Letters (CSEL) 2 part 14/24

'so will I break this people and this city, as a potter's vessel is broken, which can no more be repaired.' Plainly this is said not of the Babylonian but of the Roman captivity: for after the Babylonians both the city was restored and the people brought back into Judaea and restored to its former abundance. But after the captivity which happened under Vespasian and Titus, and afterwards under Hadrian, the ruins of Jerusalem shall remain until the consummation of the age — although the Jews think that a golden and bejewelled Jerusalem is to be restored to them, and again the victims and sacrifices and marriages of the saints, and the kingdom of the Lord the Saviour on earth.

Which, though we do not follow, yet we cannot condemn, because many ecclesiastical men and martyrs have said these things — so that each may abound in his own opinion, and all things be reserved to the judgement of the Lord. But just as an earthen and clay vessel, if it has been broken, cannot be reformed into its former shape, so also the people of the Jews and Jerusalem, once overthrown, shall not have their former state. In short, empty today is the name of the city itself, and by Aelius Hadrian it is called Aelia, and along with its former habitation it has lost also its former name, to strike down the pride of its inhabitants.

But the names of the holy cross and resurrection signify not a city but a place, nor the magnitude of former riches through which the people of the Jews perished, but the glory of holiness which our poor little Bethlehem possesses, having no gold and gems, but the Bread which was born in it. 'And in Topheth they shall be buried — or they shall bury — because there is no other place for burying. So will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, so as to make this city like Topheth' — or 'like a ruin' —. 'And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be like the place of Topheth' or 'of ruin.' But what is added in the Septuagint: 'all the houses of the kings of Judah as the place of Topheth,' is not found in the Hebrew. And there follows:

'All the unclean houses, upon whose roofs — or housetops — they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven and have poured libations to strange gods.' What He had said above — 'this place shall no more be called Topheth and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter' — He now sets forth more plainly: that so great a slaughter shall be in that very place that there the people shall be buried in heaps, and the place once of religion shall become a mound of the dead; and the very city too, which overhangs this place, shall become like Topheth — for which the Septuagint rendered 'ruin' —; the houses of Jerusalem also and the palaces of the kings shall be turned into like ruins.

And the cause is given, namely that they had been unclean, polluted by the crime of idolatry, in that upon their roofs and housetops they had sacrificed to the sun and the moon and the stars of heaven, and had burned incense, nor had they been content with this error, but had sacrificed to demons and poured libations to strange gods. Now Jeremiah came from Topheth — where the Lord had sent him to prophesy — and stood in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evils which I have spoken against it, because they have hardened their neck so as not to hear My words.'

After Jeremiah, in Topheth, in the presence of the elders of the people whom he had led with him, had broken the flask or jar and had prophesied with the words of the Lord the crushing of the people and of the city of Jerusalem, he returns and stands in the court of the house of the Lord and speaks to the whole multitude, which had been unwilling to go to the place of Topheth, that the Lord is about to bring upon the city of Jerusalem and upon all its towns the evils which He had spoken against it. And lest we think the sentence cruel, He renders the causes why He is about to bring the evils:

'because,' He says, 'they have hardened their neck so as not to hear My words,' unwilling to do penance even after many impieties. And Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest, who was appointed chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. And Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the Lord. For 'Pashhur' the Septuagint rendered 'Paschor,' which is interpreted 'blackness of mouth,' and for 'stocks,' which we said, the Septuagint and Theodotion translated 'cataract,' Symmachus 'basanistērion' or 'streblōtērion,' both of which signify 'instruments of torture';

but we said 'stocks' after the common usage, which kind of torment we also read of in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles Paul and Silas were given over into the custody of the prison. Now this man was the high priest of the temple, and he perverts the dignity of the priesthood given to him, not to teach and to correct with a word, but to terrify with tortures. Whence both the Saviour and the apostle Paul were scourged by the command of the high priest. Nor is it any wonder if today too the servants of God are beaten by Pashhur, cast into prison, kept in horrible custody; for this power is given by God, that the faith of the prophets may be shown. Nor yet is he the greater who strikes, but the stronger is he who is struck.

And the prophet patiently receives the judgement of God, nor cries out against the blows, but considers Him who commands. 'Immer' sounds 'word.' From an egg blackness is often generated, not by fault of the parent, but by the sin of the one that degenerates. But the torment by which the prophet is tortured is seen to be in 'the right part' — which is what 'Benjamin' is interpreted — and in the 'lofty' gate, which indicates not truth but the unjust power of the high priest. And when it had grown light on the morrow, Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks, and Jeremiah said to him: 'The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but terror on every side.' And here both the name of the high priest and the kind of torment all interpreted in like manner as above.

Now the name of the high priest is changed, that from the name the future punishment may be shown. 'By no means,' He says, 'shall you have blackness of mouth and the rule of unjust power, but you shall be led captive to Babylon' — for this is what 'terror on every side' or 'round about' signifies — 'so that, trembling and uncertain of your own safety, you may look about here and there, and dread the adversaries coming against you!' For 'terror,' which in the Hebrew is written 'magur,' the Septuagint and Theodotion interpreted 'metoikon,' that is, 'the one migrating'; the second edition of Aquila 'the sojourner,' the first 'the one looking about'; Symmachus 'the one taken away' or '(gathered)' and 'the one compelled.' 'For thus says the Lord:'

'Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it; and all Judah will I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and smite them with the sword. And I will give all the substance — or the strength — of this city and all its labour and all its price — or glory — and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, and they shall plunder them and take them and carry them to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all the inhabitants of your house shall go into captivity, and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied a lie.'

According to the interpretation given above, by which the name 'Pashhur' had been changed so that he should be called 'Magur,' all translated in like manner, so as to signify either 'terror' or 'sojourning' or 'carrying-off' and 'transportation' and 'migration.' And He threatens that he, together with his friends, is now at length to be captured and handed over to the hands of the enemy, and the whole people of the tribe of Judah to be taken into the hands of the king of Babylon, and some to be slain by the sword and others led into captivity, and all the riches both of the city and of the royal treasures to be seized by the enemy, and Pashhur himself, with all his kindred and household, to be led into captivity and to die in Babylon,

because he had deceived the people by his lie, by no means telling them true and sad things, but promising prosperity through a lie. And at the same time the patience and prudence of the prophet is to be observed, in that, cast into prison, he is silent and by silence conquers the injury, nor yet does he conceal what he knows is to come, so that at least in this way the pseudo-prophet high priest might cease to sin and might entreat God's clemency. 'You have led me astray, O Lord, and I was led astray' — or 'You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived' —; 'You have been stronger than I and have prevailed' — or 'You have obtained and were able' —; 'I have become a laughingstock all the day, all mock me, because now for a long time I speak crying out iniquity and I cry aloud devastation,' or 'because with my bitter word I shall laugh, I shall call upon transgression and misery.'

The prophet says he was deceived by the Lord, because at the beginning, hearing 'I have made you a prophet to the nations,' and again 'Behold, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to destroy and to scatter and to disperse, and to build and to plant,' he supposed that he would say nothing against the people of the Jews, but against the various surrounding nations; whence he readily undertook the prophecy — and it turned out to the contrary, so that in proclaiming the captivity of Jerusalem he endured persecutions and distresses. And what he adds: 'I have become a laughingstock all the day, all mock me,' because they reckon that he has lied in everything and that all the things he foretold would come to pass were falsehoods;

for the prophet too had supposed that what the Lord threatened would come to pass at once, and the people reckoned that what had not come at once would by no means come thereafter. 'And I cry aloud the Babylonian devastation and the iniquity of the enemies, by which my people is to be oppressed.' But if we follow the Septuagint in that which they said: 'because with my bitter word I shall laugh, I shall call upon transgression and misery,' this is the sense: I know that the present sadness is to be changed into future joy, according to that which is written: 'Blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh'; and therefore I willingly endure misery and iniquity and affliction, so that I even desire and call upon them, and compensate the brevity of injury with the eternity of felicity:

'Because the word of the Lord has become to me a reproach and a derision all the day. And I said: I will not remember Him — or I will not name the Lord — nor speak any more in His name. And it became in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I fainted — or I was dissolved — not being able to bear it; for I heard the revilings — or the vituperation — of many, and terror round about — or of those gathered from every side —: Persecute, and let us persecute him!' 'While I cried out and said that now the Babylonian army was coming and the hostile sword would plunder everything, the word of the Lord was turned to me into a reproach and derision, while they think the delay of the prophecy to be a lie:'

'wherefore in my mind I resolved that I would no more speak to the people of God with words nor name His name.' But when, overcome by shame, I had bashfully indeed but foolishly resolved this, 'it became,' he says, 'in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones (and I fainted),' or I was dissolved on every side, so that I could not bear it. For the divine word conceived in the mind and not uttered by the mouth burns in the breast: whence Paul too speaks: 'If I preach the gospel, it is no glory to me; for necessity is laid upon me; woe is me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, a dispensation is committed to me.'

And at Athens, seeing the city given over to idolatry, he was stirred in spirit and burned with his whole mind; and a little later in the same volume we read: 'But when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.' But very many of the teachers too, even to this day in the church, endure like things, hearing the vituperation of many gathered against them round about and saying: 'Persecute, and let us persecute them!' 'All the men who were at peace with me and watching my side: If in any way he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him and take vengeance upon him! But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior.'

When adversaries have risen up, and those who were once friends and peaceable have been turned to war and have sought to set snares for us, let us not be greatly troubled, but let us choose to say what the prophet also declares: 'But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior. Therefore they who persecute me shall fall and shall be weak' — or, they persecuted and were not able to understand — 'they shall be greatly confounded, because they did not understand the everlasting reproach, or the everlasting ignominy, which shall never be blotted out.' Because they persecuted, therefore they were not able to understand the prophetic word, and a vehement confusion followed upon their ignorance; nor did they understand the everlasting ignominy that shall seize them and be effaced by no forgetfulness.

Let them therefore say what they will, those who were once peaceable and who kept guard at my side, and let them desire to deceive, provided that the just man and teacher of the Church, after the persecution, attain to so great a vindication and so great rewards. 'And you, O Lord of hosts, who prove the just' — or, who test what is just — 'who see the reins and the heart, let me see, I pray, your vengeance upon them, for to you have I revealed my cause.' The Lord alone is he who knows how to prove justice, just as he alone is he who beholds the inward things of the heart; whence Jesus also, knowing the thoughts of men not by growth, as some suppose, but by nature, is God. Something of this kind resounds also in the Psalms: 'In your sight shall no living man be justified.'

If a living man is not justified by his virtues, how much more is he who is dead in his sins! And although the just man knows that he has God as his defender, yet through the impatience of human frailty he already now desires to see what he knows is to come; to him also God has revealed his cause, who says in another place: 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' Happy indeed is the conscience whose cause is revealed to the Lord, as the Apostle says: 'Everything that is made manifest is light.' 'Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has freed the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked!' He who is poor in spirit and has not the riches of those who have received their consolation in this world, and of whom Paul speaks:

'only that we should be mindful of the poor' — when he has obtained vengeance from the Lord, he praises the Lord in spirit and glories that he has been snatched from the hand of the wicked. But all this comes to pass not by our merit but by his grace, who freed the poor man that had not the riches of collapsing pride but the humility of one freed from poverty. 'Cursed be the day on which I was born, the day on which my mother bore me; let it not be blessed! Cursed the man' — or, the human being — 'who announced to my father, saying: A male child is born to you, and made him glad as with joy! Let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew and did not repent!'

'Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a howling at noontide, who' — or, because — 'did not kill me from the womb, so that my mother might have become my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception. Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in confusion?' Those who suppose that souls existed in the heavenly places and were cast down from a better to a worse condition make use of this and testimonies of this kind, namely that it was better to dwell in the heavenly places than in the earthly and to take up the body of lowliness, seeking certain new — nay rather already old — arguments for their heresy. But we, reading that saying of blessed Job: 'Cursed be the day on which I was born, and that night in which they said: Behold a male,' and: 'Cursed be the man,'

'who announced to my father, saying: A boy is born to you' — we fit this testimony to the point that it is better not to exist than to live amid torments, according to what is written: 'Death is rest to a man whose way is hidden by God,' and again: 'Why is light given to the wretched, and life to those who are in bitterness of soul?' And in the Gospel we read it plainly said: 'It were better for him if he had not been born' — not that there is any who was never born, but that it is better not to be than to be in an evil state; for it is one thing not to be at all, and quite another, while one exists, to be tortured without any respite — in the same way as we prefer a quiet death to a wretched life.

Whence Amos too calls the day a day of darkness, a day of affliction, and Jacob, because he lived in toil and distress, calls the days of his life few and evil; and the Apostle Paul says: 'that he might deliver us from the present evil age,' and again: 'redeeming the time, for the days are evil.' The Hebrews reckon the fifth month, in which Jerusalem was taken and the temple overthrown, as the month of Jeremiah's birth, by certain inextricable and incredible arguments. But if they could prove this, I do not know how they would be able to interpret the testimony of Job; unless perhaps they suppose that that day too, by a certain prefiguration and prophecy of things to come, refers to the overthrow of the temple.

And that he imprecates the likeness of the overthrown cities, I judge to be said of Sodom and Gomorrah; and all his time is in mourning, so that in the morning there is an outcry and howling at noon. But that he adds: 'who did not kill me in the womb,' they think that God is signified. 'So that,' he says, 'there might be for me an everlasting conception' — all of which things are said hyperbolically. Finally he sets forth the reasons why he prefers death to life, and not to exist at all rather than to be in an evil state, adding: 'Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in confusion?' The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying:

'Inquire, I pray, of the Lord for us, because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, makes war against us, if perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, so that he may withdraw from us.' Above, the priest Pashhur, or Pashchor, who struck Jeremiah, had Immer for his father; but this Pashhur is the son of Malchiah — this is noted lest anyone suppose them to be the same. King Zedekiah sends to the prophet, unwilling that either the people or the princes should know, so that by a secret message through envoys he might learn what sentence the Lord had against the city of Jerusalem and the people of the Jews. And that he adds: 'because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, makes war against us,' shows that Jerusalem was already besieged when Zedekiah inquired this of the prophet.

And it is to be noted that in the prophets, and especially in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, the order of kings and times is by no means preserved, but is reversed, so that what according to history happened later is related first, and what was done first is related afterward; for it is one thing to write history, another to write prophecy — as in the present passage Zedekiah, who was taken captive together with the city of Jerusalem, is written to have sent to Jeremiah, and at that time when Jerusalem was besieged; and afterward is narrated the history of Jehoiakim his brother, who was king before him, and of Jehoiachin, that is, Jeconiah, who was the son of Jehoiakim, concerning whom it shall be spoken in what follows. And Jeremiah said to them: Thus shall you say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord God of Israel:

'Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war' — or, the arms of battle — 'which are in your hands and with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, who besiege you round about the walls, and I will gather them' — or, them (the men) — 'into the midst of this city, and I will make war upon you with an outstretched hand and a strong' — or, uplifted — 'arm, and in fury and in indignation and in great wrath; and I will strike the inhabitants of this city; men and beasts shall die of a great pestilence.' 'In vain,' he says, 'do you wish to resist the Chaldeans who besiege you, and you prepare weapons of war, of which you shall have use only in the midst of the city, that you may seem to be armed.'

'But while they besiege you, I will war against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and with my fury and indignation I will strike, so that both you and everything that breathes may die of famine and pestilence in the midst of the city.' And indeed we read that this came to pass; for without any garland and without the din of combatants the city was taken merely by siege, so that they had none whom they might conquer, but only those whom they might capture; better, he says, were those wounded by the sword than those slain by famine. And after these things.

the Lord says, I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants and his people, and those who are left in this city from the plague and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword, and shall not be moved, nor spare, nor have mercy. This which we have translated, 'into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies,' is not found in the Septuagint; and instead of what we have said, 'he shall not be moved, nor spare, nor have mercy,' the Septuagint has translated, 'I will not spare nor have mercy.' And it is better according to the Hebrew, so that the cruel and inflexible sentence may seem to be rather that of the king of Babylon than of the Lord.

First it was prophesied concerning the whole city; now it is foretold specifically to Zedekiah and his people who shall remain after the plague, sword, and famine, that he shall be taken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and shall be slain with his friends by the sword, nor let him hope for any mercy from him whose covenant and bond he deserted by perjury. And to the people you shall say this: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who dwells in this city shall die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and deserts to the Chaldeans who besiege you shall live, and his life shall be to him as spoil; for I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says the Lord;

it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. To those who were sent by the king and had come to the prophet to entreat that he should inquire of the Lord for them, he had given the earlier answer and what they should report to king Zedekiah; now he exhorts that they should answer the people, and he gives counsel that they should desert to the Chaldeans against the royal will — which was perilous for the prophet, as no one is unaware. Whence he also imprecates death upon himself and says: 'Cursed be the day on which I was born,' and: 'Why did I come forth from the womb, to see labor and sorrow?' — not that it is a light thing to give counsel to those not yet captured to hand themselves over of their own accord to captivity, as if it were commanded to those about to suffer shipwreck

that before the shipwreck and the wrecking of the ship they should snatch up oars and planks and give themselves to the waves — but rather that it is more tolerable somehow to live as captives than to be consumed by the sword, famine, and pestilence. There are those who expound this passage according to a figurative interpretation thus: that it is better to give oneself over to secular disciplines, and especially to philosophy, than to remain in that church in which there is a famine of the word of God, and the whole people perishes by the sword of heretics, by the poverty of doctrine, and by the heretical pestilence. And to the house of the king of Judah: Hear the word of the Lord, O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

'Execute judgment in the morning, and rescue him who is oppressed by force from the hand of the slanderer, lest perhaps my indignation go forth' — or, that it may not go forth — 'like fire and be kindled, and there be none to quench it'; and what follows, 'because of the wickedness of your pursuits,' is not found in the Septuagint. Because above he had said, 'And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord,' he consequently now adds, 'And to the house of the king of Judah,' so that it may be understood, 'you shall say: Thus says the Lord'; for by a common construction (apo koinou) both the earlier and the later clauses are joined, so that the sense is: 'And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord (and to the house of the king of Judah you shall say: Thus says the Lord).' But the discourse is directed properly to the royal house, chiefly on account of whose guilt the city is besieged.

so that it might correct its error by repentance and obtain the Lord's clemency. 'Judge,' he says, 'judgment in the morning' — not in the darkness of iniquity, but in the light of justice — 'and rescue him who is oppressed by force from the hand of the slanderer,' so that you may not respect persons in judgment, but that among you the command of God may prevail more than the power of the persecutor over the rich who oppress the poor! 'And if,' he says, 'you do this, in no way shall the fire of my fury be kindled in you, nor find any material which it may consume.' And an incredible clemency of God is shown in this passage, that toward those of whom he had said above, 'For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good:

it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and fire shall consume it' — of these, even now with the Lord's sentence pressing upon them, he provokes them to salvation; not that he is ignorant that the city of Jerusalem is to be taken, but that free will may be preserved for man, so that they may seem to perish not by ignorance of the future but by their own will. Just as the Savior too knew that the people would deny him and that he was to be crucified — indeed he had often foretold this to the apostles — and nonetheless admonished them, wishing to correct them to repentance, so that whatever they afterward suffered might befall them by their own fault, not by the harshness of one who threatens. Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the solid and level valley, says the Lord, you who say: Who shall strike — or, terrify — us, and who shall enter our houses?

'And I will visit upon you' — and what follows, 'according to the fruit of your pursuits, says the Lord,' is not found in the Septuagint — 'and I will kindle,' he says, 'a fire in its forest, and it shall devour all things round about it.' For 'inhabitant of the solid and level valley' the Septuagint translated: 'Behold, I am against you, who dwell in the level valley of Sor'; for which Symmachus rendered 'rock,' Theodotion 'the besieged one.' The first edition of Aquila has 'the solid one,' the second 'Tyre'; for 'Sor,' or 'Sur,' in the Hebrew tongue sounds both 'Tyre' and 'flint' and 'the constricted one.'