kidron. The horse gate was the gate of the fountain and waters between Zion and Moriah, placed in the chasm of Millo toward the east. It was called the gate of the fountain and waters because it opened access to the waters and the fountain of Siloam; it was called the horse gate because near it was the king's stable, says Vilalpando, or, as Adrichomius says, because horses were led through it to the torrent of Kidron for watering. This gate also led into the Valley of Gehenna. Therefore all these places are near Jerusalem; through which Jeremiah here signifies that Jerusalem was to be enlarged.
shall perish, than that the seed of Israel, that is, the faithful people and the Christian Church, should fail.
37. IF THEY CAN BE MEASURED — that is to say: Just as no man can comprehend the height and magnitude of the heavens, or penetrate the depth of the earth, so it will never happen that I cast off all Israel for the iniquities which they have committed; indeed, on account of Christ, I will already restore the Apostles and some others from Israel, and at the end of the world, all the Israelites, to Myself and to themselves, to salvation and to the Church.
38. FROM THE TOWER OF HANANEEL (that is to say: The city of Jerusalem will be built after the return from Babylon, from the tower of Hananeel, about which see Esdras, bk. II, ch. III, 1) TO THE GATE OF THE CORNER. — That was the gate of Benjamin, which was called the gate of the corner because it was in the corner of the city. So Theodoret and St. Thomas. But it is clear from Esdras and Josephus that that rebuilding was modest, and did not encompass the places that will follow: whence the Jews expect a Messiah who will accomplish this.
Secondly, Lyra explains it thus, that is to say: The Emperor Hadrian will rebuild Jerusalem, having expelled the Jews and admitted the Christians, and will include Gareb and Goatha, that is, Mount Calvary, within the walls of the city, as the author On Hebrew Places testifies that Hadrian actually did, in Acts of the Apostles, which is found in vol. III, also St. Jerome and St. Gregory, homily 39 on the Gospel. Indeed, that Mount Calvary is now situated almost in the very middle of the city of Jerusalem was assured to me in Rome by the Reverend Father Joannes Marietus, who in recent years surveyed Judea and the neighboring regions. The same can be seen in the chorography of the Holy Land and of modern Jerusalem, which Bernardinus Amicus the Franciscan published in Rome.
Note therefore first, that Jeremiah here symbolically describes the restoration from captivity and the enlargement of Jerusalem; whence he says: "The measuring line shall go out further" (so the Roman text), that is to say: The measuring cord with which they customarily measure the streets and buildings to be constructed will be extended beyond the usual limit, so that the city may become larger.
Secondly, Gareb is a hill situated near Jerusalem to the north; so Adrichomius from St. Jerome: Goatha is Golgotha, where Christ, as though a criminal and sacrilegious person, was crucified. So Adrichomius
Thirdly, he does not understand these things of Jerusalem itself, as is clear from what was said at the beginning of the chapter, and from verses 15, 22, 31, especially because Jerusalem with its temple was laid waste and desolated by Titus and Hadrian, and will remain desolate until the end of the world, as Daniel predicted, ch. IX, 26 and 27. Under Jerusalem therefore, and its neighboring places, he understands the Christian Church, of which the former was a type; for he has treated of the Church throughout this entire chapter, that is to say: In every direction to all nations
the Church will be enlarged, and will be like a most spacious city, just as if Jerusalem were enlarged so that it would encompass with its walls Gareb, Goatha, and all the plains as far as Kidron, namely the valley of dead bodies, the valley of ashes, and the entire region that was called the region of death. Although this place was previously polluted and given over to an impious religion, nevertheless in the new structure of the Church, just as its other parts, it will be called "the Holy of the Lord" — in Hebrew, holiness to the Lord — that is, a holy thing, and as it were a holy temple consecrated to the Lord, which will never be destroyed, but will stand forever. Thus Zechariah ch. XIV, 10, and Isaiah ch. LIV, 11, speak of the Church as though of the streets and places of Jerusalem. Lyra explains the phrase "it shall be called the Holy of the Lord" of the sepulcher of Christ, which to this day remains in honor as something holy. But this is too narrow an interpretation, though the Prophet does among other things allude to it. For Mount Calvary, and upon it the sepulcher of Christ, were adorned with a magnificent temple and enclosed therein by Helena, the mother of Constantine. Whence to this temple the faithful from the whole world make pilgrimage for religion's sake, and all Christians of Jerusalem wished to be buried there. There exist in that same place the tombs of Godfrey of Bouillon, who recovered the Holy Land, and was the first among Christians to be crowned king of Jerusalem, and of his brother Baldwin, who succeeded Godfrey in the kingdom, and whose epitaph may still be read, inscribed in uncial letters on marble, as Bernardinus Amicus reports in his Description of the Holy Land and Modern Jerusalem, printed at Rome in the year of Christ 1609.
King Baldwin, another Judas Maccabaeus, Hope of his country, strength of the Church, the virtue of both, Whom they feared, to whom they bore gifts as tribute, Kedar, Egypt, Dan, and murderous Damascus, Alas! is enclosed in this small tomb.
Fourth, St. Jerome, Rabanus, St. Thomas, and Hugh want these names to be taken appellatively, that is to say: The Church will be built from the tower of Hananeel, that is, of obedience, or of the grace of God, that is, from the Apostles full of the Holy Spirit, to the gate of the corner, that is, to the joining of Jews and Gentiles; upon the hill of Gareb, that is, of scab, so that it may embrace sinners infected with the scab of sin, and "it shall compass Goatha," that is, its bellowing, so that it may embrace penitents bellowing with contrition: "and the whole valley of dead bodies," that is, all the faithful given over to the flesh; "and of ashes," that is, those who, having turned from the flesh to the spirit, sprinkle ashes on their heads, "and the entire region of death" — of sins — which extends "to the torrent of Kidron," that is, of darkness, and to "the corner of the eastern horse gate," so that it may embrace those who, like horses, compete and rush toward difficult things, that is to say: The Church will embrace all the faithful — both sinners and penitents, both the just and the perfect. See St. Jerome. But this interpretation is more mystical than literal. Finally, if anyone wishes to fully satisfy a Jew who stubbornly insists that all these things must be taken literally as they sound concerning earthly Jerusalem, let him concede that it is so; but let him add that this is to be fulfilled at the end of the world shortly before the second coming of the Messiah, that is, of Christ, for judgment. So Thomas Malvenda, bk. XI On the Antichrist, ch. IX, takes these things as they sound concerning earthly Jerusalem, and holds that it will be rebuilt by the Jews in the time of the Antichrist with such great extent that it will reach all these boundaries which Jeremiah assigns. Where note that by this reasoning and response most of the arguments of the Jews can be satisfied, if namely we say that the prophecies from the Scriptures promising the restoration of Israel, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the redemption and salvation of the Jews, are to be taken and fulfilled as they sound at the second coming of the Messiah, that is, of Christ — which the Jews think will be the first, because they deny that Christ has come. In this therefore consists all their error and dissension from Christians: that they deny the first coming of Christ, and think that His second coming will be the first, and therefore they interpret the Scriptures that speak of the second coming of Christ as referring to the first; because they deny the first, and think that Christ has not yet come to earth.
Moreover, that the Prophets speak of the second coming of Christ is clear from the circumstances, which indicate that they are treating of the end of the world, the judgment, the resurrection, etc.