Jeremiah 8

At that time, says the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the king of Judah and the bones of his princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of those who dwelt in Jerusalem, from their graves. And they shall spread them out to the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked and which they have sought and worshiped. They shall not be gathered and shall not be buried; they shall be for a dunghill upon the face of the earth. And all who remain of this most wicked family shall choose death rather than life, in all the places that are left, to which I have cast them out, says the Lord of hosts. All the things that the prophetic word describes we see to have happened in our own time, not to Jerusalem alone, which suffered these things from the Chaldeans and the Romans, but to the whole world, so that tears have dried up and everything has been filled with the bones of the dead. And because, according to ancient custom, they used to lay up gold and certain ornaments, whether of women or of men, in tombs, avarice broke these open too and dug them up, so as to expose them to the sky and the light. And therefore first the bones of the kings of Judah and of its princes, of the priests also and of the prophets and of all the people who had been in Jerusalem, were brought out of their tombs, lying open to the sun and the moon and to the sight of all the stars, so that they lay open to the gaze of those whom they had served after forsaking God, and, consumed, were dissolved into a dunghill and ashes; and if anyone of the multitude had been able to escape, to whatever places he came, he would prefer death to life and think destruction the remedy of an unhappy soul.

Have the strength to rise up from the earth. Remember the good Shepherd and how he will pursue and deliver you. And if there are but "two legs or the tip of an ear," leap back from him who has wounded you. Remember the compassion of God, how he heals with olive oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall the memory of what has been written: how he who falls rises again, and he who is turned away turns again. He who has been smitten is healed, and he who is caught by wild beasts escapes. He who confesses is not rejected. The Lord does not wish the death of the sinner but that he return and live. Do not have contempt for yourself, like one who has fallen into the depths of sin.

It is worth our while observing, in what way his sin was forgiven, and how he put away his fault. The event may prove of no slight benefit to us. He did not then defer his repentance. Nor was he careless about it, for as rapid as was his decent into sin, so quick were his tears because of it. Nor did he merely weep, but he wept bitterly. As one who had fallen, so bravely did he spring up again. He knew that the merciful God somewhere says by one of the prophets, "Shall not he that falls arise? And he that backslides, shall he not return?" In returning, therefore, he did not miss the mark, for he continued to be what he had been before, a true disciple.

And pray ye without ceasing in behalf of other men; for there is hope of the repentance, that they may attain to God. For "cannot he that falls arise again, and he that goes astray return?" Permit them, then, to be instructed by you. Be ye therefore the ministers of God, and the mouth of Christ. For thus saith the Lord, "If ye take forth the precious from the vile, ye shall be as my mouth." Be ye humble in response to their wrath; oppose to their blasphemies your earnest prayers; while they go astray, stand ye stedfast in the faith. Conquer ye their harsh temper by gentleness, their passion by meekness. For "blessed are the meek"; and Moses was meek above all men; and David was exceeding meek.

And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Shall he who falls not rise again? And he who has turned away, shall he not return — or shall he not turn away — ? After such great evils he calls to repentance those who were able to remain, or before they come. He has threatened these things; he exhorts them to conversion and gives room for repentance. But what is written according to the Hebrew: and he who has turned away, shall he not turn away, signifies this: that he who has turned away from God, if he is willing to be converted to better things, can also turn the fury of God to better things, and withstand what is coming, and escape the blows by prayers.

God is indeed good to everyone, but he shows his patient endurance especially to those who sin. If you want to hear a paradoxical statement—paradoxical because it is not customary but true for the great piety it reveals—listen. God always seems to be severe to the righteous. But he seems good to sinners and quick to clemency. He restores the one who sinned and fell, and he tells him, "Shall not he who falls get up? Or the one who turns away, shall he not turn back again?" And "Why did the stupid daughter of Judah turn away with a shameless revolting?" And again, "Return to me, and I will return to you."

The very thing I said in the beginning, I say now, that both of these cause us to betray our salvation: placing our courage in our goodness and losing our hope to wickedness. This is why Paul, to protect those who remain in goodness, said, "Let any one who thinks that he stand take heed in fear that he fall." And again: "I am afraid that, after preaching to others, I myself should be disapproved." In order to lift up those who are found fallen in wickedness and to excite them to greater readiness, he bore testimony to the Corinthians. He wrote to them, "I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and have not repented." In this way, he revealed that the sinners do not deserve equal pity with the unrepentant. And the prophet said to them, "Shall not he that falls arise, or he that turns away, shall he not turn back again?" Hence, as long as the "today" is said let us not despair but have good hope in the Master. Let us recognize the vast sea of his philanthropy.

Now then is it not strange that, whilst others do not even now despair of thy salvation, but are continually praying that they may have their member restored to them, thou thyself, having once fallen, art unwilling to get up again, and remainest prostrate, all but crying aloud to the enemy: "Slay me, smite me, spare not?" "Does he who falls not rise up again?" speaks the divine oracle. But thou art striving against this and contradicting it; for if one who has fallen despairs it is as much as to say that he who falls does not rise up again. I entreat thee do not so great a wrong to thyself; do not pour upon us such a flood of sorrow. I do not say at the present time, when thou hast not yet completed thy twentieth year, but even if, after achieving many things, and spending thy whole life in Christ thou hadst, in extreme old age, experienced this attack, even then it would not have been right to despair, but to call to mind the robber who was justified on the cross, the labourers who wrought about the eleventh hour, and received the wages of the whole day.

Doth not David say, Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears; and again, I acknowledge my sin, and mine unrighteousness have I not hid; and yet more, I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my heart. Did not the Prophet answer him when, after the guilt of murder and adultery, penitent for Bathsheba, The Lord also hath put away from thee thy sin? Did not confession deliver the king of Babylon, when condemned after so many sins of idolatry? And what is it that the Lord saith, Shall he who has fallen not arise, and he who has turned not return?

Behold! I promise, I engage, if ye return to your Father with true satisfaction, erring no more, adding nothing to former sins, saying also some humble and mournful words, as, Father, we have sinned before Thee, and are no more worthy to be called Thy sons; straightway shall leave you both that filthy herd, and the unseemly food of husks. Straightway on your return shall the robe be put upon you, and the ring adorn you, and your Father's embrace again receive you. Lo! He saith Himself, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that he turn from his way and live. And again He saith, Shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return? And the Apostle saith, God is able to make him stand.

Just as there is no illness that is incurable for our physician, so the heavenly medicine cannot be powerless in any wound or for any length of time. Therefore, the physician testifies that he is always able to restore health to the one converted. He says, "In returning and rest, you shall be saved." Hence God, through Jeremiah, does not cease to reprove the hardheartedness of certain ones. Instead he says in this way: "When people fall, do they not get up again? If they go astray, do they not turn back? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They have held fast to deceit. They have refused to return." God does not punish the sins in the sinner, if the neck of the sinner is not stiffened.

They have all abandoned him. There is no one who speaks well and does penance for his sins. They follow their own wills like a horse ready for battle. They bend their tongue as a bow. They invent everything, and there is no truth in them.

Why then has this people in Jerusalem turned away with a contentious turning away? They have laid hold of falsehood and they would not return? 'The more I,' he says, 'called them to repentance, the more they withdrew from me, not so much from eagerness to sin as from eagerness to overcome me. For they have laid hold firmly of falsehood, whether idols or whatever perverse things are contrary to truth and righteousness, and they would not return' — he did not say 'they could not' —, 'but with all eagerness they have pursued wicked things'.

Those then who perish, perish against his will. This he testifies against each one of them day by day: "Turn from your evil ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel?" And again: "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not." And: "Why has this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn revolting? They have hardened their faces and refused to return." The grace of the Christ then is at hand every day. For it "wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." It calls all without any exception, saying, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you."

I attended and listened; no one speaks what is good, there is none who does repentance over his sin, saying: What have I done? All have turned to their course, like a horse going with a rush to battle. Called back to repentance, they scorn to listen; nor is it enough for them to have offended against the Lord and to have spoken blasphemy, but all, like horses rushing in hot course to battle, do not reflect on their sin nor say: what have I done? By which we understand that these things are said either of the whole human race, because it is prone to vices, or of the time of the Savior, when all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there was none who did good, there was not even one. Hence he himself also cries out mystically: save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed! But if these things are so, where are those who say that it lies within our will to be free of all sin? No one, he says, speaks what is good, because we shall render account even for an idle word on the day of judgment.

Wherefore it were meet exceedingly to admire the consideration of our Lawgiver, in that, when He might bring forward His illustration from among men, and when He might have spoken of Moses and Elias and John, and others like them, who took no thought; that He might touch them more to the quick, He made mention of the irrational beings. For had He spoken of those righteous men, these would have been able to say, "We are not yet become like them." But now by passing them over in silence, and bringing forward the fowls of the air, He hath cut off from them every excuse, imitating in this place also the old law. Yea, for the old covenant likewise sends to the bee, and to the ant, and to the turtle, and to the swallow. And neither is this a small sign of honor, when the same sort of things, which those animals possess by nature, those we are able to accomplish by an act of our choice.

Jeremiah also says, in like manner: "The turtle and the swallow have known her time, and the sparrows of the field have observed the times of their coming, but my people have not known the judgment of the Lord. How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? The meting out is in vain. The scribes are deceived and confounded. The wise men are dismayed and taken, for they have rejected the word of the Lord." Therefore (as I had begun to say), when God had determined to send to people a teacher of righteousness, he commanded him to be born again a second time in the flesh and to be made in the likeness of humankind himself, to whom he was about to be a guide, and companion and teacher. But since God is kind and merciful to his people, he sent him to those very persons whom he hated, that he might not close the way of salvation against them forever but might give them a free opportunity of following God, that they might both gain the reward of life if they should follow him (which many of them do and have done) and incur the penalty of death by their fault if they should reject their King.

The kite in the heaven has known its time; the turtledove and the swallow and the stork have kept the time of their coming; but my people has not known the judgment of the Lord. For 'kite', which Symmachus translated, the Seventy and Theodotion put the Hebrew word itself, 'asida', Aquila 'herodiona' [heron]. And again for 'swallow' Symmachus translated 'cicada', which in Hebrew is called 'sis'. And for what we have put as 'stork', both Aquila and Symmachus translated 'agur', just as it is written in the Hebrew, for which the Seventy translated 'sparrows of the field'. And it is one and the same sense which is also set down at the beginning of Isaiah: the ox has known its owner and the ass the manger of its master, but Israel has not known me and my people has not understood; namely, that even small birds know their seasons and know when, hastening to warm places, they ought to escape the harshness of winter, and again at the beginning of spring come back to their accustomed regions. And here we ought to take 'heaven' for 'the air', which is above.

The blessed prophet Jeremiah loudly condemned the ignorance, at once, and pride of the Jews, rebuking them in these words; "How say you that we are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? In vain is the lying cord of the scribes. The wise men are ashamed: they trembled, and were taken: what wisdom have they, in that they have rejected the Word of the Lord!" For being neither wise, nor acquainted with the sacred Scriptures, though the scribes and Pharisees falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of being learned in the law, they rejected the Word of God. For when the Only Begotten had become man, they did not receive Him, nor yield their neck obediently to the summons which He addressed to them by the Gospel. Because therefore by their wicked conduct they rejected the Word of God, they were themselves rejected, being condemned by God's just decree. For He said, by the voice of Jeremiah, "Call them rejected silver: because the Lord has rejected them." And again, "Shave your head, and cast it away, and take lamentation upon your lips, because the Lord has rejected and thrust away the generation that has done these things." And what these things are, the God of all has Himself declared to us, saying, "Hear, O earth: behold! I am bringing upon this people evils; the fruit of their turning away; because they regarded not My word, and have rejected My law." For neither did they keep the commandment that was given to them by Moses, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men:" and further, they also rejected the Word of God the Father, having refused to honour by faith Christ, when He called them thereunto. The fruits therefore of their turning away were plainly the calamities which happened to them: for they suffered all misery, as the retribution due for murdering the Lord.

How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Truly the lying pen of the scribes has wrought falsehood. He speaks to the scribes and Pharisees, who boast of their knowledge of the law and, writing, write iniquity. And as for what he says:

The wise are confounded, terrified and taken, it is not that those who do these things are wise, but he calls them wise so that they may be condemned by their own judgment and, on the contrary, their wisdom may be proved to be folly, as Paul says: you who teach another, do you not teach yourself? And because they have cast away the word of the Lord, therefore there is no wisdom in them. In vain, then, do they boast of knowledge of the law who destroy their teaching by their works.

What is a holy title without merit but an ornament set in the mud? The Holy Scriptures have testified to this in writing: "A golden ring in a swine's snout, a woman fair and foolish." And in us the title Christian is like a golden ornament. If we use it unworthily, we seem to be swine with an ornament.…For this reason, our God spoke elsewhere about the Hebrew people to the prophet, saying, "Call his name, Not Beloved." And again to the Jews, "You are not my people, and I am not your God." But he showed clearly elsewhere why he said this about them, for he said, "They have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters." And again: "For they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them."

Therefore I will give their women — or wives — to strangers, their fields to heirs, because from the least to the greatest all are devoted to avarice, from the prophet to the priest all practice falsehood — or iniquity —. And they healed the breaking of the daughter of my people to ignominy, saying: Peace, peace, when there was not peace. They received the wages of their works, so that those who cast away the word of the Lord were themselves cast away by him. 'Their wives,' he says, 'and their possessions I will hand over to the enemy. And lest my sentence be thought cruel, let the hearer recognize the causes: from the least to the greatest all are devoted to avarice — for avarice is the root of all evils —, from the prophet to the priest. Those who ought to restrain others when they sin are the first to be given over to crimes, and all either do iniquitous things, while they plunder the goods of others, or at any rate practice falsehood, so that there is no truth in their mouth.

Gathering I will gather them, says the Lord; there is no grape on the vines and there are no figs on the fig tree; the leaf has fallen, and I have given them things that have passed by. What the time of visitation is, in which the transgressors shall collapse, he teaches more plainly, saying: 'Gathering I will gather them' — no doubt in Jerusalem —, 'so that they may be besieged by the Chaldeans for a long time and endure the evils of famine. When,' he says, 'the seasons pass, and autumn follows summer, and in winter the leaves of the trees fall, you will see everything from afar and from them you will take no food. There is no indeed grape on the vines for you, who do not take the fruit of the vines, and there are no figs on the fig tree for the besieged people, who sees the fruits of its own trees plundered by the enemy. The leaves,' he says, 'will fall when summer and autumn are past. For I have given them things which they would see pass by, so that with the greater grief they would lose the abundance of all things, which they were not permitted to touch'.

Why do we sit still? Come together, and let us enter the fortified city — or the fortified cities — and let us be silent there — or let us be cast out there —, for our Lord has cast us off — or has made us silent — and has given us water of gall to drink; for we have sinned against the Lord. We waited for peace, and there was no good, for a time of healing, and behold, dread. The voice of the people is brought in, answering and confessing its vices and exhorting one another to enter the walled cities, or the one city Jerusalem; for the rest had already been taken. 'And let us be silent', he says, 'there, for our Lord has made us silent — for we have no confidence to pray —, or let us be cast away there or let us be cast out like dung. He himself has made us drink waters of gall, because we turned God, who is sweet, into bitterness. And the cause why we should drink such waters is plain: for we have sinned against the Lord and we waited for peace, we who had done no good work and thought that the time of remedy was at hand for us, when all things were filled with dread and terror'. A change of persons, especially in the prophets, makes the understanding difficult; if these are restored to their own places and causes and times, the things which seemed obscure will become plain.

From Dan was heard the snorting of his horses, at the sound of the neighings of his fighters — or of his cavalry — the whole land was shaken; and they came and devoured — or and they will come and will devour — the land and its fullness, the city and its inhabitants. So the people did not say, as the Seventy translated above: let us enter the fortified cities, but: the fortified city, so as to signify Jerusalem. And indeed he now also adds: the city and its inhabitants. Nebuchadnezzar is described coming with his army from Dan, through Phoenicia, at which place the river Jordan rises; and what the Seventy give as things to come, the Hebrew, in accordance with the truth of the event, records as already done.

For behold, I will send among you serpents, basilisks — or most wicked or, as the Seventy translated, deadly —, for which there is no charm; and they shall bite you, says the Lord, incurably, with the pain of your failing heart. Who those are who come from Dan, and whose snorting was heard, and who reduced the whole land to a wilderness, the same prophetic word shows under another figure, calling them 'serpents', 'most wicked' or 'deadly', and, as Aquila translated, 'basilisks', which are called in Hebrew 'sapphonim'; for which I do not understand what his second edition meant by saying 'watchmen', unless perhaps because of the similarity of the word. For which there is no, he says, charm. For in vain do they pour out prayers to God against the ancient serpent, the twisting snake, who have scorned the commandments of God. Let us use this passage against those who, scorning the sayings of the Savior, are handed over to the adverse powers.

You should know that the disease of envy is harder to cure than any other. I would say that someone tainted by its poison is almost beyond healing. This is the plague described figuratively by the prophet: "See, I will send you serpents against which there are no incantations, and they will bite you." The bites of envy are quite rightly compared by the prophet with the lethal poison of the basilisk.

My pain is above pain, within me my heart is mourning. For this, as we said above, the Seventy joined what is said to the preceding sentence, so as to put: and they shall bite you, says the Lord, incurably, with the pain of your failing heart. But in the Hebrew there is not so much 'pain', which in Greek is called odynē, as meidiama, which we can translate as the 'grimace' of a mouth contracted by pain and having the likeness of a smile. And these things are to be read Emphatikōs [emphatically] as from the person of God, lamenting the overthrow of Jerusalem and not bearing her miseries.

Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people from a land far off! He describes the weeping and wailing of the city of Jerusalem when the enemy had entered.

Is the Lord not in Zion, or is her king not in her? Either the Lord himself is the king, or else 'Lord' refers to the Father, 'king' to the Son, according to that which is written under the name of Solomon: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the son of the king. But why the voice of crying is in Jerusalem and the crying itself comes from a land far off, the cause is manifest: because the Lord is not in her and her king has withdrawn from her.

Why then have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with foreign vanities? 'But the Lord has withdrawn from them,' he says, 'because they provoked me, who was their Lord and king, to anger by the worship of idols'.

The harvest is past, the summer is ended; and we are not saved. Again the people speaks, which was shut up in Jerusalem by a long siege, saying that the seasons have changed and the circle of the year has rolled round, and all their hope has been made void and has passed away.

Over the breaking of the daughter of my people I am broken and saddened, astonishment has taken hold of me. God answers that in the affliction of Jerusalem he himself appears afflicted, and, after the likeness of a man, he is broken by astonishment.

"Shall not he that falls rise again, and he that is turned away, shall he not turn again?" Why, then, is the virgin "turned away with a stubborn revolting," even though she heard Christ, her spouse, saying through Jeremiah: "And when she had committed all these fornications, I said: Return to me, and she did not return?" "Is there no balm in Gilead? Or is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?" Indeed, you will find many safeguards against evil in the divine Scripture, and many remedies which from destruction bring salvation. There are the mysteries of death and resurrection, the words of terrible judgment and everlasting punishment, the doctrines of repentance and the forgiveness of sin and those innumerable examples of conversion. There are the drachma, the sheep and the son who spent his livelihood with harlots, who was lost and found, was dead and lived again. Let us use these safeguards against evil. Through them, let us heal our soul.…While we can, let us lift ourselves from the fall. Let us never despair of ourselves, if only we depart from evil. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. "O come, let us worship and fall down; let us weep before him." The Word who invited us to repentance calls aloud, "Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." There is, then, a way of salvation, if we want it. "Death in his might has swallowed up, but again the Lord has wiped away tears from off all faces" of those who repent. The Lord is faithful in all his words. He does not lie when he says, "Though your sins are scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The great Physician of souls who is the ready liberator, not of you alone, but of all who are enslaved by sin, is ready to heal your sickness. From him come the words, it was his sweet and saving lips that said, "They who are whole do not need a physician but those who are sick.… I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." What excuse have you, what excuse has anyone, when he speaks in this way? The Lord wishes to cleanse you from the trouble of your sickness and to show you light after darkness. The good Shepherd who left those who had not wandered away is seeking after you. If you give yourself to him, he will not hold back. He, in his love, will not disdain even to carry you on his own shoulders, rejoicing that he has found his sheep that was lost. The Father stands and awaits your return from your wandering. Only come back, and while you are yet far off, he will run and fall on your neck, and, now that you are cleansed by repentance, will enfold you in embraces of love. He will clothe with the chief robe the soul that has put off the old person with all his works. He will put a ring on hands that have washed off the blood of death and will put shoes on feet that have turned from the evil way to the path of the gospel of peace. He will announce the day of joy and gladness to those who are his own, both angels and human beings, and will celebrate your salvation far and wide. For "truly I say unto you," he says, "there is joy in heaven before God over one sinner who repents."

Let no one, then, run down the law, as if, on account of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. Shouldn't he who drives away bodily disease appear as a benefactor? Shouldn't he who attempts to deliver the soul from iniquity even more appear as a friend since the soul is a more precious thing than the body? Besides, for the sake of bodily health we submit to incisions, cauterization and medicinal draughts. He who administers them is called savior and healer. He is called this even though he amputates parts, but he works not from a grudge or ill will toward the patient. He instead acts according to the principles that the art prescribes so that the sound parts may not perish along with them. No one accuses the physician's art of wickedness. In the same way, shouldn't we submit, for the soul's sake, to either banishment, or punishment or bonds, as long as from unrighteousness we shall obtain righteousness?

Is there no resin in Gilead, or is there no physician there? Why then has the scar of the daughter of my people not closed over? Not only in the present passage, but also in many other testimonies of the Scriptures we find the resin of Gilead put for repentance and medicine; and we find that God now wonders why the wounds of Jerusalem have by no means been healed and the scars have not yet drawn over the skin, because there are no prophets or priests by whose medicine they ought to be healed.