Jeremiah 15

(Chapter 15, Verse 1) And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel stood before me (or against me), my soul would not be for this people. For we read that these men resisted the anger of the Lord for the people and turned away the impending judgment. Although, he says, if they were to stand, either in my presence or against me, to whom God said: Let me alone, and I will destroy this people (Exodus 32:10): yet I will not listen, because the sins of the guilty people have been completed.

Drive them (or send them away) from my presence, and let them depart. Sinners do not depart from God by place, but by will: although we read that both Adam and Cain were driven away from the presence of God (Gen. III and VIII).

Commentary on Jeremiah

Hence the Truth says: "When you stand to pray, forgive if you have anything in your hearts." We show the virtue of forgiveness more clearly if we bring forward one testimony from the Old Testament. Certainly when Judea had offended the justice of its Creator through its demanding sins, the Lord, forbidding His prophet from prayer, says: "Do not take up praise and prayer for them. If Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not be toward this people." What is it that, with so many fathers passed over and left aside, Moses and Samuel alone are brought forward, whose wondrous power of obtaining is shown, while even they are said to be unable to intercede? As if the Lord were saying openly: I do not even hear those whom I by no means despise on account of the great merit of their petition. What then is it that Moses and Samuel are preferred to the other fathers in petition, except that these two alone in the entire sequence of the Old Testament are read to have prayed even for their enemies? One is assailed with stones by the people, and yet he entreats the Lord for the one who stoned him; the other is cast down from leadership, and yet when asked to pray, he confesses saying: "Far be this sin from me against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you." "If Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not be toward this people." As if He were saying openly: I do not even now hear those on behalf of friends, whom I know by the merit of their great virtue to pray even for enemies. Therefore the power of true prayer is the loftiness of charity. And then each person obtains what he rightly asks, when his mind in petition is not darkened by hatred of an enemy.

Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 27

2–3

(Verses 2, 3.) But if they say to you: Where shall we go out? You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: He who is for death, to death; and he who is for the sword, to the sword; and he who is for famine, to famine; and he who is for captivity, to captivity. And I will visit upon them four kinds, says the Lord: the sword for killing, and dogs for tearing, and birds of the sky and beasts of the earth for devouring and scattering. The four plagues by which the people of the Jews were handed over, as the prophecy of Ezekiel also shows, are the sword, pestilence, famine, beasts, and captivity (Ezek. 14). Among the beasts, dogs and birds are also understood, to whom bodies were given to be torn apart, devoured, and scattered. For it was not possible for the whole creation to rise up against sinners without the Creator being neglected.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 4.) And I will give them into the heat (or turmoil and distress) of all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem. We read in the Book of Days that Manasseh, after captivity and repentance, returned to Jerusalem and reigned (2 Chronicles 33). But how the merits of the saints descend to their descendants, like David and the others, so the scandals of sin, if their children and grandchildren do similar things, reach to their descendants. But when he says, I will give them heat, or commotion, and distress to the whole earth, it was fulfilled under the Babylonians in part, and now it is being fulfilled completely, when the wicked king, who filled Jerusalem with the blood of the righteous from one gate to another, was imitated by the impious people. From this we learn that peoples are often destroyed by the wickedness of kings, princes, and rulers.

Commentary on Jeremiah

He forecasts what would happen after the return, what would happen to them under the Macedonians and the destruction that would be inflicted on them by the Romans. He brings out that the first fate would happen to them owing to the impiety committed by Manasseh. Yet he is not an unjust judge, nor does he require an account of them for others’ faults. He submits them to the evils prophesied as sharers in impiety and enthusiastic supporters of their wicked king.

On Jeremiah 4:15.4

(Verse 5.) Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will grieve for you? Or who will go to ask for your peace? For no one can, having offended God, ask for forgiveness for the sins; for neither can a creature be as merciful as its creator, nor can it be as distant from foreigners as the Lord is inclined to spare his own people.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 6.) You have forsaken me, says the Lord: you have gone backward. The reason is given why no one has pity on Jerusalem, nor is she grieved for; nor is she beseeched for the sake of her peace: which, according to the Apostle (Philippians 3), should forget the things that are behind and extend oneself to the things that are before, is on the contrary turned backward, and desires the fleshpots of Egypt.

And I will stretch out my hand over you, and I will kill you: I have labored when asked (or asking): for which the Seventy translated: I will by no means let them go any further. The outstretched hand is a sign of striking: the killing of sinners signifies complete anger. But what it brings: I have labored when asked, or asking, has a double meaning, that God may now have failed, frequently forgiving them, and may always be weary, provoking them to salvation.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 7.) And I will scatter them with a winnowing fan at the gates of the land (or my people). I have killed and destroyed (Vulgate: scattered and destroyed) my people; yet they have not returned from their wicked ways. What use is it for me to be asked repeatedly, when they do not return from their wicked ways and do not repent? For I have scattered them like chaff, to cleanse my threshing floor. And I scattered them at the gates of the land, to tread upon the thresholds like the depths of hell. And I killed and destroyed my people, so that, compelled by the necessity of evil, they would avoid impending evil.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 8.) Her widows are multiplied to me above the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them the destroyer at noonday: I have sent troubles suddenly upon the cities. With various medicines God desires to save sinners: so that those who despised His gentle entreaties may fear His threatening. Widows are multiplied above the sand of the sea, with men being killed; mothers, with their children being lost, have felt the destroyer, not in the night and by treachery, but in broad daylight: so that He may show the open force of a stronger adversary. He sent, he says, over the cities, no doubt with the intention of causing sudden terror to Judah, and the sinful people, so that the more sudden the disaster was, the more difficult it would be to escape.

Commentary on Jeremiah

“In that day, says the Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the earth in the clear day. I will turn your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation,” plainly announced that obscuration of the sun that at the time of his crucifixion took place from the sixth hour onwards, and that after this event, those days that were their festivals according to the law, and their songs, should be changed into grief and lamentation when they were handed over to the Gentiles. Jeremiah too makes this point still clearer when he thus speaks concerning Jerusalem: “She that has borne seven languishes. Her soul has become weary. Her sun has gone down while it was yet noon. She has been confounded and suffered reproach. The remainder of them will I give to the sword in the sight of their enemies.” Those of them, again, who spoke of God’s having slumbered and taken sleep, and of his having risen again because the Lord sustained him, and who enjoined the principalities of heaven to set open the everlasting doors, that the King of glory might go in, proclaimed beforehand his resurrection from the dead through the Father’s power and his reception into heaven.

Against Heresies 4:33.12-13

The Scriptures prophesied that at noon in Christ’s passion there should be darkness. In Amos it says, “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, the sun shall set at noon, and the day of light shall be darkened. I will turn your feast days into grief and all your songs into lamentation.” Also in Jeremiah: “She is frightened that has borne children, and her soul has grown weary. Her sun has gone down while as yet it was noon. She has been confounded and accursed. I will give the rest of them to the sword in the sight of their enemies.” Also in the Gospel: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the earth even to the ninth hour.”

Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2:23

What more can now be said respecting the crime of the Jews, than that they were then blinded and seized with incurable madness, who read these things daily and yet neither understood them nor were able to be on their guard so as not to do them? Therefore, being lifted up and nailed to the cross, Jesus cried to the Lord with a loud voice and of his own accord gave up his spirit. At the same hour there was an earthquake. The veil of the temple, which separated the two tabernacles, was torn into two parts. The sun suddenly withdrew its light, and there was darkness from the sixth even to the ninth hour. Of this event the prophet Amos testifies, “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord that the sun shall go down at noon, and the daylight shall be darkened. I will turn your feasts into mourning and your songs into lamentation.” Also Jeremiah: “She who brings forth is afraid and vexed in spirit. Her sun is gone down while it was yet noon. She has been ashamed and confounded. The residue of them will I give to the sword in the sight of their enemies.”

Divine Institutes 4:19

(Verse 9) She has been weakened (or cast aside, or made empty) who gave birth to seven (or many); her soul has failed: the sun has set upon her while it was still day (or midday). She is confused and ashamed: and I will give her remaining ones into the sword in the sight of their enemies, says the Lord. We have often said that the Hebrew word Saba () can mean either seven, or oath, or many. Therefore, there is also a different interpretation: Aquila, the Seventy, and Theodotion translate as seven; Symmachus, as many. Therefore, she who was once wealthy and had children became suddenly bereft and perished in clear light, and she was confused in the solitude of herself. But the remainder, he said, I will deliver to the sword, so that no one may escape the death and wrath of God. Others attribute it to the Synagogue, which was weakened, so that the multitude of the Church might grow; according to what is written: The barren woman has borne seven, or more: and she who had many children was weakened (1 Samuel 2:5). And the sun of justice sets upon him, in whose wings is health (Malachi 4); and therefore it is covered with eternal confusion, destroying its people with a spiritual sword.

Commentary on Jeremiah

“As what kind of man, judged and disputed over all of the earth, did you bear me?” If you see with me those martyrs who are judged in every place, those who submit to judges in each district, you will see in what way Jesus Christ is judged in each of the martyrs. For he is the one who is judged in those who testify to the truth, and you will be persuaded, he says, to accept this when you see that you are not in prison when you are in prison, but himself, you are not punished when you are punished, but himself, you do not thirst, but himself. “I was in prison and you visited me, hungry and you gave me something to eat, thirsty and you gave me drink.” Hence, if a Christian is judged not for something else, not for his own sins but because he is a Christian, Christ is the one judged. Thus, over all the earth Jesus Christ is judged. And as often as a Christian then is judged, Christ is the one judged, not only before proceedings such as these. But suppose a Christian is slandered and accused unjustly for something, then too Christ is judged unjustly.

Homilies on Jeremiah 14:7

Such is our life, we whose existence is so transitory. Such is the game we play on earth. We do not exist, and we are born, and being born, we disintegrate and disappear. We are a fleeting dream, an apparition without substance, the flight of a bird that passes, a ship that leaves no trace on the sea. We are dust, a vapor, the morning dew, a flower growing but a moment and withering in a moment. “A person’s days are as grass. As the flower of the field, so shall he flourish,” beautifully, as described by holy David in meditating on our weakness. And again in these words: “Declare to me the fewness of my days.” And he defines the days of people as the measure of a span. What would you say to Jeremiah, who, complaining about his birth, even blames his mother, and that, too, for the failings of others. I have seen all things, says the Preacher, I have reviewed in thought all human things, wealth, pleasure, power, unstable glory, wisdom that evades us rather than is won; then pleasure again, wisdom again, often revolving the same objects, the pleasures of appetite, orchards, numbers of slaves, store of wealth, serving men and serving maids, singing men and singing women, arms, spearmen, subject nations, collected tributes, the pride of kings, all the necessaries and superfluities of life, in which I surpassed all the kings that were before me. And what does he say after all these things? Vanity of vanities.

On His Brother St. Caesarius 7:19

Jeremiah also bewails his birth in these words: “Woe is me, my mother! Why have you borne me, a man of contention in all the earth? I have not benefited others, nor has anyone benefited me. My strength has failed.” If, then, holy people shrink from life whose life, though profitable to us, they themselves consider unprofitable, what ought we to do who are not able to profit others and who feel that our lives, like money borrowed at interest, grow more heavily weighted every day with an increasing mass of sins? “I die daily,” says the apostle. Better certainly is this saying than those who say that meditation on death is true philosophy, for while they praise the study, he exercises the practice of death.

On the Death of Satyrus 2.34-35

This synecdoche can be understood concerning Jeremiah, who shall be judged only in the land of Judea, out of the entire world. He corresponds to the true Lord our Savior, who says in the Gospel: “I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see and those who see may be blinded,” about whom it was also written: “Behold, this child is set for the ruin and resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign of contradiction.” For which of the philosophers and pagans and who among the heretics does not judge Christ by applying their laws to his birth and suffering and resurrection and substance? Nor is it strange for Christ to be saying, according to the truth of his assumed body, “Woe is me, my mother,” when, in another location, it is obviously a speaker who corresponds to his person who says, “Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers the stubble at harvest and as a cluster of the vine having no first fruit to eat.” And lest we think that the weakness of these groans reflects on the Word of God, who is indeed the person that mourns, immediately he continues, “Woe is me, my soul that perishes from the earth in reverence.” It is not that we wish to divide Christ into two persons, like the impious do, but rather that one and the same Son of God sometimes speaks according to the flesh and sometimes according to the Word of God.

Six Books on Jeremiah 3:52.1-3

(Verse 10) Woe to me, my mother, why did you give birth to me as a man of strife (or judgment), a man of discord (or one who judges), in the whole world? This can be understood συνεκδοχικῶς from Jeremiah, that he was judged not in the entire world, but in the land of Judah. Truly, it belongs to the Lord, the Savior, who speaks in the Gospel: I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39), of whom it is written: Behold, he is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (Luke 2:34). For who of the philosophers, who of the pagans, who of the heretics does not judge Christ, affirming the laws of his nativity, passion, and resurrection? No wonder, in accordance with the truth of his assumed body, Christ says: Woe to me, my mother; when in another place it clearly pertains to his person what is said: Woe to me, for I have become like one who gathers stubble in the harvest, and like a cluster of grapes in the vineyard, having no ear of grain to eat as the firstfruits. And so that we may not attribute the worthlessness of our groans to the Word of God, who is this one who weeps, it immediately follows: Woe to me, for my soul has perished in returning from the earth: not because we divide the Persons, as the wicked do; but so that the one and the same Son of God may speak now according to the flesh, now according to the Word of God.

I have not lent, and no one has lent to me; everyone curses me. In the Septuagint: I have not profited, and no one has profited me. In Theodotion: I have not owed, and no one has owed me. The sense of all these is from the perspective of Christ: No one has offered themselves to receive my debt; and no one has lent to me in supporting the holy and the poor, making me their debtor. Whether I have not profited, and no one has profited me; for no one has desired to receive as much as I have desired to give. No one has been of use to me; for the salvation of the creature is the profit of the Creator. Or certainly no one should have, nor could have, benefitted me: No one has given me as much as I desired to receive, nor made me indebted to them in any way. And this bears repeating: No one should have benefitted me, which means: How could I owe interest to someone who did not deign to receive interest? Everyone, he says, curses me. For who among the heretics and the wanderers does not curse Christ, by believing perverse things and blaspheming even more perversely?

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Verse 11) The Lord says: If your remnants are not for good, if I do not come to you in the time of affliction and in the time of tribulation and anguish against the enemy. These things can also be understood from the perspective of Jeremiah, who was compelled to prophesy in the worst of times, with captivity imminent, and enduring hardship from an unbelieving people. In response to what he had said before: Woe to me, mother! Why have you birthed me as a man who judges? And I will be distinguished among all the lands and the rest, the Lord answered: Do not consider the present, but the future; for your remnants and last shall be for good. Moreover, in the present when your enemies sought to oppress you, I was with you, and you were protected by my help. This can also be referred to Jeremiah, as well as to the dispensation of the assumed flesh, to the Savior. Because according to the Hebrew interpretation, we have translated it as: All curse me, to the point where it is written, in the time of tribulation against the enemy, in the Vulgate edition it is written as follows: My strength has failed in those who curse me; may it be, O Lord, for those who direct them, if you did not stand by you in their time of affliction, and in their time of tribulation, in good against the enemy. And the meaning is: My strength is weakened in those who curse me. For they do not understand my virtue, which is perfected in weakness, and the more they curse me, the more my strength diminishes in them. And either the Prophet or the Lord joins in, and says: Let it be, Lord ((or Lord)), for those who direct them, that is, let the curses that the enemies speak against me happen to me; and may they be directed to good, if not in the time of their tribulations and distress, when the enemy was ravaging them and hastening to capture them, I stood before you and interceded for them, and I said: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). But we often find that Jeremiah also prayed for the people in this volume.

Commentary on Jeremiah

(Vers. 12.) Will iron be bound to iron by the North Wind, and bronze? Symmachus, Will iron be harmed by iron by the North Wind, and bronze? LXX and Theodotion, If it recognizes iron and a copper covering? It is clear for the sake of variation: for the word 'Jare' () which is written in this place, depending on the ambiguity of the utterance, it can mean both friendship and malice, but if the letter 'Res' is read as 'Daleth' (which is similar to the letter 'Daleth'), it signifies knowledge and understanding. But what is said must be understood like this: Do not grieve that the people are your enemy; for if you bring them harsh news, those who are harsh cannot love you. Whether it be the Babylonians who come from the North, and are very hard, and resemble unyielding bronze, they will not be able to form a friendship with this more unyielding people. Whether it be that they are as hard as iron, that is, the people of Israel who are unworthy of the knowledge of God, who have reached such great wickedness that they are surrounded by the more unyielding metal of bronze.

Commentary on Jeremiah

13–14

(Verse 13, 14) I will give your riches and treasures as plunder, freely (or without payment), for all your sins and in all your territories. And I will bring your enemies (or make your enemies serve you) from a land you do not know: for a fire is kindled in my anger, it shall burn upon you. I will deliver all your substance to your enemies without any payment, because of the sins you have committed in all your territories. Therefore I will bring your enemies, or make them serve you in the land of Chaldea, because my fire, once ignited in my fury, will burn in you and cannot be extinguished. For you have provided the material for your own ardor, so that my fire may consume the wood, hay, and straw that are within you. And so, the cause of the ardor is not in the Lord, but in those who have supplied fuel to the fire.

Commentary on Jeremiah

The wonderful apostles who were insulted many times for the truth say, "I am content with weaknesses, with insults and hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ." I know that the basis of hardships is Christ when I am insulted if I know that I am insulted only for nothing other than for Christ, when I am in hardships, when I am abused if I know that the cause of abuse is none other than that I am a champion for truth and an ambassador for the Scriptures so that everything happens according to the Word of God. For this I am blasphemed. And thus let all of us, as far as our ability allows, strive for the prophetic life, for the apostolic life, not avoiding what is troublesome. For if the athlete avoids what is troublesome about the contest, the sweetness of the crown will never be his.

Homilies on Jeremiah 14:14.4-5

15–16

The saint does not look for rest but for tribulation. He knows “tribulation works out endurance, and endurance, tried virtue, and tried virtue, hope. And hope does not disappoint.” This is parallel to what Jeremiah says: “I have called on tribulation and misery, for your bitter word was to me joy and gladness.” In this world I desire nothing but tribulation that I may have happiness and repose in the next. That is why, he says, “I now bear with bitterness, that afterwards I may have all sweetness.” The people of the Lord coming out of Egypt came to Mara, which means “bitter,” and from Mara into Sinai, which means “temptation.” Again, Jeremiah says, “I sat alone because I was filled with bitterness.”

Homilies on the Psalms 39 (ps 114)

15–16

(Verse 15, 16.) You know, O Lord, remember me and visit me, and protect me from those who persecute me. Do not take me in your patience, know that I have endured reproach for you. Your words have been found and I have eaten them (or consume them from those who reject your words). And your word has become joy and gladness to my heart, for the name of the Lord God of hosts has been invoked upon me. What we have said, you know, is not found in the Septuagint. But blessed is that conscience which endures reproach for God. Hence he says: Your words were found by me, which you spoke with my mouth. And I ate them, that is, they were turned into food for me; or according to Symmachus: I received them, that they might be turned into joy for me, who had long been in reproach. Hence even the Babylonians confess that what Jeremiah had predicted was fulfilled: Or this is the meaning: I experienced distress: I endured the hardships of a persecuted people; but nevertheless, I rejoiced that I obeyed your commandments: and for the sake of your name, I endured hardships.

Commentary on Jeremiah

17–18

(Verse 17, 18.) I did not sit in the council of the jesters, and I boasted (or feared) from the face of your hand: I sat alone, for you filled me with bitterness ((Vulgate: threat)). Why has my pain become perpetual (or why do those who distress me, find comfort) and my incurable wound refuse to be healed (or my strong wound, from where shall I be cured)? It has become to me like the falsehood of unfaithful waters (or like water that deceives and lacks faith). The Hebrews believe that these things are said from the perspective of Jerusalem: that she alone sat, and is filled with bitterness, and her pain has become everlasting; and just as waters pass by, so the words of the Prophets, with which they promised themselves prosperity, have passed falsely. But it is better, if we understand these things to be said from the perspective of the Prophet, by the words of a holy man, who did not sit in the assembly or secret gathering of those who mock, because he feared the impending hand of God; or rather, boasted that he did not have fellowship with evil. Alone, he said, I was sitting, according to what is written: I did not sit with the council of vanity, and I will not enter with those who do evil. I hated the congregation of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked (Psalm 26: 4, 5). And in another place, I am solitary until I pass through. On your face, he said, your hands, I was sitting alone (Psalm 140: 10), while I fear you, while I always expect your impending hand. I did not want to sit in the council of jesters, but I swallowed my bitterness, so that I might prepare joy for myself in the future. I had no intervals of pain, but I was constantly weighed down by unceasing misery, expecting no remedies. Those who afflicted me prevailed, and my wound became severe. But in this I had consolation, that it was like deceitful water, passing away. Just as passing waters flow and seem to vanish, so too does every attack of my enemies pass by with your help. May the Lord grant that we do not sit in the council of the mockers, or with those who do not consider the future, nor yield to adversity, but always fear God's judgment and say with the Prophet: I sat alone because I am filled with bitterness. Therefore, let him rejoice in the present time, not in the advice of the wise, but in the secret and hidden amusement of the playful; let it be good for me to adhere to God, to place my hope in God, to be satisfied with reproaches, and to await the judgment of my judge: which when the end shall come, will show by its work that all sadness and bitterness has passed like flowing waters.

Commentary on Jeremiah

How then can one who is baptized among them seem to have obtained remission of sins and the grace of the divine mercy by his faith, when he has not the truth of the faith itself? For if, as some suppose, one could receive anything abroad out of the church according to his faith, certainly he has received what he believed. If he believes what is false, he could not receive what is true. Rather, he has received things adulterous and profane, according to what he believed. Jeremiah, the prophet, censures in detail this subject of profane and adulterous baptism, saying, “Why do those who grieve me prevail? My wound is incurable. When shall I be healed? When this is done, it is become for me as treacherous water not having faith.” The Holy Spirit makes mention through the prophet of treacherous water also not having faith. What is this treacherous and faithless water? Assuredly it is that which asserts falsely the image of baptism and frustrates the grace of faith by its shadowy simulation.

Epistle LXXII:5-6

Now the so-called gods of the Greeks, unworthy of the name, are faithful neither in their essence nor in their promises, because they are not everywhere. The local deities amount to nothing over the course of time and undergo a natural extinction. For these reasons, the Word cries out against them, that “faith is not strong in them,” that they are “waters that fail” and “there is no faith in them.” But the God of all, who is indeed truly faithful, who is ever the same, says, “See now that I, even I am he,” and “I change not.” Therefore, his Son is “faithful,” being ever the same and unchanging, deceiving neither in his essence nor in his promise, as is written by the apostle to the Thessalonians: “Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.” For in doing what he promises, he is faithful to his words.

Discourses Against the Arians 2.14.10

This the Hebrews believe to be said in the person of Jerusalem, which sat alone and was filled with bitterness and whose pain was unending and the word of whose prophets passed through it deceitfully, like flowing water. But it is better that we receive these words of a holy person as spoken from the person of a prophet, one who did not sit in the council or cabal of fools because he feared the impending hand of God but instead would glory in not having complicity with the evil ones. “I sat alone,” he said, in accordance with what was written: “I did not sit with the council of the boastful, and I did not enter into fellowship with evildoers; I hate the company of liars, and I will not sit with the impious,” and, in another location: “I am alone until I pass away.” He also says, effectively, “I sat alone in the presence of your hand, while fearing you and constantly expecting your impending hand to come on me. I refused to sit in the company of fools, but I swallowed my bitterness to prepare myself for future joy. Nor did I have any relief from my suffering, but I was being oppressed by the misery of this yoke, such that I would not have expected any remedy. For those who afflicted me prevailed, and my wound was made worse. Yet, in this I took consolation, that it was like deceitful and passing waters. For, just as flowing waters are seen once and then slip away, so also every attack of the enemy passes away with help from you.” Would that the Lord also grant to us not to sit in the council of fools and of those who fail to think of the future! Would that he grant us the ability not to yield to adversities but instead always to dread the sentence of God and to say with the prophet, “I sat alone, for I was filled with bitterness.” Those who sit in the council of the wise, therefore, shall not rejoice at all during the present time, but only those in the secret and hidden council of fools, for “it is good for me to cling to God, to put my hope in the Lord,” to be filled with opprobrium and to await the sentence of the Judge, one that, when the end arrives, will reveal that every sorrow and bitterness was like the passing of flowing water.

Six Books on Jeremiah 3:58.2-5

Consider to what a dignity one exalts himself who esteems others’ salvation to be of great importance. Such a person is imitating God as far as lies within the power of humankind. Hear what God says speaking through his prophet: “He who separates the worthy from the vile shall be as my mouth.” What God says is that one who is eager to save a brother who has fallen into careless ways, one who hastens to snatch his brother from the jaws of the devil, that person imitates me as far as lies within human power. What could equal that? This is greater than all good deeds. This is the peak of all virtue.

Baptismal Instructions 6:19

Let us catch them, then, by our mode of life; and by these souls let us build up the church, and of these let us amass our wealth. There is nothing to weigh against a soul, not even the whole world. Thus, although one may give countless treasure to the poor, in so doing he will not do such work as one who converts one soul. “For he who takes forth the precious from the vile shall be as my mouth,” so God speaks. A great good it is, I grant, to have pity on the poor, but it is nothing equal to removing them from error.

Homilies on 1 Corinthians 3:9

Words full of gentleness and meekness, even as Jesus also used to speak, saying to those who were insulting him, “I have not a devil,” and again, “If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong.” If you also speak in this way, if you speak for your neighbor’s betterment, you will obtain a tongue like that tongue. And these things God says: “For he that brings out the precious from the vile shall be like my mouth”; such are his words.

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 78:2

19–21

(Verse 19 onwards) Because of this, the Lord says: If you turn back, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. And if you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be like my mouth. They will turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. And I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the hand of the strong (or the pestilent). It is clear that the things mentioned do not pertain to Jerusalem, but rather the Prophet said them. To whom the Lord responded, if you turn the people away from sins, I will turn you from tribulation to joy, and you will stand before my face, just as the Angels stand in the presence of God, seeing His face daily. And if you separate the precious from the vile, you will be like my mouth. Do not think, he says, that there is no reward for good works: if you separate even my saints from the number of sinners with your words, you will be like my mouth, and you will be connected to my commandments. For indeed they should be your imitators, and not you theirs. Do not be dismayed, and say: Why has my pain become perpetual, and my wound strong or hopeless, so that I despair of being able to be healed. For I will give you like a wall of bronze, strongest, so that you may resist the adversary with all strength; and you will have me as a helper and I will free you from the hand of the wicked or the pestilence, and I will redeem you, either with my own blood or for now with my help. Let us consider what reward the teaching of a doctor has, if he is able to free someone from error and lead them out of the number of sinners.

Commentary on Jeremiah

It is obvious that the text above was said not by Jerusalem but by a prophet. To him the Lord responds, “If you turn from the sins of the people, I likewise will turn you from tribulation toward joyfulness, and you will stand before my face like the angels stand in the presence of God daily, beholding his face.” Also, if you separate the precious from the vile, you will become like my mouth. “Now should you think,” he adds, “that there is no reward for good works, if you distinguish my saints from the crowd of sinners in your speech, you will be as my mouth, and you will be united to my precepts. For sinners need to be imitators of you, not you of them. Nor should you fear and ask: ‘Why has my pain become perpetual and my wound worse (or incurable),’ such that I lose all hope of being healed? For I have made you like a bronze and impregnable wall, so that you can withstand all the strength of your adversaries. Moreover, you have me as a helper, and I will liberate you from the hand of the most evil (or pestilent), and I will redeem you with my blood (or with the presence of my help).” May we consider just how great a reward the speech of the teacher will have if it is able to liberate from error and to rescue from among the number of sinners!

Six Books on Jeremiah 3:59