Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches that the duty of watchmen, that is, of Prophets and preachers, is to forewarn the people about impending disaster. Second, in verse 10, he invites to repentance, teaching and promising that the wicked man, if he converts, will live; and the just man, if he falls from justice, will die; and that this is fair and just. Third, in verse 21, while in Babylon, he declares that Jerusalem has already been captured and destroyed by the Chaldeans, which a messenger coming from Judea the next day confirmed to be true. Then to the Jews remaining in Judea, boasting as if they alone would possess Judea, he threatens slaughter. Finally, in verse 30, to those who heard the oracles of the Prophet as a musical song and mocked them, he announces that the destruction threatened against them will certainly come to pass (1).
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 33:1-33
1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and you shall say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man, one of the least among them, and set him over them as a watchman: 3. and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and sounds the trumpet, and warns the people: 4. Then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take heed, and the sword comes and takes him: his blood shall be upon his own head. 5. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take heed; his blood shall be upon himself: but if he had taken heed, he would have saved his own life. 6. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not sound the trumpet, and the people do not take heed, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them: he indeed is taken in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the hand of the watchman. 7. And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel: therefore hearing the word from My mouth, you shall announce it to them from Me. 8. If when I say to the wicked man: O wicked man, you shall surely die: you have not spoken to warn the wicked man from his way: that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9. But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his ways, and he does not turn from his way: he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your own soul. 10. You therefore, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities and our sins are upon us, and in them we waste away: how then can we live? 11. Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God: I do not desire the death of the wicked, but that the wicked man turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your most wicked ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel? 12. You therefore, son of man, say to the children of your people: The justice of the just man shall not deliver him on whatever day he sins: and the wickedness of the wicked man shall not harm him on whatever day he turns from his wickedness: and the just man shall not be able to live in his justice on whatever day he sins. 13. Even if I say to the just man that he shall surely live, and trusting in his justice he commits iniquity: all his acts of justice shall be given over to oblivion, and in his iniquity which he has committed, in that very iniquity he shall die. 14. But if I say to the wicked man: You shall surely die: and he does penance for his sin, and does what is right and just, 15. and that wicked man restores the pledge, and gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the commandments of life, and does nothing unjust: he shall surely live and shall not die. 16. None of his sins which he committed shall be imputed to him: he has done what is right and just, he shall surely live. 17. And the children of your people have said: The way of the Lord is not of equal weight: but their own way is unjust. 18. For when the just man departs from his justice and commits iniquities, he shall die in them. 19. And when the wicked man departs from his wickedness and does what is right and just, he shall live in them. 20. And you say: The way of the Lord is not right. I will judge each one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel. 21. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our captivity, that one who had fled from Jerusalem came to me, saying: The city has been laid waste. 22. Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before the fugitive came: and He opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning, and my mouth being opened I was silent no more. 23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 24. Son of man, those who dwell in these ruins upon the soil of Israel, speaking, say: Abraham was one man, and he possessed the land by inheritance: but we are many, the land has been given to us as a possession. 25. Therefore you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: You eat with blood, and you lift up your eyes to your uncleannesses, and you shed blood: shall you then possess the land by inheritance? 26. You have stood upon your swords, you have committed abominations, and each one has defiled his neighbour's wife: and shall you possess the land by inheritance? 27. Thus you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: As I live, those who dwell in the ruins shall fall by the sword: and he who is in the field shall be given to the beasts to be devoured: and those who are in the strongholds and caves shall die of pestilence. 28. And I will make the land a desolation and a desert, and its proud strength shall cease: and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate because there is no one to pass through them. 29. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have made their land desolate and waste because of all their abominations which they have committed. 30. And you, son of man: the children of your people, who talk about you beside the walls and in the doorways of houses, and say one to another, each man to his neighbour,
saying: Come, and let us hear what is the word going forth from the Lord. 31. And they come to you as if the people were entering, and they sit before you as my people: and they hear your words, but they do not do them: because they turn them into a song of their mouth, and their heart follows their avarice. 32. And you are to them like a musical song, which is sung with a sweet and pleasant sound: and they hear your words, but they do not do them. 33. And when what has been foretold comes to pass (for behold it is coming), then they shall know that a prophet has been among them.
Verse 2: To The Children Of Your People
2. TO THE CHILDREN OF YOUR PEOPLE — to the Jews, your fellow countrymen, as if to say: Up to now I have commanded you to prophesy against the nations; now return to your own people, and as a watchman observe their crimes and the disasters threatening because of them, and announce them.
THE LAND — This is a Hebraism. The meaning is, as if to say: When I bring the sword upon the land. For the Hebrews place the antecedent with the relative.
Verse 3: The Sword
3. THE SWORD — that is, the enemy. Note the metaphor, or allegory. For the meaning is, as if to say: Just as in time of war it is customary in a city to appoint from the lowest, that is, the humblest and most common people, a watchman to warn the citizens of the enemy's approach; and if he does not do this, the death and slaughter of the citizens will be imputed to him: but if he sounds the trumpet in advance warning, and someone does not guard himself against the enemy, his blood shall be upon himself, that is, he himself is the cause of his own death, let him impute his own death to himself: so the spiritual watchman, that is, the Prophet and preacher (such as I am, chosen and appointed by God not from common and lowly stock, but from noble, namely priestly, lineage, so that I may be heard by you more willingly and attentively), if he does not announce the threats of God and the present and future punishments to sinners, the death of the sinners will be imputed to him: but if he does announce them, and someone does not take heed for himself, his own death and perdition will be imputed to that same person.
Hence St. Clement, Book II of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 6, teaches that the Bishop must preach the Gospel. For this is the trumpet with which he sounds: "The sword," he says, "is the judgment, but the trumpet is the sacred Gospel; and the watchman is the Bishop, who presides over the judgment and the Church, who must by preaching testify and affirm concerning the judgment. For if it has not been announced and testified to the people, the sin of the ignorant will be ascribed to you." Hence morally St. Bernard says: "Concern is the duty of the Prelate, not loftiness." And Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews says: "I wonder if it happens that anyone among those who hold authority is saved, given their great slothfulness and the many threats of God against them."
St. Gregory declares brilliantly in Homily 17 on the Gospels: "You are the salt of the earth. As therefore among brute animals the block of salt ought to be, so should the priest be among the peoples. For the priest must take care what he says to each individual, how he admonishes each one, so that whoever is joined to the priest may be seasoned with the flavour of eternal life, as it were, by the touch of salt. But then we truly preach what is right to others if we demonstrate our words by deeds, if we ourselves are moved by divine love, and daily wash away with tears the stains of human life, which can by no means be traversed without sin. But then we are truly moved to compunction about ourselves if we diligently consider the deeds of the fathers who preceded us, so that from the sight of their glory, our own life may appear vile in our own eyes." And further on, groaning and complaining, and accusing himself along with others, he says: "We have fallen into external affairs, and we receive one thing from our honour, and exhibit another from the duty of our office. We abandon the ministry of preaching, and to our punishment, as I see it, we are called Bishops, who hold the name of honour, not its virtue. Those committed to us daily perish through many iniquities, and we carelessly neglect to direct them toward interior things. But how can we correct the life of another when we neglect our own? For intent upon worldly cares, we become all the more insensible within, the more zealous we appear for things without. Hence the Church well says of its ailing members: They made me keeper in the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept. Our vineyards indeed are our actions, which we cultivate by the practice of daily labour. I think, dearest brothers, that God tolerates no greater injury from others than from priests, when He sees those whom He has placed for the correction of others giving examples of wickedness from themselves; when we ourselves sin, who ought to have restrained sins. We seek no gain of souls, we devote ourselves daily to our own pursuits, we covet earthly things, we eagerly seek human glory with intent mind. And when we receive the office of sanctity, we are entangled in earthly activities. It is fulfilled in us: And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest. For the priest does not differ from the people when by no merit of his life does he surpass the conduct of the common folk. Let us implore the tears of Jeremiah, let him consider our death, and casting down say: How is the gold become dim, the finest colour is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street?"
He then adds that for this reason, by God's vengeance, temples and monasteries have been destroyed by barbarians, cities plundered, fields laid waste. And again exhorting, he says: "Let us consider, then, who has ever been converted through our tongue, who has done penance for his perverse conduct when corrected by our reproof, who has abandoned lust through our instruction, who has turned away from avarice, who from pride? Let us consider what profit we have made for God, we who, having received the talent, were sent by Him to do business; for He says: Trade until I come. What profit of souls from our trading shall we show
Him? Let us place before our eyes that dreadful day of strict accounting, when the Judge will come and reckon with the servants to whom He entrusted His talents. Behold, He will be seen in terrible majesty, among the choirs of Angels and Archangels. There Peter will appear with converted Judea, which he drew after him. There Paul, leading the converted world, so to speak. There Andrew with Achaia after him, there John with Asia, Thomas with India, leading their converts before the sight of their Judge. There all the rams of the Lord's flock will appear with their gains of souls, who by their holy preaching draw the obedient flock after them to God. When therefore so many shepherds with their flocks shall have come before the eyes of the eternal Shepherd, what shall we wretches say, who return to our Lord empty after the business; who had the name of shepherds and do not have the sheep which we ought to show from our nurturing? The elect, purified by the hands of priests, enter the heavenly homeland: and the priests themselves hasten to the punishments of hell through their wicked life. To what thing, then, to what shall I compare bad priests, if not to the water of baptism, which, washing away the sins of those baptised, sends them to the heavenly kingdom, and itself afterwards descends into the sewers?" These and many more things of Gregory are most worthy of reading and necessary to put into practice.
Verse 5: His Blood Shall Be Upon Himself
5. HIS BLOOD SHALL BE UPON HIMSELF — that is, he himself will be the cause of his own death, nor will he be able to transfer it to another (1).
Verse 6: A PERSON (that is, a man
6. A PERSON (that is, a man. It is synecdoche, as if to say: If the enemy kills any one of them), HE INDEED IN HIS INIQUITY (that is, because of his iniquity and crimes, he will be punished and will die; because God does not send enemies except on account of the sins of the people; yet) I WILL REQUIRE HIS BLOOD AT THE HAND OF THE WATCHMAN — that is, I will punish the watchman as a murderer; because the impending death of another, which he should have foretold and warned each person about, he did not prevent by preaching and warning, as far as was in his power.
Verse 7: I Have Made You A Watchman
7. I HAVE MADE YOU A WATCHMAN — O Ezekiel! He applies the general principle to the specific case, so that Ezekiel may prophesy to the Jews, and the Jews may hear him and believe him. St. Clement, Book II of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 6, from the teaching of St. Peter and the Apostles, thus decrees concerning the Bishop: "It is fitting that you Bishops be watchmen of the people, since you also have Christ as your Watchman. Therefore be you also good watchmen of the people of God. For the Lord says to each one of us through Ezekiel: Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel," etc.
Hear St. Prosper, Book I On the Contemplative Life, chapter 20: "I have made you a watchman — this, he says, is to say: if you do not announce to him his sins, if you do not reprove him so that he may turn from his wickedness and live, I will destroy both you, because you did not rebuke, and him, who sinned while you were silent, in everlasting flames. Who will be so stony, so hard as iron, that this sentence itself does not strike him?" And St. Augustine, Homily 7, among 50: "If you attend diligently," he says, "you will know that all priests are in great danger. For the Holy Spirit Himself testifies to them, saying, in Isaiah 58: Cry out, do not cease. And Ezekiel 33: If you do not announce to the wicked man his wickedness, I will require his blood at your hand. And the Apostle, Hebrews 13: They keep watch as those who must render an account for your souls." If each person can scarcely render an account for himself on the day of judgment, what will the pastor do, from whom God will require the souls of all his subjects?
Origen also writes excellently, in Homily 7 on Joshua: "You who preside over the Church are the eye of the body of Christ: see therefore that you survey all things, examine all things, and even predict things to come. You are a shepherd; you see the little sheep of the Lord, unaware of danger, being carried to precipices and hanging over cliffs, and you do not run to help? You do not call them back? You do not at least restrain them with your voice and deter them with a cry of correction? Are you so mindful of the Lord's commission that, while He left the ninety-nine in heaven and came down to earth for one little sheep that had strayed, and having found it carried it on His shoulders to heaven, we in no way at all follow the example of the Master Shepherd in caring for the little sheep?"
Again St. Bernard in the Sentences: "It is the duty of pastors," he says, "to watch over the flock for three necessary reasons: namely, for discipline, for guarding, and for prayer. For discipline, on account of the correction of morals, lest the flock entrusted to them fail from its own trouble. For guarding, on account of diabolical suggestion, lest it be seduced by the enemy's cunning. For prayer, on account of the urgency of temptations, lest it be overcome by faintheartedness. In discipline there is the rigour of justice, in guarding the spirit of counsel, in prayer the affection of compassion."
Hence, second, learn here how greatly God wills that princes and prelates diligently admonish and freely reprove sinners: for if they do not do this, He threatens them with death. For this reason Nehemiah, in chapter 5, hearing the cry of the people because of the burdens they suffered from the rich, rebuked the nobles and magistrates. He did the same because many were profaning the sabbath day by carrying loads.
Daniel discreetly but freely rebuked King Belshazzar by the example of his father. The king patiently heard him: indeed, although Daniel threatened him with destruction, he nevertheless honoured him magnificently (Daniel 5).
St. John the Baptist rebuked the Pharisees with wonderful zeal, saying: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?" (Matthew 3).
St. Stephen in the council sharply reproved the Jews, saying: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7).
St. Paul, looking at Elymas the sorcerer, who was trying to turn the proconsul Paul from the faith, said to him: "O full of all deceit and all villainy, son of the devil and enemy of all justice, do you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?"
St. Macedonius the anchorite commanded the Emperor's judges to dismount from their horses and to report to the Emperor: that he should know himself to be a man, and of the same nature as others; that therefore he should not so cruelly arrange for men, who are living and breathing images of God, to be removed from life, especially since the Emperor himself had taken it so badly that his wife's bronze image was insulted, that on that account he wished to slaughter so many men. So Theodoret in his Life, and Baronius, in the year of Christ 388.
The monk Isaac freely rebuked the Emperor Valens as he was setting out for war, and predicted his destruction. And when Valens ordered him to be seized and held in custody until he returned victorious from the war, Isaac said: "Kill me also, if you find my words to be lies." And truly so: for Valens, defeated by the Goths, was burned by them in a farmhouse. And Isaac, absent in prison, announced to his companions the day and hour of his death; indeed he was filled with the odour of his roasted flesh. So Nicephorus, Book 11, chapter 50.
St. Amandus the Bishop, spending the night in Rome in the church of St. Peter, saw St. Peter, who commanded him to go to Dagobert, king of the Franks, and rebuke him for his sins, which he did, and for this reason was expelled from the royal court. But finally, when Dagobert came to his senses, Amandus was welcomed. So his Life relates.
But let the Prelate and admonisher note that correction should not be too severe and vindictive; but gentle, and such that it appears to proceed from charity; otherwise it is harmful.
The vision of St. Carpus in the year of the Lord 59 is well known: being excessively indignant against the Gentiles because they had turned a certain faithful man from the faith, and wishing them to be cast into hell, he saw Christ extending His hand to them and saying to Carpus: "Strike against Me: for I am ready to suffer again for the salvation of men: but consider whether it is profitable for you to prefer this dwelling in hell to the fellowship of God and the angels." St. Dionysius narrates the matter at length in his epistle to Demophilus.
When the Emir of Tarsus, the Saracen commander, had set out with an army against the Romans, and had sent soldiers to plunder the town of Hercules, a certain priest named Themel, performing the unbloody sacrifice, upon learning of the Saracen invasion, left the sacrificial duty, and just as he was vested, carrying in his hands the Mystery of the Church, thus repelled those who had invaded, and wounded many; he killed not a few, with the rest put to flight. But when the Bishop on this account placed him under interdict, he sought relaxation of the interdict: after not obtaining it, he went over to the Saracens and abjured the Christian faith, and going forth with them, not only Cappadocia and the neighbouring places
did he harass, but he even reached as far as Asia Minor: and how great the losses he inflicted, it is not even right for us to write, says Curopalates, and from him Baronius, in the year of Christ 957. How much better it would have been if the Bishop had dealt gently with him, or had relaxed the interdict for one who was penitent and asking!
Verse 10: Our Sins Are Upon Us
10. OUR SINS ARE UPON US — they weigh us down and lead us to death.
Verse 11: I DO NOT DESIRE THE DEATH OF THE WICKED
11. I DO NOT DESIRE THE DEATH OF THE WICKED. — "I do not desire," namely antecedently and as far as it is on My part: because, as follows, I desire that the wicked man turn from his way and live; and therefore I send you, Ezekiel, and other Prophets and preachers to them, and I command them under penalty of death to warn, reprove, and invite them to repentance. And just as externally through preachers, so also internally through holy impulses of grace, and through terrors and consolations, which I send upon them, I invite them to the same. For without these, all external preaching would be futile and vain. But if, though aroused by Me in so many ways, they themselves stop their ears and refuse to be converted: then I consequently will and decree their death, as their deserved punishment, by which others may be terrified. Therefore it is not through God but through the sinners themselves that they remain in sins, perish and are damned. This is what the Wise Man says in Sirach 15:11: "Do not say: It is through God that it is lacking; for do not do what He hates." See what was said on chapter 18, verse 23 (1).
God responds (verse 11) that He does not desire death, but that the sinner return and live. And He makes an apostrophe to those who despair: "Turn back," etc. And to show who the wicked are to whom He speaks, the following discourse demonstrates (verse 11): "Why will you die, O house of Israel?"
And the Lord, wishing to help, "to those who are endangered by hope says Sirach 5: Do not delay to turn to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day: for His wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy you. To those who are endangered by despair, what does He say? On whatever day the wicked man is converted, I will forget all his iniquities. Therefore, for those who are endangered by despair, He proposed the harbour of forgiveness: for those who are endangered by hope and are deceived by delays, He made the day of death uncertain. You do not know when the last day will come. You are ungrateful if you wait for it, since you have today in which to correct yourself."
Verse 12: THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WICKED MAN SHALL NOT HARM HIM
12. THE WICKEDNESS OF THE WICKED MAN SHALL NOT HARM HIM ON WHATEVER DAY HE TURNS FROM HIS WICKEDNESS. — Prudently St. Augustine, Tract 33 on John, inveighing against the vices of men, volume 9: "Men," he says, "are endangered both by hoping and by despairing. By hoping, when they say: God is good, I will do what pleases me, whatever I wish. By despairing," when on account of the grave sins they have committed, "they say: We are already to be damned, so why do we not do what we want? One must fear lest hope kill you, and when you have hoped much for mercy, you fall into judgment. One must fear again lest despair kill you," etc. Hence
Verse 23: With Blood
23. WITH BLOOD — you eat flesh with blood. For the eating of blood was forbidden by law, Leviticus 19:26. Others explain it as if to say: You who while eating think about shedding the blood of your neighbour: or, after you have shed innocent blood, you take food unconcernedly with still bloodstained hands, as if you had done nothing wrong. So Maldonatus.
YOU LIFT UP YOUR EYES TO YOUR UNCLEANNESSES — with love, reverence, hope, veneration, affection, and desire you look upon your idols. To lift up one's eyes to idols, therefore, was a symbol and sign of worshipping them. So the Chaldean, Vatablus, and others. Or literally, as if to say: You look upon your lusts and your foul deeds.
Verse 26: You Have Stood Upon Your Swords
26. YOU HAVE STOOD UPON YOUR SWORDS — with your swords, as if ready by habit and custom to kill the innocent. So Rabbi David. Or, you stood leaning on your swords, as if trusting in them, and saying: "Our hand is exalted, and it was not the Lord who did all these things." Hence the Chaldean translates: You stood in your strength.
Verse 27: THOSE WHO DWELL IN THE RUINS (in the ruins of
27. THOSE WHO DWELL IN THE RUINS (in the ruins of Jerusalem) SHALL FALL BY THE SWORD. — For Gedaliah with his men was killed by Ishmael, and after him many others by the Chaldeans.
SO THAT THERE IS NO ONE.
Verse 30: Who Speak About You
30. WHO SPEAK ABOUT YOU — who speak against you and mock you, as idle people and jesters are accustomed to do in the marketplace.
Verse 31: As If The People Were Entering
31. AS IF THE PEOPLE WERE ENTERING — that is, as the people are accustomed to enter, namely in a throng, and many at once. So the Septuagint.
INTO A SONG — that is, they laugh at, despise, and turn into a joke and a song your threats and sermons.
Verse 32: And You Are To Them Like A Musical Song
32. AND YOU ARE TO THEM LIKE A MUSICAL SONG — as if to say: They hear you for the sake of pleasure and recreation, not for instruction, that they might correct their life, as if they were hearing you skillfully playing a musical instrument, delighted only by the harmony. The Septuagint says: you are to them like the sound of a psaltery; the Chaldean: like a song of instruments; Vatablus: like a song of loves, or a love-song: a song, that is, one singing love-songs, as if to say: You are a laughingstock to them, they laugh at you as if you were their entertainer. So Quintilian, Book 1, chapter 10, says: "To assign a song to enticement, and to compose a song to the lyre." Hence also the proverb: "He lives musically," that is, he lives in idleness and pleasure: but their music becomes a "Boeotian song," that is, it is turned into mourning and a funeral dirge, when grief seizes the last of joy, and the mockers feel the threats of God which they had laughed at before. Herodotus narrates in Book 2 that Cyrus, when the Ionians demanded from him the peace terms they had previously rejected, told them the fable of the piper who had played his pipe to attract the fish, but when he accomplished nothing, cast his net into the sea and drew out many: and when he saw them flapping: "Now cease," he said, "from your dancing, since when I was piping, you would not dance." So God,
Verse 13: Even If I Say To The Just Man That He Shall Surely Live
13. EVEN IF I SAY TO THE JUST MAN THAT HE SHALL SURELY LIVE — namely, if he perseveres in his justice.
Verse 14: He Does What Is Right And Just
14. HE DOES WHAT IS RIGHT AND JUST — he lives innocently and justly.
Verse 15: The Commandments Of Life
15. THE COMMANDMENTS OF LIFE — which lead to present and eternal life.
Verse 17: AND THEY SAID, etc
17. AND THEY SAID, etc. IT IS NOT OF EQUAL WEIGHT — that is, it is not fair; the Septuagint says, right, that is, it is not balanced with an equal weight of reason and justice, as if to say: God does not deal equally, not rightly with us, namely with the pious and the wicked alike. See what was said at chapter 18, toward the end.
And (that is, while) their own way is unjust — wicked, perverse, and crooked.
Verse 18: In Them
18. IN THEM — on account of them.
Verse 21: AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR, etc.
21. AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR, etc., OF OUR CAPTIVITY. — From this it is clear that Ezekiel reckons his years by the era of the deportation of Jeconiah, as I have often said above.
THE ONE WHO HAD FLED CAME TO ME — after the city of Jerusalem had already been conquered; as God had predicted to him, chapter 24, verse 23. For Jerusalem was conquered in the eleventh year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day (Jeremiah 39:2); easily therefore in the space of a year and a half Ezekiel in Babylon could have received the news of its conquest: indeed it is rather surprising that he did not receive it sooner. But given such great devastation, and the fewness of those who had escaped the disaster of Jerusalem, and the great distance between places, this is not surprising, since each person, anxious about his own safety and life, thought little about reporting this disaster in Babylon.
Verse 22: THE HAND OF THE LORD (that is, the power, efficacy
22. THE HAND OF THE LORD (that is, the power, efficacy, and operation of the Lord) had breathed upon me the day before with the prophetic spirit, so that I might openly proclaim in Babylon the recently accomplished destruction of Jerusalem, and might not be silent about what a messenger arriving the next day announced had indeed been completed and was true. For this is what it says:
AND HE OPENED (the Lord) MY MOUTH — that is, He gave me freedom and boldness to speak.
Verse 24: In These Ruins
24. IN THESE RUINS — in the ruins of Jerusalem and Judea destroyed by the Chaldeans, as if to say: These people left behind by the Chaldeans in Judea, though they ought to grieve, rejoice because they, being few, are to possess all of Judea, and they say this is not surprising, because God promised it to Abraham alone: and they are many compared to Abraham.
When the Jews rejected the pipe of Ezekiel and the Prophets, He sent the hook of the Chaldeans, by which they were captured and killed. Hence Themistocles said that in governing, two powers must be employed, persuasion and force, so that those who despised the sweetness of the former might feel the goads of the latter. This was illustrated by the fable (the counterpart and unlike likeness of our present one) of Phaedrus, Book 3, chapter 15, about the cricket, which, when asked by the owl to be quiet and not disturb its sleep, and it refused, was invited by the owl to Pallas's nectar, to quench the thirst it had contracted by singing; and when it came, was killed by the owl. "Thus dead, it granted what alive it had refused." So the wicked who in life refused to obey God and the Prophets, in dying will obey. They sing their wanton songs, they refuse to be silent at God's command, who therefore punishing them with death imposes silence upon them.
Such people are many today as well, who with itching ears disdain serious and effective sermons, and pursue elegant and curious ones; like the Athenians in the time of St. Paul, who devoted themselves to nothing else than saying or hearing something new (Acts 17). But let the preacher of God not lose heart on this account, nor cease from preaching, nor again change the manner of his sermon to accommodate their ears and tickle them; but let him persevere in his duty, his station, and his spirit, nor doubt that God will gather abundant fruit from this labour and ministry. And even if he converts only a few, still neither will the sermon be deprived of fruit, nor will he himself be cheated of his fitting reward. For the conversion and salvation of one soul is a worthy price for all one's labour. Cicero relates in his book On Famous Orators that Antimachus, the noble poet, when he had assembled an audience and was reading his poem to them, and all except Plato alone had left as he was speaking, said: "I shall read nonetheless, for Plato alone is to me the equivalent of all."