Jerome — Commentary on Scripture

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Every word of Scripture is a symbol all its own. These rustic words that persons of every age ponder over are packed full of mystical meaning. “But we carry this treasure in vessels of clay”; we have a divine treasury of meaning in the most ordinary words.

2 Corinthians 5:6

Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

We who in this world “are exiled from the Lord” walk about on earth, it is true, but we are hastening on our way to heaven. For here we do not have a lasting place, but we are wayfarers and pilgrims, like all our fathers.

2 Corinthians 5:16

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Just as before the Lord suffered his passion, when he was transformed and glorified on the mountain, he certainly had the same body that he had had down below, although of a different glory. So also after the resurrection, his body was of the same nature as it had been before the passion but of a higher state of glory and in more majestic appearance, in fulfillment of the words of Paul: “So that henceforth we know no one according to the flesh. And even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.”

2 Corinthians 6:8

By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;

Do not angle for compliments, lest while you win the popular applause, you dishonor God. “If I yet pleased men,” says the apostle, “I should not be the servant of Christ.” He ceased to please men when he became Christ’s servant. Christ’s soldier marches on through good report and evil report, the one on the right hand and the other on the left. No praise elates him, no reproaches crush him. He is not puffed up by riches nor depressed by poverty. Joy and sorrow he alike despises. The sun will not burn him by day nor the moon by night.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

There cannot be two contradictory loves in one man. Just as there is no harmony between Christ and Belial, between justice and iniquity, so it is impossible for one soul to love both good and evil. You who love the Lord, hate evil, the devil; in every deed, there is love of one and hatred of the other. “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” … You who love the things that are good, hate the things that are bad. You cannot love good unless you hate evil.

2 Corinthians 11:6

But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

Paul was learned in Hebrew letters and sat at the feet of Gamaliel, whom he was not ashamed to acknowledge, but he showed a contempt for Greek eloquence, or at least he kept quiet about it because of his humility, so that his preaching lay not in the persuasiveness of his words but in the power of his signs.

2 John 1:1

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

Originally “presbyters” and “bishops” were the same. When later on one was chosen to preside over the rest, this was done to avoid schism. For apart from ordination, what function is there which belongs to a bishop which does not also belong to a presbyter?

2 Kings 4:30-37

And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

“Sing to the Lord.” Why? What has he done? Why is there a new song due him? “For he has done wondrous deeds.” He performed miracles among the Jews: he cured paralytics; he cleansed lepers; he raised the dead to life. But other prophets had done that too. He changed a few loaves into many and fed a countless multitude. But Elisha did that. What new thing, then, did he do to merit a new song? Would you know what he did that was new? God died as man that humankind might live; the Son of God was crucified that he might lift us up to heaven. “For he has done wondrous deeds.” Would you know what wondrous deeds he has done? The son of a widow was lying dead in an upper chamber; Elisha came and drew himself together over the child, and he put his mouth on the mouth of the boy, and his hands on his hands and his feet on his feet. If, instead of contracting and decreasing himself, Elisha had expanded and increased himself, the widow’s son would not have been restored to life; and so it was, in order to give life, that [Christ] made himself less. Although he was in the form of God, he received…

“Sing to the Lord.” Why? What has he done? Why is there a new song due him? “For he has done wondrous deeds.” He performed miracles among the Jews: he cured paralytics; he cleansed lepers; he raised the dead to life. But other prophets had done that too. He changed a few loaves into many and fed a countless multitude. But Elisha did that. What new thing, then, did he do to merit a new song? Would you know what he did that was new? God died as man that humankind might live; the Son of God was crucified that he might lift us up to heaven. “For he has done wondrous deeds.” Would you know what wondrous deeds he has done? The son of a widow was lying dead in an upper chamber; Elisha came and drew himself together over the child, and he put his mouth on the mouth of the boy, and his hands on his hands and his feet on his feet. If, instead of contracting and decreasing himself, Elisha had expanded and increased himself, the widow’s son would not have been restored to life; and so it was, in order to give life, that [Christ] made himself less. Although he was in the form of God, he received the form of humanity; thus did he decrease that through him we might increase.

2 Kings 18:13-16

Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

Of Hezekiah it is written, “And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He destroyed the high places, and broke the statues in pieces, and burned the groves and broke the brazen serpent that Moses had made.” And again, “He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel, and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him. He stuck to the Lord, and departed not from him and kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses, and the Lord was with him, and in all things to which he went forth, he behaved himself wisely.” And, when Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, had taken all the cities of Judah, “Hezekiah sent messengers to him, to Lachish, saying, ‘I have sinned, depart from me, and all that you shall command of me, I will give.’ And the king of the Assyrians put a tax on Hezekiah, king of Judah, of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the money that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasure houses of the king. At that time…

Of Hezekiah it is written, “And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He destroyed the high places, and broke the statues in pieces, and burned the groves and broke the brazen serpent that Moses had made.” And again, “He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel, and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him. He stuck to the Lord, and departed not from him and kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses, and the Lord was with him, and in all things to which he went forth, he behaved himself wisely.” And, when Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, had taken all the cities of Judah, “Hezekiah sent messengers to him, to Lachish, saying, ‘I have sinned, depart from me, and all that you shall command of me, I will give.’ And the king of the Assyrians put a tax on Hezekiah, king of Judah, of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the money that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasure houses of the king. At that time, he broke the doors of the temple of the Lord and the plates of gold and gave them all to the king of the Assyrians.” Although such great demands were placed on him, Hezekiah did not hesitate, in the face of stern necessity, to give the Assyrian king all that he had consecrated to the Lord, and it is said to him, “I will protect this city for my own sake and for David my servant’s sake.” Not for your sake, for you had already performed a noble deed when 185, soldiers of the Assyrian army were laid low and slaughtered by an angel.

2 Kings 20:12-15

At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

And assuredly no gold or silver vessel was ever so dear to God as is the temple of a virgin’s body. The shadow went before, but now the reality has come. You indeed may speak in all simplicity, and from motives of amiability you may treat with courtesy the truest strangers, but unchaste eyes see nothing aright. They fail to appreciate the beauty of the soul and value only that of the body. Hezekiah showed God’s treasure to the Assyrians, who ought never to have seen what they were sure to covet. The consequence was that Judea was torn by continual wars and that the very first things carried away to Babylon were these vessels of the Lord. We find Belshazzar at his feast and among his concubines (vice always glories in defiling what is noble) drinking out of these sacred cups.

2 Kings 22:11-14

And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

We need not wonder that Huldah, the prophet and wife of Shallum, was consulted by Josiah, king of Judah, when the captivity was approaching and the wrath of the Lord was falling on Jerusalem: since it is the rule of Scripture, when holy men fail, to praise women to the reproach of men.

2 Samuel 1:14-16

And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the LORD'S anointed?

Hence, “his blood will come upon him,” that is, he will be the cause of his own death, according to which principle David said to the one who had announced Saul’s death and had related that the king of Israel fell on his own sword: “Your blood be upon your head.” Not by my sentence, but by the blood of Saul will your blood be spilled.

2 Samuel 4:11-12

How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?

Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, is killed through a ruse at the hands of Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite. And, when they announced the news to David and showed him the head of his enemy, they were killed by David, who said, “Wicked men have slain a just man in his own house upon his bed.” Ish-bosheth was certainly not a just man, and yet he is called a just man because he was innocently killed.

2 Samuel 6:8-9

And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah to this day.

When the ark of the Lord was being transferred to Jerusalem, and the oxen kicked and made the wagon lean to one side, Uzzah, the Levite, reached out his hand to support the ark that had been tipped, and there follow immediately these words: “And the indignation of the Lord was enkindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his ignorance, and he died before the ark of God. And David was grieved because the Lord had struck Uzzah, and he was afraid of the Lord that day and said, ‘How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?’ ” When David, who was a just man and a prophet and had been anointed as king, whom the Lord chose according to his own heart that he might do his will in all things, saw ignorance punished by the wrath of the Lord, he was afraid and was grieved; nor did he ask the Lord his reason for striking a man who was ignorant, but he feared a similar judgment happening to him.

2 Samuel 8:1-5

And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took Methegammah out of the hand of the Philistines.

In the second book of Kings [Samuel], where David defeated the Moabites, Scripture records the measuring out of two separate lines for life and two for death. The significance of setting aside some Moabites for life and others for death is made clear by the story of Orpah and Ruth. Orpah, who turned back to idolatry and her ancient country, was destined for death; Ruth, following her mother-in-law, whose name means “pleasant,” says, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

2 Samuel 11:2

And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

David was a man after God’s own heart, and his lips had often sung of the Holy One, the future Christ. Yet as he walked upon his housetop he was fascinated by Bathsheba’s nudity, and [he] added murder to adultery. Notice here how, even in his own house, a man cannot use his eyes without danger. Then repenting, he says to the Lord, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.” Being a king he feared no one else.

2 Samuel 13:11-14

And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister.

As if to show that near relationship is no safeguard, Amnon burned with illicit passion for his sister Tamar.

2 Samuel 16:9-13

Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.

Have recourse, O Lord, always to your mercy, and sustain the weakness of my flesh by your divine assistance. “What have I to do,” he says, “with you also, you sons of Zeruiah? Let Shimei curse. The Lord has bidden him to curse David. And who shall say to him, ‘Why have you done so?’ ” For the will of God is not to be discussed but kindly accepted.… Therefore, the commandments of God are possible, which we know David had kept; and, yet, we find holy people growing weary in maintaining justice forever.

2 Samuel 21:2-9

And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

The Gibeonites met the children of Israel, and although other nations were slaughtered, they were kept for hewers of wood and drawers of water. And of such value were they in God’s eyes that the family of Saul was destroyed for the wrong done to them. Where would you put them? Among the goats? But they were not slain, and they were avenged by the determination of God. Among the sheep? But holy Scripture says they were not of the same merit as the Israelites. You see then that they do indeed stand on the right hand but are of a far inferior grade.

2 Samuel 24:15

So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

Bring a yet graver charge against God and ask him why, when Esau and Jacob were still in the womb, he said, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” Accuse him of injustice because, when Achan the son of Carmi stole part of the spoil of Jericho, he butchered so many thousands for the fault of one. Ask him why for the sin of the sons of Eli the people were well-nigh annihilated and the ark captured. And why, when David sinned by numbering the people, so many thousands lost their lives.… Why should Christ’s coming have been delayed to the last times? Why should he not have come before so vast a number had perished? Of this last question the blessed apostle in writing to the Romans most wisely disposes by admitting that he does not know and that only God does. Do you too, then, condescend to remain ignorant of that into which you inquire. Leave to God his power over what is his own; he does not need you to justify his actions.