書信集（CSEL） 第 2 章

After the expositions of the twelve prophets, of Isaiah, of Daniel, and of Ezekiel, I at last set my hand to Jeremiah for you, brother Eusebius, dedicating to you these little commentaries upon him, so that you may couple this evangelical man with Matthew the Evangelist, whom, at your exhortation, I expounded many years ago in a compressed sense. And because the volume is very long and in many places a plain narrative is woven through it, I admonish your prudence not to seek in it a broad exposition, especially concerning those things which have already been said in the other prophets and are of themselves clear to the understanding. And so I shall endeavour to write, by the hand of shorthand-writers, in such a way that nothing be lacking in the sense, though much be lacking in the words.

I shall prepare for you the warp and the weft and the threads; do you yourself fashion the most beautiful garment, so that you may not only be able to hear us, but also to teach others. As for the little book of Baruch, which is commonly joined to the edition of the Septuagint but is not found among the Hebrews, and the pseudepigraphic Letter of Jeremiah, I judged that they should by no means be expounded; but rather that the order of Jeremiah, confused by the error of copyists, and the many things that are lacking, should be arranged and completed from the Hebrew sources, so that you may hold a new prophet in place of the old, and a true one in place of the corrupted and falsified—setting little store by the rabidness of detractors, who cavil not only at the words but even at the syllables of our writings, thinking that they know something if they disparage the works of others.

As lately an unlearned calumniator burst forth, who thinks my commentaries on Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians deserve reproof, and does not understand—snoring in his excessive folly—the laws of commentaries, in which many opinions of various authors are set down, either with the authors' names left unspoken or expressed, so that it may be the reader's judgment to decide what he ought preferably to choose; although even in the first book of that same work I stated in the preface that I would say things either my own or belonging to others, and that these commentaries were as much the work of the ancient writers as of ourselves. Not seeing this, his forerunner Grunnius once strove to carp at me, to whom I replied in two books.

These things this fellow brings forth as if his own, and they have already been cleared up when another was calumniating—to say nothing of the volumes Against Jovinian, in which he grieves that virginity was preferred to marriage, marriage to second marriage, and second marriage to polygamy. Nor does this most stolid fellow, weighed down by Scottish porridges, recall that in that very work I said: I do not condemn those twice married, nay, nor even the thrice married, and, if it can be, the eight-times married; I will add something further—I even receive the penitent fornicator. Whatever is equally lawful is to be weighed in an equal balance.

Let him read the apology of that same work, which many years ago Rome gladly received against his master, and then he will perceive that he blasphemes with others' voices and is so unskilled that he has not even his own curses, but uses against us the rabidness even of enemies long since buried. But now the proposed work must be undertaken. 'The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin; to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. And it came to pass in the days of Josiah, son of Josiah,

king of Judah, until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem in the fifth month.' The other prophets, such as Isaiah, Hosea, and Joel, were before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel or of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; others after the captivity, such as Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah. But Jeremiah and Ezekiel wove their prophecy with the captivity imminent, though the one of them in the land of Judah, the other in Babylon. Jeremiah, while still a boy, began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, and he prophesied under his reign for nineteen years, and afterwards under his son Jehoiakim for eleven years, and under Zedekiah, who was the last of the kings of Judah,

for eleven years, up to the fifth month, when Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians. But Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin, three months each—of whom the one was led into Egypt, the other with his mother into Babylon—are reckoned within the aforesaid years. And through this, from the beginning of his prophecy up to the captivity of Jerusalem, in which he himself also was taken, he prophesied for forty-one years, besides that time when he was led into Egypt; and there he prophesied in Tahpanhes, as is contained in this very volume. For 'the words of Jeremiah,' the Septuagint put 'the word of God which came to Jeremiah,' in this sense, namely, that the words of Jeremiah are the word of the Lord.

Now he was of the family of priests who dwelt to the north of Jerusalem, at the third milestone, in the little village of Anathoth. And admirable at the same time is the mercy of the Lord, that, with the captivity now near and the Babylonian army encircling Jerusalem, he nonetheless calls the people to repentance, preferring to save the converted rather than to destroy the offending. For 'the carrying away,' which all others with one consenting voice rendered thus, the Seventy put 'the captivity.' Now after the beginning of Jeremiah's prophesying, in the thirty-fifth year of his prophecy, Ezekiel in Babylon began to prophesy to those who had been taken captive with him. 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee;

and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee; I gave thee for a prophet unto the nations.' Not that Jeremiah existed before conception, as a heresy suspects, but that the Lord foreknew that he would be—to whom things not yet done are already done—according to that which the Apostle says: 'who calleth those things which are not as though they were.' And that he is sanctified in the womb, we ought to understand according to that saying of the Apostle: 'but when it pleased him, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the nations.' John the Baptist too is sanctified in the womb, and receives the Holy Spirit, and is moved in the womb, and speaks through his mother's mouth. And as for what he said,

'I gave thee for a prophet unto the nations,' means to be understood of that which we shall afterwards read in the prophet himself, namely, that he prophesied not only to Jerusalem but also to many nations round about. Some understand this passage of the Saviour, who was properly the prophet of the nations and, through the apostles, called all peoples. For he indeed, before he was truly formed in the virginal womb and before he came forth from the womb of his mother, was sanctified in the womb and known to the Father—being one who is always in the Father and in whom the Father always is. 'And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, behold I know not how to speak, for I am a child.' The Septuagint: 'And I said, O Lord God, I know not how to speak, for I am young.' He detests the office

which by reason of his age he cannot sustain, with the same modesty with which Moses too says that he is of thin and feeble voice. But that one, as of great and robust age, is rebuked; to this one his boyhood is granted pardon, which is adorned with modesty and shame. 'And the Lord said to me: Say not, I am a child, since to all things to which I shall send thee, thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak. Fear not before their face, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.' 'Consider not thy age,' he says—'for from another prophet speaking thou hast learned: the grey hair of a man is his wisdom—let it only be a matter of thy will, that thou go forth; me shalt thou have as companion, by whose aid thou shalt accomplish all: open thy mouth, and I will fill it.'

'Consider not the multitude of those to whom and against whom thou art to speak, but me, who am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.' Now the Lord delivers—not that the prophet is free from persecutions and straits, since indeed we read that he suffered many things, but that, being patient, he may overcome all and not yield to distress. 'And the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words in thy mouth.' It is to be noted that here the hand of God is put forth, to touch the mouth of the prophet, and it is said to him: 'Behold, I have given my words in thy mouth'; but in Isaiah it is written: 'and one of the seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he had a coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said:

behold, this hath touched thy lips, and it shall take away thine iniquities, and shall cleanse thy sins.' For there, because he was of solid and perfect age and himself simply confesses that he has unclean lips and dwells in the midst of a people having unclean lips, one of the seraphim is sent, who touches his mouth not with a hand but with tongs and a coal, and takes away iniquities and cleanses sins. But here the hand of God himself is put forth—through which he made all things, and which in another place is called the arm—not that it may take away sins, which through boyhood he had not committed in great number, but that it may bestow the grace of speaking. Ezekiel, moreover, devours a book written within and without, containing both the divine mysteries and the plain narrative.

Jeremiah's mouth is touched and the words of the Lord are bestowed, that he may receive confidence to preach. And beautifully, according to the letter, a hand is put forth, so that, seeing the likeness of human limbs, he might not dread the touch of the hand. 'Behold, I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root up and to pull down, and to waste and to destroy, and to build and to plant.' This word which we have added from the Hebrew, 'thou shalt waste' or 'thou shalt cast down,' is not found in the Septuagint. And it is to be considered that upon four sad things two joyful ones follow. For neither could good things be built, unless the evil were pulled down, nor the best things planted, unless the worst were rooted out.

For every plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up; and the building which has no foundation upon the rock, but is constructed upon the sand, is undermined and destroyed by the word of God. But that plant which Jesus shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the coming of his presence—namely, all sacrilegious and perverse doctrine—he will utterly destroy forever. Further, those things which are lifted up against the knowledge of God and trust in their own wisdom, which is folly with God, he will scatter and cast down, so that in their stead lowly things may be built, and in the place of the higher things which have been destroyed and plucked up, there may be constructed and planted those things which befit ecclesiastical truth, and that may be fulfilled which the Apostle says:

'ye are God's building, God's husbandry.' Many understand this passage of the person of Christ. For 'Jeremiah' is interpreted 'the exalted of the Lord,' who destroyed the kingdoms of the devil, which he had shown him on the height of the mountain, and destroyed the adversary powers, blotting out the handwriting of errors on the cross. Concerning whom also in the psalm, after the truth of the history, he speaks figuratively: 'Why have the nations raged, and the peoples imagined vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together into one.' In place of these, plucked up, destroyed, ruined, and drawn down into lower things, the Church of God is built and planted. But concerning the person of Jeremiah there is no doubt;

for we read in what follows that he receives in his hand a cup full of pure wine and is bidden to give it to drink to all the nations round about. 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said: I see a rod that watcheth. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well, for I will watch over my word to perform it.' For 'a watching rod' the Septuagint rendered 'a nut-tree staff.' We must therefore take pains that the Latin reader may briefly understand the Hebrew etymology. 'Saqed' is called 'a nut,' but 'watch' or 'watchful' or 'to watch' is termed 'soqed.' Whence also in the later passages the watching leopard is set down by this name.

Therefore, from that which is called 'nut,' on account of the similarity of the word, he alluded by a name to the notion of 'watchful.' This indeed is written also in Daniel according to Theodotion, where from the trees schinos and prinos, that is, the holm-oak and the mastic, cleaving and sawing are decreed against the adulterous elders. Otherwise, in the beginning of Genesis too, from 'man,' who is called 'ish,' the woman is called 'ishshah,' as a kind of she-man, because she was taken from man. For 'a nut-tree staff,' Aquila and Symmachus rendered 'a watching rod,' but Theodotion 'an almond rod.' Now the rod watches, considering all the sins of the people, that it may strike and rebuke the offenders. Whence also the Apostle writes to sinners: 'What will ye?

Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and in the spirit of meekness?' This is that rod or staff of which David too speaks: 'thy rod and thy staff, they have comforted me.' And beautifully he set 'they have comforted me'; for to this end the Lord rebukes, that he may amend. And just as the nut or the almond has a most bitter rind and is girt with a very hard shell, so that, when the harsher and hard parts are stripped away, a most sweet fruit is found, so all rebuke and the labour of continence seems bitter indeed for the present, but bears the sweetest fruits. Whence too there is that ancient saying: 'the roots of letters are bitter, the fruits sweet.' Some understand the watching and nut-bearing rod to be the Lord, of whom Isaiah says: 'there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse.'

Whence also the rod of Aaron, which was thought to be dead, is related to have flowered at the resurrection of the Lord. 'And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: What seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling pot, and the face thereof from the face of the north. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall be opened—or shall blaze forth—evils upon all the inhabitants of the earth.' To certain sinners torments are given in stages, that they may little by little come to salvation: those who have refused to be amended by the striking rod are cast into the bronze and boiling pot, of which Ezekiel writes more fully, which is kindled from the face of the north, signifying the king of Babylon and the city of Jerusalem. And beautifully it is added:

'From the north shall evils blaze forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth'—either the land of Judaea or indeed the whole earth—concerning whom it is also written in the Apocalypse: 'Woe upon all the inhabitants of the earth.' For the saints are not inhabitants of the earth, but strangers and pilgrims, one of whom says: 'I am a stranger upon the earth and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were,' and another: 'few and evil are my days, in which I sojourn upon the earth.' Whence Peter too writes his catholic epistle to the strangers and pilgrims of Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia. And according to the mystical senses Solomon says: 'the north is a harsh wind, but by name it is called right,' by those, namely, who have grown stiff with its cold and have lost the warmth of faith.

'For behold, I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and every one of them shall set his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all its walls round about, and upon all the cities of Judah. And I will speak my judgments with them concerning all their malice, who have forsaken me and offered libations to strange gods and adored the work of their own hands.' It is doubtful to none that many nations and the kings of the several nations were subject to the Babylonian king; who, having besieged Jerusalem, set their throne and tents round about, and especially at the exits of the gates, that none of those shut within might be able to break out, and that not only Jerusalem but all the cities of Judaea were beset with a like siege.

'And when,' he says, 'the city shall have been captured, then I will speak to them that my judgments were right and that each received what he deserved—not for the other vices to which the human condition is subject, but chiefly for idolatry, through which, forsaking me, they adored the works of their own hands.' Some take this passage in a good sense: namely, that those who have been boiled down and purged through torments in the bronze pot are afterwards princes of Jerusalem, and that after the Lord has had mercy on them, he then reproaches them, because, having forsaken him, they venerated idols. But this is a violent and distorted interpretation; let not the unlearned expositor bring calumny.

'Thou therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee.' Job too is bidden to gird up his loins, and the apostles, that with their loins girt—which Elijah and John the Baptist mortified with leathern girdles—they may hold lamps in their hands, namely, of evangelical preaching. Whoever therefore is about to speak the words of God ought to gird up his loins, knowing that all the power of the devil is in the loins, and the just man says in the psalms: 'my loins are filled with illusions.' And when he has girt his loins, let him hear that which is written: 'Arise, thou that sleepest, and be lifted up, and Christ shall enlighten thee,' that, ever watchful and rising from sleep, he may speak what God has commanded him.

'Fear not before their face, for neither will I make thee to fear their countenance'—or as the Septuagint and the other interpreters have it: 'lest perchance I make thee to fear.' And the sense according to our translation is: 'do not fear before their face; for with me as helper thou wilt not be able to fear them'; according to the Septuagint: 'do not fear before their face, have confidence in my command; for if thou dost not offer what thou hast, so as to cease from fear, I will forsake thee and hand thee over to fear, and I shall in a manner seem to make thee fear, in that I leave thee to dread.' Now this signifies that the truth is always bitter, and that the multitude of men is not to be feared, who, being rebuked, do not endure correction, but lay snares for him by whom they are rebuked. And that which follows according to the Septuagint,

'for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord,' is not found in the Hebrew. And the sense is: 'I will deliver thee, not in such a way that none shall lay snares for thee, but in such a way that, patiently enduring the snares, thou mayest not offend.' 'For behold, I have given thee this day'—or 'behold, I have set thee in this day'—'as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a wall of brass over all the earth, to the kings of Judah, its princes and priests, and the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.' The divine word describes why the prophet ought not to fear.

'I,' he says, 'have set or given thee this day'—that is, in the present life, as long as it is called today—'as if a most secure city,' not as one house or a tower or some ramparts, but a whole city, which, being set upon a mountain, cannot be hidden, of which it is written: 'glorious things are said of thee, city of God,' and: 'I am a strong city, a city that is assailed.' 'And as an iron pillar,' of which the Apostle writes: 'the pillar and ground of the truth.' Whence Peter and John, who were thought to be pillars of the Church, gave the right hands of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas. Nor is this enough, but 'as a wall of brass,' which is corrupted by no rust nor perishes when beaten by rains, but by age becomes stronger.

And thou shalt be such against the kings and princes and people—not of any place whatsoever, but of the earth—who savour of earthly things and know not the heavenly, who bear the image of the man of dust and not of the heavenly one; these, he says, shall fight against thee and shall not prevail. Why, I pray? What is so great a cause of strength, that neither kings nor princes nor priests nor peoples prevail against one man? It follows: 'for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.'

If ever the kings of Judah—which is interpreted 'confession'—and its princes and priests and peoples, that is, the bishops and presbyters and deacons, and the base and ignoble common crowd, should wish to rise up against the holy man, let him have firmness of faith and cease to fear, because with the Lord's help he will overcome. 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying.' This is not found in the Septuagint, but is added under asterisks from the edition of Theodotion, who interpreted the Hebrew word 'qarath'—for which we have said 'cry' or 'preach'—as 'read.' For it signifies, by reason of its ambiguity, both reading and crying and preaching.

But by the 'ears of Jerusalem' we ought to understand the ears of its inhabitants. 'Thus saith the Lord: I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth and the love of thy espousal, when thou didst follow me in the wilderness, in a land that is not sown.' The Septuagint: 'Thus saith the Lord: I have remembered the mercy of thy youth and the love of thy perfection.' This is said more fully in Ezekiel, when the Lord joins Jerusalem to himself in marriage and, under the person of a wife, unites her to his embraces; or, to show a more ardent affection, he calls her a girl and a young maiden and betrothed; for that which we have not yet obtained, we the more desire, that we may obtain it.

'When,' he says, 'thou didst follow me in the solitude, and after the manner of espousals and dowry I distributed to thee the ornaments of the law and the necklaces of words.' And all this he refers not to her merit, but to his own mercy, through which love too followed. This also, which we have set down, 'in the wilderness, in a land that is not sown,' is not found in the Septuagint. 'Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase; all that devour him offend; evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.' When it says Israel is the firstfruits of the Lord's increase, it shows that the people gathered from the nations is after the firstfruits, according to that which is written in another place: 'be mindful of thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning.'

The firstfruits, moreover, are owed to the priests and not to enemies. What follows — 'All who devour him shall offend; evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord' — has this sense: just as those who devour the firstfruits, being in no way of the priestly line, are guilty of a crime, so those who defile Israel shall be made subject to evils, according to that which the holy one speaks in the twenty-sixth Psalm: 'While the wicked draw near against me to eat my flesh, they that trouble me and my enemies were themselves weakened and fell.' For not even from this — that they carry out God's sentence — will they be free from punishment, and evils shall come upon them; for it must needs be that scandals come. But woe to him through whom the scandals come!

'Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?' This same meaning another prophet also attests: 'My people, what have I done to thee, or wherein have I molested thee? Answer me; for I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee from the house of bondage.' Now both names — 'Jacob' and 'Israel' — are set down, not according to the two and ten tribes, but according to the whole people, since Jacob himself was afterward called Israel. And He draws the charge of offense from the fathers.

Not that the sins of the fathers are imputed to the sons, but that the sons also, bearing the likeness of their fathers, are punished both for their own and for their parents' wickedness. We often read that for the sake of holy fathers God has mercy on their sons. But the fathers of a sinful people forsook God — and not briefly, but for a long time — and in place of God followed vanity, namely idols, which profit nothing to their worshippers, and were made like unto them, according to that which is written: 'Let them that make them become like unto them, and all such as trust in them.' And they said not: 'Where is the Lord, who made us come up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through a land uninhabitable and impassable?'

'through a land of thirst and the image of death, through a land in which no man walked nor any human dwelt?' For 'man' the Septuagint rendered 'son of man,' and for 'image of death' the phrase 'shadow of death' was added from Theodotion. Since this is plain according to the history, that must be considered according to the anagogical sense: that so long as we are in this world and are being led out of Egypt, we ascend little by little, and first pass through deserts and a land uninhabitable — in which a holy man ought not to dwell — and impassable, that He may show the difficulty of the journey;

through a land of thirst, where we always desire greater things and are not content with what is present; and the image or shadow of death — for we always stand in peril, and everywhere the devil stretches out his snares — through a land in which no man walked who is of the age of perfection in Christ — for we shall all rise up into a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ — nor does he ever dwell in it who is a man of God or a son of man, but always hastens toward greater things. From which it is clear that perfection is not on the way, but at the journey's end and in the abode which is prepared for the saints in the heavenly places, and to whom it is said: 'Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.'

In vain therefore does the new heresy sprung from the old suppose that perfect victory is here, where there is battle and struggle and an uncertain outcome of things to come. 'And I brought you into the land of Carmel, that you might eat the fruit thereof and its good things. And you entered in and defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination.' 'In return for the toil of a most arduous journey I gave you an abundance of all things'; for this is what 'Carmel' signifies, which in Hebrew is called 'Chermel' and in our tongue means 'knowledge of knowledge.'

But just as that people polluted and violated the holy land, fruitful in all things, by idolatry, so we who have received the knowledge of the true circumcision eat the fruit thereof, and, if negligence has crept in, we defile God's land and make His inheritance abominable. 'The priests said not: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me.'

'and the prophets prophesied in Baal and followed after idols.' After such great benefits, they turned into contempt the privileges of their dignity: so that the priests sought not the Lord; the teachers of the law were ignorant of Him whom they ought to teach others; the pastors through negligence became transgressors; and the prophets, who dispute among the peoples, spoke not to God but to an idol, and venerated their own figments. These words must be used against the masters of our own order, who devour the people of God as though it were bread for food, and through evil works do not call upon the Lord. 'Therefore I will yet contend with you in judgment, saith the Lord, and with your sons will I plead.'

Lest He seem to smite by power, He contends by reason as though with equals, according to that which David sings and the apostle appropriates: 'That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged.' And in that He set down 'yet,' He testifies that He has often done so; and in that He added 'with your sons,' He shows a like obstinacy also in the sons of the wicked. But He secretly signifies that their sons too followed in the ancient denial of God at the coming of the Lord. 'Pass over to the isles of Chittim, and see; and send into Cedar, and consider diligently, and see whether such a thing has been done: whether a nation has changed its gods' — or 'their gods' — 'and surely they are not gods.'

'But my people have changed their glory for an idol' — or 'for that from which nothing shall profit them.' He makes a comparison of that which is incomparable, and sets the true God against lying things. 'Go,' He says, 'to the isles of Chittim,' which we ought to understand of Italy or of the western parts, from the fact that the island of Cyprus — in which is a city called by this name — is near to the land of Judaea; from which also came Zeno, chief of the Stoics. But Cedar is a region of the wilderness and of the Ishmaelites, whom they now call Saracens, against whom in its closing parts a prophecy of this same prophet is woven, and of whom David makes mention saying: 'I dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar; my soul has long been a sojourner.' And the sense is:

'Either go to the west, or send into the wilderness, and see whether any nation has done what you have done. For none of them despised its gods, nor changed its wooden and stone gods for a comparison of gold ones, but followed and held fast the ancient error which it had received from its forefathers; and surely this — though none of them is a god, but images of men fashioned by hand. But my people have changed truth for a lie, and preferred an idol to me, which in time of need cannot profit them.' We may say this also against those who follow vices with greater zeal than virtues, whom the apostle admonishes saying: 'I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh.'

'As you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification.' 'Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and its gates, be utterly desolate, saith the Lord; for my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water.' The Septuagint: 'The heaven was astonished at this, and shuddered beyond measure and exceedingly,' the rest similarly. The heaven, to which it was said: 'Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak,' and 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth,' seeing the precepts of God trampled underfoot, shudders and cannot conceal its stupor.

For every creature groans together and grieves over the sins of men. But the people of God did two contrary things: first, that they forsook God, who is the fountain of life and gave the commandment saying, 'I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt'; second, what is written in the same place, 'Thou shalt have no gods in my sight' — instead of whom they followed demons, whom He calls broken cisterns, because they cannot keep the commandments of God. And this too must be noted: that the fountain is perpetual and has living waters, but cisterns and pools are filled either from torrents or from the turbid waters of the earth and from rains. He calls those the gates of heaven, of which it is also written in the twenty-third Psalm:

'Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of glory shall come in'; for which the Septuagint translated: 'Lift up your gates, O ye princes' — of which more fully in its own place. And in that Aquila and Symmachus rendered 'heavens,' but the Septuagint and Theodotion 'heaven,' let no one be troubled. For the Hebrew 'shamaim' is of common number, and both 'heavens' and 'heaven' are called by the same name, as Thebes, Athens, Salonae. 'Is Israel a slave, or a home-born servant?' I think that from this place the Jews, lifted up into pride, said to the Savior: 'We are the seed of Abraham, and have never been slaves to any man; how sayest thou: Ye shall be free?' — not knowing that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, and that each is a slave to that by which he is overcome.

Born therefore of Abraham, the friend of God, they became by their own vice as it were sons of Ham, to whom it was said: 'Cursed be Canaan, a servant shall he be to his brethren.' 'Why then is he become a prey? The lions roared over him and gave forth their voice; they made his land a desolation, and his cities are burned up, and there is none to dwell in them.' The divine word asks, that He Himself may answer. And He calls the princes of Babylon lions, who made his land a desolation and destroyed his cities by fire.

Or certainly, according to the anagogical sense, let us understand the lions to be the adverse powers or the princes of heretics, who, laying waste the land of the Church, devastated all its cities with heretical fire, and with that fire of which it is written: 'All of them committing adultery, their hearts are like an oven.' For those truly give forth their voice and, in this same prophet under the person of the partridge, cry out and gather what they did not bring forth, and make riches not with judgment. And therefore its cities were laid waste and destroyed, because they have not God as their inhabitant, the Scripture saying: 'and there is none to dwell in them.' 'The sons also of Memphis and of Taphnes have defiled thee even to the crown of the head. Has not this been done to thee?

because thou didst forsake the Lord thy God at the time when He led thee by the way?' This which we have said — 'at the time when He led thee by the way' — is not found in the Septuagint. He names the two greatest cities of Egypt, Memphis and Taphnes, and says that their sons defiled Israel even to the crown of the head, in that sense in which Isaiah put it: 'From the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head there is no soundness in him.' So great was the lust of the Egyptians, who are of great flesh, that they spared no member, but defiled all. According to the letter, refer this to the idols of the Egyptians; according to the spiritual understanding, to the masters of perverse doctrine, who pollute the purity of the Church with their own foulness.

But these things shall befall him for this reason, because he forsook the Lord his God, and that especially at the time when he ought to have followed the Guide Himself. 'And now what wouldest thou in the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Sihor? And what to thee and the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river?' For 'Sihor' we have rendered 'turbid,' which the Hebrew word signifies, for which the common edition has 'Geon.' Because, then, He had set down above the sons of Memphis and Taphnes, who defiled Israel even to the crown, now He names Egypt itself more plainly.

And no one doubts that the Nile has turbid waters, and that by 'the river of the Assyrians' the Euphrates is signified, the Scripture saying that the land of promise is from the torrent of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates. But those who have forsaken Christ, the fountain of life, and have dug for themselves the pools of heretics, which cannot hold the waters of doctrines, must needs lie beneath the lions who reduce their land to a desolation and destroy all the churches, and be defiled even to the crown, and drink turbid waters and the streams of the Assyrian river and of the north, whence evils blaze forth upon the earth. 'Thy own malice shall reprove thee' — or 'thy transgression shall instruct thee' — 'and thy turning away shall rebuke thee.'

'Know and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that the fear of me is not with thee, saith the Lord God of hosts.' It must be noted that even malice or transgression, after it has sated the transgressor and, like quails, has come even to nausea, may instruct the one who does penance: who is commanded to see what he has forsaken, what he has followed, and how, despising what is good and sweet, he has chosen what is evil and bitter. But all this came to pass because he forsook the Lord his God, and the fear of Him is not with him. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and because he had not that fear, he is delivered over to evil and bitterness. 'Of old thou hast broken my yoke' — or 'thy yoke' — 'thou hast burst my bonds' — or 'thy bonds' — 'and thou saidst:

I will not serve. For upon every high hill and under every leafy tree thou didst prostrate thyself as a harlot' — or 'there thou didst pour thyself out in fornication.' As it were to a harlot He speaks to Israel, because she broke the marriage covenants and said: 'I will not serve' — understand 'the Lord' or 'my husband' — but upon every high hill and under every leafy tree she was prostrated in idolatry; for pleasant and lofty places are always dedicated to idols.

This may also be said of him who, being from the beginning a Christian and in part instructed in the sacred letters, afterward through desire of secular literature — which is signified in the hills — and in the delights of eloquence — which is shown in the leafy trees — prostrates himself to demons, who under the occasion of learning and of lofty knowledge pollute the souls of believers and make them spread their feet to every passer-by. 'But I planted thee a chosen vine, every true seed; how art thou turned to me into a degenerate, an alien vine?' The Septuagint: 'But I planted thee a fruitful vine, every true one; how art thou turned into the bitterness of an alien vine?' For 'chosen' or 'fruitful' vine the Hebrew has 'sorek,' which is set down in the Canticle of Isaiah.

It is moreover a kind of the best vine, with which shoot the Lord says He planted Israel; and He marvels how the true seed and chosen vine has been turned into bitterness, and has thereby become an alien vine. And let no one be secure, if both the Lord's planting and the true seed and the vine sorek is so far changed by its own vice that through bitterness it departs from the Lord and becomes an alien vine. And in this the clemency of the Creator is to be considered: that He who said in the Gospel, 'I am the true vine,' gave also to His disciples and to the people believing in Him that it should be a chosen or true vine, if it would abide in that in which it was planted.

'Though thou wash thee with nitre and multiply to thyself the herb borith, thou art stained with thine iniquity before me, saith the Lord God.' For 'herb borith,' which we, as it is set down in the Hebrew, have translated, the Septuagint rendered 'poa,' that they might signify the fullers' herb, which, according to the custom of the province of Palestine, grows in green and moist places, and has the same power for washing away filth as nitre has. Now our 'nitre' and 'the herb of the fuller' is penance. And the ecclesiastical discourse also, which reproves and rebukes and corrects the offender, has the likeness of a more biting nitre. But he who is stained with the light filth of sins is cleansed by lighter admonitions.

But grievous sins, which drag down to death, can be washed away neither by nitre nor by the herb borith, but require heavier torments. For the work of each, of what sort it is, the fire shall prove, and it shall be revealed in the fire. And beautifully He added: 'Thou art stained with thine iniquity in my sight,' because, even if thou seem clean to men, thou art not clean to me, who know the consciences of individuals. Whence also in another place it is said: 'In thy sight shall no living man be justified.' 'How sayest thou: I am not polluted, I have not gone after the Baalim? See thy ways in the valley' — or 'vale,' which in Hebrew is called 'ge,' and by the Septuagint is interpreted 'polyandrion,' which in our language may be called 'the sepulchre of the multitude.'

'In vain,' He says, 'thou art unwilling to confess thy crimes and boastest of cleanness, thou who art polluted with the filth of idolatry, and shamelessly deniest that thou hast worshipped the idol Baalim. Look upon the valley of the sons of Hinnom, which is watered by the fountains of Siloam, and there thou shalt discern the shrine of Baal, whom, having forsaken God, thou hast venerated.' And in that it is added, 'Know what thou hast done,' He opens the closed eyes of the denier, that he may discern what he blushes to behold. According to the tropological sense, let us reprove by works the impudence of the brow of those who are unwilling to confess their own vices. For men of this sort do not walk in the strait and narrow way that leads to life, but in the broad and spacious way through which very many enter, which leads to death.

Whence also it was significantly named 'polyandrion,' or according to the history, because there a multitude of the people, slain and destroyed, was lost through the evil of idolatry. 'A swift runner unfolding her ways, a wild ass accustomed to solitude, in the desire of her soul she drew in the wind of her love; none shall turn her away. All that seek her shall not fail; in her menses they shall find her.' The Septuagint: 'Toward evening her night howled; she widened her ways over the waters of the wilderness; in the desire of her soul she was borne by the spirit, she was given over. Who shall turn her back? All that seek her shall not labour; in her humiliation they shall find her.' In this place the Septuagint edition greatly disagrees with the Hebrew truth; yet each has its own sense.

Because above He had said, 'I am not polluted,' and was speaking as it were to a woman who had borne herself basely, He describes her fornication. 'How,' He says, 'like a swift she-goat' — which we have called by the common gender 'runner,' and more significantly Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion rendered 'dromas kouphe' — 'she unfolds her ways and is swiftly borne to her pastures. And as a wild ass accustomed to the wilderness draws in the desire of her soul the wind or the spirit of her love' — for among the Hebrews by one name 'ruah' both 'wind' and 'spirit' are called — 'so also Israel or Jerusalem was borne with all impetuosity toward the desire of lust, and burned with all love of idols, and there is none

who can turn her away from this impetuosity by his admonitions — not that the impossibility of the prophets brought this about, but the perverse malice of her who desires.' 'Whoever seek her,' He says, 'shall not greatly labour; in her menses and in her uncleanness they shall find her' — for which Aquila rendered 'neomenian,' that is 'the Kalends,' Symmachus 'month,' the Septuagint and Theodotion 'humiliation.' Now according to the Septuagint this is the sense: the harlot Jerusalem, like that woman described in Proverbs, howled with her voice toward evening and provoked her lovers to lust, opened the ways of her shamefulness, and spread her feet to every passer-by.

Now there was a place having the pleasantness of flowing waters, which becomes more delightful when there is solitude round about, so that none may see her fornicating. 'In the desire,' He says, 'of her soul she was borne by the spirit' — or was led by a perverse spirit, or drew the refreshment of her love, or certainly sang the songs of her shamefulness. 'She was given over,' He says, to her vices and to lust; none shall be able to turn her back. All who shall wish to find her shall find her in the humiliation of her shamefulness, so that she can never be sated with the love of pleasure. 'Keep back thy foot from nakedness and thy throat from thirst. And thou saidst: I have despaired, I will not do it; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I walk.' The Septuagint:

'Turn thy foot from the rough way and thy throat from thirst. But she said: I will act manfully, for she loved strangers and walked after them.' Those about to keep the Passover are commanded to have shoes on their feet. And the apostle proclaims that the feet of those who are prepared for the gospel are shod, lest, while they walk through the wilderness of this world, they lie open to venomous creatures, which ought to be trodden and crushed by the gospel foot. We keep back the throat from thirst when we receive the precepts of the Savior, who says: 'Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink.' She, out of despair of better things, denied that she would do what the Lord commanded, and set forth the cause saying: 'I have loved strangers and I will follow them,' thinking by a shameless confession to avoid her crimes.

Now according to the Septuagint the way of sinners is rough, which is turned by the Lord into a level way. Whoever follows heretics, let him be marked by the epitaph of these verses, in that he said: 'I have despaired' — or 'in my evil purpose I will act manfully' — and 'I will be strengthened in my error.' And it is necessary that he who follows a doctrine alien to the Church should love strangers and follow their footsteps, whether demons or the princes of heretics, who are alien from God. 'As a thief is confounded when he is caught, so are the house of Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes and priests and prophets.' Although the countenance of thieves is impudent and bold, yet he blushes when he is caught in theft. And Israel therefore, saying to the wood:

'Thou art my father,' and to the stone: 'Thou hast begotten me,' so as to call those parents which he himself had fashioned, is confounded when he is caught in his idolatry. And lest we think He says this of the common folk, He sets down their kings and princes and priests and prophets. Let us use this testimony if ever our princes and those who are thought leaders in the Church are caught in shameful sins. 'They have turned to me the back and not the face.' Those who cast the words of God behind them themselves turn their back against Him and not their face. For when a master gives a command, it is a sign of obedience if one listens with head bowed toward him; but if one turns his back, it is a sign of the despiser, as is written in another place:

'and they turned to me the shoulder, withdrawing.' 'To such a degree,' says God, 'have they despised my precepts, that they were not even willing to hear, but signified the swelling of their mind by the gesture of the body.' 'And in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise and deliver us.' Those who did not perceive God through benefits, let them perceive Him through torments. 'Where are thy gods which thou hast made for thyself? Let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thine affliction.' It is a shameless demand, in the time of need and distress, to seek help from Him whom in peace they despised. And it is to be read with the feeling of one rebuking: 'Let thy gods deliver thee, which thou hast made for thyself,' so that, since God is the Creator of men, and man has made a god, let necessity prove

what those can do whom thou didst securely worship before. 'According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah.' The several cities worshipped either the same or single and diverse gods, so that not even in impiety did they seem to have consent, but a superstition warring against itself followed a diverse error. And what follows: 'and according to the number of the ways of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal,' was added by the Septuagint. 'Why will you contend with me in judgment? You have all forsaken me, saith the Lord.' Human perversity is prone to excuse itself, so that whatever they deservedly suffer, they seem to suffer unjustly, and refer their own guilt to the judgment of God.

'In vain therefore,' He says, 'do you allege complaints and accuse the judge of injustice, when it is of your own impiety that you suffer.' And what follows: 'and you have all dealt unjustly with me,' was likewise added by the Septuagint. 'In vain have I smitten your sons; they have not received discipline' — for which the Septuagint put: 'you have not received.' And the sense in the Hebrew is: 'they themselves who were smitten were unwilling to receive discipline'; but in the Septuagint: 'therefore I smote your sons, that by their death you might be instructed. And lest perchance you should say: Thou wast unwilling to correct sinners, learn by the strokes of your sons that I wished to cure you with a more severe medicine.' 'Your own sword has devoured your prophets.'

'Not my prophets, but yours; in no wise my sword, but your sword devoured them, which you endured by your sins.' Now the Septuagint does not have 'your,' but simply rendered: 'The sword devoured your prophets,' so that either the enemy's sword or my sword is shown, by which your sins were pierced through. 'Your generation is like a destroying lion.' The Septuagint: 'like a destroying lion, and you feared not.' 'The sword,' He says, 'which devoured your prophets' — there is no doubt that it signifies Baal and the soothsayers of the idols — 'laid waste all things after the manner of a lion, and yet your generation, which ought to have been amended by the death of a few, all persevered in wickedness.' But according to the Septuagint this is the sense:

'Thus the sword of the Lord, which manifested the sword of the adversaries, devoured and tore your false prophets like a lion, which most greedily tears the prey it has found; and yet not even by the punishment of your prophets could you be turned to better things.' 'See the word of the Lord: Have I become a wilderness to Israel, or a late-yielding land? Why then has my people said: We have withdrawn, we will come no more to thee?' The Septuagint: 'Hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord: Have I become a wilderness to Israel, or a land full of thorns, that my people has said: We will not feel, nor will we come to thee?' And Moses saw the voice of God, and John the apostle says that he saw and handled the word of God.

But He marvels how the people of Israel could have held God as a wilderness, since they followed idols as though they were the throng of cities. A late-yielding land is one that receives not the rains of doctrines nor the discipline of the gospel, and is full of thorns because it has not been tilled. Therefore the people once of God is the more wicked in this, that it withdrew from the Lord and will not return further to its God. It is a great offense to be unwilling to appease Him whom thou hast offended. 'Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride the girdle of her breast? But my people has forgotten me for days without number.' By these things we learn that Christ is the bridegroom of the virgin Church, which has neither spot nor wrinkle.

But if He Himself is the bridegroom, they are His own words, of whom John the Baptist also speaks: 'He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.' Therefore he loses his ornament who withdraws from the Lord, and forfeits the understanding of doctrines, which is signified in the breast. Whence also John the evangelist reclines upon the breast of the Lord, and for the priests among other things the little breast of the victims is set apart. And the greater the number of the times in which we forget God, so much the greater the punishment of the sin, which could not be tamed even by the length of the ages. 'Why dost thou strive to show thy way good, to seek love?'

'Moreover you even taught your wickednesses to be your ways, and on your wings — or on your hands — was found the blood of the souls of the poor and the innocent. I did not find them in pits, but in all these things, or under every oak.' 'In vain,' he says, 'do you desire to defend yourself by the art of words and to show your works as good, so as to merit love — you who moreover even taught others your ways and were an example to all of evil deeds. For on your wings — or on your hands — was found the blood of the innocent, whom you offered up to idols, or whose souls you destroyed under the guise of sacrifices.' The word 'poor' we have set down from the Hebrew, which is not found in the Septuagint.

'But these poor and innocent ones,' he says, 'I did not find slain in pits' — which most often happens by the ambush of robbers — 'but in all the things I mentioned above, or under the oak' — which in Hebrew is called 'ella,' and which indeed also signifies 'these,' so that the sense is: 'in all these things, or under the oak and terebinth' — 'under whose shade and foliage, as though in pleasant places, you took your delight in the crimes of idolatry.' 'And you said: I am without sin and innocent, and therefore let your fury be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: I have not sinned. How exceedingly worthless you have become — or because you have exceedingly despised — repeating your ways!'

These words are to be used against those who refuse to acknowledge their own sins, but in the time of affliction and distress say that they suffer unjustly what they suffer, and they provoke the wrath of God the more, since it is a second and greater sin not to mourn what one has done, but to hold out empty excuses for one's sins. 'I will contend with you in judgment,' he says, 'because you have said: I have not sinned' — as though it were something greater than that sin to have one thing in one's conscience and to utter another in speech. Let the new heresy sprung from the old hear that it is a very great wrath of God to be unwilling humbly to confess one's sin, but shamelessly to boast of one's righteousness. 'And you shall be confounded by Egypt, as you were confounded by Assyria: for from that one too you shall go forth, and your hands shall be upon your head.'

'For the Lord has crushed your confidence — or your hope — and you shall have no prosperity in it.' In order to escape the assault of the Egyptians, they fled for refuge to the Assyrians, whose protection was in vain; for we read that they were defeated by the Egyptians. Again, in order to flee the wrath of the Assyrians, they relied on the help of the Egyptians, whom history records as overcome by the Assyrians. They are therefore rebuked because, having abandoned hope in God, they rely on the help of men, which is all crushed and so overthrown that they can find no usefulness in it. Whence he says: 'And you shall go forth from that one too,' that is, from Egypt, 'as you went forth from the Assyrians, and your hands shall be upon your head,' and you shall mourn that in vain you looked for protection from the Egyptians.

Let us recall the history of when Tamar, defiled and violated by her most wicked brother Amnon, placed her hands upon her head sprinkled with ashes and so returned to her house. The common reading has — for which the Septuagint has rendered merely 'if it is said' —: 'If a man dismisses his wife, and she, departing from him, marries another man, shall she return to him again? Shall not that woman — or that land — be polluted and defiled? Yet you have committed fornication with many lovers — or shepherds.' For the very word, which is written with four letters (resh, ain, yod, mem), signifies both 'lovers' and 'shepherds': if we read 'rehim,' it sounds 'lovers'; if 'rohim,' 'shepherds.'

'Nevertheless return to me, says the Lord' — or 'and you kept returning to me, says the Lord.' In the Hebrew, even after fornication he receives the penitent and exhorts her to return to him; but in the Septuagint he does not summon to repentance, but rebukes the shamelessness of the harlot, that after adultery she should dare to return to her husband. And as for what he says: 'and that woman shall be defiled,' for which in the Hebrew we read 'land,' he abandons the figure and speaks more plainly about the land of Israel, which is compared to an adulterous woman. Let us use this testimony against those who, abandoning faith in the Lord and hindered by the errors of heretics, after many fornications and the deception of souls, pretend to return to their former truth —

not that they may lay aside the venom of their breast, but that they may instil it into others. 'Lift up your eyes straight ahead and see where you have not been prostituted: on the roads you sat waiting for them like a robber in the wilderness — or like a solitary crow.' For 'robber' and 'crow' the Hebrew has 'arabe' written, which can also mean 'an Arab,' a people given to robberies who to this day raid the borders of Palestine and, for those descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, beset the roads — a matter which the Lord too recalls in the Gospel. 'Lift up therefore your eyes, O Jerusalem, and look this way and that and see where you have not been prostituted in fornication.

For just as robbers are wont at evening and in desert places to lay ambushes for travellers, so you, like the harlot of Proverbs, sat on the roads at evening, so that by your embrace you might slay the souls of those fornicating: for which reason the whole land is polluted in your fornications.' And significantly, according to the anagogical sense, those who promise to abandon heretical errors are twice commanded to lift up their eyes straight ahead. For unless they begin to see rightly, they cannot condemn their former depravity. 'You have polluted — or slain — the land with your fornications and with your evils. For this reason the drops of rain were withheld, and the latter rain did not come — or, you have had many shepherds to your offence.'

The land was slain, or polluted, because of the slaying of those who perished in the fornication of idolatry: whence the blessing of all things was taken away, so that they suffered a drought of the word of God. Or, it had shepherds through whom it offended God, so that those who ought to have been teachers, to hold others back from error, became the authors of impiety. 'The brow of a harlot woman has become yours; you refused to blush.' The Septuagint: 'The face of a harlot has become yours; you have become without shame toward all.' Because he had said above: 'I have not sinned,' and had sinned the more by denying her crimes, therefore he now rebukes her as a bold woman of excessive shamelessness, who is carried by her bold countenance not toward one man or another, but blushes at none.

Let us use this word against the assembly of heretics, who glory in their errors. 'Therefore at least from now on call to me: My father, you are the guide of my virginity; will you be angry for ever, or will you persevere to the end?' Let the heretics blush, who refuse to be converted to better things nor to return to the Father their Creator, and let them hear: 'At least from now on call to me: My father, you are the guide of my virginity.' He himself betrothed your soul to his own embraces, and teaches how one ought to pray and to do penance. And the more merciful he is, who shows the way of salvation after fornication, the more wretched is the harlot who, after her wounds, refuses to receive healing. 'Behold, you have spoken and done evils, and you have prevailed.'

'Instead of words of penitence you have blasphemed with words of pride, and you have filled up your evil intent, and you have shown your strength against the man, that you might be able to do what you devised in speech.' 'And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone off by herself upon every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there she has committed fornication. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me — and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw that, because apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had dismissed her and given her a bill of divorce; yet treacherous Judah, her sister, did not fear,