Commentary on Jeremiah 1 part 11/12

'for we who once were likened to the sand have been reduced to a few.'

'Hearken, O Lord, unto our prayer and unto our supplication, and deliver us for Thine own sake.'

'Not that we are worthy, but that Thou art loving toward mankind;'

'and we are also called Thy people;'

'therefore shall we enjoy Thy forbearance.'

'And give us grace before the face of those who have carried us into exile.' That they may not hate us, but let us go.

'That all the earth may know that Thou art the Lord our God, and that Thy name is called upon Israel and his kindred.'

The reversal of our misfortunes shall become an occasion of godliness for others.

For they shall learn the might of Thee, our God.

'O Lord, look down from Thy holy house, and give heed unto us.'

By 'holy house' he means the one in Jerusalem;

for in that place He made His own appearing.

'Incline, O Lord, Thine ear, and hear.' (verse 17)

'Open Thine eyes, and behold.'

Those who are angered are wont to shut their eyes when the wrongdoers appear, and to turn away their pupils when those who have sinned entreat them;

so they have set these things down after the manner of men.

For the Divine is not composite, but simple and uncircumscribed.

To these they add: 'For it is not the dead that are made to praise Thee; but this belongs properly to the living.'

(verse 18) 'For the soul that is grieved walks toward Thy greatness;'

'the spirit that is bowed down and grown weak, and the eyes that fail, and the hungering soul, shall give Thee glory and righteousness, O Lord.'

Those who have fallen into the greatest calamities, and who have come to despair of better things;

and then, having enjoyed some change, sincerely hymn Thy love for mankind.

'For it is not by trusting in the righteous deeds of the fathers, nor in our own, that we beseech to obtain some compassion.'

'for these were they who exhorted us to receive the discipline that comes from Thy just judgment, and to serve the king of Babylon;'

'yet we continued to gainsay them.'

'And not only were we the living delivered up to bondage;'

'but even the tombs of our fathers, and indeed of our kings, were torn up from their foundations, so that their bones were cast out under the open sky and are destroyed by the adverse changes of the air.'

'And they died in grievous pains, in famine, and by the sword, and in banishment.'

'And not only didst Thou deliver us to famine, and slaughter, and bondage;'

for he calls the captivity a 'banishment;'

'but Thou hast also rendered desolate Thy holy temple, which for Thy name's sake had become renowned and conspicuous.'

'And yet these things Thou didst bring upon us not according to the desert of our impiety, but Thou didst temper justice with love for mankind.'

'For Thou hast done unto us, O Lord our God,' he says, 'all Thy clemency, and all Thy great compassion.'

They also call to remembrance the threats written in the Law;

for especially in the Song did He foretell the evils that would befall them;

'I will send against them the teeth of wild beasts.' And teaching that He calls the enemies 'beasts,' he added:

and they also call to remembrance the promise of good things.

'For Thou hast said,' he says, 'that Thou wouldest extend mercy to those who repent, and wouldest free them from captivity, and wouldest restore their former liberty.'

'O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel;'

'a soul in straits, and a spirit that is despondent, cries out unto Thee.'

'I behold,' he says, 'the excess of my misfortunes, and the greatness of my dejection.'

'Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for Thou art a merciful God;'

'and have mercy, for we have sinned before Thee.' Thou hast an ocean of love for mankind, Thou hast an abyss of mercy; extend it to those who beseech Thee;

for mercy befits those who have sinned and repented.

'For Thou sittest enthroned for ever, and we perish for ever.'

'Thou,' he says, 'art eternal, but we are transitory;'

'and our life is measured by a small measure.'

The phrase 'who sittest for ever' he has set down to this effect.

'O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel;'

'hearken now unto the prayer of the dead of Israel.'

The word has shown clearly the immortality of the soul.

'And of the sons of those who have sinned before Thee.' 'Thou,' he says, 'hast said, The teeth of those who have eaten the sour grape shall be set on edge.' Look therefore upon the youths who are free of sin, and remember not the sins of the fathers.

'But remember Thy hand, and Thy name in this time.' 'Employ,' he says, 'Thy wonted wonder-working, and as Thou didst bring us out of Egypt, so free us from Babylon.'

'For Thou art the Lord our God.'

'For Thou art the same, and art not changed;'

'Thou hast the same power, the same love for mankind.'

'We will praise Thee, O Lord, (verse 7) because for this cause Thou hast put Thy fear upon our heart, that we should call upon Thy name.'

He has shown the benefit of the punishment;

'for having been chastened,' he says, 'we turned back. And we will praise Thee in the land of our sojourning.'

'For we have turned back to our heart every iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before you.' We do not follow, he says, our fathers, nor do we walk in their manner of discipline, but we follow your laws.

'Behold, therefore, our reproaches, and the grievous servitude which we endure' both because of our own impiety and because of our fathers' transgression of the law.

The admirable Baruch, having set down this prayer of the people in his writing, also sets down the divine answer.

'the commandments of life; give ear, that you may know understanding.'

'What is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies? You have grown old in a strange land;'

'you have been defiled together with the dead, you have been reckoned among those who go down to Hades.'

What is the paradox? The people who bore my name, the renowned, the much-celebrated, now a slave instead of free, dwelling among men of another race and of impiety, has become like the dead through the excess of its evils.

Then he teaches the causes of these things.

'You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.'

'If you had walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in peace for time everlasting.'

It is to yourself, he says, that you have become the procurer of these present evils;

for whereas you ought to have used as your guide the law which the fountain of wisdom brought to you, you instead followed vain reasonings.

'Learn where is understanding, where is strength, where is discernment, that you may know at the same time where is length of days and life, where is light of the eyes, and peace.'

Now at least, since not before, seek and know who is the giver of these good things.

'and who entered into her treasuries?' That is, the treasuries of understanding.

'Where are the rulers of the nations, those who lord it over the beasts upon the earth, who make sport with the birds of heaven, who hoard up silver and the gold in which men trusted, and there is no end of their acquiring, who work the silver and take anxious thought, and there is no finding out of their works?' He makes a comparison between piety and wealth and power, and exhorts them to remember the most lawless of kings, who had no satiety of wealth.

These men, he says, gained mastery even over the beasts and the birds by the art of hunting.

'They vanished, and went down to Hades, and others rose up in their stead.'

'Younger men saw the light, and dwelt upon the earth;'

'but the way of knowledge they knew not.'

'Neither did they understand her paths, nor did they lay hold of her.'

And those men, he says, were given over to corruption, and their descendants were indeed numbered among the living and partook of the radiance of the perceptible light;

but they did not receive the ray of understanding and of the knowledge of God.

He also enumerates those who pride themselves upon wisdom—the Canaanites, and the Idumeans, and the Ishmaelites;

for Teman is Idumea, and Hagar is the mother of Ishmael;

these he calls tellers of fables;

for they were accustomed to converse in parables.

But nevertheless not even these knew the way of wisdom;

for they continued in slavery to impiety.

'O Israel, how great is the house of God, and how spacious the place of his possession!'

'It is great, and has no end; lofty and immeasurable.'

Do not suppose, he says, that this is the temple of God which Solomon built;

for the temple of God is something of vast magnitude, and immeasurable, and indeed also imperishable.

Then, having made mention of the giants, who had become much-talked-of for the greatness of their bodies, he added (verses 27, 28):

'God did not choose these, nor did he give them the way of knowledge.'

'And they perished through their own lack of counsel.'

These things, however, he recounts, wishing to show that God honored them above all the nations, and to them alone gave a written law, and set prophets over them, and deemed them worthy of all care, and later indeed, having become man, came even to them;

for this is what he teaches by making it plain through what follows.

'Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds?' That is, wisdom (verse 30).

'Who has crossed over beyond the sea, and found her, and will bring her for pure gold?' She is not, he says, purchasable, nor is she simply set forth for merchants (verse 31).

'There is none who knows her way, nor any who ponders her path.'

She surpasses, he says, human reasoning.

'But he who knows all things knows her, and found her out by his understanding.'

The word 'found' he has used in a human manner;

for he called him the fountain of wisdom, and in the prologue of this very prophecy he named him the fountain of life.

'He who prepared the earth for time everlasting filled it with four-footed cattle.' The present life of men is also called an age;

'He who sends forth the light, and it goes;'

'he called it, and it obeyed him with trembling.'

'And the stars shone in their watches, and rejoiced.'

'He called them, and they said, Here we are;'

'they shone with gladness for him who made them.'

All things, he says, yield to their Maker;

each of the things that have come into being keeps its own bounds;

and by the 'watches' of the stars he means their appointed seasons;

for each rises according to its appointed season.

The Fashioner of all things is the governor and president of these.

'No other shall be reckoned in comparison with him.' He is not making a comparison of Son and Father, but the word casts out those who are called gods.

'He found out every way of knowledge.'

Again he has used 'found' in a human manner.

'And he gave her to Jacob his servant, and to Israel who was beloved by him.' That is, the teaching of the knowledge of God, the law given through Moses.

'After this she appeared upon the earth, and dwelt among men.'

Clearly the word has shown us the incarnation of the Only-begotten, and that he himself is the Fashioner of all things and the fountain of wisdom.

And concerning him it says in Proverbs:

'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works.' For it is not God the Word who says these things, but the wisdom fashioned by him, which belongs to God the Word.

'This is the book of the ordinances of God.'

That is, the one given through the incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God.

'All who hold her fast are unto life, but those who forsake her shall die.' He showed the end of both;

then he exhorts the people that bears the name of Jacob.

'Turn back, O Jacob, and lay hold of her;'

'make your way toward the shining, over against her light.'

Follow after the dawning of the ray, for it guides you with its light and leads your steps toward life.

for it guides you with its light and directs your steps toward life.

Give not your glory to another, nor the things that profit you to an alien nation.

For this very reason they themselves stand far removed from good things, while the nations enjoy the God-given blessings.

Blessed are we, O Israel, because the things that are pleasing to God are made known to us.

We have, he says, no pretext of ignorance, for He has declared to us the things that please Him.

Then he encourages them and teaches that they were at that time handed over into slavery, not because the God of all had utterly turned away from them, but because He sought to do them good through discipline.

For you forsook your Benefactor, he says, and preferred the worship of demons;

and you became authors of desolation even to her who nurtured you.

Let no one exult over me, the widow forsaken by peoples.

She calls herself a widow, as one who has been left bereft of the divine care.

I was made desolate because of the sins of my children. And she enumerates these very sins, and recounts the cruelty of the enemies.

They had no shame, she says, before the aged man, nor did they show mercy to the child.

(16) And they led away the beloved ones of the widow, and left her, of her daughters, all alone desolate.

She calls herself alone, as I suppose, because in her alone was the temple of God; or perhaps because she alone was left, when the Assyrians had sacked the other cities.

Then she says that she herself is unable to give aid, but she promises the help of God.

Yet she laments the present desolation.

For I have been left, she says, desolate.

(20) And I have put off the robe of peace.

And I have put on the sackcloth of my supplication, and I will cry out. But it was not the walls that did or said these things, but those who dwelt within.

Then she exhorts them to take courage in the loving-kindness of God, and to ask for His mercy;

For I too, she says, am awaiting your return.

For I sent you forth with mourning and weeping;

but God will restore you to me with joy and gladness.

Going forth they went, and wept, as they cast their seed;

but coming they shall come in rejoicing, carrying their sheaves. And he speaks also of the neighbouring nations' delight over the captivity, and their gloom after the return.

He exhorts them to endure the discipline that has been laid upon them, and promises a change in their circumstances.

Your enemy has pursued you, he says, and you shall see his destruction speedily, and you shall tread upon his neck. By enemies he means the Idumeans, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines.

My delicate ones have walked rough roads;

they were carried off like a flock snatched by an enemy.

He calls delicate those who lived in ease and wealth, as having no experience of hardships;

then he exhorts them to reap salvation through repentance.

Having said these things as from the person of Jerusalem, he then addresses to her words of consolation.

Take courage, O Jerusalem; He who named you will comfort you.

He who gave you your appellation will change your calamity for you;

that is, your Maker, who honoured you above every city.

For the Babylonians paid penalties worthy of their transgression.

Then he teaches that Babylon in turn will bewail her own woes.

For I will take away from her, he says, the exultation of her great multitude, and her arrogance shall be turned into mourning.

For fire shall come upon her from the Eternal for many days, and she shall be inhabited by demons for the greater part of time.

This punishment she received by means of the Persians;

and the word has shown that it did not foretell that she would be utterly uninhabited, but for a long time;

and now she is inhabited by a few Jews.

Look about toward the east, O Jerusalem, and behold the gladness that comes to you from God.

He foretells the return of the captives.

Behold, your sons are coming, whom you sent away;

they come gathered together from the east to the west, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.

For it was not by their own power that they prevailed over their enemies, but God, who had delivered them up, gave back their freedom.

He bids her also to lay aside the garment of mourning, and he clothes her with the vesture of the priesthood.

Put on, he says, the double cloak of the righteousness that comes from God, and set upon your head the mitre of the glory of the Eternal.

For upon the mitre lay the golden plate;

on which the name of God was inscribed.

For God will show to all that is under heaven your splendour.

For your name shall be called by God for ever: Peace of righteousness, and Glory of godliness.

And these names she now bears;

for this reason all men flock together to her.

For the saving Passion has made her radiant and renowned.

Again he exhorts her to behold the captives returning from the east and the west, and teaches that they were led away on foot, bound with chains, but they shall return being deemed worthy of every honour.

having taken possession, they then returned, as though peace had been granted to the nation;

for which reason he made mention also of those from the west.

For God has commanded every high mountain to be brought low, and the perpetual sand-hills, and the ravines to be filled up, for the levelling of the earth, that Israel may walk securely in the glory of God.

He has removed, he says, every difficulty;

He has broken down the Babylonians, who were like high mountains;

those who were subject to them, who were like lowly ravines, He has caused to lift up their heads;

and for us there has come, from every side, freedom of return.

The shady groves, and the thickets, and every fragrant tree, at the command of God, have become a sweet savour for Israel.

And indeed they escorted Israel on his return with all attendant service.

And he states also the cause of these good things.

For God will lead Israel with gladness, by the light of His glory, together with mercy and righteousness from Him.

When God leads the way, all things are smooth and easy.

He employs mercy toward the people, but justice against the Babylonians.

For these, though they had sinned, received benefit through the chastisement;

but those the victory rendered more frenzied and more impious.

Let us therefore also beseech the God of all things to become our guide and to lead us on our way;

may it be ours to attain to it by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Lamentation is a sign of compassion and tender affection;

and I consider that the inspired prophet composed his laments for the sake of benefit, both of the people of that time and of those who should come after,

so that both those and these might learn through the writings how many evils sin procures.

He composed indeed four Lamentations, arranging the verses of each according to the number and order of the letters of the alphabet;

and he laments the desolation of the city, recalling the former multitude of its inhabitants, and beholding her grieving who of old received tribute from the other cities.

Employing personification, he says that the city weeps by night and by day, since there is none to comfort her, and her friends have utterly denied her.

He also brings forward the migration of all Judea, and the grievous servitude, and says that they became easily subdued because of sin.

For 'all who pursued her,' he says, 'overtook her between the oppressors.'

He also reminds them of the roads that resembled rivers at the time of the feasts;

for from every quarter all came running together to this city;

and he tells also the causes of these things.

'Those who oppress her have become the head, and her enemies prosper;'

'because the Lord humbled her for the multitude of her impieties.'

This the blessed Moses also foretold to them when they should transgress the divine law:

'Your enemies shall be above, and you below;' and he foretells destruction also to the sucklings together with the elders.

of an established elder. So also here;

for they were stripped of their former strength.

Then he says that she remembers the former prosperity and adversity of Jerusalem, and sets beside them the evils that have now come upon her;

and she is grieved the more, because she has become an object of gloating to her adversaries.

Continually he teaches the cause of the calamities, working out the benefit thereof.

'For Jerusalem,' he says, 'has sinned a sin; therefore she was thrown into commotion.'

For which cause also those who formerly honored her insulted her, when they beheld her ill fortune.

Then he reminds them of the manifold sins.

'Her uncleanness is before her feet;'

'she did not remember her latter end, and has fallen astonishingly.'

For it behooves one not to be confident in prosperity, but also to look for the change.

He laments especially that the adversaries dared to enter the innermost sanctuaries of the temple, and says:

'The oppressor has stretched out his hand over all her desirable things;'

'for she saw nations entering into her sanctuary, whom you commanded not to enter into your congregation.'

Into the holy of holies only the high priest was permitted to enter, and that indeed once in the year;

into the holy places before these the priests alone went in;

into the inner court the Levites also;

into the outer court both those of the race of Israel and the circumcised proselytes;

for the law forbade every uncircumcised person to enter even into that court;

and it especially forbids the Moabites and Ammonites to enter;

'for an Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even unto the age.' This law the Lamentation recalled;

then he recounts the evils that came about from the famine.

'All her people groaning, seeking bread.'

'For they gave their desirable things for food, to restore the soul.'

Here he calls the infants 'desirable things;'

for in the famine they even tasted human flesh.

He asks, nevertheless, for the divine loving-kindness.

'Behold, O Lord, and look, for I have become dishonored.'

Then he calls upon those passing by on her account to behold her incomparable anguish.

that is, he merely gave command, and the evils were brought upon me;

'He kindled it upon me,' as the Syrian rendered it.

'From on high he sent fire into my bones, and brought it down upon me.'

For he himself permitted the enemies both to besiege, and to sack, and to burn the city.

for indeed even those who fled were captured.

'My impieties have kept watch; in his hands he has entwined me.'

Instead of, He bound my feet together and delivered me to the enemies.

'He made his yoke heavy upon my neck.' For he bitterly compelled them to serve the most savage Babylonians.

'And my strength grew weak, for the Lord gave into my hands pains which I cannot endure.' And he laments also the destruction of the mighty men.

'He removed all my strong men;'

'the Lord called against me a time to crush my chosen men.'

Both the Syrian and the Hebrew call the calamity a 'time;'

and we too are often accustomed to lament the difficulties of the times.

'The Lord has trodden the winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah.'

(16.) 'For these things I weep.'

'And my eyes have run down with water, for the comforter who should restore my soul is far from me.' And, teaching who this is, he added:

He laments also the destruction of the sons, and the dominion of the enemies.

For mourning women are accustomed both to stretch out and to draw in their hands.

He says that she is also without comfort, inasmuch as God permitted the enemies to rush against her, and to defile that which was consecrated.

'For Jerusalem has become,' he says, 'as a woman set apart in their midst.' Now according to the law she who endured the flow of blood was unclean;

to her, therefore, he likens the city, filled as it was with foreign and impious men.

Yet continually the prophet extols the justice of the sentence, thereby offering benefit to those who read.

'For I transgressed the laws that had been laid down by Him.'

Having lamented the enslavement of the virgins and the young men, he teaches that the servitude paid to idols is of no profit.

He implores Him who is able to loose the untimeliness of these evils to have compassion on her who confesses her sin.

'For provoking to bitterness,' he says, 'I have provoked.' And she is grieved beyond measure that her enemies mock her.

'And this too,' he says, 'has come to pass by Your nod.'

'For You brought on a day, and You called a season, and they became to me: Woe, woe.' And she asks that those enemies too may fall into the same calamities.

'For let all their wickedness,' she says, 'enter in before Your face.'

'As You have beheld,' she says, 'my transgression, look also upon their impiety.'

'And glean them, in the manner You gleaned me for all my sins;

for many are my groanings, and my heart is grieved.' And here the Syrian rendered 'glean' thus:

'Afflict them, as You afflicted me.' The first Lamentation, then, has this for its end.

II. The prologue of the second is this:

'For worship,' he says, 'at the footstool of His feet.' The prophet, moreover, likened the calamity to thick darkness;

and he says that the city was cast down from the heavens to the earth. Since she was stripped of the grace that had flourished upon her, she became an easy prey to her foes.

'The Lord has drowned, not sparing, all the beautiful things of Jacob;

He has thrown down in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah, He has brought them down to the ground.'

That is, He brought them down to the very foundations.

'For You have made,' he says, 'his strongholds cowardice; all who pass along the way plundered him.' III.

'He has broken in the anger of His wrath every horn of Israel.'

By 'horn' he means the rulers and the mighty ones.

'He has turned back His right hand from before the enemy, and He has kindled in Jacob a flaming fire, and it devoured all things round about him.' For He was unwilling to defend them when their foes attacked, but was like a noble general well able easily to overthrow the enemy, who yet shifts his hands behind him and yields the victory to the adversaries.

'But against me,' he says, 'He used His hands to the contrary.'

'For He bent His bow like an enemy, and made firm His right hand like an adversary, and slew all my desirable things in the tent of the daughter of Zion;

He poured out His wrath like fire.'

For indeed the enemies dared to commit slaughters even in the temple.

For since they had sinned, He wrought the deeds of foes, and through the enemies He both demolished the enclosures and burned the houses, and brought mourning upon both men and women.

'He has multiplied for the daughter of Judah what is humbled — both the humbled man and the humbled woman.'

(6.) 'He has torn out His tabernacle like a vine.'

For the enemies burned down the divine temple.

'The Lord has caused Zion to forget feast and sabbath.' And he has added the destruction of the kings and the priests, and the desolation of the temple, and the defilement of the altar, and the demolition of the wall, and — most grievous of all —

'They gave forth a sound of war in the house of the Lord, as a psalm of the Levites'

'on a day of feast.' For instead of the customary hymnody, the war-shout of the enemies was sent up.

'The Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion.'

That is, the equal and just sentence;

this too the blessed Zechariah beheld.

And again, having made mention of the gates and the walls and the rulers, he added, 'And there is no law.' For before the assault of the enemies it was heedlessly transgressed;

but after the capture of the city and the burning of the temple, even if they wished, they were unable to fulfil the worship according to the law.

'Yea, her prophets found no vision from the Lord.' He means the false prophets, who prophesied lies to her.

He points also to the aged as mourning and girded with sackcloth; and the prophet himself cries aloud:

'My eyes have failed with tears, my bowels were troubled;

my glory was poured out upon the earth at the crushing of the daughter of my people'

'while infants and sucklings fainted in the streets of the city.' For the famine overcame even the natural tenderness of affection.

'They said to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? while they fainted away.'

And he says that he finds no fitting image of the suffering.

'For to what,' he says, 'shall I testify to you, and to what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem?' And he calls to mind also the false prophets, who foretold prosperous things.

'For your prophets,' he says, 'saw for you vain things and folly;

and they did not uncover your iniquity, so as to turn back your captivity.'

'And they saw for you vain oracles, and drove you out.'