TRV
Jerome
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500
5,299 passages across 63 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Jeremiah
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Jeremiah 4:10
(Verse 10) And I said: Alas, alas, alas: O Lord God (which the LXX translated: O Lord God), have you deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: There will be peace for you? And behold the sword has reached to the soul. For earlier he had said: At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of God, and all nations will gather to it on the mountain of the Lord in Jerusalem; and now he says: The heart of the king and the hearts of the leaders will perish, and the priests will be astonished and the prophets will be dismayed. The Prophet is troubled and thinks that God has lied to him. He does not understand that the promise will be fulfilled in the distant future, but this will happen in the near future, as the Apostle also speaks: Has God rejected his people? But it reaches to the soul, when nothing vital is reserved in the soul. And at the same time, it shows this, that unless the sword goes before, which cuts off and purges the vices of the soul, peace and promise do not follow.
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Jeremiah 4:11-12
(Verse 11, 12.) In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A burning wind (or dew) in the ways that are in the desert. The ways of my people's children: not for winnowing, and not for purifying. A spirit full of these will come to me. When the sword reaches to the soul, and the threshing floor is complete: then a burning wind will come from the desert, which will not purify and winnow it, but with the chaff scattered here and there, the grain will be stored in the barns: but a full spirit, not for the people, but for me, will come, so that my wheat may be scattered. The wind and the spirits are called by the same name among the Hebrews, namely 'Rua'. And depending on the context or the place, we should understand it as either wind or spirit. Others have explained this passage as follows: after the area has been cleared, the remaining things are saved. Hence it is also written: 'The Spirit of fullness will come to me,' as the Evangelist says: 'We have all received from his fullness' (John 1:16), and we will receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. As for the burning wi…
(Verse 11, 12.) In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A burning wind (or dew) in the ways that are in the desert. The ways of my people's children: not for winnowing, and not for purifying. A spirit full of these will come to me. When the sword reaches to the soul, and the threshing floor is complete: then a burning wind will come from the desert, which will not purify and winnow it, but with the chaff scattered here and there, the grain will be stored in the barns: but a full spirit, not for the people, but for me, will come, so that my wheat may be scattered. The wind and the spirits are called by the same name among the Hebrews, namely 'Rua'. And depending on the context or the place, we should understand it as either wind or spirit. Others have explained this passage as follows: after the area has been cleared, the remaining things are saved. Hence it is also written: 'The Spirit of fullness will come to me,' as the Evangelist says: 'We have all received from his fullness' (John 1:16), and we will receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. As for the burning wind, according to the story, take Nebuchadnezzar, who consumes everything. According to the tropology, the opposing power, which comes from the desert and solitude where there is no hospitality of God, will try to overthrow his Church.
And now I will speak my judgments with them. Ἀποσιώπησις is, according to that Virgilian saying (Aeneid. I):
Whom I... but it is better to calm the troubled waves. Therefore, about to speak of prosperity, he holds back and joins sad things with sad. For these are the judgments, by which God once spoke with his people, so that they may know how to justly endure what they endure. -
Jeremiah 4:13
(Verse 13.) Behold, like a cloud it will ascend, and like a storm its chariots: swifter than eagles are its horses. Woe to us, for we are devastated. It sees what is coming: it describes the army of Babylon, the noise of its chariots and wheels is compared to the fiercest storm, and the swiftness of its horses is joined to that of eagles. When the Prophet had said this and pointed as if to approaching enemies, the people groan, and not foreseeing but already experiencing, they say: Woe to us, for we are devastated. This same thing applies to the Church, just as the army of the true Nebuchadnezzar attacks us daily, and the chariots of Pharaoh, and all his cavalry, surpass the onslaught of eagles. If the Ecclesiasticus man understands, believing in that sentiment: When you have turned, you will groan, then you will be saved, he will say: Woe to us, for we are devastated (Ezech. XXXIII, 11).
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Jeremiah 4:14
(Verse 14.) Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved: how long shall evil thoughts dwell in you? To the people who say, 'Woe to us, for we have been devastated,' the Prophet responds, rather through the Prophet God responds: Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, with that water about which Isaiah also speaks: 'Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean' (Isaiah 1:16), the water of saving baptism, the water of repentance. But he speaks to the metropolis of the Jews, so that by the city the nations may be understood: How long will you surrender to wicked thoughts that proceed from your heart? However, in the Holy Scriptures, we must accept the heart and soul as the meaning.
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Jeremiah 4:15
(Verse 15) The voice of the messenger from Dan, announcing the idol (or pain) from Mount Ephraim. Near the location of the land of Judah, the divine word now speaks. For Dan, a tribe near Mount Lebanon and the city now called Paneas, looks towards the north: from where Nebuchadnezzar will come. But the idol Bel, or pain or wickedness, is described as coming from Mount Ephraim. After the tribe of Dan, the land of Ephraim follows, through which one reaches Jerusalem. Then judgment is interpreted: Ephraim, abundance. Therefore the judgment of the Lord will come upon the land that has sinned against the Lord, with all the abundance of punishment.
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Jeremiah 4:16-17
(Verse 16, 17.) Say to the nations: Behold, it has been heard in Jerusalem, the watchmen come from a distant land and they have given their voice over the cities of Judah: they have become like watchmen over it all around, because they have provoked me to anger, says the Lord. God wants all the nations around to know our judgment: and Jerusalem, being afflicted, to receive all discipline. It is announced with a famous saying in Jerusalem that the adversaries come from a distant land, and the noise of a roaring army rises against it, who besiege the city and close the city with fortifications so diligently, that you would think they are not adversaries, but rather watchmen over fields and vineyards. But all this was done not by the strength of the enemy, but by the fault of Jerusalem: because it provoked God to anger. For if they do not have power over the strength of their adversaries in pigs, how much more in men, and men who were once citizens of God's city?
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Jeremiah 4:18
(Verse 18.) Your ways and thoughts have brought these things upon you: your wickedness, because it is bitter, has reached your heart. It makes an apostrophe to the city of Jerusalem, that her ways and thoughts, by which she sinned in both deed and word, have caused all these things to come upon her: and her own wickedness, which is inherently bitter, has touched her heart and penetrated her innermost being. Whatever happens to us, happens because of our own fault, as we turn a sweet Lord into bitterness and force Him to be unwillingly harsh.
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Jeremiah 4:19-20
(Verse 19, 20.) My belly, my belly is in pain: the feelings of my heart are troubled within me. I will not be silent because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle. Destruction upon destruction is called out, and the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in an instant. When we stood by Symmachus, we were troubled, and in Hebrew it is written, Homa (); the Septuagint and Theodotion used the word μαιμάσσει, which I do not know the meaning of to this day. But the eagle puts up with the disturbance, which also means turmoil itself. Let it be said about this word, about which I know there is a great debate among many. The voice of the Prophet, speaking through the Prophet of God, is brought in: that he may grieve over the contrition of his people, and that his inner organs may be torn apart like those of a man. Just as the Savior grieved over the death of Lazarus (John 11): and he wept over Jerusalem, lest he hide his sorrow in silence (Luke 19): and every sound of the trumpet and the noise of battles disturbs his emotion, while evil…
(Verse 19, 20.) My belly, my belly is in pain: the feelings of my heart are troubled within me. I will not be silent because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle. Destruction upon destruction is called out, and the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in an instant. When we stood by Symmachus, we were troubled, and in Hebrew it is written, Homa (); the Septuagint and Theodotion used the word μαιμάσσει, which I do not know the meaning of to this day. But the eagle puts up with the disturbance, which also means turmoil itself. Let it be said about this word, about which I know there is a great debate among many. The voice of the Prophet, speaking through the Prophet of God, is brought in: that he may grieve over the contrition of his people, and that his inner organs may be torn apart like those of a man. Just as the Savior grieved over the death of Lazarus (John 11): and he wept over Jerusalem, lest he hide his sorrow in silence (Luke 19): and every sound of the trumpet and the noise of battles disturbs his emotion, while evils are multiplied by evils, and the whole land of two tribes is laid waste. While I did not think, he says, my tents and my skins were ravaged by the raging Babylonian army: and my former lodgings have turned into spoils of the enemy. And God himself speaks these same words, when he sees tumults and discords in the Church and in his assemblies crying out day by day like a partridge, and the peace of God turning into war. Hence it follows: -
Jeremiah 4:21
(Verse 21.) How long will I see those fleeing (Vulgate: the one fleeing), hear the sound of the horn? Whether those fleeing from the king of Babylon, or those fleeing from me and departing from my service.
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Jeremiah 4:22
(Verse 22) Because my foolish people did not acknowledge me: they are foolish and senseless children. They are wise to do evil, but do not know how to do good. The cause of their brokenness, devastation, fleeing, and trumpet sound is that the people have become foolish, not by nature, but by their own deliberate choice. And this foolishness is further proven by the fact that they do not know God, and the wise children have become foolish and senseless. For what greater foolishness can there be than, when the ox knows its owner and the donkey the manger of its master, to not know the Lord, the God of Israel, and to despise the present one whom one always desired to see? And it is inferred: They are wise to do evil, but they do not know how to do good. Here wisdom must be understood as wickedness, just as the children of this age are wiser than the children of light: and the steward of iniquity is narrated to have done certain things wisely (Luke 16); and the serpent in paradise is recorded as being wiser than all the beasts (Genesis 3). Therefore true wisdom is that which is joined to…
(Verse 22) Because my foolish people did not acknowledge me: they are foolish and senseless children. They are wise to do evil, but do not know how to do good. The cause of their brokenness, devastation, fleeing, and trumpet sound is that the people have become foolish, not by nature, but by their own deliberate choice. And this foolishness is further proven by the fact that they do not know God, and the wise children have become foolish and senseless. For what greater foolishness can there be than, when the ox knows its owner and the donkey the manger of its master, to not know the Lord, the God of Israel, and to despise the present one whom one always desired to see? And it is inferred: They are wise to do evil, but they do not know how to do good. Here wisdom must be understood as wickedness, just as the children of this age are wiser than the children of light: and the steward of iniquity is narrated to have done certain things wisely (Luke 16); and the serpent in paradise is recorded as being wiser than all the beasts (Genesis 3). Therefore true wisdom is that which is joined to the fear of God. Otherwise, where there are plots and evasion, it is not wisdom, but cunning and deceit that should be called. For this reason, as we have said, because my foolish people did not know me, the Seventy translated it as: because the leaders of my people did not know me, so that the blame may be more on the teachers than on the people who do not have knowledge of God. -
Jeremiah 4:23-26
(Verse 23 and following) I looked at the earth, and behold, it was empty and void; and the heavens, and there was no light in them. I saw the mountains, and behold, they were moving; and all the hills were shaken. I looked, and there was no man, and every bird of the sky had fled. I looked, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed before the Lord's face, and before the fierceness of his anger. The prophet sees in spirit what is to come, so that the people, when they hear it, may be terrified, and, having repented, may not endure what they fear. The land is empty, with its inhabitants destroyed. The heavens have no light, and the magnitude of terror prevents people from seeing. The mountains and hills themselves have safe hiding places, but they seem to be shaken and disturbed to an extreme degree. Looking around, the observer saw nothing, not even a bird. For the elements feel the anger of God, and the irrational creatures are filled with fear. The entire world now demonstrates that this is true, as the multitude of humans, and even the birds that usually fo…
(Verse 23 and following) I looked at the earth, and behold, it was empty and void; and the heavens, and there was no light in them. I saw the mountains, and behold, they were moving; and all the hills were shaken. I looked, and there was no man, and every bird of the sky had fled. I looked, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed before the Lord's face, and before the fierceness of his anger. The prophet sees in spirit what is to come, so that the people, when they hear it, may be terrified, and, having repented, may not endure what they fear. The land is empty, with its inhabitants destroyed. The heavens have no light, and the magnitude of terror prevents people from seeing. The mountains and hills themselves have safe hiding places, but they seem to be shaken and disturbed to an extreme degree. Looking around, the observer saw nothing, not even a bird. For the elements feel the anger of God, and the irrational creatures are filled with fear. The entire world now demonstrates that this is true, as the multitude of humans, and even the birds that usually follow them, have vanished and perished. Also Carmel, which overlooks the great sea, planted with olive trees and vineyards, will come to such a solitude that it will have the desolation of a desert. Likewise, all cities will become deserted, and the cause of all evils is that the anger of the Lord has been provoked by the sin of the guilty people. Whatever we have said about the history of Jerusalem and Judea, let us apply it to the Church of God, when it offends God, and when it is either ruined by vices or persecuted, and where once there was a choir and joy of virtues, there the multitude of sins and sorrows will prevail. -
Jeremiah 4:27-28
(Vers. 27, 28.) For thus says the Lord: The whole earth shall be desolate, but I will not make a complete end. The earth shall mourn and the heavens above shall be sorrowful, because I have spoken ((or thought)). I have planned and will not regret it; I have not turned away from it. The earth is deserted due to the mixture of God's anger and mercy, but there will not be a complete destruction so that those who understand His mercy may exist. The heavens above will also appear sad, and the earth itself will mourn, because the judgment of the Lord has reached its end and He does not regret what He has planned and spoken. But the repentance of God is said to occur when the aforementioned sentence is removed, and the raging wrath does not reach its end. He threatened through Jonah, and the impending sword of tears and sighs was overcome by a multitude (John 3).
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Jeremiah 4:29
(Verse 29.) At the sound of the horseman, and of him who sends forth the arrow (or bends the bow), every city (or region) flees. They have entered the heights and climbed the rocks. And what follows: They have entered the thickets, or caves, which the Seventy have added. But the divine word describes the raging army of Babylon, how at its trembling the entire people have abandoned the city, and have climbed the heights; and yet they could not escape the wrath of the Lord. But whatever, as we said above, is understood in history against Jerusalem, it refers to the Church, when it has offended God, and has been handed over to its adversaries, either in the time of persecution, or certainly because of vices and sins.
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Jeremiah 4:30
(Verse 30.) But what will you do, O devastated one? The word 'devastated' in Hebrew is 'Sadud', which only Aquila has translated, others have translated it as 'miserable and wretched', by their own fault, for they have offended a merciful God. Finally, it follows: When you dress yourself in scarlet and adorn yourself with a golden necklace, and paint your eyes with antimony, you are in vain: your lovers have despised you, they will seek your soul. In the form of an adulterous woman speaks: when you have once offended God, and as if you had abandoned your Creator, you in vain seek ornaments. Your lovers, the demons, have despised you, and not the filth of debauchery, but they will seek the destruction of your soul. This same thing is to be understood spiritually against those who have lost conjugal affections and the modesty of true faith. 'If,' he says, 'you clothe yourself in scarlet, that is, you assume faith in the blood of Christ; if you adorn yourself with a golden necklace, that is, you have the meditation of spiritual senses and understanding; and if you paint your eyes with…
(Verse 30.) But what will you do, O devastated one? The word 'devastated' in Hebrew is 'Sadud', which only Aquila has translated, others have translated it as 'miserable and wretched', by their own fault, for they have offended a merciful God. Finally, it follows:
When you dress yourself in scarlet and adorn yourself with a golden necklace, and paint your eyes with antimony, you are in vain: your lovers have despised you, they will seek your soul. In the form of an adulterous woman speaks: when you have once offended God, and as if you had abandoned your Creator, you in vain seek ornaments. Your lovers, the demons, have despised you, and not the filth of debauchery, but they will seek the destruction of your soul. This same thing is to be understood spiritually against those who have lost conjugal affections and the modesty of true faith. 'If,' he says, 'you clothe yourself in scarlet, that is, you assume faith in the blood of Christ; if you adorn yourself with a golden necklace, that is, you have the meditation of spiritual senses and understanding; and if you paint your eyes with antimony, that is, you have the study of mysteries and the knowledge of God's secrets, you are in vain adorned. For these things you have also prepared for your lovers; and therefore a narrow bed cannot contain both, nor does God receive the ornaments by which you pleased your lovers before.' -
Jeremiah 4:31
(Verse 31) For I heard a voice like that of a woman in labor, the anguish (or groaning) of one giving birth. The voice of the daughter of Zion, fading away and stretching out her hands: Woe to me, for my soul is faint because of the slain! Like a woman in labor, that is, one who is giving birth for the first time, she describes the city of Jerusalem lamenting and crying out. For just as a woman in labor, not yet experiencing the pain of childbirth, almost dies and endures anguish, barely able to breathe, with hands spread out, she collapses, so too the daughter of Zion, when she sees her children slain, will burst forth in these words and say (or bursts forth and says): Woe to me, for my soul is faint because of the slain! But two examples have been compared in one chapter, the giving birth of children and the mourning: so that whatever a woman suffers in childbirth, or in the deaths of children, Jerusalem may suffer in the nations.
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Jeremiah 5:1-2
(Chapter 5 - Verse 1, 2) Go around the streets of Jerusalem and look, observe, and search its squares, whether you find a man who does justice and seeks faithfulness. I will be merciful to him. But even if, by the living Lord, they say and falsely swear this. Great is the love of justice, as God did not deliver the city (Genesis 18) according to the request of Abraham and the response of God for the sake of ten righteous men, but if He finds even one in the now perishing Jerusalem who does justice and seeks faithfulness (or, as Symmachus translated, truth), then God will have mercy on Jerusalem. And because it could happen that some would be found among the people who would feign the worship of God and swear by God, this is prevented so that God is not pleased by empty words but by the truth of faith, and He says: I do not love those who swear by me and swear falsely, but rather those whose hearts and lips are in agreement.
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Jeremiah 5:1
After the address of the Lord in which he commanded, “go throughout Jerusalem,” and so on, the prophet addresses the Lord in return: “Lord, your eyes look for faith,” which is ʾemûnā in Hebrew, referring not to the works of the Jews, in which they exulted according to ceremonies of the law, but to the faith of Christians, through which we are saved by faith. In this chapter, therefore, we learn that supplications are brought for the correction of our faults. This is why he says, “You struck them, and they did not grieve; you wore them out, but they refused to accept discipline.” For Jerusalem was emended through many torments and chastisements and was found to have no shame for their faults after all of this, but with rock-hard shamelessness on their brow, they would not convert to the better way.
SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 1:93.1-2
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Jeremiah 5:3
(Verse 3) Lord, your eyes look upon faith: you struck them, and they did not hurt; you crushed them, and they refused to accept discipline. They hardened their faces like rock, and they refused to turn back. After the words of the Lord, in which he commanded, saying: Go around the streets of Jerusalem, etc., the Prophet speaks to the Lord: Lord, your eyes look upon faith, which in Hebrew is called Emuna: not the works of the Jews, in which they rejoiced according to the ceremonies of the Law; but the faith of the Christians, through which we have been saved by grace. In this chapter, we learn that punishments are inflicted in order to correct vices. Finally, it says, 'You have struck them, and they have not felt pain; you have crushed them, and they have refused to accept discipline.' Through all the torments and whips, Jerusalem is corrected, and yet they did not even have shame for their vices; but like a stone hardening their foreheads, they refused to be converted to better things.
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Jeremiah 5:4-5
(Vers. 4, 5.) But I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish (or they were unable) and ignorant of the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Therefore, I will go to the noble ones, and I will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Here, the poor and the noble ones, he does not speak of poverty and wealth, but compares the people to the rulers. And the meaning is this: Seeing the stubbornness of the unfaithful people, and that with hardened face, he did not want to receive instruction, this is the reasoning I had with myself: Perhaps the common people, who are ignorant of God, cannot know the teachings, and therefore it is excusable, because due to their lack of knowledge of God, they are unable to know the commandments. Therefore, I will go to the priests and those who preside over the people, and I will speak to them. For they have known the will of the Lord and understand His judgment. However, this is said in the manner of one who is uncertain, according to the Gospel saying: 'I will send my son, perhaps they will respect him' (Matt…
(Vers. 4, 5.) But I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish (or they were unable) and ignorant of the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Therefore, I will go to the noble ones, and I will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Here, the poor and the noble ones, he does not speak of poverty and wealth, but compares the people to the rulers. And the meaning is this: Seeing the stubbornness of the unfaithful people, and that with hardened face, he did not want to receive instruction, this is the reasoning I had with myself: Perhaps the common people, who are ignorant of God, cannot know the teachings, and therefore it is excusable, because due to their lack of knowledge of God, they are unable to know the commandments. Therefore, I will go to the priests and those who preside over the people, and I will speak to them. For they have known the will of the Lord and understand His judgment. However, this is said in the manner of one who is uncertain, according to the Gospel saying: 'I will send my son, perhaps they will respect him' (Matthew 21:37), so that through the ambiguity of the sentence and the suspension of words, the free will of man might be shown. -
Jeremiah 5:6
(Verse 6) And behold, these men have broken the yoke together: they have broken the bonds, therefore the lion from the forest has struck them, the wolf has laid waste to them in the evening, the vigilant leopard is over their cities; everyone who goes out from them will be captured. Because their transgressions have multiplied, their apostasies have become strengthened. Those whom I thought were teachers, have been found to be worse than the disciples, and the greater authority there is in the rich, the greater the insolence of sins. For they have broken the yoke of the Law, as the Apostle says: 'Now therefore, why do you tempt God by imposing a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But by the grace of the Lord Jesus, we believe to be saved, even as they:' (Acts 15:10-11). And they broke the bonds of God's precepts, and not of the Pharisees, of whom it is said in the second Psalm: 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us' (Psalm 2:3). Therefore, because they did these things, a lion from the for…
(Verse 6) And behold, these men have broken the yoke together: they have broken the bonds, therefore the lion from the forest has struck them, the wolf has laid waste to them in the evening, the vigilant leopard is over their cities; everyone who goes out from them will be captured. Because their transgressions have multiplied, their apostasies have become strengthened. Those whom I thought were teachers, have been found to be worse than the disciples, and the greater authority there is in the rich, the greater the insolence of sins. For they have broken the yoke of the Law, as the Apostle says: 'Now therefore, why do you tempt God by imposing a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But by the grace of the Lord Jesus, we believe to be saved, even as they:' (Acts 15:10-11). And they broke the bonds of God's precepts, and not of the Pharisees, of whom it is said in the second Psalm: 'Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us' (Psalm 2:3). Therefore, because they did these things, a lion from the forest struck them, namely the kingdom of Babylon; a wolf ravaged them at evening, signifying the Medes and Persians. For this reason, in the vision of Daniel, a bear is placed, with three rows of teeth in its mouth (Daniel 7): a watchful leopard over their cities, foreshadowing the attack of Alexander, and a swift attack from the West to India. It is called a leopard due to its variety and because it fought against the Medes and Persians with many subject nations. And four, he said, were the heads on the beast, and power was given to it. And because he does not prophesy of the future, but of the past, as if weaving a story about things that are about to happen soon, he is silent about the Roman empire, about which perhaps it is said: Everyone who goes out from them will be captured. And he gives reasons why they have suffered these things: Because their transgressions have multiplied, and they have persisted in their disobedience. Hence it is said: And their aversions have been strengthened. That which we have set forth at the beginning, the Hebrew word Soced, which means 'vigilance', is now revealed in its proper place: for where we have said 'pardus vigilans', it is written in Hebrew Nemer Soced. According to typology, those who are considered great in the Church, because they break the yoke and break the chains, are therefore delivered to the shame of sufferings, so that they do what does not befit them.