Jeremiah 30

This word, which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Thus says the Lord God of Israel, saying: Write for yourself in a book all the words which I have spoken to you! For behold, days will come, says the Lord, and I will turn back the turning of my people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will turn them back — or I will make them settle — into the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. While the false prophets in Babylon were promising that the people who had been taken captive with Jeconiah would soon return, and while Hananiah son of Azzur was preaching the same things in Jerusalem, Jeremiah the prophet both asserted that this would indeed come to pass, not within two years, as they lied, but when the seventy years were finished, and now he is ordered to write in a book and to hand down to remembrance the things which the Lord foretells are to come. From this it is plain that the time of the prophecy is by no means near, but that these things are to be fulfilled after a long time, when Israel and Judah are to return to their land, and that what Ezekiel prophesied is to be fulfilled: that the two rods are to be joined together with each other, and that David the king will rule, of whom he writes: and my servant David shall be king over them, and there shall be one shepherd of them all. Whatever, therefore, we said on that prophecy must be understood in the present passage as well, especially since Ezekiel in Babylon and Jeremiah in Jerusalem prophesied the same things, and at the same time.

The length of the book of Jeremiah the prophet overcomes our purpose, so that, however briefly, we nonetheless say much. Hence the present sixth book of the commentaries on Jeremiah will also contain the mystical promises which the Jews, and our Judaizers, think are to be fulfilled at the consummation of the world; for they cannot prove that they were already fulfilled under Zerubbabel. We, however, following the authority of the apostles and evangelists, and above all of the Apostle Paul, show that whatever is promised carnally to the people of Israel has been fulfilled spiritually in us and is being fulfilled today, and that there is no other contest between Jews and Christians but this: that, while they and we both believe that Christ the Son of God has been promised, the things that are to be under Christ are said by us to have been fulfilled, by them to be yet fulfilled. We, therefore, who believe that Christ has already come, must teach that the things which are said to be going to take place under Christ have been fulfilled, and that we are the sons of Abraham, of whom it is written: God is able from these stones to raise up sons to Abraham, to whom the promise was made: and in your seed all the nations shall be blessed. Teaching that this blessing was fulfilled in Christ, the vessel of election says: he did not say, he says, in seeds, but in seed, which is Christ. Pray, therefore, brother Eusebius, to the Lord Jesus Christ, that with the same labor and grace of the Spirit with which we have interpreted the promises of the other prophets, and especially of Isaiah, we may be able to explain those of this prophet also, who, as much as he seems simple and easy in his words, is in the same measure most profound in the majesty of his meanings.

And these are the words which the Lord spoke to Israel and to Judah, for thus says the Lord: We have heard a voice of terror — or of fear —; dread, and there is no peace. Ask and see whether a male gives birth! Why then have I seen the hand of every man upon his loins, as of a woman giving birth, and all faces have been turned into jaundice? First sad things are announced, so that after the greatness of the evils glad things may follow; for health is more welcome when sickness has been driven off, and the greatness of pain is turned into a greatness of joys. What he says, then, is this: so great will be the fear and so great the dread that, peace having been put to flight, all things will be filled with wars and blood, and that a womanish terror will take hold even of the men, whose proper task is to fight against adversaries, and they will put their hands by no means to arms but to holding their kidneys, as if a woman giving birth were clutching her flanks and loins. Hence also the faces of all will be turned into jaundice, testifying by the pallor of the countenance to the terror of the heart. Some interpret this passage according to tropology in such a way that they set down that testimony: From your fear, O Lord, we have conceived and travailed and brought forth; we have made the spirit of your salvation upon the earth, and they compare to this example that saying of the Apostle in which he says: My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you; which plainly pertains not to terror but to joy, whereas the present Scripture signifies the time of the devastation and ruin of Israel.

Woe, for great is that day, nor is there any like it, and it is the time of the tribulation of Jacob! and from it he shall be saved. He foretells the time of misery in order to bring in the time of joy. 'Although,' he says, 'such great evils have gone before that the pain of all the men is compared to the pain of a woman giving birth, yet the time of the tribulation of Jacob, that is, of the people of God, will be changed into prosperity, and from it too he shall be saved' — 'time' is understood —, 'of which the discourse had spoken'. But by 'Jacob' understand the twelve tribes, which were saved by no means under Zerubbabel, as some falsely suppose, but by the calling of the Gospel.

And it shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will break his yoke from off your neck and I will burst his bonds, and strangers shall no longer rule over him, but they shall serve — or work for — the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. This is the David whom the Gospel also mentions: that he would grant us that, without fear, delivered from the hand of our enemies, we might serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. For just as a first Adam and a second Adam are written of according to the truth of the body, so also the Lord and Savior is David, because according to the flesh he is from David, holy Mary contributing to him wholly whatever was of the stock of David, while she had the origin and conception from the Holy Spirit. And as for his saying: I will break his yoke from off your neck and I will burst his bonds, there is no doubt that under the type of Nebuchadnezzar it must be understood of the devil.

"I shall raise up David their king for them." Christ the Lord brought fulfillment to the prophecy. He sprang from David according to the flesh, and he no longer shepherds only Israel but all the nations. The prophecy had a kind of outcome by way of shadow and type in the time of Zerubbabel as well.

You therefore, do not fear, my servant Jacob, says the Lord, nor be afraid, Israel, for behold, I will save you from a far-off land, and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return and be at rest and abound in all things, and there shall be none whom he fears, since I am with you, says the Lord, to save you. For I will make a full end among all the nations among which I have scattered you; but you I will not bring to a full end, but I will chastise — or instruct — you in judgment, so that you may not seem to yourself guiltless or and cleansing, I will not cleanse you. This perikopē [passage] is not found in the Seventy, and in very many manuscripts of the common edition it has been added under asterisks from Theodotion. The divine word makes a promise and, more familiarly, calls Jacob and Israel 'his servant', just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are called 'servants of God' — Moses too and the other prophets, and the Apostle Paul at the beginning of his epistles glories in this title —, so that both the two and the ten tribes, that is, the twelve, may know that they are to be saved from a far-off land, that the captivity is to be loosed and peace restored, and that they are to be filled with all abundance, according to what is said in the psalm: Let there be peace in your strength and abundance in your towers!

And this will come about because they will enjoy the presence of the Lord, when the hostile nations which had captured them will perish and these will be set free from among the nations. And he teaches that they were handed over by no means to punishment but to instruction, so that they might be judged as his own, not destroyed as strangers; for he who does not believe has already been judged, that is, judged beforehand unto destruction. And what he added: so that you may not seem to yourself guiltless, or according to Symmachus: and cleansing, I will not cleanse you, or according to Aquila: when I have instructed you through judgment, I will by no means make you innocent, signifies that the whole world stands in need of the mercy of God, and that no one, however holy he may be, goes to the judge secure; against the new heresy sprung from the old, which supposes that in this age and in this mortal flesh, before this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, there is perfection in anyone, and that the righteous man can fulfill all the virtues at once.

Although we say that trial is twofold, that is, in prosperity and in adversity, yet you must know that all people are tried in three different ways. Often they are tried for their probation, sometimes for their improvement, and in some cases because their sins deserve it. For their probation indeed! We read that the blessed Abraham and Job and many of the saints endured countless tribulations.… For improvement, because God chastens his righteous ones for some small and venial sins or to raise them to a higher state of purity, and he delivers them over to various trials that he may purge away all their unclean thoughts, and, to use the prophet's word, the "dross," which he sees to have collected in their secret parts. Thus may he transmit them like pure gold to the judgment to come, as he allows nothing to remain in them for the fire of judgment to discover when hereafter it searches them with penal torments according to this saying: "Many are the tribulations of the righteous." … To whom under the figure of Jerusalem the following words are spoken by Jeremiah, in the person of God: "I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished." … But as a punishment for sins, the blows of trial are inflicted, as where the Lord threatens that he will send plagues on the people of Israel: "I will send the teeth of beasts on them, with the fury of creatures that trail on the ground," and "In vain have I struck your children. They have not received correction." … We find, it is true, a fourth way also in which we know on the authority of Scripture that some sufferings are brought on us simply for the manifestation of the glory of God and his works, according to these words of the Gospel: "Neither did this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him," and again, "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified by it." … The perfect person will always remain steadfast in either kind of trial; now let us return to it once more.

For thus says the Lord: Incurable is your fracture, most grievous your wound. There is none who judges your judgment for binding up; there is no benefit of healings for you. All your lovers have forgotten you, they will not seek you; for I have struck you with the blow of an enemy, with cruel chastisement — or strong —. Because of the multitude of your iniquity have become hard — or have been multiplied — your sins. Why do you cry out over your crushing? Incurable is your pain; because of the multitude of your iniquity and because of your hard sins I have done these things to you. He speaks as to a beautiful woman, to whom he had said above: I will chastise you in judgment, so that you may not seem to yourself guiltless or innoxia [guiltless, in the feminine]; and by metaphoran [metaphor] he speaks to Jerusalem, that she has been most grievously wounded by the judgment of God and can be healed by no other curing her except him who had struck her — there is none, he says, who judges your judgment — nor draw the skin of a scar over the deepest wound. 'Wherever you turn, there is no benefit for you, because you have offended him who is the true and only physician. All your lovers have forgotten you, whether the priests or the princes, or at any rate the protection of the angels by which, before you offended the Lord, you were walled about. They will not seek you, acting contrary to the Apostle, who sought the believers and not the things which were the believers'; for I have struck you with the blow of an enemy, with cruel chastisement.' A friend strikes in one way, an enemy in another; a father in one way, a foe in another. The one beats in order to correct, the other strikes in order to kill; hence the prophet too says tearfully: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chasten me in your wrath! But this has happened because because of the multitude of your iniquity your sins have become hard. And what follows: Why do you cry out over your crushing? Incurable is your pain because of the multitude of your iniquity, is not found in the Seventy, evidently because it is said a second time: because of the multitude of your iniquity and your hard sins, and those who copied from the beginning thought it had been added. And the sense is: 'That I struck you with the blow of an enemy, that I beat you with cruel chastisement, the multitude of your iniquity and your hard sins brought about, which could not be healed except by the most biting powder and the burning cautery and the sharpest steel, with which I might cut away the putrid and incurable flesh. And yet because of the multitude of your iniquity and your hard sins I have done this to you, not by my own will, but because the method of medicine compelled me'.

But that "contrition" and "a sore of pain through chastisement" are imposed on the soul for the sake of cure, Jeremiah teaches, saying: "Thus said the Lord: I have raised up contrition, thy sore is with pain, there is none that judges thy judgment, thou art cured with pain, there is no profit in thee. All thy friends have forgotten thee, nor will they now inquire concerning thee; because I have smitten thee with the wound of an enemy, with strong chastisement, for all thy iniquity, since thy sins are multiplied. Why criest thou out over thy contrition? Thy pain is violent, because of the multitude of thy iniquities thy sins have prevailed and have done these things to thee. Therefore all who devour thee shall be devoured, and all thine enemies shall devour their own flesh; and those who afflicted thee shall be in affliction, and all who devastated thee I will give over to plunder; for I will recall thy health, and from the pain of thy wound I will recall thee, said the Lord."

Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your enemies shall be led into captivity, and those who lay you waste shall be laid waste, and all your plunderers I will give up as plunder. For I will draw a scar over you and from your wounds I will heal you, says the Lord, because they have called you cast out — or scattered —, Zion: this is she who had no one seeking her. And we know that these things were done under Zerubbabel too. When the Babylonians and Chaldeans laid waste the Assyrians, that is, Nineveh, and the Medes and Persians in turn captured the Babylonians and Chaldeans and Babylon was destroyed, then Zion began to have the Lord seeking her, and a scar was drawn over her wound and she was healed of her blows; which is fulfilled more fully and more perfectly in Christ.