Judah therefore ought not to glory, who is mingled with the nations written above, in that he has no foreskin but is circumcised according to the law of God, since others also do these things who do not keep the commandments of the law and do not know the God of Israel. Nor does circumcision, which was given as a sign, profit anything, unless the precepts of the Lord be fulfilled; just as neither the locks of hair, which signify the nation, profit — not the strength of bodies and the might of warriors. And in that there follows: 'all the nations have the foreskin, but the whole house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart,' this is the sense:
since, besides the Egyptians, Idumeans, Ammonites and Moabites, and the Ishmaelites dwelling in the wilderness, of whom for the most part a portion is circumcised, all the other nations in the whole world are uncircumcised in flesh, the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart, not in flesh; and this uncircumcision leads to death: for the former is of the flesh, the latter of the spirit. 'Hear the word which the Lord has spoken concerning you, O house of Israel! Thus says the Lord: According to the ways of the nations do not choose to learn, and of the signs of heaven do not choose to be afraid, which the nations fear; because the laws of the peoples are vain!'
He speaks properly against those who venerate the celestial bodies and, from those things which are set as signs of years, seasons, months and days, judge that the human race is ruled by them and that earthly things are governed by the causes of the celestial. And in that He says: 'the laws,' or 'ordinances, of the peoples are vain,' He shows that all human wisdom is futile and has in itself no usefulness. 'For a tree from the forest the hand of the craftsman has cut down, a work with the axe; he has adorned it with silver and gold, he has fastened it with nails and hammers, that it may not fall apart' — or 'may not be moved.' 'They are fashioned in the likeness of a palm and shall not speak; being carried they shall be lifted up, because they cannot walk. Do not therefore fear them, because they can neither do harm nor good.'
A description of the idols which the nations venerate. 'A tree,' He says, 'from the forest he has cut down' — the material therefore of idols is cheap and corruptible — 'a work of the hands of the craftsman' — since the craftsman is mortal, mortal therefore are also those things which he fashions; 'he has adorned it with silver and gold,' that by the splendor of both materials he may deceive the simple. Which error has indeed passed even down to us, so that we reckon religion to consist in riches. 'He has fastened it with nails and hammers, that it may not fall apart' or 'may not be moved.' How great the power of idols, which cannot stand by themselves unless they be fastened together with nails and hammers! 'In the likeness
of a palm' they are fashioned, having the beauty of metals and being adorned with the art of painting, but they possess no usefulness such as would yield any fruit to the craftsman. 'And they shall not speak' — for they have nothing living in themselves, of which it is written: 'They have a mouth and shall not speak; they have ears and shall not hear'; 'being carried they shall be lifted up.' Stronger is he who carries than those things which are carried; nay, in him is understanding, in this a figure without understanding. 'Do not therefore fear them, because they can neither do good nor evil.' For many of the Gentiles are wont to worship the demons lest they harm, and to entreat others that they may grant benefits; whence also is that saying of Virgil: 'a black beast to Winter, a white one to the favorable Zephyrs.'
Whatever we have said of idols can be referred to all doctrines which are contrary to the truth. For these too promise huge things and fashion out of their own heart an image of vain worship; they boast great things and, to deceive the simple, they bind fast the sight of the unlearned as with golden meanings and with eloquence shining with the splendor of silver, and by their inventors are exalted; in which there is no usefulness, and whose worship properly belongs to the nations and to those who do not know God. 'There is none like unto thee, O Lord; great art thou, and great is thy name in might. Who shall not fear thee, O King of the nations? For thine is the honor; among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee.'
In equal measure the wise among them shall be proven fools; the teaching of their vanity is wood. Silver beaten out — or drawn out — is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hand of the metalworker; blue and purple are their clothing; the work of craftsmen — or of the wise — are all these things. But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his indignation the earth shall be shaken, and the nations shall not endure his threatening. These words are not found in the Septuagint, but in most copies have been added from the edition of Theodotion; and though according to the letter they seem clear, according to the deeper sense (anagoge) they hold great difficulty. For none among those gods, which are fashioned by heretical art, is like the true God. All shall fear him.
He who is the King of the nations; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and from it we advance to love. 'Thine is the glory,' he says; in truth there is comeliness, in falsehood foulness. Although the heretics, according to the wisdom of the world which is being brought to nothing, seem to themselves to be wise, yet in all the kingdoms by which they tear the Church, there is none like unto thee, since the divine word says: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject.' They are at once wise and foolish; their teaching, according to the quality of their talent, is either cheap and is compared to wood, or is like silver on account of the elegance of its eloquence;
It is brought from Tarshish — which is either a region of India, as Josephus holds, or certainly the whole sea is called Tarshish, and it bears a likeness to heaven — and yet it is wrapped up by the artifice of words; for if it should lie open, it would not be able to deceive. And gold from Ophaz. Among the Hebrews gold is called by seven names, of which one is called 'ophaz,' which we may render 'obryzum' (refined gold), so that it may shine on the surface of the idols, while within it is wood and cheap material. They are covered with blue and purple, that by their surface they may deceive the eyes, while they promise themselves the color of the heavens and the heavenly kingdoms; and yet all these things are the works of the wise, who in the world are reckoned wise, but in the sight of God are foolish.
But the Lord our God is the true God — therefore all those things are lies — and he himself is the living God — therefore those things which are fashioned are dead — and the everlasting King — the shadows of the heretics prevail for a time, but over a long time they are destroyed. At his indignation the earth shall be shaken — these who have earthly works and fashion earthly images — and the nations shall not endure, by no means the people of the Lord, but the multitude of the nations, who are not able to bear the threatening of God. Thus therefore shall you say to them: Let the gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, perish from the earth and from those things which are under heaven!
These things are to be said to the false gods, and to those which have been put together by artifice — for they made neither the heavens nor the earth — which things also the fellow-workers of Christ, who are called gods and lords, fashion for the most part through the ecclesiastical teaching. The Lord, who makes — or made — the earth in his strength, prepares the world in his wisdom, and by his prudence he stretched out the heavens. At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in heaven, and he raises up — or leads forth — clouds from the ends of the earth; he made lightnings for rain, and he leads forth the wind — or the winds — from his treasuries. Every man is made foolish by his own knowledge; every craftsman is put to shame in his graven image, for what he cast is false, and there is no spirit in them.
They are vain and works worthy of derision; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he who formed all things, he himself is, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name. He who makes the earth in his strength is God the Father. But he makes it in his strength, that is, in the Lord the Savior; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, who is himself also the prudence, in whom he stretched out heaven. For he himself spoke, and they were made; he himself commanded, and they were created, saying to the Son: 'Let us make man to our image and likeness.' At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in heaven; for all the teaching of the Lord flows from the heavens, as David says:
'A bountiful rain thou wilt set apart, O God, for thine inheritance; and it was weakened, but thou hast made it perfect.' And he raises up — or leads forth — the clouds from the ends of the earth. The clouds or mists, which the Lord commanded not to rain rain upon Israel, are led forth from the extremities of the earth. Of these one cloud spoke: 'For I think that God has set forth us apostles as the last, as men doomed to death, since we are made a spectacle to this world, and to angels and to men.' He made lightnings for rain. For when the rain of teachings shall come from heaven and satisfy the parched hearts of men, then you will find flashings and the bright lightnings of wisdom.
And he leads forth the winds from his treasuries, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Every man is made foolish by knowledge. Though it be that Paul, though it be Peter, though it be Moses and Abraham, in comparison with God all their wisdom shall be reckoned as nothing; whence also the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Every craftsman is put to shame in his graven image, who out of his own heart has fashioned images, and false is that which he cast. But if every man is made foolish by knowledge, then everything false which he made is foolish. And there is no spirit in them. It is to be noted that in this chapter also 'wind' and 'spirit' are called among the Hebrews by one name, 'ruha';
but the spirit of sanctification he calls it, which cannot be found in the minds of the heretics. They are vain and a work worthy of laughter. For who would not laugh, when he has thoroughly examined the images of the heretics? For either the things which are said are rustic, and it is wood; or they are composed in fair speech, and silver is found; or certainly they are feigned from one's own understanding, and in vain do they promise the appearance of gold. In the time of their visitation they shall perish. Heresy prevails for a time, that the elect may be made manifest and be proven; but when the visitation of God shall come and his eye shall look upon foolish things, all fall silent. The portion of Jacob is not like these — of those who supplanted the Jews and daily destroy the heretics.
But the portion of the saints is God, of whom the prophet says: 'The Lord is my portion.' For he who formed all things, he it is who made all things and shaped them, both in soul and in body, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. Everyone who is upright in God, or who perceives God with his understanding, is the scepter of his inheritance, whose name is 'the Lord almighty,' or 'of powers'; for this is what 'the Lord of hosts' means, which in Hebrew is written 'the Lord sabaoth.' Gather from the earth thy confusion, thou who dwellest under siege, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I will cast far away the inhabitants of the land at this turn, and I will afflict them, that they may be found. The Septuagint:
He gathered his substance from outside, thou who dwellest in the fortress, for thus says the Lord: Behold, I will supplant the inhabitants of this land and afflict them, that they may be found. Jerusalem is commanded to gather whatever substance she has outside into the most fortified city, and to prepare provisions for a long siege; for he threatens no longer, as before, concerning a future and distant time, but now concerning a near captivity, which is about to come at any moment. 'Gather,' he says, 'both from outside and from the land, that is, from the fields, thy substance into confusion. For whatever thou hast is worthy of confusion; though thou prepare it, learn these words of the Lord concerning these things:'
'Behold, I, at this turn, at this time, will cast forth — or, like a sling, will hurl far away — the inhabitants of this land.' For this the Septuagint translated: 'I will supplant and cause to fall,' for which Hebrew word, that is 'cole,' Aquila and Symmachus translated 'I will sling forth'; and the sense is: 'like a sling with all force I will cast them away, and thus I will cause them to be besieged, and so I will afflict and confine them, that all may be found in the city and none be able to flee the evil.' Woe is me over my crushing, my grievous wound! The Septuagint: Woe over thy crushing, thy grievous wound! According to the Hebrew, Jerusalem herself speaks, saying that she is vehemently afflicted and endures an incurable wound;
but according to the Septuagint the prophet speaks to Jerusalem and laments over her crushing and wound. But I said: Truly this is my infirmity — or my wound — and I will bear it, or, it has laid hold of me. Jerusalem herself speaks: 'Whatever I suffer, I suffer by my own fault; I understand my wound, which has laid hold of me, or, I will bear the wrath of the Lord, since I have sinned against him.' My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken — or, all my skins are torn asunder — my sons have gone out from me — or, my sheep — and they are not; there is none to stretch out my tent any more — or, there is no place any more for my tabernacle — and none to raise up my skins.
Jerusalem laments the overthrow of her city as being so easy, that you would think it was not the walls and all the ramparts torn up from their foundations, but the removal of a tabernacle and a tent. 'My tabernacle,' she says, that is, my dwelling, has been suddenly taken away. All my cords are broken — he keeps the metaphor of the tabernacle — or, all my skins are torn asunder. My sons have gone out from me, or, my flocks' — which was added by the Septuagint and does not accord with history; for in a long siege how could sheep and flocks be carried off from Jerusalem, which, even if they had existed, famine had consumed? 'And they do not,' she says, 'remain, or, they are not'; for they were not carried over into Chaldea, but a great part of them was slain and utterly destroyed.
'There is none to stretch out my tent any more. There is none to restore me and to lay the foundations of my walls, which have been thrown down to the ground.' Because the shepherds acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord, therefore they did not understand, and all their flock has been scattered. Through the metaphor of shepherds and sheep, the fault of the princes and the dispersion of the people is described. For because the princes acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord, whom they ought to have sought with all their heart, therefore they did not see the coming evils, or, did not understand the Lord, and all the multitude of Jerusalem was scattered here and there.
The voice of a report, behold it comes, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation and a dwelling of dragons — or, a lair of ostriches, and, as Symmachus translated, of sirens — for which in the Hebrew 'thannim' is set. 'The words are near,' he says, 'Behold, the sound and roar of the coming Babylonian is heard, and a great commotion, or, an earthquake, from the land of the north, so as to reduce all the cities of Judea, their inhabitants being slain, to a desolation, and to make dragons dwell in place of men, and all venomous living creatures, or, ostriches' — which animal too is native to the wilderness and is born and nourished in the deserts;
or certainly we may understand sirens, certain monsters and phantasms of demons. All these things, which both the past and the present discourse have described, let us refer to the times of the persecution of the Church, when the tabernacles of the Lord are overthrown and every dwelling of the Church is reduced to a desolation. And that all these things may come to pass, the fault is of the shepherds, who acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord nor understand him; and therefore all the flock has been scattered. I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not his own, nor is it of man that he should walk and direct his steps. Let the new preachers blush, who say that each man is governed by his own free will, since this prophet says: the way of man is not his own, and David sings in a lyric song:
'The steps of a man shall be directed by the Lord, and he shall greatly delight in his way.' Or the sense is this: 'What we endure from the Babylonians is not from their terror, but from our own desert and from thy indignation.' Correct me, O Lord, yet in judgment and not in thy fury, lest perhaps thou reduce me to nothing! Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces — or, the generations — that have not called upon thy name, because they have devoured Jacob and consumed his place and laid waste his glory — or, his pastures — or, reduced them to a desolation. This passage we read in the Psalm: 'O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, neither chasten me in thy wrath.' And the sense is:
'We indeed deserve all that we endure, and we deserve far greater things than we suffer; yet this I beseech, that thou correct me as a father, not as an adversary, that thou amend me as a son and not punish me as an enemy: for thou scourgest every son whom thou receivest, and through every pain and lash thou amendest Jerusalem. But the enemies, who have not known thee, and the provinces, or regions, which have not called upon thy name, ought by no means to feel thy judgment, but thy indignation. For thou didst hand us over that we might be amended; but they aggravated their yoke;'
'they did not spare the old man and afflicted the little ones, they ate us up and utterly devoured us, and reduced Jerusalem to such a desolation, that they laid waste all the buildings both public and private and slew thy people.' The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear the words of this covenant — or, testament — and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou shalt say to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel. It is not indeed set down in the title under what time, or under what king, and in what year of his reign this prophecy was made;
but we understand that these things are to be joined either to the former prophecy and to its time, or certainly that after some interval of time from the former prophecy this discourse of the Lord to the prophet was made. It is to be noted, moreover, that the word 'berith' Aquila and Symmachus always translated 'pact' (compact), while the Septuagint and Theodotion translated it 'testament.' Properly, however, the discourse is now directed to Jerusalem and to the men of the tribe of Judah. Cursed is the man who shall not hear the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day when I led them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Hear my voice, and do all things that I command you, and you shall be to me for a people, and I will be to you for a Lord.
Not on account of the privileges of birth, not on account of the injury of circumcision and the ease of the sabbath, but on account of obedience does God become the God of the people Israel, and Israel his people. And here indeed he speaks as it were to servants, that they may please God; but in the Gospel the Lord says to his disciples: 'You are my friends,' he says, 'if you do the things that I command you. Now I no longer call you servants, because the servant knows not what his lord does. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.' And when they have become friends, from friends they pass into sons; for as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God. Whence to friends and sons he commands:
'Be perfect, as your Father is perfect,' commanding likeness, not equality. And there is obedience to commandments, here likeness to God. And in that he says: 'in the day when I led them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,' he gives us to understand that the kiln and iron furnace, and the burning, signify the greatness of tribulation and of punishment, not some place of punishment prepared by the material of iron. That I may raise up the oath which I swore to your fathers, that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. The fathers seem to receive when the sons receive, and the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in his descendants.
But the land flowing with milk and honey we ought to take hyperbolically for the abundance of all things, as is that saying: 'Honey shall flow for them, and the rough bramble shall bear balsam,' and again: 'And everywhere he checked the streams of wine running in rivulets'; or certainly tropologically let us understand the land flowing with milk and honey to be the Church of Christ, in which as little ones and sucklings we are reared through faith, that we may be able to take solid food. And I answered and said: Amen, O Lord — for which the Septuagint translated: 'Let it be so, O Lord' — for this is what 'amen' signifies. The Lord had said: 'I swore to your fathers that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey,' as by the facts themselves it is today confirmed.
The prophet, loving his people, takes up the voice of the Lord and desires that the things which have been given may be true and remain forever. Whence he says: 'Truly, O Lord, thou hast fulfilled what thou didst promise; or, let it be so, O Lord, that is: let what thou hast given ever remain!' And the Lord said to me: Cry aloud — or, read — all these words in the cities of Judah and outside of Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant and do them! The most merciful God frequently foretells things to come, that at length a heart hard to belief may be softened. And he foretells both in the city of Jerusalem and outside in the field, that, since their peril is common, their repentance may be the same.
For solemnly testifying I testified to your fathers in the day when I led them out of the land of Egypt, even to this day; rising up early I testified and said: Hear my voice! And they heard not, nor inclined their ear, but they went away each one in the depravity of his evil heart; and I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded that they should do. Up to this point it is not contained in the Septuagint, and what follows: 'and they did not do them,' has been placed by them and joined to the end of the preceding chapter, in which is written: 'Hear the words of this covenant and do them! And they did not do them.' But what it means to rise up early and frequently to press the words of God upon them through the prophets, and to lead them out of Egypt, and often to admonish them and say:
'Hear my voice,' and that they went away after the depravity of their heart, and that afterward there is repaid to them the things they deserve to receive — of all this we have already spoken before. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear my words; and these therefore went after strange gods, that they might serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers. For 'conspiracy,' which we have translated according to Symmachus, Aquila and the Septuagint and Theodotion translated 'syndesmos,' which we may call 'a binding together.'
Whence also Athaliah, when she had discovered that an ambush was being prepared for her in the temple, spoke with the same word: 'Conspiracy, conspiracy!' Properly, however, Scripture uses this word when it is not by a sudden and chance sin, but by prepared ambushes and conspiracy that men press toward a crime, and with one mind and one zeal they act so as to despise the commandments of God. And it says that both fathers and sons, with one mind and one purpose, having neglected God, worshipped idols — namely both Israel and the house of Judah, that is, both the ten tribes and the two, whose rule was in Jerusalem — so that those whose one zeal was in contempt of God, might have equal punishment in enduring captivity. Wherefore thus says the Lord:
Behold, I will bring upon them evils from which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, and I will not hear them. And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they offer libations; and these will not save them in the time of their affliction. God does not hear in the time of necessity and distress, because they too refused to hear the voice of the Lord. This Saul also suffered; for when, dreading the armies of the Philistines, he had not deserved to receive the word of the Lord, he turned to the witch, to learn from idols what he ought to have wrested from the Lord by the urgency of prayer and weeping. By these things we learn that, even if the Lord does not hear, one must by no means cease, nor flee to the demons,
who cannot help their own worshippers, but to the help of the Lord, who is quickly turned from his anger and changes his sentence, if those also with whom he is angry are themselves changed. But the whole of what is now said pertains to the tribe of Judah and to the city of Jerusalem, upon whom captivity is imminent. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you set up altars of confusion, to offer libations to the Baalim. Let us read the books of Kings and Chronicles, and we shall find that Judah and Jerusalem did far worse things than Israel, so that as many cities as they had, so many kinds of idols they had also;
and as many squares and street-corners as there were in the city of Jerusalem, so many altars they had for their confusion, on which they immolated victims to the idols, the Baalim. Do thou therefore not pray for this people, and do not take up for them praise and prayer, because I will not hear in the time of the cry of their outcry to me, in the time of their affliction! Jeremiah is commanded not to wish to entreat the Lord for those upon whom the sentence has already been consummated, lest his prayer should seem weak and unheard by reason of their own crimes. 'Do not,' he says, 'pray for them nor take up praise, so as, by recalling the clemency of ancient history, with which I have always had mercy on them, and by praising me, thou shouldst strive to change my sentence!'
'For even if thou shouldst do this, I will not hear those who are compelled to ask me in the time of necessity.' From which we learn that it is in vain for anyone to ask for another, when the one for whom God is asked does not deserve to receive. What is it, that my beloved has committed many crimes in my house? Shall holy flesh take away from thee thy malice, in which thou hast gloried? The Lord called thy name a rich olive tree, beautiful, fruitful, comely; at the voice of a great speech a fire has been kindled in it, and its branches have been burned up.