Jerome

(Ver. 10 and following) But if he has fathered a son who is a robber, shedding blood, and he has committed one of these (or, as the Septuagint has translated, if he has committed sins: if he has not walked in the way of his righteous father), and he does all these things, not abstaining from them, but rather feasting on the mountains, defiling the wife of his neighbor, oppressing the needy and the poor, seizing plunder, not returning pledges, lifting his eyes to idols, committing abominations, engaging in usury, and taking more, will he live? When he has done all these detestable things, he will die: his blood will be upon himself. Regarding the thief, it is written in Hebrew Pharis, which in the second edition of Aquila means sinner; Symmachus translates it as transgressor, and the Septuagint and Theodotion as pestilent. Just as a plague creates diseases and usually devastates the regions where it has spread, so does a pestilent person ravage everything. And let us say first according to history, so that you may know that the iniquities of the fathers do not overflow onto the children. If a righteous man does the things that the previous discourse explained in order, he will live. But if he begets a son who departs from the service of the Lord and exchanges his father's virtues for vices, doing what his father did not do and not doing what his father accomplished, can he live? Surely he will not live, but will be guilty of his own blood. Moreover, according to spiritual understanding, the righteous man in Ecclesiasticus, if he proclaims the Gospel faith and his son and disciple is deceived by heretical error, will be called a pestilence. Concerning this, it is written in the first psalm: 'And he did not sit in the seat of pestilence' (Psalm I, 1). And in Proverbs, he is described as confident, shameless, and arrogantly pestilent (Prov. XXXIII). He sheds the blood of the deceived and heaps sins upon himself; he feasts on the mountains of pride, polluting the Church of his neighbor, causing distress to the needy and poor in the knowledge of Scripture, oppressing and overthrowing them; seizing plunder from those who he has led astray from the Church: not returning the pledge he received from his teacher, in order to fulfill what is written: 'Freely you have received, freely give' (Matthew X, 8). And to idols and images, which he fashioned from his own heart, he lifts his eyes, and committing all abominations; and he gives money for usury, so that the error of the master may increase by the diligence of the disciples; and seeking repayment from those to whom he loaned, he demands more than he had given: surely he will not be able to live, but he will die in his own blood.

(Verse 14 and following) But if he has a son who sees all the sins his father has committed, fears them, and does not commit them himself (as Vulgate says, 'similar to them'): he does not eat on the mountains, he does not lift his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, he does not violate his neighbor's wife, he does not oppress anyone, he does not keep a pledge, he does not commit robbery, he gives his bread to the hungry, he covers the naked with clothing, he turns his hand away from the poor man's injury, he does not take interest or usury, he follows my ordinances, and he walks in my statutes: this son will not die because of the iniquity of his father, but he will surely live. His father, who accused falsely and used violence against his brother, and committed evil in the midst of his people: he died in his wickedness. So, do not be surprised, he says, if the son of a righteous man, inclined towards vice and sin, dies by death. On the contrary, if the son of a sinful and impure man sees the wickedness of his father's ways, and turns away from doing evil and does good, he shall not be held accountable for his father's crimes. And what can also be received in us, as it is said in the Psalms: Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people, and your father's house: and the king desires your beauty (Ps. 44, 11). And we who are born of the stock of the nations, to leave behind the crimes of our parents, and to do judgment and justice, and to live in it. Therefore, we repeat what we have explored above more fully. And so, briefly, we review everything, desiring to move on to those things that are more obscure and new.

(Verse 31.) Turn away and repent from all your iniquities, and iniquity will not be your downfall. Cast away all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed. This message is specifically directed towards the Israelites, urging them to repent and abandon their iniquities or transgressions against God. However, it can also be understood as applicable to both the Israelites and the crowd of Gentiles, encouraging them to forsake their vices and turn to the one who can heal their brokenness.


And make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Leaving behind the old letter, live in the newness of the spirit. The new heart of the Israelites is to believe in Him whom they had previously denied. The new heart of the gentiles is to abandon idols and despise the worship of the dead, and to believe in Him who is the God of the living.

And why will you die, house of Israel? It is better, as we have said above, to accept this exhortation in which it is written: Repent and do penance, regarding the person of the Jews whom He does not want to die, and to whom He now speaks: why will you die, house of Israel, who have the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is written: God of the living, not of the dead (Mark 12:27). Why will you die by your own fault, when you owe your life to the merit of the fathers and my mercy?