Commentary on Jeremiah (In Jeremiam)

Here he excludes the third remedy in which they could trust, namely concerning the worship of divine religion; and first as to the holiness of the temple; second as to the devotion of prayer, there, "therefore do not pray for this people"; third as to the offering of sacrifices, there, "thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel." Concerning the first, two things. First he sets down a kind of wholesome counsel, showing true confidence: "stand in the gate," so that at least by the reverence of the place they might be compelled to listen: as if he were to say: otherwise they scorn to listen: "make good your ways" — actions, pursuits, thoughts — by which you deliberate about what is to be done. Isa. 40: "direct the way, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God." And first he sets down the fruit: "and I will dwell." Apoc. 21: "behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them." And he excludes vain hope: "do not trust in lying words," inasmuch as they said that on account of the holiness of the temple they could avoid all punishments without amendment of life. The temple of the Lord, holy; the temple of the Lord, precious; the temple of the Lord, venerated by all. 2 Machab. 5: God did not choose the nation for the place's sake, but the place for the nation's sake. Second, he expounds it: and first as to the first part, showing what it is to make good ways, resuming the counsel, ordering them both toward themselves in action: since "if you shall bless" — as it were, you had determined in mind, or directed — and "in thought," your pursuits: and toward one's neighbor, as to the doing of good, "if you shall do": and in comparison with God, "and you shall not walk after strange gods": he resumes the fruit of the counsel: "I will dwell with you, if you will, and you shall hear," et cetera. Ps. 14: "Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest in your holy mountain? He who walks without blemish, and works justice," et cetera. Second, he expounds as to the second part: and first he shows the false confidence, setting down the defect on the part of guilt: "behold you trust in yourselves in lying words," in that you say you can commit with impunity these things that follow: "to steal" — against a neighbor's property, "to kill" — against his person, "to commit adultery" — against that which is as it were property and as it were person, "to swear." Here he sets down sins against God. Isa. 28: "we have set our hope in a lie, and by a lie we are protected." And he sets down the appearance on the part of an insufficient amendment: "and you have come, and stood before me in this house," believing, as it were, that by the mere entering of the temple they give satisfaction, perhaps deceived by the prayer of Solomon which is found in 2 Paralip. 6, and 3 Kings 8. And he himself understands that the house of the Lord is to be entered with a perfect amendment of morals. "Because we have done all these abominations" — that is, on account of it. Second, he excludes it, first by an argument showing the amendment insufficient for the guilt: "has then this house become a den of robbers?" As if he were to say: if you enter my house unpurified, you make it a den of robbers. Matt. 21: "My house shall be called a house of prayer: but you have made it a den of robbers." And he shows the guilt to be manifest: "I, I" — in the singular — "am," seeing all things everywhere; "I have seen your sins." Prov. 16: "all the ways of man lie open to his eyes; the Lord is the weigher of spirits." Second, he excludes it by an example: and first he sets down the example of Shiloh, where the tabernacle had first been placed: "go to my place in Shiloh." Ps. 77: "and he cast off the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tabernacle, where he dwelt among men." Second, he adapts it to the matter at hand, assuming a like guilt: "and because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early" — after the manner of an anxious man, who rises at earliest morning to complete his works; or because that time is fitting for contemplation, and for receiving the words of wisdom, the body now being rested. "I called." Prov. 1: "because I called, and you refused; I called upon you, and there was none that regarded," et cetera. And he concludes a like punishment, as to the destruction of the place: "I will do to this house." Below, 26: "I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will give as a curse to all the nations of the earth." And as to the captivity of the people: "I will cast you out." Below, 23: "you have scattered my flock, and cast them out, and have not visited them."

Here he excludes the remedy of prayer: and first the sentence is set forth: do not take up, even though asked by them, and do not resist, because the prayer of the saints in a certain way holds back, and excludes the sentence of God. Wisdom 18: a man hastening, without complaint, to plead for the peoples, putting forward the shield of his service, prayer, and presenting entreaty through incense, resists the wrath, and put an end to the necessity, showing that he is your servant: Isaiah 64: there is no one who calls upon your name, who rises up and takes hold of you. But on the contrary. Job 9: God, whose wrath no one can resist. It is answered that this is true as regards strength of power; but not as regards prayer and humility. Because I will not hear, in the manner of a courtly lord, who does not wish to confound the face of a servant who is asking. 4 Kings 14: pretend to mourn, and put on mourning garments, and do not anoint yourself with oil, etc. Secondly, he sets forth the cause from guilt, first proposing the guilt, showing it to be evident, since it was done publicly: do you not see? Ezekiel 16: son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations: and common as to every sex and age: the sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women sprinkle the fat, that they may make cakes for the queen of heaven, that is, the moon; or the host, and all the stars. Below, 44: but if we sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out libations to her: did we make cakes for her, to worship her, without our husbands? Secondly, he shows the folly of those who sin, because they offended not God, but themselves: do they provoke me to anger? Job 35: if you sin, what harm will you do to him? Psalm 7: his sorrow shall be turned upon his own head, and his iniquity shall come down upon his own crown. Thirdly, he threatens punishment: therefore thus says the Lord. Above, 4: lest perhaps my indignation come forth like fire, and be kindled, and there be no one to quench it, because of the wickedness of your thoughts.

Here he excludes confidence in sacrifices: and first he excludes concern for sacrifices, setting down the statement: "Add your burnt offerings to your victims"; as if to say: just as the greater part of the victims goes to your own use, so eat the burnt offerings for yourselves entirely, since I am not delighted by the consumption of flesh. Psalm 49: "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" And he gives the cause: "for I did not speak." For the Lord did not want this for his own sake, but so that through it he might call them back from idolatry. Hence before the worship of the calf, of which Exod. 33 speaks, no precepts about sacrifices were given. Psalm 39: "Sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; but ears you have perfected for me. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. Then I said: behold, I come."

Second, he argues the disobedience in moral matters; and first he shows the fault; second, he threatens the punishment, at the place, "cut off your hair." Concerning the first, two things. First he proves the disobedience as it were by induction, showing them disobedient to the law, by setting down the law's precepts: "but this word I commanded" — from the beginning, as it were chiefly intended. "Hear my voice" — concerning the moral precepts. Ezech. 36: "You shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God." And the contempt of the precept: "and they did not hear (...) and they turned backward," always adding sins afterward. Isa. 56: "All have turned aside to their own way, each one to his own avarice, from the greatest even to the last." He also shows them disobedient to the preceding prophets: "and I sent to you all the servants the prophets." 4 Kings 17: "The Lord testified in Israel and in Judah, by the hand of all the prophets and seers, saying: Turn back from your most evil ways, and keep my precepts and ceremonies, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and as I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets. Who did not hear, but hardened their neck, according to the neck of their fathers, who were unwilling to obey the Lord their God." He also foretells that they would not obey him. "And you shall speak (...) and they will not hear." Ezech. 3: "The house of Israel is unwilling to hear you, because they are unwilling to hear me: for indeed the whole house of Israel is of a hardened forehead and a hard heart." Isa. 65: "I called, and you did not answer; I spoke, and you did not hear, and you did evil in my eyes, and what I did not want, you chose."

Second, he draws the conclusion: "and you shall say to them." Above, ch. 2: "In vain I struck your sons; they did not receive discipline." Faith, of the Lord. Romans 10: "With the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Or fidelity toward one's neighbor. Prov. 20: "Who shall find a faithful man?"

Here he threatens them with punishment: and first he prefigures it by a deed: "Shave the hair." Similarly Ezech. 5: "A third part of the hairs you shall burn with fire in the midst of the city, according to the fulfillment of the days of the siege; and you shall take a third part, and cut it with a sword round about it: and the other third you shall scatter to the wind." "The generation of wrath." Isa. 10: "I will send him to a deceitful nation, and against the people of my wrath I will give him a charge." Second, he determines the words: and first he resumes the guilt of idolatry, aggravating it from the sacred place: because they made stumbling-blocks, idols, in the house, namely in the temple, and in a public and open place, and they built what I did not command — as if to say: I did not command them things so grave. Whence it is clear that they also departed from me. Ps. 105: "They sacrificed their sons, and their daughters to devils, the flesh of their sons and their daughters, which they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan." Second, he threatens the punishment: and first as to the slaying of the men; second as to the casting out of the corpses, there (ch. 18): "At that time, says the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the king of Juda." Third, as to the casting out of those remaining, there: "and they shall choose death rather than life." Concerning the first, three things. First he shows the place of the slaying: hence, "behold the days shall come," so that where they sinned, there they should be punished. Below, 19: "Behold the days shall come, says the Lord, and this place shall no more be called Topheth, and the valley of the son of Ennom, but the valley of slaughter." Second, he excludes the office of burial: "and the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air." Yet some will be buried, either by the survivors, or by the enemies, unable to endure the stench. Ps. 78: "They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of your saints for the beasts of the earth." Third, he excludes universal joy: "and I will make to cease." Thren. last: "The joy of our heart has failed, our dance is turned into mourning": all of which things attest the greatness of the slaughter.

Note, that God dwells with us through constancy of faith. Ephes. 3: "that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts," etc. Through the concord of fraternal love. Matth. 18: "Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Through obedience to the precepts. John 14: "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him." Through the eminence of devout contemplation. Apoc. 3: "I stand at the door, and knock: if anyone hears my voice, and opens to me, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

Also note, that there is a certain temple that is historical. Ps. 137: "I will worship toward your holy temple, and I will give praise to your name." The allegorical, the Church herself. 1 Cor. 3: "The temple of God is holy, which you are." The typical, the just man himself. 1 Cor. 6: "Do you not know that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit?" The anagogical, God himself. Apoc. 21: "The Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the Lamb."

Also note, that we ought to hear the voice of the Lord: loving him with the love of charity, because he is our good. Deut. 6: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength." Serving him with the worship of religion, because he is Lord. Deut. 10: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Ps. 2: "Serve the Lord with fear." Going after him by observance of the precept, because he is Father. Above, 3: "You shall call me Father, and shall not cease to walk after me." Seeking him with right intention, because he is the end. Soph. 2: "Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, because you have wrought his judgment." Worshiping him with due honor, because he is our maker, and God. Matth. 4: "You shall worship the Lord your God."