But he speaks against Jerusalem, which is walled about by siege, or in the likeness of Tyre, encompassed by the Babylonian army as by a great sea and unable to escape; or at any rate, which thinks itself impregnable and strong like a most hard rock, on account of the solidity of its walls and its greatness, and says: 'Who shall be able to terrify us, and who shall enter our houses?' — while on the contrary God says: 'I will visit you. You shall not be able to escape my eye. But I will visit you unto destruction, and I will render to you the fruit of your wickedness, and I myself will kindle a fire in your forest — not the Babylonian, as you think, not the king of the Chaldeans, but my wrath shall accomplish all these things.'
He calls Jerusalem and all the surrounding region a 'forest,' which does not have the fruit-bearing trees of good works, so that it is prepared for burning. And beautifully he calls it a 'level valley,' because it is passable for enemies, and not a 'lofty mountain,' which can be ascended only with difficulty — according to what is said also in Isaiah: 'The vision of the valley of Zion.' Whatever is prophesied concerning the royal house and the metropolitan city, let us refer to the ecclesiastical order and the princes of the churches, those at least who have given themselves over to pride and riches and wantonness. Nor shall it at once, because it is the royal house, be freed from destruction, just as, among those who were of the stock of David, very few are found who pleased the Lord, such as David himself,
Hezekiah and Josiah; and a great part of the princes and of the royal stock provoked the wrath of the Lord upon the whole people. Thus says the Lord: Go down into the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sit upon the throne of David, you and your servants and your people, who enter through these gates! Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment and justice, and deliver him who is oppressed by force from the hand of the slanderers, and do not grieve the stranger and the orphan and the widow, nor oppress unjustly — or, impiously — and do not shed innocent blood in this place!
For if you indeed do this word, there shall enter through the gates of this house kings sitting of the race of David upon his throne, and mounting chariots and horses, they and their servants and their people. But if you do not hear these words, by myself have I sworn, says the Lord, that this house shall be a desolation. This vision — nay rather this word of the Lord — either came to the prophet before Zedekiah sent messengers to him, or at any rate after he had instructed the messengers what they should report to the king, Jeremiah is commanded that he should by no means speak to the king through messengers, but that he himself should go to the palace and there speak to him.
And let us at the same time observe the divine wisdom, that through messengers he commands sad things to be announced, mixed also with prosperous, if the king should be willing to do penance. But here, because it is commanded to the prophet himself that he should go, he does not announce sad things and the captivity now at length about to come, but admonishes what he ought to do, so that he may avoid the impending sentence of God. It is proper to kings to execute judgment and justice, and to deliver from the hand of slanderers those oppressed by force, and to provide help to the stranger and the orphan and the widow, who are more easily oppressed by the powerful. And that he might instill in them a greater care for the precepts of God, he added:
'Do not grieve them, so that you may not only rescue, but not even suffer, through your connivance, that they be grieved by others; and do not shed innocent blood in this place!' For to punish murderers and the sacrilegious and poisoners is not the shedding of blood, but the ministry of the laws. 'If,' he says, 'you do these things, O kings of Judah, you shall hold your former power and shall enter the gates of Jerusalem with pomp; but if you are unwilling to do them, O royal house, it shall be not so much a matter of the Lord's cruelty as of your own will, that the whole city be reduced to desolation.' Whatever has been said to the royal house,
let the bishops and their associates, the presbyters and deacons, and every ecclesiastical order understand, that if they do what is commanded, and among other things do not shed innocent blood by scandalizing the very least and striking the consciences of individuals, they shall retain the dignity handed to them by the Lord; but if they are unwilling to do so and despise it, they themselves shall reduce the Church to desolation. Now they enter of the race of David through the gates of Jerusalem and sit upon its throne — which is interpreted 'strong in hand' — and mount chariots and horses, when they curb both their own and the people's disturbances, and enter into the Church with composed step and with a choir of many virtues sounding together for them on every side.
And that we may believe this to be true, he swears by himself, who, according to the Apostle, has no other greater by whom he can swear. Because thus says the Lord concerning the house — or, to the house — of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, the head — or, beginning — of Lebanon; if I do not make you a desolation, cities uninhabitable. And I will sanctify against you a man who kills and his weapons, and they shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them down — or, throw them — into the fire. And many nations shall pass through this city, and each one shall say to his neighbor: Why has the Lord done thus to this great city? And they shall answer: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped strange gods and served them.
Gilead, which the half-tribe of Manasseh possessed beyond the Jordan, Scripture mentions: on which mountain Laban overtook Jacob as he fled, and the mountain, according to Genesis, received the name Ogoros, that is, 'the mound of testimony,' because there Jacob and Laban swore upon a heap of stones gathered together. But it is the head or beginning of Lebanon, the lofty mountain, which is wholly planted with cedars, according to that saying of David singing: 'And the Lord shall shake the cedars of Lebanon,' and elsewhere: 'I saw the impious exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon'; and in Zechariah we read: 'Open your gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour your cedars!' Therefore in the present passage,
because he was speaking to the royal house, he speaks by metaphor to the temple or to the house of the stock of Judah, either because it is set on high, or because from the temple and sanctuary remedies for all sins were sought; whence this same prophet also mentions: 'Is there no balm in Gilead, or is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come up?' He threatens therefore the royal house and the city of Jerusalem and the temple, which he calls the head of Lebanon, that it is to be reduced to desolation together with all its cities, not by the power of the Babylonian king, but by the command of the Lord, who says: 'I will sanctify against you one who kills.' Now Nebuchadnezzar and all his army are called 'holy' because he carries out the sentence of God. 'And they shall cut down,'
he says, 'your choice cedars' — the mighty ones and princes of the city — 'and cast them into the fire, so that the all-devouring flame may consume them. And when everything has been destroyed, many nations shall pass through the city and the temple, which formerly they were not permitted to enter. And each one shall say to his neighbor, why the Lord has brought upon the renowned and great city so sudden and so vast an overthrow. And they shall answer,' he says, 'those who are questioned, and shall set forth the causes of the ruins, saying: Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God and venerated idols instead of God.' Let the royal house of our own city hear this, and its princes, and the cedars which lift their top up to the clouds and through pride speak:
'Who will not see us?' — that they may quickly be consumed by the flame of the Lord, if they refuse to acquiesce in his precepts. But the sanctification of the slayer and of his weapons is one thing, and that of the priests and of those who minister to the Lord is another. Do not weep for the dead man nor mourn over him; with weeping lament him who goes out, for he shall not return again, nor shall he see the land of his birth! For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father, who has gone out from this place: He shall not return here any more, but in the place to which I have carried him away, there he shall die, and he shall not see this land any more. Josiah, a just king, had three sons:
Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and Zedekiah; of whom the first, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, led captive into Egypt, and there he died; and Pharaoh appointed in his place as king his brother Eliakim (and changed his name to Jehoiakim). When he died, his son Jeconiah reigned, who by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was led into captivity with his mother and princes; in his place his uncle Zedekiah reigned, who, when Jerusalem was taken, was led into Babylon. It is asked, therefore, who this one is, who ought not to be wept for and is to be led into captivity and shall not return again, when all three were taken captive and carried across.
The Hebrews think that this applies to all, that is, both to Jehoahaz and to Jeconiah and to Zedekiah, and that all the sons of Josiah are called 'Shallem' or 'Shallum,' which is interpreted 'consummation' or 'completion,' because the kingdom of Judah was ended in them. But to me it seems to be said properly of Zedekiah, of whom the prophecy of both the present and the preceding chapter treats, in whom truly the kingdom of Judah was ended, under whom too the city was taken, and who was led into Babylon, where he is written to have died. This is 'Shallum,' that is, 'consummation' and 'completion,' the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father. But Jeconiah was not the son
but the grandson of Josiah, the son of Jehoiakim; so that, from the beginning of the vision, when king Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, the priest, up to this chapter, we may understand that everything is said to the king and about king Zedekiah. Woe to him who builds his house in injustice and his upper chambers not in judgment, who oppresses his friend for nothing and does not render him his wages; who says: I will build for myself a wide house and spacious upper chambers, who opens for himself windows and makes cedar paneling and paints it with vermilion! Will you reign, because you compare yourself to cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do judgment and justice, then, when it was well with him?
He judged the cause of the poor and the needy to their good; was it not for this reason, because he knew me? says the Lord. But your eyes and heart are toward avarice and toward the shedding of innocent blood and toward slander and toward the pursuit of evil work. The Septuagint: O you who build your house not with justice and your upper chambers not with judgment; with him your neighbor works for nothing, and he will not render him his wages. You have built for yourself a little house, upper chambers well-ventilated, set off with windows and beamed with cedar and daubed with vermilion. Will you reign, because you contend against Ahaz your father? They shall not eat and shall not drink; it were better for you to do judgment and justice and good. They did not know, they did not judge the cause of the lowly and the cause of the poor.
Is this not to be ignorant of me? says the Lord. Behold, your eyes are not upright nor your heart good, but toward your avarice, and to shed innocent blood, and toward iniquity and murder, that you may do these things. I have set down both editions in full, so that both the Hebrew truth and the difficulty of the common (Septuagint) edition may more easily be recognized. Now the discourse is against Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, concerning whom we spoke above, whom Necho Pharaoh, king of Egypt, appointed in place of Jehoahaz his brother, whom he led bound into Egypt. And we read, as both the history of Kings and of Chronicles narrates, that Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and reigned cruelly and was impious and afterward died;
nor yet is his burial narrated, though Holy Scripture has this custom of relating all the kings both as dead and as buried. But this one it narrates as specifically dead and not buried, concerning whom we shall speak in later passages. He laments therefore the aforesaid king, because he trusts in injustice and thinks that the royal dignity is perpetual, and makes for himself upper chambers and oppresses his friends and does not render their wages to those who work, and reckons the building of his palace to be everlasting. 'Will you,' says the divine discourse, 'be able to reign forever, because you desire to compare yourself to the lofty cedar,' namely to your father Josiah, the just king? 'Your father,' he says, 'both ate and drank and enjoyed the royal wealth; nor yet did he offend God in this,
in that he had riches, but pleased in this, that he did judgment and justice; and for that reason it was and shall be well with him, both in the present age and in the future. He judged,' he says, 'the cause of the poor and the needy and unto their refreshment, whom he heard, and properly to his own good. But all these prosperous things befell him because he knew me, says the Lord. But your eyes, O Jehoiakim, decline toward avarice and, that you may shed innocent blood, toward slander and toward the pursuit of evil work!' But what sense they have according to the Septuagint, I cannot understand: for although the rest agree with themselves in some part, that which is added — 'Will you reign, because you contend against Ahaz your father?', for which in the Hebrew is written 'araz' —
and that this word signifies 'cedar' is manifest, that which is added has no sense; and that which follows: 'They shall not eat and shall not drink,' and the rest, which are so scattered and confused among themselves that without the truth of the Hebrew reading they have no intelligibility. But we can take this passage, according to the anagogical sense, against the heretics, who build for themselves a house not great and vast with the abundance of the Church, but a little one; and they build it not with justice and judgment, desiring to plunder what belongs to others: whence it is said, 'You have built for yourself a little house, upper chambers well-ventilated,' which are carried about by every wind of doctrine, 'and set off with windows'; for they do not have a perpetual building nor solid firmness.
'And roofed with cedar,' he says: they seem indeed to have a most beautiful roofing, but against the rains and the storm of persecutions they quickly rot and collapse. 'And daubed with red ochre (sinopis)': for these too promise the Lord's Passion and blood, yet they do not reign forever, because they contend and provoke to anger 'araz'—that is, the 'cedar,' their father. For every heretic is born within the Church, but is cast out of the Church, and contends and fights against his parent. And where it adds, 'they shall not eat and shall not drink,' one must understand 'the body and blood of the Saviour'; and other things like these. And he says that all their error descends from this: that they have not known God and do not have upright eyes, but their heart is inclined to avarice.
so that they plunder others' goods and shed the blood of the deceived; for this is to commit murder. Obscure matters must be discussed more fully. 'Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not mourn him: Alas, brother! and Alas, sister! They shall not lament for him: Alas, lord! and Alas, glorious one! But he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotted and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.' This which we have rendered from the Hebrew—'they shall not mourn him: Alas, brother, and Alas, sister'—is not found in the Septuagint. And it is said specifically against Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the riddle which before seemed hidden is opened, and the ambiguity among the three brothers is resolved, so that the discourse is not about Jehoahaz nor about Zedekiah, but specifically about Jehoiakim.
The Hebrew history relates that he was killed by the brigands of the Chaldeans, of Syria, of the Ammonites, and of the Moabites; whence in the book of Kings he is written as dead, but his burial is passed over in silence. In the book of Chronicles we read that he was bound with chains and led to Babylon, and nothing further is reported about him. And beautifully he says that he is to be buried with 'the burial of an ass,' so that in other words he signifies him unburied—that is, to be torn by beasts and birds. For this is an ass's burial. 'Go up to Lebanon and cry out, and in Bashan give your voice, and cry out to those who pass by, for all your lovers are crushed! I spoke to you, and in your abundance you said: I will not listen! This is your way from your youth, because you have not heard my voice.'
'The wind shall feed all your shepherds—or lovers—and your lovers—or friends—shall go into captivity; and then you shall be confounded and shall blush for all your wickedness. You who dwell in Lebanon and nest in the cedars, how you have groaned, when pains came upon you like the pains of one giving birth!' Through the metaphor of Lebanon and Bashan—regions and mountains across the Jordan—the discourse is directed to Jerusalem, because she trusted vainly in Egypt; or to Jehoiakim himself, who at that time reigned in Jerusalem and had been made king by the Egyptians, meaning that she vainly hopes for the help of the Egyptians, and that they too are to be overcome by the Babylonian king and led into captivity. And where it says:
'I spoke to you'—that is, God Himself through the prophets—or 'they spoke to you,' so that one understands 'my prophets'—'and you in your abundance said: I will not listen.' He accuses her of pride, and of having abused the greatness of her riches to the contempt of God; and he relates that not only at this time, but even from the beginning, when she was led out of Egypt, she did not hear the voice of God: whence all her shepherds and princes were scattered here and there and submitted their necks to the Babylonian captivity. And where it adds, 'you who dwell in Lebanon and nest in the cedars,' he censures the arrogance which had grown from an abundance of all things, and that, like a woman in childbirth, a sudden pain and abrupt captivity will come upon her.
But where we have said 'cry out to those who pass by,' in the Hebrew it is written 'meabarim.' The Septuagint and Theodotion rendered 'beyond the sea,' Symmachus 'from opposite,' to signify that the prophet's voice must reach from Jerusalem as far as Mount Lebanon and Bashan. 'As I live, says the Lord: even though Jechoniah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring upon my right hand, thence would I pluck him—or you—and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon'—which is not found in the Septuagint—'and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast you out—or hurl you forth—and your mother who bore you, into a foreign land in which you were not born, and there you shall die;
'but into the land to which they lift up their soul to return, thither they shall not return.' Above he had said, 'to the house of the king of Judah you shall speak this,' and then, 'go down to the house of the king of Judah,' and again, 'thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah'; and in reversed order, after he had spoken of Zedekiah—who was the last of the kings in Jerusalem—he returns to Jehoiakim, his brother, who reigned before him. This prophecy being fulfilled, he now speaks to the son of Jehoiakim, the grandson of Josiah, king of Jerusalem, Jechoniah—who is also called by another name, Jehoiachin—who, captured by Nebuchadnezzar together with his mother and princes and craftsmen and many nobles, was led into Chaldea and there died. This therefore is said: 'if...
just as a ring does not slip from the hand of one wearing it and slides off the finger with difficulty, so, though Jechoniah be upon my hand, yet I will pluck him off and hand him over to the king of Babylon, and there with his mother and all his companions he shall die, and shall no longer see the land of Judah, which he desires.' That wretched Grunnius, who to slander holy men opened his mouth and taught his tongue falsehood, translated into Latin a single book of Sextus the Pythagorean, a thoroughly pagan man, and divided it into two volumes, and under the name of the holy martyr Xystus, bishop of the city of Rome, dared to publish it—in which there is no mention of Christ, no mention of the Holy Spirit,
no mention is made of God the Father, none of the patriarchs and prophets and apostles; and this book, with his customary rashness and madness, he named 'The Ring' (Anulus), which is read throughout many provinces, and especially by those who preach apatheia and sinlessness. Just as, therefore, the Lord threatens that He will cast off Jechoniah like a ring from His hand and finger, so I beseech the reader to throw away this wicked book, or, if he is unwilling, to read it as he would the other books of the philosophers, not as an ecclesiastical volume. In my commentaries and expositions—whose custom is to set forth the varied opinions of interpreters—I am accustomed to mingle discourse of this kind: 'Some say this, others hold that, several think thus!'
For this very thing both the wretched Grunnius himself, and, after many years, a disciple of Jovinian and of his, have slandered and do slander me—that under others' names I set forth my own opinions—which I do out of benevolence, lest I seem to tear anyone apart under a definite name. Since therefore my kindness has been turned into slander, I now say, both to the one who is dead, and to the one who lives and tries to restore his heresy, that their master Origen refers this passage to Christ: that He was plucked from the hand of God the Father like a ring and sent into the land of captivity, into the valley of tears, and handed over to the cross; and that His mother too—doubtless the synagogue—was taken captive and cast off; and he does not fear, in recording these things, that which follows:
'Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord: Write this man down as accursed—or barren,' and to understand the rest of the Lord of Majesty. And he writes this—lest his disciples dare to deny it—in the fifth book of the Stromata. 'Is this man Coniah a broken earthen vessel? Is he a vessel without any pleasure—or usefulness? Why are he and his seed cast off and hurled into a land which they did not know?' For that which we have said, 'a broken earthen vessel,' Symmachus translated, 'Is he refuse, or worthless and cast-off sweepings?'—for which there is nothing in the Septuagint, but they translated only this: 'Jechoniah is dishonored like a vessel in which there is no use.'
And though this is said of Jechoniah, son of Jehoiakim, does anyone dare to refer it to a type of Christ—and, from the fact that the apostle says the Lord Saviour is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (that is, wisdom, word, truth, life, and justice), to call Him a ring, who is cast off or plucked from the hand of the Lord and handed over to king Nebuchadnezzar? 'They are cast off,' it says, 'he and his seed, and hurled into a land which they did not know'—which no one doubts was done to Jechoniah. 'Jechoniah' is interpreted 'the Lord's preparation,' from which name, in the present passage, the first syllable (that is, the name of the Lord) is removed, and he is called 'Coniah,' so that one understands 'prepared for perdition and destruction.' 'Earth, earth, earth.'
'Hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord: Write this man down as barren, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for there shall be none of his seed who shall sit upon the throne of David and have power any longer in Judah.' If I should wish to note point by point how much the Septuagint either omitted or altered, it would grow long, especially since a diligent reader can consider, from both editions, what has been changed, what added, what taken away. For 'barren,' in the Hebrew it is written 'ariri,' which Aquila's first edition rendered 'barren,' the second 'anauxēton,' that is, 'not growing,' Symmachus 'empty,' the Septuagint and Theodotion 'abominable' and 'renounced.'
And a question arises: how can the prophecy stand—that none of his stock was born who should sit upon the throne of David nor be prince any longer in Judah—since the Lord and Saviour was born of his seed, of whose birth Gabriel speaks to Mary: 'Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.' We can therefore say this: that the phrase which is lacking in the Septuagint—namely, 'in his days he shall not prosper,' or 'shall not grow'—has created a question for the ignorant. For the Septuagint translated:
'Write this man down as a renounced man, for there shall not grow of his seed a man who shall sit upon the throne of David, a prince any longer in Judah'—which in the Hebrew is set down twice; and those who copied it from the beginning, supposing it to have been added, removed it in the Greek books. Let us therefore answer that in the days of Jechoniah there did not succeed him a man who should sit upon his throne, but that long afterward one was born of his seed who obtained his throne. But it can also be resolved thus: there shall not indeed sit upon the throne of David a man and mortal, but God shall sit, and his kingdom shall not be earthly and brief, as David's was, but perpetual and heavenly, as Scripture says: 'He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.'
So then, of Jehoiakim was born Jechoniah, of Jechoniah Salathiel, of Salathiel Zerubbabel, and in order one comes to Christ. But in the days of Jehoiachin no son succeeded him as king, as he himself had succeeded his father; rather he was in captivity, as were Salathiel and Zerubbabel, and up to Christ none obtained royal power. And this is because in the Hebrew it is written: 'in his days, and in the very time in which he lived, there shall not be a man who sits upon the throne of David.' For all were captives, and thereafter none of the stock of David held the principate in the land of Judea. Whence Josephus too relates that the rulers were of the priestly line and the tribe of Levi, whom Herod succeeded,