Ambrose of Milan — Commentary on Scripture

Jeremiah 1:5 · 2 passages

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

To show them, however, the weakness and transparency of their objection, though it has no real relation to any truth, divine or human, I will prove to them that people have existed before they were born. Let them show that Jacob had not been appointed and ordained, even before he was born. While yet hidden in the secret chamber of his mother’s womb, he supplanted his brother. Let them show that Jeremiah had not likewise been so, before his birth, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the belly, I sanctified you, and appointed you for a prophet amongst the nations.” … What do you [Arians] mean by your principle that “before he was begotten he did not exist”? Was the Father engaged for some time in conception, so that certain epochs passed away before the Son was begotten?

Just as the spiritual bosom of the Father is understood as a certain inner secret of paternal love and nature, in which the Son is always present, so also the spiritual bosom of the Father is the womb, the secret of the innermost mystery, from which the Son has proceeded as though from a generative womb. Finally, we read in diverse ways, sometimes the womb of the Father, sometimes his heart from which he uttered a word, sometimes his mouth from which justice proceeded, from which wisdom came forth, as he himself says: 'From the mouth of the Most High, I came forth.' (Sirach 24:5) Thus, just as we understand that generation from the Father, let us also understand the generation of Mary, the mother, when the womb of the mother is blessed, certainly the virginal womb of Mary, who gave birth to the Lord Jesus for us. Concerning which the Father says through the prophet Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you (Jer. I, 5). Therefore, the prophet declared the dual substance in Christ, of divinity and flesh: one from th…

Just as the spiritual bosom of the Father is understood as a certain inner secret of paternal love and nature, in which the Son is always present, so also the spiritual bosom of the Father is the womb, the secret of the innermost mystery, from which the Son has proceeded as though from a generative womb. Finally, we read in diverse ways, sometimes the womb of the Father, sometimes his heart from which he uttered a word, sometimes his mouth from which justice proceeded, from which wisdom came forth, as he himself says: 'From the mouth of the Most High, I came forth.' (Sirach 24:5) Thus, just as we understand that generation from the Father, let us also understand the generation of Mary, the mother, when the womb of the mother is blessed, certainly the virginal womb of Mary, who gave birth to the Lord Jesus for us. Concerning which the Father says through the prophet Jeremiah: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you (Jer. I, 5). Therefore, the prophet declared the dual substance in Christ, of divinity and flesh: one from the Father, the other from the Virgin; in such a way, however, that he did not lack his divinity when he was born of the Virgin and was in the body.

Jeremiah 1:6 · 2 passages

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

But perhaps you may say, How does Jeremiah call the yoke heavy, when the Lord in the Gospel has said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”? Now, first understand that the Greek has “yoke” only, and has not added “heavy.” Notice this, also, that although it was so in Lamentations, in the Gospel he said “easy yoke” and “light burden,” not “light yoke.” For the yoke of the Word can be heavy, yet easy. Heavy to the youth, heavy to the young man whose age is in fuller flower, so that he is unwilling to offer the neck of his mind in subjection to the yoke of the Word. The yoke of the Word can seem heavy because of the burdens of discipline, the rigor of improvement, the weight of abstinence and the curbing of lust. Yet it is easy because of the fruitfulness of grace, the hope of eternal reward and the sweetness of a purer conscience. Still, he called the yoke of the Word “easy” and the burden of conscience “light,” because for him who has taken up the yoke of the Word with a patient neck the burden of discipline cannot be heavy.

Both Moses and Jeremiah, chosen by the Lord to declare the words of God to the people, avoided through modesty that which through grace they could do.

Jeremiah 1:11-12

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

It is written in the book of the prophet, “Take a branch from a nut tree.” So we must consider why the Lord said this to the prophet, for it is not written without a purpose, since we also read in the Pentateuch that the nut tree of Aaron, the priest, blossomed after it had been laid away for a long while.

Jeremiah 2:13 · 2 passages

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

So she went down to the fountain of wisdom, whether the Church or the soul, to fill her entire vessel and to draw from the pure disciplines of wisdom that the Jews refused to draw from the flowing fountain. Who is this fountain, listen to the one saying: "They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water."

So when the whole world was parched with the drought of Gentile superstition, then came that dew of the heavenly visits on the fleece. But after that the lost sheep of the house of Israel (whom I think that the figure of the Jewish fleece foreshadowed), after that those sheep, I say, “had refused the fountain of living water,” the dew of moistening faith dried up in the breasts of the Jews and that divine Fountain turned away its course to the hearts of the Gentiles.

Jeremiah 2:21-22

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

Yet if the husband’s power allures you, pray tell me who it was that spoke in the prophet, saying, “O Lord, make it known to me that I may know. Then I saw their thoughts. I was led as a harmless lamb to the slaughter and knew it not. They took counsel together against me, saying, Come, let us throw wood into his bread.” For if the Son here spoke of the mystery of his coming incarnation—because it was blasphemous to suppose that the words are spoken concerning the Father—then surely it is the Son who speaks in an earlier passage: “I have planted you as a fruitful vine—how did you become bitter, and a wild vine?”

Jeremiah 2:27

Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

How is a person wise who looks not for his Maker but says to a stone, “You are my father”? Who says to the devil as the Manichaean does, “You are the author of my being”? How is Arius wise, who prefers an imperfect and inferior creator to one who is a true and perfect one? How can Marcion or Eunomius be wise, who prefer to have an evil rather than a good God? And how can one be wise who does not fear his God? For “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Jeremiah 7:16

Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

Rightly, then, is it said, “Who shall entreat for him?” It implies that it must be such a one as Moses to offer himself for those who sin. Or such as Jeremiah, who, though the Lord said to him, “Pray not for this people,” yet prayed and obtained their forgiveness. For at the intercession of the prophet and the entreaty of so great a seer, the Lord was moved. And Jerusalem, which had meanwhile repented for its sins, had said, “O Almighty Lord God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the troubled spirit cries to you. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy.”

Jeremiah 9:21-22

For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

Amid so many passions of this body of ours, amid so many enticements of this world, who indeed can keep his footstep safe and undefiled? The eye looks back and leads the mind’s perception astray, the ear hears and turns one’s attention away, a whiff of fragrance hinders thought, a kiss of the mouth introduces guilt, a touch kindles the fire of passion. “Death has entered in through the window,” the prophet said. Your eye is your window. If you look at a woman to lust after her, death has entered in; if you listen to the harlot’s words, death has entered in; if licentiousness takes hold of your senses, death has gone in.

Jeremiah 10:6 · 2 passages

Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

Therefore we ought to believe that God is good, eternal, perfect, almighty and true, such as we find him in the Law and the Prophets and the rest of the Holy Scriptures, for otherwise there is no God. For he who is God must be good, seeing that fullness of goodness is of the nature of God. God, who made time, cannot be in time. Again, God cannot be imperfect, for a lesser being is plainly imperfect, seeing that it lacks somewhat whereby it could be made equal to a greater. This, then, is the teaching of our faith—that God is not evil, that with God nothing is impossible, that God does not exist in time, that God is beneath no being. If I am in error, let my adversaries prove it.

These tokens so declare the nature of the Son, that by them you may know both that the Father is eternal, and that the Son is not diverse from Him; for the source of generation is He Who is, and as begotten of the Eternal, He is God; coming forth from the Father, He is the Son; from God, He is the Word; He is the radiance of the Father's glory, the expression of His substance, the counterpart of God, the image of His majesty; the Bounty of Him Who is bountiful, the Wisdom of Him Who is wise, the Power of the Mighty One, the Truth of Him Who is true, the Life of the Living One.

Jeremiah 10:11-14 · 2 passages

Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

But if heretics deny that either the heavens or the earth were made by you, O Lord, let them take heed of the abyss into which they are hurling themselves by their own madness. The prophet writes, “Perish the gods that have not made heaven and earth.” Shall he then perish, O Arian, who had found and saved that which had perished?

Who would doubt that God has made these things, who spoke through the Prophet, saying: 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who has been his counselor or instructed Him?' (Isaiah 40:12). We also read elsewhere: Because it holds the circuit of the earth and has made the earth as nothing. And Jeremiah says: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. The Lord who made the earth in His power, and established it in His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens, and caused a multitude of waters to be in the heaven (Jeremiah 10:11). And he added: Man is made foolish by his knowledge (ibid., 14). For anyone who follows the corruptible things of the world, and from these things believes that they can grasp the truth of divine nature, how can they not be bewitched by the cunning craftiness of disputat…

Who would doubt that God has made these things, who spoke through the Prophet, saying: 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who has been his counselor or instructed Him?' (Isaiah 40:12). We also read elsewhere: Because it holds the circuit of the earth and has made the earth as nothing. And Jeremiah says: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. The Lord who made the earth in His power, and established it in His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens, and caused a multitude of waters to be in the heaven (Jeremiah 10:11). And he added: Man is made foolish by his knowledge (ibid., 14). For anyone who follows the corruptible things of the world, and from these things believes that they can grasp the truth of divine nature, how can they not be bewitched by the cunning craftiness of disputation?

Jeremiah 12:7-8

I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

And although the Apostle himself told the Hebrews that a testament is of no force, until the death of the testator happen, that is to say, a testament is of no strength while the testator liveth, but is established by his death, yet as in Jeremiah the Lord, speaking of the Jews, has said, Mine heritage is unto Me as a lion, he would not deny that they were heirs. But there are heirs without possessions, there are heirs also with them; and while the testator lives those whose names are written in the will are called heirs, though without possessions... As then young children, so the Jews also, are under a schoolmaster. The Law is our schoolmaster, the schoolmaster brings us to our Master; and our One Master is Christ: Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ.

Jeremiah 15:10

Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

Jeremiah also bewails his birth in these words: “Woe is me, my mother! Why have you borne me, a man of contention in all the earth? I have not benefited others, nor has anyone benefited me. My strength has failed.” If, then, holy people shrink from life whose life, though profitable to us, they themselves consider unprofitable, what ought we to do who are not able to profit others and who feel that our lives, like money borrowed at interest, grow more heavily weighted every day with an increasing mass of sins? “I die daily,” says the apostle. Better certainly is this saying than those who say that meditation on death is true philosophy, for while they praise the study, he exercises the practice of death.

Jeremiah 16:16

Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

God made you a hunter, not a conqueror, who said: Behold, I send many hunters (Jer. XVI, 16): hunters not of sin, but of absolution; hunters not of blame certainly, but of grace. Christ is the fisherman, to whom it is said: Henceforth you shall be a life-giving man (Luke V, 10). So send forth your nets, so send forth your eyes, so send forth your words: that you may not oppress anyone, but may raise up the struggling.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The apostle says, “For God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” He does not say “in the likeness of flesh,” for Christ took on himself the reality, not the likeness, of flesh. Nor does he say in the likeness of sin, for he did not sin but was made sin for us. Yet he came “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” That is, he took on him the likeness of sinful flesh, the likeness, because it is written, “He is man, and who shall know him?” He was man in the flesh, according to his human nature that he might be recognized, but in power he was above humanity, that he might not be recognized, so he has our flesh but has not the failings of this flesh.

Jeremiah 17:16

As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.

For I love those presbyters and deacons who when they have performed their mission will not allow themselves to remain absent any longer from their duties. For the prophet says, I have not been weary in following thee. And who can be weary in following Jesus, when He Himself says, Come unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Let us therefore never cease from following Jesus, which if we do we shall never fail, for He gives strength to them that follow Him. The more nearly you approach to the Source of power the stronger you will be. Often, while we are thus following Him, the adversaries say to us, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. But let us not grow weary in following Him, let us not be turned aside by meeting with this crafty question. It was said to the prophet, when he was thrown into prison, when he was cast into the pit of mire, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. But he followed him so much the more, and therefore attained the prize, and received the crown; for following Jesus he was not weary; for there is no weari…

For I love those presbyters and deacons who when they have performed their mission will not allow themselves to remain absent any longer from their duties. For the prophet says, I have not been weary in following thee. And who can be weary in following Jesus, when He Himself says, Come unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Let us therefore never cease from following Jesus, which if we do we shall never fail, for He gives strength to them that follow Him. The more nearly you approach to the Source of power the stronger you will be. Often, while we are thus following Him, the adversaries say to us, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. But let us not grow weary in following Him, let us not be turned aside by meeting with this crafty question. It was said to the prophet, when he was thrown into prison, when he was cast into the pit of mire, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. But he followed him so much the more, and therefore attained the prize, and received the crown; for following Jesus he was not weary; for there is no weariness in Jacob, neither shall sorrow be in Israel.