PROPHETIA JEREMIAE

(Vide Operum ejus tomo IX, col. 847.)

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This translation is Jerome's. If anything in it should give trouble, let it be examined according to the Hebrew manuscripts. There is another, that of the Seventy translators, in customary use among the Churches: which, although it has some things otherwise than is found in the Hebrew manuscripts, yet each of the two, that is, the one according to the Seventy and the one according to the Hebrew, has been confirmed by apostolic authority. Not by error nor by any higher censure, but by a settled purpose, the Seventy are understood to have said or woven together some things otherwise. And we give this warning beforehand for this reason, that no one should wish to correct the one out of the other: because the truth of each of them in its own kind is to be observed.

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Jeremiah the Anathothite, which is a little village three miles distant from Jerusalem, fell asleep at Thamnas in Egypt, overwhelmed with stones by the people. And he lies buried in that place where of old Pharao the king had dwelt. And because, the serpents having been driven away from that place at his petition, he makes the Egyptians safe from the touch of asps, the Egyptians there venerate him with great religious awe.

VERS. 1.-- The words of Jeremiah. (HIER.) The Seventy: The word of God, because the words of Jeremiah are the word of the Lord.

VERS. 2.-- In the days, etc. (ID). Wonderful is the clemency of God. Though the captivity is now near, and the Babylonian army 9Cis entrenched about Jerusalem, none the less he calls the people to repentance, choosing rather to save the converted than to destroy the offenders.

VERS. 5.-- Before I formed thee. Not that he existed before conception, as the heretics suspect; but because the Lord foreknew that he would be, he to whom the things to be done are already done; who calls those things which are not as those which are.

10AVERS. 6.-- Ah, ah, ah, Lord God. He shrinks from an office which for his age he cannot sustain. With the same modesty with which Moses says that he is of a slender and thin voice; but the one, as being of great and sturdy age, is rebuked, while to this one, as to a boy, pardon is given, who is adorned with modesty and shame.

VERS. 9.-- And he sent, etc. (ID.) It is to be noted that here the hand of God is sent, etc., as far as that he may receive confidence in preaching.

(ID.) Upon four sad things two joyful ones follow, etc., as far as and he is bidden to give it to all the nations to drink.

VERS. 11.-- A rod of watchings. (ID.) [Vulg. Jer. 1:11 virgam vigilantem, "a watching rod"] The rod of watchings, etc., as far as is related to have blossomed at the resurrection of the Lord.

VERS. 13.-- And it came to pass. By degrees sinners are 10Brebuked; they who would not, when the rod smote, be corrected or amended, are sent into the boiling pot, of which Ezechiel speaks more fully.

A boiling pot. Hence the Lord says to Job, etc., as far as but this is a violent and perverse interpretation.

VERS. 14.-- The inhabitants of the earth. Concerning whom in the Apocalypse, etc., as far as and Peter: To the elect strangers of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

VERS. 17.-- Thou therefore gird up, etc. (ID.) Job also is commanded, etc., as far as but a whole city which is set upon a mountain cannot be hid.

VERS. 18.-- And as a pillar. Of which the Apostle: The pillar and ground of the truth (I Tim.). And Peter and James and John, who were thought to be the pillars 10Cof the Church, [Vulg. Gal. 2:9 qui videbantur columnae esse, "who seemed to be pillars", with no "of the Church"] gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship.

To the kings of Juda. (ID.) If ever the kings of Juda, etc., as far as let him hope in the Lord that he may conquer.

VERS. 2.-- Thy youth. (HIER.) This is read more fully in Ezechiel, where the Lord joins Jerusalem to himself 11Ain wedlock, and under the person of a wife unites her to his own embraces. Or, that he may show a more ardent affection, he calls her a maiden and betrothed. For what we have not yet obtained, that we desire the more ardently.

VERS. 3.-- All they that devour. (HIER.) Even as they who devour the firstfruits, etc., as far as the firstfruits are owed to the priests, not to enemies.

VERS. 4.-- Israel. (ID.) Both names are set down, Jacob and Israel, not according to the two and the ten tribes, but according to the whole people, since Jacob himself was afterwards called Israel.

VERS. 5.-- What have your fathers found. God speaks of an offence committed by the fathers, not because the sins of the fathers are imputed to the sons, but because the sons, having the likeness of their fathers, are punished both for their own crime and for their parents'. For the sake of 11Bthe holy fathers God has mercy on the sons.

VERS. 6.-- Neither did man dwell. (ID.) He who is ever hastening to greater things, etc., as far as but a struggle, and an uncertain issue of things to come.

VERS. 7.-- And I brought you in, as though he should say: In return for the labour of a most hard journey, etc., as far as and we make his inheritance abominable.

VERS. 10.-- Cethim. (ID.) Cethim, that is, either of Italy or of the western parts, because near to Judaea is the island of Cyprus, in which there is a city of this name, whence Zeno the prince of the Stoics.

And consider. (ID.) We can say this against those who follow vices with greater zeal than virtues, to whom it is said: I speak a human thing, because of the infirmity of your flesh; for as you have yielded your members 11Cto serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity (Rom. VI), etc.

VERS. 11.-- My people. Like the anthropophormitae, who, taking occasion from this testimony: Let us make man to our image and likeness (Gen. I), stubbornly contend that the boundless and simple substance of the Godhead is composed of our lineaments and of a human shaping.

VERS. 12.-- Be astonished, O ye heavens. (ID.) The Seventy: The heaven was astonished, etc., as far as and both the heavens and the heaven are called by the same name, as Thebae, Athenae.

VERS. 13.-- They have forsaken me. I who gave the commandment, saying: I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And according to that which in the same place is 11Dwritten: Let there be no strange gods before me, [Vulg. Exod. 20:3 Non habebis deos alienos coram me, "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me"] in whose stead he followed after devils.

The fountain of living water. (ID.) A fountain is perpetual and has living waters. Cisterns and pools are filled from torrents and troubled waters by the rains.

VERS. 15.-- Is he a servant. (ID.) From this passage of Juda, lifted up into pride, etc., as far as Cursed be Chanaam, a servant shall he be to his brethren fratibus (Gen. IX). [Vulg. Gen. 9:25 Chanaan, servus servorum erit fratribus suis, "a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren"]

Lions. According to the anagogy, we understand lions, etc., as far as All that commit adultery, their hearts are as an oven (Osee VII). [Vulg. Osee 7:4 quasi clibanus succensus a coquente, "as an oven heated by the baker"]

VERS. 16.-- Unto the crown of the head. According to that: From the sole of the foot unto the crown of the head, etc., as far as who defile the purity of the Church with their own foulness.

12AVERS. 19.-- Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee. (ID.) Note that wickedness and prevarication, etc., as far as because he hath forsaken the Lord his God.

VERS. 20.-- Of old thou hast broken. (ID.) This can be said of him, etc., as far as and they make their feet to straddle for every one that passeth by.

VERS. 21.-- A chosen vineyard. In the Hebrew, soreth, which is a kind of the choicest vine, from whose hoe [sarculo; read surculo, "shoot"] he planted Israel, and he marvels how the true seed and the chosen vineyard, turned into bitterness, has been made a stranger.

How then art thou turned? Let no man be secure if the planting, etc., as far as if it shall have abided in that whereunto it was planted.

VERS. 22.-- Borith. (ID.) The Hebrew word itself. But the Seventy, the fullers' herb, which in Palestine grows in moist and green places, and for the washing away of filth 12Bhas the same power as nitre.

VERS. 23.-- See thy ways, that is, look upon the valley of the sons of Ennon, which is watered by the springs of Siloe, there thou shalt discern the shrine of Baal, whom, having forsaken God, thou hast worshipped.

VERS. 25.-- Keep back thy foot. About to keep the pasch, etc., as far as which ought to be trodden and crushed by the evangelical foot.

VERS. 27.-- They have turned. Casting my words behind them. For when a master gives command, etc., as far as but they show the swelling of their mind by the gesture of their body.

VERS. 28.-- According to the number. The several cities worshipped gods, whether the same or different, so that not even in impiety might they seem to have agreement; but that superstition, fighting against itself, might follow a divergent error.

12CVERS. 29.-- Why will you? Human perversity is prone to excuse itself: and what it deservedly bears, it seems to itself to bear unjustly.

VERS. 30.-- Your children. That by the stripes of your children you might learn that you were to be healed by a sterner medicine, and lest perchance you should say, Thou wouldst not rebuke us when we sinned.

VERS. 31.-- To see the word of the Lord. Moses saw the voice of the Lord. And John the apostle says that he saw and handled the Word of God.

VERS. 32.-- Will she forget? (ID.) He loses his ornament who withdraws from the Lord, and the understanding of doctrine, which is signified in the breast: whence, John at the supper leaned upon the breast of the Lord (Joan. XIII), and among other things the little breast 12Dof the victims is kept for the priests.

VERS. 34.-- In all. In these, or another reading, under every oak; for the Hebrew signifies both the oak and these things. But in pleasant places, in shade and leaves, they used to sacrifice.

VERS. 35.-- And thou hast said. These things are to be used among those, etc., as far as not to mourn, but to hold out excuses.

Behold I will contend in judgment. (ID.) Let the new heresy sprung from the old hear that it is the very greatest wrath of God, to be unwilling to confess sin humbly, but shamelessly to boast one's righteousness.

VERS. 36.-- And from Egypt. That the onset of the Egyptians, etc., as far as they are rebuked therefore because, having forsaken God, they place their hope in men.

VERS. 37.-- Upon thy head. (ID.) After the manner of mourners, 13Aas Thamar, corrupted by Amnon, strewed ashes upon her head, and laid her hands above it, and so returned into her own house.

VERS. 1.-- It is commonly said: if a man put away. Behold, concerning the woman who has played the harlot and been forsaken, etc., as far as how much the more, being despised, he does not yet disdain to call her.

If a man put away his wife. (HIER.) This we can say against those who, forsaking the faith of the Lord and entangled in the errors of the heretics, after many fornications and the deceiving of their own souls, feign that they return to the former truth, not that they may lay aside the poisons of their breast, but that they may instil them into others.

But thou hast played the harlot. Or: Thou hast had many shepherds unto thy giving of offence, that is, that thou mightest offend God; 13Band they who ought to have been masters, that they might keep others from all error, stood forth as authors of impiety.

Yet return. If thou wert returning to me, saith the Lord. [Vulg. Jer. 3:1 tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus, "yet return to me, saith the Lord" — an imperative, where Migne prints the indicative revertebaris behind si] He reproves the shamelessness of the harlot, who after adultery dares to return to her husband.

VERS. 2.-- Lift up thine eyes. According to the anagogy: To those who promise that they will forsake the errors of the heretics, it is commanded that they lift up their eyes straight before them. For unless they shall have seen what is right, they cannot condemn their former depravity.

As a robber. Even as robbers are wont at eventide, etc., as far as and he besets the ways for those going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

VERS. 3.-- The forehead of a woman. (ID.) This we can 13Csay of the heretics who glory in their errors. Because she said above: I have not sinned, he reproves her as a bold woman who is ashamed to turn aside to no man.

VERS. 4.-- Thou art the guide of my virginity. Wilt thou be angry for ever, etc., as far as so much the more wretched is the harlot who will not receive healing.

VERS. 6.-- Hast thou seen what she hath done? (ID.) He makes a comparison, etc., as far as and this is what he says: Hast thou seen what she hath done?

The adversary Israel. (ID.) [Vulg. Jer. 3:6 aversatrix Israel, "the rebel Israel"] He speaks under the figure of two sisters who were begotten of the one stock of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The former he calls the adversary, she who set up golden calves in Dan and in Bethel.

VERS. 7.-- And she saw. (ID.) The torments of some are the remedies of others, etc., as far as and set for the zeal 13Dand emulation of the Lord.

VERS. 11.-- She hath justified her soul. Sodom thy sister is justified out of thee. And elsewhere: This man went down into his house justified rather than the other (Luc. XVIII).

VERS. 12.-- And I will not turn away my face. Whence: Turn away thy face (Psal. L), etc., as far as of whom it is truly said: Who devour my people as the food of bread.

VERS. 13.-- But yet know. As though he should say, when I shall have had mercy on thee, think not thyself just; but ever remember thine iniquity, and let down the necks of thy pride, that thou who hast offended through arrogance mayest be able through humility to appease God.

VERS. 14.-- Return ye. (HIER.) The Jews think 14Athat this has been fulfilled, etc., as far as Unless the Lord of sabaoth had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we had been like to Gomorrha (Rom. IX).

VERS. 16.-- And when you shall be multiplied. (ID.) Others refer this to the end of times, etc., as far as but they shall follow after spiritual food.

VERS. 17. They shall call. They who once said, Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, shine forth (Psal. LXXIX), etc. Between the two Cherubim upon the propitiatory the majesty of the Lord appeared, and spoke to Moses and to the priests, but now otherwise, in the time of faith.

VERS. 18.-- In those days. This is properly fulfilled at the coming of Christ, when the twelve tribes together believe the Gospel, and forsake the land of the north and the empire of the devil.

14BVERS. 19.-- Among the children. (HIER.) i In the number of the children who have believed from among the Gentiles. For as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God (Joan. I).

VERS. 20.-- A woman her lover. (ID) Once mingled with him, seeing him, etc., as far as she despised the Lord and Saviour, unto her own destruction.

VERS. 21.-- A voice was heard in the ways. Gladly does the Lord receive the penitent, he runs to meet the son wasted with want and squalor, he clothes him with his former garments, he restores grace to him that returns, if only he come back to the father with weeping and wailing.

VERS 22.-- Your rebellions. Others, conversions: although we are converted to him by our own will, yet unless he shall have drawn us, and strengthened our desire by his own guarding, we cannot be 14Csaved. We understand it both of the people of the Jews returning to him, and of the heretics who have forsaken the Lord.

VERS. 25.-- We shall sleep. The voice of Israel, who heard not his God, and of the penitent heretic. For it is a part of salvation to know one's sins and to confess them; whence: Tell thou first thy iniquities, that thou mayest be justified (Ibid.). [Vulg. Isa. 43:26 narra si quid habes ut justificeris, "tell if thou hast anything, that thou mayest be justified"]

VERS. 1.-- If thou wilt return. (HIER.) The Seventy: If Israel shall be converted, saith the Lord, let him be converted to me. Another reading, converteris, that is, if thou desirest salvation, and sayest that thou hast sinned, be fully converted, that is, believe him whom thou hast denied. If thou wilt take away. It is plain, because when we are moved and say: But my feet were almost moved, my steps had well nigh slipped (Psal. LXXII). 14DNot out of the weakness of nature do we suffer this, but because we set our stumbling-blocks and our idols against God.

VERS. 2.-- And thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, etc. (ID.) For a reproach, namely, of the dead gods, by whom every idolater swears.

Break up anew. (ID.) By rooting out the briers and thorns, etc., as far as a mind full of the troubles of the world cannot receive the seed of God and bring forth fruit. Be ye circumcised. (ID.) It is commanded to the man of Juda and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they forsake the letter that killeth, and follow the spirit that quickeneth. Lest perhaps. (ID.) He warns and foretells, lest he be compelled to do that which we approve in the Ninivites, to whom the sentence was foretold, that by repentance they might turn aside the impending wrath.

15AVERS. 7.-- The lion is come up. (HIER.) If any man is a favourer or an author of perverse teachings, of him it can be said, the lion is come up out of his den, etc.

And the robber. Of whom it is said, He shall have dominion over all his enemies (Psal. IX). Who glories, saying: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it (Job II). For who is there whom the poisons of the devil touch not, save he who says: For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing? (Job. XIV.) Out of his own place. Out of the abyss, in which he is to be bound, into which he entreats that he be not sent.

VERS. 8.-- For this. Without repentance we cannot escape the most savage beast, and unless we be converted to God not only in mind, but also in body. For while the Church is laid waste, the wrath of God is open.

15BVERS. 9.-- Of the princes. (HIER.) Who ought to have taught the law, and to have defended their subjects from the lion.

The priests. Who are thought to be wise: For God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world, because through it they knew not God. The prophets shall be amazed, etc. Aquila, they shall be out of their mind. For who would not go mad, who would not lose heart, when he shall have beheld his princes and kings and priests, once his own, under the lion.

VERS. 10.-- And I said: Alas, alas, alas, Lord God. Because he said above, in that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, etc., and now he says, the heart of the king shall perish, etc., the prophet is troubled, and thinks that God has lied to him, and does not understand that the one is to be long after, this in the time next at hand.

VERS. 11.-- A burning wind. (HIER.) When, namely, 15Cthe sword shall have reached unto the soul, etc., as far as by no means to the people, but to me shall it come, that my wheat may be scattered.

VERS. 12.-- A full spirit. Certain men so expound this passage, that after the threshing-floor has been cleansed, the remnant may be saved. Whence it is written: The spirit of fulness shall come to me; [Vulg. Jer. 4:12 Spiritus plenus ex his veniet mihi, "a full wind out of these shall come to me"] whence the evangelist, Of his fulness we all have received (Joan. I). And now I. An aposiopesis, as Virgil says (AENEID.): Whom I egos; but it is better to settle the troubled waves. The prophet, being about to speak prosperous things, holds himself back, and has joined sad things to sad.

VERS. 13.-- Behold as, etc. He beholds things to come as though present; and he describes the army of the Babylonians, 15Dthe din of whose chariots and wheels is compared to a most savage tempest, and the swiftness of whose horses to eagles. The army of the devil, that is, the chariots and horsemen of Pharao, which the churchman understanding says, Woe to us, because we are laid waste. Believing that saying. When thou shalt have been converted and shalt have groaned, thou shalt be saved. Woe to us, because the prophet has pointed it out as with a finger, the people groans. And it perceives them not as things to come, but as already done, saying: Woe to us.

VERS. 14.-- Wash from wickedness. The prophet answers, nay rather the Lord in the prophet, Wash. Whence: Wash yourselves, be clean (Isa. I), that is, with the water of baptism, with the water of saving repentance.

VERS. 15.-- For a voice of one declaring. He speaks according to the situation 16Aof Judaea. For the tribe of Dan, beside Mount Libanus and the city which is now called Paneas, looks toward the north, whence Nabuchodonosor was to come. From the mountain. For after the tribe of Dan follows the land of Ephraim, through which one comes into Jerusalem. Allegorically. (HIER.) The judgment of the Lord comes upon the land that offends against the Lord, with all abundance of punishment.

VERS. 16.-- Watchers. Adversaries, namely, who so diligently beset it, and shut in the city with fortifications, that thou wouldst think them keepers of vineyards and fields rather than adversaries. The Lord wills that all the nations round about know his sentence, and that, Jerusalem being scourged, all men receive discipline.

VERS. 18.-- Thy ways. (HIER.) Whatever of evil befalls us, etc., as far as how much less against men 16Bonce of the city of God?

VERS. 19.-- My bowels. (ID.) The Lord speaks this, when he sees sedition and discord in the Church, and the partridge crying in her conventicles, and the rest of God turned into wars. Whence there follows:

VERS. 21.-- How long shall I see. The voice of the prophet, and through the prophet of God, grieving over the breaking of his people, whose bowels are torn after the manner of a man, the Saviour wept at the death of Lazarus, and over Jerusalem. Nor does he hide his grief in silence, and the blare of the trumpet and the din of battles disturbs his affection, while evils are heaped upon evils, and the whole land of the two tribes is laid waste.

VERS. 22.-- For my people is foolish. (HIER.) Because 16Cthe princes of my people have not known, etc., as far as whom he ever desired to see? They are wise, etc. (ID.) Malicious wise men, etc., as far as it is called not wisdom, but craft and cunning.

VERS. 23.-- I beheld the earth. The prophet discerns in spirit the things which are to come, that the people, hearing, may be terrified and do penance, that it may not suffer what it dreads. Whatever is said according to the history concerning Judaea and Jerusalem, let us refer to the Church of God: which, when it shall have offended God, and been laid waste by vices and by persecution, where once was the company of virtues and gladness, there may a multitude of sins and mourning be found.

VERS. 27.-- For thus saith. (HIER.) The clemency of the Lord is mingled with wrath: the land is forsaken, but it is not consumed, that there may remain those who understand his clemency 16D.

VERS. 28.-- I have thought and have not repented, etc. That I might take away the sentence foretold, and that the wrath of him that rages might not come to its end; the Lord threatened through Jonas, but the greatness of tears and groanings overcame the impending sword.

VERS. 29.-- At the voice of the horseman. He describes the army of the raging ones, for fear of whom the people left the city and climbed the steep places: but yet it could not turn aside the wrath of God. All this can be referred to the Church, when it shall have offended God, and been delivered over to adversaries in the time of persecution, or to vices and sins.

VERS. 30.-- But thou being laid waste. (HIER.) This same thing is to be said against those who have lost the affections of wedlock and 17Athe chastity of the true faith. When thou shalt clothe thyself. For these things thou preparest even for thy lovers, and a narrow bed cannot hold them both. Nor does God receive the ornaments with which before thou didst please thy lovers.

VERS. 31.-- For a voice as of, etc. (HIER.) Two examples are set down, both of a woman in travail and of one mourning, that whatever a woman suffers, either in her offspring or in the death of her children, Jerusalem may suffer in her peoples.

VERS. 1.-- Go about the ways. (HIER.) Great is the love of justice, that it is not according to the questioning of Abraham and the answer of God, that for ten just men God should set free the city, and that already on the point of perishing; but if he shall 17Bfind one who doeth judgment and seeketh faith.

VERS. 3.-- O Lord, thine eyes. (ID.) The works of the Jews (in which they exulted according to the ceremonies of the law) are condemned through the faith of Christians, through which by grace we have been saved. Thou hast struck them. (GREG.) Every divine striking, etc., as far as and there is one scourge which begins in time, and is consummated in eternal punishments.

And they have not grieved. Punishments are brought in that vices may be corrected, but Jerusalem is not amended, not even through torments.

VERS. 4.-- Perhaps they are poor. (HIER.) As that, I will send my son, perhaps they will reverence him (Matth. XXI). [Vulg. Matt. 21:37 Verebuntur filium meum, without "perhaps"; the word stands at Luc. 20:13] God uses the speech of one doubting, that out of the ambiguity of the sentence and the suspending of the words 17Cthe free will of man may be shown.

VERS. 5.-- Behold rather, etc. According to the tropology. They who are thought great in the Church, because they loose the yoke and break the bonds, are delivered over to the shame of the passions, that they may do the things which are not fitting. Bonds. (HIER.) Of the precepts of God, not of the Pharisees, of which it is said: Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us (Psal. I).

VERS. 6.-- A leopard watching. It signifies the onset of Alexander, who, when divers nations had been subdued to him, took up arms against the Medes and Persians like a spotted leopard. But because he weaves his history not of the future, but of the past, or of things now on the very point of coming, therefore he is silent concerning the Roman empire.

17DVERS. 7.-- I fed them to the full. (HIER.) Let him hear this who, riches having been received, serve luxury.

VERS. 8.-- Lovers of horses. (ID.) To horses, when they do not see a beast of burden, etc., as far as He was likened to senseless beasts, and was made like to them (Psal. XLVIII). [Vulg. Psal. 48:13 Comparatus est jumentis insipientibus, "he was compared to senseless beasts"]

VERS. 10.-- And scatter. (ID.) Let the Church hear how quickly the walls, etc., as far as because of the clemency of the judge, not because of the merit of the sinners.

VERS. 12.-- They have denied the Lord, etc. (ID.) Let the Church, negligent and rejecting the providence of God, hear this: that she shall suffer both the sword and famine, unless she shall have believed the things to come which are spoken.

VERS. 14.-- Behold I give, etc. (ID.) That the unbelieving 18Amay be burned up by thy word, etc., as far as if we shall have built upon the foundation of Christ.

VERS. 15.-- Thou shalt not know the tongue, etc. (ID.) In the Hebrew: Thou shalt not understand what he speaketh. For it is a solace in evils, if thou hast enemies whom thou art able to entreat, who understand thy prayers.

VERS. 17.-- And he shall eat up the corn, etc. He describes the waste of the land, the slaying of many, the driving off of the cattle, the overthrow of cities and of walls, in that all things are taken by the sword of the enemy.

VERS. 18.-- Nevertheless, etc. (HIER.) The remnant, namely, shall be saved, either of those who were led into Babylon, or of those left for the tillage of the land of Judaea; or of those who after the heat of persecution, whether by flight or by confession, kept faith with God.

18BVERS. 19.-- But if you shall say. (ID.) Tropologically. This can be taken of the heretics, etc., as far as dwell, nay rather serve those whose gods you worship.

VERS. 21.-- Hear, O foolish people. He speaks properly to Juda and to the house of Jacob. For Israel had now for a long time been in exile among the Assyrians. Who hast no heart. He gives to understand that without a commandment we ought naturally to understand the things which are right. Who having, etc. To which is like: they have eyes, and shall not see, etc., Let them that make them become like unto them, and all such as trust in them (Psal. CXIII).

VERS. 25.-- Your iniquities, etc. (HIER.) If ever the sea pass over its bounds, etc., as far as to which labourers in the vineyard one and the same reward of eternity is promised.

18CVERS. 27.-- As a snare. While they hunt one another to the death, and fill their own houses with the losses and expenses of others, according to that saying of the philosophers, Every rich man is either unjust, or the heir of one unjust. And would that these things were done only by those who are without, and not by us, and that of those who come to us they should look not upon the hands, but upon the faces.

VERS. 28.-- They are grown fat, etc. To which is like: He grew fat, he grew thick, he grew broad, he forsook God his maker (Deut. XXXII). And: The beloved grew fat and kicked (Ibid.). And they are grown gross, etc. Trusting in divine things: as though he should say: Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for very many years: take thy rest, eat and drink (Luc. XII).

18DVERS. 1.-- Strengthen yourselves, etc. (HIER.) Because at any moment now Nabuchodonosor is to come from the north, etc., as far as among these there is another village, set upon a mountain, which in the Syriac and Hebrew tongue is named Betacaren.

VERS. 2.-- Comely. The beauty of Jerusalem is described, which is Sion itself, so that the one name sounds the whole city, the other the citadel of the city. For Sion is interpreted citadel, that is, watchtower, and is compared to a comely woman.

VERS. 3.-- Shepherds. (HIER.) The word is here set down elegantly enough, etc., as far as of whom some make manifest for the defiling of the harlot, others for the overthrow of the city.

19AVERS. 4.-- Woe to us, etc. (HIER.) While those say: Rise up and let us go up, these answer: Woe to us, etc. And this is the sense: If by day we suffer this, what shall we suffer by night?

VERS. 5.-- Rise up. They who said, rise up together and go up, etc., rouse themselves by those words to war: Rise up, and let us go up in the night, that the adversaries may know that the victory is not of the time, but of the virtues.

VERS. 7.-- As a cistern maketh her water cold. Without the heat of faith: the Church, fervent in spirit: but the wicked, cold; whence: The charity of many shall grow cold (Matth. XIV). And that: I shall be likened to them that go down into the pit (Psal. XXVIII). Let it suffice to have said once that "lacum" sounds not a pool, according to the Greeks, but a cistern, which in the Syriac and Hebrew 19Bspeech is called Gab.

VERS. 8.-- Be thou instructed. (HIER.) By this we learn that God scourgeth, etc., as far as through every grief and scourge thou shalt be instructed, Jerusalem.

VERS. 9.-- Even to the cluster. (ID.) As if, when Jerusalem shall have been laid waste, etc., as far as as it were into a basket or into a winepress.

VERS. 10.-- Uncircumcised ears, etc. It is to be noted that circumcision is spoken of in the Scriptures in three ways: in the foreskin, in the heart, in the ears, whence: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matth. XI).

VERS. 11.-- Therefore with fury. (HIER.) As if he should say: I look upon the coming wrath of God, and I am full of his fury and indignation, and I can bear no more: 19Cnor do I dare to entreat God for sinners.

VERS. 12.-- I will stretch out. (HIER.) The Seventy: I will lift up: but each is the bearing of one striking; whence: And his hand is stretched out still or, raised on high (Isa. V).

VERS. 14.-- And they healed the breach. (ID.) As if he should say: When they were doing such great evils, etc., as far as rather making them ready for punishment and for the anger of God.

VERS. 15.-- They were confounded. (ID.) This is to be read more expressly, etc., as far as nay rather they increased their sin by contempt.

They knew not. They would not; but by excessive contempt and by the vice of violent evil they could not even understand. A great impiety, not only not to beware of sins, but not even to be willing to understand them, and to have no distinction 19Dbetween good and evil works.

VERS. 16.-- Stand ye upon the ways. Let us read the Gospel parable, in which the good merchant sold all his pearls that he might buy one precious one: that, namely, through the patriarchs and the prophets we may come to him who saith: I am the way, the truth and the life (Joan. XIV), whence, Stand ye upon the ways, etc.

VERS. 17.-- The voice of the trumpet. (HIER.) The voice of the trumpet, the commandments of the Gospel or the teaching of the apostles: whence, Go up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, thou that announcest to Jerusalem. [Vulg. Is 40:9 Super montem excelsum ascende, tu qui evangelizas Sion ; exalta in fortitudine vocem tuam, qui evangelizas Jerusalem, "lift up thy voice with strength … thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem"; the trumpet is drawn in from Is 58:1]

VERS. 20.-- To what purpose do ye bring me frankincense. (ID.) As if he should say: In vain for me, for the compounding of ointments, etc., as far 20Aas since the Scripture saith, The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches (Prov. XIII).

VERS. 21.-- Fathers and sons. (ID.) The sons follow the blasphemies of the fathers, daily taking upon themselves that imprecation: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matth. XXVII).

VERS. 22.-- Behold a people, etc. Properly this is said of the Babylonians, who are to come against Jerusalem. And the whole array of armour is described, and the onset of the fighters, that, moved by terror, they may do penance and appease the most merciful God.

VERS. 23.-- His voice like, etc. Allegorically. (HIER.) We can turn this testimony to another use, etc., as far as and like the waves of a most violent sea, so they overwhelm those who resist.

20BVERS. 25.-- Go not forth, (ID.) The Gospel also teacheth, etc., as far as but let them guard themselves most firmly with fortifications.

VERS. 27.-- And thou shalt prove. (ID.) As if he should say: That when thou shalt have proved and known the way, etc., as far as who like deaf asps stop their ears, that they may not hear the voice of the charmers.

All these. (GREG., Moral., l. XVIII, c. 14). They are princes departing from the Lord and disobedient, etc., as far as he who is at variance with the unity of the Church loveth not his neighbour.

VERS. 2.-- Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, etc., (HIER.) Through which the multitude of the people enters in to entreat the Lord, etc., as far as and by the occasion 20Cand the throng of the place they are compelled to hear the word of the Lord.

VERS. 4.-- The temple of the Lord. (ID.) This can fit those virgins, etc., as far as in which is true faith, holy conversation and the choir of all the virtues.

VERS. 8.-- Behold you trust in yourselves. (ID.) These sins show that in vain do they have confidence in the temple, etc., as far as and they break out into so great a madness that they boast themselves delivered, because they have departed from the worship of God.

VERS. 11.-- A den of thieves, etc. (ID.) From this place I think is taken what is said in the Gospel, etc., as far as my eyes have beheld what you think hidden.

20DVERS. 12.-- Go ye to my place in Silo, etc. (ID.) Where, namely, my first tabernacle was, etc., as far as When the Son of man shall come, thinkest thou he shall find faith upon the earth (Luc. XVIII).

VERS. 13.-- Rising early to you, etc. (ID.) Not that there is for him any time apart from the daybreak, etc., as far as they are called sons of the light and not of the night nor of the darkness, nor sleeping, they, namely, who keep the commandments of God.

VERS. 14.-- As I did to Silo. I cast off Silo, being about to cast off the temple also: I cast off the ten tribes, being about to cast off the two tribes also. Whatever he threateneth to that people, let us fear for ourselves also, lest we do the like.

VERS. 16.-- Do not thou therefore, etc. (HIER.) Lest 21Athe prophet, praying, should seem not to obtain what he asks, the Lord commands, etc., as far as this impenitence, this blasphemy, or word against the Holy Spirit hath not remission for ever.

VERS. 17.-- Dost thou not see. Lest we think God cruel, who suffers not even to be entreated, he gives the reason why he does not hear: Dost thou not see?

VERS. 20.-- Is enkindled. (HIER.) As if he should say: What I long would not do, by the multitude of your sins I am compelled to do upon men and upon beasts. When God is angry, both men and the things that are man's feel a like severity.

VERS. 22.-- Because I have not spoken. (ID.) He plainly shows that he first gave the decalogue, etc., as far as therefore the evangelical grace was necessary, which 21Bshould preserve them not by their own merit, but by the mercy of God.

VERS. 27.-- And thou shalt speak to them. (ID.) Hesitate not to harden your necks, etc., as far as now at least speak to them my words.

VERS. 28.-- This is the nation. This was done in the time of the prophets, and went before in shadow. In Christ it was fully accomplished, whose discipline they would not hear, whence it is elegantly inferred: Faith is perished and is taken away. Which is properly the Christians'.

VERS. 29.-- Cut off the hair. Among the ancients it was the custom of mourners to shear the hair, now, on the contrary, to let the hair grow long is the token of grief.

VERS. 31.-- The high places of Tophet. (HIER.) Tophet in the Hebrew, breadth in the Latin, which is a place, etc., as far as 21Cfor neither, if a dog or an ass or any unclean animal whatsoever had first met the master, ought he to have offered it.

VERS. 32.-- Behold the days shall come. (ID.) When he departed from fealty to his lord, then the siege began. But when the king of Egypt came and would deliver Jerusalem, Nabuchodonosor put him to flight. Afterwards Nabuzardan besieged her, and took her, and led Sedecias into Antioch, and there deprived.

VERS. 34.-- And I will cause to cease. When the place of idolatry shall have been turned into graves, so that where they had offended God, there their corpses should lie unburied.

VERS. 1.-- In that time, etc. (HIER.) All things 21Dwhich the prophetic discourse describes, etc., as far as the gold and silver which were laid in the tombs after the ancient manner.

VERS. 4.-- And thou shalt say. After so great evils he calls to penance those who remained. Or, before there come the things which he has threatened, he exhorts to conversion, and points out the place of penance. He is turned away, or he turneth away. As if he should say: One converted can by prayers withstand and turn away the anger of God.

VERS. 5.-- Why then, etc. (HIER.) The more I called them to penance, the more they went back, not so much out of zeal for sinning as for overcoming me.

VERS. 6.-- No man speaketh that which is good, etc. (ID.) Every kind of men is prone to evil (Gen. VIII). In 22Athe time of the Saviour, all have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good (Psal. XIII). Whence he himself: Save me, O Lord, for the holy man hath failed (Ibid. XI). Where then are they who say that it is placed in our own power to be free of every sin?

VERS. 7.-- The kite in the air. (ID.) As if he should say: Even the birds know their own times, so that they know when, hastening to warm places, they ought to shun the harshness of winter, and at the beginning of spring to return to their accustomed regions.

VERS. 10.-- Therefore will I give. (ID.) They have received their reward, and they who cast away the word of the Lord, they themselves are cast away.

VERS. 11.-- And they healed the breach. (ID.) As if he should say: Good physicians desired to heal others' wounds with words, etc., as far as and the shame of those who deceive, 22Bsaying, peace, peace, etc.

VERS. 12.-- Therefore shall they fall. (ID.) That they whose dignity was eminent should be mingled also in the ruin of the people, because, namely, from the least even to the greatest all study avarice (Jer. VI). [Vulg. Jr 6:13 a minore quippe usque ad majorem omnes avaritiae student; the verse under gloss, Jr 8:10, reads a minimo usque ad maximum omnes avaritiam sequuntur]

VERS. 13.-- There is no grape, etc. As if he should say: When the seasons pass, and autumn succeeds to summer, and in winter the leaves of the trees fall: from afar you shall see all things and shall not take food from them.

VERS. 14.-- Why do we sit. The voice of the people is brought in, answering, and confessing their vices, and exhorting one another. Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced city. Or the one city Jerusalem: for the others had already been taken.

VERS. 16.-- From Dan was heard. Where the river Jordan 22Crises: Nabuchodonosor is described as coming from Dan through Phoenicia with his army.

VERS. 17.-- I will send serpents among you. (ID.) That they may strike you incurably, etc., as far as they who despise the words of the Lord are delivered over to adverse powers.

VERS. 18.-- My sorrow. (ID.) These things are to be read in the person of the Lord, bewailing the overthrow of Jerusalem, and not bearing her misery.

VERS. 19.-- And behold the voice. He describes the weeping and the howling of the city when the enemies have entered in. The enemies coming from a far land cry out against the city, or the citizens against the enemies.

VERS. 20.-- The harvest is past. The words of the people shut up in Jerusalem by the long siege, because changed are the 22Dtimes, the circuit of the year rolled round. But our hope is void.

VERS. 21.-- For the breach. The Lord's answer, who in the affliction of Jerusalem is seen to be afflicted.

VERS. 1.-- Who will give. (HIER.) The king of Jerusalem, the city being besieged by the enemies, etc., as far as but this can be understood as well in the person of the Lord as in the person of the prophet.

VERS. 2.-- Who will give me, etc. As if he should say: It is better to dwell in the wilderness than to abide among such great crimes of men. Whence in the Gospel: How long shall I suffer you? (Matth. XVII.) And elsewhere: He that 23Aunderstandeth shall sit still, for the time is very evil (Thren. III; Mich. II).

VERS. 3.-- Because from evil, etc. (HIER.) Sinners pass over from evil to evil, etc., as far as and the tongue of them that arm themselves unto blasphemy.

VERS. 4.-- Every one, etc. (GREG.) The crafty enemy, when he sees himself driven out from the hearts of the good, seeks out those who are greatly loved by them, and, flattering, speaks through the words of those who are loved more than the rest, so that, while the force of love pierces the heart, the sword of persuasion may easily break through to the inmost parts of the inward uprightness. Of his neighbour. (HIER.) Because a man's enemies are they of his own household (Mich. VI). The favour of brethren also is rare. And the father shall deliver up the son, and the son the father. And two against three, and three against two shall be divided (Luc. XII).

23BVERS. 5.-- They have laboured to do wickedly. (GREG.) As if it were openly said: They who could without labour have been friends of the truth, labour that they may sin: and while they refuse to live simply, they exact by labours that they should die.

VERS. 7.-- And I will try them. (HIER.) In the furnace of tribulation. The furnace trieth the potter's vessels (Eccli. XXVII): that whatsoever of adulterate matter is in us may be burnt away. For the silver of the Lord is tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times (Psal. XI).

VERS. 9.-- Shall it be for these things (ID.) He often repeats this little verse, that, their evils being enumerated, he may infer that he does justly what he does.

VERS. 10.-- Upon the mountains. (ID.) Tropologically. Upon 23Cthe mountains weeping is taken up, etc., as far as they who can ascend on high, even to the simple, have gone back from God.

VERS. 11.-- And I will give Jerusalem. (ID.) When the ecclesiastical teachers fail, etc., as far as and he who saith, I will dwell in them and walk among them (Lev. XXVI).

VERS. 14.-- Of their own heart. Not in our own heart, but in the Lord must we trust. The heart of man is depraved, out of which come forth depraved thoughts.

VERS. 15.-- Therefore thus saith the Lord. It can be prophesied of the near time, in which they were taken captive by the Chaldeans: and properly of this, in which they are dispersed among all the nations and scattered over the whole world.

VERS. 16.-- The sword. (HIER.) Either material or spiritual, by which they are divided, that they may not consent unto evil, 23Dbut that in this, that they are evil, they may perish.

VERS. 17.-- And call ye. Call the mourning women because of the captivity to come, etc., as far as with modulated voice they may melt the people into tears.

VERS. 18.-- Our eyes. Therefore: or God himself joins himself to the affection of one suffering with them, so that what the people endures, he himself is said to endure and to feel.

VERS. 19.-- How are we wasted. Let the crowds of believers say this in persecution, which were therefore laid waste and confounded, because they forsook the law of the Lord, and abandoned their tabernacles.

VERS. 20.-- Hear therefore. Above he said: call the mourning women, etc. Now he addresses them as though present, to the reproach of the priests, and of the teachers, and of 24Aall men: so that, they ceasing from teaching, the women may hear the word of the Lord.

VERS. 21.-- For death is come up. Because so great will be the strength and the swiftness of the enemies, that they will not wait for the door, but will climb up through the windows and the roofs.

VERS. 22.-- Speak: Thus saith, etc. (HIER.) The Hebrew word which is written with three letters, etc., as far as so that there is none to bury them that fall.

VERS. 24.-- Who do mercy. (ID.) Although certain things seem unjust, yet all things, etc., as far as He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (II Cor. X).

VERS. 25.-- Behold the days shall come. (ID.) Many of the nations, and chiefly those bordering upon Judaea and Palestine, etc., as far as for circumcision profiteth not, unless thou keep the law.

• 24B

VERS. 1.-- Hear ye the word, etc. (HIER.) He speaks properly against those, etc., as far as and that from the causes of heavenly things they may govern earthly ones.

VERS. 3.-- Wood. (ID.) What we have said concerning idols, etc., as far as it is proper also to them who are ignorant of God.

VERS. 4.-- With silver and gold. (ID.) That by the glitter of the material he may seize the simple and deceive them. This error has reached even to us, that we should reckon religion to lie in riches.

VERS. 5.-- Fear them not therefore. Most of the nations are wont to worship demons lest they should do harm, and to entreat others that they may do good: whence Virgil, Aeneid. III: A black beast for Winter, a white for the favouring Zephyrs.

VERS. 6.-- There is none like to thee. There is none like to thee, 24CO Lord, among the gods, namely those which are feigned by the heretics.

VERS. 7.-- For thine is. (HIER.) Although the heretics, according to the wisdom of the world, etc., as far as I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject (I Cor. I).

VERS. 8.-- Wrapped up. (ID.) Otherwise it deceiveth not; falsehood is wrapped up, truth, etc., as far as while they display upon themselves the colour of heaven, and promise heavenly things.

VERS. 11, 12.-- The heavens and the earth. Which the fellow workers of Christ, who are called gods and lords, in part made through ecclesiastical teaching.

Who maketh. (ORIG., Homil. in Jer.) The Lord who maketh the earth in strength, etc. The prophet taking up, as it were, three powers of God, etc., as far as but if heavenly things, they carry their treasurer up to the region near 24Dto themselves.

VERS. 13.-- The clouds. (HIER.) Which know, namely, from whom they should withhold the rains and upon whom bestow them: Moses spoke as a cloud, who said, Let the earth look for my words as for rain (Exod. IX). And Isaias: Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken (Isa. I). [Vulg. Is 1:2 Audite, caeli, et auribus percipe, terra, quoniam Dominus locutus est, "Hear, ye heavens" — plural, where Migne prints the singular] From the ends. He who will be first among you, let him be the last of all. For otherwise no man becometh a cloud.

Lightnings into rains. (ORIG.) It is reported that lightnings are begotten from the collision of clouds or of showers, etc., as far as Jeremiah also and Baruch, conversing together, send forth glittering lightnings.

And he bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. (ID.) The winds which sweep the lands 25Aare not in the treasures of God, etc., as far as thence it arises that one is wise, another faithful, and the like.

VERS. 14.-- Foolish. (HIER.) Foolish in comparison with God, etc., as far as for God took upon him all contrary things, that he might dissolve contraries.

It is false. (ORIG.) That which he fashions in his own order. For that which he hath cast is false, just as every man is foolish through knowledge, and foolish also is that which he makes.

There is no spirit. (HIER.) It is to be noted that in this chapter wind and spirit are called among the Hebrews by one name, ruah.

VERS. 15.-- They are vain. For either they are rustic, like wood, or ringing with fair speech, like silver; or, feigned out of their own conceit, they lie, like 25Bgold. In the time of visitation. For a time heresy avails, that they who are approved may be made manifest (I Cor. XI). But when the visitation of God shall have come, and his eye shall have looked upon all things, all shall fall silent.

VERS. 17.-- Gather up. (HIER.) Jerusalem is commanded to gather into the most fortified city whatsoever substance she has without, and long beforehand to prepare food against the siege. For God has threatened not, as before, things to come long after, but things to come at once.

VERS. 19.-- Woe is me, etc. (ID.) Jerusalem complains that she is grievously afflicted, and with an incurable wound.

VERS. 20.-- The tabernacle. (ID.) Jerusalem bewails her own overthrow, made so easy, etc., as far as a great part of them was slain and blotted 25Cout.

VERS. 21.-- The flock. (ID.) The Seventy: cattle. Which cannot stand according to the history: for in so long a siege the cattle would not have lasted.

VERS. 22.-- The voice of a report. (ID.) All these things which the past and the present discourse describes, etc., as far as who have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord.

Of dragons. Or of ostriches. Symmachus, of sirens, so that in the place of men there dwell, namely, dragons, and all venomous things: or ostriches, which, familiar with solitude, are born and nourished in the deserts. Or Sirens, that is to say, certain monsters and phantoms of demons.

VERS. 23.-- I know, etc. Let them blush who say that each man is governed by his own judgment. For not of a man 25Dis his way, etc.; whence David: By the Lord shall the steps of a man be directed (Psal. XXXVI).

VERS. 24.-- In judgment, and not in fury. (HIER). As if, the things which we suffer are just, etc., as far as but the nations, which have not known thee, deserve not judgment, but indignation.

VERS. 1.-- The Word. (ORIG., Hom. in Ezech.) Which, namely, was in the beginning with God, etc., as far as and he saith to his disciples: I am with you even to the consummation of the world (Matth. XXVIII).

The word that was made. (HIER.) It is not set down in the title at what time, etc., as far as the discourse is directed to the men of Juda and Jerusalem.

26AVERS. 2.-- Hear ye, etc., The men of Juda, etc. Allegorically. The Christians, namely, for Christ arose out of Juda. Of whom it is truly said: Juda, thy brethren shall praise thee: thy hands shall be upon the back of thy enemies (Gen. XLIX.), etc. [Vulg. Gn 49:8 manus tua in cervicibus inimicorum tuorum, "thy hand on the necks of thy enemies"] Jerusalem. Of the Church, which is the city of the great king, and the vision of peace. For peace is multiplied and beheld in her.

VERS. 3.-- Cursed. (ORIG.) For the Jews are cursed, who heard not the testament of God, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. But we who believe in Christ obey his testament which is handed down through Moses: and this is said to us, that we be not cursed.

VERS. 4.-- I brought them out. (HIER., ORIG.) Us also God brought out of Egypt and out of the iron furnace, etc., 26Bas far as in the law, the obedience of the commandments, here, the likeness of God.

And you shall be. He is not the God of all, but only of those to whom he bestows himself; whence: I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel (Ezech. XIV). And elsewhere also he saith, I will be their God (Exod. III.) And, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Which the Saviour, expounding it, saith: But he is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Luc. XXIX). He is dead, namely, the sinner.

VERS. 5.-- With milk and honey. (HIER.) By honey and milk he signifies the abundance of all things, etc., as far as or, so be it, Lord, that is, let what thou hast given always remain.

VERS. 7.-- Because protesting, etc. As far as that they should do these 26Cthings, they are not found in the Septuagint. What follows: And they did it not, from them: is placed at the end of the preceding chapter. Hear ye the words of this covenant, etc.

VERS. 9.-- A conspiracy is found. (ORIG.) A binding together is found among the men of Juda, etc. If we shall have sinned, etc., as far as and thou shalt be made a son of God in Christ Jesus.

VERS. 11.-- They shall cry. In their necessities, and I will not hear, because they would not hear me. Which Saul also suffered, etc., as far as what is now said pertains to Juda and Jerusalem, upon whom the captivity presses.

VERS. 13.-- According to the number. (ID.) In the book of Kings and of Paralipomenon we find Juda and Jeremiah much multc worse things, etc., as far as they had so many altars to their own confusion, on which they might sacrifice to idols.

VERS. 14.-- Do thou therefore. (ID.) The prophet is commanded, 26Dnot to pray for those against whom, etc., as far as from these things we learn that in vain is entreaty made for anyone who does not deserve to receive.

VERS. 15.-- What is it, etc. (ID.) Let us say this to the princes of the churches and to the rich, who, while they seize what is another's and take not away the malices of their own heart, think that they merit the clemency of God. Shall the holy flesh. But now the names of those who make offering are publicly recited, and the redemption of sins is turned into praise: nor is the memory of the evangelical widow kept, who cast into the treasury more than all.

VERS. 16.-- At the voice of speech. (HIER.) As if he should say: Exalted through pride, not humbly hast thou understood thy creator and thy ruler, but, having spoken loftily against 27Athe Lord, kindled by his fire thou shalt be reduced to nothing.

VERS. 17.-- And the Lord. As if: Thy lord called thee a plentiful olive tree, fair, fruitful, and planted thee: but because of the voice of the great speech his flame came down upon thee.

VERS. 18.-- But thou. (HIER.) The Jews and our own judaizers refer this to the person of Jeremiah, etc., as far as unless perhaps they should say that the people thought it, and did it not? (ORIG.) But thou, O Lord, etc. Or make it known to me, O Lord, and I shall know (Psal. CXLII). According to the Psalmist, The Lord teacheth man knowledge (Ibid. XCIII). Whence: Be not ye called masters upon the earth, for one is your master who is in heaven (Matth. XXIII), [Vulg. Mt 23:8 Vos autem nolite vocari Rabbi : unus est enim magister vester, and Mt 23:9 Et patrem nolite vocare vobis super terram : unus est enim pater vester qui in caelis est; Migne's one sentence conflates the two verses] who, namely, instructs men, etc., as far as 27Bbut when the wood of Jesus Christ comes, and the word of the Saviour descends into it, it is made sweet.

VERS. 20.-- For to thee. (HIER.) Because I am crucified not by my own merit, but by their crime. The prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not anything (Joan. XIV).

VERS. 22.-- Therefore thus saith the Lord. This seems contrary to the sentence above, in which, etc., as far as and what in the present is fulfilled in Jeremiah, this is prophesied for the future concerning the Lord.

VERS. 1.-- Thou indeed art just, etc. (HIER.) The disputation is against all who act wickedly, as in that of the Psalmist: How good is God to Israel, to them that are upright (Psal. LXXII), etc. But chiefly against the heretics.

27CVERS. 3.-- And thou, O Lord. (ID.) As if he should say: It is not a scandal if the ungodly or the heretics flourish for a time, etc., as far as when they shall have been, namely, slain with the ecclesiastical sword.

VERS. 5.-- If with feet. As if he should say: If the captivity of the neighbouring nations has wearied thee, that of the Moabites, namely, of the Philistines, of the Ammonites, of the Idumaeans, who because of the difficulty of their places are fitted not so much for battle as for brigandage. How. That is, what wilt thou do, when thou shalt have come to captivity in Chaldea? For the Chaldeans and the Persians delight in horses.

VERS. 6.-- For even thy brethren, etc. (HIER.) This can be understood of Christ, against whom his brethren cried out: Crucify him: We have no king but Caesar (Joan. XIX).

27DVERS. 7.-- I have forsaken my house. Whence, Your house shall be left to you desolate (Luc. XIII): And: Arise, let us go hence (Joan. XIV).

VERS. 8.-- My inheritance, etc. (ORIG.) It is not to be wondered at if the inheritance was then compared to a savage beast, since even to this day there are lions in the wood anathematizing Christ, and blaspheming, and lying in wait for the faithful.

VERS. 9.-- Is my inheritance a speckled bird? The Seventy: Is my inheritance to me a hyena's den? (HIER.) The hyena, a nocturnal beast, devours the carcases of the dead, and digs up bodies out of the graves and feeds upon all filth, to whose uncleanness Israel is compared.

28AVERS. 10.-- Many pastors, etc. (HIER.) Let them hear these things who wish to be princes, etc., as far as who have scattered the people of God.

VERS. 11.-- With desolation. (ORIG.) Because the Jews have filled up the measure of their fathers and have added to the slaying of the prophets that of the Saviour also, etc, as far as We sow not in the flesh, but in the spirit, that we may not reap corruption of the flesh, but of the spirit life everlasting (I Cor. XVII).

VERS. 12.-- There is no peace, etc. (HIER.) The flesh cannot receive the peace of God into itself. For the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God, and they who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. VIII).

VERS. 13.-- They have sown. This also is said to churchmen, etc., as far as and: To whom more is committed, 28Bmore is required of him (Sap. VI).

From the fruits. The Seventy. From your boasting. (HIER.) In precious garments, namely, in adorned houses, in many possessions, in worldly wisdom: But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (I Cor. I). And, in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. VI). And, in his own infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in him (II Cor. XI).

VERS. 14.-- Neighbours. (HIER.) To the letter, the Idumaeans, the Philistines, Moab, and Ammon. Allegorically. Heretics who are called Christians, and who become borderers upon the holy land rather than dwellers in it.

VERS. 1.-- Thus saith the Lord. (HIER.) A holy man 28Cis called the girdle of God, who was taken out of the slime of the earth, etc., as far as in a manner swallowed up by the multitude of innumerable nations and reckoned as nothing.

VERS. 5.-- And I hid it, etc. (ORIG.) The Jews showed themselves unworthy of God, and were cast off by him, etc., as far as if, cleaving to the Lord, he shall not have been one spirit in Christ.

VERS. 7.-- And I took the girdle ,umbare. (HIER.) In captivity. But it signifies that the prophet, etc., as far as therefore he wastes away in eternal perdition.

VERS. 12.-- Every bottle. (ID.) This is the drunkenness by which we forget the precepts of God, and by vices and by sins, etc., as far as Miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. VII.)

VERS. 14.-- And I will scatter. (ID.) With a reasonable anger, 28Dthat I may bring them back from error by griefs and torments, etc., as far as and all the people of Jerusalem is to be made drunk with the cup of Babylon and to be overwhelmed with captivity.

VERS. 16.-- Give ye to the Lord, etc. (ID.) He calls them to penance, before they are led into Babylon, etc., as far as and Sophonias: A day of darkness and of whirlwind (Soph. I).

VERS. 17.-- But if thou wilt not hear this. (ID.) Let us say to the Jews and to our own judaizers, who the letter, etc., as far as the soul of the prophet shall weep before the face of their pride.

He is taken. By the devil or by Nabuchodonosor, or crushed. Once Israel was the flock of the Lord. But because they judged themselves unworthy of salvation, the word was turned 29Ato the Gentiles. Let the wild olive, grafted contrary to nature into the good olive, beware, lest it too be crushed.

VERS. 18.-- Say to the king and to the queen. (HIER.) The Hebrew word Gebira, Aquila and Symmachus have rendered Dominatricem and dominam, etc., as far as and that certain angels suffered for the redemption of demons, and that after the judgment the gates of hell are shut and none is punished there, which Origen seems to hold, which is frivolous.

VERS. 21.-- For thou hast taught them, etc. (ID.) When Ezechias showed the treasure to the messenger of the king of Babylon. For thou, etc. Let the negligent Church hear this, which teaches her own adversaries how they may seize her with a spiritual captivity, and tear her flock with a beastly cruelty.

29BVERS. 22.-- Because of the multitude, etc. (ID.) Hence we learn that, so long as sins are lesser, etc., as far as These shall rise again unto life everlasting, and those unto reproach and everlasting confusion (Dan. XII). [Vulg. Dn 12:2 alii in vitam aeternam, et alii in opprobrium ut videant semper, "others unto reproach, to see it always"]

VERS. 23.-- If the Ethiopian can change, etc. (ID.) This testimony they use who attempt to assert diverse natures, etc., as far as Let not the wise man therefore glory in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength (Jer. IX), and the like, which things the power of Christ works in all.

VERS. 26.-- I have made naked. (ID.) Let us ask Christ that neither in the present nor in the future he uncover our hinder parts, but that he blot out our iniquities, and suffer not our crimes to appear.

VERS. 27.-- Upon the hills. Allegorically. He committeth fornication upon the hills and in the fields, and is never cleansed, who, 29Cwith neck stiffened through pride, is not humbled under the mighty hand of God, but trusts in his own crimes.

VERS. 1.-- And her gates, etc. (HIER.) The senses, namely, through which discipline is conceived in the mind, etc., as far as and even to the present day the barrenness of the rains makes want not only of crops, but also of drink.

VERS. 4.-- The husbandmen. Of whom one saith: You are God's husbandry (I Cor. III). And elsewhere: We are God's fellow workers.

VERS. 5.-- For even the hind, etc. (GREG.) For even the hind (vel cervae) hath calved in the field (vel pepererunt). This sentence is said of teachers who incautiously forsake the sons they have begotten, etc., as far as it is written, Bear ye 29Done another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ (Gal. VI).

VERS. 6.-- They snuffed up the wind. (ID.) The perverse, like dragons, draw in the wind, when they are puffed up with malicious pride.

Their eyes failed. (HIER.) Not being able to discern the clear light, etc., as far as there are those who may learn, not those who may teach.

VERS. 8.-- The expectation of Israel. (ID.) Let us also say, in the time of drought and of the scarcity of water, We have sinned against thee, and have done evil before thee (Psal. L), we await thy coming, who savest Israel, not by his own merit, but by thy grace.

As a tenant. (GREG.) For he who as Lord was 30Anot heard, is not the possessor of the field, but a tenant, etc., as far as and of a wayfarer passing by, who neglects the things that meet him in the ways.

And as a wayfarer. (HIER.) The Jews expound this place thus: Why dost thou separate thyself, etc., as far as Israel being left, he should make for the Gentiles, as from place to place, from people to people, from the temple to the Church.

VERS. 10.-- To move their feet, etc. (ID.) It is to be noted in the holy Scriptures that the feet of sinners are always moved, etc., as far as and they who built the tower of Babylon moved their feet from the East.

VERS. 11.-- Pray not. (ID.) It is foolish to pray for him who has sinned unto death, etc., as far as for he who is once destined to the sword and to famine and to pestilence 30Bis rescued by no prayers: whence, Pray not, etc.

VERS. 13.-- The prophets say to them, etc. Let those masters hear these things who promise prosperity to sinners and to such as remain in their vices. Many such there are today, who care not whence the offering may come, consulting their own avarice; as one is said to have done, who persuaded them to confess their secret sins before God in front of the altar, while he himself sat over against them: and he heard, and gave this security. Only make large almsgivings, and it is enough.

VERS. 15.-- Thus saith the Lord. (HIER.) Let the false prophets beware, lest they who by deceiving allure the people of God themselves also perish with the deceived, and lie unburied, and there be none to cover their shame with the dust of penance.

30CVERS. 17.-- Let my eyes shed down tears. (ID.) This place is understood in two ways. That either God himself, etc., as far as the virgin bruised, the daughter smitten, the people blotted out.

VERS. 18.-- If I go forth, etc. (ID.) Let our prophets and priests hear this, that neither without nor within, etc., as far as they who prophesied prosperous things, and ought to have opened the commandments of the law, have gone into a land which they knew not. That is, they have been led captive.

VERS. 19.-- Hast thou utterly cast off, etc. (HIER.) So that where there had been the worship of God and tranquillity, there should be sedition and the roaring of the enemy. If at any time our Sion and our Juda, become abominable, is cast off, let us by no means wonder, but let us say what follows.

VERS. 20.-- We acknowledge, O Lord, etc. (ID.) As if: Both we and our fathers with the same madness the precepts of God 30Dhave neglected, etc., as far as they had not yet come to the heap of iniquity: which was completed in the death of Christ.

VERS. 21.-- Of the throne of glory. Of the temple, or of any holy one, in whom, as it is written, Thou hast dashed his throne to the ground. [Vulg. Ps 88:45 sedem ejus in terram collisisti, "thou hast dashed his seat to the earth"] Then is it dashed down and destroyed, when God is offended in it by the multitude of sins. But because it is lost by fault, it is upheld by the clemency of the Lord, which is changed by the severity of the sentence, if the Lord should make void his covenant by which he has promised us salvation.

VERS. 22.-- Are there any among the graven things, etc. (HIER.) After many and various discourses he returns to the title of the prophecy, etc., as far as thou alone art he who canst instruct thy 31Apeople, and the divisions of graces to them that wait for thee.

VERS. 1.-- And the Lord said. (GREG., Moral., lib. IX, c. 12.) So many fathers being passed over, Moses and Samuel alone are brought into the midst, etc., as far as the other is cast out from his princedom, and he says: Far be this sin from me, that I should cease to pray for you (I Reg. XII).

VERS. 3.-- And I will visit upon them. (HIER.) The four plagues to which the people of Juda was delivered up, the prophet Ezechiel also sets forth, the sword, etc., as far as so that, the Creator being neglected, not the whole creation should rise up against sinners.

VERS. 4.-- And I will give them up to fervour, etc. (ID.) This 31Bwas in part fulfilled under the Babylonians, etc., as far as if children and grandchildren shall have done the like, they come down upon the descendants. This Manasses was most wicked, he cut Isaias with a wooden serta, he led his son Amon through the fire to the honour of the idols and of Topheth.

VERS. 5.-- For who shall have pity on thee? No one, when God has been offended, can make entreaty for the outrages of sinners, because neither can a creature be as merciful as the Creator, nor can a stranger have pity on those outside him as the Lord has upon his own.

VERS. 6.-- Thou art gone backward, etc. (HIER.) Whereas, according to the Apostle, forgetting the things behind he ought to have stretched himself out to the things before, he longed for the flesh of Egypt.

VERS. 8.-- They are multiplied unto me. (HIER.) By divers medicines God desires to save those that sin, that 31Cthey who had despised him when he coaxed them might fear him when he threatens.

VERS. 9.-- Seven. (ID.) The Hebrew word Saba, sounds either seven, or an oath, or very many. Whence, etc., as far as she is confounded for ever, destroying her own people with the spiritual sword.

VERS. 10.-- Woe is me, my mother, etc. (ID.) This can be understood synecdochically of Jeremias, who not in the whole round of the earth, etc., as far as but we find that Jeremias also often, in this volume, entreated for the people.

VERS. 11.-- If thy remnants be not unto good. The Lord's answer to that which Jeremias had said above: Woe is me, my mother, etc. As if to say: Consider not the present things only, but the things to come. For thy remnants are unto good, etc. In the present 31Dalso, when enemies desired to oppress thee, I met thee, and protected thee. If thy remnants be not unto good. These things can also be said of Christ according to his humanity, If thy remnants be not unto good. These things can be taken of Jeremias, who in the worst of times, and with captivity impending, was compelled to prophesy, and to suffer hard things from a people not believing.

VERS. 12.-- Shall iron be leagued with iron. (HIER.) As if to say: Nor grieve thou that thy people is an enemy, etc., as far as who has come into so great a malice that he is girt about with a harder metal, that is, with brass.

VERS. 13.-- And thy treasures. (ORIG.) One treasure is Jeremias, another Isaias, or Moses and the rest. These 32Atreasures God took away from the Jews, and gave to us: whence, The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof (Matth. XXI). First the oracles of God were entrusted to them (I Cor. I), and afterwards they were given to us. They have indeed the law and the prophets, but they do not understand.

In all thy sins. (HIER.) That is, on account of thy sins, which have reached unto all thy borders, etc., as far as and Christ, rising again, appeared no more to his murderers, but only to those that believed.

VERS. 14.-- It shall burn. It cannot be quenched, because thou hast furnished the matter of the burning, so that my fire may consume thy wood which is in thee, and the hay and the stubble. The cause of the burning, therefore, is not in the Lord, but in those who supply fuel to the fire.

32BVERS. 15.-- Take me not away in thy patience. The voice of Christ. As if to say: Thou hast always been long-suffering toward this offending people, but because it has raised up its rashness against me also, be long-suffering no longer. But if thou consider the times of the Lord's passion and of the ruin of Jerusalem, thou wilt see that he was altogether patient. From the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar to the overthrow of the temple forty-two years are reckoned. Because a space of repentance had to be given on account of those who were to believe through the apostles.

VERS. 17.-- I sat not, etc. (HIER.) The Hebrews judge that these things are spoken in the person of Jerusalem, in that she sat alone, filled with bitterness, etc., as far as which will show by the deed that all bitterness was after the likeness of flowing waters.

32CFrom the face of thy hand. (ORIG.) The face of the hand of God is the very stroke of his just judgment, which the man that is proud, etc., as far as and if we do not cease from sinning, he adds yet further eternal punishments.

I sat alone. (GREG., Moral., lib. IV, c. 35.) As if to say: While I consider what I now suffer, through the trial of judgment, from the tumult of temporal desires, trembling I seek the retirement of the mind, because still more keenly do I dread those eternal punishments which thou threatenest.

VERS. 19.-- If thou separate, etc. (ID., Moral., lib. XVIII, c. 23.) For the present world is worthless to God, precious to him is, etc., as far as who by speaking what things he can plucks the human soul away from the love of the present age.

As my mouth. (HIER.) Let us consider how great a reward the discourse of a teacher has, if it shall have willed to deliver from error 32Dany man, and to call him back from the number of those that sin.

VERS. 1, 2.-- And the word came, etc. (HIER.) With captivity at hand, that thou be not tormented, beyond thine own grief, by the miseries of a wife also and of children. Rightly therefore does the Apostle bid, Because the time is short and the consummation is at hand, that they who have wives be as those that have not (I Cor. VII) [Vulg. 1 Cor. 7:29 reliquum est, ut et qui habent uxores, tamquam non habentes sint, without et consummatio imminet and in a different word order].

VERS. 4.-- By the deaths of sicknesses. (ID.) Note that to waste away with a long infirmity is the wrath of God: whence Joram the son of Josaphat is consumed by infirmity. And the Apostle says: Therefore are there among you many infirm and weak (I Cor. XI), etc.

33AVERS. 5.-- Enter not into the house. (HIER.) Whence: With such a one not even to take food (I Cor. V). Nor oughtest thou to say Hail to him. To the apostles also it was forbidden, etc., as far as for it is one thing to die by the common law of nature, another to have fallen by the sentence of God. Jeremias was sent young by the Lord to preach, whence he says, A a a Lord, I know not how to speak. And he was a virgin and chaste, and without children, that he might preach the more unhindered.

VERS. 6.-- Neither shall they be lamented. (ID.) There was a manner among the ancients, and it remains unto this day, etc., as far as and daily they cast down in the Church the corpses of the deceived?

VERS. 9.-- Behold I will take away. So too from a sinning Church God takes away all joy and all gladness. Of which it is said: Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice (Philip. IV).

33BVERS. 12.-- But you also, etc. (ID.) Lest perchance they should say: The sentence is unjust, that the father ate a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.

VERS. 14.-- Behold the days come, etc. (ID.) Miracles are foretold which, according to the letter, were in part fulfilled under Zorobabel and Jesus the high priest, etc., as far as he brought them back into their own land, that is, the Church which he gave to their fathers, that is, to the apostles and to apostolic men.

VERS. 16.-- Behold I will send fishers. The Jews think that by the name of fishers the Chaldeans are signified, and by hunters the Romans, who hunted the unhappy people out of the mountains and the hills, and out of the caves of the rocks.

Out of the caves of the rocks, etc. (HIER.) To the apostles and to apostolic 33Cmen: For the rock is Christ (I Cor. X), but he gave also to Peter, etc., as far as and to have received back their double iniquities.

VERS. 18.-- Double iniquities, etc. (ID.) Because the servant who knows and does not do the will of his Lord shall be beaten with many stripes (Luc. XII). For it is fitting that they who are of the Gentiles should receive single sins, and we double. Whence: When we sin wilfully, there is not left a sacrifice for sins (Hebr. VI).

VERS. 19.-- To thee the nations shall come, etc. (ID.) After Israel was cast out, and carried over by the fishers and the hunters, the multitude of the nations is thereupon called, and confesses its former error.

From the ends. The first of the earth are the wise of this world, the noble, the rich, the chief men. But the last things, that is, 33Dthe foolish things of the world, God has chosen, that he may confound all the strong things. The nations shall come, that is, from these who are the last upon the earth, the foolish and the ignoble and the abject.

VERS. 20.-- Gods. (HIER.) Not only out of bodily images do men make themselves gods, etc., as far as and they adored the work of their own hands, thinking pμtantes those things to be true which they had feigned.

VERS. 1.-- The sin of Juda is written, etc. (HIER.) As if to say: The sins of the Gentiles have been blotted out, of which it is said to Moses, Let me alone, etc., as far as Rest ye from the man whose spirit is in his nostrils (Isa. II).

(ORIG.) Perhaps the sin of Juda is our sin, 34Awe who believe in Christ of the tribe of Juda, etc., as far as if thou shouldst wish to understand it of Juda the traitor: The sin of Juda is written, what follows, "of them," is repugnant to it, etc.

VERS. 3.-- The high places. (HIER.) Which in Hebrew are Ramoth. And heretics are signified, who set their mouth against heaven, etc., as far as and the servitude of the demons, who are enemies and avengers.

VERS. 5.-- Cursed be the man. (ID.) Cursed therefore be Paul of Samosata and Photinus, who although a holy, etc., as far as that both might become one, and that we should adore not the creature, but the Creator.

VERS. 7.-- Blessed be the man, etc. (ID.) As if to say: Cursed are the Jews, and the heretics, who have not hope in the Lord, etc., as far as who once died 34Bfor us, and dies no more: and he says, I am the life (Joan. XIV).

VERS. 8.-- Which sendeth forth its roots toward moisture. (ID.) As if he should say: from the Jewish dryness he passes over to the grace of baptism.

VERS. 11.-- In the midst of his days. (ID.) His days are of this world. Christ has plucked us out of this wicked world, and we forsake [them] through the day. His last shall be foolish, [Vulg. Jer. 17:11 et in novissimo suo erit insipiens, "and in his latter end he shall be a fool"] when all things shall have been made subject to Christ. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

VERS. 14.-- Heal me, O Lord. (ID.) Many physicians have tended him, etc., as far as he desires to be tended and healed by him whose is true praise and true medicine.

VERS. 15.-- Behold they say to me: Where is the word, etc.

34CVERS. 16.-- I am not troubled, following thee the shepherd. (ID.) The more thou followest Christ, etc., as far as the day of judgment is evil to those who suffer torments.

VERS. 19.-- Go and stand, etc. As if he should say: Because they scorn to hear thy words, etc., as far as as though they had not heard, but let them hear whether they will or no.

VERS. 21.-- Keep your souls. Lest we tear in pieces the precept of the sabbath renewed through Jeremias, we set the whole down together, that we may know all things together.

That you bring not in burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath day. (ID.) If our judaizers, etc., as far as but he also called God his own Father.

VERS. 27.-- But if you will not hearken to me, to sanctify 34Dthe sabbath day, and not to carry a burden, and not to bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem, etc. As if to say: These are the rewards of those who sanctify the sabbath, and are weighed down by no burden. But if, etc.

VERS. 1.-- The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying. (HIER.) Through all the senses unto judgment, etc., as far as and there to hear the precepts of the Lord.

VERS. 4.-- And it was marred, etc. Marred by divine providence, that the craftsman, unknowing, might by his own mistake figure forth the parable.

VERS. 7.-- Suddenly I will speak. (ID.) Free choice 35Ait signifies, etc., as far as that in all things the grace of the giver may excel.

VERS. 11.-- Behold I frame evil against you. (HIER.) He fulfils the parable which he taught both by sight and by speech.

VERS. 12.-- After the thoughts. (ID.) Where it is apart from the grace of God, etc., as far as all the nations round about her.

VERS. 14.-- Shall the snow of Libanus fail from the rock: as if he should say: As from the heights of Libanus, etc., as far as my people hath forgotten me.

VERS. 16.-- That the land might become a desolation. (ID.) This seems to have been more fully fulfilled after the coming of the Lord, when no one of the Jews is permitted by ege to enter the land and the holy city. But when they have come to the mourning, they wonder at and bewail the oracles of the prophets fulfilled.

35BVERS. 17.-- As a burning wind. (ID.) Unto this day this sentence remains, etc., as far as then all Israel shall be saved.

VERS. 18.-- He came. (ID.) These things then of the Jews against Jeremias or Christ, etc., as far as pursuing the prophecy with all confidence of words and of meanings.

VERS. 19.-- Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries. (ID.) In a type of the Saviour, etc., as far as his blood be upon us and upon our children (Matth. XXVII).

VERS. 23.-- Forgive not their iniquity, etc. It is not contrary to the sentence above, etc., as far as lest sin unavenged should become to them an example.

35CVERS. 1.-- Thus saith the Lord: Go and take a potter's bottle. (HIER.) Holy Scripture wills to teach the people not only by the ears, but also by the eyes. For that which is taken in by sight is retained in the mind more than that which is taken in by hearing.

Lagunculam figuli for laguncula figuli, etc., as far as and for Hierihoh, Chiricho.

VERS. 4.-- Because that. (ID.) Every heretic forsakes God, etc., as far as and they burn to idols their own sons whom they have begotten in heresy.

VERS. 5.-- Which I commanded not. I have not commanded or thought, etc., as far as these things are to be understood of God, as others are.

VERS. 6.-- Topheth, and the valley of the son of Ennom, etc. 35D(ID.) What the valley of the son of Ennom is, etc., as far as or, historically, when the Babylonian was laying it waste.

VERS. 7.-- And I will give the carcasses. Although these things befell the people in the Babylonian captivity, etc., as far as they made their own bellies the sepulchres of their children.

VERS. 11.-- So will I break this people. Under Aelius Hadrian the city lost both its name and its standing, for the breaking of the pride of its inhabitants. But the names of the holy cross and of the resurrection signify not the city, but the place.

(ID.) The Jews a golden and jewelled Jerusalem, etc., as far as and let all things be kept for the true judge.

And they shall be buried in Topheth, etc., as far as which hangs over this place, let it become as Topheth.

36AVERS. 13.-- And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings shall be. Every house of the kings of Juda as the place of Topheth. This is not had in the Hebrew, but is inserted by the LXX.

VERS. 1.-- And Phassur heard. (HIER.) He was the high priest of the temple, etc., as far as but he considers him that commands.

VERS. 3.-- And when it had dawned. The patience and prudence of the prophet are to be noted. Sent to prison he is silent, and by silence overcomes the wrong, nor yet does he dissemble what he knows is to come, that at least God's high priest may cease from sinning, and may entreat God's clemency.

Not Phassur hath the Lord called thy name. According to the interpretation above, etc., as far as thou mayest look about thee hither and thither and dread the adversaries as they come.

36BVERS. 7.-- Thou hast deceived me, O Lord. (ID.) The prophet says that he was deceived by the Lord, etc., as far as he may endure persecutions and straits.

I am become a derision. (ID.) The prophet had thought that what the Lord threatened would come at once; and the people reckoned that what had not come at once was not going to come.

VERS. 12.-- And thou, O Lord of hosts, etc. (ID.) God alone is, etc., as far as therefore dead in his sins.

Let me see. Although the just man knows that he has God for his defender, yet in the patience of human frailty he desires to see even now what he knows is to come.

For to thee. Thou who sayest: Vengeance to me, and I will repay 36C(Heb. X), etc. Happy the conscience whose cause is revealed to the Lord: whence the Apostle: All that is made manifest is light (Ephes. V).

VERS. 13.-- Because he hath delivered. (ID.) The poor in spirit, having obtained vengeance from the Lord, praises him, and glories that he has been snatched from the hand of the worst of men. But this comes about not by merit, but by the grace of him who set the poor man free, who loves not the riches of a pride that is falling, but the humility of the poor man set free.

VERS. 14.-- Cursed be the day wherein I was born. In the fifth month, that is in August, Jeremias was born, etc., as far as and should they suppose it a prophecy of the coming overthrow of the temple?

VERS. 15.-- Cursed be the man, etc. They who think that souls were in the heavenly places, etc., as far as and, Redeeming 36Dthe time, because the days are (Ephes. V), etc.

VERS. 1.-- The word that, etc. When he sent. (HIER.) It is to be noted that among the prophets, etc., as far as of whom it is said in what follows.

Phassur the son, etc. Above, the high priest Phassur, or Phascor, who struck Jeremias, had Emmer for his father: but this Phassur is the son of Melchias, for he is not the same man.

VERS. 4.-- Behold I, etc. As if he should say. (ID.) In vain do you wish to resist, and prepare weapons of war, of which in the midst of the city you shall have only this use, that you may seem to be armed. For they had not enemies whom they might conquer, but only such as they might take.

37AVERS. 7.-- I will give Sedecias. First it was prophesied of the whole city, etc., as far as nor let him hope for any mercy, since he has violated the covenant by perjury.

Into the hand. Into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon and into the hand of his enemies.

VERS. 8.-- And to the people. To the king's messengers Nuntlis, who had come, etc., as far as saying: Cursed be the day wherein I was born.

Behold I set before you. There are those who expound this place after the tropology thus: It is better to give oneself over to secular disciplines, and most of all to the philosophical, than to remain in that Church; in which there is a famine of the word of God, and in which the whole people dies by the sword of the heretics and by the want of doctrine and by the heretical plague.

37BVERS. 12.-- Judge judgment in the morning. (HIER.) In this place the clemency of God is shown, etc., as far as it would befall them by their own fault, not by the hardness of him that threatens.

VERS. 13.-- Behold I come to thee, O inhabitress. He speaks against Jerusalem, which is besieged: either, as Tyre by the sea, so is she girt about by the Babylonian army, and cannot escape; or, as a most hard rock, she thinks herself unconquerable and strong, by reason of the solidity and greatness of her walls.

VERS. 14.-- In its forest. (ID.) Jerusalem and the neighbouring region (which had not fruit-bearing trees of good works, and was therefore worthy of burning) how beautifully he calls a valley of the plain, as it were open to enemies; not a lofty mountain, which is climbed with difficulty.

• 37C

VERS. 1.-- Thus saith. (HIER.) Here the word of the Lord came, etc., as far as he may flee the sentence of God.

VERS. 3.-- Do judgment. Let them understand that whatever has been said to the royal house, etc., as far as and in the Church walk with a composed step.

VERS. 6.-- If I make thee not. (ID.) He threatens the royal house, etc., as far as and of those who minister to the Lord.

VERS. 10.-- Weep not for the dead, etc. (ID.) To me it seems to be said properly of Sedecias, etc., as far as let us understand all things of Sedecias.

VERS. 11.-- To Sellum, etc. (ID.) Josias the just king had three sons, etc., as far as therefore because in them the kingdom of Juda was ended.

37DVERS. 13.-- Woe to him that buildeth, etc. (ID.) To Joachim the son of Josias, whom Pharao set in his place, etc., as far as he relates that he was dead and unburied, of which we shall speak later.

VERS. 18.-- They shall not lament him, etc. (ID.) What we have set down from the Hebrew, etc., as far as at length robbers slew him.

VERS. 24.-- As I live, saith, etc. (ID.) Above he had said to the house of the king, etc., as far as to understand it of the Lord of majesty.

That if he were, etc. (ID.) Miserably Grunius, etc., as far as if he wishes to read him, let him read him as a philosopher, not as a churchman.

VERS. 28.-- Is this man Jechonias a broken earthen vessel? (ID.) Since of Jechonias 38Athis is said, etc., as far as who is cast forth out of the hand of the Lord and delivered over to the Babylonian king?

This man. (ID.) Jechonias is interpreted the Lord's preparation, from whom in the present place the first syllable ie, that is the name of the Lord, is taken away, and he is called Chonias, that it may be understood, one prepared for perdition and destruction.

VERS. 30.-- Write. (ID.) Christ was born of his seed, etc., as far as nay rather the very semblance of the kingdom, had been utterly blotted out.

Barren, etc. Aquila's first edition, barren, the second, not growing. Symmachus empty, the LXX and Theodotion, abominable and disowned.

VERS. 1.-- Woe to the pastors, etc. (HIER.) Because all 38Bhope of the Jewish kingdom has failed, he passes over to the princes of the Church; and, the synagogue with its own pastors being forsaken and condemned, the word is made to the apostles, of whom it is said, I will raise up over them pastors (Ezech. XXXIV), etc.

VERS. 5.-- Behold the days come, saith, etc. (ID.) The pastors of the synagogue being cast off, that is to say the Scribes and the Pharisees, and the apostles being put in their place, Christ the pastor of pastors is brought in.

VERS. 7.-- For this cause, etc. (ID.) This whole chapter is not had in the LXX, and its sense here is this: That not through Moses is the people of God set free out of Egypt, but through Christ out of the whole world; which will be fulfilled entirely when from the east and the west and the north and the south they shall come and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that after the fulness 38Cof the Gentiles has entered in, then all Israel may be saved (Rom. XI).

VERS. 9.-- As a man drunken with wine. Of no understanding, of no wisdom, etc., as far as for Jeremias is interpreted the Lord's exalted one.

From the face of the Lord, etc. (ID.) The countenance of almighty God having been considered, that is, of the Father, and the countenance of the Son, who is the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance, the prophet shudders both in soul and in body, and understands that he is nothing, whence: I am become as a beast before thee.

VERS. 10.-- The land hath mourned. Whatsoever thou understandest of the land of Judaea according to the letter, thou wilt be able to refer to the congregation of them that believe. For on account of adulteries, and lies, and perjuries, a barrenness of virtues and of graces follows.

38DVERS. 11.-- For the prophet, etc. When in the Church of God, and most of all in its princes, evils are found, we know that this is fulfilled, For the prophet and the priests are defiled. [Vulg. Jer. 23:11 Propheta namque et sacerdos polluti sunt, "the prophet and the priest," in the singular]

I will bring evils upon them. Not that they are evils, etc., as far as the correction and torment of one that sins is [so] called.

VERS. 14. And in the prophets. As the prophets of Samaria, whatsoever they speak, prophesy in Baal; so the heretics, whether in the Church or outside it, that they may supplant the people of Israel, which formerly beheld God, speak in demons.

VERS. 15.-- From the prophets. (ID.) For we use this testimony, etc., as far as they attempt to defame and everywhere to sow blasphemies.

VERS. 18.-- For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord? Do not believe false prophets 39Awho say these things: whence can they know the counsels of the Lord, who has seen them and declared them to them?

VERS. 19.-- Behold the whirlwind. As if to say by the contrary it is plain that the prophets know not what they say: for in place of the peace and security which they promise, the Babylonian tempest comes.

VERS. 25.-- I have heard what they said. (HIER.) There are many kinds of prophesying, etc., as far as and the untameable hearts of tyrants might feel the majesty of the Lord by their own conscience.

VERS. 27.-- Their dreams which. There are today dreamers in the Church, who make their own errors the prophecies of the Lord, saying often, I have dreamed: against whom it is said, How long is this, etc.

VERS. 28.-- What hath the chaff to do with the wheat? Beautifully is the doctrine of the heretics 39Bcompared to chaff, which has no marrow, nor affords any refreshment.

VERS. 29.-- Are not my words? Whereas in the former people the prophets lied, etc., as far as the Lord therefore threatens that he will come against masters of this sort.

As fire. Of churchmen it is written that hammer and axe were not heard in the house of the Lord.

VERS. 30.-- Who steal. For a lie always imitates the truth, for otherwise it cannot deceive.

VERS. 39.-- And I will forsake. We know that this was done in the time of the Babylonian captivity, etc., as far as which properly signifies the mystery of the Trinity.

• 39C

VERS. 1.-- He shewed. (HIER.) It is to be noted that this vision was made in the time of Sedecias, after Jechonias was led into transmigration, not into captivity, because he gave himself up of his own accord.

Two baskets. Two baskets or hampers of bad and of good figs, etc., as far as let them be referred to the good figs and to the best basket.

Set before the temple. Not outside etc., as far as and the bad figs exceeding bad.

VERS. 2.-- And one basket, (ID.) We, simple folk, seeking the histories, etc., as far as and he was led into Babylon and there died.

39DVERS. 4.-- And it came to pass. (ID.) In this place the allegorical interpreter raves, etc., as far as that they are to die in this land and in the valley of tears.

VERS. 6.-- And I will set my eyes. In the captivity he set his eyes upon them, etc., as far as a great part returned to Jerusalem.

VERS. 1.-- The word. (HIER.) These former things belong to the vision that is past, etc., as far as which a lyric poem does not observe.

In the fourth year. In the fourth year of king Joachim, etc., as far as but Joachim was slain in the eleventh year of his reign.

VERS. 3.-- From the thirteenth year. From the thirteenth 40Ayear of the reign of Josias, etc., as far as unless he be called back by the Lord's unceasing admonition.

VERS. 4.-- And the Lord sent to you all his servants. Not through one prophet, but through all, did he admonish his people, and, as though set in watches and on guard, he rose at daybreak to warn them, and they did not hear; so that the more frequent the admonition, the greater the contempt.

Neither have you inclined. (ID.) So great was the hardness, etc., as far as which does not inflict punishment for the crime.

VERS. 6.-- After gods, etc. As if to say: These things, with the foregoing, I was warning, that you should not serve strange gods, nor provoke me to anger and force me, unwilling, to your punishment.

VERS. 9.-- And I will take, etc., Nabuchodonosor 40Bmy servant. Not as the prophets and the other saints who serve God; but because in the overthrow of Jerusalem he serves the will of the Lord.

And I will bring them, etc. These are the rewards of despisers, and of those unwilling to hear God. Whatever evil therefore is brought upon us, our sins deserve it; and as the nations were brought against Jerusalem, so today they serve against a negligent Church.

VERS. 10.-- And I will destroy, etc. This is proved in the assembly of the malignant, in that their masters do not teach the word of God, but hiss after the manner of a snake: among whom the voice of joy and of gladness has perished, so that they do not hear that word of the Apostle: Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice (Phil. IV).

VERS. 11.-- And they shall serve. As Jerusalem, etc., 40Cas far as he describes it in prophetic speech.

VERS. 12.-- When they are fulfilled. Note that Jeremias prophesies not only against Babylon, but against all the nations which were in the army of Babylon and fought against the people of God.

VERS. 15.-- Take the cup of the wine of fury, etc. (ID). The giving of the cup to drink is a token of the Lord's fury, etc., as far as the cup is given to drink, but for a punishment.

VERS. 18.-- To Jerusalem and to the cities of Juda, etc., As if to say: I thought that I was giving drink to the nations only, and therefore I had offered myself gladly to this ministry, but among the other nations, nay rather before the others, I gave drink to Jerusalem and to the cities of Juda, etc.

VERS. 19.-- To Pharao king of Egypt, etc. After Jerusalem drinks Pharao king of Egypt, and his servants, and the princes, 40Dand the whole people, and he who is not indeed an Egyptian, but dwells in his regions.

VERS. 20.-- Philisthiim and Ascalon, etc. By a general name he signifies the land of the Palestinians, etc., as far as but Isaias writes that the Palestinians were taken and laid waste by the Babylonians.

VERS. 22.-- Of Tyre and to all the kings, etc. Tyre and Sidon are on the shore of Phoenicia, etc., as far as the Hebrew tongue is for the greater part akin to it.

VERS. 25.-- To the kings of Elam and to all, etc. Because there follows, Elam and the kings of the Medes they judge Zambri to be a region of Persia: unless perhaps, because Arabia went before, they be understood to be the kings of the wilderness.

And king Sesach, etc. As if to say: All round about, 41Aetc., as far as to be destroyed before Antichrist according to Daniel.

VERS. 31.-- Judgment for the Lord. Because the merits of the nations are diverse, he that believeth not is already judged, namely in this, that he does not believe; but they who do not believe shall be visited with divers punishments.

VERS. 32.-- Behold there shall go forth, etc. Let them blush who, doing violence to Holy Scripture, take the Lord's threatenings in a good sense.

VERS. 34.-- Howl, ye shepherds. (HIER.) The howling of the chief men of the flock, etc., as far as the good things of peace shall fall silent and shall be taken away in fury. Of the Lord.

VERS. 1.-- In the beginning of the reign, etc. (ID.) This 41Bprophecy is earlier than the one above, although under the same king. For that one was made in the fourth year, this in the beginning of the same king's reign. The order of history, therefore, is not to be woven together in prophecy, since former things are told later, and later things first.

VERS. 2.-- In the court of the house. That thou mayest speak even to the outlying cities. And beautifully does he stand in the court, and in the porch of the temple, that those who come together to pray may be compelled to hear his words.

VERS. 3.-- If perhaps they hear, etc. (ID.) As if to say: Perhaps they will hear, etc., as far as Perhaps they will reverence my Son.

VERS. 4.-- If you will not hear me. It is set in our own will, etc., as far as nor once and from of old, but always and with anxious care?

41CVERS. 6.-- I will make this house like Silo. As, when the temple had been built upon the threshing-floor, etc., as far as made a curse for us.

VERS. 10.-- Of the gate of the house. It is called new, because those who sat in it, and presided at the judgment, resisted the calumny of the priests and of the false prophets.

VERS. 11.-- And they spoke. The princes of the city sitting in the gate of the temple, etc., as far as but thinking of the good things to come.

VERS. 12.-- And he said. Jeremias, they accusing, and the charge, etc., as far as: For in truth the Lord sent me to you.

VERS. 13.-- Now therefore make your ways good. As if to say: If you are angry, etc., as far as that nothing be withdrawn from the truth.

41DVERS. 16.-- And they said. The princes of the city, and the people, understood, etc., as far as whom by a change of sentence we are able to set free.

VERS. 20.-- There was also. It is asked, since Urias the same things, etc., as far as Christ also slipped away out of the hands of them that persecuted him.

VERS. 22.-- And the king sent. It is asked how Joachim the king, etc., as far as and that this prophecy was made when he had begun to reign.

VERS. 24.-- Therefore the hand of Ahicam. Although Jeremias was set free by the Lord's help, yet it is reckoned unto his reward through whom he set his prophet free.

VERS. 1.-- In the beginning of the reign, etc. (HIERON.) 42AMany think that this is the beginning of what follows; but it is to be joined to what goes before, so that whatever is reported as said or done, we may believe to have been in the beginning of the reign of Joachim.

VERS. 2.-- Thus saith the Lord. The former vision was in the beginning of the reign of Joachim: but this one under Sedecias, who reigned last in Jerusalem, under whom the city was taken and overthrown.

VERS. 5.-- The earth and men. The order is the contrary, in Genesis the living creatures are made first, man afterwards; but here he names man first, afterwards the things which are made subject to him.

In strength. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And I have given, etc. It signifies that all things have been bestowed upon the human race through grace.

42BVERS. 6.-- Into the hand of Nabuchodonosor. (ID.) Of how great unhappiness is Israel, in comparison with whom Nabuchodonosor is called the servant of God?

Moreover also. Every kind of living creature; for with man all things are handed over which are made subject to him; or the wild nations, that they who had not known how to serve may serve him.

VERS. 7.-- Until there come, etc. Lest the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor be thought to be everlasting, he signifies that it is to be taken by the Medes and by the Persians.

VERS. 12.-- And to Sedecias. After all the nations, he passes over to Sedecias and threatens the same things, for neither do the Jews deserve a privilege, who have sinned either like the nations, or more grievously, or more greatly; and they who disdain to hear are consumed by pestilence and by famine.

42CHear ye not. In this place the allegorical interpreter, etc., as far as and that they would not receive back their former seat.

VERS. 14.-- You shall not serve. It is better to serve willingly, and to have God for a friend, and to till a Gentile land, than to serve as a captive by necessity.

The words of the prophet. It is to be noted that in the Holy Scriptures false prophets are called prophets.

VERS. 16.-- And to the priests. After the nations and the kings, he speaks to the priests, and to the people, who had already announced destruction to the prophets, saying: And I will cast you out, etc. And he speaks the same things as above.

VERS. 17.-- That you may live. Note the clemency of God, etc., as far as In which it is shown that God can be held back by the prayers of the saints.

42DVERS. 18.-- Let them meet the Lord. (ID.) Let them meet him, and let them show fulfilled in deed the things which they foretell, and then the prophecy will be proved by truth.

VERS. 19.-- To the pillars. (ID.) He enumerates the vessels which were carried over into Babylon, when Sedecias had been taken, the city burned, and the temple overthrown.

VERS. 1.-- And it came to pass. (HIER.) Ezechiel not yet prophesying in Babylon to those who had been carried over with Jechonias.

In the house of the Lord. In which he speaks confidently, because he promises prosperous things to the people; and lies are gladly heard, especially those which promise what is wished for.

43AVERS. 5.-- All the vessels, etc. Jeremias had said that the remaining vessels also were to be carried away, this man affirms that those carried away are to be brought back.

VERS. 6.-- Amen, so, etc. He wishes that to be done which the other has falsely said, etc., as far as under the example of others he asserts the truth.

VERS. 7.-- Nevertheless. He could have said, thou liest, etc., as far as that they who hear may await the outcome.

VERS. 10.-- And he took. (HIER.) The prudence of Jeremias is to be considered, etc., as far as the knowledge of which belongs to God alone.

VERS. 13.-- Ananias. He is called a prophet in appearance only. For many things in the Holy Scriptures are said according to the opinion of the time in which the deeds are reported, not according to the truth of the matter.

VERS. 14.-- And thou shalt make. When Jeremias had gone away 43Band had swallowed up the wrongs in silence, the word of the Lord came to him, not that he should speak in his own words to Ananias, who gloried in his lie, and should say: Thus hath the Lord said; which nevertheless that Ananias had said, but a lie always imitates the truth.

Chains. He shows that, keeping the lesser punishment, etc., as far as they have been banished into the bodies of brute animals.

VERS. 15.-- And he said. (ID.) It is to be noted that Jeremias, having suffered the wrong, is silent, the word of the Lord not yet having come to him, but afterwards, sent by the Lord, he boldly rebukes, announcing to the liar his near death.

VERS. 16.-- This year. (ID.) If, whenever we die, we are set free from the prisons of our bodies, according to that 43Cwhich the heretics wrongly interpret: Bring my soul out of prison; [Vulg. Ps. 141:8 Educ de custodia animam meam, "out of ward"] how is death inflicted as a punishment?

VERS. 17.-- In the seventh month. Perhaps in the seventh month, which is wont to signify rest, they for that reason falsely say that he died, that he might be set free from the evils of the body, according to that saying: Death is rest to a man; but we know that the bodies of them that believe are temples of God, if the Holy Spirit dwell in them.

VERS. 1.-- And these. (HIER.) He purposes to persuade them not to yield to the false prophets, who were promising them a return to Jerusalem after a short time. But let them know that they will tarry a long time in Babylon.

43DThe words of the book. (ID.) This little book of Jeremias, etc., as far as he might urge upon the people the things which had been commanded him by the Lord.

To the residue of the ancients. First to the elders, then to the priests, thirdly to the prophets, fourthly to all the people, the word of God is directed, so that according to the order of age the prophet's letter may be sent.

VERS. 6.-- Take ye wives, etc. To Jeremias (because the captivity of Jerusalem is near) it is commanded that he take not a wife, nor beget sons. But if, on account of the straitness of the time, the use of wives is taken away from those who have them, how much more is it commanded to those who have them not, that they take none.

VERS. 8.-- Let them not deceive you. (ID.) The false prophets, 44Aetc., as far as which was the same [year] of the reign of Sedecias.

VERS. 10.-- When they shall begin. Do not believe the false prophets, who promise you a near return: for the seventy years shall first be fulfilled for you before you return.

Seventy years. So long are we engaged in the confusion of the world, etc., as far as and then is the end of our labour and of our patience.

VERS. 14.-- And to return. That you may know more surely that you ought not to hope for this return as though it were near, but to build houses, to plant orchards, to beget sons, and to await the promised time.

VERS. 17.-- Like figs. Theodotion suarinas, that is, the second ones, Symmachus the last ones, which in Hebrew are suarim ( ). [Migne prints a Hebrew word within these parentheses; the digitized source carries nothing there, and recovery requires the plate.]

44BVERS. 19.-- In the night. (ID.) I have not ceased to warn, that they might imitate you who in the transmigration enjoy an untroubled ease, until the promises of God be fulfilled.

VERS. 21.-- To Achab. The Hebrews say that these are the elders, etc., as far as that, penance being done, after the true sabbath they might possess their former place.

VERS. 24.-- To Semeias. Semeias of the place Nehelam, etc., as far as But the discernment of spirits is a spiritual grace.

VERS. 27.-- Why hast thou not rebuked. (ID.) By a lie he forestalls the truth, what he himself deserved he lays upon others, because the children of darkness are more prudent than the children of light, and what they fear for themselves they bring upon others.

VERS. 31.-- Thus saith. Semeias truly a Nehelamite, etc., as far as against whom it is subjoined, Behold I will visit.

• 44C

VERS. 1.-- This word. (HIER.) Jeremias was promising a return, etc., as far as But when Israel and Juda shall return into their own land.

VERS. 7.-- Alas, for it is great. (ID.) First the sad things are announced, etc., as far as nor will they hold arms in their hands, but their loins, like women in travail.

VERS. 9.-- And David. Christ, that is to say; for as the first Adam and the second are written of according to the truth of the body, so also David. For Christ is of David according to the flesh.

VERS. 10.-- My servant. (ID.) He calls him familiarly, as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob are called servants of God. Moses too and the other prophets, and Paul at the beginning 44Dof his Epistles, glory in this title.

VERS. 12.-- A wound. (ID.) In one way a friend strikes, in another an enemy; in one way a father, in another a foe: for the one strikes that he may correct, the other that he may slay.

VERS. 16.-- Therefore. (ID.) We know that these things were done under Zorobabel, etc., as far as but they are fulfilled more fully and more perfectly in Christ.

VERS. 18.-- Behold I will bring back. (ID.) Since the type went before, etc., as far as they are fulfilled more fully and more perfectly in Christ and in the apostles.

VERS. 19.-- Of them that play, and I will multiply them, etc. Not according to that saying, The people sat down to eat and to drink, and they rose up to play (Exod. XXXII); but as David played before the ark of the Lord (I Par. XIII)

• 45A

VERS. 1.-- At that time. (HIER.) When the work is finished, the craftsman is known; when health is regained, the physician's diligence. So, Jerusalem being overthrown and the former people cast off, it is understood that the rejection of the Jews is the salvation of the Gentiles.

VERS. 3.-- The Lord hath appeared afar off. Because Israel had offended the Lord, etc., as far as he was saved not by merit.

VERS. 5.-- They shall plant, etc. (ID.) Who after the captivity of Israel were possessed by strangers, to whom it is said: Plant ye plantings and gather ye the vintage (Deut. XXVIII).

VERS. 7.-- The remnants of Israel. Which are saved according to the election.

VERS. 8.-- Behold, I will bring them, etc. Through the apostles and apostolic men who are the watchmen, crying on 45Bthe mountain of Samaria, to whom it is commanded: Sound ye forth, sing ye (III Reg. XVIII), etc.

The lame man. (ID.) To such it is said through Elias: How long halt ye upon both feet? [Vulg. III Reg. 18:21 in duas partes, "on two sides"] But afterwards they ran in Christ; and, he that walked in darkness hath seen a great light.

They shall come with weeping, and in, etc. (ID.) The Jews think this to have been fulfilled, etc., as far as they can prove that these things were fulfilled.

VERS. 9.-- And Ephraim. Ephraim, who is a type of the Gentile people, etc., as far as he first obtained the kingdom in Samaria, etc.

VERS. 11.-- Out of the hand of one mightier, etc. (ID.) Of the adverse power, which is by nature the stronger: but we are the stronger by faith, if indeed we are set free by him who binds the strong man, 45Cand plunders his house.

VERS. 14.-- The soul of the priests. Who have the knowledge of God, of whose mouth they ask the law, who believe in him who is a priest for ever.

With fatness, and my people shall be filled with my good things, saith the Lord, etc. Whence the Lord was seized in the valley of Gethsemani, that is, of fatness.

VERS. 15.-- A voice on high. (ID.) Certain of the Jews expound this place thus, etc., as far as that the Hebrews expressed in their own words what they read in Hebrew.

Rachel weeping. Rachel the mother of Joseph, etc., as far as she is said to weep for the children slain beside her.

VERS. 16.-- And they shall return. (ID.) We better understand this of the little ones, etc., as far as and the infants shall rise again unto the perfect man.

45DVERS. 18.-- I was instructed. As if he should say: Correction profits unto salvation, and that which for the present seems to be of sorrow, afterwards yields the fruit of peace.

VERS. 19.-- Because I have borne. (ID.) He says that he sinned through the ignorance of his age, that he may the more easily obtain pardon, whence: The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not thou remember. And in what follows, God called him a little child and one abounding in delights, because, that is, of the greatness of his riches and the fruitfulness of the land (Psal. XXIV).

VERS. 20.-- If Ephraim be an honourable son, etc. Ephraim doing penance and saying: Thou hast instructed me, O Lord, and I was instructed, [Vulg. Jer. 31:18 Castigasti me, et eruditus sum, "Thou hast chastised me, and I was instructed"] etc., the Lord answered, and sustains him, now fully converted, with such an oracle, If Ephraim be an honourable son, etc.

46ATherefore are my bowels troubled. As if he should say: With eager mind he received my words, and kept them, but nevertheless I will have mercy on him; because the justice of men also has need of the mercy of God.

VERS. 21.-- Set up for thyself, etc. He provokes to satisfaction, that he may consider in how many things he has offended, and, doing penance, may return to his former grace, according to that, Remember whence thou art fallen, and do penance, and do the first works (Apoc. II).

Direct thy heart. (ID.) He directs his heart into the right way, etc., as far as nor does he consent to turn aside through the luxuries of the world.

Return, O virgin, Israel, return to these thy cities. (ID.) Although certain men [take] these things according to the history, etc., as far as and let her cease to wander through the luxuries of the world.

VERS. 23.-- They shall yet say. (ID.) In Christian, that is, 46Btimes, in which the Lord turned back the captivity of his people.

May he bless thee. These things are seen in part under Zorobabel, etc., as far as carnally, according to the Jews and to our own judaizers.

VERS. 25.-- For I have inebriated. A change of persons, etc., as far as the people returned from the captivity answers: therefore I was awakened, [Vulg. Jer. 31:26 Ideo quasi de somno suscitatus sum, "therefore I was as it were raised up out of sleep"] etc.

VERS. 26.-- Therefore as it were raised up out of sleep. That I might imitate him who says, etc., as far as and awaits the day of resurrection.

VERS. 27.-- Behold the days come saith the Lord. All promises of this kind, etc., as far as but that God may be all in all.

VERS. 30.-- The teeth shall be set on edge. (ID.) The teeth of those who eat cannot feel sweetness, etc., 46Cas far as not by the harshness of the foods, but by the fault of the teeth.

VERS. 31.-- Behold the days. By this testimony Paul, etc., as far as and that circumcision and the sabbath might be spiritually fulfilled.

VERS. 34.-- And he shall not teach. That they may not seek Jewish masters and the commandments of men, but may be taught by the Holy Spirit, if indeed they shall have been the temple of God, and the Spirit of God shall have dwelt in them, who breathes where he wills, and has diverse graces: Yet the knowledge of the one God is the possession of all the virtues.

For all shall know. (HIER.) Because all shall be etc., as far as not in the nature in which he lay hidden in himself even when he was seen.

VERS. 35.-- Who giveth the sun. (ID.) According to Genesis 46Dthe sun was set in heaven for the light of the day, the moon and the stars for the light of the night. In the psalm also it is read: Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge, because days and nights succeed one another in turn.

VERS. 36.-- If they shall have failed, etc. If the heavens shall perish, and shall grow old so, a garment [sic; read sicut, "as a garment"], how can the seed of Israel be everlasting? But the heavens shall perish.

VERS. 37.-- If they can be measured. As if he should say: How of things, etc., as far as nor shall it ever cease.

VERS. 38.-- Behold the days. Who a kingdom of a thousand years, etc., as far as, but there Ananehel through the letter men.

VERS. 39.-- Even to the gate of the corner. (ID.) For no 47Atrue justice, etc., as far as this building shall remain for ever.

VERS. 1.-- The word which, etc. (HIER.) Not only the words, but also sedet the works of the prophets are to us for examples of the virtues. Jeremias could have announced prosperous things and enjoyed the friendship of the king, but he chose rather to obey God, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

VERS. 2.-- In the court of the prison. (ID.) The clemency on the king's part is to be noted, who had commanded that he be shut up not in the prison, but in the vestibule of the prophets, that is to say in free custody, lest he should be able to escape; as though all Jerusalem, shut in with fortifications, had not been a common prison.

VERS. 3.-- For he had shut him up. The captivity being now Jean at hand, 47Bthe city being now consumed with pestilence and famine, and yet Sedecias persists in his sentence.

Why dost thou prophesy. Heavier is the terror before the rebuke of words, than to bear the torment of punishments, and to see him whom thou fearest.

VERS. 5.-- Until I visit him. He tempered the sentence, that it might be referred to a good and to a bad part, for visitation signifies both consolation and punishment.

VERS. 7.-- Behold Hanameel, the son. Helchias and Sellum, etc., as far as the beginning of this volume shows.

Buy thee a field. That field is priestly, whose purchase and possession is committed to Jeremias, and it is in Anathot in the land of Benjamin. Of which names the first sounds obedience, the second the son of the right hand; and fittingly he seeks the purchase of that in which the obedience and the power of the Lord 47Cwas engaged.

VERS. 8.-- In the land of Benjamin. (ID.) That is, of the suburban lands, etc., as far as Let them hear who attempt to claim false things by bringing forward witnesses.

VERS. 13.-- And I commanded Baruch. (ID.) Baruch, who is interpreted blessed, etc., as far as let him show an open volume to those desiring to read this.

VERS. 14.-- In an earthen vessel, etc. Lest, being placed outside, they should lie open to plunder, etc., as far as yet they are moved by the word of God.

VERS. 15.-- Houses and fields shall still be possessed. This is what Jeremias said above, that he had understood the word of God, and had therefore bought the field.

VERS. 18.-- Who shewest mercy. Great 47Dis the mercy of the Creator, etc., as far as the long-deferred punishment be rendered.

Most mighty, great, etc. (ID.) These names indicate the power of the Creator, but properly the name of God. It is Father, whence: Father, I have manifested thy name to men (Joan. XXVII).

VERS. 19.-- Great in counsel, etc. Let no one therefore thrust himself into the secret things of God, and presume to judge concerning his judgments.

That thou mayest render to every one. It signifies that sometimes, etc., as far as at last he was overwhelmed by the waves of the Red Sea.

VERS. 20.-- Who hast set signs. He passes from the general to the special, and runs through in brief speech what he specially bestowed upon Israel.

And wonders, etc. By which she was afflicted even unto this 48Aday, etc., as far as And it is to be noted that he separates Israel from all.

VERS. 21.-- And thou hast brought forth thy people. Beautifully he said thy people: for at that time in which it was brought forth, it was serving the Lord's command.

VERS. 23.-- And they went in. (ID.) Nothing is midway between possession and disobedience: for abundance begets security, security negligence, negligence contempt.

And they obeyed not. That is, In vain therefore did they promise, saying: Whatsoever the Lord shall command we will do; for the reward is not in the answer, but in the work.

VERS. 24.-- Behold the bulwarks are built up. It was the tenth year of Sedecias, and the city was besieged, as was said 48Babove, and Jeremias was in the court of the prison. Whence it is subjoined: Behold the bulwarks.

Lest it be taken. [Vulg. Jer. 32:24 ut capiatur, "that it may be taken"] As if he should say: They have not those whom they may conquer, but whom they may take, already consumed with famine and pestilence.

And whatsoever thou hast spoken. From the creatures he preaches the Creator, etc., as far as But he sets all these things first, that he may bring in, as it were in reproof of the divine sentence: And thou sayest to me, O Lord God, buy a field.

VERS. 25.-- And thou sayest. He does not reprove, but asks, etc., as far as and let him buy a field which he does not possess.

VERS. 27.-- Behold I am the Lord. Not of all the nations or of the people of Israel only, etc., as far as because some things were made for their own sake, others for the use of men.

VERS. 28.-- Behold I will deliver this city. Because it is my care to rule all things, to dispose the universe, to render to each one 48Caccording to their ways.

This city. First, being walled about by the army of the Chaldeans, Nabuchodonosor being absent, she was taken; and Sedecias was delivered to the king in Rablatha.

VERS. 29.-- And the Chaldeans shall come. Aquila better, they shall enter in: for they were not uo n absent, that they should come who were besieging the city; but the Hebrew word sounds both they shall come, and they shall enter in.

And the houses upon whose roofs. As Qomodo the world is written to be about to perish, according to that: Heaven and earth shall pass away, because it is set in wickedness, so also the houses themselves, and the places in which the crimes were done, shall lie subject to the wrath of God.

VERS. 30.-- Continually doing evil. Without end, 48Detc., as far as in thy sight.

VERS. 33.-- And they turned their backs to me. Whence elsewhere: They turn against me a departing shoulder (Zach. VII). [Vulg. Zach. 7:11 averterunt scapulam recedentem, "they turned away a departing shoulder"] For he who prays, with bowed neck, is poured out prone upon the ground; but he who turns his back shows by the gesture of the body that he despises him who threatens.

When I taught them. The darkness of error and the worship of idols being put to flight, I desired to enlighten them, and to teach the things that are right.

VERS. 34.-- And they set up their idols, etc. Not only did Juda then set an idol in the temple of God, but even to this day an idol is set in the Church, or in the heart of believers, when a new dogma is established and is adored in secret.

49AVERS. 35.-- And they built, etc. Properly the tribes of Juda and Benjamin venerated in the shrine of Baal and of Moloch the images of demons; golden calves in Dan and in Bethel for the ten tribes, which is so execrable that the Lord testifies that he never thought of it.

In the valley of the son of Ennon. (HIER.) Which lies beneath the fountains of Siloe and by its pleasantness provoked the people to luxury, which the worship of idols follows.

VERS. 37.-- Behold I will gather them together. Many think this in the time of Zorobabel, etc., as far as and the election of the remnant is saved.

And I will bring them back to this place, and to dwell. As to those hoping for help, etc., as far as and let despair and humility earn the help of God.

VERS. 38.-- They shall be my people, and I, etc. 49BTo sad things he subjoins glad, and to the captives he promises return; but first he shows the cause of the offence and of the just wrath; and the greater the fault, the more abundant the clemency toward sinners.

VERS. 39.-- And I will give them. (CASS.) He manifestly brings forth for us the beginning, etc., as far as and through this to earn either reward or punishments.

VERS. 40.-- And I will put my fear in their heart. (ID.) So he grants free will, that the fear which is bestowed may be of the grace of the giver.

VERS. 41.-- With my whole heart, and with my whole soul. If they are the words of the Saviour, etc., as far as like that: your festivities I have hated (Amos. V), etc.

For thus saith the Lord, etc. These things according to the letter, etc., as far as But spiritually in Christ and the apostles 49Cthey were more fully fulfilled.

VERS. 1.-- And it came to pass. He foretells that as vengeance to sinners, etc., as far as until they were scattered by the Romans through the whole world.

VERS. 3.-- Cry to me, and I will hear him. [Vulg. Jer. 33:3 Clama ad me, et exaudiam te, "Cry to me, and I will hear thee"] He shows that through the prayers of the prophets and of the saints, who were among the people, the Lord was appeased and revealed to them the return into their own land, which as yet lay hidden.

But now it is said: Cry to me, and I will hear thee. Because the Lord would not turn away the imminent captivity, that they might first pay the penalty of their sin; but afterwards he did not deny the return, which he now 49Dpromises.

VERS. 10.-- There shall yet be heard in this place, etc. Lest the Jews should despair because of the threats and the captivities to come, he promises the good things of restoration, that the place, which had been deserted because of the crimes of its inhabitants, may be inhabited because of correction and amendment.

VERS. 12.-- Of the flocks lying down. The flocks of the Church, gathered, that is to say, from among the Gentiles, etc., as far as many are they who belong to the faith of Christ and to the number of his sheep.

VERS. 14.-- To the house of Israel: Of whom Isaias: there shall be in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord prepared on the top of the mountains, etc.

VERS. 17.-- Thus saith the Lord. He had said above 50Aconcerning the creation of the sun and of the moon and of the stars, etc., as far as the kingdom and priesthood of Christ shall remain for ever.

VERS. 1.-- The word that came, etc. (RAB.) Although a most wicked king, etc., as far as the end of the chapter.

VERS. 1.-- The word that came. (RAB.) When the prophet in the preceding chapter concerning Sedecias, etc., as far as the end of the chapter.

VERS. 3.-- If so be, when the house of Juda heareth, etc. Immense clemency, etc., as far as that through the mercy of God they may obtain pardon.

VERS. 4.-- He called therefore. The prompt obedience of the prophet 50Baccords, etc., as far as who, loosed and free, neglect to lay out the word of God to their neighbours?

VERS. 9.-- They proclaimed a fast in the sight of the Lord, etc. That they who sinned through excess, etc., as far as the things in which they offended in the greatest matters.

VERS. 16.-- Therefore when they had heard, etc. It is necessary also for hearers, etc., as far as they were able to hear the words of God with the ear of the body, but not of the heart.

VERS. 18.-- He spoke out of his mouth, etc. It signifies that the apostles and prophets suffered no necessity of treating or poverty of speaking; but readily and easily brought forth all things.

VERS. 23.-- And he cast it into the fire. The astounding wickedness of a hardened heart, etc., as far as lest they should believe and repent.

50CVERS. 26.-- But he hid, etc. Against whom human presumption strives in vain. For the Lord keepeth all them that love him, and all sinners he will destroy.

VERS. 30.-- Therefore, etc. A worthy vengeance, etc., as far as he should be burnt by the heat of the sun and by the frost of the night.

VERS. 1.-- And Sedecias the king reigned, etc. That Sedecias after Joachim, etc., as far as but they were all wicked and idolaters, and therefore they perished.

VERS. 3.-- Pray for. By no means did he ask to pray for himself, because he would not obey the divine commandments: For he that turneth away his ear that he may not hear the law, his prayer shall be an abomination.

VERS. 4.-- Therefore the army. How the Chaldeans 50Dbroke off, etc., as far as but Jeremias prophesied things contrary and true.

VERS. 5.-- And the king Sedecias saith, etc. The father, Sedecias without pure affection, etc., as far as But afterwards, having scourged him, he delivered him to the Jews, that he might be crucified.

VERS. 7.-- And Abdemelech heard. As those princes, who sent the prophet, etc., as far as by how much the more strictly we hold ourselves guilty.

VERS. 17.-- If thou wilt go forth, etc. The prophet, foreseeing that the city was to be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, gave counsel to the king that he should deliver himself into the hands of the king of Babylon, that he might so mitigate his furious mind, 51Aand receive a lighter sentence; but the hardened mind could not be corrected.

VERS. 22.-- Behold. It signifies that a flowing thought, etc., as far as and shall burn up the soul with unquenchable fire.

VERS. 17.-- And I will deliver thee. They that hope in the Lord shall not be confounded (Sap. XIX). They shall all be confounded that do unjust things (Psal. XXIV). [Vulg. Ps. 24:4 Confundantur omnes iniqua agentes supervacue, "let all them be confounded that do unjust things without cause"] Behold, the princes who sought the soul of Jeremias are led captive. The eunuch who had delivered him obtained perfect liberty. So also, the holy preachers being delivered, the persecutors shall be punished with eternal vengeance.

VERS. 1.-- The word that came, etc. It is asked 51Bhow this word of the Lord, etc., as far as he was set free according to the word of the Lord.

VERS. 2.-- Taking him therefore. The devastation of the city having been described, and the destruction, and the captivity of the people, and the perfidy of the king, there follows what was done concerning Jeremias, and concerning the remnants of the people, whom the prophet admonished out of the word of the Lord to sit in their own land, and to serve the king of Babylon, but they themselves chose rather to go into Egypt, where afterwards Nabuchodonosor slew them, and laid waste Egypt itself.

VERS. 3.-- And it is come upon you. From this place also it is manifest that God, etc., as far as but they preached the sentence of God to be just.

VERS. 8.-- Ten men were found among them, etc., we have a treasure. [Vulg. Jer. 41:8 habemus thesauros in agro, "we have treasures in the field"] For a treasure in the field, etc., as far as For by the heel, which is the end of the body, the end of action is signified.

VERS. 16.-- Johanan therefore the son of Careas took, and all the princes of the warriors that were with him, etc. This flight of the remnants and passage into Egypt against the word of the Lord, which Jeremias has here recounted in a long narration, Isaias foretold long before, a hundred and fifty years, that is, which were between Isaias and Jeremias, saying: Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you should take counsel, and not of me (Isai. XXX), etc.

( The sacred text without exposition. )

51DVERS. 15.-- And they answered Jeremias, etc. A foolish answer. They confess that he speaks in the name of the Lord, and they do not acquiesce, but follow the counsel of their own depravity. Mystically. All heretics in the Egypt of this world. That is, being established in the darkness of error, they offer sacrifices not to the true God, but to demons, when they write fictions and depraved dogmas for deceiving men and for overthrowing the faith. Therefore evils shall come upon them, and they shall be for a desolation and for an astonishment.

VERS. 26.-- The Lord liveth, etc. The prophet gainsays, out of the word of the Lord, lest his name be called by the mouth of the Jews in the land of Egypt, since they who had passed over thither against the precept of God ought not to have the protection 52Aof the Lord in that same place. But mystically the name of the Lord is not called by the mouth of heretics in the land of Egypt: because neither their speech nor their prayer, while they are in error, is accepted of God. For praise is not beautiful in the mouth of a sinner (Eccl. XV). They therefore who shall have persevered in error shall perish by the sword of strict judgment. But they who, error being left behind, shall have returned repentant out of Egypt into the land of Juda: and thenceforth holding the catholic faith shall be saved.

VERS. 1.-- The word that Jeremias spoke, etc. Baruch, as yet unpractised in the endurance of the sufferings which he was about to experience, was terrified at the calamity of the captivity which was threatening in the time of Joachim son of Josias king of Juda, whence he complains of sorrow added to his sorrow, 52Bto whom it was answered by the Lord that he seeks peace for himself to no purpose, when the whole people labours under the bundle of tribulations. And it signifies those who in the pressure of tribulations or of persecutions, by which the Church is weighed down in the present time, waver through faint-heartedness, seeking the consolation which is promised in the time to come. Whence: But you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy (Joan. XVI).

VERS. 1.-- The word that came, etc. (RAB.) Thus far the prophet has treated mixedly of Juda and Israel, of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians, according to the fitness of the narration, etc., as far as in the year of Joachim son of Josias when Pharao Nechao king of Egypt fought in Charchamis with 52CNabuchodonosor, and was overcome.

VERS. 9.-- Get ye up on the horses. (ID.) Heretics and schismatics, sprung from divers provinces, in vain set wars in array against the city of God, etc., as far as when they are delivered into the hands of him who set his throne toward the North, that he may send them into the pool of fire and brimstone.

VERS. 11.-- Go up into Galaad. (HIER.) It is a mountain to which Jacob came on the seventh day, fleeing from Charram: and it is at the back of Phoenicia and of Arabia, joined to the hills of Libanus, and it stretches through the desert as far as beyond Jordan where dwelt Seon king of the Amorrhites. And it fell into the lot of the sons of Ruben and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasse.

Take balm. (RAB.) The Greeks call it ῥητίνην; for ῥέω 52Dis said of that which flows, etc., as far as because they shall receive from them not health, but confusion.

VERS. 12.-- The nations have heard. (ID.) Because, the solace of idols being frustrated, etc., as far as they receive not the victory of truth, but, captives to error, fall together into the pit of perdition.

VERS. 14.-- Declare ye to Egypt. As if he should say: You who have heard my prophecy, announce to Pharao that the time and the tumult of war is near.

VERS. 18.-- For as Thabor. That is, from the comparison of fruitful places, as it were sunk in the sea, you can understand the great ruin of the Egyptians. (HIER.) Thabor is a boundary of Zabulon, a mountain in the midst of the plain of Galilee, lofty with a wonderful 53Aroundness: distant ten miles from Diocaesaraea toward the eastern region. Which was also the border between the tribes of Issachar and Nephthalim, Carmelus, where Nabal the Carmelite was and now there is a village Carmela by name, at the tenth milestone of the town of Chebron, sloping toward the eastern region where the garrison of the Romans is.

(RAB.) But mystically, because Thabor, etc., as far as sunk in the sea of this world, and in perpetual damnation.

VERS. 20.-- A heifer. Because the Egyptian people, nourished in delights, untamed, wanton, refused the yoke of discipline.

VERS. 21.-- Hirelings. (RAB.) He calls the princes of the Egyptians not shepherds, but hirelings, etc., as far as A hireling however, and he that is not the shepherd, when he seeth the wolf coming, leaveth the sheep, and flieth 53B(Joan. X).

VERS. 26.-- And after this, etc. (ID.) Although he seems to intimate that the kingdom of the Egyptians was destroyed by Nabuchodonosor not irreparably, etc., as far as: The Lord shall strike Egypt with a scourge and shall heal it (Isa. XIX), etc.

VERS. 27.-- And fear thou not, etc. This promise does not well suit the Jews: who, scattered over the whole world, etc., as far as: For blindness in part hath happened in Israel, and when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, then all Israel shall be saved (Rom. XI).

VERS. 1.-- The word that came, etc. Jeremias, like Isaias and Ezechiel, foretells to the neighbouring nations the plagues 53Cto come, because they were harassing the people of God, and rejoicing in his adversity. To the Palestines therefore, as before to the Egyptians, he foreannounces the captivity to come.

VERS. 4.-- And it shall be laid waste. He shows that Tyre and Sidon pertain to the Palestines, although Tyre fell into the lot of Nephthalim, and Sidon, the border of the Chanaanites, into the lot of Aser: but he did not possess it, because he was not able to drive out the enemies. The remnants of the island of Cappadocia. In which the Cappadocians dwelt, the former inhabitants having been slain. This is the border of the Chanaanites next to Egypt, and it fell into the lot of Juda: but he did not obtain it, because the Enachim, that is, the giants of the aliens, most strongly resisted: and to this day it is a notable city of Palestine, although it was prophesied of it Gaza shall be an everlasting heap: 53Dbut where it formerly was scarcely any traces remain, for it was built in another place.

VERS. 5.-- There is come, etc. (RAB.) It signifies the plague to come upon heretics and schismatics and all the enemies of the Church, etc., as far as For through lust he burns up the minds of carnal men: but at the last he shall be cast down.

VERS. 7.-- How shall it be quiet, etc. As if he should say: The sword cannot be quiet, unless the Lord command, whose vengeance it executes, or: As it were in the person of the afflicted he had spoken to the sword of the Lord, but here he answers in his own person.

• 54A

VERS 1.-- To Moab thus saith the Lord, etc. (RAB.) As there is a circumcision carnal and spiritual: so there is a Moab carnal and spiritual. Moab is interpreted, etc., as far as And Moab is a province of the Arabs, Nabo a noble city, in which was the idol Chamos, which is also Beelphegor.

VERS. 6.-- Save your souls. Let those who wish to save their soul flee the turning doctrine of philosophers and of heretics, where destruction is certain: and through the humility of confession let them do penance for their error in the desert of strict abstinence, and let them remain in the simplicity and truth of catholic doctrine.

VERS. 9.-- Give a flower, etc. He who seemed to flourish by human invention and in secular knowledge, shall be brought back into 54Bthe desert and into solitude. But because all hypocrisy displeases God, as the following sentence shows:

VERS. 10.-- Cursed be he that doth, etc. For it is necessary that we consider not only what we do, but also with what discretion we do it.

Cursed. (RAB.) Sloth is born through torpor, fraud through private affection, etc., as far as often, sloth intervening, they fail, and, love growing cold, they waste away.

And cursed. This curse can suit all those who follow the flux of the world, and neglect to chastise their bodies and to subject them to servitude, according to that: And they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh (Galat. V), etc. Because without the shedding of blood there is no 54Cremission of sins. For flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God (II Cor. XV). [Vulg. I Cor. 15:50 caro et sanguis regnum Dei possidere non possunt, "flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God"] Cursed therefore is he who withholds the sword, that is, the word of God, from blood: by which, that is to say, the matter of sins is quickened; whatsoever carnal and earthly thing has grown up in our members must be poured out and cut away the sword [gladium; read gladio, "with the sword"] of the word of God.

(GREG.) To withhold the sword from blood is to keep back the word of preaching from the slaying of the carnal life, of which it is said: My sword shall devour flesh (Isa. I). Hence Paul says, I testify this day that I am clean from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God (Act. X).

VERS. 11.-- Fruitful. Moab is shown to have come out of abundance into hatred and elation, and to have despised the people of God 54Dafflicted, because he suffered nothing of affliction or of captivity.

VERS. 12.-- I will send to him, etc. (RAB.) Whosoever trust in human philosophy, despising the faith of the Church and its simple doctrine, etc., as far as then they shall go with the devil and his angels into eternal fire. But the just into life eternal.

VERS. 17.-- Comfort ye. He provokes ironically, or to penance, that through fitting satisfaction they may escape misery. Mystically. The wise men of this world and the heretics, whom Moab signifies, if they shall not have corrected their folly, being converted to the catholic faith, ruin shall come to them and devastation to all their cities, that is, to their divers 55Asects. For the things which stand far or near from the truth shall be overthrown when the Gospel shines.

VERS. 25.-- Cut off. (HIER.) As he prophesied against Babylon and the Philisthiim, etc., as far as whatsoever pertains to earthly knowledge and is thought robust, is overthrown, so that nothing is approved which was thought strongest.

VERS. 29.-- We have heard. Because in the former clause he was provoking those who err to penance, and admonishing them to be converted to Christ; that they might remain perpetually in his faith; now, recognizing very many incorrigible and obstinate, in the person of those who have been saved out of Moab, and have learned his pride by their own experience, he says: We have heard the pride of Moab, etc. And he convicts Moab of pride, because he is lifted up more than his 55Bstrength can, or than it demands.

VERS. 31.-- Therefore will I lament for Moab. He shows the power of the former felicity and the plague of the sudden overthrow. To all Moab will I cry out. Which is interpreted their strength, and signifies the strongest dogmas of the heretics, constructed dialectically, in which the strength of error seemed to be.

VERS. 32.-- I will weep for thee, O vineyard of Sabama. The tempest of this world. For it seems to signify that certain out of Moab wish to be converted to the Lord. For Sabama is interpreted a certain conversion. The vineyard of Sabama, etc. Lifting up its height, because pride attempts to raise a tower to heaven.

VERS. 34.-- From Segor even to Oronaim. Segor a city which overhangs the Dead Sea, where is the border of the Moabites. 55CIt signifies therefore that the howling shall resound even to the furthest bounds of the province. Of which Isaias: Her bars unto Segor a heifer dismaying (Isa. XV), [Vulg. Isa. 15:5 vitulam conternantem, "a heifer of three years old"] that is, of perfect age. For as among men the thirtieth year, so among cattle and beasts of burden the third year is the most robust. The waters also of Nemrim. Isaias: For the waters of Nemrim shall be erum desolate (Isa. XV), etc. And the things which are here less said, are fully expounded in Isaias. For Nimrim is a town upon the Dead Sea.

VERS. 35.-- And I will take away from Moab. The sect of human wisdom perishing, the pomp and clamour of words ceased, so that neither the philosophers nor the heretics who have gone out from the Church find anything in their doctrine which is useful for human life.

VERS. 37.-- For every head shall be bald. (RAB.) 55DAmong the ancients the shaving of the beard and of the head was a sign of mourning, etc., as far as hence Isaias: On all his heads baldness, every beard shall be shaven (Isa. XV).

VERS. 38.-- Because I have broken Moab. All the doctrine of philosophers and of heretics, because it is fragile and useless, is broken and scattered by the truth.

VERS. 41.-- And the heart of the strong ones of Moab shall be. Well does he compare the heart of Moab to the heart of a woman in travail; because from great luxury one comes to great sorrow.

VERS. 45.-- They stood in the shadow of Hesebon. Because in its fortification he was hoping for solace for himself, but in vain: because the fire of vengeance, the just judge requiting it, crushed the crown of the tumult of the sons of Moab.

VERS. 46.-- Woe to thee, Moab. Because neither the fortification of cities, 56Anor the power of idols availed to defend thee: so shall there be a perpetual woe to those who trust in human wisdom, and serve divers errors.

VERS. 47.-- And I will turn back the captivity of Moab. It seems to signify the time of grace, in which whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel. II).

VERS. 1.-- To the sons of Ammon. After Moab the words are turned to the sons of Ammon, and they are rebuked because they dared to invade the land of Israel, whence also a fitting vengeance is foretold to them, and Israel is foretold as about to possess its own possessors.

VERS. 2.-- Ye daughters of Rabbath. The metropolis of the Moabites, which is now called Ariopolis, the name being composed of Hebrew and Greek, in that it is called ἄρκος, that is, the city of Mars.

56BVERS. 6.-- And after these things. Because after the conversion of heretics to the right faith the captivity of sin shall be loosed, they shall be received into the communion of the Church, out of which they had gone. And the captives. By the sons of Ammon, who were begotten of Lot in the cave, and in drunkenness, and in incest, we may understand heretics, according to that word, They went out from us, but of us they were not (Joan. II). [Vulg. I Joan. 2:19 Ex nobis prodierunt, sed non erant ex nobis, "came forth from us"]

VERS. 7.-- To Idumaea. (RAB.) Tropologically Idumaea is earthly and fleshly delight, which rises up against the spirit, that we may not do the things which are of the spirit, and the soul, etc., as far as For when the flesh has been made subject to the spirit, Idumaea shall pass over into Judaea, and the flesh shall serve reason.

VERS. 9. If thieves. Heretics, who steal for themselves what suffices, and daily snatch away some out of the Church, 56Centering the vineyard of the Lord, which he brought over out of Egypt, desire to lay all things waste, so that they scarcely leave a cluster in it. But the Lord on the contrary brings forth into the midst all their secret things, and those of the patriarchs of Esau (who, that is, devised the first heresies), churchmen and teachers. And his first victory is to lay open the things that were being covered.

(HIER). The discourse was made against the Jews, who envy Christians, etc., as far as that, mortifying our members (fornication, that is to say, uncleanness, and the like), we may obtain the eternal victory in Christ.

VERS. 14.-- I have heard. This sentence is contained in Abdias in almost the same words, and so is much of this chapter.

56DVERS. 15.-- For behold. (RAB.) As if he should say: O Edom, thou who art the lesser among all the nations round about, etc., as far as thence would I drag thee down, and bring thee back to the land of the other nations.

I have made thee little among the nations. O heretic, although thou seemest great to thyself, and despisest the littleness of the Church, yet thou art little and contemptible.

VERS. 16.-- When thou shalt have exalted, etc. (RAB.) Because heretics promise themselves the height and the likeness of eagles, which are gathered together to the Lord's carcass, etc., as far as But that which has been said against heretics and against the flesh can be understood against the Jews also.

VERS. 19.-- Behold, as a lion. (ID.) Just as the Lord chastised the pride of the Jews, whom through the Jordan, 57Aetc., as far as but as a most savage lion he shall thrust them down into Tartarus to be tormented for ever.

VERS. 21.-- At the voice of the ruin, etc. When the waster comes, the crash of their ruin shall resound far and wide, striking terror into the neighbouring provinces.

VERS. 23.-- Emath is confounded. (RAB.) After the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites also and the Idumaeans, to Damascus, that is, to Arabia, etc., as far as for when the people of the Jews was taken, Damascus, over which Aretha ruled, was likewise taken.

VERS. 24.-- Damascus is dissolved. Damascus is interpreted a cup of blood, or drinking blood, or the blood of sackcloth; all which things befit the heathen, etc., as far as For as a heap of stones is piled up out of scattered stones: so out of all nations 57Ba heap of believers is gathered together in the ruin of the falling Jews, while the Gentiles rise.

VERS. 28.-- To Cedar. These are Agarenes, but by a usurped name they are called Saracens, and they dwell throughout the whole wilderness, of whom the poet says: And wandering far and wide, the Agi.

(RAB). Mystically. Cedar, which is interpreted darkness, and Asor, etc., as far as who feign themselves sons of the East, whereas they are sons of darkness.

VERS. 29.-- The tents. All these things properly signify the nation of the Saracens, who remain in tents, and have their seats wherever night has forced them, and many herds, and flocks, and droves of camels; but they have no doors, nor bars, for they do not dwell in cities, but in the wilderness. All these have been blotted out by the Babylonians 57C.

VERS. 35.-- Behold, I will break in pieces, etc. (RAB.) Elam is a region of Persia, whence the Elamites. For the prophet foretells, etc., as far as The Elamites also are interpreted despising or tempting, and they signify the persecutors of the Church.

VERS. 1.-- The word. The prophecy against Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, the sons of Ammon, Damascus also and Cedar being finished, the discourse is directed against Babylon and the Chaldeans; so that those whom he before reproved covertly, he may now, by openly making their crimes manifest, plainly declare that devastation and desolation follow. Isaias also and Ezechiel prophesied like things against the Babylonians 57Dand the Chaldeans.

VERS. 2.-- They are confounded. Isaias says like things: Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold (Isa. XIII).

VERS. 4.-- The children of Israel shall come. (RAB.) This promise signifies the return of the people of God out of captivity, etc., as far as that they may be joined to him in an everlasting covenant.

VERS. 6.-- A lost flock. By this sentence are marked out the kings of the Israelites, who made the people to err and to turn aside to idolatry: of whom the first was Jeroboam the son of Nabath, who caused the golden calves to be adored: then the rest of the transgressors of the law.

VERS. 8.-- Depart ye, etc. According to the history 58Ahe admonishes the Israelites, who were to be led captive into Babylon, that they should not judge that they would have a settled possession there, but should hold the hope of returning, and, when the captivity should be loosened, should flee thence: because it was to come to pass that she should be laid waste by the Medes and Persians.

(ORIG.) As our body subsists in some place of the earth, so the soul, according to its own state, is by denomination in some place of the earth. Our body, etc., as far as so in Egypt, one is in Taphnis, another is in Memphis, another in Sienni, another dwells in Bubastis.

VERS. 12.-- Your mother is exceedingly confounded, etc. Isaias says like things, And that glorious Babylon, renowned among kingdoms, in the pride of the Chaldeans, shall be overthrown, as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha 58B(Isa. XIII). [Vulg. Isa. 13:19 Et erit Babylon illa gloriosa in regnis, inclyta superbia Chaldaeorum, sicut subvertit Dominus Sodomam et Gomorrham, with no subvertetur, "shall be overthrown"] Behold, she shall be the last, etc. At the end of the world, or in the death of each one, all the glory and pride of the Chaldeans, and the confusion of the world, shall depart from us, and so all things shall be overthrown, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, nor shall there be any longer a state of pleasure or of the world.

VERS. 15.-- As she hath done, do ye to her. That is, as she through Nabuchodonosor laid waste the nations on every side, so render ye retribution to her.

VERS. 16.-- Because of the sword of the dove. The dove is called foolish, because she nourishes the young of others; so Nabuchodonosor, by oppressing others and by cherishing them. He calls Nabuchodonosor also a dove, not for simplicity, but for the folly of pride.

VERS. 17.-- The lions have cast him out, etc. Teglathphalasar, 58Cwho carried over a great part of the Jews among the Assyrians, and Sennacherib, who led the ten tribes across into the mountains of the Medes, these are called lions.

VERS. 18.-- Behold, I will visit. (RAB.) The Lord visits the king of Babylon, that is, of confusion, as he visited the king of Assur, who is interpreted, etc, as far as but a new people in a new city shall exult for ever.

VERS. 21.-- Upon the land of the rulers. It is commanded to the preachers of Christ that they be zealous to overthrow the kingdom of the devil: and his malignant works and his worst counsels, that they may kill all the sinners of the earth, and destroy out of the city of the Lord all that work iniquity.

58DVERS. 23.-- How is it broken, etc. (ORIG.) The hammer of the whole earth is the devil. But there is one who cares not for the hammer of the whole earth, the man, that is, standing upon adamantine walls, etc., as far as for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, and Babylon was found, and taken: because she resisted the Lord.

VERS. 25-27.-- The Lord hath opened his treasure, etc. (ID.) Another edition: Open ye his storehouses, etc., as the Apostle says (Rom. VI): He bore with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared unto perdition upon the vessels of mercy, etc. [Vulg. Rom. 9:22-23 sustinuit in multa patientia vasa irae, apta in interitum, ut ostenderet divitias gloriae suae in vasa misericordiae, "fitted for destruction"] Some therefore are vessels of mercy, others vessels of wrath, etc., as far as he who asserts that the stars are not the causes of the things which come to pass upon the earth, especially of those 59Awhich befall Christians, carries out the command of the Lord.

VERS. 28.-- The voice of them that flee. (ORIG.) Would that this were our voice, O catechumens, of them that flee out of Babylon, and of them that flee, etc., as far as kill all the sinners of the earth that are in thee, and all the Babylonians, that thou, being cleansed, mayest pass over into Jerusalem the city of God.

VERS. 31.-- Behold, I am against thee. (RAB.) Mystically he foretells it to Antichrist, who shall be lifted up above all that is called God, etc., as far as because they feared not to bring calumny and captivity upon the people of God.

VERS. 37.-- And they shall be as women. (ID.) Unwarlike as women: by the Medes and Persians he destroyed them, etc., as far as because their synagogue is a land of graven things 59B, and in portents, that is, in false figments, they glory.

VERS. 44.-- Behold, as a lion. (ID.) It seems to signify that Nabuchodonosor, after the kingdom of the Jews, etc., as far as and, that he may show that it was done not by the power of Cyrus, but by the judgment of the Lord, it is subjoined: For who is like to me?

VERS. 5.-- For it was not, etc. Because the Lord sent them for the vengeance of his people, whom he chastised not by correcting, but crushed by raging: whence, Woe to Assur, the rod of my fury (Isa. X).

VERS. 6.-- Flee ye out of the midst, etc. After the plagues of Babylon he turns his exhortation 59Cto the Jews historically, to the faithful mystically, that they may flee out of the midst of Babylon, that is, of worldly confusion.

(ORIG.) Not by degrees, that is to say, not step by step, but swiftly go ye out, whosoever have a confounded soul, etc., as far as Likewise, when the sins are lesser, God uses ministers: but when they are graver, then he himself hastens to the retribution.

VERS. 7.-- A golden cup, etc. The golden cup of Babylon is not always even in the hand of the Lord; for when it shall have come for vengeance and shall have been placed in the hand of the Lord, there shall be brought about the earth which was made in Job. Nor is it continually held in the hand of the Lord; but then only, when the Lord shall restore to her what she deserves.

(ORIG.) A golden cup. Nabuchodonosor, wishing to deceive men by the cup of Babylon, mingled it not 59Din an earthen vessel, etc., as far as often have I seen a golden cup in the fair adornment of speech, and, considering the poisons of its doctrines, I have detected the cup of Babylon.

Making drunk, etc. (ID.) See all men drunken; we are made drunk with anger and with sadness: we are made drunk, etc., as far as by him are we all made drunk so long as we are earth.

Of the wine. (ID.) As in those who drink bodily wine beyond measure we see the motion of a drunken body, etc., as far as the nations drank, therefore are they moved.

VERS. 8.-- Suddenly is Babylon fallen. It signifies that the consummation of the world shall be sudden, which shall come to pass not by parts but on a sudden, just as Jericho, falling, perished quickly or suddenly. But if thou come to the advent of Christ, and 60Asee his great work, how he overthrew all the doctrines of the Gentiles, that he might take believers out from the yoke of error, thou shalt see that in his passion Babylon suddenly fell and was crushed; let each man see that Babylon has fallen in his own breast. For in whose heart she has not fallen, to him Christ has not yet come: Babylon falls, Jerusalem the holy city of God is built.

Howl ye. (HIER.) Because no soul is incurable with God, he gives counsel to those who are able, etc., as far as but because she would not be healed, the good physicians do their part and say:

VERS. 9.-- We have healed. (ORIG.) See lest at any time God command the angels to prepare medicines for thy languishing soul, etc., as far as God brings forth his judgment to humble that which is exalted.

60BVERS. 16.-- Who lifteth up the clouds, that is, preachers and prophets, who defend us from the heat of the judgment to come by the shower of their eloquence, when they set forth the things to come. Lightnings. The preachers of the prophets are lightnings, when they strike the enemies: rains, when they wash the devout from sins, and pour in the shower of salvation: whence spiritual fruits may germinate, and grow together into a ripe harvest. And he bringeth forth the winds out of the treasures. [Vulg. Jer. 51:16 et produxit ventum de thesauris suis, "he brought forth the wind out of his treasures"] The winds are the apostles, whose preaching runs through the world like a most swift wind: of whom it is said elsewhere: He hath made his arrows for them that burn (Psal. VII). For to those same winds wings are attributed because of the swiftness of their coursing; whence: He flew upon the wings of the winds (Ibid. XI).

VERS. 17.-- Every man is become a fool. Rightly after the overthrow of Babylon does he rebuke the makers of idols, 60Cbecause through the folly of the human mind works vain and worthy of laughter have been made: because there is neither spirit in them, nor voice, nor any efficacy: whence they can deliver neither themselves nor their worshippers in the day of visitation.

Every founder is confounded. (RAB.) The overthrow of Babylon being shown, the prophet returns to the author of so great a judgment: because there is no power but from God, who rules in the kingdom of men, and will give it to whomsoever he will.

VERS. 25.-- Behold, I, etc. The destroying mountain, Nabuchodonosor, and the kingdom of the Chaldeans; or the devil, who elsewhere is called a dark mountain, because of the darkness of error. And I will make thee. To this mountain belong the Jews, heretics, blasphemers, and all the impious, who persevere in malice, and are not converted that they may become living stones in the building of God.

60DVERS. 30.-- They have ceased, etc. When Cyrus and Darius came, the strength of Babylon and of her princes ceased.

VERS. 33.-- The daughter of Babylon, etc. There was a people of Babylon, when through the power of her kingdom and the abundance of her riches she threshed and ground down the nations: but the time of her harvest came, when she is compelled to receive what she has done, of whom it is consequently said in the person of the Jewish people: He hath eaten me, and devoured me, Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon.

And I will make the sea a desert, etc. (RAB.) Mystically the sea signifies the turbulence of this world, which the Lord sets as a desert. For he shall make its riot to cease, and the wicked shall be scattered, who were slaves to the confusion of errors and of vices.

61AVERS. 41.-- How is Sesach taken. (RAB.) Sesach is interpreted the fine linen of sackcloth, or the hand of sackcloth: as Babylon, confusion, etc., as far as that they may go out from their fellowship, lest they perish with them.

VERS. 45.-- Go ye out of the midst of her. (ID.) He who wishes to make his soul safe, etc., as far as but strenuous in the meditation of his law and in the exercise of the virtues.

VERS. 52.-- Therefore, etc. (ID.) He enumerates the plagues of Babylon that shall come upon her, and upon her nobles, her leaders and magistrates, and all her people, etc., as far as Go out from her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues (Apoc. XVIII), etc.

VERS. 64.-- So shall Babylon be sunk. For according to 61Bthe history Babylon was sunk [mersa; read non mersa, "was not sunk"] in the Euphrates, although reduced to a wilderness. But he foretells the everlasting destruction of the spiritual Babylon, which shall be plunged into the depth of hell with the devil her prince. Whence John: A strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With this violence shall Babylon be cast (Apoc. XVIII).

VERS. 1.-- The son of twenty. The history which relates that Sedecias was taken, and Jerusalem laid waste by the Chaldeans, is contained entire and in full in the book of Kings.

VERS. 4.-- And it came to pass. The number nine, less than ten, signifies the imperfection of the law, etc., as far as hedged about by the darkness of sins they flee, and, seeing the wolf coming, they forsake the sheep.

61CVERS. 7.-- By the way of the gate. Covertly he reproves the sloth of the teachers, who, set between the walls of the two Testaments, seek not to wage war but to escape, and rather to abound in delights (which the garden signifies) than to withstand the enemy with the shield of faith.

VERS. 8.-- He pursued, etc. (RAB.) In the book of Kings it is thus read: Sedecias fled by the way, etc. When malignant spirits surround the people, the ruler does not flee, etc., as far as Having laid hold of the king therefore, they led him to the king of Babylon into Reblatha, etc.

VERS. 11.-- And the king brought him, etc. Because the soul, bound in the confusion of sins by the fetters of vices, is led by malignant spirits into the house of the prison unto the day of death, and is shut up in the straitness of mind, 61Dthat it may await the sentence of death.

VERS. 12.-- And in the fifth month, etc. The order of the time agrees with the reason of the vengeance: in the fifth month is the city laid waste, which despised the Pentateuch, on the tenth day of the month, because it did things contrary to the decalogue of the law, flattering itself with security on account of its dwelling in the holy places; whence above: Trust ye not, etc.

(GREG.) While the Scripture Scripturae relates the captivity of Sedecias, 62Ait announces the order of the inward captivity, etc., as far as For sometimes even the light of the whole reason is closed up, because it is weighed down by evil use and by the multitude of its own iniquity iniquitates.

Nabuzardan came, etc. (RAB.) By the just judgment of God came Nabuzardan, prince of the army of the king of Babylon, upon Jerusalem, and set it on fire, etc., as far as he burns every house with fire, that is, the conscience of each man with the flame of unlawful love.

Of the poor, etc. (ID.) Those who could be useful by word and by example, etc., as far as but thorns and thistles of vices.

VERS. 20.-- The pillars also, etc. By the divers vessels are signified divers offices in the Church, which the malignant spirits take away from the service of God, and turn to their own 62Buse.

VERS. 21.-- Of the pillars, etc. (RAB.) In that he describes the fashioning of the pillars with the capitals, and the nets and the pomegranates, he shows, etc., as far as let him read our work upon the book of Kings, where what the holy Fathers thought concerning these things has been explained.

VERS. 24.-- And the master took, etc. The devil deceives and takes captive even the strong in the Church; whence: His meats are choice (Habac. I), etc. [Vulg. Habac. 1:16 cibus ejus electus, "his food is choice"]

VERS. 25.-- He took out of the city, etc. The continent, that is to say, not having in their breast the oil of grace and of mercy (like the foolish virgins), who are set in vain over men of war, since they take no forethought to shun arrogance.

VERS. 26.-- Seven men, etc. By the sevenfold Spirit, 62Cthat is to say, sanctified. But because they lost grace, being delivered over to seven other spirits more wicked, they look not upon the commandments of the heavenly king, but obey the will of the king of hell. And the scribe, etc. Whom the book of Kings calls Sophar, who is interpreted scattering or dividing, and he signifies those who scatter by depraved examples the untaught in the Church, whom they ought to have nourished unto the warfare of Christ, and who sequester them from the assembly of the faithful through error.

And sixty men, etc. Fools, that is to say, fellow workers, who are deservedly called by the name of the common crowd, who neglected to discern and to fulfil the profit of the divine counsel.

VERS. 27.-- And the king of Babylon struck them, etc. This the king of Babylon compasses, that those whom he plucks out of the Church he may bring through to the slaying of everlasting death.

62DVERS. 28.-- This is the people, etc. (RAB.) Three times did Nabuchodonosor lay waste Judaea. First, with Joachim, etc., as far as and he thrusts them back into the prison of hell, where the damned groan for ever.

VERS. 31.-- And it came to pass. (ID.) It signifies the wondrous power of God through good and evil alike, his own, etc., as far as him corrected he mercifully regarded, and, freeing him from punishments, restored him to rest and to honour.