And they said, “Come, etc.” Jeremiah was complaining about the men of Anathoth and saying that they say this.
Torah...from the priest For it is incumbent upon the priests to teach the Torah, as it is stated (Deut. 33:10): “They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob.”
not speech from the prophet I. e., words of prophecy.
Come, let us strike him with the tongue Let us testify falsely against him.

and spill their blood (Bring them down by the sword,) an expression of (Lam. 3:49) “My eye runs (נִגְרָה)”; (Micah 1:4) “Like water that runs (מֻגָרִים).”
by the sword by troops.
and their husbands i.e., the husbands of the widows shall be slain by the angel of death.

for they dug a pit to seize me that they suspected him of intimacy with a married woman, as it is stated (Prov. 23:27): “For a harlot is a deep pit (ֹשוּחָה).”

let not be erased let it not be erased. And because it is a feminine gender, he placed a ‘yud’ therein. This too is superfluous, as the ‘yud’ of (Ezekiel 16:17) “And you played the harlot (וַתִּזְנִי) with them.”

(Hom. lxiv) The Law enjoined, that on the tenth day of the first month a lamb or a kid should be shut up in the house, and be kept to the fourteenth day of the same month, on the evening of which day it was sacrificed. In accordance with this law, the Elect Lamb, the Lamb without spot, when He went up to Jerusalem to be immolated for the sanctification of the people, went up five days before, i. e. on the tenth day.

(Hom. lxvi. 1) He did this prophetically, to figure the unclean Gentiles being brought into subjection to the Gospel; and also as a fulfilment of prophecy.

(Hom. lvi. 1) Our Lord had not then revealed these things to them. Indeed it would have been a scandal to them had they known Him to be King at the time of His sufferings. Nor would they have understood the nature of His kingdom, but have mistaken it for a temporal one.

(Hom. lxvi. 2) The world means here the crowd. This seems to be the speech of that part who were sound in their faith, but dared not profess it. They try to deter the rest by exposing the insuperable difficulties they would have to contend with.

(Hom. lxvi. 1) They shewed now at last that they thought Him greater than a prophet: And went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord.

(Hom. lxvi. 1) This is what more than any thing made men believe in Christ, viz. the assurance, that He was not opposed to God, that He came from the Father. The words shew us the divinity of Christ. Hosanna is, Save us; and salvation in Scripture is attributed to God alone. And cometh, it is said, not is brought: the former befits a lord, the latter a servant. In the name of the Lord, goes to prove the same thing. He does not come in the name of a servant, but in the name of the Lord.

(Hom. lxvi. 1) Or thus: Whereas they had had wicked kings, who had subjected them to wars, He saith to them, Trust Me, I am not such as they, but gentle and mild: which He shewed by the manner of His entrance. For He did not enter at the head of an army, but simply riding on an ass. And observe the philosophy (φιλοσοφίαν) of the Evangelist, who is not ashamed of confessing his ignorance at the time of what these things meant: These things understood not the disciple at the first, but when Jesus was glorified.

(Hom. lxvi. 2) The time being now near, when they would be made proselytes. They hear Christ talked of, and wish to see Him: The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

(Hom. lxvii. 2) As being the elder disciple. He had heard our Saviour say, Go not into the way of the Gentiles; (Matt. 10:5) and therefore he communicates with his fellow-disciple, and they refer the matter to their Lord: And again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.

(Hom. lxvi. 2) He illustrates His discourse by an example from nature. A grain of corn produces fruit, after it has died. How much more then must the Son of God? The Gentiles were to be called after the Jews had finally offended; i. e. after His crucifixion. Now then that the Gentiles of their own accord offered their faith, He saw that His crucifixion could not be far off. And to console the sorrow of His disciples, which He foresaw would arise, He tells them that to bear patiently not only His death, but their own too, is the only way to good: He that loveth his life shall lose it.

(Hom. lxvii. 1) He loveth his life in this world, who indulges its inordinate desires; he hateth it, who resists them. It is not, who doth not yield to, but, who hateth. For as we cannot bear to hear the voice or see the face of them whom we hate; so when the soul invites us to things contrary to God, we should turn her away from them with all our might.

(Hom. lxvii. 1) This present life is sweet to them who are given up to it. But he who looks heavenwards, and sees what good things are there, soon despises this life. When the better life appears, the worse is despised. This is Christ’s meaning, when He says, If any man serve Me, let him follow Me, i. e. imitate Me, both in My death, and life. For he who serves, should follow him whom he serves.

(Hom. lxvii) So then death will be followed by resurrection. Where I am, He says; for Christ was in heaven before His resurrection. Thither let us ascend in heart and in mind.

If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour. This must be understood as an explanation of the preceding. There also shall My servant be. For what greater honour can an adopted son receive than to be where the Only Son is?

(Hom. lxvii) He says, My Father will honour him, not, I will honour him; because they had not yet proper notions of His nature, and thought Him inferior to the Father.

(Hom. lxvi) To our Lord’s exhortation to His disciples to endurance, they might have replied that it was easy for Him, Who was out of the reach of human pain, to talk philosophically about death, and to recommend others to bear what He is in no danger of having to bear Himself. So He lets them see that He is Himself in an agony, but that He does not intend to decline death, merely for the sake of relieving Himself: Now is My soul troubled.

(Hom. lxvii) As He draws near to the Cross, His human nature appears, a nature that did not wish to die, but cleaved to this present life. He shews that He is not quite without human feelings. For the desire of this present life is not necessarily wrong, any more than hunger. Christ had a body free from sin, but not from natural infirmities. But these attach solely to the dispensation of His humanity, not to His divinity.

(Hom. lxvii. 2) As if He said, I cannot say why I should ask to be saved from it; For for this cause came I unto this hour. However ye may be troubled and dejected at the thought of dying, do not run away from death. I am troubled, yet I ask not to be spared. I do not say, Save Me from this hour, but the contrary, Glorify Thy name. To die for the truth was to glorify God, as the event shewed; for after His crucifixion the whole world was to be converted to the knowledge and worship of God, both the Father and the Son. But this He is silent about.

(Hom. lxvii. 3.) Why then did He say above, that the Father drew men? (c. 6:46.) Because the Father draws, by the Son who draws. I shall draw, He says, as if men were in the grasp of some tyrant, from which they could not extricate themselves.

(Hom. lxvii. 2) The voice though loud and distinct, soon passed off from their gross, carnal, and sluggish minds; only the sound remaining. Others perceived an articulate voice, but did not catch what it said: Others said, An Angel spake to Him.

(Hom. lxvii. 2) The voice of the Father proved what they were so fond of denying, that He was from God. For He must be from God, if He was glorified by God. It was not that He needed encouragement of such a voice Himself, but He condescended to receive it for the sake of those who were by. Now is the judgment of this world: this fits on to the preceding, as shewing the mode of His being glorified.

(Hom. lxviii. 1) Hence we see, that they understood many of the things that He spake in parables. As He had talked about death a little time before, they saw now what was meant by His being lifted up.

(Hom. lxviii. 1) He does not mean only the time before His crucifixion, but the whole of their lives. For many believed on Him after His crucifixion. Lest darkness come upon you.

(Hom. lxviii) i. e. My children. In the beginning of the Gospel it is said, Born of God, (c. 1:13) i. e. of the Father. But here He Himself is the Begetter. The same act is the act both of Father and Son.

(Hom. lxviii. 1) But why did He hide Himself, when they neither took up stones to cast at Him, nor blasphemed? Because He saw into their hearts, and knew the fury they were in; and therefore did not wait till they broke out into act, but retired to give their envy time to subside.

(Hom. lxviii. 1) What things do the Jews now, and know not what they do; thinking, like men in the dark, that they are going the right road, while they are taking directly the wrong one. Wherefore He adds, While ye have the light, believe in the light.