Commentary on Jeremiah 1 part 7/12

But after the chastisement of servitude I will set them free, so that they may return and build the cities, and raise up the temple, and perform in it the worship according to the law.

'And the temple shall be settled according to its ordinance.' He adds also whatever things are proper to prosperity.

'And there shall go forth from them those who sing, and the voice of those who make merry.'

He promises also increase of the race and abundance of offspring.

'For I will pour them out,' he says, 'and they shall not be diminished.' (verse 20)

'And their sons,' he says, 'shall come in as before, and their testimonies shall be set upright before my face.'

'Their testimonies' the Syriac rendered as 'congregations.'

'And I will visit upon all those who afflict them.' (verse 21)

'And they shall be stronger than they, over them.'

By 'those who afflict' he means the Babylonians.

And by 'stronger than these,' the Medes and Persians.

For these overthrew their dominion.

'And their ruler shall come forth from among them.' In the time of the captivity they had the king of the Babylonians as their ruler.

But after the return, first they had Zerubbabel, and the son of Josedek;

and after these they were governed by the high priests.

'For who is this that has given his heart to turn back to me? says the Lord.' This he says also elsewhere:

'Ask the generations that were before you: who trusted in the Lord and was put to shame?'

Then he ascribes the grievous things that befell them to the wrath of God;

and showing its justice, he adds:

'The anger of the wrath of the Lord shall not turn back, until he has done it, and until he has accomplished the purpose of his heart.'

'For who has withstood his counsel?' Reproving their unbelief, he says: 'In the last of the days you shall understand these things.' Since you do not believe the words, through the very facts of experience you shall learn.

And again mingling the pleasant with the mournful, he teaches the cause of these things.

'I found warmth in the wilderness, with those who perished by the sword; those of Israel walking in haste.'

'The warmth'—both the Syriac and the Hebrew set down as 'compassion';

and the interpretation of the Greek tongue too has a certain kinship with this;

for one who is warmed within grows soft toward mercy.

And by 'wilderness' he calls Babylon.

And what follows accords also with the Syriac interpretation.

'With an everlasting love I have loved you;'

'therefore I have drawn you into compassion.'

'It is not your own manner of life,' he says, 'that is the cause of your salvation.'

He foretells that they shall again dance, using timbrels and the other instruments, and shall attend to planting, and shall celebrate the divine feasts.

He foretells also the union of the tribes.

'For there is a day of calling, of one making defence, in the mountains of Ephraim;'

'Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.'

He exhorts them to hymn God with gladness, and to be high-minded against the neighbouring nations.

'Neigh over the head of the nations.' And declare through this the divine assistance.

He tells also the time of the return.

'For I will gather them,' He says, 'at the feast of Phasek from the ends of the earth.'

Now 'Phasek' is rendered 'Pascha' in the Greek tongue.

And indicating their multitude, He says:

'Among them,' He says, 'shall be the lame and the blind, the woman with child and she who is in travail together, a great congregation.' For in populous cities all such persons may be found.

He also recalls the weeping of the captivity,

and foretells the gladness of the return, and the consolations along the journey of the road.

'For with comfort,' He says, 'I will lead them up, causing them to lodge by the channels of waters, in a straight way, and they shall no more go astray therein.' And showing the reason for His providential care, He added:

'Because I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.' By Ephraim He does not mean the son of Joseph, but the ten tribes;

for among them were Reuben the firstborn and Simeon the second.

But the ten tribes were called Ephraim, since the royal palaces had been built in the allotment of Ephraim.

And just as now, from the city of the Romans, we are all named Romans,

so at that time the ten tribes were called after Ephraim.

He commands that these things be proclaimed also among the nations, and that the return of all the people be announced;

yet the proclamation came not by words, but all heard it, since the events themselves cried out more loudly than any voice.

He promises also fruitfulness of the land, and abundance in the increase of cattle, and gladness of soul.

'I will make drunk the soul of the priests, the sons of Levi'—that is, 'I will fill them with all manner of good things';

for this is what the words that follow also make clear.

'And My people shall be filled with good things, says the Lord.' (15)

'A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and weeping and mourning;

Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted for her children, because they are not.'

Now Rama was of the tribe of Benjamin;

and the tomb of Rachel is at the hippodrome of Chaphratha, on the way to Ephratha.

And the prophecy had its fulfilment in the days of Herod the first;

for he it was who slew the infants, hoping thereby to slay along with them the newborn Saviour.

The prophet set these words in the midst of the promise of good things,

teaching that the truly good thing, and the very sum of our salvation, is the birth according to the flesh of our Lord and Saviour—for whose sake the infants endured that unjust slaughter.

'that there is a reward for thy works, says the Lord, and their sons shall return to their own borders.'

And teaching for what kind of works He promises a reward, He points out to her the repentance in Babylon.

'Hearing I have heard Ephraim lamenting:

Thou hast chastened me, O Lord, and I was not chastened;

like a calf I was not taught.' This too the prophet had said earlier:

'Thou hast scourged them, and they felt no pain;

Thou hast made an end of them, and they would not receive instruction.' And Hosea the prophet also says:

'Ephraim is a heifer taught to love strife. He speaks against me,' He says, 'and does not accept the yoke of the law.'

'Ephraim became like a heifer stung to frenzy.' He sets down also the words which Ephraim spoke in his supplication:

'Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned;

for Thou art the Lord my God.' For if Thou wilt it not, I shall not be delivered from bondage.

'For after my captivity I repented, and after I came to know it I smote upon my thigh, and groaned over the days of my shame.'

After the experience of these evils, he came to a perception of his sin.

'Before I was humbled, I went astray;

therefore have I kept Thy word.' And again:

'that I might learn Thy ordinances.' Now the smiting of the thigh is proper to those who grieve and repent.

'Yea, I was ashamed, and I yielded to Thee, for I bore reproach from my youth.' For from of old and from the beginning I continued transgressing Thy commandments.

'Is Ephraim a beloved son to Me, is he a child that revels in delights?'

That is, tender and full of charm;

'If thou continue,' He says, 'keeping this disposition, and mindful of My providential care, thou shalt enjoy good things';

for He has embedded the promise in what follows.

'Because, inasmuch as My words are in him, I will surely remember him yet again.' Since he has employed repentance, and remembers My commandments, he shall obtain forethought from Me.

The word 'Sioneim' the Syrian rendered as 'signs';

that is to say, thou oughtest to have marked well what fruits thou didst reap from thy transgression, and of what good things repentance has become for thee the procurer.

'Make for thyself a chastisement; set thy heart upon thy shoulders.' That is, Lay upon thyself the burden of repentance.

Persevere in that which thou hast rightly chosen;

for this He added: 'the way by which thou hast journeyed.' Then He exhorts her to turn back, and to return to her own cities, and not to abandon her mourning.

'Return,' He says, 'to thy cities, mourning.' Yet such mourning is not contrary to gladness.

For it behoves us, even while enjoying good things, to remember our own transgressions and to bewail them.

'How long wilt thou turn away, O dishonoured daughter?

For the Lord has created thee unto salvation, unto a new planting; in the salvation men shall walk about.'

Here He has shown clearly also the cause of the recall;

for He foretells that the new planting shall come to be through her;

and this the apostles, who sprang from her, offered to the whole inhabited world;

and this the prophetic word declared plainly.

'In the salvation men shall walk about.' For these, having journeyed through the nations, brought them salvation through the knowledge of God.

Then again He foretells the good things after the return, and the gladness that springs from it.

And the words, 'I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men and the seed of cattle,' signify the multitude.

'In those days,' He says, 'they shall no more say, The fathers ate a sour grape, and the children's teeth were set on edge.'

'But each one shall die in his own sin, and the teeth of him who eats the sour grape shall be set on edge.'

And what He means is this:

Just as it is not possible to eat the sour grape and yet the teeth of the eater not be set on edge,

so it is not possible, when the fathers have sinned, that penalties be exacted from the children.

And for the confirmation of what has been said, He sets down what follows.

Thus, he says, it is impossible for the children to have penalties exacted from them on behalf of their fathers' sins, for even though the fathers have sinned, I promise the greatest good things to the children.

Concerning this very matter, indeed, he has taught us many predictions;

for we would have had no need of the second, had the first been sufficient.

He himself set Israel free from the bondage of the Egyptians.

He himself, therefore, speaking also to Moses, said:

'I am He who is.' And this saying is sufficient not only to refute the lawlessness of the Jews, but also to lay bare the blasphemy of the heretics.

This God has shown us through the events themselves.

For having led the holy apostles up onto the mountain, he did not give them tablets of stone, but inscribed the divine laws upon their hearts, and bestowed the beatitudes upon the laborers of virtue.

'And they shall no longer teach, each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying:

for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.'

But the fulfillment of these sayings the life to come shall receive.

For in that life we shall no longer need teaching from one another, since the realities will appear plainly, the passions will have ceased, the bodies will be incorruptible, and the souls will have become unchangeable.

It is customary for divine Scripture to intermingle its prophecies.

For indeed to the words about the captivity it joins those about the recall from exile;

and the Lord too, in the sacred Gospels, sets together in like manner the words about Jerusalem and those about the consummation of the age.

'For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.' This the grace of most holy baptism bestows;

for after the remission, he no longer remembers the former sins.

After this, having shown that he himself is the maker of the sun, and moon, and stars, and that he himself commanded the one to make the day, and the others to give light to the night, and that at his nod the sea is stirred and enjoys calm, he added:

'If these ordinances should cease from before me, says the Lord, then also the race of Israel shall cease to be a nation before me all the days.'

To these must be set alongside what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.' Both prophecies, therefore, hold the truth.

For not all who are of Israel, these are Israel, but those who have believed in God and received the saving proclamation. From whom and through whom the Church throughout the whole world was established.

'If the heaven should be raised up to the heights, and if the earth should be lowered to the depths below, then also will I reject the house of Israel, says the Lord.'

As it is impossible, he says, either for the heaven to become higher, or the earth deeper;

so it is utterly impossible for Israel to be cast off.

'Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and a city shall be built for the Lord, from Ananiel to the gate of the corner.'

From the tower of the corner of Ananiel. 39.

'And the measuring line shall go out still further opposite them as far as the hill of Gareb.' He names the places round about the city.

'And it shall be encircled with choice stones'; that is, with great and strong ones.

'And the whole valley of Phagarim, and toward Spodia.'

'And all Asarimoth as far as the brook Kedron, up to the corner of the horse gate toward the East, a holy place to the Lord.'

He calls Spodia the place where they cast the ash of the sacrifices;

and Phagarim the places of the flesh that was sacrificed;

and having above spoken of the circuit of the city, in these words he indicated the enclosure of the divine temple. 'And it shall never again be plucked up, nor pulled down forever.'

The ambiguity of these words he resolved in what preceded.

'For at length,' he said, 'I will speak concerning nations and kingdoms, that they be built up and planted. But if that nation, turning, should do evil things, I will not bring upon it the good things which I spoke.'

And here, therefore, he promised these things;

but since they raged madly against God our Savior, and stirred up judgment against themselves, from here he passes over to another prophecy, whose fulfillment he received in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah.

And this was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

And at that time the city was being besieged by him;

and the prophet was dwelling in prison, Zedekiah the king having cast him in, because he had foretold the capture of the city, and the enslavement of the king and the people.

'For to you,' he says, 'belongs the purchase, as being next of kin by kindred. And there came to me also the one selling it, and I bought it as I had been commanded, and I received the deed concerning it, in the presence of all, both the seller and the witnesses.'

This he gave to Baruch, saying that God had commanded it to be placed in an earthenware vessel, so that it might last for many days.

And God commanded this to be done, persuading the people also through these very deeds, that they would truly be recalled from the captivity, and would receive back their ancestral land.

For this the prophet also said:

'For thus said the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel:

houses and fields and vineyards shall yet be acquired in this land.'

'You have too treasuries of mercy without measure, yet you also exact accounts for sins.'

'But if the children too should imitate the wickedness of the fathers, you bring upon them greater punishments, as those who were not disciplined by their fathers' evils.'

And having added many other such things, and having called to mind the wonders that took place in Egypt, and the gifts that were bestowed after the departure from there, and moreover the ingratitude of those who had been benefited, he inquires: why then, when the enemies were encamped before it and were besieging the city, and those within were being destroyed by famine and pestilence, did you command me to buy a field and to take the deed concerning it, while the city was being laid desolate? To these things God says:

'I am the Lord, the God of all flesh;

this city shall surely be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it.'

Then he says how, entering in, they will burn it, and the houses in which they sacrificed to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.

He rebukes also the aim of the things that were done.

'To provoke me.' I deliver up the city, he says, on account of the lawlessness of its inhabitants.

'For they never ceased provoking me, from the day I built it until this day.'

'For which cause I resolved to remove it from before my face, because of all the wickedness of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah.'

'For with one accord the kings, and the priests, and the rulers, and those who prophesied falsehoods, together with all the people, turned their back to me, and not their face;

for having forsaken me, they served the idols.'

'But I,' he says, 'did not cease instructing them in the truth through the prophets.'

'But the impiety in their houses did not suffice them, but even in the very house consecrated to me they set up the images of the idols.'

'And they built the altars to Baal, in the valley of the son of Ennom, the towers that are in Geb.'

For Baal is a generic name of the idols;

and he says that in these places they dared the bloody slaughter of their sons and daughters.

'And I will give them another heart, and another way, so that they may fear me all the days,' is to be understood thus: that through the discipline, and through the freedom that follows it, they will know me alone to be God, and will be delivered from their former error.

'And I will make with them an everlasting covenant, which I will not turn away from behind them.'

They would have obtained this promise too, if only they had been willing;

but they themselves, having departed from grace, were stripped bare.

And having said these things, and things like them, at greater length, he added:

'And fields shall be acquired in the land of which you say that it is impassable, without man or beast, and has been delivered into the hand of the Chaldeans.'

And they shall purchase fields with silver, and shall write it in a book, and it shall be sealed.

These things He answered to the inquiry of the prophet;

teaching that for this reason He had commanded him to buy the field, namely, that also through the deeds He might display the truth of the prophecy.

For 'they shall purchase fields,' He says;

'and in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the hill country, and in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb.' By 'Shephelah' He calls the plain.

Then again the prophet beholds another revelation, while still dwelling in the prison.

And God says to him:

'Call to Me, and I will hearken to you, and I will declare to you great and mighty things which you have not known.'

And having shown the siege, He foretells also the deliverance.

'For behold, I bring upon her a closing of the wound and a healing, and I will heal them.'

The 'closing of the wound' signifies the complete cure.

Then He teaches how the nations, beholding the return, will hymn the Giver of that freedom;

and those who live in nobility and virtue will marvel;

but those who embrace wickedness will be embittered, seeing the city in prosperity, and the divine feasts being celebrated according to custom.

'And He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.'

'In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in confidence;'

'and this is the name by which she shall be called: The Lord our Righteousness.'

This name He had inserted also in the foregoing passages, having called her in the Hebrew tongue 'Josedec.'

This too the patriarch Jacob had foretold:

'The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until He come for whom it is reserved, and He is the expectation of the nations.' But after Zerubbabel we know of no one from the tribe of Judah who exercised rule.

Yet nevertheless we find the truth of the prophecy;

for there came about an intermingling of the royal and the priestly lines;

and the priests ruled until Herod the foreigner.

'Concerning the priests,' He says, 'and the Levites, there shall not be cut off a man from before Me offering whole burnt offerings, and burning incense as a gift, and making sacrifice all the days.'

And of this prophecy too we see the fulfillment;

and those who have been deemed worthy of it offer continually the rational sacrifice to God.

And of this prophecy the end is manifest;

but, sitting in council with the Father, He directs all things.

And indeed concerning the priests and the Levites He says this very same thing, that to the host of heaven and to the sand of the sea shall their race be likened.

And the facts bear witness to what is said.

For all the earth and sea are full of high priests, and of deacons fulfilling the Levitical ministry.

And having stated also the words of the impious, that He had utterly cast away the two tribes which He had chosen, both the royal and the priestly, He promised again the very things which He had already foretold.

Having thus brought this prophecy to a conclusion, He passes on to another;

and while the enemy were encamped about, he is commanded to say to King Zedekiah, that 'The city shall be captured, and it shall be burned;'

'and they shall take you and bring you to the king of the Babylonians;'

'but you shall escape death, and being led away captive, you shall inhabit a foreign land, and in peace you shall receive the end of your life, and you shall be deemed worthy of the customary honors from those who are near.'

And these things, he says, I spoke to the king, while the enemy were besieging not only Jerusalem, but also the remaining cities of Judea.

To this prophecy he joins yet another, having this sense:

Zedekiah commanded, according to the divine law, that the Hebrew servants be set free;

for the law had plainly declared that these should serve six years, but in the seventh year should obtain their freedom.

But all having obeyed and granted freedom, they again dragged them back into their former servitude, employing an evil repentance.

Therefore the God of all, being provoked, reminds them of the servitude in Egypt, and of the freedom that had been granted, and of the legislation given thereafter;

and He reproaches them as having loved the keeping of the law, but then having repented and trampled it underfoot.

'For having turned,' He says, 'to do what is right in My eyes, so as to proclaim liberty every man to his neighbor;'

'and you made a covenant before My presence in the house upon which My name was called.'

For within, in the house consecrated to Me, in My presence having made the covenants of the release, they straightway transgressed them.

'Since therefore you were not willing to grant the release;'

'Behold, I proclaim to you a release,' says the Lord, 'to the sword, and to the pestilence, and to the famine.'

'And I will give you up to dispersion among all the kingdoms of the earth.' And He also convicts them of the breaking of the oath.

'And I will give up the men who have transgressed My covenant, who did not confirm the words of My covenant which they made before My presence — the calf which they made into two, and passed through the midst of its severed pieces — the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, and the mighty men, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed through the midst of the severed pieces of the calf.'

In this manner they were accustomed to swear in ancient times.

Indeed the God of all, when making the covenant with Abraham, having commanded a three-year-old ram, and a calf, and a goat of the same age to be cut in two, and the pieces to be set opposite one another, caused a smoking furnace and torches of fire to pass through the midst of the severed pieces, making His covenant with him according to the prevailing custom;

this too these men had done, making their promises concerning the freedom of the Hebrew servants, and desiring to confirm that freedom with an oath;

but they straightway transgressed it.

and to lay upon the king and the princes the yoke of servitude.

Having brought this prophecy to a conclusion, He reminds them of an older declaration.

For in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah king of Judah, he was commanded to bring the sons of Rechab into the divine temple, and in one of the courts to set wine before them.

'But I,' he says, 'fulfilled what was commanded, and having set forth jars full of wine, I urged them to drink.'

But they refused, saying:

'that Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying:'

'You shall never drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.'

(7) 'And you shall not build houses, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant vineyards, neither let there be any for you;'

'but in tents you shall dwell all your days;'

'that you may live many days upon the land in which you sojourn.'

'And we,' he says, 'having heard these words, kept our fathers' commandments, together with our wives and our sons;'

'and we neither built houses, nor cared for husbandry;'

'but dwelling in tents we have continued until the present;'

'but now, the Babylonians having come upon us, we were compelled to take refuge in this city.'

It is worthy to marvel both at the father's legislation, and at the obedience of the sons and of their descendants;

for they loved the carefree and possessionless life, and — most paradoxical of all — that though they had children, they made light of possessions, having hung upon the divine hope all that concerned themselves.

But if in the time of the Law, which did not possess perfection because of the weakness of those for whom it legislated, these men embraced the highest philosophy of life, what manner of men would they have become had they heard the evangelical law? Yet the God of all commands the prophet to say to all who dwell in Jerusalem: These men, keeping the commandment of their father, refused to drink wine;

but you, though receiving prophetic teachings night and day, do not order your lives according to my laws.

For this reason I will bring upon you calamities of every kind, while to the descendants of Rechab, who have kept their ancestral commandment, He promises the fairest of good things.

There shall not fail, He says, a man from among the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab, standing before my presence, all the days of the earth.

It should be understood, however, that everyone who keeps those laws is called a son of Jonadab the son of Rechab.

After this he says that he was commanded to write down the whole prophecy.

By 'the roll of a book' he means the scrolls which the Jews have been pleased to use down to the present day.

For it is likely, he says, that having learned more exactly the evils that were threatened, they would through repentance obtain salvation.

And the prophet does what was commanded.

He himself, being energized by the divine grace, delivered the oracles;

and Baruch wrote them down.

And since he was hindered from entering the divine temple (for he had been shut up), he charges Baruch to read to the people what had been written;

and after a considerable time had passed, when a public fast was being observed, Baruch read the prophecy aloud;

and one of those who heard, being moved with greater piety, reported to the rulers the evils that had been threatened;

and they sent for Baruch, ordered him to read, and being filled with fear, they earnestly sought to learn who was the writer of these words.

And Baruch informed them that Jeremiah, inspired by the divine grace, had charged him to write these things.

And the rulers gave the book to the royal scribe;

and they charged Baruch to flee;

and they reported what had been written to the king.

And he brought in the scribe, and orders him to read.

The lawless one, cutting off the pages as they were read, delivered them to the fire;

for on account of the season of winter a brazier stood at hand.

And they did not seek the Lord, he says;

neither did they rend their garments, the king and all his servants who heard all these words.

For these had counseled the king not to burn the book, and he did not listen to them.

But the impious king was not content with the lawlessness he had dared;

rather he commanded that Baruch and Jeremiah be seized.