Jeremiah 16

Elijah lived a virgin life; so also did Elisha and many of the sons of the prophets. To Jeremiah the command came: "You will not take a wife." He had been sanctified in his mother's womb, and now he was forbidden to take a wife because the captivity was near. The apostle gives the same counsel in different words: "I think, therefore, that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely, that it is good for a person to be as he is." What is this distress that does away with the joys of wedlock? The apostle tells us, in a later verse: "The time is short. It remains that those who have wives be as though they had none."

(Chapter XVI—Verse 1 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Do not take a wife, and there shall not be sons and daughters for you in this place. If, in the time of impending captivity, the prophet is forbidden to take a wife, so as not to have the affliction of the flesh; and if he is also tormented by the sorrow of his own wife and the miseries of his children, how much more does the Apostle command (I Cor. VII) that, because the time is shortened and the consummation is at hand, even those who have wives should be as if they had none! Hence the superfluous reproach of the new heretics (Jovinians), by which we have taught that bigamy and trigamy do not come from the law, but from indulgence. For it is one thing to do what is good in itself, another to concede something so as not to do worse. For he himself gives the reasons why he wants young widows to marry, saying: For some of them have already gone astray after Satan (I Tim. 5:15). At the same time, as a teacher of self-control and perpetual chastity, he praises three or four marriages, which I will not so much call marriages as comforts for the wretched and the last hope for shipwrecked souls. Unless perhaps he grants indulgence to his Amazons, that they may experience the wars of desire until decrepit old age.

(Verses 3-4) For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers, from whose lineage they were born in this land, they shall die by the deaths of sickness: they shall not be mourned, nor shall they be buried; they shall be like dung on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. But why the Prophet is prevented from taking a wife is clear, because with the nearby siege, pestilence, sword, and famine, all perish, and such is the number of the dying that the duty of burial is surpassed, but the bodies lie like dung to be torn apart by birds and beasts. And it should be noted that to waste away with sickness and long infirmity is the wrath of God. Thus, Joram son of Josaphat is consumed by illness (2 Chronicles 21). And the Apostle teaches that those who violate holy things become sick, waste away, and die (I Cor. XI).

(Verse 5 onwards) For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of the feast, nor go to mourn, nor console them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, mercy and compassion. And the great and the small shall die in this land, they shall not be buried, nor mourned, nor shall they make a cut in themselves, nor shall there be baldness for them. And they shall not break bread among those who mourn, to console them regarding the dead, and they shall not give them the cup of consolation for their father and mother. And do not enter the house of the feast, so that you may sit with them and eat and drink. The Apostle commands that one should not even eat with those who turn away from God (I Cor. V). Furthermore, you should not even greet such people (II John X). And the Savior prohibits the Apostles from greeting anyone on the journey (Luke X). Therefore, Elisha forbids Gehazi from greeting someone while going to heal a boy (IV Kings IV). But it is customary for those in mourning to bear food and prepare a feast, which the Greeks call 'περίδειπνα' and are commonly known as 'parentalia' by us: because they are celebrated for the parents. Scripture also says elsewhere: 'Give wine to those who are in sorrow' (Prov. XXXI, 6); so that they may forget their sorrow. Therefore, the Prophet is commanded not to console anyone from the people, not to mix with the banquets of God's enemies, and not to celebrate the rites over the funerals of the deceased. For it is one thing to forget by the common law of nature, another thing to kill by the judgement of God. 'I have taken away my peace from that people,' he says, 'and they are unworthy of mercy. I will spare no age, but both the great and the small will perish equally, so that they will even lack a burial.' 'Neither shall they shave their heads,' he says, 'nor shall there be baldness (Al. They shall make no mourning) for them.' This was the custom among the Ancients, and it still persists among some of the Jews today, that they shave their arms and make themselves bald in mourning; and we also read that Job did this (Job. 1 and 22). And it is also said of the prophets, neither shall he break bread among them, nor enter in to mourn, nor give them the cup to drink, nor go into the house of feasting, nor mix with those who are prepared for the word of God. But if this is said of those who are mourning, what will be done with heretics, whose speech spreads like cancer, and who daily lay low in the Church the dead bodies of the deceived?

(Verse 9 onwards) For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will remove from this place in your sight and in your days the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?' You say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me,' says the Lord, 'and have gone after foreign gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. But you have done worse than your fathers. When the Church sins, all joy and gladness are taken away from it, of which the Apostle says: Rejoice, again I say, rejoice (Philippians 4:4): The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, of which it is written: He who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29).' But if, he says, the people question you, asking why these sufferings are allowed and seeking the reasons for their miseries, you shall reply to them: Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the Lord, who preside over you in the Churches, and have gone after foreign gods, whose god is their belly, and they serve them for the sake of greed and lust, and their glory is in their shame, and they have worshipped them. For whoever is overcome by someone, becomes their servant. And they worshipped them: For each one worships what they love. And they have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. It is the duty of the priests not only to teach, but also to follow the law: so that they may teach by example, not only by words, the people who are subject to them and the entrusted flock. And lest they should say that the judgment is unjust, it brings forward the saying: 'The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge' (Jeremiah 31), and 'The teeth of the sons shall not be set on edge' (Ezekiel 18). But you have done worse than your fathers; so that just punishments should be inflicted on those who have sinned worse than their fathers.

(Verse 13) Behold, everyone walks according to the wickedness of their evil heart, so that they may not hear me. And I will cast you out of this land into a land that you and your fathers do not know, and there you will serve foreign gods day and night, who will not give you rest. Once abandoned by the Lord, they do things that are not fitting, so that they may pursue the desires of their evil heart, from which come wicked thoughts (Matthew 15), and therefore they are separated from the Church, to go into a distant land, which neither they nor their fathers knew before they sinned, to serve foreign gods, who are not gods, but are thought to be by those who worship them in error. But what he introduced: Day and night, he shows the continuous perseverance of sinners in wickedness, while they serve both in days of shame and in nights of lust. 'They will not give you rest,' he says. There is no doubt that he signifies false gods, of whom he said: 'And you will serve foreign gods there.' Therefore, whatever we sin, whatever we do day and night, and whatever evil works we commit, is the dominion of demons, who never give us rest, but always impel us to increase sins with sins, and to make a accumulation of sins.

(Vers. 14, 15.) Therefore, behold, days are coming," says the Lord, "and it will no longer be said, 'As the Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel up from the land of Egypt,' but 'As the Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel up from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.' For I will restore them to their land that I gave to their ancestors. Clearly, the future restoration of the people of Israel is predicted, and after their captivity comes mercy; which, according to the literal sense, was partially fulfilled under Zerubbabel and the high priest Joshua and Ezra; but according to the spiritual understanding, it is more truly and perfectly fulfilled in Christ. The time will come, he says, when it will no longer be said that the people were brought out of Egypt by Moses and Aaron, but that they were brought out of the land of the North, with Cyrus, the king of the Persians, releasing the captives. And concerning all lands, he says, this will not be fulfilled in the time of Cyrus, but at the very end, as the Apostle says: After the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then all Israel will be saved (Rom. XI, 25, 26). We can also say this about the persecutions that happen to our people, from the days of Nero, about whom the Apostle writes: And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion (I Tim. IV, 17), up until the times of Maximinus: how the Lord has had mercy on his people and brought them back to their land. Doubtless into the Church, which their fathers received, the Apostles and apostolic men.

God made you a hunter, not a conqueror, who said: Behold, I send many hunters (Jer. XVI, 16): hunters not of sin, but of absolution; hunters not of blame certainly, but of grace. Christ is the fisherman, to whom it is said: Henceforth you shall be a life-giving man (Luke V, 10). So send forth your nets, so send forth your eyes, so send forth your words: that you may not oppress anyone, but may raise up the struggling.

The apostles were fishermen, and the Lord said to them, "I will make you fishers of people." Moreover, it is said by the prophet that God intended to send fishers at first, and afterwards hunters. At first, he did send fishers, and now, afterwards, he is sending hunters. Why fishers? Why hunters? Because, from the abyss and from the depth of the sea of idolatrous superstition, the believers fished with the nets of faith. But why have the hunters been sent? Because those people were wandering through the mountains and the hills, that is, through the pride of humankind, through the worldly obstacles. One mountain was Donatus, another Arius, a third was Plotinus and the last was Novatus. Through such mountains they were straying, and their wanderings called for hunters. Therefore, the duties of fishers and of hunters have been assigned, lest, by chance, they should say to us, "Why did the apostles force no one, urge no one?" Because one who is a fisher throws nets, calling out in this fashion: "Let it not go in that direction. Let it not go in this direction. Head it off there, strike it, terrify it. Do not let it get out, do not let it escape." But our net is our life. Let love alone be preserved. Do not worry about how annoying you may be to him, but about how dear he is to you. What kind of devotion is it if you spare him and he perishes?

In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen—but also a great variety of pursuits. "The house of God, which is the church of the living God," has hunters, travelers, architects, builders, farmers, shepherds, athletes, soldiers. To all of these this short admonition will be appropriate, for it will produce in each proficiency in action and energy of will. You are a hunter sent forth by the Lord, who says, "Behold, I send many hunters, and they shall hunt them on every mountain." Take good care, therefore, that your prey does not elude you, so that, having captured them with the word of truth, you may bring back to the Savior those who have been made wild and savage by iniquity.

"He rains on the wicked snares." Without any doubt, it is the Lord who contrives snares for sinners, in order to entrap those who abuse their freedom and to compel them to tread the right path under his bridle, thereby making it possible for them to advance through him who says, "I am the way." Wherefore, in Jeremiah, the Lord sends fishers and hunters to spread nets for the lost fish tossed about in whirlpools and to hunt down and save the beasts that wander through mountains and hills. This and the following verses do not promise punishment to sinners, as many believe, but rather give them promise of healing.

(Verse 16 onwards) Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will catch them. And after this, I will send them many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the rocks, for my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from my sight, and their iniquity was not hidden from my eyes. And I will first repay double their iniquities and sins, for they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. There are different interpretations of this chapter. For the Jews, it is believed to refer to the Chaldeans, who are described under the name of fishermen, and later to the Romans, who are compared to hunters, and who hunted down the unfortunate people in the mountains, hills, and caves of the rocks. But the Lord says that He Himself has done this because He has looked upon their ways and has returned upon them the iniquities with which they have polluted the land by worshipping idols and defiling His inheritance with abominations. But our Prophet thinks more rightly and better that these things are prophesied about the future. For as he had said before: I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers, now he shows how they are to be brought back, that first he should send Apostles, to whom the Savior said: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). And afterwards hunters, whom we can understand as either ecclesiastical men or Angels, who, when the time of completion comes, will hunt down all the holy ones from the mountains of lofty doctrines, and from the hills of good works, and from the caves of rocks, to the Apostles and apostolic men. For not only did Christ give the name Rock to Peter the Apostle (I Cor. X, Matt. XVI). In the senses of which, resting rightly, they are said to be transferred from rock. And it shows either the Apostles or those who came after them, having sins, and receiving their double injustices. For the servant who knows his master's will and does not do it, will be beaten with many blows (Luke XII). And it should be known that in Hebrew it is placed first, and in the Septuagint edition it was omitted. But when he says, 'I will first repay them double for their iniquities and their sins,' he indicates that after they have received evil, they will also receive good. However, those who will be transferred later have defiled the land of the Lord with the corpses of their idols and with their abominations they have filled his inheritance, so that the whole world may be subject to God, and may be preserved not by their own merit, but by his mercy. This we have inserted from the Hebrew: 'They are not hidden from my face,' which is not found in the Septuagint.

It is recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew that our Savior came alongside the Sea of Galilee and saw "Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen." Then the text says that the Savior, seeing them, said: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they left their nets and followed him." And Jesus made them take up the work of fishing for men. And "he found two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their father, mending their nets; and these too he called" to the same skill, and he made these also fishers of men. And if anyone has considered those who have from God the grace of a word woven together like nets and composed out of the sacred Scriptures like a casting-net, so that the mesh is thrown around the souls of the hearers, and has considered too that this is done skillfully according to the art, he will see in a certain manner that not only then but also now our Savior sends out fishers of men, having trained them, so that we may be able to come up from the sea and to flee its bitter waves.

But those fish, the soulless ones, when they come up in the dragnets and in the casting-nets and in the nets or on the hooks, die a death in which life does not succeed death. But the one caught by the fishermen of Jesus and brought up from the sea also himself dies, yet he dies to the world, he dies to sin, and after dying to the world and to sin he is made alive by the Word of God and takes up another life. As if, for the sake of argument, you could conceive of the soul of the fish changing after it goes out from the body of the fish and becoming something better than a fish (I have taken an illustration; let no one seize on it as a pretext † as though he had not heard), then you will conceive of something of this sort. You have come up from the sea, having fallen under the nets of the disciples of Jesus; having gone out, you change your soul, you are no longer a fish spending its time in the salty waves of the sea, but immediately your soul changes and is transformed and becomes something better and more divine than what it was before. And that it is transformed and changed, hear Paul saying: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." And when he has been transformed, this fish caught by the fishermen of Jesus, leaving behind his haunts in the sea, makes his haunts in the mountains, so that he no longer has need of the fishermen who bring him up from the sea, but of certain others, who are named hunters, who hunt "from every mountain and from every hill."

Having therefore come up from the sea and been caught in the nets of the disciples of Jesus, change from the sea, forget it, come to the mountains, the prophets, and to the hills, the righteous, and make your haunts there, so that afterward, when the time of your departure comes upon you, you may be hunted by the hunters. And who would these be but those appointed over receiving the souls that are on the hills, those not lying below? And see whether the prophet does not cry out mystically in saying these things and presenting this meaning in the words: "Behold, I send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish for them; and after this I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill."

If, then, you wish to be caught by the hunters, see that you do not make your haunts in the hollows, nor spend your time somewhere below, but seek out the mountains. Go up to the mountain where Jesus was transfigured, go up to the mountain onto which "seeing the crowds Jesus went up," and the disciples followed him, where "opening his mouth he taught, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," and the beatitudes that follow these.

And it is not permitted for these hunters to catch from anywhere else than from the mountains and the hills and from the clefts of the rocks. For these three things are spoken of in the prophet: "For I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill and from the clefts of the rocks." From where, then, shall I understand the rocks and the clefts in the rocks? I come to Exodus, I seek to find a trace of an account of the clefts of the rocks, I find Moses there wishing to know God, and God promising to him and saying: "Behold, I will place you in a hole of the rock, and you shall behold my back parts; but my face shall not be seen by you." If you understand the rock there and see there the hole in the rock, he who sees beholds God through the hole in the rock, you will see also the many rocks and their clefts. Who, then, is that one rock? "And the rock was Christ"; "for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them," and "he set my feet upon a rock," as is said in the thirty-ninth Psalm. What is the hole in the rock? If you see the sojourn of Jesus, conceiving the whole of him as a rock, you will see the hole in accordance with his sojourn, through which hole the things after God are contemplated. For such a thing is meant in the words "and you shall see my back parts."

But I have found one hole of one rock; I pass over in my discourse from the hole to the cleft of the rock, I seek also the many rocks. If I come to the chorus, whether of the prophets or of the apostles or even of the holy angels who have ascended higher, I say that all the imitators of Christ, since he is a rock, become rocks. And just as he has a hole through which the back parts of God are perceived, in the same manner each one, giving a way for God to be perceived through the things spoken by him, makes in himself a hole, or, if you wish to name it otherwise, a cleft. From which hole or cleft you will see, through Moses, the law, and through Isaiah his prophecy, and through Jeremiah other words of God. And if there is also an angel speaking, as he spoke according to what is said in the words "and the angel who speaks in me," there too I take my stand upon the angel, and I see there too a rock and a hole of a rock, and I see God angelically.

But I have need of an example, so that I may present how it is possible, having come to an angel, to see God also through the angel. For it is written in Exodus: "An angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of a bush. And Moses sees that the bush burns with fire, and the bush is not consumed." And the Scripture did not say, as it said at the beginning that "an angel appeared," so say that it was an angel of the Lord, but "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." God, then, was there being contemplated in the angel, as through the rock God is known, and through the hole that is in it.

You do not know, then, when the hunters are sent. On this account never come down from the mountains, nor leave the hills, nor be outside the clefts of the rocks; for if you are found outside, it will be said to you, as to one who happens to be outside and speaks the things of those outside: "Fool, this night they demand your soul from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" These things will be said to you; and these things too will be said to you, if you should say: "I will pull down my barns and build greater ones, and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have good things laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, be merry." You see the one below the mountains, the one below the hills, the one outside the clefts of the rocks, how he is deceived even in his judgment concerning good things, thinking these to be good things. Therefore he says: "And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have good things laid up for many years." He has reckoned the grain and the abundance of earthly things to be good things; for he did not see that the truly good things are not in the accursed earth, but the truly good things are in heaven. He was laying up treasure on earth, since he supposed that the things on earth were good. But if anyone should change from laying up treasure "on earth," being persuaded by Jesus, to laying up treasure "in heaven," it will not be said to him: "Fool, this night they demand your soul from you," but the hunters, coming, seeking not the things below but the living creatures in the mountains, those in the hills, those sheltered in the clefts of the rocks, will catch these and lead them away from that hunting. Where? To the rest of the holy and blessed ones in Christ Jesus.

For "my eyes," he says, "are upon all their ways." Upon such as these, who make their haunts in the mountains and in the hills and in the clefts of the rocks, upon all their ways God has his eyes. "And they were not hidden from my face," such as these; for the wicked are hidden from the face of God. Adam, after the transgression, heard "the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening" and hid himself; but the holy one is not hidden, but has a heart with boldness before God in accordance with the holy conduct of life. For "if our conscience does not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and whatever we ask we receive from him." Now Adam, even if he sinned, did not sin a sin exceeding in grievousness; on this account he hid himself "from the face of God." But Cain, more sinful than he and most impious, the fratricide, what did he do? "He went out from the face of God." So that, by comparison of evils, to be hidden from the face of God is the lesser; for this one hides not shamelessly, but out of reverence for God. "They were not hidden," then, "from my face." These, who did these things, were once in sins and were fished up from the sins that are in the sea.

Therefore, that those who were fished up and afterward came to the mountains might not suppose that these things came about for them out of righteousness, the word reminds not only them but also us of our former sins. Therefore, after the benefits, it is said: "And their wrongdoings were not hidden from before my eyes."

The following words are going to produce a struggle for us. For whether we understand them as consequent, we shall take careful thought concerning the recompense of sins; or whether they seem not to be consequent upon the things previously set forth concerning those fished up and hunted, in that way too they cast us into no ordinary struggle. For he says: "And I will first repay double their iniquities and their sins, whereby they profaned my land with the carcasses of their abominations and with their lawlessnesses, with which they filled my inheritance." Whether some, not understanding it, removed the word "first" from what was written, or whether the Seventy managed to remove it, God would know. We, however, comparing with the remaining editions, found it stands written: "And I will first repay double their iniquities," so that it may be made clear that, even if they should be worthy of blessedness on account of their later works, since they are human beings and have been in sins, they must first receive back their sins. And see whether the word is not true. Who will not receive back his sins except the one who, after believing and receiving forgiveness of sins (so as to hear Jesus saying: "Your sins are forgiven you"), no longer sins? But if after the forgiveness of sins and the dispensation of the washing of regeneration we should sin, as we, the many, who have not been perfected like the apostles, and after sinning and along with sinning we should also do some things duly, what awaits us must be considered. Then, if we depart from life having sins, but having also brave deeds, shall we be saved on account of the brave deeds, but released concerning the things sinned in knowledge? Or shall we be punished on account of the sins, but nowhere receive a reward for the brave deeds? But neither the one — I mean receiving back the worse things but not receiving the better — is in accordance with a just God, nor the other — I mean receiving back the better things but not receiving the worse — is in accordance with a just God, who wishes to purge and cut out wickedness. For suppose that you have built, upon the foundation Christ Jesus which you were taught, not only "gold and silver and precious stone" — if indeed you have gold, and much gold or little; suppose that you have silver, precious stone, and I say not these alone, but suppose that you have also "wood and hay and stubble" — what do you wish to happen to you after your departure? Whether at some point to enter into the holy places with your wood and with your hay and stubble, so that you may defile the kingdom of God? But again, do you wish to remain behind on account of the hay, on account of the wood, on account of the stubble in the fire, and to receive nothing for the gold and silver and precious stone? Neither is this reasonable.

What, then? First it follows that, on account of the wood, one receives back the fire that consumes the wood and the hay and the stubble; for our God is said in his essence, to those who are able to understand, to be a consuming fire. And the prophet was silent as to what it consumes when he said: "Our God is a consuming fire," but he left it to us to understand. When he said: "God is a consuming fire," there is something that is consumed. What, then, is that which is consumed? For he does not consume that which is according to his image and likeness, he does not consume his own creation, but the hay that was built upon, the wood that was built upon, the stubble that was built upon.

The passage was exceedingly hard to expound. There were promises, and after the promises he says: "And I will first repay double their iniquities." Of necessity the word "first" is added; for first the things of iniquity, then the things of righteousness are repaid, for God does not repay in reverse order. If he first repaid the good things, so that we might receive back the good things, but now he repays the evil things, the good things would have to cease, so that we might receive back the evil things. But first we shall receive back the evil things, and after these the good things, so that through the abolition of the evils the things of the chastisement of those who suffer may reach their end, so that after these he may repay the good things. Therefore you will find in the sacred Scriptures God speaking first the things that seem to be more gloomy and after these the better things. "I will kill and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal." "He himself makes to suffer pain and again restores; he struck, and his hands healed." Upon these things it is possible for the one who understands and is piously disposed toward what is said to say: "Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle? Or who shall dwell in your holy mountain? He that walks blameless and works righteousness, that speaks truth in his heart; who did not deceive with his tongue, and did not do evil to his neighbor, and did not take up a reproach against those nearest to him." (But we reproach even those who repent and turn back, though the Scripture says: "Do not reproach a person who turns away from sin.") "He did not take up a reproach against those nearest to him; the evildoer is brought to nothing before him, but he glorifies those who fear the Lord." All of us, then, who have material for that fire, shall first receive back our sins.

But one of those who hear will say: expound also the word "double"; for suppose that I first receive back my sins, so that when I have received back the sins, after this there may be fulfilled what is said by the apostle: "If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire" — why then do I receive back my sins "double"? But it must be said that "the servant who knew the will of the master and did not act according to his will shall be beaten," not with few but with "many stripes." It is fitting, then, that those from among the nations who sin receive back their sins single, but that we receive back our faults double; "for if we sin willingly after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a zeal of fire that is about to devour the adversaries." The things concerning those who would be fished up and hunted and would first receive back double their sins were prophesied. After these things the calling of the nations is prophesied more clearly, of those not being called but already called, and of those not not knowing what they should confess and for what they should give thanks, but of those who have already learned. For in the former things we were learning that they were called, fished up, hunted, but what they will experience in the latter things. Let us see what he prophesies concerning us who are already learning to pray, or rather have learned.

"As in the provocation, and in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers proved Me." Let such be no more your fathers: imitate them not. They were your fathers, but if ye do not imitate them, they shall not be your fathers: yet as ye were born of them, they were your fathers. And if the heathen who came from the ends of the earth, in the words of Jeremias, "The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our forefathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit:" if the heathen forsook their idols, to come to the God of Israel; ought Israel whom their own God led from Egypt through the Red Sea, wherein He overwhelmed their pursuing foes; whom He led out into the wilderness, fed with manna, never took His rod from correcting them, never deprived them of the blessings of His mercy; ought they to desert their own God, when the heathen have come unto Him?

So the shepherds came from nearby to see, and the Magi came from far away to worship. This is the humility for which the wild olive deserved to be grafted into the olive tree and against nature to produce olives, because it deserved to change nature through grace. They come, you see, from the uttermost bounds of the earth, saying, according to Jeremiah, "Truly our fathers worshipped lies." And they come, not just from one part of the world, but as the gospel according to Luke says, from East and West, from North and South, to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Further, Jeremiah says of Christ, "Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch. A king shall reign and shall be wise. He shall execute justice and judgment in the earth. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently. This is the name that they shall call him: The Lord our just one." On the calling of the Gentiles that he foresaw and we today see as realized, the prophet had this to say: "O Lord, my might and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation; to you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say, 'Surely our ancestors have possessed lies, a vanity that has not profited them.' "

Having been brought near, they make Christ their glorying. For again, God the Father has said of them, "And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in his name shall they glory, says the Lord." This also the blessed psalmist teaches, speaking as it were to Christ the Savior of all and saying, "Lord, they shall walk in the light of your countenance, and in your name shall they exult all the day, and in your righteousness shall they be exalted. For you are the glorying of their strength." We shall find also the prophet Jeremiah calling out to God, "Lord, my strength and my help, and my refuge in the day of my evils, to You shall the heathen come from the ends of the earth, and say, 'Our fathers took for themselves false idols, in which there is no help.' "

(Verse 19) Lord, you are my strength and my refuge in the day of trouble (or evil). All human strength, without the power of God, which is Christ, is considered weak and worthless. Therefore, we must turn to the Lord and say: Lord, you have become our refuge, from generation to generation (Psalm 89:1). And in another place: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). But this tribulation, or evil, is to be understood, of which the Apostle says: That he might deliver us from this present wicked world: And, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Gal. 1:4).

"Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils; to you the nations shall come from the end of the earth and shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." From the end of the earth the nations came to God, and the nations have said: "As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them"? How "from the end of the earth"? There are some who are first of the earth and there are some who are last of the earth. Who are the first? "The wise of the world" are first of the earth, not simply first; "the wise of the world, the well-born," the rich, the men of rank. Who are the last? "The foolish things of the world God has chosen, the base things, the things despised, the things that are not." "The nations shall come," then, "from the end of the earth," as if he said: from the last of the human beings on earth, from the foolish, from the base, from the despised, "and they shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." Not that there are some true idols, in contradistinction to which the false ones are spoken of, but idols which are by nature false; "and there is no profit in them."

For I am very much God's debtor, who gave me such great grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that clerics were ordained for them everywhere, for a people just coming to the faith, whom the Lord took from the utmost parts of the earth, as he once had promised through His prophets: "To you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say, 'How false are the idols that our ancestors got for themselves, and there is no profit in them.' " And again: "I have set you as a light among the Gentiles, that you may be for salvation unto the utmost part of the earth."

Hermes Trismegistus lamented these vain, deceptive, pernicious, sacrilegious things because he foresaw that the time was coming when they would be abolished. He was as impudent in his grief as imprudent in his prophecy, since the Holy Spirit had made no revelation to him as to the holy prophets who exultantly proclaimed their inspired visions: "Shall a person make gods to himself, and they are not gods?" And again: "And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no more." It is relevant to recall that holy Isaiah uttered a particular prophecy concerning Egypt: "And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof" and the rest.

Although Hermes calls these idols gods, he nevertheless admits that they were made by people whose example we should not follow, and thus, willy-nilly, he proves that these idols should not be worshiped by people who are unlike the people who made them, that is, by wise, believing and religious people. Moreover, he implies that the fabricators brought on themselves the guilt of reckoning as gods things that are not gods. Very true is that prophecy: "Shall a person make gods to himself, and they are not gods?" This, then, is what Hermes means by fabricated gods. Such gods, made and adored by such people, are but evil spirits imprisoned by magic in idols and bound there by the chains of their own passions.

(Verse 20) To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: Truly, our fathers have possessed a lie, vanity that has not profited them. Septuagint: To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say: How have our fathers possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them? After Israel was expelled and carried away by fishermen and hunters, a multitude of nations is subsequently called to faith and confesses that their fathers were involved in prior error. But those who say, 'How did our fathers possess false idols, in which there is no utility?' confess that the things they pass by are true, and supported by every defense.

Does a man make gods for himself when they are not gods themselves? And this is what the nations, who came to the Savior from the ends of the earth, speak, or rather are called, as they expose both their own ignorance and that of their ancestors, because they thought that gods were made by man, when it is actually men who make gods.

"Shall a man make gods for himself?" Not only from images do human beings make gods for themselves, but you will find human beings making gods for themselves also from fabrications; for as many as are able to fabricate another god and another cosmogony besides the one recorded by the Spirit, a dispensation of the world besides the true world, all these have made gods for themselves and have worshiped the works of their hands. For instance, conceive for me, whether among the Greeks those who begot doctrines, say, of this philosophy or of that, or among the heresies those who first begot doctrines, these have made for themselves idols and fabrications of the soul, and turning aside have worshiped the works of their own hands, having accepted their own fabrications as truth. Convicting, then, all those who make gods for themselves both perceptibly and intelligibly, the word says: "Shall a man make gods for himself, and are these not gods? Therefore, behold, I will show them my hand at this time, and I will make known to them my power." At what time but this? And indicating the time of the coming of the Lord: "And they shall know," he says, "that my name is Lord."

(Verse 21.) Therefore behold, I will show them in turn this: I will show them my hand and my power, and they will know that my name is the Lord. The hand of God by which he has accomplished all things, and the power, of which the Apostle said: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), is revealed to the Gentiles, through the completion of the Son's passion. And beautifully he said: I will show them in turn this: but I will show them openly, and not as before, in shadow and in image, and in the prophecy of future things, so that after they have known, they may know my name, and hear from the Son: Father, I have manifested your name to men (John 17).