Philoxenus of Mabbug, on Jer 5:5

“I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak to them: for they known the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God: and behold these have together broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.”

“And the prophet of God reproacheth severely those who have broken the yoke, and cut the bands of the fear of God. Now Israel became rebels because there was no fear [in them]; and they trod under foot the commandments because they were not mindful of what was threatened; and they despised the law because they remembered not the penalty of Him that ordained it. For He Who ordained the law because He knew to whom He was giving the law, against [the breaking of] His commandments multiplied His threats in His wisdom, so that although freewill might hold the law in contempt, the fear which followed thereafter might incite [Israel] to the keeping thereof. And because he that received the law became a rebellious slave, He made him to labour in bondage in the fear of tribulation. Before his face He displayed all the various forms of punishment, so that as long as he looked thereupon he might take heed to the commandments, and keep the law.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.