Jeremiah 11

Who is the word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah or to Isaiah or to Ezekiel or anyone except the one “in the beginning with God”? I do not know any word of the Lord other than the one about which the Evangelist spoke.… And I could say that Christ was with Moses, with Jeremiah, with Isaiah, with each of the righteous.… How can they have spoken the word of God if the Word of God did not dwell in them? But these things must be understood especially with respect to us of the church, who want the God of the law and the gospel to be the same, Christ to be the same both then and now and for all of the ages. For there will be those who will cut in two, in their opinion, the divinity previous to the dwelling of the Savior and the divinity proclaimed by Jesus Christ, but we know one God both then and now, one Christ both then and now.

Homilies on Jeremiah 9:1.1-2

(Chapter 11, verse 1) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying. It is not indeed stated in the title under which time, or under which king, and in which year of his, this prophecy was made: but we understand that either this is to be connected with the previous prophecy and time, or certainly after some interval of time the word of the Lord was made to the Prophet in this message.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 2) Hear the words of this covenant (or testament), and speak to the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. However, it should be noted that the word Berith, in Aquila and Symmachus, is always translated as pact, while in the Septuagint and Theodotion it is translated as testament. Specifically, it now refers to Jerusalem and the men of the tribe of Judah.

Commentary on Jeremiah

Who hears the words of the covenant that God commanded to the ancestors? Is it those who believe in him, or is it those who have proven that they do not believe Moses from their having not believed in the Lord? For the Savior said to them, “If you believe in Moses, you would have believed in me. For he wrote about me. But if you do not believe in what he wrote, how can you believe in my words?” And so they have not believed in Moses, but we who believe in Christ believe in the covenant through Moses, and it is said to us, lest we become accursed, “Cursed is the one who does not hear the words of the covenant, which I commanded to the ancestors.”

Homilies on Jeremiah 9:2.2

Not everyone who says they are a people of God is a people of God. These people who were proclaimed to be the people of God heard it said to them, “You are not my people.” … For “they have provoked me to jealousy with what is not God, … they have provoked me with their idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people.”6We were thus made into a people for God. The righteousness of God was proclaimed to the people who will be born, to a people from the pagan nations. For this people is born suddenly, yet in the prophet it also is said, “Has a nation been born all at once?” But a nation was born all at once when the Savior dwelled among them, and five thousand believed in one day, and three thousand were added in another day, and we see that a whole people is born to the Word of God, and it is said to the barren woman who suddenly bears, who formerly could not give birth before: “Be glad, O barren woman who did not bear, break forth and cry in joy you who have not had birth pains, for the children of the deserted woman are much more than she who has a husband.” She was deserted from the law, deserted from God, but that synagogue is spoken of as one who has the law as a husband. What then does God promise me? “You will be my people, and I will be your God.” He is the God of none except those whom he favors, as he favors the patriarch to whom he said, “I am your God,” and again to another, “I will be your God,” and for others, “I will be their God.”

Homilies on Jeremiah 9:2.4-3:2

(Ver. 4.) Cursed is the man who does not listen to the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you, and you shall be my people, and I will be your Lord (or God). Not because of the privileges of lineage, not because of the injury of circumcision, and the rest of the Sabbath, but because of obedience, God becomes the people of Israel, and Israel becomes his people. And here indeed He speaks as if to slaves, so that they may please God. But in the Gospel, the Lord says to His disciples: 'You are my friends,' He says, 'if you do what I command you. I will no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father.' (John 15:14-15). And when they have become My friends, they pass on to being children: For as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become children of God. (John 1:12). Where he instructs his friends and disciples: Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48); he is commanding likeness, not equality. And there is obedience to the commandments, here is the likeness of God. And when he says: On the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, he gives us understanding that the furnace and the iron furnace, and the kindling of tribulation and punishment signify magnitude, not a specific place of punishment, prepared with iron material.

Commentary on Jeremiah

Not only did God send Jeremiah into Egypt, but also Ezekiel into Babylon. They did not refuse to go. When they found their Master loved the people exceedingly, they continued themselves to do so as well. It is as if a right-minded servant were to take compassion on an intractable son when he saw the father grieving and lamenting about him. What was there that they did not suffer for them? They were sawn asunder, they were driven out, they were reproached, they were stoned, and they underwent numberless grievances. After all of this, they would run back to them.… For the people of the Jews, Jeremiah has composed Lamentations in writing. And when the general of the Persians had given him liberty to dwell securely and with perfect freedom, wherever he pleased, he preferred the affliction of the people and their hard endurance in a strange land above living at home.

Homilies on Romans 14

(Verse 5.) In order to fulfill the oath that I swore to your fathers, I will give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is on this day. The fathers seem to receive, as the sons receive; and the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in his descendants. However, we must understand the land flowing with milk and honey metaphorically as representing the abundance of all things, as Virgil says in Eclogue III.

Let honey flow for them, let the rough bramble bear cinnamon. And again:

And everywhere he restrained the wines flowing in the rivers. Or certainly, tropologically, let us perceive the Church of Christ as the land flowing with milk and honey, in which we are nurtured as infants and sucklings through faith, so that we may be able to receive solid food.

And I answered and said, Amen, Lord. For which reason the Seventy translated 'Fiat, Domine' as 'Amen' (for this is what 'amen' signifies). The Lord had said, 'I have sworn to give to your fathers a land flowing with milk and honey,' as is confirmed today by the very things themselves (Exod. III). The diligent prophet takes up the voice of the Lord for his people and desires to be true and to endure forever what has been given. Therefore he says, 'Truly, Lord, you have fulfilled what you promised; whether it be done, Lord, or whether it endure forever, this is what you have given.'

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Version 6.) And the Lord said to me, proclaim (or read) all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Listen to the words of this covenant and do them. The most merciful God often predicts the future, so that the hard heart may be softened to believe. He predicts both in the city of Jerusalem and in the field outside, so that the same repentance may apply to both, which is the common distinction of those places.

Commentary on Jeremiah

When he was giving the law, he added this to the law, for he said, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them,” and he also promises there and again here how he will deem worthy of all care those who keep the divine commandments. And he reminds them also of the things spoken to their ancestors and of their ancestors’ disobedience. For they turned their ear away, he says, and every one went in the direction of his own evil heart. And he says here “direction” not as meaning “uprightness” but rather the evil that arises immediately in their malice. For they have not turned from this evil but have journeyed constantly in it. “And I brought on them all the words of this covenant that I commanded them to do, and yet they did not do.” He gave them over to noteworthy punishments; sometimes they served the Ammonites, other times the Moabites and still other times other foreigners.…The phrase “a band has been found” means “they have banded themselves together and joined themselves with their ancestors and they travel down the road of their ancestors’ wickedness.” He indicates as much also through the things that are brought against them. “And behold, they go after foreign gods, in order to serve them.” They do these things in transgression of the covenant that was given to them. For this reason I will surround them with misfortunes of all kinds, and those who weep I will not deem worthy to be spared. They will not even enjoy any help from the gods who are revered by them.

On Jeremiah 3:11

Do we intend to repent for the sin mentioned concerning the people of Judah, since we know that we are the people of Judah because of Christ, who was prophesied and called Judah? For perhaps it is because there are some sinners among us who act contrary to right reason that the prophet says, "A conspiracy was found among the people of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem." For whenever a conspiracy of unrighteousness and a conspiracy to commit sin was found in any who in name come from the church—with the result that one can apply to the sinner the statement that "each is caught in the snares of his sins"—God could say, "A conspiracy was found in the people of Judah." But may no conspiracy be found in us.

Homilies on Jeremiah 9:4.2

9–10

(Vers. 9, 10) And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem have turned back to the iniquities of their former fathers, who refused to listen to my words. And so they went after foreign gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers. As for the conspiracy, which we have interpreted according to Symmachus, Aquila, and the Septuagint, Theodotion has translated it as 'connection,' which we can also call 'binding.' And so Athalia, when she discovered that an ambush was being prepared for her in the Temple, spoke the same word: Conspiracy, conspiracy (2 Kings 11:14). The Scripture properly uses this word when it refers not to a sudden and accidental sin, but to a deliberate plot and conspiracy aimed at committing a crime, and when they all have the same mind and intention and work together to despise God's commandments. And it is said that both the fathers and the sons, with one mind and one judgment, neglected God and worshipped idols, both in Israel and in the house of Judah, that is, in the ten tribes as well as in the two tribes whose authority was in Jerusalem, so that, in their contempt for God, the punishment they suffered in captivity was equal.

Commentary on Jeremiah

11–12

Though God justly does not hear those who do not hear him, the demons will be unable to save the just in those who burn incense to them, whenever the time of troubles arrives. Thus, whenever God does not listen, it is dangerous to seek help from demons. But one must depend on God, who has turned away from us due to sins, yet who does not disregard the great and lasting refuge in himself.

Fragments on Jeremiah 7

11–12

(Verse 11, 12.) Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing upon them evil from which they cannot escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not listen to them. And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer libations, but they will not save them in their time of distress. God does not listen in the time of necessity and distress because they also refused to listen to the voice of the Lord, just as Saul did. For when he was terrified by the Philistine armies and could not receive the word of the Lord, he turned to the Pythoness in order to learn from idols what he should have obtained through instant prayer and tears from the Lord (1 Kings 21). From this we learn that even if the Lord does not hear, we must by no means give up or turn to demons, who cannot help their worshipers, but to the Lord's help, who is quickly moved to anger and changes his mind if those who angered him are changed. But all that is now said pertains to the tribe of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, against which captivity threatens.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 13) For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars of confusion to burn incense to Baal. Let us read the books of Kings and Chronicles (2 Kings 21, 2 Chronicles 33), and we will find that Judah and Jerusalem have done far worse than Israel, so that as many cities as they had, they had just as many idols. And as many squares and street corners as there were in the city of Jerusalem, they had just as many altars of confusion, on which they would sacrifice to the idols of Baal.

Commentary on Jeremiah

They ask for a mercy it is impossible for them to receive since they have sins for which they have not repented. They cannot receive this mercy—not if they ask for it themselves, or even if the request is made by others who are stronger in their relationship with God. When Jeremiah was praying for the Jews, the Lord in fact said, “Do not pray for this people, because I will not hear you.”

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 60:2

“Why do not Christians obtain all things in prayer?” Because they fail for many causes. They often ask things inexpedient. Why are you surprised, if this is the case with some, when even Paul heard: “My grace is sufficient for you, because my strength is perfected in weakness” … What if they pray against people who have hurt them, seeking for compensation and vengeance? This kind of thing is forbidden, for, “pray,” he said, “for your enemies.” … To Jeremiah he also said, “Do not pray for this people, for I will not hear you,” not wishing to stop Jeremiah from praying (for he earnestly longs for our salvation) but to terrify them. Thus the prophet, seeing this, did not cease praying.

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 60:2

(Verse 14.) So you, do not pray for this people, and do not take on praise and prayer for them: for I will not listen to their cry to me, in the time of their affliction. It is commanded to Jeremiah, not to intercede for them to the Lord, for their sentence is already accomplished: lest his prayer appear weak, and not be heard because of their own wickedness. Do not, he says, pray for them, nor take on praise, so that by recalling the kindness of the old story, by which I have always had mercy on them, and by praising, you try to change my judgment. For if you do this, I will not hear those who are forced to ask me in their time of need. From them we learn that it is in vain to ask for someone else when he does not deserve to receive, for whom God is asked.

Commentary on Jeremiah

15–16

(Vers. 15, 16.) What is it that my beloved has done many wicked deeds in my house? Will the holy flesh take away your malice, in which you have boasted? The Lord called your name a fruitful, beautiful, and pleasant olive tree, but when the great fire of his voice blazed in it, its branches were consumed. He called the people of Judah his beloved and most beloved, who placed idols in his temple and worshiped them, thinking that by offering many sacrifices he could appease God's anger and boasting in the multitude of offerings, which cannot take away the wickedness of sins. But Jerusalem, or rather the whole people of the Jews, is compared to fair and fruitful olive trees, which, exalted by pride, did not act humbly, nor did they understand their Creator and Lord; but, elevated by pride and speaking arrogantly, they were consumed by the fire of the Lord; so that their branches, or rather their orchards, were burned and reduced to nothing, and the entire people of their adversaries were destroyed by the sword. This sense is also found in another place (Chapter II), where it is said to Jerusalem: I planted you as a productive vine, the true vine: how have you turned into a bitter foreign vine? When its walls are destroyed, and a wild boar from the forest devastates it, and all the animals devour its fruits (Psalm 78), let us say this chapter to the princes of the churches: What is it that my beloved has done many crimes in my house? Or surely to the rich, who plunder another's goods and do not take away the malice of their heart, they think they deserve God's mercy: Will holy meats take away your malice from you, in which you have boasted? But now the names of those offering are being publicly recited, and the redemption of sins is turned into praise: they did not remember the widow in the Gospel, who by putting in two small coins surpassed the offerings of all the rich people (Mark 12).

Commentary on Jeremiah

It is probable, therefore, that Jesus compares the synagogue of the Jews with a fig tree, for the sacred Scripture also compares them with various plants: the vine, for instance, and the olive, and even a forest. … Jeremiah says, “The Lord called you a beautiful olive tree, well shaded in appearance. At its pruning time, a fire was kindled in it. Great tribulation came to it. Its branches were destroyed.” And another of the holy prophets, comparing it with Mount Lebanon, thus speaks: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, and the fire shall devour your cedars.” For the forest that was in Jerusalem, even the people there, many as they were and innumerable, were destroyed as by fire.

Commentary on Luke, Homily 96

(Verse 17.) And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, spoke evil against you, for the evils of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, who have made themselves a provocation to me by pouring out offerings to the Baals. The Lord your God called you a fruitful and beautiful olive tree, and planted you. But because at the sound of his speaking, a great flame of God descended upon you and consumed all your branches, therefore the one who planted you has now spoken evil against you: not by the injustice of his judgment, nor by a sudden perversity of his speech, but because of the evils that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done to themselves, and they have diligently made offerings to the Baals in order to provoke me to anger. And since God can do whatever He wants, He gives reasons so that He does not appear to act unjustly, according to what is written: That you may be justified in your words, and win when you are judged (Psalm 50:6).

Commentary on Jeremiah

18–19

That the Jews would fasten Christ to the cross.… Also in Jeremiah: “Come, let us cast the tree into his bread, and let us blot out his life from the earth.”

Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2:20

18–19

Jeremiah, too, said, “Show me, O Lord, and I shall know. Then I saw their plots. And I was carried as a meek lamb to be the victim. They devised counsels against me, saying, ‘Let us put wood on his bread and cut him off from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more.’ ” Now the wood signifies the cross and the bread his body, because he is himself the food and life of all who believe in the flesh that he put on and by which he hung on the cross.

Divine Institutes 4:14

18–19

Listen to Jeremiah and be convinced: “I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim. Did I not know it?” (Read it thus as a question, as I have put it. For he who said, “You know that after two days the Passover shall be here, and the Son of man will be delivered up to be crucified,” did he not know?) “I was a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim. Did I not know it?” (What sort of lamb? Let John the Baptist interpret, when he says, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”) “They devised a wicked counsel against me, saying (Was it that he who knew the counsels did not know their result? And what did they say?): “Come, and let us put wood on his bread.” (If the Lord shall count you worthy, hereafter you shall learn that his body, according to the Gospel, bore the figure of bread.) “Come, and let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living (Life is not cut off. Why do you toil to no purpose?) And let his name be remembered no more.”

Catechetical Lecture 13:19

18–19

He was led to the cross, and the life of the whole world hung suspended from its wood. Would you care to have this, too, confirmed by the testimony of prophets? Listen to what Jeremiah has to say about it: “Come, and let us put wood on his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living.” Moses again, lamenting over them, remarked, “And your life shall be hanging suspended before your eyes, and you shall fear by day and by night, neither shall you trust your life.”

Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed 22

18–19

It is the consensus of all the church that these words are spoken by Christ through the person of Jeremiah. For the Father made it known to him how he should speak and revealed to him the zealotry of the Jews—he who was led like a lamb to the slaughter, not opening his mouth and not knowing. But the word sin is implicitly added to this last phrase, in agreement with what was said by the apostle: “When he did not know sin, he was made to be sin on our account.” And they said, “Let us put wood on his bread,” clearly referring to the cross on the body of the Savior, for he is the one who said, “I am the bread that descended from heaven.”They also said “let us destroy (or eradicate) him from the land of the living.” And they conceived the evil in their soul that they would delete his name forever. In response to this, from the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father and invokes his judgment while praising his justice and acknowledging him as the God who inspects the interior and the heart. He asks that the Father would return to the people what they deserve, saying, “Let me see your vengeance on them,” obviously referring only to those who continue in sin, not to those who repent. Concerning the latter, he said on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not realize what they are doing.” He also “disclosed his cause” to the Father, that he was crucified not because he deserved it but for the sins of the people, as he declared: “Behold, the prince of the world came and found nothing against me.” The Jews and our Judaizers believe that all of this was said only by Jeremiah, arguing from prophecy that the people have sustained these evils in their captivity. But I fail to see how they hope to prove that Jeremiah was the one crucified, since such an event is nowhere recorded in Scripture. Perhaps it is just a figment of their imagination.

Six Books on Jeremiah 2:110.2-4

(Verse 18) But you, Lord, have shown me and I have known: you have revealed to me their desires. This is the consensus of all the churches, that under the person of Jeremiah, these things may be understood to be said by Christ, that the Father has shown him how he ought to speak, and has revealed to him the intentions of the Jews.

Commentary on Jeremiah

In Jeremiah, too, he likens himself to a lamb, as thus: "I was as a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter." These and other similar sayings he applies to himself.

Commentary on the Gospel of John 1:23

If we examine the declaration about Jesus who is pointed out by John in the words, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," from the standpoint of the dispensation itself of the bodily sojourn of the Son of God in the life of people, we will assume that the lamb is none other than his humanity. For he was "led as a sheep to the slaughter and was dumb as a lamb before its shearer," saying, "I was as an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed."

Commentary on on the Gospel of John 6:35

(Verse 19) I, like a gentle lamb being led to the sacrifice, did not know that they were plotting against me. Let us cast wood into his bread, and let us wipe him from the land of the living, so that his name may be remembered no more. He himself, like a lamb led to the slaughter, has not opened his mouth and has not known, sin being implied; according to what is said by the apostle: He who knew no sin, was made sin for us: and they have said: Let us place wood in his bread, namely the cross in the body of the Savior. For it is he who says: I am the bread that came down from heaven; and we will uproot or crush him from the land of the living (John 6:51). For they have conceived this wickedness in their hearts, that they may erase his name forever.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 20) But you, Lord of hosts, who judge justly and test the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for I have revealed my cause to you. But on the contrary, in accordance with the sacrament of the assumed body, the Son speaks to the Father, and he calls for his judgment, while praising his justice, and invokes God, the observer of the kidneys and the heart, that he may give to the people what they deserve. And he says: Let me see your vengeance upon them, namely, those who persist in wickedness, and not upon those who turn to repentance. He said about them on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). And he reveals to the Father and opens his cause: because he was crucified not by any merit of his own, but by the crime of the people, saying: Behold, the prince of this world is coming, and he finds nothing in me (John 14:30). The Jews and our Judaizers understand these things to be said in the person of Jeremiah: they confirm that he endured these things from the people on account of his prophecy of future events and the coming evils of captivity. But I do not know how they can approve that Jeremiah was crucified, since the Scripture does not mention it, unless perhaps they have thought about it and not acted upon it.

Commentary on Jeremiah

There was a reason that God allowed the prophet to be tested by troubles. Since Jeremiah had often tried to offer intercession for the transgressors—in his desire to convince Jeremiah that God was not compassionate but the harsh treasury of goodness—he allowed the rebellion to occur. In his deep grief, however, Jeremiah implores God to judge justly and exact penalties from the unholy. The Lord accepts his petition, gives a reply, threatens punishment and notes that some will be slaughtered in war and others destroyed by famine.

On Jeremiah 3:11.20

Hence they rightly believed and confessed that as God he knew all things and that as the Son of God He had come from God. It is a clear indication of divinity to know the secret things of another’s thoughts, as Solomon affirmed when he said in supplication to God, “For you alone know the hearts of all the children of human beings.” Hence, Jeremiah too said, “You, O Lord of Sabaoth, are the one who judges righteously and probes the loins and hearts of human beings.”

Homilies on the Gospels 2:12

For Anathoth did not receive Jeremiah, or the Tishbites Elijah, or Abelmeholah Elisha, or Ramah Samuel, or the synagogue Moses, or Israel our Lord Jesus in Nazareth.

Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 11:24

21–23

(v. 21 onward) Therefore, thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth who seek your life and say: Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will visit them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant of them. For I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their visitation. It seems that this contradicts the previous opinions, in which we wanted to approve what was said from the person of Christ, and not from Jeremiah, who resided in the village of Anathoth, which is three miles from Jerusalem. But if we understand the etymology of the town of Anathoth (which means obedience), it will clearly show that the men of Anathoth, who once obeyed the Lord's commands, were all called Jews, and especially the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, upon whom the final judgment came, that they would perish in the evils of the siege, by sword, famine, and disease. In order to free ourselves from all the annoyance of interpretation, let us follow this rule: Whatever the prophets have done in the manner of the Lord and Savior, and whatever has been fulfilled in the present time in Jeremiah, let it be prophesied in the future about the Lord.

Commentary on Jeremiah