Jeremiah 27

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying. This is not found in the edition of the Seventy, and many think it is the beginning of the following chapter, which is by no means so; rather, it is to be joined to the preceding one, so that whatever is reported as said and done we should believe to have been done in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim; whence too he had the power of sending into Egypt, as to a friendly king. But the Seventy seem to me to have passed over this title in silence for this reason, lest they should seem to say it a second time; for they had already set down at the beginning: in the beginning of King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying.

Thus says the Lord to me: Make for yourself bonds and chains — or kloious [collars], which in Hebrew are called 'mutoth', and in common speech they call them 'boias' [neck-shackles] — and you shall put them on your neck and you shall send to the king of Edom and to the king of Moab and to the king of the sons of Ammon and to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah. And you shall command them to speak to their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your masters. The previous vision came to the prophet in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, but this one under Zedekiah, who reigned last in Jerusalem and under whom the city was taken and overthrown. And Jeremiah is commanded to put chains, or wooden forks, which, as we have said, are called 'mutoth' in Hebrew, on his neck, and to send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, Tyre and Sidon by the envoys who had come to Zedekiah, and to command them to announce to their masters that they must serve King Nebuchadnezzar and hear the things which the prophet's following discourse goes on to set out. And lest perhaps the envoys and the kings of these nations should answer: 'Why do you not command this to your own people?', he speaks similar things to King Zedekiah too, and to the priests and prophets. This passage the ever-allegorical interpreter, who flees from the truth of history, interprets of the heavenly Jerusalem: that its inhabitants must voluntarily take on bodies and descend into 'Babylon', that is, into the 'confusion' of this world, which is set in the evil one, and serve the Babylonian king, without doubt the devil; and that, if they will not do this, they will by no means bear heavy bodies, but will perish by sword and famine and pestilence, and will by no means become men, but demons. Let this stand as what he said, lest his defenders bring a false charge against us. But as for us, let us follow the simple and true history, lest we be wrapped in certain clouds and illusions.

I made the earth and man and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth, by my great strength and by my outstretched arm, and I gave it to him who pleased in my eyes. Although this scripture speaks anthrōpopathōs [in human terms], in the way that we men can speak and understand, yet the 'strength' of God and his 'arm' is he of whom the Apostle also speaks: 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God', and Isaiah: Lord, who has believed our hearing, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? John the evangelist also writes: all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. David too speaks in his song: by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth. And as for his saying: I gave it to him who pleased in my eyes, this signifies that all things have been granted to the human race through the grace of God. I, he says, made the earth and man and the beasts. The order is reversed; for in Genesis the living creatures are made first and man last, but here he names man first and afterwards the things that are subject to man.

We have long felt that God is angry, yet we do not try to appease him. It is our sins that make the barbarians strong. It is our vices that vanquish Rome's soldiers. As if there were here too little material for carnage, civil wars have made almost greater havoc among us than the swords of foreign foes. Miserable must those Israelites have been compared with whom Nebuchadnezzar was called God's servant. Unhappy too are we who are so displeasing to God that he uses the fury of the barbarians to execute his wrath against us. Still, when Hezekiah repented, 185,000 Assyrians were destroyed in one night by a single angel. When Jehosaphat sang the praises of the Lord, the Lord gave his worshiper the victory. Again, when Moses fought against Amalek, it was not with the sword but with prayer that he prevailed. Therefore, if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves.

Now therefore I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; and moreover I have also given him the beasts of the field, that they may serve him. And all the nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son. Of what great unhappiness is Israel, when in comparison with it Nebuchadnezzar is called 'servant of God'! It is written in the Gospel: the world was made through him, and the world did not know him; he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. Rightly therefore does the Creator hand over his creation to whom he will. Finally the devil too, as whose type Nebuchadnezzar went before, confesses: all these things have been handed over to me. And as for what he added: moreover I have also given him the beasts of the field, that they may serve him, either we ought simply to understand every kind of living creature — for together with man the things subject to him are also handed over — or certainly let us take the 'beasts' as the savage nations, because even those serve which before had not known how to serve.

And his 'son' and 'son's son' — according to the Hebrew — he calls Belshazzar and Evil-merodach, of whom Daniel writes.

Until the time of his land and of himself comes. Fittingly, lest the empire of Nebuchadnezzar be thought perpetual, he says that he himself too is to be taken by the Medes and Persians; for this is what it signifies: until the time of his land and of himself comes. But this too is not found in the Seventy.

And many nations and great kings shall serve him. He did not say 'all' — for this is properly due to the empire of Christ —, although according to Symmachus one does not read: many nations and great kings shall serve him, but: many nations and great kings shall subject him to servitude, so that he himself too, whom all the nations had served before, serves the Medes and Persians. This, which we have set down from the Hebrew: I have given him, that they may serve him, and all the nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son, until the time of his land and of himself comes and many nations and great kings subject him to servitude, is not read, as we have already said, in the edition of the Seventy.

By the mouth of his prophet God called the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar, king of kings. For Jeremiah said, "Every people and kingdom that shall not put his neck into the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of kings, my servant, with famine and with sword and with pestilence will I visit that people." Though he is the great King, God does not begrudge the name of kingship to mortals. Though he is the great God, yet he did not grudge the name of godhead to the children of flesh. Though all fatherhood is his, he has called men fathers too. He said to the congregation, "Instead of your fathers shall be your children." Though authority is his, he has given people authority one over another. While worship is his for honor, he has still allowed in the world for one human being to honor another.… Behold the grace and the love of our good Maker, that he did not begrudge to people the name of godhead and the name of worship, and the name of kingship and the name of authority, because he is the Father of the created things that are over the face of the world, and he has honored and exalted and glorified human beings above all creatures. For with his holy hands he formed them, and with his Spirit he breathed into them, and he became a dwelling place for them from ancient times. He abides in them and walks among them. For he said through the prophet, I will dwell in them and walk in them.

For Jeremiah also prophesied that the Lord commanded them to go into Babylon. He reproved as false prophets any of the other prophets who told the people not to go to Babylon. Let those who read the Scriptures remember this as we do. Let those who do not, give us credit. Jeremiah, then, on the part of God, threatened those who would not go to Babylon, whereas he promised rest to those who would go and even a kind of contentment in the cultivation of their vines, and planting of their gardens and the abundance of their fruits.

But the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and whoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, with sword and famine and pestilence I will visit upon that nation, says the Lord, until I consume them by his hand. Not only does the Lord subject sinful nations to Nebuchadnezzar, but the Apostle too speaks of sinners: whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme; and in another place: I have handed over such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. He also warns that the powers must be obeyed not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience, lest we be condemned by them.

You therefore, do not listen to your prophets and diviners and dreamers and augurs and sorcerers, who say to you: You shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land and to drive you out, and you perish. But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will leave it in its own land, says the Lord, and it shall till it and dwell in it. In this place too the allegorical interpreter raves, and exhorts those set in the heavenly Jerusalem not to hear their prophets and diviners, dreamers and augurs and sorcerers, but rather to serve Nebuchadnezzar and take on the body of humility, infancy, the wailing and the cradles of little ones; for if they do this, when their servitude and the condition of human mortality have been fulfilled, they will return to their land and dwell in it and work the works which they worked before. And he says that he suspects that those who have despised the commands of God to be weighed down with human bodies will become demons and unclean spirits and will by no means regain their former seat. But let us expound simply: that there are among the nations prophets, who pretend that they foretell things to come by a divine spirit; and diviners, of whom there is also the common proverb: 'the wise, they say, divine'; and dreamers, who imitate Joseph and Daniel; and augurs, who by the flight of birds and the voices of omen-birds announce what is to be done or not to be done; and sorcerers, whom we can call either poisoners or those who serve the phantasms of demons, who in Hebrew are called 'chassane'. 'All these', he says, 'deceive you and trip you up, so that you may not serve the king of Babylon'. For it is much better to take up servitude voluntarily and to have as a friend the one you serve, and to till your native land, than to serve as captives by force and necessity.

And to Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke according to all these words, saying: Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and you shall live. Why will you die, you and your people, by sword, famine and pestilence, as the Lord has spoken to the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you: Do not serve the king of Babylon; for they themselves speak a lie to you, for I did not send them, says the Lord, and they prophesy in my name falsely, so that I may drive you out and you perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you. After all the nations he passes to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and speaks with the same words with which he threatened the nations; for he who has sinned sins either like or greater than the other nations does not merit the privilege of the Israelite nation. Finally, because the rebellious people disdained to hear, it was consumed by sword, famine and pestilence. And it is to be observed in holy Scripture that instead of 'false prophets' it calls 'prophets' those who prophesy falsely in the name of the Lord. 'And they do this, so that I', he says, 'may drive you out and you perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you'; therefore the destruction both of those who are deceived and of those who deceive is alike. This, which we have set down from the Hebrew: under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and you shall live. Why will you die, you and your people, by sword, famine and pestilence, as the Lord has spoken to the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, is not found in the Seventy; and therefore I admonish the prudent reader to understand how much is lacking, point by point, in the Greek and Latin codices.

And to the priests and to this people I spoke, saying: Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying: Behold, the vessels of the Lord will return from Babylon now quickly; for they prophesy a lie to you. — This, which we have set down, 'now quickly', is not found in the Seventy, and likewise that which follows: — Do not listen to them, but serve the king of Babylon, that you may live! Why is this city given over to desolation? And after the nations and the king he speaks to the priests and to the people, because he had already announced destruction to the prophets above, saying: so that I may drive you out and you perish, both you and the prophets who prophesy to you. And he speaks the same things which he had spoken to the king and to the nations: that they should not hear the words of their prophets and say that the vessels which had been carried away with Jeconiah and the princes and his mother were to be brought back to the temple of the Lord right now; and he warns them to serve the king of Babylon and live, and that the city, voluntarily subjected, should by no means be handed over to burning. And in this is the clemency of the Lord: to hand them over to a lighter punishment, lest they endure a heavier one.

And if they are prophets and the word of the Lord is in them, let them meet — and what follows, which we are about to subjoin up to the end of this chapter, is not found in the Seventy — the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which had been left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not come into Babylon. For thus says the Lord of hosts to the pillars and to the sea and to the bases — for which in the Hebrew is written 'mechonoth' — and to the rest of the vessels which remained in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take when he carried Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem into Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to the vessels which have been left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem: They shall be carried into Babylon and shall be there until the day of their visitation, says the Lord, and I will cause them to be brought and restored to this place. These words, as we have said, are not found in the Seventy, but have been translated from the Hebrew truth; in place of which they set down something else, which was not written, saying: to me, because thus said the Lord: and the rest of the vessels which the king of Babylon did not take, when he carried Jeconiah from Jerusalem, shall enter Babylon, says the Lord, setting down the sense rather than the words, perhaps thinking it irrational that God should speak to the pillars and to the sea and to the bases and to the rest of the vessels which had remained in Jerusalem — as if we did not read both that the Lord rebuked the morning worm and that he spoke to the sea: be silent and be still! And what he says: let them meet me or the Lord of hosts, shows that a true prophet can withstand the Lord with prayers, in accordance with which Moses too stood in the smiting against the Lord, to turn away the wrath of his fury; Samuel also did the same. And the Lord to Moses: let me alone, he says, I will strike this people! But when he says: let me alone, he shows that he can be held back by the prayers of the saints. 'Let the prophets meet', he says, 'and let them show whatever they foretell fulfilled in deed, and then the prophecy will be proved by its truth'. Now the pillars and the sea and the bases and the rest of the vessels we read of in Malachim [Kings] and at the end of this prophet's volume; and there are enumerated the vessels that were carried into Babylon when Zedekiah was taken and the city burned and the temple overthrown.