A.D. 397 – 1871 6 witnesses
“Now our rod is the Word of God, Jesus Christ, as Jeremiah saw him as an almond rod. So everyone that spares his son a word of rebuke hates his son. Therefore teach your sons the word of the Lord. Punish them with lashes. Subdue them by your word of religion from their youth.”
“It is written in the book of the prophet, "Take a branch from a nut tree." So we must consider why the Lord said this to the prophet, for it is not written without a purpose, since we also read in the Pentateuch that the nut tree of Aaron, the priest, blossomed after it had been laid away for a long while.”
“You have seen well This almond tree hastens to blossom before all other trees. I, too, hasten to perform My word. And the Midrash Aggadah (Ecc. Rabbah 12:8) explains: An almond tree takes twenty-one days from its blossoming until it is completely ripe, as the number of days between the seventeenth of Tammuz, when the city was broken into, until the ninth of Ab, when the Temple was burnt.”
“Here he determines the matter for which he is specially appointed to prophesy: namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people. And first he shows the certainty of the prophecy; second he shows the captivity itself, there (chapter 32), and it came to pass. Concerning the first, three things are set down. First, the prophet's rousing to see is set down. What do you see? As if to say: since you are a prophet, it is yours to see. 1 Kings 9: he who is now called a prophet, was formerly called a seer. Second, the vision is set down: and I said, a rod — as it were a rod in the Lord's hand, ready to strike — I see, by an imaginary vision. Lamentations 1: the yoke of my iniquities has kept watch; they are wound together in his hand, and put upon my neck. Some understand the watching rod as the rod of thieves, for drawing spoils from houses through the windows, while they keep watch and others sleep; but the first is better. Third, the exposition is set down: and he said, well; as if to say: they agree with the truth. I will watch — I will be concerned. Isaiah 55: the word that shall go forth from my mouth.”
“Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen,.... The thing seen is a very proper emblem of what I am about to do, and the quick dispatch that will be made therein: for l will hasten my word to perform it; the words , "shoked ani", "I will hasten", or "I am hastening", are in allusion to "shoked", the name of the almond tree in Hebrew; which is so called because it is quick and early, and, as it were, hastens to bring forth its flowers, leaves, and fruit; in like manner the Lord says he would hasten to perform what he had said or should say by him concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people, and every thing else he should give him in commission to say. Jarchi and Abendana make mention of an ancient Midrash, or exposition, to this sense; that from the time of the almond tree's putting forth, until its fruit is ripe, are one and twenty days, according to the number of days which were between the seventeenth of Tammuz, in which the city was broken up, and the ninth of Ab, in which the temple was burnt; but though the almond tree is the first of trees, and is very early in putting forth, yet there is a greater time than this between its putting forth and its fruit being ripe; for Pliny (s) says, that the almond tree first of all flowers in January, and its fruit is ripe in March. (s) Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 25.”
“hasten--rather, "I will be wakeful as to My word," &c.; alluding to Jer 1:11, "the wakeful tree" [MAURER].”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.