'In your sight shall no living man be justified'—not in comparison with God, as the old and new heretics and the patrons of heretics would have it, but with respect to his knowledge; for 'man looks upon the face, God upon the heart'—and what sometimes seems clean to us is found sordid in his eyes: not only the ignoble crowd and the vile common folk, but the kings of the churches, of the stock or sons of David, who sit leaning back with erect neck and protruding paunch upon his throne. The priests too, the second grade in ecclesiastical honour, and the prophets, who seem to have knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem are filled according to the variety of their sins—or of Judah, as the LXX added.
And when they are drunk, let them be scattered from their fellowship, and fathers are separated from sons and sons from fathers, so that they may be defiled with diverse heresies and, under the name of Christ, fight among themselves and contend against their mother who bore them, the Church. Whence he says: 'I will not desire them, but hold them in everlasting hatred; I will not spare and I will not grant nor have mercy—not from cruelty of sentence, but from the truth of judgment. For those who have slaughtered my peoples shall themselves perish for ever.' This can also be understood simply according to history: that the kings and priests and prophets and all the people of Jerusalem must be made drunk with the Babylonian cup and overwhelmed with the evils of captivity.
'Hear and give ear, do not be lifted up, for the Lord has spoken!' Because above he had said, 'Every wineskin shall be filled with wine,' so that even the kings and priests and prophets and every inhabitant of Jerusalem should be filled with drunkenness, therefore he joins on and says: 'Hear and give ear'—both outwardly and inwardly, both in mind and in body—'and do not be lifted up' through pride, considering your fragility and that there is none who, according to the quality of his sin, is free from this drunkenness. Whence he is destroyed and corrupted, and is unworthy of the mercy of God, who lifts himself up against him through pride.
'Give glory to the Lord your God, before it grows dark and before your feet stumble upon the gloomy—or dark—mountains! You shall look for light, and there shall be the shadow of death, and they shall be placed in darkness—or according to the Hebrew: and he shall place it in the shadow of death and in gloom—. But if you will not hear, my soul—or yours—shall weep in secret before the face of pride—or of injury.' Those to whom the divine word had said, 'Hear and give ear and do not be lifted up,' he now summons to repentance, that, before they are led to Babylon and their feet stumble upon the dark or gloomy mountains, they may give glory to God. Whence also it is often said to sinners: 'Give glory to God!'
And that Babylon and all the region of the Chaldeans are called gloomy or dark mountains, we read at the beginning of Isaiah against Babylon, where it is written: 'Upon the gloomy mountain lift up a signal,' which in Hebrew is called 'neseptha.' This therefore he commands, that before they are led into captivity and feel the evils of servitude, they should do penance; and while they look for light, they will sit in darkness. 'But if,' he says, 'you will not hear me, in secret'—according to Aquila 'in darkness'—'my soul shall weep'—or according to the LXX 'yours'—'before the face of pride,' so that not even the groaning and weeping may be free, lest the eyes of the victors be offended. But we can also interpret this passage thus: the Saviour speaks:
'Work while it is day; night comes, when no one can any longer work.' Concerning this time there is also the prophecy of Isaiah: 'For the stars of heaven and Orion and all the array of heaven shall not give their light, and they shall be darkened when the sun has risen, and the moon shall not give its light.' Zephaniah too agrees in the same words, saying: 'A day of tribulation and distress, a day of misery and destruction, a day of darkness and whirlwind, a day of cloud and gloom.' Before therefore the time of judgment comes and our feet stumble upon the dark mountains—namely the adverse powers, which are set over torments and torturings—let us do penance.
Let us not, while looking for light, be wrapped in the darkness of night, and let us know that, unless we do this, either the soul of God or of the prophet shall weep before the face of our pride, who are unwilling to hear the words of God. Whence the prophet himself also says: 'Jerusalem shall weep and weep—or, weeping he shall weep—and my eye shall let fall a tear'; 'and I cannot dissemble my grief with silent groanings; but the whole cause of the torments is that the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.' Let us say to the Jews and to our own Judaizers, who follow only the simple and deadening history:
'Unless you hear in secret'—that is, in mystery or in the darkness which God made his hiding-place, and, according to Solomon, so as to understand a parable and a dark saying—'the soul of the prophet, or of these themselves, shall weep before the face of pride,' while through obstinacy they resist God. Whence also there shall be continual weeping and perpetual tears, because by the true Nebuchadnezzar the flock of the Lord has been taken captive and corrupted. 'Say to the king and to the mistress—or, say to the king and to the mighty—: Humble yourselves, sit down, for the crown of your glory has come down—or, has been taken away—from your head! The cities of the south are shut up and there is none to open;
all Judaea—or, all Judah—is carried away—or, taken into captivity—with a complete transmigration.' The prophet is commanded to speak to King Jehoiachin and to his mother, whom he calls lady and mistress or queen, that they should humble themselves and sit in the dust; for they have lost their royal dignity and are to be handed over to the king of Babylon. 'The cities of the south are shut up,' that is, the tribe of Judah and Jerusalem, which is turned toward the wilderness to the south, 'and there is none to open' them, surrounded by siege. 'All Judaea—or all Judah—is carried away with a complete transmigration,' or, 'she has received what she deserved, and it has been fulfilled in her'; for so the LXX rendered it.
He raves in this passage who understands 'the king' as Christ and 'the mighty' as the angels or the apostles, so that they should take on a body of humility and sit in the dust and lose—whether the king or the mighty—from their head the crown and the glory of their strength. He interprets 'the cities of the south which are shut up' as hell, and as being opened to no one, and 'all the glory of Judah being carried away' when at the Passion it was fulfilled: 'They have all turned aside, together they have become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.' The Hebrew word 'gebira' Aquila and Symmachus interpreted as 'mistress' and 'lady,' which the LXX supposed to be 'geburoth' and rendered as 'the mighty.'
Lift up your eyes and see those who are coming — or you who are coming — from the north! Where is the flock that was given to you, your splendid herd? What will you say when he visits you? For you yourself teach them against you and instruct them upon your own head. The inhabitants of Jerusalem are commanded to lift up their eyes and to see the Chaldeans coming from the northern quarter, and the city itself is questioned and told: 'Where is the flock that was given to you, your splendid herd? Where is your people, whom you had received from God? Where is that so great and famous multitude, that you would have believed the throng of an entire province gathered into one place?'
What will you say when the Lord visits you with his rod and hands you over to your Babylonian enemies, whom you yourself taught against you — either upon your own head or from the beginning — so that you fled to their aid and followed after their idols; who, under the occasion of your friendship, learned by what road they ought to come to you? Let the negligent Church hear this: that she herself teaches her adversaries how they may seize her in spiritual captivity and tear her flock with the cruelty of beasts. Shall not pangs seize you like a woman in labor? But if you say in your heart: why have these things come upon me?
Because of the multitude of your iniquity your shameful parts have been uncovered, your soles have been polluted — or dishonored. 'While you know it not, as sudden birth comes upon a woman, so shall sudden captivity seize you. But if you are unwilling to make excuse and to ask why you have been handed over to enemies, hear plainly that the multitude of your iniquity has done these things to you, so that, as with a harlot woman whose garments are lifted, your ignominy is uncovered and your fornications are shown in public.' Through this we learn that, as long as sins are lesser, God acts patiently and awaits our repentance;
but if we are unwilling to couple sins to sins and to make a heap of transgressions, our shameful parts shall be uncovered and our soles shown to all, whether in the present age or in the age to come. For nothing is hidden that shall not be made manifest, when that word of Daniel is fulfilled: these shall rise to life eternal, and those to reproach and to everlasting confusion. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, then you too shall be able to do well, when you have learned evil.
This testimony is used against the Church by those who desire to assert diverse natures, and they say that the blackness or variety of sins is so great that they cannot pass into whiteness and into the beauty of a single color — not attending to what follows: and you too shall be able to do well, when you have learned evil. For whatever is learned is not of nature but of study and of one's own will, which by excessive habit and love of sinning is in a certain manner turned into nature. But that which is impossible for men is possible for God, so that in no way do the Ethiopian and the leopard seem to change their own nature, but rather he who works in the Ethiopian and the leopard, as the Apostle says: I can do all things in him who strengthens me, in Christ.
Whence also in another place he says: I labored more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God that is in me; and: I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. And again we read it written: What have you that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? For which reasons let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong in his strength, nor the rich in his riches, nor the chaste in his chastity, knowing that in all these is the power of Christ, not of those who glory in their own virtues. And I will scatter them like stubble that is carried off by the wind in the desert. This is your lot and the portion of your measure from me, says the Lord — or, the portion of your disobedience against me.
'Because by excessive habit of evils they could not change their nature — not by the fault of the Creator, but by the pursuit of ingrained wickedness — therefore I will scatter them like stubble carried off by the wind into the wilderness, according to that which is written elsewhere: like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth.' And he makes an apostrophe to Jerusalem herself, that this is her lot and that portion which she herself has chosen — a measure heaped up and full and overflowing — or the portion of her disobedience, by which she was unwilling to yield to the Lord; for with what measure she has measured, it shall be measured to her again.
Because you have forgotten me and trusted — or hoped — in a lie, therefore I too have laid bare — or will lay bare and uncover — your thighs — and your hinder parts — against your face, and your ignominy shall appear, your adulteries and your neighings, the crime — or the estrangement — of your fornication. The cause of Jerusalem's dispersion: that she forgot God and trusted or hoped in lies. He who apart from God trusts in the things of the world forgets God. Hence his thighs or hinder parts are uncovered, so that he sees his own ignominy, and what ought to be behind comes to be in front, and he himself perceives what he has done, and his ignominy appears not only to himself but to all.
Your adulteries, he says, and your neighings show not only lust but the madness of lust, after the manner of mares, which are eager for coupling, as is that Virgilian line: 'hippomanes — which by its true name the shepherds call — a clinging poison distils from the loins.' Let us ask Jesus that neither in the present age nor in that to come he lay bare our thighs and hinder parts, but that he blot out our iniquities and not make all our crimes appear. Upon the hills in the field I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You shall not be cleansed — or, because you have not been cleansed — after me; how long yet? 'Not only in the midst of the city of Jerusalem, but on every hill and in all regions I have seen your idols'; whence it is said to her:
'Woe to you, Jerusalem, because you have not been cleansed after me — so that, while you boasted to follow in my footsteps and vaunted the confession of my name, yet you were never purged, because you have forgotten me and hoped in lies.' Whence he rebukes her and says: how long yet? And the sense is: 'How long shall I wait for you? How long shall I bear with you? How long will you forget me forever and despise my precepts?' He fornicates on the hills and in the fields and is never cleansed who, with neck erect through pride, is not humbled under the mighty hand of God, but trusts in his own crimes and vices. The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah concerning the matters of the drought. All things concur with the wrath of God:
whence the sun sets upon sinners at midday, and the moon and the other stars do not give their light; and it must be supposed that at the time of the siege there were no rains, so that the besieged endured a scarcity of water. Indeed the city uses but one fountain, that of Siloah, and that not perpetually; and to the present day the drought of rains causes a lack not only of crops but even of drinking-water. Judaea mourned — or Judah — and her gates fell down — or were made empty — and were darkened — or wrapped in gloom — upon the earth, and the cry of Jerusalem went up. Her great ones sent their little ones — or younger ones — to the water; they came to draw — or to the wells — and found no water; they carried back their vessels empty.
They were confounded and afflicted — or ashamed — and covered their heads, because of the desolation of the land — or, and the works of the earth failed — because the rain did not come — or there was no rain — upon the earth: the farmers were confounded, they covered their heads. In the time of drought, when the multitude suffers a famine of hearing and of learning the word of God, Judaea mourns — she who first boasted of having the worship of God and the confession of the true faith — and her gates are either emptied or fall down, which we ought to refer to the senses, through which the discipline of the soul is conceived. Then all things are darkened and wrapped in shadows, and in no way in Jerusalem do reason and the word of teaching reign, but clamor and confusion.
The greater ones too, who ought themselves to go to draw the waters, send the younger, in whom are not the grey hairs of wisdom; and therefore they come to the wells and find no water — the water which history relates the patriarchs to have found. They carry back their vessels empty — the younger ones, namely — not because there was no water, but because they could not find it. They were confounded and afflicted — or ashamed — and covered their heads — because they could not say with the Apostle: 'but we all, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord' — because of the desolation of the land, or because the works of the earth failed, through which we make our way to the knowledge of God. And the cause is plain: because the rain did not come upon the earth.
For it was commanded to the clouds that they should not rain a shower upon her. The farmers also — one of whom speaks: 'you are God's husbandry, God's building,' and, in another place: 'we are God's fellow workers' — cover their head and are confounded, understanding that without God's grace and help they strive in vain. For even the hind — or the hinds — in the field gave birth — or, they gave birth — and forsook it — or, they forsook them — because there was no grass; and the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they drew in the wind like dragons; their eyes failed, because there was no grass, or hay. It is a great barrenness, when even the hinds in the field give birth and forsake their young,
because there is no grass or hay — so that they, who by the smell of their nostrils draw serpents out of their caverns and slay the poisonous creatures, do not use the food of grace; the wild asses too, of whom it is written: 'who let loose the wild ass free in the wilderness?', leaving the plains and level places, stand upon the rocks and cannot run, and draw in the wind after the likeness of dragons, and their eyes fail and they cannot discern the clear light, the rational food being withdrawn. This drought often befalls in the churches, when both harts and wild asses are found among the peoples and they waste away through the scarcity of teachers: there are those who could learn, and there are not those who could teach. If our iniquities have answered — or resisted — us, O Lord,
act for your name's sake, for our defections — or our sins — are many. Against you we have sinned, O expectation of Israel, its savior in the time of tribulation. If we doubt why the rains do not descend upon the earth, why all things wither with drought, let us hear: our iniquities have resisted us; 'therefore, O Lord, not according to our works but according to your holy name, overcome our many defections. For against you we have sinned, whom the secrets of the heart do not deceive, and you we await, who are the true hope and expectation of Israel and who save it in the time of tribulation, according to that which is written: to the Lord, when I was in tribulation, I cried, and he heard me.'
Let us also say in the time of drought and scarcity of waters: 'Against you we have sinned and have done evil before you; we await your coming, you who save Israel not by its own merit but by your clemency.' Why will you be like a sojourner in the land, and like a wayfarer turning aside to lodge? Why will you be like a wandering man, or a strong one who cannot save? The Septuagint: Why have you become like a stranger in the land, and like a native turning aside to lodge? Will you be like a man asleep, and like a man who cannot save? The Jews understand this passage thus:
'Why do you separate yourself from your people and, like a wayfarer, care not what lodging you use for the refreshment of a single hour, but, about to pass on to other things, do not save your people and forsake the temple once splendid?' But our people think it is said of the future dispensation of Christ: that he was to be a pilgrim in the land and to use for a little time the lodging of earth, and, like a man passing through and robust, leaving Israel behind, was to make his way to the multitude of the nations, so as to pass from place to place, from people to people, from temple to church. But what is said according to the Septuagint — Will you be like a man asleep, and like a man who cannot save? — sets forth a likeness, not the truth of the matter, according to that which is written: arise, why do you sleep, O Lord?
not that the Lord sleeps, of whom it is said: he will neither slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel; but that he seems to sleep to those whom he forsakes. Finally, in what follows it is not written 'a man asleep who cannot save', but 'like a man' — in both cases anthropopathōs, after the manner of human affections. But you, O Lord, are among us, and your name has been invoked upon us; do not forsake us — or, do not forget us! 'You who among the Jews are to be as a stranger and a wayfarer and a wandering man, forsaking your ancient dwelling, dwell among us, and your name is invoked upon us, so that we are called Christians; therefore forsake us not, nor forget us, to whom the mouths of all the prophets have sung of your future coming.'
Thus says the Lord to this people: because they have loved — or, they loved — to move their feet and have not rested — or, they have not spared — and it has not pleased the Lord — or, God has not been pleased with them — now he will remember their iniquities and will visit their sins. When the people say: 'Why have you become like a stranger, a wayfarer and a wanderer, so as to forsake your dwelling?', the Lord answers the people once his own: 'Do you wish to know the reason? Listen to what is said: because the people has loved to move their feet and has not withdrawn them from the fetter of sins — or, has not rested and could not stand still — therefore I too have forsaken it, and there is in it no pleasure for me.'
He therefore who long deferred and, through patience, was unwilling to punish sinners, because they remained in wickedness, will remember their iniquities and will visit the sins of those who are, as it were, sick and do not perceive God, that they may cease from sinning further. And it is to be noted in the holy Scriptures that the feet of sinners are always in motion, while to the saints it is said with Moses: but you, stand here with me; and elsewhere it is written: praise, O servants, the Lord — you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God! And the Lord said to me: do not pray for this people for good! When they fast, I will not hear their prayers, and if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not accept them, for by sword and by famine and by pestilence I will consume them.
It is foolish to pray for him who has sinned unto death, as John says: there is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All iniquity is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. Fasts and prayers and victims and holocausts then profit, when we withdraw from vices and weep over our old sins; but if, remaining in crimes, we think to redeem ourselves to the ears of God by vows and sacrifices, we err vehemently, judging God to be unjust. For he who has once been destined to sword and famine and pestilence can be rescued by no prayers. Hence it is also said to the prophet that he should not entreat in vain for what he cannot obtain. And I said: ah, ah, ah, Lord God — or, you who are, Lord God — the prophets say to them:
you shall not see the sword, and famine shall not be among you, but he will give you true peace in this place. And the Lord said to me: the prophets prophesy falsely in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them, nor did I speak to them; a lying vision and a fraudulent divination and the seduction of their own heart they prophesy to you. Let the teachers hear this who promise prosperity to those who sin and remain in their vices, who say to the rich: 'You shall not see the sword of God's torments, and famine shall not be among you. For you shall be filled with the words of God, and the Lord will give you most true peace in the place of the church, or of Jerusalem.' But what he said, according to the Hebrew, a third time —
ah, ah, ah — answers to what went before, where the Lord had threatened, saying: by sword and by famine and by pestilence I will consume them. Because, therefore, the prophets — nay rather the false prophets — promised false things, therefore the Lord spoke through Jeremiah: 'Do not hear the words of the false prophets, who were not sent by me, but came of their own will! Whence they are by no means to be called prophets, but diviners, who speak seduction to the people.' For it is far better to amend one's sins through the fear of punishments than, through the hope of prosperity, to lie subject to the divine sentence. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, saying: sword and famine shall not be in this land: by sword and by famine shall those prophets be consumed.
And the peoples to whom they prophesied shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem before the famine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them — they and their wives, their sons and their daughters — and I will pour out upon them their own evil — or their evils. Let the false prophets beware, who by promising prosperity supplant the people of God, lest they too perish and the deceived people be destroyed in like ruin, and lie in the streets of Jerusalem; and, trampling upon the Lord's precepts, let them perish by famine and by sword, and let there be none to bury them nor to cover their ignominy with the dust of penitence. For the prophets themselves and the people, and their wives, and their sons and daughters, and every generation, without any embalmer, shall become dung upon the dunghill. How many lie in the streets of Jerusalem!
How many do we behold unburied, receiving their own evils, which they suffer as the Lord pours them out! And you shall say to them this word: let my eyes bring down a tear — or, let your eyes bring down tears — through the night and the day, and let them not be silent — or, let them not cease — because with a great affliction the virgin daughter of my people is afflicted, with a most grievous, exceeding wound. This passage is understood in two ways: either that God himself laments his people and his eyes cease not to weep, or certainly that he commands the eyes of the peoples to flow with tears; and that it is no light thing which must be lamented, since the virgin daughter of his people has been struck with the greatest affliction and an intolerable wound. Others think these things are said in the person of the prophet.
If I go out into the fields, behold, those slain by the sword; and if I enter the city, behold, those wasted by famine — or, the pain of famine! The prophet also and the priest have gone into a land which they knew not. A just cause for lamenting: that the virgin has been afflicted, the daughter struck, and the people destroyed. 'For if,' he says, 'I wish to go out abroad, I shall see the slain; if to enter the city, I shall behold those wasted and scarcely clinging to their bones by the necessity of famine.' And what wonder to say this of the common and ignoble crowd, when the prophets too and the priests — who prophesied prosperity to others, and who ought to open the commands of the law — have themselves gone into a land which they knew not and have endured the evil of captivity?