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On Jeremiah

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Jeremiah 2:25

(Verse 25.) Keep your foot from nakedness, and your throat from thirst. And you said, I have despaired, I will not do it. I have loved strangers, and will follow after them. LXX: Turn your foot away from the rough path, and your throat from thirst. She said, I will act boldly because I have loved strangers, and I will follow after them. They who will celebrate the Passover are commanded to have shoes on their feet (Exodus 12). And the Apostle (Ephesians 6) preaches to have feet shod ready for the Gospel: lest while they walk through the solitude of this world, they be exposed to venomous creatures, which are to be trodden upon and crushed by the Gospel foot. We prevent our throat from being thirsty, when we fulfill the commandments of the Savior saying: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). By this despair of evil, she denied that she would do what the Lord commanded, and she explained the reason, saying: I have loved strangers, and I will follow them, thinking that by this impudent confession she could avoid sins. Furthermore, next to the road of sinners ther…

(Verse 25.) Keep your foot from nakedness, and your throat from thirst. And you said, I have despaired, I will not do it. I have loved strangers, and will follow after them. LXX: Turn your foot away from the rough path, and your throat from thirst. She said, I will act boldly because I have loved strangers, and I will follow after them. They who will celebrate the Passover are commanded to have shoes on their feet (Exodus 12). And the Apostle (Ephesians 6) preaches to have feet shod ready for the Gospel: lest while they walk through the solitude of this world, they be exposed to venomous creatures, which are to be trodden upon and crushed by the Gospel foot. We prevent our throat from being thirsty, when we fulfill the commandments of the Savior saying: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). By this despair of evil, she denied that she would do what the Lord commanded, and she explained the reason, saying: I have loved strangers, and I will follow them, thinking that by this impudent confession she could avoid sins. Furthermore, next to the road of sinners there is a rough path, which is turned into a smooth path by the Lord. Let anyone who follows heretics be noted for the praise of this verse; for he said, I have despaired, whether I act boldly in evil, and I will be strengthened in my error. However, it is necessary for someone who follows a different doctrine from the Church to love those who are different and to follow their footsteps, whether they are demons or the leaders of heretics who are alienated from God.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:25
Nothing makes God as angry as when people from despair of better things cling to those that are worse. Indeed, this despair in itself is a sign of unbelief. One who despairs of salvation can have no expectation of a judgment to come. For if he dreaded such, he would by doing works prepare to meet his Judge. Let us hear what God says through Jeremiah: “Withhold your foot from a rough way and your throat from thirst,” and again, “shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?”

LETTER 122.1
Jeremiah 2:26-27

(Verse 26, 27.) Just as a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so were the people of Israel and their kings, leaders, priests, and prophets ashamed. Even though the faces of thieves are shameless and bold, they are still embarrassed when caught in the act. And so, when Israel says to a piece of wood, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You have given birth to me,' they are calling their own creations their parents, and they are ashamed when caught in their idolatry. And let us not say this about him of the common people: He sets up kings and princes, and priests, and their prophets. Let us use this testimony against our leaders, and against those who are considered leaders in the Church, when they have been caught in shameful sins. They turned their back to me, and not their face. Those who reject the words of God, turn their back against Him and not their face. For when a master gives a command, the sign of obedience is if the servant listens with head lowered. But if they turn their back, it is a sign of contempt; as it is written in another place: And they turned their shoulder…

(Verse 26, 27.) Just as a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so were the people of Israel and their kings, leaders, priests, and prophets ashamed. Even though the faces of thieves are shameless and bold, they are still embarrassed when caught in the act. And so, when Israel says to a piece of wood, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You have given birth to me,' they are calling their own creations their parents, and they are ashamed when caught in their idolatry. And let us not say this about him of the common people: He sets up kings and princes, and priests, and their prophets. Let us use this testimony against our leaders, and against those who are considered leaders in the Church, when they have been caught in shameful sins.

They turned their back to me, and not their face. Those who reject the words of God, turn their back against Him and not their face. For when a master gives a command, the sign of obedience is if the servant listens with head lowered. But if they turn their back, it is a sign of contempt; as it is written in another place: And they turned their shoulder, wanting to go away (Zach. VII, 11). So much have they despised my commands, that they did not even want to hear, but showed their arrogance with their body language.

And in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us. Those who did not perceive through blessings will perceive through torments that God.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:28
(Verse 28.) Where are your gods, whom you made for yourself? Let them arise and deliver you in the time of your affliction. It is a shameless request to seek help from one whom you have despised in times of peace. And it should be read with the emotion of rebuke: Let your gods deliver you, whom you made for yourself. So that when God, the Creator of mankind, becomes a man, man may make a god, and the necessity may prove what power those whom you worshiped with confidence before possess.

According to the number of your cities, your gods were the gods of Judah. Each individual city worshipped either the same gods or different ones, so that they did not seem to have agreement in impiety, but rather, by fighting against each other, superstition followed different errors. And what follows is that, according to the number of roads, they sacrificed to Baal in Jerusalem, as added by the seventy translators.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:29
(Verse 29) What do you want to contend with me in judgment? You all have forsaken me, says the Lord. Human perversity is inclined to make excuses for itself, so that whatever it rightfully endures, it may seem to endure unjustly; and it may attribute its own fault to the judgment of God. Therefore, in vain, you present complaints, and an unjust cause to the judge, when it is because of your impiety that you suffer. And what follows: And you have all acted unjustly against me, is added by the Septuagint.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:30

(Verse 30) Without cause, I struck your sons: they did not receive discipline. For this reason, you did not receive the 70. And the sense in Hebrew is: Those who were struck did not want to receive discipline. But in the Septuagint: Therefore, I struck your sons so that you may be taught by their death. And lest you say: You did not want to correct sinners, learn from the blows inflicted upon your sons, because I desired to heal you with a more severe remedy. Your sword devoured your prophets. Not mine, but yours: not my sword, but yours, devoured, which you endured for your sins. Moreover, the 70 do not have yours: but they have simply interpreted 'your sword devoured your prophets' to show either an enemy sword or my sword, through which your sins were stabbed. As a destructive lion is your generation. LXX: As a destructive lion, and you did not fear. The sword, he says, which devoured your prophets; undoubtedly this signifies Baal and the soothsayers of idols, like a lion he ravaged everything: and yet your generation, which should have improved through the punishment of a few…

(Verse 30) Without cause, I struck your sons: they did not receive discipline. For this reason, you did not receive the 70. And the sense in Hebrew is: Those who were struck did not want to receive discipline. But in the Septuagint: Therefore, I struck your sons so that you may be taught by their death. And lest you say: You did not want to correct sinners, learn from the blows inflicted upon your sons, because I desired to heal you with a more severe remedy.

Your sword devoured your prophets. Not mine, but yours: not my sword, but yours, devoured, which you endured for your sins. Moreover, the 70 do not have yours: but they have simply interpreted 'your sword devoured your prophets' to show either an enemy sword or my sword, through which your sins were stabbed.

As a destructive lion is your generation. LXX: As a destructive lion, and you did not fear. The sword, he says, which devoured your prophets; undoubtedly this signifies Baal and the soothsayers of idols, like a lion he ravaged everything: and yet your generation, which should have improved through the punishment of a few, continued in all wickedness. But in the Septuagint the sense is this: The sword of the Lord, which showed the sword of the adversaries, devoured and tore apart your false prophets, like a lion, which fiercely tears apart the prey it finds, and yet you were not able to be converted to better things through the punishment of your prophets.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:31
(Verse 31.) See the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a barren land? Why then said my people, We are gone, we will come no more at you? LXX: Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a land full of darkness? Why do my people say, We will not serve, we will not come to you? And Moses saw the voice of God (Exod. XXXIII), and John the Apostle says that he has seen and touched the word of God (I John I). But he wonders how the people of Israel had treated God as if it were a wilderness, when they followed idols as if they were the bustling city. It is a late land, which does not receive the showers of teachings, nor the discipline of the Gospel; and it is full of thorns, because it had not been cultivated. Therefore, the once people of God are more wicked in that they have turned away from the Lord and do not want to return to their Lord anymore. It is a great offense not to seek to appease the one you have offended.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:32
(Verse 32.) Will the virgin forget her adornment, and the bride her breastplate? My people have forgotten me in countless days. Through these things we learn that Christ is the bridegroom of the virgin Church, which has no blemish or wrinkle. But if he is the bridegroom, his words are, as John the Baptist speaks: He who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29). Therefore, he loses his adornment who departs from the Lord, and loses the understanding of the teachings, which is symbolized in the breastplate. Wherefore also John the Evangelist leaned on the breast of the Lord (John 13), and among other things, the chest of the victims is separated for the priests (Numbers 18). But as the number of times in which we forget the Lord increases, so does the greater punishment of sin, which neither the length of the ages can subdue.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:32
It is the virgin Mary of whom God by the mouth of Jeremiah speaks, saying, “Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire?” Concerning her we read of a great miracle in the same prophecy—that a woman should compass a man and that the Father of all things should be contained in a virgin’s womb.

Against Jovinianus 1.32
Jeremiah 2:33-34

(Verse 33, 34) Why do you insist on showing your good path in seeking affection, when you have also taught your wicked ways? And on your wings (or in your hands) the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent is found. I did not find them in ditches (or pits), but in all of these (or under every oak tree). In vain, he says, you desire to defend yourself with the art of words, and to show your works as if they were good, so that you may deserve affection. Moreover, you have also taught others your ways, and you have become an example for all evil works, and on your wings (or in your hands), indeed, the blood of the innocent is found, whom you sacrificed to idols, or whose souls you lost through the likeness of sacrifices. We placed the poor, from Hebrew, who are not found in the Septuagint. However, he says, the poor and innocent ones, I did not find slain in ditches, which is usually the result of the plots of robbers: but in all the things I mentioned above, whether under the oak, which in Hebrew is called Ella (): which indeed also signifies this; so the meaning is: In all these t…

(Verse 33, 34) Why do you insist on showing your good path in seeking affection, when you have also taught your wicked ways? And on your wings (or in your hands) the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent is found. I did not find them in ditches (or pits), but in all of these (or under every oak tree). In vain, he says, you desire to defend yourself with the art of words, and to show your works as if they were good, so that you may deserve affection. Moreover, you have also taught others your ways, and you have become an example for all evil works, and on your wings (or in your hands), indeed, the blood of the innocent is found, whom you sacrificed to idols, or whose souls you lost through the likeness of sacrifices. We placed the poor, from Hebrew, who are not found in the Septuagint. However, he says, the poor and innocent ones, I did not find slain in ditches, which is usually the result of the plots of robbers: but in all the things I mentioned above, whether under the oak, which in Hebrew is called Ella (): which indeed also signifies this; so the meaning is: In all these things, whether under the oak or terebinth, under whose shade and foliage you enjoyed yourself as if in pleasant places of idolatrous crimes.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:35-36
(Ver. 35, 36) And you said: I am without sin and innocent: and therefore let your anger turn away from me. Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: I have not sinned: how despicable you have become, repeating your ways too much (or how greatly you have despised). This should be used against those who refuse to acknowledge their own sins: but in the time of affliction and distress, they claim to unjustly endure what they endure: and they provoke the wrath of God even more, because the greater sin is not to mourn what they have done, but to offer empty excuses for their sins. He said, 'I will argue with you in court for what you have said, 'I have not sinned': as if this sin is any greater, to have something in one's conscience and to speak it out in one's words. Let the new heresy hear that the wrath of God is even the greatest, not to humbly confess one's sin, but shamelessly boast of righteousness.'

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:37

(Verse 37.) And you will be confounded by Egypt, just as you were confounded by Assyria: for you will also go out from there, and your hands will be on your head: because the Lord has broken your confidence (or hope), and you will have nothing prosperous in it. In order to avoid the attack of the Egyptians, they fled to the Assyrians, whose defense was in vain, for we read that they were defeated by the Egyptians. Again, in order to escape the wrath of the Assyrians, they used the help of the Egyptians; whom the Assyrians overcame, as the history tells. Therefore, they are rebuked because, having abandoned hope in the Lord, they rely on the assistance of men, which is totally broken and so destroyed that they cannot find any usefulness in it. Hence it is said: 'And you shall leave this, that is, Egypt, just as you left Assyria; and your hands shall be upon your head, and you shall grieve in vain for having expected help from the Egyptians.' Let us remember the story when Thamar was corrupted and violated by her wicked brother Amnon, and she put her hands sprinkled with ashes on her h…

(Verse 37.) And you will be confounded by Egypt, just as you were confounded by Assyria: for you will also go out from there, and your hands will be on your head: because the Lord has broken your confidence (or hope), and you will have nothing prosperous in it. In order to avoid the attack of the Egyptians, they fled to the Assyrians, whose defense was in vain, for we read that they were defeated by the Egyptians. Again, in order to escape the wrath of the Assyrians, they used the help of the Egyptians; whom the Assyrians overcame, as the history tells. Therefore, they are rebuked because, having abandoned hope in the Lord, they rely on the assistance of men, which is totally broken and so destroyed that they cannot find any usefulness in it. Hence it is said: 'And you shall leave this, that is, Egypt, just as you left Assyria; and your hands shall be upon your head, and you shall grieve in vain for having expected help from the Egyptians.' Let us remember the story when Thamar was corrupted and violated by her wicked brother Amnon, and she put her hands sprinkled with ashes on her head, and thus she returned to her house (II Kings XIII).

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 3:1

(Chapter III - Verse 1) It is commonly said (for which the Seventy have translated 'only said'). If a man divorces his wife and she goes and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be considered defiled and polluted? (or that land?) And you have committed adultery with many lovers (or shepherds.) For the word 'Reim' (), which is written with four letters Res, Ain, Yod, Mem, signifies both lovers and shepherds. And if we read Reim, it means lovers; if Roim, it means shepherds. But return to me, says the Lord (or you have returned to me, says the Lord). In Hebrew, even after fornication, he accepts the repentant, and exhorts them to return to him. But in the Septuagint, it does not invite to repentance, but reproaches the impudence of the prostitute who dares to return to her husband after adultery. And what it says: and that woman will be defiled, for which in Hebrew we read the land, provides an example, and speaks more clearly about the land of Israel, which is compared to the adulterous woman. Let us use this testimony against those who abandon…

(Chapter III - Verse 1) It is commonly said (for which the Seventy have translated 'only said'). If a man divorces his wife and she goes and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be considered defiled and polluted? (or that land?) And you have committed adultery with many lovers (or shepherds.) For the word 'Reim' (), which is written with four letters Res, Ain, Yod, Mem, signifies both lovers and shepherds. And if we read Reim, it means lovers; if Roim, it means shepherds.

But return to me, says the Lord (or you have returned to me, says the Lord). In Hebrew, even after fornication, he accepts the repentant, and exhorts them to return to him. But in the Septuagint, it does not invite to repentance, but reproaches the impudence of the prostitute who dares to return to her husband after adultery. And what it says: and that woman will be defiled, for which in Hebrew we read the land, provides an example, and speaks more clearly about the land of Israel, which is compared to the adulterous woman. Let us use this testimony against those who abandon the faith of the Lord and, hindered by the errors of heretics, after many fornications and deceptions of souls, pretend to return to the ancient truth: not to remove the venom from their hearts, but to deceive others.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 3:2-3

(Verse 2, 3.) And you have polluted (or killed) the land with your fornications, and in your evils (Alternative: in malice): therefore the drops of rain have been withheld, and the late rain has not come (or you have had many shepherds to stumble). The land has been killed (or polluted), because of the killing of those who perished in idolatrous fornication. Hence the blessing of all things has been taken away, so that they would suffer the drought of the word of God. Whether they had shepherds through whom they offended God, so that those who should have been teachers, to prevent others from error, became authors of impiety. The forehead of a prostitute has become yours, and you were not ashamed. LXX: The appearance of a prostitute has become yours: you have become without shame towards everyone. Because above (To chapter II, 35) he had said: I have not sinned, and yet he had sinned more by denying his own crimes: therefore now he accuses [you] as if [you were] a shameless and excessively impudent woman: so that [you] do not carry [yourself] with a shameless expression only towards…

(Verse 2, 3.) And you have polluted (or killed) the land with your fornications, and in your evils (Alternative: in malice): therefore the drops of rain have been withheld, and the late rain has not come (or you have had many shepherds to stumble). The land has been killed (or polluted), because of the killing of those who perished in idolatrous fornication. Hence the blessing of all things has been taken away, so that they would suffer the drought of the word of God. Whether they had shepherds through whom they offended God, so that those who should have been teachers, to prevent others from error, became authors of impiety.

The forehead of a prostitute has become yours, and you were not ashamed. LXX: The appearance of a prostitute has become yours: you have become without shame towards everyone. Because above (To chapter II, 35) he had said: I have not sinned, and yet he had sinned more by denying his own crimes: therefore now he accuses [you] as if [you were] a shameless and excessively impudent woman: so that [you] do not carry [yourself] with a shameless expression only towards one or two, but [you] are not ashamed before anyone. Let us use this language against the assembly of heretics, who boast in their errors.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 3:2
(Version 2.) Lift up your eyes and see where you have not fallen. On the roads you were sitting, waiting for them like a robber in the wilderness (or like a deserted raven). For it is written in Hebrew, Arabic, and can also mean Arabs, that this people, devoted to robbery, still raids the borders of Palestine today, and they besiege the roads for those descending from Jerusalem to Jericho: of which the Lord also mentions in the Gospel (Luke 10). So lift up your eyes, O Jerusalem, and look around, and see where you are not laid low by fornication. For just as thieves are accustomed to lay traps for travelers in the evening and in deserted places, so you, sitting by the brothel of Proverbs, were sitting in the streets in the evening, in order to destroy the souls of those who commit fornication. Therefore, the whole land is polluted with your fornications. And significantly, next to these who promise to abandon heretical errors, it is commanded that they lift their eyes straight ahead. For unless they begin to see straight, they cannot condemn their former wickedness.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 3:3-5
No, a widow must take every precaution not to overstep by an inch the bounds of chastity. For if she once oversteps them and breaks through the modesty that becomes a matron, she will soon riot in every kind of excess. So much so that the prophet’s words shall be true of her, “You have a whore’s forehead, you refuse to be ashamed.”

LETTER 123.9
Jeremiah 3:3-5
When they go out, they do their best to attract notice and with nods and winks encourage troops of young fellows to follow them. Of each and all of these the prophet’s words are true, “You have a whore’s forehead. You refuse to be ashamed.” Their robes have but a narrow purple stripe, it is true. And their headdress is somewhat loose, so as to leave the hair free.

LETTER 22.13
Jeremiah 3:4-5
(Verse 4, 5.) Therefore, at least from now on, call me, my Father, you are the leader of my virginity: will you be angry forever, or will you persist until the end? Let the heretics be ashamed who do not want to convert to better things, nor return to their Father and Creator, and let them hear: At least from now on, call me, my Father, you are the leader of my virginity. He himself embraces your soul with his affection, and teaches how one should pray and repent. However, the more merciful he who shows the way to salvation after fornication, the more wretched the prostitute who does not want to receive health after wounds.

Behold, you have spoken, and you have done evil, and you have been able. For words of repentance, with words of pride you blasphemed: and you fulfilled your evil intention, and you showed your strength against a man, so that you could do what you discussed in speech.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 3:6-10

(Verse 6 and following) And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the adulteress Israel has done? She went upon every high hill and under every leafy tree and committed adultery there. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw that I had dismissed the adulteress Israel and had given her a bill of divorce. But her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and committed adultery. She defiled the land with her adulterous acts and committed adultery with stone and wood. And in all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood, says the Lord. The torments of some are the remedies of others. And when a murderer is punished, he receives indeed what he has done, but others are deterred from the crime. Therefore, when the ten tribes, which were called Israel, were captured by the Assyrians and taken to Media, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which should have feared similar things and turned their whole minds toward…

(Verse 6 and following) And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the adulteress Israel has done? She went upon every high hill and under every leafy tree and committed adultery there. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw that I had dismissed the adulteress Israel and had given her a bill of divorce. But her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and committed adultery. She defiled the land with her adulterous acts and committed adultery with stone and wood. And in all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood, says the Lord. The torments of some are the remedies of others. And when a murderer is punished, he receives indeed what he has done, but others are deterred from the crime. Therefore, when the ten tribes, which were called Israel, were captured by the Assyrians and taken to Media, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which should have feared similar things and turned their whole minds towards God, overcame the crimes of the ten tribes. And they followed idols to such an extent that they placed a statue of Baal in the Temple of God, which is called an idol by Ezekiel, set up for zeal and emulation of the Lord. But it speaks under the figure of two sisters, because from one are generated Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the stock, and the former is called the adversary, the latter the rebellious one. For the former completely turned away from God, immediately worshipping golden calves in Dan and Bethel. But the latter, in whose possession was the Temple and the true religion of God, gradually departed from the Lord (3 Kings 12). And for this reason, she is called the rebellious one. According to the spiritual interpretation, prophecy about heretics is this: those who, thinking themselves wise in heretical cunning, ascend the mind of pride with knowledge of a false name; and, defiled by the pleasures of this flesh, expose their fornication under every leafy and pleasant tree. When they are delivered to the devil for the destruction of the flesh, it often happens that the house of Judah, that is, the confession and true faith, is not at all frightened by their example but commits much greater evils. And they contaminate the land of the Church with the ease of their fornication, committing adultery with stone and wood, following the teachings that are against God. But if an ecclesiastical man wishes to correct someone who has gone astray, and to cut away the rotten flesh, and to bring back to repentance those who have followed falsehood: and nonetheless they continue to adhere to the ancient error under the guise of Ecclesiastical truth, it can be said of them: In all these things, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned back to me with her whole heart, but in deceit. But this prophecy was fulfilled during the time of Josiah, a righteous king, under whom Jeremiah began to prophesy.

Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremiah 3:6-9
“And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly.” It is a smaller sin to follow evil that you think is good than not to venture to defend what you know for certain is good. If we cannot endure threats, injustice and poverty, how shall we overcome the flames of Babylon? Let us not lose by hollow peace what we have preserved by war. I should be sorry to allow my fears to teach me faithlessness when Christ has put the true faith in the power of my choice.

Against the Pelagians 1. PROLOGUE. 2