Jeremiah 7

And thus did He send prophets prior to the transmigration to Babylon, and after that event others again in greater number than the former, to seek the fruits, saying thus to them (the Jews): "Thus saith the Lord, Cleanse your ways and your doings, execute just judgment, and look each one with pity and compassion on his brother: oppress not the widow nor the orphan, the proselyte nor the poor, and let none of you treasure up evil against his brother in your hearts, and love not false swearing. Wash you, make you clean, put away evil from your hearts, learn to do well, seek judgment, protect the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow; and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord." And again: "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile; depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it." In preaching these things, the prophets sought the fruits of righteousness.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim — or read — there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah, you who enter by these gates to worship the Lord! This is not found in the edition of the Seventy, but has been added from Theodotion out of the Hebrew. Now the prophet is commanded to stand in the gate of the Lord, through which the multitude of the people enters to pray to the Lord, so that on this occasion they may be able to hear what the Lord commands. By this we understand the hardness of the people of the Jews, in that they held the prophets as liars and madmen, since it is through the occasion and the throng of the place that they are compelled to hear the words of the Lord, and not because they are the words of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make good — or direct — your ways and your pursuits — or your devices — and I will dwell with you in this place or I will make you dwell in this place. The most merciful physician desires to heal the wounded with every remedy. But when he says: make good or correct your ways, he shows that they are perverse and have nothing good in them. And because it is natural that each person loves his native soil and holds nothing sweeter than his fatherland, he promises rewards to the obedient. 'I will dwell,' he says, 'with you, so that I may make you secure about your dwelling, or I will found you yourselves' — according to Symmachus — 'with a firm dwelling', who says: and I will establish you in this place.

"Do not put your hope in deceptive words that say, 'Here is the temple of the Lord,' " that imply you are his temple. They are only trying to assure you that you will never be left by God as though God would decide to preserve his blessed temple and would save his priests even though they are wicked. No! Do not find hope in those who flatter you with these words. If you have not corrected what you are doing, then you are no temple of God, and God will not save you on account of the sacredness of his temple that is desecrated by you. His soul is disgusted by the multitude of your sacrifices that you offer in your wickedness.

If heaven and earth must pass away, obviously all things that are earthly must also pass away. Therefore the spots that witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection profit those only who bear their several crosses, who day by day rise again with Christ and who thus show themselves worthy of an abode so holy. Those who say, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord," should give ear to the words of the apostle: "you are the temple of the Lord," and the Holy Spirit "dwells in you." Access to the courts of heaven is as easy from Britain as it is from Jerusalem, for "the kingdom of God is within you."

Do not trust in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord it is! For if you direct well — or direct — your ways and your pursuits, if you execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not practice false accusation against the stranger and the orphan and the widow — or do not oppress them — and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and do not walk after strange gods to your own harm, I will dwell with you — or I will make you dwell — in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from age to age. This, which the Seventy added at the beginning of this chapter: in words of falsehood, which will not profit you at all, is not found in the Hebrew. He commands both the people of the Jews then and us today, who seem to be established in the Church, not to have confidence in the splendor of buildings and in gilded ceilings and in walls clad with veneers of marble, and say: the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord it is. For that is the temple of the Lord in which true faith dwells, holy conduct, and the choir of all the virtues.

Then he adds: 'if you make your ways straight, and your thought does not go off after error, and you follow righteousness and do not commit evil, and do not shed innocent blood by scandalizing every simple person, and do not walk after strange gods by worshipping perverse doctrines which you have feigned out of your own heart to your own harm, then either I will dwell with you in this place, which you call the temple of God, and in the land which I gave to your fathers, namely the apostles and apostolic men, or at any rate with a firm standing I will make you dwell from the beginning to the end.' This can also suit those virgins who boast of their chastity and display purity with a shameless face, while their conscience holds something else, and who do not know that definition of virginity given by the Apostle, that she be holy in body and in spirit. For what does purity of body profit when the mind has been debauched, if she does not have the other virtues which the prophetic word has described?

Behold, you trust in words of falsehood — or lying words —, which will not profit you: to steal, to kill, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to pour libations to the Baals, and to go after strange gods whom you do not know. And you came and stood before me in this house, in which my name has been called upon, and you said: We are delivered — or we have ceased — because we have done all these abominations. The sins that follow show that they have confidence in the temple in vain. For what does it profit to cross boldly the threshold of the house of God, to stand with neck held high, and to have not only the heart but also the hands polluted with theft, murder, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, and the worship of those gods whom you do not know? No one doubts that this happens spiritually in the Church, when people, considering the prosperity of the present time, do not take account of their sins and think that they are hidden from God, because punishment does not follow at once; nay rather, they break out into such madness that they think themselves delivered because after their evil works they have even withdrawn from the worship of the Lord.

Has this house — or my house —, in which my name has been called upon, become a den of robbers in your eyes? I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord. From this passage, I think, was taken what is in the Gospel: It is written: My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers, or, as is written in another Gospel, a house of trade. The Church of God is turned into a den of robbers when theft, murder, adultery, perjury, sacrilege, the invention of heresy and every crime are at home in it, when princes burn with the torches of avarice and a cheap, or at any rate not cheap, little cloak possesses what were once the riches of kings. Hence he adds: 'I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord; my eyes have beheld what you think hidden; the darkness of your treasuries does not escape my knowledge'. He who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake, now blushes at our riches and says: Woe to you rich, who have your consolation!

And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. [Jeremiah 7:11] And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. [Jeremiah 7:11]

Wherefore, brethren, if we do the will of God our Father, we shall be of the first Church, that is, spiritual, that hath been created before the sun and moon; but if we do not the will of the Lord, we shall be of the scripture that saith, "My house was made a den of robbers." So then let us choose to be of the Church of life, that we may be saved.

Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name dwelt from the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel! From the past he teaches the present, and to those who say: the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord and who rejoice in the gleam of a costly house he recalls the history of Shiloh, where the tabernacle of God first was, of which it is written in the psalm: and he rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, so that, just as that place collapsed into ruins and ashes, so the temple too may fall, since it has been the dwelling of like sins. Therefore, just as Shiloh is an example for the temple, so is the temple for us, when the time of that testimony comes: Do you think the Son of Man, when he comes, will find faith on the earth?

And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, and you did not hear, and I called you and you did not answer, I will do to this house, in which my name has been called upon and in which you have confidence, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh, and I will cast you out from my face, as I cast out all your brothers, the whole seed of Ephraim. This which we have set down: rising early and speaking, is not found in the Seventy. Now God rises early, not because there is any time for him without daybreak, but because after the rest of the night, when the strength of the body has been restored, the soul of men is more vigorous and, in no way occupied with pleasures and the desire for food, is able to hear and to do what is said. Hence we also read this in the psalm: In the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before you and will see; and in Isaiah: By night — or at daybreak — my spirit will rise to you, O God, for your precepts are light upon the earth. Hence also the apostle Paul calls them sons of light, and not of night nor of darkness, nor sleepers, as the others too have slept, who do not perceive the commandments of God.

Since, therefore, God called them, rising by night, so that he might free them too from darkness, he threatens them that he will do to the temple in Jerusalem things like those he did to the place Shiloh, where the tabernacle first was, so that like sins may be struck by an equal sentence. And just as the Lord cast out the seed of Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, which were called Israel and had princes on account of Jeroboam son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, which was likewise called the tribe of Joseph, so he testifies that he will also cast away Jerusalem and the tribe of Judah with Benjamin. He cast away Shiloh, therefore, and he will cast away the temple too; he cast away the ten tribes, and he will cast away the two as well. Whatever is said to that people, let us understand it of ourselves too, if we do like things.

Rightly, then, is it said, "Who shall entreat for him?" It implies that it must be such a one as Moses to offer himself for those who sin. Or such as Jeremiah, who, though the Lord said to him, "Pray not for this people," yet prayed and obtained their forgiveness. For at the intercession of the prophet and the entreaty of so great a seer, the Lord was moved. And Jerusalem, which had meanwhile repented for its sins, had said, "O Almighty Lord God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the troubled spirit cries to you. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy."

[Daniel 9:2] "I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Jeremiah, that seventy years would be accomplished for the desolation of Jerusalem." Jeremiah had predicted seventy years for the desolation of the Temple (Jeremiah 29:1-10), at the end of which the people would again return to Judaea and build the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. But this fact did not render Daniel careless, but rather encouraged him to pray that God might through his supplications fulfil that which He had graciously promised. Thus he avoided the danger that carelessness might result in pride, and pride cause offense to the Lord. Accordingly we read in Genesis that prior to the Deluge one hundred and twenty years were appointed for men to come to repentance (Genesis 6:3); and inasmuch as they refused to repent even within so long an interval of time as a hundred years, God did not wait for the remaining twenty years to be fulfilled, but brought on the punishment earlier which He had threatened for a later time. So also Jeremiah is told, on account of the hardness of the heart of the Jewish people: "Pray not for this people, for I will not hearken unto thee" (Jeremiah 7:16). Samuel also was told: "How long wilt thou mourn over Saul? I also have rejected him" (1 Samuel 16:1). And so it was with sackcloth and ashes that Daniel besought the Lord to fulfil what He had promised, not that Daniel lacked faith concerning the future, but rather he would avoid the danger that a feeling of security might produce carelessness, and carelessness produce an offense to God.

You, therefore, do not pray for this people, nor take up praise and prayer for them — or nor ask that they obtain mercy, — and do not withstand me, for I will not hear you. So that the prophet may not seem, in asking, to fail to obtain what he requests, God commands him not to intercede for a sinful people that does no repentance at all. But when he says: and do not resist me, he shows this, that the prayers of the saints can resist the wrath of God. Hence the Lord also speaks to Moses: Let me go, that I may strike this people, and I will make you into a great nation; and in the Psalms it is written: And Phinehas stood and appeased, and the shaking ceased, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Aaron too, seizing a censer, stood in the midst between the fire and the people about to burn, and the wrath of God ceased. And lest we think God cruel, since he does not even allow himself to be entreated, he gives the reasons why he does not hear, saying:

And with regard to the deluge again He did the self-same thing, by His acts excusing Himself to Noah. And also to Ezekiel in like manner, when He caused him dwelling in Babylon to see men's evil deeds in Jerusalem. And yet again to Jeremiah, when He said, "Pray not," excusing Himself He added, "Seest thou not what they do?" And everywhere He doeth the selfsame thing, as here also. For what saith He? "The men of Nineveh shall rise up, and shall condemn this generation, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."

Just as God knows how to heal, so does he furthermore know how to smite. He knows how to make peace but likewise permits evils. He prefers repentance but moreover commands Jeremiah not to pray for the reversal of ills on behalf of the sinful people. He says, "If they will fast, I still will not listen to their plea." And again: "Do not pray to me on behalf of the people, and do not request on their behalf in prayer and supplication, since I will not listen to them in the time when they shall have invoked me, in the time of their affliction." And further he, the same One who prefers mercy above sacrifice, says, "And do not pray to me on behalf of this people, and do not request that they may obtain mercy, and do not approach me on their behalf, since I will not listen to them in the time wherein they shall have invoked me, in the time of their affliction."

Do you not see what these are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The sons gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women sprinkle fat, to make cakes — or chauonas — for the queen — or the host — of heaven, and to pour libations to strange gods and to provoke me to anger. Is it me they provoke to anger? says the Lord, is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own face? 'Do you wish,' he says, 'to hear, prophet, why I said to you: do not pray for this people? They do these things that follow: both within and without and in the streets and in the outlets of Jerusalem the sons carry together wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women sprinkle fat with flour to make chauonim' — which we have rendered 'cakes' or 'preparations', so that it shows every kind of sacrifice to the queen of heaven, whom we should take to be the moon, or at any rate to the host of heaven, so that we understand all the stars — 'and after this they pour libations to strange gods, not that these exist, but in that under their names they burn incense to demons, and they provoke me to anger by doing these things. Nor do the wretches understand that this contention does not harm me, whom anger never changes, but themselves, to the confusion of their own face and to everlasting disgrace.' Whatever, therefore, we do, we do not harm God, who can never be harmed, but we prepare destruction for ourselves, storing up wrath for the day of wrath. And he set down the different tasks of the sons and of the fathers and of the mothers, or wives, so that there may be no age that has dissented from the impiety.

You will find at least in the book of Jeremiah the words of God censuring by the mouth of the prophet the Jewish people for doing obeisance to such objects and for sacrificing to the queen of heaven and to all the host of heaven. The writings of the Christians, moreover, show, in censuring the sins committed among the Jews, that when God abandoned that people on account of certain sins, these sins of idol worship also were committed by them.

For this is why He at all threatens punishment; that by fear He may destroy contempt; and when the threat alone is sufficient to cause fear in us, He doth not suffer us to undergo the actual trial. See, for instance, what He saith unto Jeremiah, "Seest thou not what they do? Their fathers light a fire, their children gather sticks together, their women knead dough." It is to be feared lest the same kind of thing be said also concerning us. "Seest thou not what they do? No one seeketh the things of Christ, but all their own. Their children run into uncleanness, their fathers into covetousness and rapine, their wives so far from keeping back their husbands from the pomps and vanities of life, do rather sharpen their appetites for them."

For "God" is "jealous" and does not wish the soul which he has betrothed to himself in faith to remain in the defilement of sin, but wishes her quickly to be purged, wishes her swiftly to cast off all her uncleannesses, if perhaps anything has stolen upon her. But if she remain in sins and say: we will not hear the voice of the Lord, but doing we will do our own wills and will burn offerings "to the queen of heaven", as is reproached through the prophet: then she too is reserved for that sentence of wisdom which says: "since indeed I called and you would not hear, but mocked my words; therefore I too will laugh at your destruction", or for that which is set before them in the Gospel, the Lord saying: "depart from me into eternal fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his angels".

Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my fury and my indignation is kindled — or has dripped — upon this place, upon men and upon beasts and upon the trees of the region and upon the fruits of the earth, and it will be set alight and will not be quenched. He who had said above: Is it me they provoke to anger?, how does he now say: Behold, my fury and my indignation has dripped upon this place? And the sense is: 'I indeed am not angered by nature, but they act in such a way as to provoke me to anger, so that I seem to change my nature. Let them, therefore, feel me angry, which, so far as in them lies, they are trying to bring about.' And beautifully he does not say: 'has been poured out' my fury upon this place, but: has dripped, so as to signify a moderate punishment. But if in a drop of fury there is such harshness, what will happen if the whole downpour is poured out? But 'kindling' too can be understood thus: that what he long did not wish to do, he is compelled to do by the multitude of sins. And when God is angry, both men and the things that are men's will feel a like destruction. 'And it will be set alight', he says — no doubt the fury of the Lord — 'and will not be quenched, because the people do not do the things through which it could be quenched.'

HOW HAS THE LORD IN LEVITICUS COMMANDED THAT SACRIFICES AND LIBATIONS BE OFFERED, WHICH ELSEWHERE HE REJECTS? FOR IT IS CLEAR IN LEVITICUS THAT THE LORD COMMANDED THE FATHERS TO OFFER LIBATIONS OR SACRIFICES OR BURNT OFFERINGS: YET HE SAYS THEREFORE THROUGH THE PROPHET JEREMIAH: THEREFORE SAYS THE LORD, GATHER YOUR BURNT OFFERINGS WITH YOUR SACRIFICES, AND EAT FLESH; FOR I DID NOT SPEAK TO YOUR FATHERS, NOR DID I COMMAND THEM, IN THE DAY THAT I BROUGHT THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT (Jer. 7:21–22) ABOUT BURNT OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES. — If you look closely, there is really no question to be raised on this matter; nor should you think the Lord lied or changed, as if he commanded and later denied. For of this kind of sacrifices and drink offerings or burnt offerings, nothing is found that he commanded, regarding those of which he now testifies that he spoke. Notice that there are two kinds of sacrifices: one which was commanded to be offered for each specific kind, and another which was called voluntary. As for that which was commanded to be offered in various kinds, whether for sins or for firstborn, it was prescribed what it was, of what sort, and how it was to be offered. But the voluntary sacrifice was certainly not commanded, because it was left to free choice, so that if anyone wished to offer, he would offer what seemed good to him; for these sacrifices were voluntary. And because they offered these carelessly and rashly, without considering that whoever offers to one greater should offer chosen gifts, it is therefore said to them, I did not command you about these: but if you wish to offer, you ought to offer what is worthy. Therefore it is found that Cain also sinned, when he did not consider that what is better ought to be offered to God. For when they claimed to offer these to appease God, in that very act they provoked God to anger, so that in what they said they were doing well, they sinned by offering unworthy burnt offerings to God. Therefore he says in the prophet Malachi: “If you bring a blind or lame or sick animal as a victim, it is not good. Offer it to your leader or governor; if he will receive you, says the Lord almighty” (Mal. 1:8). From this it is that through Isaiah God complains of the same matter, saying: “What are your sheep of burnt offering to me? Nor in your sacrifices have you honored me. For I did not make you for this purpose, that you should toil over incense, or that you should buy incense for me with silver; nor have I desired the fat of your sacrifices: instead, you have stood before me in your sins and iniquities” (Isa. 1:11). It is therefore clear that complaints arose because, while they were offering voluntary sacrifices, they were not honoring God in them, since they offered what was unworthy, although these were in no way a matter of necessity. For if they had been commanded, they would seem to offer whatever they could by necessity; but when they offered these of their own free will, they ought to have offered such things as would show God’s service in themselves. But because their mind wandered through the desire for idols, they acted in these matters without due thought. Therefore they are reproached in a twofold way, because they dared to offer to God while acting wickedly, and they offered things that were unworthy; since wicked deeds are not redeemed by sacrifices, but by weeping and mercy. Therefore David, when he had sinned, says: “If you had willed it, I would have given sacrifices: surely you will not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifice to God is a regretful spirit; and a broken and humbled heart God does not despise” (Ps. 50:18–19). Finally, Samuel says to Saul, who, after he had despised the command of the Lord, thought God could be appeased by a sacrifice: “For,” he says, “God does not desire sacrifice more than that his voice be heard” (1 Sam. 15:22). And Scripture says: “I desire mercy rather than sacrifice” (Hos. 6:6). The Jews, though unjust and without mercy, thought God could be made favorable by offerings; just as even now certain people, despising righteousness, think they are to be praised for their offerings. An offering is therefore good, if righteousness is preserved and mercy is not neglected; because what we ask for ourselves, we must also grant to others.

You are blessed who are delivered from the curse. Christ, the Son of God, by his coming has confirmed and completed the law but has taken away the additional precepts, although not all of them, yet at least the more grievous ones. He confirmed the former and abolished the latter, and he has again set the free will of humankind at liberty. He does not subject them to the penalty of a temporal death but gives laws to them according to another constitution. For this reason, he says, "If anyone will come after me, let him come." And again, "Will you also go away?" And besides, before his coming he refused the sacrifices of the people, while they frequently offered them, when they sinned against him and thought he was to be appeased by sacrifices but not by repentance.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your victims and eat flesh, for I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not command them on the day that I led them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offerings and victims, but this word I commanded them, saying: Hear my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people, and walk in every way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Having rejected their temple, he consequently rejects their sacrifices too, and indirectly reproves them because they sacrifice victims not out of reverence for him but out of desire for feasting. But when he says: I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not command them on the day that I led them out of the land of Egypt, about the matter of the burnt offering and of victims, it is clearly understood that he first gave the Decalogue, written on tablets of stone by the finger of God, and that after the offense of idolatry and the head of the calf he afterward commanded that it be done to himself rather than to demons, taking away the pure religion of the commandments of God and granting the blood of victims and the craving for flesh.

It is made clear also from this that the obsolete prescriptions of the law had been imposed because of Israel's limitations. Since they had learned in Egypt how to sacrifice to idols, he wanted to separate them from those practices—in all the prophets he rejects them, remember—yet out of consideration for their limitations he utters this remark, "Eat flesh," that is, Although I reject the sacrifices, I shall not oppose your partaking of flesh. After all, he declares in the law that those wishing to partake of flesh in their own cities and towns should "perform the sacrifice, but pour out the blood on the ground and then partake of the sacrifice," not as though they were offering it as a sacrifice but as ordinary flesh, as part of the prohibition imposed on performing sacred rites outside the designated place.

He has therefore abolished these things, that the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is without the yoke of necessity, might have a human oblation. And again He says to them, "Did I command your fathers, when they went out from the land of Egypt, to offer unto Me burnt-offerings and sacrifices? But this rather I commanded them, Let no one of you cherish any evil in his heart against his neighbour, and love not an oath of falsehood." We ought therefore, being possessed of understanding, to perceive the gracious intention of our Father; for He speaks to us, desirous that we, not going astray like them, should ask how we may approach Him. To us, then, He declares, "A sacrifice [pleasing] to God is a broken spirit; a smell of sweet savour to the Lord is a heart that glorifieth Him that made it." We ought therefore, brethren, carefully to inquire concerning our salvation, lest the wicked one, having made his entrance by deceit, should hurl us forth from our [true] life.

In a manner most germane to this parable, He said by Jeremiah: "Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you." This is the invitation of God. "But," says He, "they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear." This is the refusal of the people. "They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart." "I have bought a field-and I have bought some oxen-and I have married a wife." And still He urges them: "I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early even before day-light." The Holy Spirit is here meant, the admonisher of the guests. "Yet my people hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck."

And they did not hear nor incline their ear, but they went off in the wills — or desires — and the depravity of their evil heart, and they became backward and not forward, from the day on which their fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day. 'When I said: Hear my voice and I will be your God and the rest, they did not hear nor incline their ear, but they did the desires of their own heart, and against the judgment of the Apostle, who forgot what lay behind and stretched himself toward what lay before, they did the contrary, so as to desire the past and despise the future.' And when he says: from the day on which their fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, he says that they spent all the time in between in offense against the Lord. Hence the grace of the Gospel was also necessary, which saved them not by their own merit but by the mercy of the Lord.

And I sent to you my servants, the prophets, by day, rising at daybreak and sending; and they did not hear me nor incline their ear, but they hardened their neck and wrought worse than their fathers. Just, therefore, is the wrath of the Lord, which has been kindled and has dripped upon a contemptuous and stiff-necked people that refuses to hear the words of God. But how God sends the prophets either by night or at daybreak and by day, we have said above.

When the whole world was oppressed by the darkness of the devil. When the gloom brought on by sin had laid hold of the world. At the last age, when night had already fallen, this sun deigned to bring forth the rising of his birth. Before the light, before the sun of justice shone, he sent the oracle of the prophets as a kind of dawning, as it is written: "I sent my prophets before the light."

And you will speak to them all these words, and they will not hear you; and you will call them, and they will not answer you. And you will say to them: This is the nation that has not heard the voice of the Lord its God nor received discipline; faith has perished and has been taken away from their mouth. 'Do not doubt,' he says, 'that they have hardened their neck and wrought worse than their fathers; behold, I give room for repentance, and I do not speak in order that these things may happen, but because they are going to happen, therefore I foretell them. At least now speak to them with my words, and yet they will not hear you; and you will call them, and they will not answer you; for they will be of such pride that, when you call them to hear, no one will deign to answer. And you will say to them: This is the nation that has not heard the voice of the Lord its God nor received discipline'. Beautifully, as I have already said before, he calls them not at all his people, but a nation. And although this was in part done in the time of the prophets too, and went before in shadow and in image, yet it is more fully fulfilled in Christ, when they refused to receive discipline and despised the voice of their Lord. Hence it is fittingly added: faith has perished, which belongs properly to Christians, and has been taken away from their mouth, namely every confession of the Son of God and of the faith.

But last of all He sent to those unbelievers His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the wicked husbandmen cast out of the vineyard when they had slain Him. Wherefore the Lord God did even give it up (no longer hedged around, but thrown open throughout all the world) to other husbandmen, who render the fruits in their seasons—the beautiful elect tower being also raised everywhere. For the illustrious Church is [now] everywhere, and everywhere is the winepress digged: because those who do receive the Spirit are everywhere. For inasmuch as the former have rejected the Son of God, and cast Him out of the vineyard when they slew Him, God has justly rejected them, and given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the fruits of its cultivation. This is in accordance with what Jeremiah says, "The Lord hath rejected and cast off the nation which does these things; for the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord."

Shear your hair and cast it away, and take up in the open — or upon the lips — a lament, for the Lord has cast off and forsaken the generation of his fury. We read that Job too, on hearing of the death of his sons and daughters, sheared his hair, and among the ancients this was the custom of all who mourned, to shear the locks; but now, on the contrary, to let the hair grow long is the sign of mourning. And all the prophet's lament and lamentation is taken up for this reason, for the Lord has cast off and forsaken the generation of his fury; no doubt he signifies the people of the Jews. And this is properly to be referred to the times of Christ, when faith perished and was taken away from the mouth of the people blaspheming the Lord.

For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their stumbling blocks in the house in which my name has been called upon, to pollute it, and they have built the high places — or the altar — of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire, which I did not command nor think of in my heart. That the sons of Judah set up a statue of Baal in the temple of God we learn at the beginning of Ezekiel. Now 'high places', which in Hebrew are called 'bamath', or 'altar' of Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, signifies that place which is watered by the springs of Siloam, and is pleasant and wooded, and to this day offers the delights of gardens. And this error of paganism took hold of all the provinces, so that they sacrificed victims at the heads of springs and in the loveliest groves, and the observance of every depraved superstition was kept. 'Tofeth' in the Hebrew tongue means 'breadth', and it is said to be written in the book of Joshua son of Nun about this place, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom and in Hebrew is called 'gehennom'; for 'ge' signifies pharanga, that is, 'valley', and 'hennom' signifies either a man's name or 'grace'. And the Hebrews hand down that 'gehennam' was named from this place, because, namely, the whole people of the Jews perished there by offending God, in which place they also consecrated their sons in fire to idols or offered them as a burnt offering, which he had not commanded them nor ordered by any sanction of the law. But if Jephthah offered his virgin daughter to God, it is not the sacrifice that pleases, but the mind of the one offering; for if a dog or an ass or any unclean animal whatever had first met the father as he returned from the slaughter of the enemy, he ought not to have offered it to God.

Therefore, behold, the days will come, says the Lord, and it will no longer be called Topheth and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of killing, and they will bury in Topheth because there is no room. And the carcasses of this people will be food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth, and there will be none to drive them away. He signifies the time of the siege, which they endured from the ninth year of King Zedekiah to the eleventh year, and that the valley itself will by no means be called 'gehennom', that is, 'valley of hennom', or 'of the sons of Hinnom', but, on account of the killing of very many, 'valley of slaughter'. And so great will the slaughter be that in the place formerly of worship there will be innumerable tombs, and those whom they cannot bury will be torn by birds and devoured by beasts, and there will be no one to drive them away, since he fears the like and is overcome by the duties of burying. We pass quickly over what is plain, so that, wherever there is occasion, we may linger over what is obscure. For the very size of the book can cause weariness to readers; how much more if it were discussed by us at greater length!

And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will be in desolation. When the place of idolatry has been turned into tombs, so that where they had offended God, there their corpses lie unburied, all gladness will be taken away from the city of Jerusalem that once was and from the other cities that were under its dominion, and all things will be filled with sorrow and groaning and desolation.