Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Rupert and Hugo think that in this chapter Jeremiah mourns the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Romans, because in the last verse he gives the cause, namely, that they killed Christ. Second, the Hebrews, Lyranus, and Dionysius think he mourns the death of Josiah, the best of kings, which was the cause of the ruin and destruction of the Jews; because impious sons succeeded him, who by their impiety overturned the commonwealth, and so in the last verse they take 'Christ' as referring to Josiah. Third, Paul of Burgos judges that the Prophet mourns the overthrow of the temple and divine worship. Fourth, and more probably, Theodoret, Hugo, Bonaventure, and Dionysius judge that he mourns the fall of the city and temple, and of the whole people, especially the noble youths (verse 2), the nurslings (verse 3), the Nazirites (verse 7), the women cooking their children (verse 10), from a state so happy into one so miserable and wretched: and this first and properly through the destruction by the Chaldeans, then through the destruction by the Romans. Thence, in verse 20, he incidentally turns to Christ, and in verse 21, he threatens Idumaea with calamity, and consoles the Jews with the hope of a better lot.
Tropologically he deplores the fall of the faithful soul, and the ruin through sin, which is much more pitiable than the catastrophe of Jerusalem.
First, Rupert and Hugh think that in this chapter Jeremiah bewails the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Romans, because he gives its cause in the last verse, namely, that they killed Christ. Second, the Hebrews, Lyranus, and Dionysius think that he bewails the death of Josiah, the best of kings, which was the cause of the ruin and destruction of the Jews; because impious sons succeeded him, who by their impiety overthrew the state, and so in the last verse they take "Christ" to mean Josiah. Third, Paul of Burgos judges that the Prophet bewails the overthrow of the temple and divine worship. Fourth, and more probably, Theodoret, Hugh, Bonaventure, and Dionysius judge that he mourns the fall of the city and temple, and of the whole people, especially the noble youths (v. 2), the nursing infants (v. 3), the Nazirites (v. 7), the women who cooked their children (v. 10), from so happy a state to one so wretched and miserable: and this first and properly through the destruction by the Chaldeans, then through the destruction by the Romans. Then in verse 20, he digresses briefly to Christ, and in verse 21, he threatens calamity upon Edom, and consoles the Jews with hope of a better lot.
Tropologically, he bewails the fall of the faithful soul, and its ruin through sin, which is far more pitiable than the destruction of Jerusalem.
Vulgate Text: Threni 4:1-22
1. HOW IS THE GOLD BECOME DIM! HOW IS THE MOST FINE COLOR CHANGED! THE STONES OF THE SANCTUARY ARE SCATTERED IN THE TOP OF EVERY STREET! 2. THE NOBLE SONS OF ZION, CLOTHED WITH THE FINEST GOLD: HOW ARE THEY ESTEEMED AS EARTHEN VESSELS, THE WORK OF THE HANDS OF THE POTTER! 3. EVEN THE SEA MONSTERS DRAW OUT THE BREAST, THEY GIVE SUCK TO THEIR YOUNG ONES: THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE IS BECOME CRUEL, LIKE THE OSTRICHES IN THE WILDERNESS. 4. THE TONGUE OF THE SUCKING CHILD CLEAVES TO THE ROOF OF HIS MOUTH FOR THIRST: THE YOUNG CHILDREN ASK BREAD, AND NO MAN BREAKS IT UNTO THEM. 5. THEY THAT DID FEED DELICATELY HAVE PERISHED IN THE STREETS: THEY THAT WERE BROUGHT UP IN SCARLET HAVE EMBRACED DUNGHILLS. 6. AND THE INIQUITY OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE IS BECOME GREATER THAN THE SIN OF SODOM, THAT WAS OVERTHROWN IN A MOMENT, AND NO HANDS TOOK HOLD OF HER. 7. HER NAZIRITES WERE PURER THAN SNOW, WHITER THAN MILK, MORE RUDDY THAN OLD IVORY, MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN SAPPHIRE. 8. THEIR VISAGE IS BLACKER THAN COALS; THEY ARE NOT KNOWN IN THE STREETS: THEIR SKIN CLEAVES TO THEIR BONES; IT IS WITHERED, IT IS BECOME LIKE WOOD. 9. THEY THAT ARE SLAIN WITH THE SWORD ARE BETTER THAN THEY THAT ARE SLAIN WITH HUNGER: FOR THESE PINE AWAY, CONSUMED BY THE BARRENNESS OF THE LAND. 10. THE HANDS OF THE PITIFUL WOMEN HAVE BOILED THEIR OWN CHILDREN: THEY WERE THEIR FOOD IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE. 11. THE LORD HAS ACCOMPLISHED HIS FURY; HE HAS POURED OUT HIS FIERCE ANGER, AND HAS KINDLED A FIRE IN ZION, AND IT HAS DEVOURED THE FOUNDATIONS THEREOF. 12. THE KINGS OF THE EARTH, AND ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD, WOULD NOT HAVE BELIEVED THAT THE ADVERSARY AND THE ENEMY SHOULD HAVE ENTERED INTO THE GATES OF JERUSALEM. 13. FOR THE SINS OF HER PROPHETS, AND THE INIQUITIES OF HER PRIESTS, THAT HAVE SHED THE BLOOD OF THE JUST IN THE MIDST OF HER. 14. THEY HAVE WANDERED AS BLIND MEN IN THE STREETS, THEY HAVE BEEN DEFILED WITH BLOOD: AND WHEN THEY COULD NOT HELP IT, THEY HELD THEIR SKIRTS. 15. DEPART, YOU POLLUTED, THEY CRIED UNTO THEM: DEPART, DEPART, TOUCH NOT: WHEN THEY QUARRELED AND WERE STIRRED UP, THEY SAID AMONG THE NATIONS: THEY SHALL NO MORE SOJOURN AMONG THEM. 16. THE ANGER OF THE LORD HAS DIVIDED THEM; HE WILL NO MORE REGARD THEM: THEY RESPECTED NOT THE PERSONS OF THE PRIESTS, THEY FAVORED NOT THE ELDERS. 17. WHILE AS YET WE STOOD, OUR EYES FAILED LOOKING FOR OUR VAIN HELP: WHEN WE LOOKED ATTENTIVELY FOR A NATION THAT COULD NOT SAVE US. 18. OUR STEPS WERE SLIPPERY IN THE STREETS OF OUR WAYS, OUR END DREW NEAR: OUR DAYS WERE ACCOMPLISHED, FOR OUR END WAS COME. 19. OUR PERSECUTORS WERE SWIFTER THAN THE EAGLES OF THE HEAVEN: THEY PURSUED US UPON THE MOUNTAINS, THEY LAID WAIT FOR US IN THE WILDERNESS. 20. THE BREATH OF OUR NOSTRILS, THE ANOINTED OF THE LORD, WAS TAKEN IN THEIR PITS: OF WHOM WE SAID, UNDER HIS SHADOW WE SHALL LIVE AMONG THE NATIONS. 21. REJOICE AND BE GLAD, O DAUGHTER OF EDOM, THAT DWELLS IN THE LAND OF HUS: THE CUP ALSO SHALL PASS THROUGH UNTO YOU: YOU SHALL BE DRUNKEN, AND SHALL MAKE YOURSELF NAKED. 22. YOUR INIQUITY IS ACCOMPLISHED, O DAUGHTER OF ZION; HE WILL NO MORE CARRY YOU AWAY INTO CAPTIVITY: HE WILL VISIT YOUR INIQUITY, O DAUGHTER OF EDOM; HE WILL UNCOVER YOUR SINS.
1. How is the gold become dim, the finest color changed, the stones of the sanctuary scattered at the head of every street? 2. The noble sons of Sion, clothed in finest gold: how are they esteemed as earthen vessels, the work of the hands of the potter? 3. Even the jackals bare their breasts, they nurse their young: the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostrich in the desert. 4. The tongue of the nursing child cleaves to its palate with thirst: the little ones asked for bread, and there was none to break it for them. 5. Those who feasted sumptuously have perished in the streets: those who were brought up in scarlet have embraced dung. 6. And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is made greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were laid upon her. 7. Her Nazirites were whiter than snow, purer than milk, more ruddy than old ivory, more beautiful than sapphire. 8. Their face is made blacker than coals, and they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaves to their bones: it is withered, and become like wood. 9. It was better for those slain by the sword than for those killed by famine: for these wasted away, consumed by the barrenness of the land. 10. The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children: they became their food, in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 11. The Lord has accomplished His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger: and He kindled a fire in Sion, and it devoured its foundations. 12. The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any of the inhabitants of the world, that the enemy and foe would enter through the gates of Jerusalem. 13. Because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. 14. They wandered as blind men in the streets, they were defiled with blood: and when they could not help it, they held fast to their garments. 15. Depart, you unclean, they cried to them: depart, begone, do not touch: for they quarreled and were disturbed, and said among the nations: He will no longer dwell among them. 16. The face of the Lord has divided them, He will no more regard them: they did not respect the persons of the priests, nor have they had pity on the elders. 17. While we yet stood, our eyes failed looking for our vain help, when we looked attentively for a nation that could not save. 18. Our steps were made slippery in the paths of our streets, our end drew near: our days were fulfilled, for our end had come. 19. Our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven: they pursued us over the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness. 20. The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins: to whom we said: In Your shadow we shall live among the nations. 21. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Hus: to you also the cup shall come, you shall be made drunk, and shall be stripped bare. 22. Your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Sion, He will no more carry you into captivity: He has visited your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, He has uncovered your sins.
Verse 1: HOW
1. HOW — by what great wickedness of men, by what great indignation of God?
THE GOLD HAS BECOME DIM. — He calls the temple "gold" because it was covered with gold and gleaming (2 Chronicles 3:5 and 8), as if to say: How has the temple, so resplendent with gold that it seemed to be entirely golden, nay, gold itself, now burned by fire by the Chaldeans, been turned to blackness, so that it now seems not gold but soot and burnt blackness. He mourns the catastrophe of the temple above all else, both because it was, as it were, the seat and throne of God, and because it was so gleaming with gold, so magnificent in structure, that it was the wonder of the world. So the Chaldean, Rabanus, Hugo.
THE STONES — gems with which the Rational, which was the garment of the high priest, was adorned: so Rabanus; or more simply, as Hugo and Dionysius say, "the stones" with which the temple was built have been scattered in the streets.
Second, Theodoret, St. Thomas, and Lyranus explain these words thus, as if to say: How has the happy and pious state of the kingdom under Josiah now been changed under his sons into a miserable, impious, and idolatrous one, and "the stones," that is, its citizens have been scattered among the nations?
Third, others by 'gold' understand the sons of Josiah, the princes and nobles resplendent with gold; by 'stones' the priests and ministers of the temple, or teachers distinguished for wisdom and piety. So Olympiodorus, Vatablus, Lyranus, and Dionysius.
Fourth, Rabbi Solomon by 'gold' understands the very countenances of the Jews, and their faces formerly shining and gleaming like gold; but now, on account of filth, darkened, foul, and sallow, according to Joel 2:6: "All faces shall be turned into a pot," that is, they shall become black like a pot; and Nahum 2:10: "The face of them all is as the blackness of a pot."
Fifth, St. Thomas refers these words to the darkening of minds: for gold is a symbol of wisdom and divine knowledge, which in the Jews has been darkened through sin; hence it is said in Proverbs 8:10:
1. How — by what great crime of men, by what great indignation of God? The gold has become dim. — He calls "gold" the temple covered with gold and shining, 2 Chronicles 3:5 and 8, meaning: How has the temple, so gleaming with gold that it seemed to be entirely golden, indeed gold itself, now burned by fire by the Chaldeans, turned to blackness, so that it seems no longer gold but soot and burned blackness? He bewails the destruction of the temple above all else, both because it was the seat and throne of God, and because it was so resplendent with gold, so magnificent in structure, that it was the wonder of the world. So the Chaldee, Rabanus, Hugh.
Stones — the gems with which the Rational, which was the priestly vestment, was adorned: so Rabanus; or more simply, as Hugh and Dionysius say, the "stones" with which the temple was built were scattered in the streets.
Second, Theodoret, St. Thomas, and Lyranus explain these things thus, meaning: How has the happy and pious state of the kingdom under Josiah now been changed under his sons into a wretched, impious, and idolatrous one, and the "stones," that is, its citizens, been scattered among the nations?
Third, others take the gold to mean the sons of Josiah, the princes and nobles resplendent with gold; by the stones, the priests and ministers of the temple, or the doctors distinguished for wisdom and piety. So Olympiodorus, Vatablus, Lyranus, and Dionysius.
Fourth, R. Solomon takes the gold to mean the very faces of the Jews, faces formerly shining and gleaming like gold; but now darkened with filth, hideous and ghastly, according to Joel 2:6: "All faces shall be reduced to a pot," that is, they shall be blackened like a pot; and Nahum 2:10: "The faces of them all are like the blackness of a pot."
Fifth, St. Thomas refers these things to the darkening of minds: for gold is a symbol of wisdom and divine knowledge, which in the Jews was darkened through sin; whence it is said in Proverbs 8:10:
"Choose instruction rather than gold;" and chapter 16:16: "Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and acquire prudence, because it is more precious than silver." St. Augustine teaches the same on Psalm 71: "There shall be given to Him of the gold of Arabia." But these are symbolic or mystical meanings. The first meaning, therefore, is the literal one.
The finest color has been changed — namely, the luster and splendor of the gold. In Hebrew it is ketem, which R. Jonah translates as pearls: others translate it as stamped, or marked with some form. Others, and more truly, judge that ketem properly signifies a mass of the finest and purest gold, and hence gold itself when gleaming, and golden ornaments, or the brilliance of gold and golden ornaments, is called ketem; whence our Translator renders it "finest color;" Aquila translates it as tincture; the Septuagint translates it as silver; perhaps they read keseph. The meaning is: How has that beauty and finest luster of gold been changed in the temple through the conflagration into smoke, darkness, and the blackness of a pot?
Verse 2: The sons of Sion
2. The sons of Sion — that is, all the Jews both outstanding in beauty, as the Chaldee says, and splendid in wealth and precious garments, as Origen says, and especially the sons of Josiah, who were raised in the citadel of Sion, where the royal palace was, in a royal manner. Whence the Septuagint translates, hoi timioi, that is, those venerable and honorable ones.
Theodoret and St. Thomas explain it differently: for they judge that the sons of Sion refers to men distinguished for piety and wisdom, whom verse 1 called precious stones: hence in Hebrew it is nearly the same word there, namely abanim haiekarim, that is, precious stones, as here, habbanim haiekarim, that is, precious, noble, splendid sons, "clothed:" in Hebrew hammesullaim, that is, compared; the Chaldee, similar; the Septuagint, raised up in gold, that is, glorious and proud in golden garments. Josephus adds, Antiquities VIII.7, that noble Hebrew youths used to sprinkle gold filings on their hair, so that their heads would seem to sparkle and gleam in the rays of the sun.
They are esteemed as earthen vessels — that is, as the Chaldee says, darkened by captivity and afflictions, they have become black and sooty like an earthen pot in which food is cooked. Second, and better, they have become cheap and worthless, as dry and withered as a shard, who before were rosy and blooming: likewise fragile and weak, like earthen vessels. So in Jeremiah 19:11, it says: "I will break this people and this city, as the vessel of the potter is broken, which cannot be restored again," and this deservedly and by fitting vengeance; for in their golden bodies, adorned and well-nourished, they bore spirits of mud and clay. Hence the Chaldee translates: Those whose images or faces were like gold have been made like earthen flasks, where by flasks he seems to indicate their winebibbing and drunkenness. For what is a drunken man? He is a flask empty and devoid of mind and reason, but filled and as it were ballasted with wine.
Tropologically, when some religious order (or any faithful person, especially a cleric) that was formerly flourishing and fervent and shining with virtues grows lukewarm, dark, and dissolute, one may well say: "How is the gold become dim, the finest color changed?" especially if the stones are scattered, and there are none who care to gather them and restore discipline. So St. Basil to a fallen monk: "O grievous blindness! O monstrous cruelty! You did not fear God, you did not respect men, you took no account of friends; but in one shipwreck you lost everything at once, you were stripped of all at once. Therefore, wretched man, again I grieve for your sake. You who announced to all the vigor of the kingdom of God have fallen from the kingdom of God. You who struck the fear of doctrine into all did not have the fear of God before your eyes. You who preached holiness of life are found to be wicked. How shall I mourn for you? How shall I grieve over you? How has Lucifer who rose in the morning fallen, crushed upon the earth? How has the Nazirite, more splendid than gold, become darker than soot? How has the illustrious son of Sion become a useless vessel?"
Hear Rabanus: "What is signified by gold, which surpasses all other metals, if not the excellence of sanctity? What by the finest color, if not the reverence of religion beloved by all? What by the stones of the sanctuary, if not the persons of sacred orders? What by the name of streets, if not the breadth of the present life? For wide and spacious is the way that leads to perdition. Gold, then, is darkened when life is polluted by earthly deeds: the finest color is changed when the former reputation of those who were believed to live religiously is diminished and, as it were, grows pale: the stones of the sanctuary are scattered into the streets when, for the sake of worldly affairs, those seek the broad ways abroad who should have been devoted to the ornaments of the Church in interior mysteries, as in the recesses of the sanctuary. They lie therefore scattered through the streets, when the persons of sacred orders, given over to the breadth of their pleasures, cling to earthly business," and especially when those who before were united in one congregation are now divided by hatreds and schisms, and destroy the Church and temple of God; and those who before were honored are now divided and scattered, trampled underfoot like cheap and common stones.
And St. Bernard, Sermon 2 on the text: The kingdom of God is not food and drink: "The sons," he says, "of Sion, that is, of that contemplative city which the Lord built so that He might be seen in His glory, sons of the heavenly Jerusalem which is our mother, noble by the dignity of their condition, clothed in finest gold by the image of divinity: how then are we esteemed as earthen vessels, how have we degenerated into these bodies of mud and fragility?" And St. Gregory, Homily 17 on the Gospels: "The gold," he says, "has become dim; because the life of priests, once illustrious through the glory of virtues, is now shown to be reprobate through the basest actions. The finest color has been changed: because that habit of sanctity, through earthly and abject works, has come to the ignominy of contempt. The stones of the sanctuary were kept within, and were not worn on the body of the high priest except when, entering the Holy of Holies, he appeared in the secret of his Creator. We therefore, dearest brothers, we are the stones of the sanctuary, who ought always to appear in the secret of God, whom it is never necessary to be seen without, that is, never to be seen in extraneous actions. But the stones of the sanctuary are scattered, because those who ought to have been within through prayer are occupied without through their way of life. Behold, there is now scarcely any worldly business which priests do not administer. In the head of the streets therefore they are scattered; because they both lie low through the ministry of worldly work, and wish to be honored for the image of sanctity."
These and many more things St. Gregory writes, worthy to be frequently read and pondered by priests.
Verse 3: Even the jackals.
3. Even the jackals. — He amplifies the evil by comparison with jackals, meaning: Cruel beasts bare their breasts and nurse and feed their young with them; only the women of Jerusalem, through famine, have become so cruel to their children that they not only denied them milk, but also repelled them from themselves like the ostrich, which, accustomed to the desert, wanders about, abandons its eggs, and neglects its young; indeed they killed and devoured them, as verse 10 says. So Origen, Theodoret, Rupert, Lyranus, Vatablus, and nearly all others. Only Hugh explains it thus, meaning: Judea has been so reduced to a wilderness that wild beasts give birth and nurse their young there, and the ostrich dwells there as in a desert.
Note: For "lamia" the Hebrew is tannin, that is, a dragon, whether sea or land dragon. So the Septuagint, the Chaldee, and others. It is therefore surprising that the Syriac and Arabic translate it as a wild dog: They uncovered, they say, their breasts, the wild dogs, and nursed their young. Note: In Syria there is a beast similar to a wolf and dog, which dwelling in the forests howls like a dog, which the Syrians therefore call a wild dog: it seems therefore to be a species of wolf, hyena, or lycisca.
Likewise the lamia-fish is of the whale kind, which also gives birth and has breasts. So Aristotle, History of Animals I.5, and from him William Rondelet, On Fishes XIII. This fish is most voracious: whence from laimos, that is, throat, it is called lamia, because it has a great gullet, a great throat: the lamia-fish could therefore be understood here.
Second, and more fittingly, you should take lamia here as the name of a land dragon, about which Philostratus writes, On the Life of Apollonius IV, and Dio Chrysostom, namely that in Africa lamias are beasts with a woman's face, with breasts and entire body so beautiful that by displaying them they lure men to themselves, and devour their captives; the remaining part of the body is very hard with scales, they lack wings and voice, but they hiss like dragons.
Similar things about the manticore beast are found in Aristotle, History of Animals II.1, at the end; Pliny, VIII.21; Solinus, Polyhistor ch. 55. And perhaps Jeremiah means this beast here, because it has a human face and a lion's body; moreover here for "young" the Hebrew is gurehen, which signifies lion cubs. Albertus Magnus relates that he himself saw such a monster with a maiden's face in Germany, On Animals XXVI. And from this, witches who kill or are said to devour children are called lamiae, or empusae, about which see Caelius Rhodiginus, XXIX.5, and Delrio in his work on Magic.
Moreover, the dragon is said to bare its breast; because it has a sheath or covering in which it encloses its breast. So Vatablus and others. I have said more about lamias on Isaiah 34:14.
Tropologically, Rabanus says: "In the lamia the duplicity of the Jews and the pretense of hypocrites is expressed; for the lamia has a human face but a bestial body." "Again, lamias," says St. Gregory, Morals XIX.15, and from him Rabanus, "are heretics, who bear a human face indeed, but bestial hearts through their impiety: they bare their breasts when they freely preach their error; they nurse their cubs when, by insinuating perverse things, they confirm in impiety the souls of little ones who wickedly follow them." These are cruel as ostriches, because they destroy both themselves and their own.
Ostrich. — The Hebrew ieenim is translated by more recent scholars as the cuckoo, which lays its eggs in others' nests and exposes its eggs to be hatched by others: but the Chaldee, the Septuagint, Vatablus, Origen, and others translate it here as the ostrich. For the ostrich places its eggs on the ground, and as if they were not its own neglects them, and leaves them to be warmed by the sun, so exposed that they may be trampled by the feet of men or beasts; and it is so hardened toward its chicks, as if it had not given birth to them, as Job 39:14 teaches. See Pliny on the ostrich, X.10. Hence the ostrich is a symbol of stupidity and inhumanity; for although its chicks groan and wail, it has no compassion for them. Whence in Micah 1, it says: "I will make a wailing like the dragons, and a mourning like the ostriches;" in Hebrew, like the daughters of the ostrich, that is, like chicks abandoned by their ostrich mothers, who miserably weep and wail.
Verse 4: With thirst
4. With thirst — that is, because of thirst, meaning: Nursing infants could not suck the breasts of their mothers, which had dried up from lack of food: whence from thirst their tongues cleaved to their palate, as happens in a thirsty and parched person. Other, older children asked for bread, and there was no one to give it to them. All these things signify a great famine,
want and destitution. "Those who feasted sumptuously," meaning: The rich and nobles, delicately raised, "perished in the streets," meaning: In public places they lay stricken on the ground; and "those who were brought up" and carried and reclined "in" swaddling bands and garments "of scarlet, embraced dung," that is, dung heaps and refuse piles, in which they might sleep, and cover themselves with dung as with a mattress, as happened to holy Job himself. And so poor pilgrims, lest they spend the night in the cold streets, go to the dung heap and lie in it, so that they may be warmed at night by its heat. So Lyranus, Castro, and others. Or, as Sanchez says, in the dung heap, that is, in an unclean place, they waste away, and there they are buried with the burial of an ass.
These words Victor of Utica, Vandal Persecution II, fittingly applies to the confessors of Christ shut up by the Arian king Huneric in a narrow prison. "In which," he says, "they lay one upon another like swarms of locusts, and there was no room to withdraw, but they relieved themselves of excrement and urine in that very place, so that the stench and horror there surpassed every kind of punishment: to whom, sometimes giving great gifts to the Moors, and while the Vandals slept, we were scarcely admitted secretly to enter. Entering as if into a whirlpool of mud, we began to sink up to our knees, seeing then that word of Jeremiah to have been fulfilled: Those who were brought up in scarlet have embraced their dung. And so going out on the Lord's Day with our garments smeared with excrement, our faces and heads alike, yet cruelly threatened by the Moors, they sang a hymn with exultation to the Lord: This is the glory of all His Saints."
Note first: For "scarlet" the Hebrew is thola, that is, crimson, as the Septuagint translates; whence some think that instead of "saffron" one should read "crimson," that is, scarlet: although the saffron color approaches red and scarlet. Hence Gellius, II.26, among the various shades of red includes saffron: and saffron garments are beautiful and precious, equally as scarlet ones. Therefore the Syriac translates: Those who were raised upon saffron, behold they sleep in dung heaps; and the Arabic: Those who were raised in places of soft dye and crimson, behold they are in dung heaps.
Hence, second, it is clear that these words refer to clothing, not to food, although Hugh, St. Thomas, and Dionysius refer them to food, meaning: Those who ate saffron-colored foods and delicacies now in famine eat pigeon dung and other things, as happened in Samaria in the time of the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings 6:25. Finally, some refer these words to the menial tasks of cleaning filth and latrines, which the Jews were forced to perform for their Babylonian masters; whence St. Augustine on Psalm 80: "His (Israel's) hands," he says, "served in the basket. By the basket are signified servile works, cleaning dung, carrying earth," etc.
Tropologically, meaning: Religious and fervent men, who once like eagles soared in heaven with the angels, now like dung beetles wallow in the mire and filth of carnal pleasures with asses and swine. So St. Bernard, Sermon on Obedience, Patience, and Wisdom: "The Prophet," he says, "bewails the fact that noble creatures, forgetful of their proper condition, so disguise their misery: not only do they not consider what they endure, but they embrace as great goods what are but a step from the worst evils."
Verse 6: Greater has become the iniquity (that is, the punishment ...
6. Greater has become the iniquity (that is, the punishment of iniquity, of Jerusalem) than the sin (that is, the punishment of the sin) of Sodom. — Thus iniquity and sin are taken for the punishment of sin, Exodus 28:38; Leviticus 5:1, and below, chapter 5:7. From the greater punishment of the Jews than of Sodom, he infers their greater guilt: for Sodom, punished and burned suddenly by God, felt pain for only a brief time: but Jerusalem, killed by a long siege and suffering, was long tortured and tormented. So Origen, the Chaldee, Theodoret, Rupert. Whence St. Thomas: "Here," he says, "he magnifies the punishment by comparison with the punishment of Sodom; the iniquity has become greater, that is, it was shown to be greater in punishment; the guilt was greater, because of ingratitude and because of the profanation of holy things: hence the punishment also was greater, because more prolonged."
In a moment. — For sudden death has less pain: whence Augustus Caesar wished such a euthanasia for himself. Hence concerning the wicked, to crown their happiness, Job says, 21:13: "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell," that is, they die suddenly, and are not tortured by the long pain of diseases; whence it follows:
And no hands were laid upon her. — Understand: to do anything good, and to give alms, say Paschasius and Dionysius. For the Sodomites were destroyed for their inhumanity, because "they did not extend their hand to the needy and the poor," says Ezekiel 16:49. Second, Lyranus: "No hands" of enemies "were laid upon her (Sodom)," that is, no spoils were taken, meaning: Sodom was punished less than Jerusalem, because the Chaldeans seized for themselves the goods of Jerusalem: which was one punishment of the Jews, namely that they saw their enemies rejoicing and reveling in their goods, which the Sodomites did not see.
Third, Rabanus explains, meaning: The masters and teachers in Jerusalem did not receive the work of their hands, that is, the fruit of their hands and labors, that is, of their teaching and preaching. Fourth, the Chaldee takes "hands" to mean the Prophets; for he translates: No Prophets remained in her to convert her to repentance.
Fifth, and best, "no hands were laid upon her," that is, in her conquest, "hands" did not need to labor, meaning: There was no need to begin, much less to complete, the conquest of Sodom by the hands of men and Chaldeans, as in Jerusalem; but God by Himself, that is, through an angel raining fire and brimstone, overthrew Sodom. Hence, as if consumed by fire in the momentary punishment of an hour, she ended her suffering.
So soldiers falling in war think themselves fortunate, according to the poet: What then? The battle is joined; in a moment either swift death comes, or joyful victory. In Hebrew it is chalu, which first, derived from chatal, means to begin: whence our Translator renders "they laid," that is, they began. Second, derived from chet, it means to profane and violate; whence others translate: The Chaldeans and nations did not profane their hands in her, or did not violate her with their hands. Third, from chail, that is, strength or army, it means to encamp. Whence Vatablus and Pagninus translate: the hands of enemies did not encamp against her. Fourth, from chala, it means to grieve, to be weak, to be tormented; whence the Septuagint translates: Hands did not labor against her: Symmachus: Hands did not wound her; others: They did not grieve, hands were not weakened; because Jerusalem was besieged and conquered with great effort, toil, and suffering of the Chaldeans as well as the Jews; so that the impious Jews might be gradually worn down, and might be long tormented; not so Sodom, whose carelessness was suddenly overwhelmed by terror, whose terror was shattered by anguish, whose anguish was cut short by swift death.
Verse 7: Her Nazirites were whiter.
7. Her Nazirites were whiter. — "Her," namely, of Jerusalem. Note: The Nazirites, that is, those set apart, consecrated, and crowned, were those who devoted themselves to God by abstaining from wine and strong drink, by not cutting their hair, Numbers 6; many also by continence from women, as Epiphanius says, Heresy 29, and St. Augustine, Sermon 407 On the Seasons. He says their outward beauty has been changed: for among them were many nobles and beautiful youths, of a rosy whiteness, and they increased this by their temperance and abstinence, as happened to Daniel and his companions, perhaps also by art and care, when they consecrated themselves to God, so that their outward appearance might represent their inner purity: these have now become sallow and squalid in famine and captivity. Whence follows: "Their face has become black," etc. Note: Just as gluttony is the mother of ugliness and baseness, so frugality and temperance are the mother of beauty.
Second, Rabanus, Lyranus, and Dionysius not inaptly say: The Nazirites, they say, that is, the Levites and priests, consecrated to God, clothed in sacred vestments made of hyacinth, scarlet, purple, and fine linen, reflected snow in whiteness, milk in luster, ivory in redness, and sapphire in blue color: for fine linen is white, scarlet is gleaming, purple is red, hyacinth is blue.
But this exposition is contradicted by the fact that only the high priest wore the ephod of fine linen, scarlet, purple, and hyacinth with the hyacinth tunic; while the other priests wore only tunics of linen, as is clear from Exodus 28:6, 31, 33, and 40; see what was said there. Therefore this variety of garments and colors did not pertain to the Nazirites, nor to the priests and Levites, but only to the high priest.
Therefore the whiteness of the Nazirites here signifies not so much white color, as a gleaming and radiant appearance, namely that their skin and faces were shining and luminous. So in the Transfiguration of Christ, His garments are said to have become white, that is, shining and brilliant.
Tropologically, Christ is the Nazirite, both because He comes from Nazareth, which signifies a flower or crown, and because He was sanctified and consecrated to the Father from the womb: and Christians are Nazirites, especially religious and those zealous for perfection, who by purity of life reflect snow, by radiance milk, by charity and fervor ivory, by heavenly conversation sapphire: indeed Origen, Theodoret, Hugh, St. Thomas, and Dionysius understand these things literally of such persons. But it is certain that Jeremiah literally speaks of his own time and the destruction by the Chaldeans.
Here the Antiochene Arabic version is relevant: Her separated ones (who removed and separated themselves from the common manner of living and conduct of men) were made clean, and became white as snow; and the Alexandrian: They became radiant, those abstaining from among her people, more than snow.
Such Nazirites were the first disciples and religious of St. Dominic, who certainly gave to not only their own but to all of us a shining example and mirror of religious life, about whom the author of the Life of St. Dominic, Book VI, chapter 4 and following, writes thus: "The churches were seldom empty of the praying brothers; wherever they were sought, they were more often found there: for they did not leave the churches, intent on prayers day and night. You would have seen there the groans and sighs of penitence, bewailing their own and others' sins. After the Hours and Compline, they withdrew into corners, and examining their actions with severe scrutiny, they cruelly tore their bodies with knotted cords. Others under prayer were seen to remain suspended between heaven and earth. Others, lying in ashes and cinders, gave forth groans, and placing their mouths in the dust, refused to lift their eyes to heaven. Others, unable to rest because of the impatience of love, refused to indulge in sleep until they felt a new grace warming them."
He adds concerning their piety toward the Blessed Virgin: "They recited the Office of the Virgin Mother reverently and standing. After Compline they sometimes circled her altar in a triple row, so that it could rightly be said: Roses and lilies of the valley surrounded her: namely, penitents ruddy with modesty, and innocents white with virginal chastity. After Matins, few went to their reading studies, fewer still to bed: most spent the night in prayers:" and, as he says elsewhere, they longed from one hour of prayer to the next.
Third, concerning their abstinence, he records in chapter 5: "Some completely forbade themselves drink for eight days; others poured cold water into their food; others abstained now from this, now from that dish. Some during all of Lent did not drink during the day, nor speak unless questioned. In the community, many eagerly offered their services for reading and serving; they seemed to be serving not men but angels."
they seemed so filled with interior joy that they even secretly kissed the dishes." Fourth, concerning their charity he writes thus: "In relieving the burdens of the brothers, there was a wonderful compassion in all, and an untiring and effective consolation in word and deed. In receiving brothers coming from labor, the most kind cheerfulness was seen in them, and they eagerly presented themselves everywhere to wash their feet and render them service. If anyone could be more kind in compassion toward the sick, more cheerful in receiving guests, more humble in washing their feet, more assiduous in the services of the monastery, that one considered himself more blessed before God. Not rarely they stripped from themselves tunics, cowls, scapulars, and gave them either to visiting brothers or to others in need. Very many, not content with the austerity of the monastic habit, secretly put on hairshirts and bound their loins with iron girdles."
Hence they preached with wonderful fervor, and indeed "their whole duty was to praise God, bless Him, and preach. Many would not take food unless they had first preached the word of God to many or to one. They preached not in order to eat, but ate in order to preach. Hence the Blessed Virgin was seen suggesting to them what to preach. Hence also such great salvation of souls followed. Their hearts burned with the fire of divine love, and the words flowing thence inflamed the souls of their hearers. Nor was that ardor present only in their sermons, but it glowed even more in action. Many, prostrate on the ground with many tears and most attentive prayers, begged to be sent to the Tartars or to other barbarians. There burned in them an ardent desire both for the salvation of souls and for undergoing martyrdom for Christ. They went therefore girded and burning with virtues, and their appearance was like coals of burning fire, and with fiery eloquence they pricked and kindled cold sinners: they were purer in mind than all others, and more sublime in humility. Would that that fire might grow warm again, and that the sun of fervor, which now, alas, is in clouds, might shine again! O Lord, Lord, may the flame of Your sacred fire kindle the lukewarm again, that, as of old, they may serve You with fervor and burn with Your love. Amen." So far the author.
Do you want the ideal of the perfect Nazirite? Take it from this golden passage of Eusebius of Emesa, in the homilies on St. Maximus: although these homilies are falsely attributed to Eusebius of Emesa, who was a Syrian and, as St. Jerome says in On Famous Writers, the standard-bearer of the Arian faction; for they do not have a Greek or Syrian, but a Latin elegance, indeed they represent it. Hence Baronius, in the year 441, ascribes them to Eucherius of Lyons; Bellarmine, in On Famous Writers, to Faustus of Riez, others to Caesarius of Arles: the one who recently edited them in 1602 attributes them to Eucherius. The author, therefore, whoever he may be, thus celebrates St. Maximus, from a Religious of Lerins become Bishop: "And he who had already long borne the bishop in the abbot, afterwards kept the abbot in the bishop; a neglector of ease, a fugitive from pleasure; a seeker of toil, impatient of honor; poor in money, rich in conscience; humble regarding his merits, proud against vices." The same thought is found in the Life of St. Wilibald, ch. 36, which Philip, Bishop of Eichstatt, wrote, and Father Greiser published.
Do you want an ancient and living example? Take St. Gregory Nazianzen, who lived the monastic life with St. Basil, and writes these things about himself in his tract On Silence and Fasting: "I wasted my flesh with continual labors, which in the flower of youth was kicking and boiling: I conquered the gluttony of the stomach, and the tyrant seated next to it (lust): I mortified my eyes; I suppressed the impulse of anger, I bridled my members: I bewailed laughter: I consecrated all my possessions to Christ. The earth was my bed, my clothing a hairshirt; vigil was my sleep, and tears my rest. By day I wearied my shoulders with burdens and labors: by night I stood like a statue writing hymns; I admitted no delight into my soul or thought. This was the manner of my life in youth; because flesh and blood, like a conflagration, were spewing flames and striving to turn me from the way to heaven. I likewise cast from me the heavy burden of riches, that I might ascend more lightly to God." The same, indeed even greater, were the exercises of virtue of St. Basil; for Gregory places him far above himself and calls him a giant.
Finally, St. Bernard, Sermon 9 on the Marriage at Cana: "When you see," he says, "a monk humble at insults, patient at reproaches, devoted to his superiors, gentle in manners, slow to speak, constant in silence, reading attentively in the cloister, praising Christ with all devotion in his own voice in church: if not continuously, yet daily weeping, sparing at meals, prompt to obedience, everywhere inclined, everywhere bowed, everywhere modest, knocking at heaven with his mouth, always crying out to the Lord with his heart, honoring his neighbor and despising himself, loving all, hating himself; then you will be able to say: This monk keeps the commandment of his Creator. O how blessed is such a monk! Truly the reward of his labor will be the Lord Jesus."
Purer than milk. — The Septuagint manuscripts vary here, and punctuate these words differently. For some read etyrothesan, that is, they were curdled like milk; whence in the Roman Breviary in the Common of Martyrs at Eastertide, in the responsory of the eighth Lesson we read: "Her Nazirites have been made white, they have given splendor to God, and have been curdled like milk." Others, like Origen, read separately epyrothesan, that is, they were set on fire, tested and condensed by fire. Others, as the Vatican manuscripts, read epyxrothesan, that is, they blushed red, and this corresponds to the Hebrew chaclile and the Latin rubicundiores (more ruddy), which follows.
More ruddy than old ivory. — For ivory by age becomes red from white: in Hebrew it is, more ruddy etsem mippeninim, that is, in bone (namely of the elephant, that is, in ivory: for since ivory excels among bones in hardness, size, and value, it is called bone par excellence) from angular pieces, that is, from stronger and better bones, such as is old ivory. So Delrio. Or rather mippeninim, that is, from earlier pieces, that is, from old ivory: for this is better, and becomes red either by nature or rather by art and dyeing, as I shall soon say.
Therefore Castro's explanation of old ivory as meaning not ancient but precious and excellent is less accurate. For Cicero thus takes "antiquum" in On Invention I, when he says: "For those who are poor, money is more antiquior," that is, more valued and dear, "than duty." For here it is not the value, nor the antiquity, but the quality and condition of color and redness in ivory that is being considered. Whence the same Castro says: Or rather, ivory is called old with respect to ancient times, when ivory was customarily dyed and tinted with vermilion, about which more shortly. Others translate differently: the Chaldee, Pagninus, Vatablus: they were ruddy etsem, that is, in body, face, or appearance, more than peninim, that is, pearls; others, more than corals or rubies; Castro, more than lychnite stone, which suffuses brightness with a purple color, by which it excites the vigor of lamps; whence it is called lychnite. The Syriac translates: Their bones were made more red than sardonyx; or, as the Arabic, more than the sardius stone.
You will object: Ivory is white, and when old it becomes yellow and pale, not red, as Pliny testifies, VIII.3, where he asserts that the old age of the elephant is recognized by paleness, its youth by whiteness. I reply: Old ivory is said to become ruddy, that is, to turn golden-yellow (as Ovid, whom I shall soon cite, and others say, and as I myself have seen with my own eyes) and to take on a golden hue, meaning: The Nazirites in their whole body were white and milky: but in their heads and hair they were glowing and golden like old ivory becoming ruddy, that is, golden-yellow: for the red color is not only called purple, but also golden.
Hear Gellius: "The Latin language by the single term 'redness' signifies many different shades of the tawny color," and among them "golden;" for the golden color is esteemed in hair. Hence Tacitus attributes ruddy hair to the Germans, and Silius calls the Batavians golden-haired, and Homer assigns blond or golden hair to those ancient heroes Menelaus of Sparta, Meleager, and Achilles: the hair of the gods Bacchus and Narcissus was also golden, as Philostratus writes. The statue of the emperor Commodus also, so that it might reflect a certain heavenly radiance of divinity, had its hair sprinkled with gold filings, as Herodian writes. Likewise Antoninus Verus, as Capitolinus attests, is said "to have taken such great care of his golden hair that he sprinkled gold filings on his locks, so that his hair, thus illuminated, might gleam more golden."
Hence blond hair among the Romans gave its name to the noble Flavian family: as also to the Ahenobarbi; for they were so called from their blond beard. David had blond hair. Noble youths in the court of Solomon "daily sprinkled their hair with gold filings, so that at the touch of the sun's rays a diverse brilliance was reflected from their heads," says Josephus, Antiquities VIII.2. Polemon writes that "moderately blond hair is a sign of a docile and gentle nature, tending toward good fortune;" and Apuleius says: Those endowed with blond hair are warriors and distinguished in talent; and, as physicians teach, they are of a very good bodily temperament. Hence, just as David and Solomon had blond hair, so Christ had light blond hair, says Nicephorus.
Finally, the blond color is a symbol of flourishing youth. So Pineda in his Prolegomena to Solomon, VI.4.
Second, our Castro, Sanchez, and Pineda on Job 28:6 reply: The ancients, they say, to restore its former beauty and splendor to ivory that had grown pale and discolored with time, would brighten and dye it with vermilion or purple; and so it became purple. So Pliny, XVI.43, and Virgil, Aeneid XII: "As if someone had stained Indian ivory with blood-red dye; or where many white lilies blush mingled with roses: such were the colors the maiden gave from her face." And Ovid clearly, in Amores II, elegy 5, teaches both things, namely that old ivory grows pale, and therefore is dyed with purple color, saying: "Or, lest it grow yellow from long years, the Maeonian woman dyes the Assyrian ivory."
And Homer, Iliad IV: "As when a certain woman stains ivory with purple;" and Lucian in a beautiful body requires that the parts of the body bloom with a becoming blush: "Such as Homer, as the most excellent of all painters, attributed to the thighs of Menelaus, likened to ivory stained with purple dye." So therefore the Nazirites had white flesh and faces, but sprinkled with a purple blush and blooming, such as is found in beautiful youths. This meaning seems more fitting, both because this is what the word rubicundiores (more ruddy) properly means, and because beauty is most observed in the face and its rosy color. Whence also the Bride in the Song of Songs says: "My beloved is white and ruddy;" and such is the color of ivory dyed with vermilion or purple, since the color of old ivory is pale and faded.
Moreover, he names ivory rather than wool or silk dyed with purple: because ivory, being hard and polished, when dyed with purple, becomes so purple that it gleams and flashes and sparkles like fire, which cloth or silk does not do, being smooth but neither burnished nor polished.
More beautiful than sapphire. — In Hebrew: Sapphire was their cutting; Symmachus: Sapphire their limbs; the Chaldee: Sapphire was their face; others: Sapphire was their formation, meaning: The Nazirites were beautifully distinguished and formed in their limbs, as though they had been carved from sapphire. So, when we wish to describe someone as wonderfully white, we say he seems to be made of alabaster. So Vatablus. Origen translates: Chosen from among them, that is, preeminent, the more illustrious among them, they were like sapphire, because of their heavenly conduct and character: for, as Pliny says, XXXVII.12, the sapphire is a gem of blue color gleaming with golden points like stars. For the sapphire of Pliny is different from the modern one, and was like lapis lazuli, as I taught on Revelation 21:19.
Pineda, On the Affairs of Solomon VI.4: Just as he refers the milk-color to the skin, the redness to the hair, so he refers the sapphire to the eyes of the Nazirites, as though their eyes were sapphire-blue: and this is apt.
Verse 8: Their face has become black.
8. Their face has become black. — In Hebrew it is iachascech, that is, it has been darkened; the Septuagint, indians, that is, it has been made dark, which is, as our Translator renders, "made black;" meaning: The Nazirites, because of the famine they suffered in the siege, and afterwards in captivity, from emaciation and miseries have become blacker than coals, so that they were not recognized even by friends when they met them: and their skin has dried up like wood, once green, now withered. He alludes to the Hebrew etsem, that is, ivory, meaning: Etsem, that is, ruddy ivory, has become ets, that is, squalid and dry wood.
Tropologically, refer these things to clerics and religious who have plainly fallen from the ancient saints of their order, discipline having been completely dissolved, whence they are not recognized in the streets; because their manner of life does not differ from that of seculars, indeed it is sometimes worse; the cause of which was that they despised the smallest rules and faults, and thence progressing gradually to greater and graver ones, finally violated even their substantial vows, as St. Antoninus teaches, Part II, History, Title 15, §2. To these can be said that word of Amos 9:7: "Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to Me, O children of Israel? says the Lord," meaning: You were once children of Abraham, white as angels; now through sin you have become black like Ethiopians, and like demons.
Again, St. Gregory, Morals XXXII.17: "The Nazirites," he says, "are the continent and abstinent; these in the Church often perform such wonderful works that many who held to the heavenly life (whom the whiteness of snow signifies), many who dispensed earthly things well (whom milk signifies), seem to be surpassed by them; they are more ruddy than old ivory, because they often appear before the eyes of some preceding fathers as more fervent in zeal: they are more beautiful than sapphire, because tending toward heavenly things through their heavenly conduct they seem to excel. But when the mind is led by the abundance of virtues into a certain self-confidence, and is darkened by its own presumption, it is added: Their face has become blacker than coals; for they become black after their whiteness, and colder, and turn into extinguished coals, that is, cold minds," etc.
Verse 9: It was better for those slain by the sword (that is, kill...
9. It was better for those slain by the sword (that is, killed by a swift and brief death) than for those killed by famine — that is, tortured by long starvation and consumed by wasting. In Hebrew there is a beautiful play on words: it was better for those dead by chereb, that is, the sword, than by raub, that is, famine; for, as Homer says: "To die of hunger is the most wretched of deaths."
They wasted away (in Hebrew iazubu, that is, they drained away gradually into death) consumed (in Hebrew meduccarim, that is, pierced) by the barrenness of the land — in Hebrew mittenubot sadai, that is, from the fruits of the field, that is, because of the lack of fruits and barrenness: he calls them pierced, to allude to those pierced by the sword, meaning: It was better for those who perished pierced by the sword than for those pierced by famine: for those who are consumed by hunger are killed just as if, pierced by famine, they drained of blood, spirit, and life, and were consumed by a slow wasting. A harsh weapon therefore, a harsh sword, is famine.
Verse 10: The hands of women
10. The hands of women — meaning: Mothers, by nature most kind and merciful toward their little ones, were so maddened by starvation that they devoured their children as though they were choice and delicate food (for this is what the Hebrew baroth means). Alternatively, Origen says: Mothers out of mercy killed their children, in order to rescue them from slow famine, wasting, and so many afflictions through a swift death; for, as verse 9 said: "It was better for those slain by the sword than for those killed by famine."
In the destruction — that is, in the siege which brought upon the city destruction, that is, ruin. Baruch also narrates this event, chapter 2:4.
Verse 11: He has accomplished
11. He has accomplished — all His wrath, or what He had threatened through Moses, Deuteronomy 28:53. Fire — by which the city and temple burned: so Hugh, St. Thomas, Lyranus; second, "fire," meaning famine, says Vatablus; third, Theodoret, "fire," meaning tribulation, which devoured the foundations, that is, the kings and princes together with the people.
Verse 12: The kings did not believe
12. The kings did not believe — namely, neighboring kings and others who knew the fortifications of Jerusalem (whence the Jebusites, trusting in the fortification of the citadel of Sion, mocked David when he attacked it, placing the lame and blind on the walls, as if it could be defended by these alone, 2 Samuel 5), and how much God cared for it, and that it had been protected by God against Sennacherib and other kings, that it could be captured by enemies. So the Chaldee, Origen, Theodoret, Lyranus.
Second, Hugh, Rupert, St. Thomas: "The kings of the earth did not believe," namely of Judea, such as Zedekiah and Jehoiakim, who burned the book of Jeremiah about the coming of the Chaldeans, Jeremiah 36, "and the inhabitants of the world," namely the citizens of the land of Judea.
Verse 13: Because of the sins of the prophets (false prophets) and ...
13. Because of the sins of the prophets (false prophets) and priests — the impious ones, such as Pashur and others, who induced the king to shed the blood of the just and innocent, even of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 20:1, and chapter 22:3. Sanchez refers these words to the just ones killed by Manasseh at the instigation of false prophets and priests. For Jeremiah taught that Jerusalem was destroyed because of these, chapter 15:4, and 2 Kings 24:3-4.
Verse 14: They wandered
14. They wandered — namely, the false prophets and impious priests, defiled with the blood of the innocent which they had shed in the siege and devastation of the city, as though "blind;" and when the enemy had occupied their houses, not knowing where to turn or walk, they held fast to the garments of others to seek either shelter or help from them; but these whose garments they held rejected them, saying: "Depart, you unclean," do not touch us and defile us. So Dionysius.
Second, St. Thomas, Rabanus, Hugh, meaning: The Jews wounded, blinded, and having their eyes gouged out by the Chaldeans, and defiled with the blood of the slain upon whom they stumbled, since they could not walk in a straight path, sought someone to give them a hand and lead them; and since they could find no one, they seized the garments of others, that they might walk under their guidance. For dying men are wont to seize whatever they can with their hand and hold it fast, says Maldonatus. So also Lyranus, except that he takes these things as referring to the just.
Third, R. Solomon explains it thus: They were so wallowed in blood that others could not touch their garments, and said to them: "Depart, you unclean."
Fourth, the Hebrews, Vatablus, Pagninus, meaning: The Jews, blind, wandering in the streets, were defiled with the blood of the slain, so that those who approached disdained to touch their garments, but said: Depart from us, because you are defiled with blood: which said, they fled and were removed from them. All these from the Hebrew translate: They held fast their garments (for it can be so translated), not their own, as our Translator renders.
Fifth, and best, meaning: Because of the sins of the false prophets and priests, especially their murders, both they themselves and all the other Jews in the devastation of Jerusalem wandered as though blind; both because of the disturbance of mind, and because of the darkness and stench of corpses and filth: for all the streets were full of slain, and therefore many were defiled by their blood. The rest, since they could not pass easily and without touching the slain and the defiled, lest they touch them and be defiled by them, held up and raised their garments, and cried out to others meeting them and wandering about, now stained and defiled with the blood of the slain: Depart, you defiled, do not touch any of us, lest you defile us: and when others, as though blind, did not heed this, they began to quarrel, and thus quarreling they were carried off, that is, led into captivity, and there they wander here and there, and the nations among whom they find themselves said of them: God will no longer dwell among them.
Sanchez takes these things as referring only to priests: for they alone, he says, were defiled by contact with the dead, according to the law of Leviticus 22:4. But that laymen also were defiled by the same contact is clear from Numbers 19:11ff.
They held fast to their garments. — So the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman texts. Those who read lascivias suas (their lusts) are therefore wrong, that is, they clung to their concupiscences and lusts. Moreover, a lacinia is the extreme part of a garment, and the trimmings cut into small pieces for the sake of decoration: for lacinia is derived from lacerare (to tear). Hence to hold a lacinia is to hold something lightly, that is, by the very edge of the garment.
Verse 15: Depart, you unclean.
15. Depart, you unclean. — Some think these are the words of the enemies, cursing the Jews as contaminated; so the Chaldee. Others judge them to be the words of the defiled themselves, saying to others: Depart from me, because I am defiled. Others, and better, think these are the words of the clean Jews crying out to the unclean: "Depart, you defiled," lest you infect us, as I said on verse 14.
They quarreled. — In Hebrew natsu, that is, they rushed upon each other and as it were flew at one another, they quarreled, they contended with words, some saying: Depart; others refusing to depart. The Septuagint translates: they were inflamed, namely with anger; Vatablus: They were polluted; the Chaldee: They were abominable; R. Abraham: They flew away, namely into captivity.
They said among the nations (whoever saw them scattered and wandering among the nations said): He will no longer dwell among them. — In Hebrew it is: The Jews will no longer continue to inhabit, that is, to return to their land of Judea to inhabit it. So Origen and Vatablus. Others, meaning: Lest the Jews pollute and defile us, let us drive them from us to other regions.
Verse 16: The face (that is, the anger shown by the face) of the Lo...
16. The face (that is, the anger shown by the face) of the Lord has divided (that is, scattered) them (among the nations); because they did not respect the faces of the priests — but harassed and killed them without regard for their priesthood or old age; justly therefore now like is returned for like: for thus the Jews treated Jeremiah the priest most shamefully, struck him with blows, imprisoned him, etc., and thus afterwards they tortured and crucified Christ the High Priest. These are the words of Jeremiah, says Theodoret, or of the enemies and nations among whom the Jews were scattered, as Vatablus, Rabanus, St. Thomas, and Lyranus hold, who attributed this scattering and exile to their crimes.
Alternatively, Origen, the Chaldee, Lyranus, and St. Thomas explain it as referring to the Chaldeans, not to the Jews, meaning: The Chaldeans did not spare the priests or elders of the Jews, because of the sins of the false prophets and their own priests. But the former meaning is the genuine one.
Verse 17: While we yet stood (meaning: While our state still stood,...
17. While we yet stood (meaning: While our state still stood, while we stood upright in expectation of the Egyptians, that they would break the siege of the Chaldeans), our eyes failed — watching and intent upon the help of Pharaoh, which he had promised, because though long awaited he did not come; and coming, he was unable to save us; because not by the specter of their fathers, as the Hebrews fable, but he was driven back by the Chaldeans. See Jeremiah 37. So Origen, Rabanus, Theodoret, Hugh.
The Chaldee and Olympiodorus explain it differently: for they explain these things as referring to the Romans, whose help the Jews expected against Antiochus in the time of the Maccabees, but in vain: for they received none from them. But these Lamentations are not from the time of the Maccabees, but of the Chaldeans and Jeremiah.
Verse 18: Our steps were made slippery.
18. Our steps were made slippery. — In Hebrew tsadu, that is, enemies hunted our steps; because they blocked the way so that we could not walk freely, and laid ambushes for us in the middle of the streets. Our Translator perhaps derived tsadu from tsad, that is, side, meaning: They caused us to go sideways, that is, they made our steps incline to the sides, which happens when we slip because of the iciness and difficulty of the path; or because of panic and confusion and dizziness of the head, as happened to the Jews here. Others read tsaru, that is, they narrowed, they blocked our path and footsteps, so that we could not stand firm, and therefore we wavered and slipped, meaning: Nothing was firm for us, but everything was slippery. The Septuagint for tsaad, that is, steps, footsteps, read tsair, that is, little one: whence they translate: They hunted our little ones, so that they could not go in our streets. See Jeremiah 9:21.
Verse 19: Our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven.
19. Our persecutors were swifter than the eagles of heaven. — Both when from Chaldea they flew to Judea on horses most swift as well as most strong and fierce, like eagles, as Jeremiah says 4:13 and 48:40; and more especially when they captured Zedekiah and the princes fleeing from the already captured city, 2 Kings 25:5.
Beautifully and truly St. Augustine on Psalm 123: "Therefore," he says, "the greater robber seeks you, because he found the lesser: therefore the greater eagle seeks you, because you first caught the hare: the lesser was your prey, you will be prey to the greater." For it is just and fitting that in the very thing in which you sinned, in that you should be punished. He names eagles because they are the swiftest; whence Pindar says the eagle is the queen of birds, the dolphin of fish. And Aristophanes: The Athenians, he says, received an oracle that they would leave other cities behind them by as great an interval as the eagle surpasses other birds in speed.
They pursued us over the mountains — for there the Jews had their inaccessible cliffs and hidden caves and hiding places, into which they withdrew in time of war, as Josephus testifies, Wars I.12.
Verse 20: The breath of our mouth
20. The breath of our mouth — that is, Josiah, by whom, as by the air we breathe, we drew breath, and under whose shadow, that is, innocence, justice, and merits, says the Chaldee, and under whose protection we lived piously and peacefully among the nations: Josiah, I say, our king, was wounded and slain by Pharaoh Neco, 2 Kings 24, meaning: From the death of Josiah our calamity began, the ruin of the Jews began; because impious sons succeeded him who lost the kingdom. So the Chaldee, the Hebrews, Rabanus, Hugh, Vatablus, St. Thomas, Sanchez, and St. Jerome on Zechariah 12; whence Vatablus, the Chaldee, and Pagninus for "Christ the Lord" translate "the anointed of the Lord," that is, anointed by the Lord as king, and it can thus be translated from the Hebrew. For the memory and name of Josiah were most sweet and pleasing to the Jews, as is clear from Sirach 49:1; whence they call him their spirit, soul, and life. But thus far in the Lamentations no mention has been made of Josiah, but of Zedekiah; nor was Josiah captured, but wounded. Finally, Josiah cannot be called "Christ the Lord," as our Translator and the Septuagint render it.
Second, St. Thomas, Maldonatus, and some Hebrews take "Christ" to mean Zedekiah, about whom the preceding text spoke, meaning: The anointed of the Lord, that is, king Zedekiah, who alone could have protected us Jews from the Chaldeans, was captured because of the sins of the people, and also his own. So Saul, though impious, is called by David the anointed of the Lord, that is, anointed by the Lord as king. This meaning fits well with what precedes and follows.
But because our Translator and the Septuagint render: "Christ the Lord," that is, iehova (YHWH), as the Hebrew has, that is, God: hence St. Clement, Irenaeus, Justin, Origen, Tertullian, Ambrose, Jerome, Theodoret, Olympiodorus, and others everywhere, whom Christophorus a Castro cites at length here, take it literally of Christ, so that Jeremiah, in prophetic manner, soars to Him as to the conclusion and climax of his lamentations and prophecies, meaning: After all these calamities, this last thing most to be lamented comes, that by our sins we will most certainly bring death upon Christ (for the image of Him, as our King and Savior, comes to my mind when I commemorate His parents and types, Josiah, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah) under Pilate, and in God's foreknowledge we have already brought it; indeed we Jews will literally crucify and kill our own Christ: and although God foresees that this will happen, yet from His immense love for us He will permit all these things; indeed He will free us from the Babylonian captivity and bring us back to Judea; just as He foresees that we will kill His Christ, and this in order that through Christ's death He may free us from the captivity of the devil and from eternal death.
Who then would not lament so unworthy a captivity and death of the innocent Christ and Son of God? Who would not mourn His fall rather than that of Zedekiah? Who could look with dry eyes upon his Creator and Redeemer Jesus captured and nailed to the cross? In both ways, therefore, it can be translated, namely "the anointed of the Lord," so that Zedekiah is understood, and "Christ the Lord," to whom Jeremiah soars, whom he most loved and mourned, whose type was king Zedekiah. He therefore briefly touches upon the fall of Zedekiah as a type, and under him properly and directly understands and mourns the fall of Christ the antitype; for He was properly captured and died in sins, not His own, but ours. Again, the death and killing of Christ was the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the Romans; of which the type and beginning was the destruction of the same city by the Chaldeans, which Jeremiah mourns in these Lamentations. So Isaiah suddenly soars from Cyrus to Christ, chapter 45, saying: "Drop down dew, you heavens, from above;" and Zechariah 9:9, from Israel to Christ: "Behold," he says, "your King will come to you, just and a Savior." See Canticle of Canticles 4 and 5.
Of our mouth. — The Hebrew appaim signifies mouth, nostrils, face. Whence Aquila, Symmachus, the Chaldee translate: The breath of our nostrils; the Septuagint prosopon, that is, of our face; Tertullian reads: The breath of His person is Christ; because he himself says in Against Marcion V.11: "The breath of the Father's person is Christ." Christ is therefore called "the breath of our mouth," first, because He Himself breathes into our mind and mouth the spirit of prophecy. So Origen and Eusebius, Demonstration IV.24. For Christ as God suggested His oracles to Jeremiah and the other Prophets. Second, because Christ was the end and aim of all prophecy.
Third, Origen, Rupert, Rabanus, Hugh, Lyranus: The breath, they say, of our mouth, that is, our soul and life, is Christ; because just as without breath the body is dead, so the soul without the grace of Christ is dead. Hence Christ breathed upon the Apostles, John 20, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit," and He did this to renew life in us, just as He Himself began that life when in Genesis 2:7 He breathed into the face of man the breath of life. Fourth, Theodoret: The breath, he says, is the vehicle of divine light, namely Christ, because He illuminates the mind with the knowledge of God. St. Cyril favors this in his commentary on Hosea 5, near the end, where for "breath" he reads "light": The light of our face, he says, is Christ the Lord. To this light the shadow aptly corresponds, about which it is added: "In Your shadow we shall live among the nations." So Anna the mother calls her son Tobias "the light of her eyes, the staff of her old age, the comfort of her life," Tobit 10:4.
For a similar reason Pliny said, II.99, that the moon's star is considered the breath of all things: "For this is what saturates the earth, and approaching fills bodies, and departing empties them. Therefore with its waxing, shellfish grow, and especially those creatures which have blood feel its spirit. But also the blood of man increases and decreases with its light. Leaves also and fodder feel it, the same force penetrating all things."
Moreover, Alcazar aptly shows by many analogies that the divinity is compared to the sun, the humanity of Christ to the moon, Revelation 12:1, explaining the words: "The moon under her feet."
Christ is called also the breath of our nostrils, because, as Origen says, lovers of God continually breathe Christ, and always have Him before their eyes, in their heart and on their lips, so that with St. Bernard they say: "Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart;" second, because Christ in the most afflicted circumstances is our sole refuge and respite: so St. Thomas; third, because, as the Chaldee translates: Christ the Lord is dear and lovable and precious to us, as the breath and vital spirit which we emit through our nostrils, and as the air which we draw in, and the respiration which we take in: for just as respiration tempers the heat of the heart, and thus preserves life: so the grace of Christ tempers concupiscence, and preserves the life of grace. Finally, Christ is the spirit in whom we live, move, and have our being; so that with St. Paul we may say: "And I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me," Galatians 2:20; see what was said there; and Colossians 3:3: "Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life," etc.
Finally, the Arabic Translator of Alexandria renders this verse thus clearly: The breath of our faces, who was our form (beauty), Christ the Lord was abandoned in their offenses, and He fell into their pit, He under whose wing (protection) I said that we shall live, and in His shadow among the peoples. Less correctly the Antiochene Arabic translates: They laid snares for us, and they blew at us against the spirit of Christ the Lord. He was taken in their hunting, in whose shadow we said we would live among the nations.
Morally, let the faithful soul devoted to Christ say with Jeremiah: Christ is my spirit, my breath, my soul, my life; Christ is He whom I hope and breathe, in whom I find my rest; whom I breathe in and breathe out; Christ is dearer to me, more intimate to me, more precious to me than my very vital breath, than my very soul and life: because He is the soul of my soul: the spirit of my mind, the center of my heart. Just as therefore the soul animates and gives life to the body, and consequently informs, moves, rules, and directs each member, so that through the mouth it speaks, through the ears it hears, through the eyes it sees, through the feet it walks, etc.; so Christ animates and gives life to my soul, and through it to the body, and all senses, powers, and members; and consequently moves and directs them to every good, and to His and God's service.
For He causes the tongue to speak nothing unless it is honorable and holy, the eyes to see nothing unless it is chaste, the ears to be open only to the word of God and virtuous discourses, the heart to love nothing but heavenly things, the mind to think nothing but divine things, the feet to advance only toward good works. Thus the spirit and soul of Paul was Christ, and therefore he says: "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," Philippians 1:21. "For without Christ all that we live is vain," says St. Jerome. And: "That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts," Ephesians 3:17. And: "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's," Romans 14:8. Whence when we die, we say with St. Stephen: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And: "My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you," Galatians 4:19.
For just as a hen, by sitting on and warming eggs, hatches chicks and breathes into them her warmth, spirit, soul, and life: so Paul, as it were sitting on and warming the Galatians, as if giving birth, breathed and infused into them his warmth, his spirit, his soul, his life, that is, Christ. Thus the eminent Saints were so closely united, familiar, and intimate with Christ that it seemed not so much they as Christ who lived, breathed, spoke, worked, and suffered in them. Hence St. Dionysius and the masters of spiritual things teach that the summit of perfection consists in this union and inworking of Christ; namely, that the soul in praying, working, and suffering should behave passively rather than actively, and thus receive all of Christ's inspirations, impulses, inworkings, etc., and allow itself to be led and directed by them toward every virtue. Therefore such persons rest securely in Christ and in Christ's providence, care, and love, and cast all their anxieties, fears, and crosses upon Him, saying: "The Lord cares for me," He provides for my salvation, grace, and glory: therefore I will not fear what man, the flesh, the world, or the devil may do to me. This is the life of paradise, and the beginning of heavenly happiness.
O sweetest Jesus, be the breath of my mouth; that as often as I breathe, so often may I breathe You in and breathe You out, so often remember You, feel You, savor You, speak of You, and aspire and inhale You into all things; that, while this breath rules these limbs, You may inhabit, animate, and govern my spirit; that I may say, teach, write, and do nothing except by Your inspiration, from You, through You, and about You. For in You is everything that I can and ought to desire: You are my salvation and redemption; You are my hope and strength; You are the light of my eyes; You are my honor and glory; You are my life, my love, my delight, my eternity, my beatitude. Whether therefore I live or die, into Your hands I commend my spirit and my heart — indeed Yours, with St. Catherine of Siena.
In our sins. — In Hebrew chrimes bischitotam, which first, St. Ambrose in his commentary on Psalm 118, Sermon 11, translates as in our destruction. Second, Dionysius of Alexandria in his Reply to the Questions of Paul of Samosata translates as in our calumnies. Third, the Septuagint, in our corruptions, or, as the Roman manuscripts have, in their corruptions: for this is what the suffix in the word bischitotam signifies. But our Translator, with St. Ambrose and others, translating "their" as "our," reads bischitetenu. Fourth, the Chaldee and Vatablus translate, in their nets; the Arabic, in their hunting. Fifth, the Syriac, Pagninus, and R. Solomon, in their pits, namely of the persecuting Chaldeans (as they say), about whom the preceding verse speaks. All these meanings come from the Hebrew root schacha or schachat. Sixth, our Translator clearly and plainly renders, "in our sins," that is, as Olympiodorus and others say, because of our sins, as Isaiah says 53:5, which Theodoret explains as because of the sins and most corrupt impiety and envy of the Jews against Christ. Others explain more generally: because of the sins of all men; for Christ took these upon Himself to atone for them.
In Your shadow — in Your protection, among wicked nations, safe from evils we shall live, Song of Songs 2:3. So Rupert, Hugh, Lyranus. This meaning is the most obvious.
Second, Origen says, "in Your shadow," that is, in imitation of You: for a shadow is the image of the body whose shadow it is.
Third, the same Origen in Homily 8: "In the shadow," that is, in the name of Jesus, or in His humanity and flesh, under which as under the shadow of divinity we received spiritual life. So also St. Bernard, Sermon 28 on the Song of Songs, who thinks these words are spoken in the person of beginners: "Let those rest," he says, "at least in the shadow, who feel themselves too weak to bear the heat of the sun: and let them be nourished by the sweetness of the flesh, while they are not yet able to perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God: for I consider the shadow of Christ to be His flesh, by which even Mary was overshadowed, so that by its interposition the fervor and splendor of the spirit might be tempered for her: let those therefore be consoled meanwhile by devotion to the flesh, who do not yet have the life-giving spirit." For, as the same says in his Sermon on the Nativity of the Blessed Mary: "Among the heavenly beatitudes one lives not in shadow, but rather in splendor: In the splendors of the Saints, it says, from the womb before the daystar I begot You. But the Church says: Under the shadow of Him whom I desired I sat."
For this reason, as the same Bernard says in Sermon 6 on the Ascension: "The Apostles" before the sending of the Holy Spirit, being still imperfect, "could not endure the pure light of the spirit; but it was necessary that the Word be presented to them in flesh, the sun in a cloud, the light in a lantern, honey in wax, a candle in a lamp." And in Sermon 3: "In the shadow," he says, "not among the angels, where we shall behold the purest light with the purest eyes." So likewise St. Ambrose, on Psalm 118, Sermon 19, letter coph: "Your shadow," he says, "O Christ, was Your flesh; which cooled the heat of our desires, which checked the insolence of our vices, which quenched the fires of our lusts, which tempered the conflagrations of avarice and various passions: and what shall I say of the shadow of the Lord, when even the shadow of the Apostles healed?"
Fourth, in St. Augustine, volume IV, he takes the shadow to mean the soul of Christ: "Because," he says, "just as the shadow of a body is inseparable from the body, and unfailingly receives and carries the movements and gestures of the body; so the soul of Christ received its work and motion from the divinity and the Word, to which it inseparably adhered, and carried out all things according to His will and purpose: for in this shadow we live by faith among the nations."
Among the nations — because Christ transferred Himself and His Church from the Jews to the Gentiles, says St. Augustine in the passage already cited, and Rufinus in his Exposition of the Creed.
Verse 21: Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom.
21. Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom. — This is irony, or a concession, such as Ecclesiastes 11:9: "Rejoice, young man, in your youth," etc.; for Jeremiah here predicts the destruction of the Edomites by the same Chaldeans; because they had mocked the Jews and aided the Chaldeans in the destruction of the Jews, and this is clear from Obadiah 1:10 and Ezekiel 35:13: so Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugh, St. Thomas, Lyranus; for the Prophet returns and flies back, as is his custom, from Christ to his own times.
The Hebrews, the Chaldee, and R. Solomon take Edom to mean the Romans, whom they say are descended from the Edomites. But the first claim is false, as is clear from the preceding; the second is uncertain, indeed equally false, and rightly refuted by Lyranus and Hugh.
Who dwells in the land of Hus. — From this it is clear that the land of Hus is the same as Edom, or at least that it included Edom within itself.
You shall be made drunk and stripped bare — meaning: With this cup of fury, with this vengeance of God you shall be so filled, so afflicted, that you shall seem drunk and out of your mind, so that like a drunkard you shall be stripped, that is, despoiled of your goods, and even of your garments. Again, like a drunkard you shall uncover and expose your weak and shameful parts, that is, you shall leave bare those places of the land whose defenses have been diminished, through which the enemy shall enter. Second, you shall be stripped bare of the covering of your walls, cast down. Whence R. Abraham thinks there is an allusion here to the words which the Edomites said when Jerusalem was being destroyed: "Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof," meaning: Tear down Jerusalem to its foundations; for in both places the same Hebrew word ara is used, meaning: O Edom! You shall be razed to the foundation, because you wished this for Jerusalem and cooperated to make it happen. Third, the Septuagint translates with the Chaldee, Vatablus, and Pagninus: You shall pour out, empty out, vomit forth, namely your citizens into captivity, so that you remain empty and desolate.
Morally, let men learn here not to rejoice in the fall and ruin of the wretched, even of enemies, but to have compassion and to fear lest the same happen to themselves. So when Francis Valois, King of France, captured by Charles V, had written on the wall of his cell: "Today for me, tomorrow for you;" Charles, reading it, wrote underneath: "I am a man, and I think nothing human is foreign to me."
Verse 22: Your iniquity is accomplished
22. Your iniquity is accomplished — that is, the punishment of your iniquity, meaning: The punishment due to your iniquity, O Jerusalem, will be completed by this captivity of seventy years: but Edom, your enemy, will succeed to it, whose sins God will uncover and make known to the world through a public devastation and perpetual captivity. So Theodoret, Origen, Hugh, St. Thomas, Lyranus. Jeremiah concludes the Lamentations with consolation for the Jews, that their exile and punishment will soon end, and will be directed against their enemies the Edomites. From this it is clear that these Lamentations were written by Jeremiah after the destruction of Jerusalem.
You will object: How does he say: "He will no more carry you into captivity," when afterwards the Jews were devastated by Titus and the Romans? I reply, "no more," namely for a long time, "will He carry you into captivity:" for in the time of the Romans it was as it were another age, and another Jerusalem. Similar is Isaiah 2:4. Add that under Titus there was not properly a captivity, but a destruction of the Jews.
Second, St. Thomas explains differently: "No more," he says, will you be punished, namely for these sins; but if you commit new ones, as indeed you will, you will be punished again through Titus.
Third, Hugh and Lyranus: "No more" — supply: if you shall serve God faithfully.
Fourth, Theodoret: "He will no more," namely Nebuchadnezzar, carry you into captivity.
Allegorically, Origen and Olympiodorus say: By the death of Christ, all iniquity will be taken away from the daughter of Sion, that is, from the Church, and the Edomites, that is, impious men, will be destroyed, who have always persecuted the Church with hostility. Similar is Daniel 9:24. The Jews do not regard this happiness as already accomplished under Ezra, but still await it as future, and promise it to themselves in the earthly Jerusalem, to which they hope to be led back by their Messiah. Whence the Chaldee translates: Then He will loose your iniquity, O Synagogue, and you will be redeemed by the hands of Christ and Elijah, and the Lord will no more carry you into captivity, and in that time I will visit your iniquity, O Rome, built in Italy, and full of troops of Edomites, and the Persians will come, and they will distress you, and devastate you; because your sins have been made public before the Lord. This is the same opinion of the Rabbis; for they think they will not attain freedom except through the overthrow of Rome and the Romans. Thus the wretched comfort themselves with fabulous hopes and hatreds: for what have the Romans to do with the Edomites? And as though the Assyrians, Turks, and others had not afflicted the Jews more than the Romans.
Morally, learn here how God consoles the afflicted, the mourning, and the penitent, and how He sends joyful things after sorrowful ones, so that in tribulation we may rightly hope, and say: "After darkness I hope for light; after clouds, the sun." So when Ramisus, the general of the army of Chosroes, King of the Persians, had devastated and plundered Jerusalem in the year 614, God gave it comfort through St. John the Almoner, Archbishop of Alexandria, who sent to Jerusalem a certain pious man named Chrysippus, entrusting him with much gold, wheat, and other food and clothing, and very many beasts of burden to transport them, both to behold the devastation and also to restore those who had remained after the captivity by the things mentioned. Moreover, he also sent Theodore, Bishop of Amathus, and Anastasius, prefect of the great mount of Antony, and Gregory, Bishop of Rhinocorura, to receive those who had been led away into captivity, providing an innumerable quantity of gold. So the Life of St. John the Almoner records.
So the mourning of St. Monica for her Manichaean son Augustine was beneficial to both. For to Monica, who prayed and wept greatly, it was divinely told that where she was, there he also would be. She also heard from a bishop, whom she had tearfully begged to pray for him, that it was impossible for the son of so many tears to perish. He, at last converted by the preaching of Bishop Ambrose, not only cast off every error, but also showed the way of truth to those in error, explaining obscure things, resolving doubtful things, confirming certain things, and most fully refuting all things perverse and false. So much did the constant solicitude of a mother mourning for her son accomplish! So St. Augustine, Confessions III.12 and following.
St. Dominic, as the author of his Life records, Book I, chapter 4, the leader of the Order of Preachers, devoted himself entirely to spending himself for the salvation of his neighbors, believing himself to be truly a member of Christ if, following His example, he completely dedicated himself to winning souls. His heart was full of the holiest affections, and he was moved with wonderful piety toward all the fortunes and misfortunes of his neighbors; he was tormented by the harsh circumstances of the afflicted, tortured by the poverty of the poor and the calamities of the wretched; and above all he was wonderfully distressed and wounded in mind by zeal for perishing souls. Thus indeed, like the Prophet, Dominic, contemplating the sins of men and the miseries of the afflicted, burned inwardly in spirit, and weeping most abundantly, revealed outwardly through tears the hidden feeling of compassion within. For he had this most excellent grace of charity specially given by God, namely of weeping for sinners and the wretched, and of suffering with all the afflicted. And by these tears he brought forth so many sons, converted so many souls, and sent them to eternal rest. Did he not therefore receive an outstanding consolation for his mourning?
Judges 2: An Angel went up to the place of weeping, and consoled the weeping Hebrews. God deemed the Ninevites, mourning at the preaching of Jonah, worthy of His pardon and grace. Of the Apostles it is said in Psalm 125: "Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming, they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves." And the Bridegroom calls and consoles the mourning Bride: "Now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the time of pruning has come, etc.; arise, my love, and come."
He has uncovered (as if to say: He will reveal) your sins — God will reveal them to the whole world, when He punishes them with public destruction.