Jeremiah 25

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judea — or upon all the people of Judah — in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. These things are earlier than the preceding vision; for that one took place under Zedekiah, after Jeconiah had been carried off to Babylon, but these under Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah and father of Jeconiah. For it was not their concern, as I have already said before, to preserve the chronological order of prophecy, which the laws of history require, but to write in whatever way they knew to be useful to those who would hear and read; hence also in the Psalter some wrongly look for the order of the psalms according to the sequence of history, which is not observed in lyric song.

This is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which is not found in the Seventy; and there follows: which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying. In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah, father of Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar took up the rule in Babylon, and so it came about that the year which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon was the fourth of King Jehoiakim in Jerusalem. Then, in the eighth year of his reign, he led into captivity Jeconiah with his mother and the princes, who had reigned only three months after the slaying of his father Jehoiakim. Now Jehoiakim was slain in the eleventh year of his reign in Jerusalem.

From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, up to this day, this is the twenty-third year, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising by night and speaking; and you have not listened. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, who reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years, Jeremiah began to prophesy, and he prophesied under him for nineteen years. His son Jehoahaz succeeded him in the kingdom; and when he was at once led into captivity by Neco, the Egyptian king, his brother Jehoiakim obtained the kingdom, in the fourth year of whose reign this word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah. And so it was the twenty-third year of Jeremiah the prophet since he began to speak to the people, and he never ceased to preach, but every day, rising at dawn and by night, he spoke to the people; and you have not, he says, listened. But if, as the new heretics sprung from the old would have it, the law was given once for all as a help, and precepts were established which we either do or do not do by the volition of our own free will, how is it that the prophet always presses himself upon them and daily repeats the commandments of God, which, once received, would surely have sufficed for those to whom they had been given, unless it is to show that we always need God's help, and that what has been given once can never suffice unless it is renewed daily by the Lord's admonition?

He mentions the great number of years in order to emphasize God's long-suffering in putting up with unbelievers for so long. I sent my servants the prophets to you, he says. I urged you to abandon the road to ruin and travel by the other road that produces life. I, in fact, promised you blessings for doing this. But you did not listen, and instead you chose the worship of idols. And to censure the purpose of this unbelief he went on, "So that you might provoke me by the works of your own hands to your own misfortune." To provoke me, you committed those things, but then you also reaped their harmful effects then as well.

And the Lord sent to you all his servants, the prophets, rising at dawn and sending; and you have not listened. Not through one prophet but through all of them God always admonished his people, and as though he himself were stationed on watch and on guard, he rose at dawn to warn his people. And you have not, he says, listened, so that the more frequent the admonition, the greater were the sins of those who despised it.

Nor did you incline your ears to hear, when I said: Return, each one, from his evil way and from your very wicked thoughts, and you will dwell in the land which the Lord gave to you and to your fathers from age and even unto age. So great was the hardness of the people that it would not even take on the bearing of one who listens and incline its ear, above all when the Lord was warning it that each one should turn back from his evil way and from his very wicked thoughts. And O infinite clemency: not to inflict punishment for the crime, but to call to repentance both for evil works, which the evil way signifies, and for very wicked thoughts, which even by themselves, without the deed, are reckoned as sin! And he promises a reward if they do what is commanded: that they should dwell in the land which was given to their fathers and taken away because of the vices of the sons. And his saying: from age and even unto age, or: from eternity even unto eternity, shows that God's gifts are perpetual, if those to whom they were given prove worthy.

When the Jews often resisted wholesome precepts and departed from the divine law, going astray to the impious worship of false gods, then God filled just and chosen men with the Holy Spirit, appointing them as prophets in the midst of the people, by whom he might rebuke with threatening words the sins of the ungrateful people and nevertheless exhort them to repent of their wickedness. Unless they did this and, laying aside their vanities, returned to their God, it would come to pass that he would change his covenant, that is, bestow the inheritance of eternal life on foreign nations and collect to himself a more faithful people out of those who were aliens by birth. But they, when rebuked by the prophets, not only rejected their words but, being offended because they were scolded for their sins, killed the prophets with calculated tortures. All these things are sealed up and preserved in the sacred writings. For the prophet Jeremiah says, "I have sent to you my servants, the prophets. I sent them before light, and you hearkened not to me nor inclined your ears to hear when I said to you, 'Return, you, every one from this evil way and from your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in that land that I have given to you and to your ancestors forever and ever. Do not go after strange gods to serve them, and do not provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands for afflicting you.' "

And do not go after strange gods, to serve them and worship them, nor provoke me to anger in the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you; and you have not listened to me. 'And these things', he says, 'I was urging together with the earlier ones: that you should not serve strange gods and worship them, and that you should not, by doing these things, provoke me to anger because of the works of your hands, so that I should do what I did not wish and afflict you; and you have not listened to me'. And what follows: says the Lord, so that you provoked me to anger in the works of your hands, to your own harm, is not found in the Seventy.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not listened to my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant. 'Because you have provoked me to anger and done evil to your own destruction, and have trampled with a proud foot him who called you to repentance, I will send', he says, 'to all the families, or nations, of the north, and I will bring their prince Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant'. Now the Lord sends either angels to stir up the nations, or else he moves thoughts of such a kind that they do the will of the Lord. And as for his calling Nebuchadnezzar 'his servant', he is not called 'servant' in the way the prophets and all the saints are, who truly serve the Lord, but in that in the overthrow of Jerusalem he serves the will of the Lord, in accordance with what the Apostle too says: whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. And that the Chaldeans lie in the northern quarter with respect to the position of Jerusalem is doubtful to no one.

And I will bring them upon this land and upon its inhabitants and upon all the nations that are round about it, and I will slay them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and everlasting desolations. These are the rewards of those who despise the words of God and refuse to hear them; whatever evil, therefore, is brought upon us, our sins have brought about. And just as all the nations were then brought against Jerusalem, so today they are brought against the negligent Church, that he may slay them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and everlasting desolations, so that they may be an example and a marvel to all. Now hissing is a sign of marvel and astonishment, and everlasting desolation is found in those who do not have God as their protector.

Israel … killed those who were sent, and not even before the Lord of the vineyard were they ashamed, but even he was slain by them. Truly, when he came and found no fruit in them, he cursed them through the fig tree, saying, "From now on, let there be no fruit from you." The fig tree was dead and fruitless so that even the disciples wondered when it withered away. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet: "I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the scent of myrrh and the light of a lamp, and the whole land shall be destroyed." For the whole service of the law has been abolished from them, and from now on and forever they remain without a feast.

And I will destroy from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bride and the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the mill and the light of the lamp. And all its land shall become a desolation and an astonishment. This is proved even today in the assembly of the malignant, in that their teachers do not teach the word of God but hiss like a serpent. And there perishes in them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, so that they never hear that saying of the Apostle: rejoice, again I say, rejoice!; also the voice of the bride, that is, of the Church's faith, and the voice of the bridegroom, that is, of the Lord the Savior, for he who has the bride is the bridegroom; the voice of the mill, so that grain is not ground in it and given to the peoples to eat; and the light of the lamp, namely the teaching and knowledge of the prophets. Indeed, of John the Baptist too it is said: he was a shining lamp, and another prophet says: a lamp to my feet, he says, is your word, O Lord, and a light to my paths. 'All', he says, 'the land of the heretics shall become a desolation and an astonishment, when its last end has been shown to be foolish'.

We have seen the promises that God made to Abraham—to be the father, first, of the Jewish race according to the flesh, and second, of all nations who were to embrace the faith. The development in history of the City of God will show how these promises were kept. The end of the preceding book brought us up to the reign of King David. I shall now begin with his reign and treat of what ensued in as much detail as the theme of this book requires. There is a period that begins with the prophecies of Samuel and continues through the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity (which Jeremiah had foretold) and ends with the rebuilding of the temple, after the Israelites came home. This period is known as the age of the prophets, although, of course, the patriarch Noah, in whose lifetime the whole earth was destroyed by the flood, and others before and after him up to the time of the kings were prophets also. At least, they prefigured, in some fashion, many things touching the City of God and the kingdom of heaven and sometimes actually prophesied. Consequently, it is not too much to speak of these men as prophets; some of them are explicitly in Holy Scripture, for example, Abraham and Moses.

[Daniel 5:2] "Being now drunken, he therefore gave order that the golden and silver vessels be brought in which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken away from the temple which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king might drink from them..." The Hebrews hand down some such story as this: that up until the seventieth year, on which Jeremiah had said (Jeremiah 25:11) that the captivity of the Jewish people would be released (a matter of which Zechariah also speaks [Zechariah 1:12] in the first part of his book), Belshazzar had esteemed God's promise to be of none effect; therefore he turned the failure of the promise into an occasion of joy and arranged a great banquet, scoffing somewhat at the expectation of the Jews and at the vessels of the Temple of God. Punishment, however, immediately ensued. And as to the fact that the author calls Nebuchadnezzar the father of Belshazzar, he does not make any mistake in the eyes of those who are acquainted with the Holy Scripture's manner of speaking, for in the Scripture all progenitors and ancestors are called fathers. This factor also should be borne in mind, that he was not sober when he did these things, but rather when he was intoxicated and forgetful of the punishment which had come upon his progenitor, Nebuchadnezzar.

And all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, says the Lord, their iniquities, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it everlasting desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, whatever Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. Just as Jerusalem after seventy years receives back its former inhabitants and, its punishments completed, because it obeyed the sentence of God, enjoys its former happiness, so the king of Babylon, because he was lifted up into pride and judged that his reigning over the nations was the work of his own strength and not of the Lord's will, will be destroyed when the Medes and Persians come. Indeed, to this day only the remains of the city of Babylon survive, and the Lord has made it an everlasting desolation and has fulfilled all the words that are contained in the book of this very prophet. For in what follows the discourse of Jeremiah describes what evils Babylon is to suffer.

Because they served them, though they were many nations and great kings; and I will repay them according to their works and according to the deeds of their hands. This is not found in the Seventy. And it signifies that Jeremiah prophesied not only against Babylon but also against the other nations which were in the Babylonian army and fought against the people of the Lord. Indeed, in what follows words are spoken against Egypt and the Philistines and Moab and Ammon and Idumea and Damascus and Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor and Elam, and at the last against Babylon and the land of Chaldea.

Consider and observe, my hearer, that if God had provided hope for Sodom and its companions, he would not have overthrown them with fire and brimstone, the sign of the last day of the world. Instead, he would have delivered them over to one of the kingdoms to be chastised. This is what was written, for instance, when Jeremiah caused the nations and kingdoms to drink the cup of wrath. Concerning each one of the cities, he said that after they shall "drink the cup, I will turn back the captivity of Elam, of Tyre, of Sidon, of the children of Ammon, and of Moab and of Edom." Concerning each one of these kingdoms he said, "In the last days I will turn back its captivity." Now we see that Tyre was inhabited and was opulent after it had wandered seventy years, and after it had received the reward of its harlotries and after it had committed fornication with all the kingdoms. And Tyre took the harp, and played it sweetly and multiplied its music. And also the region of Elam is inhabited and opulent. And with regard to Babylon Jeremiah said, "Babylon shall fall and shall not rise." And look! Up to the present day it continues in desolation and will do so forever. And also about Jerusalem he said, "The virgin of Israel shall fall and shall not rise again. She is forsaken on the ground, and there is none to raise her up." For if the prophecy is true that Jeremiah spoke about Babylon, also that about Jerusalem is true and worthy of faith. And Isaiah said to Jerusalem, "I will not again be angry with you, nor will I reprove you." He truly will not be angry with Jerusalem ever again, nor will he reprove her forever; for that which is in desolation he will not reprove, nor will she provoke him to wrath.

Know that it was foretold that wars would continue frequently to prevail, death and famine accumulate anxiety, health would be shattered by raging diseases and the human race be wasted by the desolation of pestilence. It was predicted that evils should be multiplied in the last times and that misfortunes should be varied and that as the day of judgment is now drawing near, the censure of an indignant God should be more and more aroused for the scourging of the human race. For these things do not happen, as your false complaining and ignorant inexperience of the truth asserts and repeats, because your gods are not worshiped by us, but because God is not worshiped by you. For since he is Lord and Ruler of the world and all things are carried on by his will and direction, nor can anything be done save what he has done or allowed to be done, certainly when those things occur that show the anger of an offended God, they happen not on account of us by whom God is worshiped, but they are called down by your sins and by what you deserve, by whom God is neither in any way sought or feared, because your vain superstitions are not forsaken, nor is the true religion known in such a way that he who is the one God over all might alone be worshiped and petitioned. Finally, listen to himself speaking with a divine voice at once instructing and warning us: "You will worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." And again, "You will have no other gods but me." And again, "Do not go after other gods to serve them, and do not worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to destroy you."

'In the ways', he says, 'of your sister Samaria you walked; therefore you must drink the cup of her whose sins you followed — and that a cup is often taken for punishments and torments, there are many examples, among which is this: A cup in the hand of the Lord, full of pure wine, mixed. And he has tilted it from this; yet its dregs are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink; and in Isaiah it is called 'the cup of ruin' and 'the draught of fury'; and God speaks to Jeremiah, saying: Take the cup of pure wine from my hand, and you shall give drink to all the nations to which I shall send you; and they shall drink and vomit, and go mad; for just as certain cathartics are given so that the noxious humor that is in bodies may be purged out, so the Lord too gives a most undiluted cup of torments, to take away from sinners whatever there is of gall and bitterness and restore them to their former health — ; and the cup itself will be deep and wide: deep in the magnitude of the punishments, wide in the length of the captivity; but when', he says, 'you have been made drunk and seized by sorrow, and have drunk the cup to the dregs and drained it to such a degree that you devour even the fragments of the cup itself, then you will be weary of your former fornication and will tear the breasts which had been broken in Egypt and which were subdued and crushed by your lovers — or I will take away all your feasts and new moons, so that in place of solemnity and gladness you may have eternal lamentation and grief —.

For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: Take this cup of the wine of fury — or of pure wine — from my hand, and you shall give drink from it to all the nations to whom I shall send you; and they shall drink and be drunk — or vomit — and go mad before the sword which I shall send among them. And I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and gave drink to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me. The giving to drink of the cup, and of the cup 'of pure wine' or 'unmixed', which in Greek is called akratou, is a sign of the Lord's fury, so that all the nations which made war on the people of God drink of the cup of the Lord's fury, of which Isaiah too writes against Jerusalem: the bowl of fury, the cup of ruin you have drunk up and emptied; therefore arise! And this cup is drunk by all the nations for this reason: that they may vomit and go mad. This, indeed, a perverse interpreter takes in a good sense, as though, like a cathartic potion, it forces out whatever bile and phlegm and harmful humor there is in the breast, and restores former health. He also takes the Savior in place of Jeremiah, because he himself gave drink to all the nations, to whom he was also sent, so that, casting off idolatry, they might dedicate themselves to the worship of God. That this is contrary to holy Scripture what follows will show; for not as a remedy, as he would have it, but as a punishment are they given to drink from the undiluted cup.

In the same way in which physicians apply remedies to the sick, in order that by careful treatment they may recover their health, God so deals toward those who have lapsed and fallen into sin, is proved by this, that the cup of God's fury is ordered, through the agency of the prophet Jeremiah, to be offered to all nations, that they may drink it, and be in a state of madness and vomit it forth. In doing which, God threatens them, saying that if anyone refuses to drink, he shall not be cleansed. By this certainly it is understood that the fury of God's vengeance is profitable for the purgation of souls.

It is clear that Jesus wished to drink the cup of the passion. For by comparison it was better that it should pass because of his drinking of it than that it should not pass because he had not drunk it. For suppose the Lord had not drunk that cup and for this reason it had not passed from him: without doubt neither would the spirits working sins have passed from the human race, and fittingly neither would the penalties have passed which were owed for the sins. Therefore it was expedient for all that the cup should pass from him, because the Savior drank it, so that all of us who believe in him who drank it may not drink that cup "of unmixed wine", which gives to drink and is going to give to drink to "all the nations", so that those drinking it "may become drunk and vomit, and cease to rage". For just as "he died for us all", so that the death hostile to Christ might pass us by, so for us all (who were "debtors", bound to drink forever) he drank that cup, so that by this very thing—that the cup passes from him—it might pass also from us who do not drink it. Concerning this cup Jeremiah says: "The Lord God of Israel said to me: Take this cup of unmixed wine from my hand, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to which I send you, and they shall drink and vomit and cease to rage before the sword which I send into the midst of them". Those, therefore, who hear the Lord and live according to his word and are cleansed through faith in him, no longer have need of that cleansing which comes about through that cup of wrath. For just as those who have been washed have no need to be washed, because they are clean (because they are Christ's disciples), so those who are not clean have need of that cup, the Lord exhorting them: "Drink and be drunk and vomit". For hear how Jeremiah speaks (or rather God in Jeremiah), exhorting those who have need of such a cup, since they ought willingly to drink it who have need of such a cleansing. And since God says these things exhorting them to drink, consider what he says further below: "And it shall be", he says, "when they are unwilling to receive the cup from your hand to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall drink, for in the city upon which my name has been invoked, upon it I will begin to bring evils, and you shall be cleansed with cleansing".

He gives the name drinking cup to punishment, as also in another psalm, "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup of wine, full of a strong mixture," and a little later, "all the sinners of the earth will drink it." This drinking cup blessed Jeremiah was ordered to offer to the nations.

And he calls God's punishment the "cup of unmixed wine." … By "drinking" and "vomiting" Jeremiah implies they have had enough, and in their "raving," he alludes to the terrible nature of their punishment. Then the prophet further relates how Jerusalem and the cities that paid tribute to it, along with their kings and rulers, were made to drink this cup.

To Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah and to its kings and to its princes, to make them a desolation and an astonishment and a hissing and a curse, as it is this day. 'I thought', he says, 'that I was giving drink to the nations alone, and therefore I had gladly offered myself for this ministry; but among the other nations, nay rather before the other nations, I gave drink to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah and to its kings and princes, to make them an astonishment and a desolation and a hissing and a curse, as is also proved by the present example'. Hence he also says above: You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived; you were stronger, and you prevailed!