Thomas Aquinas

Hear the word of the Lord. Here the remedy against the punishment is set forth; and first he calls them to hear; second he removes the useless remedy, at the words, What are they to me? Third the wholesome counsel is applied, at the words, Wash yourselves, be clean. Now he calls to hearing, first the greater ones, saying: Hear the word of the Lord, you princes; second the lesser ones, at the words, people of Gomorrah, Matth. 10: amen I say to you, et cetera. But why does he invite the greater ones to hear, the lesser ones to perceive? Because the things that are heard by the greater ones, the lesser ones easily perceive. Again, since he leaves them a seed, why does he compare them to those? And it must be said that, as regards the incorrigible, he compares them for two reasons. On account of the likeness of sin: below, 2: and they have clung to foreign children; and on account of publication: below, 3: they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom, and have not hidden it. And although there were five, he compares them chiefly to these, because they are the chief among the others. And for this reason too he compares the princes to Sodom, because that city was the metropolis, as is clear from Genes. 14. Now it belongs to princes to hear the word from the Lord and to impose the law on the people; and therefore he invites them to the hearing of the word, and the people to the perceiving of the law.

What are they to me? Here he shows the uselessness of the remedy that they were applying: and first as regards the offerings of sacrifices; second as regards the celebrations of feasts, at the words, The new moon and the sabbath; third as regards prayers to God, at the words, and when you stretch out your hands. Concerning the first he does two things. First he reproves the offering of animate things; second of inanimate things, at the words, incense is an abomination. Now in the sacrifices of animals there was something that went wholly to the worship of God; as the holocaust, as it were wholly burnt, from olon, which is whole, and cauma, which is burning. Lev. 1; the fat, which was wholly burned, Levitic. 3, and the blood, which was wholly poured out, Levitic. 17, but there were certain things that went partly to the worship of God, partly to the use of the minister: as the victim for sin; except when it was for the sin of the priest or of the multitude, Levitic. 4. But there were certain things of which something went to the worship of God, and something to the use of the minister, and something went to the offerer himself, as in the peace-offerings, which were offered for thanksgiving, or for well-being, Levitic. 4. And according to these three it is divided into three parts. First he reproves the sacrifices divided into three, namely the peace-offerings. And first he sets down the reproof, saying, What are they to me, that is, to what end do you offer to me the multitude of your victims, as though not mine? And they are called victims, either because the bound animal was led to the priest, or because it was offered for a victory had or to be had. Then he sets down the reason for the reproof, saying, I am full: either on account of distaste, because they are not good: Genes. 4: but unto Cain and his gifts he had not respect: or on account of dominion: Psalm. 49: mine are all the beasts of the forests, the cattle on the mountains and the oxen. Second, he reproves those things that were offered wholly to God. And first he sets down the reproof of those three; and he sets down only three animals, because from these were made only the sacrifices that were from the herds: certain sacrifices were also made from birds, turtledoves and young pigeons: but this was on account of the deficiency of poverty, as is clear in Levitic. 1 and 4 and in several other places. And again their use was not universal in all cases, because a peace-offering was not offered from these. Then he sets down the reason for the reproof, at the words, when you come, as if to say: you offend me more by walking in my courts and polluting them, than a holocaust can please: hence I do not accept this communion. Psalm. 39: holocaust and offering for sin thou didst not require. Jerem. 7: I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the word of holocausts and victims; but this I commanded them, to hear my voice; and I will be to you a God, and you shall be to me a people. Third he reproves those things that were owed to God and to the priest, saying: offer no more. Jerem. 11: shall the holy flesh take away from thee thy evils, in which thou hast boasted? And Mich. 6: what worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? (...). Shall I offer him holocausts and calves of a year old? Can he be appeased with thousands of rams, or with thousands of fat he-goats?

Incense. Here he reproves the offerings of inanimate things, for all of which he sets down incense, because this was more worthy among the others, as the incense-compound, concerning which Exod. 30, and more common, as regards frankincense, which was placed and added to any such offering, and was wholly burnt to God. Below, 66: he who remembers frankincense, as one who blesses an idol. But an objection is raised concerning this from what the Gloss says, that God never loved their sacrifices, though he commanded them to be made. Genes. 8: and the Lord smelled the odor of sweetness; and he said to him: I will no more curse the earth for man's sake. And it must be said: that in any sacrifice there is something to be considered on the part of the offerer, and something on the part of the thing offered. On the part of the thing offered, our sacrifices please God of themselves, but not the sacrifices of the ancients; and this is because that is called pleasing or loved of itself which has in itself that by which it is loved, as the honorable good; but what is loved only through the relation of that thing to another is not called loved of itself, just as being cut or being burned is said to be loved, according as it is referred to the end of health. But our sacrifices contain in themselves the grace of sanctification, according to which they are acceptable to God; but those sacraments or sacrifices of the ancients were only signs of these; and therefore they were not loved of themselves. But on the part of the offerer, both ours and theirs can be acceptable on account of the devotion of the offerer. A fourfold time, therefore, can be distinguished. The first, before the written law and idolatry; and then the ancient sacrifices made by the holy fathers were pleasing both on account of the devotion of the offerer and on account of the signification of the thing offered. The second time is under the written law; and then, idolatry having intervened, something was added on account of which they simply displeased, because it was not fitting that God should be pleased by the same thing by which the Devil was worshipped: and on the other hand one utility was added on the part of the offerer, that it might be a remedy against idolatry for a people prone to this. Hence also nothing was commanded concerning sacrifices before the fashioning of the idol. And thus the authority of Jeremiah adduced is to be understood. The third time was under the prophets, in which, on account of the sins of the people, they no longer pleased on the part of the offerer, but only insofar as they were a sign. Hence according to this they did not appease God, but rather offended. The fourth time is under grace, when now their use has been wholly abolished, because, the truth having come, the figure ceased.