Jeremiah 11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear the words of this pact — or covenant — and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. It is not, indeed, set down in the heading at what time, or under which king and in which year of his, this prophecy was made; but we understand either that it is to be joined to the former prophecy and its time, or certainly that this word of the Lord came to the prophet some interval of time after the former prophecy. It is to be noted, moreover, that the word 'berith' Aquila and Symmachus always translated 'pact', the Seventy and Theodotion 'covenant'. Properly, however, the word is now directed to Jerusalem and to the men of the tribe of Judah.

According to the recorded coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, His sojourn came about bodily in a certain universal way, shining upon the whole world, when "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." For "there was the true Light which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Yet one must know that even earlier He sojourned, though not bodily, in each of the saints, and that after this His visible coming He sojourns among us again. And if you wish to receive a demonstration of these things, attend to the passage: "The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Hear," and what follows. For what is "the word which came from the Lord," whether to Jeremiah or to Isaiah or to Ezekiel or to whomever, other than He who was in the beginning with God? I know of no other word of the Lord than this, concerning which the evangelist has said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

And this too we must know, that it is above all when it is possible to profit from them that the coming of the Word is to each one. For what benefit is it to me if the Word has sojourned in the world, but I do not have Him? On the contrary, even if He has not yet sojourned in the whole world, grant that I have come to be among the prophets—I have the Word. And I would say that Christ came to Moses, to Jeremiah, to Isaiah, to each of the righteous, and that what was said by Him to the disciples, "Behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age," was in fact fulfilled and came to pass even before His coming; for He was with Moses and He was with Isaiah and with each of the saints. How could those men have spoken the word of God if the Word of God had not sojourned in them? These things are especially necessary to be known by us who belong to the Church, who wish the God of the Law and of the Gospel to be the same, and Christ to be the same both then and now unto all ages. But there will be those who sever the Godhead older than the coming of the Savior—so far as their own supposition goes—from the Godhead proclaimed by Jesus Christ. But we know one God both then and now, one Christ both then and now. These things because of "the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying."

What then are we also to hear? "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." We are men of Judah because of Christ; for it is plain that our Lord "has arisen out of Judah," and if I establish, according to Scripture, that the name of Judah refers to Christ, then the men of Judah will not be the Jews who disbelieve in Christ, but ourselves, as many as believe in Christ. "Judah, may your brothers praise you. Your hands are upon the back of your enemies"—"may they praise you." His brothers did not praise that Judah, the son of Jacob. But this Judah his brothers will praise, since this Judah says, "I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the church I will hymn you." It is not said with reference to that Judah. "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies": where is that Judah found laying his hands upon the back of his enemies? The narrative has recorded nothing of the sort concerning him. But if you understand the coming of the Lord Jesus abolishing the devil, stripping off "the principalities and powers" and making a show of them and triumphing over them in the wood, you see how upon this Judah the prophecy that says this has been fulfilled: "Your hands are upon the back of your enemies." If this is so, and the word now speaks "to the men of Judah," to whom would it be speaking except to those who believe in Christ, called in a certain manner Judah too because of the tribe of Judah?

"To the men of Judah" the word is spoken, and "to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." This is the church. For the city of God is the church, the Vision of peace; in her is the peace which He brought us, if indeed we are children of peace, and it is multiplied and seen.

"Hear," then, "the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded your fathers." Who most of all hears "the words of the covenant which God commanded the fathers"? Is it those who believe in Him, or those who are shown not even to believe Moses by the very fact that they have not believed in the Lord? For the Savior says to those men: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote concerning me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" Therefore those men have not believed in Moses, but we who believe in Christ believe the covenant given through Moses, and it is spoken to us, that we may not become accursed: "Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of the covenant which I commanded the fathers." Those men, then, have this—to be accursed. For they did not hear "the covenant which God commanded the fathers."

Cursed be the man who will not hear the words of this pact, which I commanded your fathers in the day in which I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Hear my voice and do all that I command you, and you shall be my people and I will be your Lord. Not because of the privileges of race, not because of the injury of circumcision and the idleness of the sabbath, but because of obedience does God become the God of the people of Israel, and Israel his people. And here, indeed, he speaks as to servants, that they may please God; but in the Gospel the Lord says to the disciples: You, he says, are my friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, because the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And when they have become friends, from friends they pass over into sons; for as many as received him, to them he gave power to become sons of God. Hence he commands friends and sons: Be perfect, as your Father is perfect, enjoining likeness, not equality. And there it is obedience to the commandments, here likeness to God. And what he says: in the day in which I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, gives us to understand that the oven and the iron furnace, kindled, signify the greatness of tribulation and punishment, not some place of punishment made ready out of the material of iron.

"In the day," He says, "when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace." Us too God has led out "of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace," especially according to him who has understood what is written in the Revelation of John, that the place "where their Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt." For if it "is called spiritually Egypt," and this Egypt is not that Egypt which is spiritually called Egypt, for this one is perceptible to the senses, it is clear that if you understand the Egypt which is spiritually so called and go out from it, you are the one who has gone out "of the land of Egypt and out of the iron furnace," and it is said to you: "Hear my voice and do according to all" these things.

Then there is a promise of God to those who hear, if they do what He has commanded, saying: "And you shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God." Not everyone who says he is the people of God is the people of God; that people, then, which had promised to be the people of God, heard "you are not my people" in the words "for you are not my people," and it was said to that people "not my people," and again this people was called a people. For "they moved me to jealousy with what is no god"—and He speaks concerning those men—"they provoked me to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with what is no nation, with a nation without understanding I will provoke them to anger."

We, then, have become a people to God, and "the righteousness of God is to the people," to the people from the nations. For this people is born all at once, as it is also said in the prophet: "Has a nation been born at once?" And a nation was born at once, when the Savior had come and in one day five thousand believed, and on another day three thousand were added. And it is possible to see a whole people being born by the word of God, and the barren woman, who formerly did not bear, bearing all at once, to whom it is said: "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry out, you who are not in travail, for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has the husband." The church is desolate—desolate of the law, this one was desolate of God. But that synagogue was said to have a husband, the law.

That I may raise up the oath which I swore to your fathers, that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. The fathers are seen to receive when the sons receive, and the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in his posterity. A land moreover streaming with milk and honey we ought to take hyperbolically, for an abundance of all things, as in that line: let honey flow for them, and let the rough bramble bear amomum, and again: and he held back the wine running everywhere in streams; or else, tropologically, let us understand the land streaming with milk and honey as the Church of Christ, in which, as little ones and sucklings, we are brought up through faith, so that we may be able to take solid food.

And I answered and said: Amen, O Lord, for which LXX: So be it, O Lord — for this is what 'amen' signifies — is what they translated. The Lord had said: I swore to your fathers that I would give them a land streaming with milk and honey, as is proved today by the facts themselves. The prophet, loving his people, takes up the voice of the Lord and longs that what has been given may be true and may endure forever. Hence he says: 'Truly, O Lord, you have fulfilled what you promised; or So be it, O Lord, that is: may what you have given remain always!'

This was the reason why He sent not Jeremiah only into Egypt, but also Ezekiel into Babylon, and they did not refuse to go. For when they found their Master love the people exceedingly, they continued themselves to do so likewise. Much as if a right-minded servant were to take compassion upon an intractable son when he saw his father grieving and lamenting about him. And what was there that they did not suffer for them? They were sawn asunder, they were driven out, they were reproached, they were stoned, they underwent numberless grievances. And after all this they would run back to them.… And 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 above dwelling at home the affliction of the people, and their hard durance in a strange land.

What then does God promise me? "You shall be to me a people, and I will be to you a God." He is not the God of all, but only of those to whom He grants Himself, just as He granted Himself to that patriarch to whom He said, "I am your God," and again to another, "I will be your God," and concerning others, "I will be their God." When, then, do we attain—I speak of each individual—to God being our God? But if you wish to learn whose God He is and to whom He grants the invocation of Himself, "I," He says, "am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." And the Savior, expounding this very thing, says: "God is not the God of the dead but of the living." Who is the dead? The sinner, who does not have the One who said, "I am the Life," the one who has dead works, the one who has not yet repented from dead works, concerning which the apostle says: "Not again laying a foundation of repentance from dead works." If, then, "God is not the God of the dead but of the living," and we know who is the living one—that it is he who lives his life according to Christ and abides with Him—then, if we wish that God may be ours, let us renounce the works of deadness, that He may fulfill His promise which says: "And I will be to you a God, that I may establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey." For observe that He says: "I will establish my oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey," as though He had not yet given them "the land flowing with milk and honey." For this is not the land which God promised "flowing with milk and honey," but it is that one concerning which the Savior taught, saying: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Then to what was said beforehand by the Lord the prophet answers—to the words "Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of this covenant"—and he says: "And I answered and said, So be it, Lord." What is "So be it, Lord"? Cursed is he who will not abide in the words of this covenant.

And the Lord said to me: Cry out — or read — all these words in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this pact and do them! The most merciful God frequently foretells what is to come, so that the mind that is hard to believe may at last be softened. And he foretells it both in the city of Jerusalem and outside in the countryside, so that those whose peril is common may have the same penitence.

"And the Lord said to me: Read these words in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem." And to those outside we read the words of God, calling them to salvation. "Hear the words of this covenant and do them."

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.

And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the former iniquities of their fathers, who would not hear my words; and these, therefore, have gone after foreign gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have made void my pact, which I made with their fathers. For 'conspiracy', which we have translated following Symmachus, Aquila and the Seventy and Theodotion translated syndesmon, which we can call 'a binding-together'. Hence also Athaliah, when she discovered that a plot was being prepared against her in the temple, spoke with the same word: Conspiracy, conspiracy. Properly, however, Scripture employs this word when one strives toward wrongdoing not by a sudden and chance sin but by prepared plots and conspiracy, and when with like mind and one zeal they act so as to despise the commandments of God.

"And they did not do them. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Are we going to repent over the sins spoken of concerning the men of Judah, knowing that we are men of Judah because of Christ who was prophesied and spoken of? For perhaps, since there are among us certain sinners who act contrary to right reason, for this reason the prophet says: "A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem." For when there is found, in certain persons who bear the name of the church, a bond of injustice and a bond of sins, so that to them may be applied what is said of the sinner, "and each one is bound tight by the cords of his own sins," God would say: "A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah." But let no conspiracy be found among us. And how is a conspiracy not found among us, even if until now there is a conspiracy in certain persons? "Loose every bond of injustice, undo the knots of forced dealings, tear apart every unjust contract. Break your bread for the hungry."

And he says that both fathers and sons, with one mind and an equal resolve, neglecting God, worshiped idols, namely both Israel and the house of Judah, that is, both the ten tribes and the two, whose rule was in Jerusalem, so that those who had one zeal in contempt of God may have an equal punishment in enduring captivity.

"A conspiracy," then, "has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." "They have turned back to the injustices"—of whom? He does not say simply "of the fathers." What is the addition? "They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." We were saying that these things are spoken to us and to those among us who sin. How then have those among us who sin turned back not "to the injustices of the fathers," but "of their fathers of former times"? Perhaps, then, our fathers are twofold, and there is among us the worse kind of fathers; for before we believed we were sons, so to speak, of the devil, as the evangelic word shows, saying: "You are of your father the devil," but when we believed, we became sons of God. When, therefore, we sin, we turn back to the injustices not simply of the fathers, but of the former fathers. And to establish that our fathers are twofold, I will make use of statements from the forty-fourth Psalm which run thus: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father." He calls Him father, "forget the house of your father"; for as a father He says, "Hear, O daughter." Therefore our fathers are twofold. But "forget the house of your father," the former one. If, having forgotten your former house, you again turn back to the sins, you have done the sins here spoken of.

"They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of former times." I was saying that the devil too was formerly our father, before God became our father, if indeed even now the devil is not our father; which we will also establish from the catholic epistle of John, in which it is written: "Everyone who commits sin has been begotten of the devil." If "everyone who commits sin has been begotten of the devil," then, as it were, we have been begotten of the devil as many times as we sin. Wretched, then, is this one who is always being begotten of the devil, just as, on the other hand, blessed is he who is always being begotten by God. For I will not say that the righteous man has been begotten by God once, but that he is always being begotten at each good deed, in which God begets the righteous man. If, then, I direct you to the Savior—that the Father did not beget the Son and then release Him from His begetting, but always begets Him—I will establish something similar also in the case of the righteous man. Let us see who our Savior is. "The radiance of glory." The radiance of the glory has not been begotten once and is not being begotten; but insofar as the light is productive of the radiance, to that extent the radiance of the glory of God is begotten. Our Savior is the wisdom of God. And wisdom is "the radiance of eternal light." If, then, the Savior is always begotten, and for this reason He says, "Before all the hills He begets me"—not "before all the hills He has begotten me," but "before all the hills He begets me"—and the Savior is always begotten by the Father, so also you, if you have the spirit of adoption, God always begets you in Him at each deed, at each thought, and being thus begotten you become ever a son of God being begotten in Christ Jesus; to whom is the glory and the might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring upon them evils from which they will not be able to go out; and they will cry to me and I will not hear them. And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they pour libations; and these will not save them in the time of their affliction. God does not hear in the time of need and distress, because they too would not hear the voice of the Lord. This Saul also suffered; for when, dreading the ranks of the Philistines, he had not deserved to receive the word of the Lord, he turned to the pythoness, so as to learn from idols what he ought to have wrung from the Lord by the insistence of prayer and of tears. Through these things we learn that, even if the Lord does not hear, we must by no means cease, nor flee for refuge to demons. They cannot help their worshipers; but we must flee to the help of the Lord, who, though angered, is quickly turned and changes his sentence, if those too with whom he has been angry are changed. And all that is now said pertains to the tribe of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, upon whom captivity is pressing.

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.

For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the ways of Jerusalem you have set up altars of confusion for pouring libations to the Baals. Let us read the books of Kings and of Chronicles, and we shall find that Judah and Jerusalem did far worse things than Israel, so that as many cities as they had, so many kinds of idols they also had, and as many as were the streets and street-corners in the city of Jerusalem, so many altars they had, to their own confusion, on which they sacrificed victims to the idols of the Baals.

You, therefore, do not pray for this people, and do not take up praise and prayer for them, for I will not hear in the time of their crying to me, in the time of their affliction! Jeremiah is commanded not to wish to entreat the Lord for those against whom the sentence has already been completed, lest his prayer should seem weak and should not be heard because of their own crimes. 'Do not', he says, 'pray for them, nor take up praise, striving, by recounting the clemency of the ancient history with which I have always had mercy on him, and by praising me, to change my sentence! For even if you do this, I will not hear those who are forced to ask me in the time of necessity'. From which we learn that it is in vain for anyone to ask on behalf of another, when the one for whom God is asked does not deserve to receive.

Or having sins unrepented they ask mercy, which thing it is impossible to receive, not only if themselves ask it, but although others having much confidence towards God entreat for them, like as even Jeremiah praying for the Jews did hear, "Pray not thou for this people, because I will not hear thee." But if all things are there, and thou ask things expedient, and contribute all thine own part, and exhibit an apostolical life, and have concord and love towards thy neighbor, thou wilt obtain on thy entreaty; for the Lord is loving towards man.

"How then do they not obtain all things?" Because many are causes of their failing. For either they often ask things inexpedient. And why marvellest thou, if this is the case with some others, whereas it was so even with Paul, when he heard, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is perfected in weakness." Or they are unworthy to be reckoned with them that heard these words, and contribute not their own part, but He seeks for such as are like them; therefore He saith "of you," of the virtuous, of them that show forth an angelic rule of life. Or they pray against them that have aggrieved them, seeking for redress and vengeance; and this kind of thing is forbidden, for, "Pray," saith He, "for your enemies." Or having sins unrepented they ask mercy, which thing it is impossible to receive, not only if themselves ask it, but although others having much confidence towards God entreat for them, like as even Jeremiah praying for the Jews did hear, "Pray not thou for this people, because I will not hear thee."

And the other half shall be split toward the west and the sea, with a very great chasm: this is the people of the circumcision, to whom God speaks through the prophet: Why has my beloved done abomination in my house? Shall vows and holy flesh take away your wickedness from you, or will you escape by these? This beloved did abomination in the house of God, so that she crucified the Son of God and heard: The Lord called your name a shady olive tree and a wooded beauty; and your branches became useless, which were broken off from the good root, so that we might be grafted in their place.

What is it that my beloved has done many crimes in my house? Will holy flesh take away from you your wickednesses, in which you have gloried? A rich olive, beautiful, fruitful, comely, the Lord called your name; at the sound of a great speech a fire blazed up in it, and its thickets were burned up. He calls beloved and most dear the people of Judah, which set up idols in his temple and worshiped them, and thinks that in it it appeases the wrath of God if it sacrifices many offerings, and glories in the multitude of sacrifices, which cannot take away the wickednesses of sins. He compares Jerusalem, or the whole people of the Jews, to a beautiful and fruitful olive, which, exalted through pride, by no means acted humbly nor understood its creator and ruler, but, lifted up through pride and having spoken grandly, was set on fire by the fire of the Lord, so that its branches or thickets were burned up and reduced to nothing, that is, the whole people was destroyed by the sword of the adversaries. This sense is found in another place too, where it is said to Jerusalem: I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, wholly true; how have you been turned into bitterness, O alien vine? When its walls are torn down and the boar from the forest lays it waste and all the beasts devour its fruits, let us say this passage to the princes of the churches: What is it that my beloved has done many crimes in my house? Or else to the rich, who, while they plunder what belongs to others and do not take away the wickednesses of their heart, think that they merit the clemency of God: Will holy flesh take away from you your wickednesses, in which you have gloried? But now the names of those who make offerings are recited publicly, and the redemption of sins is turned into praise, nor do they remember that widow in the Gospel who, by casting two coins into the treasury, surpassed the gifts of all the rich.

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.

And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you for the evils of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they did to themselves to provoke me, pouring libations to the Baals. 'A rich olive,' he says, 'beautiful, fruitful, your Lord called you, and he planted you; but because at the sound of the great speech of God a flame came down upon you and consumed all your branches, therefore he who had planted you has now spoken evil against you, not out of the injustice of his sentence nor out of a sudden perversity of speech, but for the evils which the house of Israel and the house of Judah did to themselves and zealously carried out, pouring libations to the Baals, so as to provoke me to anger'. And although God can do what he wills, he gives his reasons, lest he should seem to act unjustly, according to that which is written: that you may be justified in your words and may overcome when you are judged.

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."

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."

But you, O Lord, have shown me and I have known; then you showed me their pursuits. And I was like a gentle lamb that is carried to be a victim, and I did not know that they had devised counsels against me: Let us put wood into his bread and crush him from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more! But you, O Lord of Sabaoth, who judge justly and test the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them! For to you I have revealed my cause. This is the consensus of all the churches, that they understand these words to be spoken by Christ under the person of Jeremiah: that the Father showed him how he ought to speak, and showed him the pursuits of the Jews, and that he himself, like a lamb led to be a victim, did not open his mouth and did not know — 'sin' is understood, according to what is said by the Apostle: who, though he had not known sin, was made sin for us —, and that they said: Let us put wood into his bread — namely the cross into the body of the Savior; for he it is who says: I am the bread that came down from heaven, — and let us root him out — or crush him — from the land of the living! For this crime they devised in their mind, to blot out his name forever. But on the contrary, according to the mystery of the body he had assumed, the Son speaks to the Father and calls down his judgment, while he praises his righteousness and invokes God as the inspector of reins and heart, that he himself may render to the people what it deserves, and he says: let me see your vengeance on them — namely on those who persist in crime, and not on those who turn to repentance; of these he says on the cross: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do —, and he reveals to the Father and lays open his cause, that he was crucified through no fault of his own but by the crime of the people, saying: Behold, the prince of this world comes and finds nothing in me. The Jews and our Judaizers understand these words to be spoken in the person of Jeremiah, and they maintain that he endured these things from the people because of his prophecy of things to come and because of the impending evils of the captivity. But I do not know how they can prove that Jeremiah was crucified, since Scripture does not record it, unless perhaps they devised it and did not do it.

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.

If there are oracles of God in the Law and the Prophets, in the Gospels and the Apostles, then whoever is being made a disciple by the oracles of God will need to inscribe God as his teacher; for "he who teaches man knowledge" is God, as it is also written in the Psalms. And the Savior too testifies that no one should be inscribed as a teacher upon the earth, saying, "And do not call anyone teacher upon the earth; for one is your teacher, the Father who is in the heavens." But "the Father who is in the heavens" teaches either by himself, or through Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, or through Paul, let us say, or through Peter, or through some other of the saints — only let the Spirit of God and the Word of God be present and teach. And for what purpose have I said these things? Because the prophet says, "Make it known to me, Lord, and I will know"; for I will not know unless you make it known to me; but if, when you make it known to me, I know, "then I will see their practices" and I will understand what each one does and of what disposition he is.

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."

The careful student of the sacred books, moreover, may gather not a few similar passages from the prophets, as where He calls Himself a chosen shaft, and a servant of God, and a light of the Gentiles. Isaiah also says, "From my mother's womb hath He called me by my name, and He made my mouth as a sharp sword, and under the shadow of His hand did He hide me, and He said to me, Thou art My servant, O Israel, and in thee will I be glorified." And a little farther on: "And my God shall be my strength, and He said to me, This is a great thing for thee to be called My servant, to set up the tribes of Jacob and to turn again the diaspora of Israel. Behold I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the end of the earth." And 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. In addition to these one might collect in the Gospels and the Apostles and in the prophets a countless number of titles which are applied to the Son of God, as the writers of the Gospels set forth their own views of what He is, or the Apostles extol Him out of what they had learned, or the prophets proclaim in advance His coming advent and announce the things concerning Him under various names. Thus John calls Him the Lamb of God, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."

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."

These are the prophet's words. Then let us see what the Savior says in the prophet: "I, like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know. Against me they devised a device, saying, Come and let us cast wood into his bread, and let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall no more be remembered." As the prophet Isaiah also says, Christ "was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth." There, then, Isaiah speaks about him, but here Christ says about himself, "I, like an innocent lamb led to slaughter to be sacrificed, did not know." He did not say what he did not know. For he has not said, "I did not know evils"; he has not said, "I did not know good things"; nor has he said, "I did not know sin"; but simply, "I did not know." To you, then, he has left it to examine what he did not know. And learn what he did not know from this: "the one who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf"; for to know sin is to sin, just as to know righteousness is to act righteously. Therefore the one who proclaims the things concerning righteousness and does not act righteously has not known righteousness.

"Against me they devised a device, saying, Come and let us cast wood into his bread." That the Jews crucified him is clear, and we proclaim this with boldness. But how you are to fit this to "they devised a device against me, saying, Come and let us cast wood into his bread" is a work to understand. The bread of Jesus is the word by which we are nourished. Since, therefore, while he was teaching among the people, they wished to add the stumbling-block to his teaching by crucifying him, they said, "Let us cast wood into his bread." For whenever the crucifixion of the teacher is attached to the word of Jesus' teaching, wood has been cast into his bread. Let those men, then, having plotted out of conspiracy, say, "Come and let us cast wood into his bread." But I will say something more paradoxical: the wood cast into his bread has made the bread better. I take an example from the Law of Moses: the wood cast into the bitter water made it sweet. Thus the wood of the passion of Jesus Christ, coming into the word, has made his bread sweeter. Indeed, before the wood came into his bread, when it was only bread and there was no wood in his teaching, "his voice did not go out into all the earth." But since the bread took on power through the wood cast into it, on account of this the word of his teaching has been distributed throughout the whole inhabited world. And then the wood was the symbol of the passion of Jesus, through which the bitter water becomes sweet; for I say that the Law, when it is not understood, is bitter water, but if the wood of Jesus comes and the teaching of my Savior arrives, the Law of Moses, when it is read and understood, is sweetened and becomes most delightful.

They said, then, "Come and let us cast wood into his bread."

And they also say, "Let us wipe him out from the land of the living, and his name shall no more be remembered." Thus they killed him, as though obliterating his name. But Jesus knows how he dies and for what reason. Therefore he says, "Unless the grain of wheat, falling into the earth, dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit"; so that the death of Jesus becomes an ear of wheat, making what was sown many times multiplied and abundant. So that, if by hypothesis he had not been crucified nor died, the grain of wheat would have remained alone, and many would not have come from it. Attend, then, to his wording, whether he did not mean to say this: "The grain of wheat, unless it falls into the earth and dies, remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." The death of Jesus bore all these as fruit; and if his death bore so many as fruit, how many will the resurrection bear as fruit?

And hearken unto the prophet who also proclaimed our Lord with his simple teaching, and who likened Him unto a lamb and a sheep, the most innocent of all animals: "Like a lamb was He led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before the shearer He was silent." The lion and the wolf and bear are crafty, together with the other wild beasts, because craftiness was mingled with their evil nature when they were made; but sheep and lambs and ewes are simple and innocent in their ways and movements, and to them was our Lord likened, and by their name are believers called. Our Lord did not liken Himself unto a lion, which bringeth suffering and death, and He did not call His flocks by the names of wild animals, which by the nature in which they were created are cunning in respect of evil things, but He was called "lamb" and "sheep", and being meek like unto them He was led to suffering and to death, for "like a sheep before his shearer He was silent", and thus He in His humility opened not His mouth.

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."

"Lord of the powers, who judge righteous things, who test the reins and hearts, may I see the vengeance from you upon them." Prophetically he prays these things, to see the vengeance from God upon them; for "Jerusalem is encircled by armies, and its desolation has drawn near," and it has been said to her, "Behold, your house is left to you." "May I see," then, "the vengeance from you upon them, because to you I have revealed my case."

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.

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.

Therefore thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek your life and say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and you shall not die in our hands. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will visit upon them; the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, and there shall be no remnant of them; for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation. This seems to run counter to the former view, by which we wish to prove that the things that were said were said in the person of Christ, and not in that of Jeremiah, who properly dwelt in the little village of Anathoth, which is three miles distant from Jerusalem. But if we understand the etymologian [etymology] of the town Anathoth, which means 'obedience', it will be clearly shown that by the men of Anathoth, who once obeyed the precepts of the Lord, all the Jews are meant, and especially the inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, upon whom came the final sentence, that they should perish by the evils of the siege, by sword and famine and pestilence. But to free ourselves from all the trouble of interpretation, let us follow this rule: that all the prophets did most things as a type of the Lord the Savior, and that whatever was fulfilled in Jeremiah in the present time is prophesied of the Lord for the future.

"Therefore thus says the Lord against the men of Anathoth who seek my life, who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and if you do, you shall die in our hands. Behold, I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine. And there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring evils upon the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation." For the sake of a figure the name of Anathoth is here taken up. And the whole Jewish mystery is spoken in it figuratively; for Anathoth is interpreted "Hearkening." Since, then, a hearkening of God was in that people, as also the kingdom of God, and it came to pass concerning the kingdom that "the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits," according to this it also came to pass that "the men of Anathoth," those who are in the Hearkening, "seek the life" — not of Jeremiah (for neither does the history say that men of Anathoth sought the life of Jeremiah. We have the books of Kingdoms; Scripture makes mention there of Jeremiah, yet nothing of the sort is said in them, nor in the books of Chronicles; for we have the very book of the prophet, and the men of Anathoth have said nothing) — but these things are said concerning Christ.

"Those who seek my life, those who say: You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord." The Jews hindered Jesus from teaching. "And if you do, you shall die in our hands. Behold, I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters shall perish by famine." They did not then perish by the sword, but after the coming a famine has now come upon them — "not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord"; for no longer is "thus says the Lord Almighty" spoken among them. This is the famine, that prophecy should be no more — and why do I say prophecy? not even teaching. Even if ten thousand times over there are those among them who pass for wise men, there is no longer a word of the Lord among them, since there was fulfilled the saying, "The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem a mighty man and a mighty woman, a giant and a strong one and a man of war and a judge and a prophet and a diviner and an elder and a captain of fifty and a wonderful counselor and a wise architect and an intelligent hearer." No longer is there among them one able to say, "As a wise architect I have laid a foundation"; the architects have gone over, they have come to the Church, they have laid the foundation, Jesus Christ. Upon this both those after them build.

"In famine," then, that people have been left abandoned; for "I will bring" upon them "evils, upon the inhabitants of Anathoth in the year of their visitation."