Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Jeremiah prophesies that Jerusalem is to be delivered to the Chaldeans besieging it. King Zedekiah therefore, to appease God, entered into a covenant with the people to observe God's law, and decreed that according to the law of Exodus 21:1, each person should release his male and female servants free in the seventh year (which was therefore formerly called the year of liberty, in memory and gratitude for the liberation from Egypt). The people promised and did this: soon the siege was lifted; for Nebuchadnezzar withdrew to meet the Egyptians who were coming against him to help the Jews, as is said in Chapter 37:4. The Jews, now free from fear, again driven by greed, reduced back into servitude the slaves they had released, against the law and their own promise. Hence Jeremiah rebukes them and threatens the return of the Chaldeans: for after the Egyptians were routed, the Chaldeans returned in the 9th year of Zedekiah, and in the 11th year they captured Jerusalem.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 34:1-22
So Theodoret, Hugo, Lyranus, St. Thomas, and others. It is commonly said: When the Devil was sick, he wanted to be a monk: But when he recovered, he remained as he was before. Thus here the Jews and many others, when they feel the rod of God, promise everything; when it is withdrawn, they return to their former vices. Furthermore, let cities and commonwealths afflicted by God with war, famine, or pestilence note how they should avert this scourge; namely by repenting, correcting the sins on account of which it is sent, changing their lives, and especially devoting themselves to works of charity and mercy. For thus the Hebrews besieged here, by granting freedom to their slaves, escaped the siege and servitude of the Chaldeans: but when they again recalled them into servitude, they themselves soon fell into the servitude and tyrannical yoke of the Chaldeans. Let preachers suggest and impress this upon the faithful in times of public calamity.
Verse 1
1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under the power of his hand, and all peoples fought against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying: 2. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and say to him: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. 3. And you shall not escape from his hand, but you shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand: and your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with your mouth, and you shall enter Babylon. 4. Yet hear the word of the Lord, Zedekiah king of Judah: Thus says the Lord to you: You shall not die by the sword, 5. but you shall die in peace, and according to the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall burn for you: and "Alas, Lord," they shall mourn for you: for I have spoken the word, says the Lord. 6. And Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem. 7. And the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that remained, against Lachish and against Azekah: for these remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. 8. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem, proclaiming: 9. that each should release his male servant and each his female servant, Hebrew man and Hebrew woman, free: and that no one should lord it over them, that is, over a Jew and brother. 10. Therefore all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant heard that each should release his male servant and each his female servant free, and no longer lord it over them: they heard therefore and released them. 11. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the male and female servants whom they had released free, and subjugated them as male and female slaves. 12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 13. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: 14. When seven years have been completed, let each release his Hebrew brother who was sold to him and has served you six years; and you shall release him from you as a free man: and your fathers did not listen to Me, nor did they incline their ear. 15. And today you turned and did what is right in My eyes, so that you proclaimed liberty, each to his neighbor: and you entered into a covenant in My sight, in the house upon which My name was invoked. 16. And you turned back and defiled My name: and each took back his male servant and each his female servant, whom you had released to be free and at their own disposal: and you subjugated them to be your male and female slaves. 17. Therefore thus says the Lord: You have not listened to Me, to proclaim liberty each to his brother and each to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine: and I will make you a cause of commotion to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18. And I will give the men who transgress My covenant and have not observed the words of the covenant to which they assented in My sight — the calf which they cut in two and passed between its parts: 19. the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf: 20. and I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their life: and their corpses shall be food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth. 21. And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes I will give into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, who have withdrawn from you. 22. Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and I will bring them back into this city, and they shall fight against it and capture it and burn it with fire: and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation, so that there is no inhabitant.
1. When Nebuchadnezzar. — This first siege of Jerusalem seems to have occurred in the 8th year of Zedekiah, for in the 9th year Nebuchadnezzar returned and continued it until the 11th year of Zedekiah, when he captured it, Jeremiah 39:1 and Chapter 52:4; therefore the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar was the seventh year of liberty and remission, as is clear from verses 9 and 14. You will say: The first year of Zedekiah was the fourth year of the week of sabbatical years, as I said in Chapter 28:1; therefore the seventh year, or sabbatical year, was the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, not the eighth. I respond: That is true according to the correct and legitimate reckoning, or according to the style of the old Calendar, but not of the new: for since these seventh years had been neglected and not observed for many lustra and perhaps centuries, Zedekiah, recalling them here, began them from the beginning of his reign, especially with the pressure of imminent captivity, as I shall say at verse 14.
Verse 5
5. In peace — not by violent but by natural death; otherwise he did not die in peace who died in captivity. According to the burnings of your fathers, etc., they shall burn for you. — Thus the Gentiles burned the corpses of their dead, as Virgil says of Misenus, Aeneid Book VI. The Jews likewise did this for Saul, 1 Samuel 31:12, and for Zedekiah here, as the words of the text indicate. Second, and better, others translate from the Hebrew: they shall burn for you, namely aromatics. So Hugo, Lyranus, Vatablus, Isidore, and a Castro: for that aromatics were customarily placed upon and burned with the corpses of kings is clear from 2 Chronicles Chapter 16:14 and Chapter 21:19. Namely, the aromatics signified that the king's life had been praiseworthy, and that he had refreshed all with the odor of a grateful reputation. So now flowers and garlands are given to deceased maidens and doctors, and are placed upon their tombs. And according to this meaning our Interpreter seems to be explained, as if to say: "They shall burn you," that is, over you; that is, they shall suffice for you, says Maldonatus. Or "you": because your body in the burning of the aromatics will also be touched by the fire and as it were singed, and by this very fact he will be said to have been burned, inasmuch as aromatics were burned over his funeral. Thus, says Sanchez, the Spaniards say they "ate the dead man" when they have eaten at the funeral banquet of the dead man. For David, Solomon, and other deceased kings are not read to have been burned but buried: so the Hebrews and Latins.
Conversely, Asa the king, 2 Chronicles 16:14, is said to have been buried, but first placed on a bed with aromatics and ointments, which "they burned over him with exceedingly great ceremony." Where R. Kimchi and other Hebrews report that not only aromatics but also beds, garments, and other furnishings were customarily burned, lest they be used by anyone who was not of royal descent. The same was noted by Hieronymus Magius, Book III of Miscellanies, Chapter 11. The Jews seem in this matter to have imitated the Gentiles, who cast aromatics, arms, garments, and their most precious things onto the funeral pyre of the deceased, as Suetonius writes that the soldiers did for Caesar's funeral rites. Except that the Jews, on account of their faith and hope in the resurrection, burned only the aromatics and furnishings, not the bodies.
Hear Plutarch concerning Cato the Younger at the funeral of his brother Caepio: "When he had already learned that his brother was dead, he seemed to bear it more heavily than befitted a philosopher. For not only with lamentations and mourning, but with immoderate expense for the funeral, and with exquisite incense and precious garments, he cremated the body." And Tacitus, Annals Book III, concerning the funeral of Germanicus: "And as they passed through the colonies, the common people in mourning clothes and the knights in their robes, according to the resources of the place, burned garments, incense, and other funeral rites." From the same custom, Herodotus, Book III, reports that Periander burned the garments of all the Corinthian women in honor of his deceased wife.
Cicero, in Book II of De Legibus, calls this casting of perfumes onto the pyre "a costly sprinkling," and asserts it was prohibited by the Law of the Twelve Tables. Pliny, Book XII, Chapter 18: "Those skilled in such matters, he says, assert that Arabia does not produce as much incense in a year's yield as Nero burned on the last day of his Poppaea." Valerius Maximus, Book V, Chapter 1: "Caesar also had the head of Pompey cremated with the most numerous and most precious perfumes." Cynthia in Propertius, Book IV: Why did my flames not smell of nard? Statius, Silvae Book II, on the pyre of Glaucias: Why should I speak of the funeral rites and the gifts lavish to the flames? And the funeral burning with mournful luxury? That the sad pyre grew for you with an endless heap? The flowers of Cilicia, the gifts of Indian grass, etc. In the same work, on the parrot of Melior: The ashes are burned with Assyrian cardamom And Sicilian saffron: and the phoenix, not weary with idle age, More fortunate ascends the perfumed fires. In the same work, in the Funeral Poem of Piletus Ursus: The flame exhausted the fragrant Sabaean incense, And the harvests of Cilicia, and cinnamon taken from the Pharian bird, And juices flowing from the Assyrian plant.
"Alas, Lord," they shall mourn for you. — Those mourning kings and princes would say hoi adon, that is "Alas, Lord": but those mourning private persons would say hoi ach, "Alas, brother," or "Alas, sister," as is clear from 2 Kings Chapter 3, verse 10. For although kings, on account of their equal royal dignity, would call each other brothers, as Sanchez rightly proves here; nevertheless at the funeral of kings, other kings were rarely present who might mourn them and address them as brothers.
Moreover, the formula of the lamentation for Zedekiah is thus described by the Hebrews in their chronology, which they call Seder Olam, that is, The Series, or History of the World: "Zedekiah has perished, and they established this lamentation for him: Alas! for King Zedekiah has died, drinking the dregs of all ages," that is, atoning for the sins of former centuries: for he was the last king of Judah. So Genebrardus explains it there.
at the funeral of kings, other kings were rarely present who might mourn them and address them as brothers. 8. King Zedekiah made a covenant — between himself and his people and God, promising that they would worship God and observe His law. He names especially the law of the remission of the seventh year, both because that year was the present one, and because it was more pertinent to the matter at hand. For they manumitted their slaves according to the law, so that they themselves might not fall into the servitude of the Chaldeans. Proclaiming — announcing by the voice of a herald.
Verse 14
14. When seven years have been completed. — "Completed" means begun to be completed: for at the beginning of the seventh year, or certainly during it and not yet completed, the slaves were to be released free; whence the Septuagint translate: "When six years have been completed." Thus Luke 2:21 says: "After eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child," that is, when the days were completed and the eighth day appointed for circumcision had arrived.
Verse 15
15. That you proclaimed liberty, each to his neighbor (that is, to his fellow) — that is, to their neighbors, namely to their Hebrew male and female servants: for Gentiles did not enjoy this law and liberty. So Pagninus, Vatablus, and others, who accordingly translate: That each should proclaim liberty to his brother; others: to his fellow, that is, to the masters, as if to say: The masters mutually encouraged each other to manumit servants according to God's law.
Verse 16
16. You have defiled My name — you have disgraced it, violating My law and covenant, as if it were a worthless thing, changeable and violable at will. St. Bernard says excellently in his Sentences: "Before God, neither leprous obedience nor dog-like patience avails.
That they should be free and at their own disposal. — The Hebrew: You released them to their own soul, that is, with their soul, that is, you left and restored them to liberty.
Verse 17
17. I proclaim liberty for you. — He plays ironically, as if to say: You released your servants free to their liberty, but you recalled it and violated it; hence I will manumit you, so that you are no longer My servants, and you will be free, not to go where you wish; but abandoning you and exposing you to enemies, I will permit you to go to the sword, pestilence, and famine, and that these, as your new lords and masters, may freely rage against you. So St. Thomas; see Chapter 15:2. Second, R. David explains, as if to say: I proclaim for you, that is, against you, liberty to your enemies, so that they may subject you to servitude. Third, Maldonatus: I proclaim liberty, that is, servitude and captivity, so that it is an antiphrasis. But the first meaning is plain and genuine.
Into commotion. — The Hebrew and Septuagint: into dispersion, that you may wander like vagabonds, unstable, fearful, and trembling like Cain, and be scattered throughout the whole world as wanderers. So Theodoret, Lyranus, Hugo, Maldonatus. Otherwise Vatablus and Dionysius, as if to say: That all may be moved, either with fear or with compassion, at the sight of your calamity. Otherwise others, as if to say: "Into commotion," namely of the head, that is, into derision.
Verse 18
18. The calf which they cut. — These words can be taken in two ways. First, "I will give the men, etc., the calf," that is, like a calf, so that, just as this calf was divided, so they themselves may be divided and scattered through various kingdoms. So Maldonatus. Sanchez adds, as if to say: I will make you the calf which you cut, that is, I will make you appear in that condition in which a calf is cut up and torn apart. You will be subjected to the enemy's knife, and scattered far and wide through the expanses of various kingdoms. This is clear from verse 20. Second, and more aptly, so that the calf refers to "they did not observe," and by the calf is understood the covenant made with God, confirmed by the slaying of a calf, both here and in Exodus Chapter 24:5, so that it is a metonymy and catachresis. So St. Thomas, Lyranus, Dionysius. Whence Vatablus translates: having cut the calf into two parts.
Note here with Theodoret, St. Thomas, and others, the ancient custom of both the Hebrews and other nations of ratifying covenants through a victim, namely a calf: for by slaying it and dividing it into two parts and passing through the middle, they called down upon themselves death and a similar cutting to pieces if they should violate the covenant. On which matter I said more at Genesis 15:10 and Exodus 24:8. 20. And I will give — I will give, I say. And their corpse shall be — that is, the body of one killed: otherwise a "corpse" properly speaking is a dead body that has died without violence, spontaneously and naturally.
Verse 22
22. I will command — the Chaldeans, to return to the siege: "I command" means I permit, arrange, direct them to return for the destruction of Jerusalem. For the Hebrew tsavah signifies every ordinance and providence of God, whether commanding, arranging, or permitting. Thus God here commanded, that is, first, He arranged all things: for example, by favoring the affairs of the Chaldeans, giving them an easy and swift victory against the Egyptians, adding to them strength and courage, suggesting to their minds that the capture of Jerusalem, besieged and exhausted for so many years, would be easy, etc.; by all of which it came about that the Chaldeans of their own accord returned to besiege and capture it, which was what God intended in this entire series of His providence and ordering: hence second, He commanded, that is, He arranged and directed this return of the Chaldeans toward His just vengeance, so that by this means, through them, He might punish and chastise the impious and covenant-breaking Jews.
Thus God is said to have commanded the ravens to feed Elijah, meaning He arranged and gave them the instinct to bring bread to Elijah. Thus God is said to have commanded, that is, directly permitted, the cursing of Shimei, and to have directed it toward the punishment of David's adultery and murder. A just and fitting punishment of the Jews therefore was that, just as they had recalled their slaves into servitude against the law, so in turn God would recall the Chaldeans to besiege and devastate them.
With a similar and equally just antithesis, St. Chrysostom said, Homily 2 on John: "It is ridiculous that we wish our little servants to be always occupied in our affairs, but we ourselves offer no service to God, especially when all our service contributes nothing to Him." Wherefore by a fitting and just judgment of God it often happens that those who serve God sluggishly, tardily, and disobediently, also find their own servants sluggish, tardy, disobedient, and rebellious in their service. So that there is no (that is, so that there will be no) inhabitant.