The final desolation of Israel: from which few shall escape.
Miseries shal be so great, 8. and shal come so presently, 16. that few shal escape, and those also shal be in great terrour, and affliction.
1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:Il Signore parlommi, e disse:AND the word of our Lord was made to me, saying:Et factus est sermo Domini ad me, dicens: 2And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end is come, the end is come upon the four quarters of the land.Or tu figliuolo dell'uomo, queste cose dice il Signore Dio alla terra d'Israele: Il fine viene, viene il fine per tutte le quattro parti di questa terra.And thou sonne of man, thus saith our Lord God to the land of Israel: The end is come, come is the end vpon the foure quarters of the land.Et tu, fili hominis, hæc dicit Dominus Deus terræ Israël: Finis venit: venit finis super quatuor plagas terræ. 3Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and I will set all thy abominations against thee.Adesso è il fine per te, e io rovescerò il furor mio contro di te, e ti giudicherò secondo il tuo operare, e porrò davanti a te tutte le tue abbominazioni.Now an end vpon thee, and I wil send my furie vpon thee: and I wil iudge thee according to thy wayes: and I wil lay against thee al thine abominations.Nunc finis super te, et immittam furorem meum in te: / et judicabo te juxta vias tuas, / et ponam contra te omnes abominationes tuas. 4And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee no pity: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord.E l'occhio mio non si impietosirà sopra di te, e non avrò misericordia, ma sopra di te porrò le opere tue, e le tue abbominazioni saranno in mezzo a te, e conoscerete, che io sono il Signore.And vpon thee mine eye shal not spare, and I wil not haue mercie: but I wil lay thy waies vpon thee, and thyne abominations shal be in the middes of thee: and you shal know that I am the Lord.Et non parcet oculus meus super te, et non miserebor: / sed vias tuas ponam super te, et abominationes tuæ in medio tui erunt, / et scietis quia ego Dominus. 5Thus saith the Lord God: One affliction, behold an affliction is come.Queste cose dice il Signore Dio: L'afflizione unica, l'afflizione ecco che viene:Thus saith our Lord God: One affliction, loe affliction cometh.Hæc dicit Dominus Deus: / Afflictio una, afflictio ecce venit. 6An end is come, the end is come, it hath awaked against thee: behold it is come.Il fine viene, viene il fine, sollecitamente si affretta contro di te, eccolo che viene;An end cometh, there cometh an end, it hath awaked against thee: behold it commeth.Finis venit, venit finis: / evigilavit adversum te, ecce venit.
7Destruction is come upon thee that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of slaughter is near, and not of the joy of mountains.Viene lo sterminio sopra di te, che abiti questa terra; il tempo viene, è vicino il dì della strage, e non del tripudio sui monti.Destruction commeth vpon thee, which dwellest in the land: the time commeth, the day of slaughter is nere, and not of the glorie of mountaines.Venit contritio super te, qui habitas in terra: / venit tempus, prope est dies occisionis, / et non gloriæ montium. 8Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee, and I will accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes.Or io mi avvicino per versare sopra di te l'ira mia, e sfogherò in te il mio furore, e ti giudicherò secondo le opere tue, e porrò sopra di te tutte le tue scelleratezze;Now streightway I powre out my wrath vpon thee, and I wil accomplish my furie in thee: and I wil iudge thee according to thy wayes, and I wil lay vpon thee al thy wicked deedes.Nunc de propinquo effundam iram meam super te, / et complebo furorem meum in te: / et judicabo te juxta vias tuas, / et imponam tibi omnia scelera tua, 9And my eye shall not spare, neither will I shew mercy: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord that strike.E l'occhio mio non s'impietosirà, e non avrò misericordia, ma le opere tue porrò sopra di te, e le tue abbominazioni saranno in mezzo a te, e conoscerete, che io sono il Signore, che punisco.And mine eye shal not spare, neither wil I haue mercie: but I wil lay thy wayes vpon thee, and thine abominations shal be in the middes of thee: and you shal know that I am the Lord that strike.et non parcet oculus meus, / nec miserebor: / sed vias tuas imponam tibi, / et abominationes tuæ in medio tui erunt, / et scietis quia ego sum Dominus percutiens. 10Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.Ecco il giorno, ecco che ei viene: lo sterminio s'avanza: la verga ha fiorito, la superbia ha gettati i suoi rami:Behold the day, behold it commeth: destruction is gone forth, the rod hath floorished, pride hath budded.Ecce dies, ecce venit: / egressa est contritio, / floruit virga, germinavit superbia, 11Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing of them shall remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise of them: and there shall be no rest among them.L'iniquità è cresciuta in verga dell'empietà, non avrà scampo nissun di loro, nissuno del popolo, nissuno di e que', che fanno romore; ei non avranno mai requie.Iniquitie is risen in the rodde of impietie: not of them, and not of the people, nor of the sound of them: and there shal be no rest in them.iniquitas surrexit in virga impietatis: / non ex eis, et non ex populo, / neque ex sonitu eorum: / et non erit requies in eis.
12The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the buyer rejoice: nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the people thereof.Viene il tempo, si avvicina il dì: chi compra non si rallegri, e chi vende, non pianga; perocché l'ira sta sopra di tutto il suo popolo;The time commeth, the day is at hand: he that bieth let him not reioyce: and he that selleth, let him not mourne: because wrath vpon al the people therof.Venit tempus, appropinquavit dies: / qui emit, non lætetur, / et qui vendit, non lugeat: / quia ira super omnem populum ejus. 13For the seller shall not return to that which he hath sold, although their life be yet among the living. For the vision which regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not go back: neither shall man be strengthened in the iniquity of his life.Perocché chi vende non ritornerà ad avere l'effetto venduto, benché sia tuttora tra' vivi: conciossiachè la visione, che è per tutta la sua moltitudine, non sarà senza effetto, e nissuno nella iniqua sua vita troverà suo sostegno.Because he that selleth, shal not returne to that, which he hath sold, and as yet in the liuing the life of them. For the vision shal not goe backe to al the multitude therof: and man in the iniquitie of his life shal not be strengthened.Quia qui vendit, ad id quod vendidit non revertetur: / et adhuc in viventibus vita eorum: / visio enim ad omnem multitudinem ejus non regredietur, / et vir in iniquitate vitæ suæ non confortabitur. 14Blow the trumpet, let all be made ready, yet there is none to go to the battle: for my wrath shall be upon all the people thereof.Date fiato alla tromba: mettansi tutti in ordine: ma alcuno non è, che vada a combattere, perchè l'ira mia sta sopra di tutto il suo popolo.Sound you with the trumpet, let al be prepared, and there is none to go to the battel: for my wrath shal be vpon al the people therof.Canite tuba, præparentur omnes: / et non est qui vadat ad prælium: / ira enim mea super universum populum ejus. 15The sword without: and the pestilence, and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword: and they that are in the city, shall be devoured by the pestilence, and the famine.Di fuori la spada, e dentro la peste, e la fame: chi è in campagna, morrà di spada, e chi in città, sei divoreranno la peste, e la fame.The sword without: and the pestilence, and famine within: he that is in the filde shal dye by the sword: and they that are in the citie, shal be deuoured with the pestilence, and famine.Gladium foris, et pestis et fames intrinsecus: / qui in agro est, gladio morietur, / et qui in civitate, pestilentia et fame devorabuntur.
16And such of them as shall flee shall escape: and they shall be in the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them trembling, every one for his iniquity.E si salveranno quei di loro, che fuggiranno, e staranno sui monti quai colombe delle valli tutti pieni di paura, ognuno al riflesso di sua iniquità.And those of them that flee shal be saued: and they shal be in the mountaines as doues of the valleis al trembling, euerie one in his iniquitie.Et salvabuntur qui fugerint ex eis: / et erunt in montibus quasi columbæ convallium omnes trepidi, / unusquisque in iniquitate sua. 17All hands shall be made feeble, and all knees shall run with water.Tutte le braccia saranno fiacche, e tutte le ginocchia vacilleranno.Al handes shal be dissolued, and al knees shal runne with waters.Omnes manus dissolventur, / et omnia genua fluent aquis. 18And they shall gird themselves with haircloth, and fear shall cover them and shame shall be upon every face, and baldness upon all their heads.E si vestiran di cilizi, e saranno ingombri di spavento: in ogni faccia la confusione, e tutte le loro teste saranno calve.And they shal gird themselues with hearecloathes, and feare shal couer them, and in euerie face confusion, and vpon al their heades baldnes.Et accingent se ciliciis, / et operiet eos formido: / et in omni facie confusio, / et in universis capitibus eorum calvitium. 19Their silver shall be cast forth, and their gold shall become a dunghill. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their soul, and their bellies shall not be filled: because it hath been the stumblingblock of their iniquity.Getteran fuora il loro argento, e l'oro tralle immondezze. Il loro argento, né l'oro salvare non li potrà nel dì del furor del Signore, nè saziare l'anima loro, né empire il loro ventre, perchè è stato occasione d'inciampo alla loro malvagità.Their siluer shal be throwne forth, and their gold shal be into a dunghil. Their siluer, and their gold shal not be able to deliuer them in the day of the furie of our Lord. Their soule they shal not satisfie, and their bellies shal not be filled: because it is made a scandal of their iniquitie.Argentum eorum foras projicietur, / et aurum eorum in sterquilinium erit: / argentum eorum et aurum eorum / non valebit liberare eos in die furoris Domini: / animam suam non saturabunt, / et ventres eorum non implebuntur, / quia scandalum iniquitatis eorum factum est.
20And they have turned the ornament of their jewels into pride, and have made of it the images of their abominations, and idols: therefore I have made it an uncleanness to them.E l'ornamento de' loro monil servir fecero alla superbia, e a farne immagini delle loro abbominazioni, e de' loro idoli: per questo farò, ch'ei sia per essi immondezza:And the ornament of their Iewels they haue turned into pride, and the images of their abominations, and idols they haue made of it: for this cause haue I geuen it them into vncleanes:Et ornamentum monilium suorum in superbiam posuerunt, / et imagines abominationum suarum et simulacrorum fecerunt ex eo: / propter hoc dedi eis illud in immunditiam. 21And I will give it into the hands of strangers for spoil, and to the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they shall defile it.E darollo in preda alle mani degli stranieri, e ne faran bottino gli empj della terra, e lo profaneranno.and I wil geue it into the handes of aliens to spoyle, and to the impious of the earth for a praye, and they shal contaminate it.Et dabo illud in manus alienorum ad diripiendum, / et impiis terræ in prædam, / et contaminabunt illud. 22And I will turn away my face from them, and they shall violate my secret place: and robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.E volgerò da loro la mia faccia: e quelli violeranno i miei penetrali, e vi entreranno i ladroni, e li contamineranno.And I wil turne away my face from them, & they shal violate my secrete: and spoylers shal enter into it, and shal contaminate it.Et avertam faciem meam ab eis, / et violabunt arcanum meum: / et introibunt in illud emissarii, / et contaminabunt illud. 23Make a shutting up: for the land is full of the judgment of blood, and the city is full of iniquity.Ristringi in poco: perchè la terra è pjena di sanguinarj giudizj, e la città è piena d'iniquità.Make a conclusion: because the land is ful of the iudgement of bloud, and the citie sul of iniquitie.Fac conclusionem, / quoniam terra plena est judicio sanguinum, / et civitas plena iniquitate. 24And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: and I will make the pride of the mighty to cease, and they shall possess their sanctuary.Io condurrò qua la feccia delle genti, e questa possederà le loro case e reprimerò la superbia de' potenti, e i lor santuari saranno occupati da altri.And I wil bring the worst of the nations, and they shal possesse their houses: and I wil make the pride of the mightie to cease, and they shal possesse their sanctuarie.Et adducam pessimos de gentibus, / et possidebunt domos eorum: / et quiescere faciam superbiam potentium, / et possidebunt sanctuaria eorum.
25When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace and there shall be none.Sovraggiunto che sia lo sterminio, cercheran pace, né pace sarà.Distresse comming vpon them, they wil seeke peace, and there shal be none.Angustia superveniente, requirent pacem, / et non erit. 26Trouble shall come upon trouble, and rumour upon rumour, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.Afflizione verrà sopra afflizione, e cattive nuove sopra nuove cattive, e domanderanno al profeta quel, che abbia veduto, e i sacerdoti non sapranno più la legge, e i seniori saranno senza consiglio.Truble shal come vpon truble, and report vpon report, and they shal seeke vision of the prophete, and the law shal perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancientes.Conturbatio super conturbationem veniet, / et auditus super auditum: / et quærent visionem de propheta, / et lex peribit a sacerdote, / et consilium a senioribus. 27The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with sorrow, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do to them according to their way, and will judge them according to their judgments: and they shall know that I am the Lord.Il re sarà nell'afflizione, e il principe sarà coperto di tristezza, e il popolo del paese sarà senza braccia. Secondo le opere loro li tratterò, e secondo i loro giudizj farò giudizio di essi, e conosceranno, ch'io sono il Signore.The king shal mourne, and the prince shal be clothed with sorowfulnes, and the handes of the people of the land shal be trubled. According to their way wil I doe to them, and according to their iudgements I wil iudge them: and they shal know that I am the Lord.Rex lugebit, et princeps induetur mœrore, / et manus populi terræ conturbabuntur: / secundum viam eorum faciam eis, / et secundum judicia eorum judicabo eos, / et scient quia ego Dominus.
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Year of the World 3410.
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In five or six years' time all shall be destroyed.
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Set, as accusers, to increase thy confusion.
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Haydock
Destruction, (contritio.) St. Jerome reads "contraction," as also [in] ver. 10. Protestants, "the morning." (Haydock)
Calmet
Chaldean, "the reign." (Calmet)
Haydock
Hebrew tsephira, is variously rendered. (Haydock)
Joy. Hebrew, "echo or cry" of people in the vintage.
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Calmet
Budded; figurative expressions, denoting a speedy vengeance. (Calmet)
Haydock
Chaldean, "the reign is open, the ruler has flourished, the wicked hath appeared." In this reign of Nabuchodonosor ye shall be chastised. (Haydock)
Haydock
Septuagint or rather Theodotion, from whom many things have bee supplied according to St. Jerome, (Calmet) have, "The deceit (or thick foliage; ploke) has gone forth, the rod," etc. (Haydock)
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Iniquity. What other fruit could be expected from wickedness? It draws on chastisement.
Noise, or grandees. None will repent, and therefore none shall escape, from the highest to the lowest.
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Calmet
Sold, as in the year of jubilee, Leviticus 25:25. (Calmet)
Worthington
Now there shall be no recovery. (Worthington)
They shall be driven from the land.
Calmet
Although. By supplying the former negation, (Calmet) we may render "Nor," etc., (Haydock) which seems better. (Calmet)
It may also mean, "those who are now alive" shall witness these things. (Haydock) Back. It is not a mere threat.
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Ready. He describes the vain attempts of the Jews to make resistance.
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Calmet
Doves, not daring to vent their complaints. (Calmet)
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Water; urine, (St. Jerome) sweat, etc., the usual effects of fear.
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Heads. They cut their hair in times of penance and of mourning.
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Calmet
Iniquity. Riches have fostered their passions: they will not now procure food or liberty, Sophonias 1:18. (Calmet)
Worthington
The riches of the idols invited the enemy to plunder. (Worthington)
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Calmet
And. Protestants, "As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the," etc. The sacred ornaments of the temple, appointed by God, (Haydock) have been converted into idols, and shall be carried to Babylon, ver. 21. (Calmet)
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Challoner
Secret: the inward sanctuary, the holy of holies. (Challoner)
Calmet
God would guard it no longer. (Calmet)
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Challoner
Shutting up. Hebrew, "chain," for imprisonment and captivity. (Challoner)
Pronounce sentence upon all.
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Sanctuary; the temple of God, or of idols, Ezechiel 6:3.
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Distress. When the enemy is before the city, they will see their error; but it will be too late. They shall not obtain peace, Jeremias 38:1.
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Calmet
Ancients. Priests shall afford no consolation, nor counsellors any advice. They shall be all confounded. (Calmet)
Worthington
During the captivity a few only were found to give instruction, Malachias 2:(Worthington)
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Secret place, etc.... Viz., the inward sanctuary, the holy of holies.
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Make a shutting up.... In Hebrew, a chain, viz., for imprisonment and captivity.
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By Israel is •ere meant al the countrie of Iurie, as appeareth by the generall peach folovving. the foure quarters of the land.
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In the yeare of Iubeley the landes vvhich vvere sold, returned to the seller or to his heyres. Leuit. 2• but in the captiuitie there could be no such recouerie.
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Adorning of idols with much gold was occasion that the Chaldees spoyled the citie more eageily.
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〈…〉.
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This & other like places signifie sea•sit•e of Priestes to teach the law, in the captiuitie, but not an vniuersal destruction or want of al. Io• euen then also God conserued some reliques, as appeareth, Malach. 2.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 19.9
… Next, purposing to declare the iniquity of this, he saith, “And there was another great eagle,” (speaking of the Egyptian king), “with great wings, and having many claws; and the vine did bend itself toward him, and its tendril toward him, and shot out its branches, that it might be watered. Therefore, I said, Thus saith the Lord God: Shall it prosper?”
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.65
65. What of his further invective against the shepherds, Woe shall come upon woe, and rumour upon rumour, then shall they seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients,
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3. Upon thee, O land of Israel. I WILL JUDGE THEE ACCORDING TO THY WAYS, judging I will punish thee for thy deeds and deserts. It is a metonymy. Origen reads: I will avenge thee; because the sinner, he says, sinning, is both agent and patient, that is, he does injury, but to himself: he is therefore both injuring and suffering injury. God by His judgment and punishment removes the injuring one, that is, the vice and malice of the sinner, thus leaves the suffering one the same, without injury and injurer; and thus avenges him, because he removes from him injury both passive and active: for he makes it so that he neither does nor suffers injury, that is, sin. This is more subtle than more genuine. AND I WILL SET AGAINST THEE, so that they may be as it were thy accusers before me: for thou art guilty, thy sins accuse thee, I am judge and avenger. And so it is a hysteron proteron customary among the Hebrews. For he should have said first: "I will set against thee thy abominations;" then, "I will judge," that is, I will avenge and punish "thee" according to them. Secondly, "against," that is, before "thee," as if to say, I will turn thy abominations before thine eyes, so that their foul appearance, and thy conscience defiled by them most shamefully, thou mayest be forced to behold, which thou art wont to carry the knapsack of crimes behind thy back and to forget. It is a grave punishment to himself, seeing himself with foul conscience, and more so if he be forced always to see himself, so that he cannot turn his eyes away from his foulness. Thirdly, the Septuagint and Chaldean translate: I will give upon thee, as if to say, I will strike thee on account of thy abominations. THY WAYS, the punishment of thy ways, that is, of thy life lived, and of thy sins. ABOMINATIONS (the punishment of abominations) SHALL BE IN THE MIDST OF THEE, shall cut thy heart like a sword, and shall torture thy bowels with most bitter pain. Secondly, "in the midst of thee" shall be, that is, shall be manifest and conspicuous to all, says Maldonatus.
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5. ONE AFFLICTION (namely perfect, singular, extreme and most destructive) comes, which like a thunderbolt will burn all Jerusalem, so that there is no need for another. This is what he said in chapter v, 9: "And I will do in thee that which I have not done." Thus once is taken for perfectly, I Kings xxvi, 8: "I will pierce him (Saul) with a spear once, and there will be no need a second time." Secondly, "one affliction," and "affliction," supply, another, "behold it comes," that is one calamity follows upon another, there is no respite allowed. Thus Psalm xli, 8 is said: "Deep calleth on deep," that is wave follows upon wave. Whence the Chaldean renders: Evil upon evil comes. But it seems the Chaldean for אחד achad, that is one, read אחר achar, that is after, as if to say Evil after evil comes, evil succeeds evil. Ausonius in his Epigrams elegantly said, "labors and sorrows chained together," when labor succeeds labor, sorrow succeeds sorrow. Homer, Iliad ζ, beautifully asserts such things entrusted to the winds: He would entrust this one to Boreas by Notus sometimes to be carried, him again Eurus gave to Zephyrus to be tossed.
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6. The end comes, the end comes, namely destruction and ruin is at hand. This repetition signifies first, certainty and confirmation; secondly, magnitude; thirdly, the swiftness of the coming destruction, as if to say Shortly will be the end and extermination of our kingdom. IT IS AWAKENED, namely in due time. Just as the fruits of summer in summer are ripe and are gathered: so thy malice is ripe, that it may be gathered, and there may be an end to it. For this is the Hebrew הקיץ hekits. It alludes to what follows: "Comes the cutting off." And verse 10: "The rod hath flourished." Secondly, Maldonatus, "it is awakened," that is it will come soon, as if at early morning it had awakened to come. The Septuagint renders, it has risen. It alludes to and confirms the oracle of Jeremiah i, 11: "I see a rod watching. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well, for I will watch over my word to perform it." In similar phrase he says the same, Lamentations I, verse 14: "The yoke of my iniquities hath watched." In the Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia, between הקיץ hackets, that is end, and hekits, that is it is awakened.
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7. DESTRUCTION HAS COME. Thus the Roman edition reads, not contraction, as St. Jerome and Maldonatus read; nor fracture, as others read. In Hebrew it is צפירה tsephira, that is, ripening, leafing, or the first sprout, which in the morning, that is, immediately, is thrust forth; for tsaphar means to rise in the morning; hence tsephira is called the first sprout and bud of a tree, or the folded sheath and first bursting forth of leaves or flowers, before they unfold themselves and come into the light. The Chaldean translator renders it crown; because from these buds beautiful crowns are made. Whence Vatablus: A crown comes, he says, that is, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, upon thee; the Arabic Alexandrian version renders it: And there shall come to thee the infernal inhabitant of the earth, and the present time is, and the day of evil draws near; the Syriac: And there comes the morning inhabitant upon (against) thee, the time comes, and the day of perturbation has drawn near. For morning inhabitant from the Syriac could be translated as he-goat, as if צפיר tsephir were put for צעיר tseir, that is, hairy, he-goat, satyr. Our translator renders it, "destruction," because this bud, or calyx and sheath signifies destruction, of which verse 10. But it seems it should be read contraction, as the manuscripts and St. Jerome have it; whence also the Septuagint and Theodotion render it, πλοκή, that is, interlacing, complication, that is, a folded and complicated sheath; for this is tsephira, as if to say: Just as in spring in the morning, that is, immediately, the first sprout and sheath bursts forth: so immediately shall thy scourge and thy rod burst forth, which shall chastise thee. Aquila, as St. Jerome says, renders tsephira, προσκόπησιν, that is, contemplation and foresight, as if to say: The destruction comes which thou didst fear, which thou didst foresee would happen to thee, or thou, or thy Prophets. Isaiah, chapter x, 3: "Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger! the staff itself is in my hand," etc. Wherefore the Syriac renders it: The he-goat (Nebuchadnezzar) has gone forth, and the rod has leafed, and shame has sprouted; the Arabic Antiochian: And now the enemies have gone forth, and they wonder, and have seen, the wicked remains upon the rod of iniquity; the Arabic Alexandrian: Now thy destruction has come, now thou art shaken, and now the infernal has been made present, and the rod has conquered, and contempt has sprouted. NOT THE GLORY OF THE MOUNTAINS. In Hebrew: The day of tumult is at hand, not the song of the vintagers in the mountains. Glory therefore here is the joyful cry, glorying, praise, shouting of those gathering grapes in the mountains: or, as Vatablus says, it is echo, that is, the voice of joy, which the vine-bearing mountains echo back and reverberate when the vintagers cry out, Jeremiah xlviii, 33; or also idolaters, leaping and singing around an idol in the mountains. Whence secondly, Vatablus and R. David thus render it: The day of tumult is near, not the echo of the mountains, as if to say: Thus the cry and tumult from the enemy is real, not however fictitious, such as that which echo produces resounding from the reverberation of a hollow place. For, as Pliny says, book II, chapter xliv: "The curves of mountains, and frequent peaks, and ridges bent at the elbow, or broken upon the shoulders, the hollow recesses of valleys, divide unequally the air resulting thence: which cause also makes voices reciprocal in many places." Elegantly indeed Ovid in book III of the Metamorphoses: "She beholds him driving trembling deer into the nets, the vocal Nymph, who neither could be silent when another spoke, nor learned to speak first herself, resonant Echo." Thus also R. Jonah and Pagninus render in Hebrew הד hed, echo. But, because הד by crasis is the same as הדד hedad, that is, free and joyful emission of voice, shouting, vintage song, work-song; for this reason it is better to translate in the former manner and sense: "The day of shouting and tumult is at hand, not of the work-song," as if to say: The work-song of the vintagers shall not be heard in the mountains, but the cry of men who are being slain; or of enemies rushing in, and exhorting one another to slaughter. Therefore the day of slaughter is at hand for thee, O Jerusalem! not of glory and jubilation, in which in the mountains, in which either by vintaging, or by worshipping idols thou wast wont to glory and rejoice: now thou shalt not exult and rejoice; but thou shalt be slain and killed by the Chaldeans, and therefore thou shalt weep and wail, as he said in chapter vi, 13. Similar is Jeremiah xxv, 30, and chapter li, 14. The Chaldean translator renders it: Nor shall it be permitted to escape upon the peaks of the mountains. 8. Now from near at hand (shortly, or it is near, so that) I SHALL POUR OUT MY WRATH.
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10. There went forth a contraction, etc. It seems it should be read, as I said in verse 7, contraction, that is, there went forth a contracted pod, now the sprout is unfolded, the leafing is thrust forth, as if to say: The pride and impiety of the Jews, first, as a bud went forth, soon it flowered, sprouted, and grew into a rod or staff, with which God will scourge you, as if to say: Thus has your impiety grown, that it cannot be endured: but let it itself give the scourge into the hand of God, by which even now He will strike you. This scourge, or watching rod, Jeremiah i, is Nebuchadnezzar, already prepared to lay waste Jerusalem. Moreover, this rod is said to have flowered, that is, to be prepared and about to come quickly: because after a tree flowers, it immediately produces fruit; and the fruit and effect of the rod is scourging. Whence this rod, which Ezekiel calls flowering, Jeremiah calls watching. In a similar manner concerning Sennacherib he said: iniquity into a rod of impiety. Wherefore secondly, St. Jerome notes from this God's justice and vengeance, as if irrigated by sins, so that it may flower into rods, and produce the fruit of plagues and stripes. Thirdly, it is signified here that the very pride of the Jews itself sprouted rods, by which they themselves would be scourged by God. Let the sinner know, let the proud man know, let the rapacious man know, let the gluttonous man know, let the lustful man know, that in sinning, in being proud, in plundering, in indulging gluttony, in being lustful, they do nothing other than prepare for themselves rods, by which shortly after, both in this life and in the future, they will be scourged. Did not the proud Haman prepare for himself rods, nay a cross, when he erected the same for Mordecai and the Jews? Did not Adam and Eve, in being proud and eating the forbidden fruit, prepare rods for themselves and all their posterity, by which even to this day we are all miserably scourged? Scripture often inculcates this by other proverbs and metaphors elsewhere. First, by cords, Proverbs v, 22: The impious "are bound with the cords of their own sins." II Kings xxii, 6: "The cords of hell encompassed me." Secondly, by bonds. Proverbs vii, 22: "Not knowing that he is drawn as a fool to bonds." Isaiah xxv, 7: "He will cast down the face of a bound bond on this mountain." Ecclesiastes vii, 27: "Bonds are his hands." Wisdom xvii, 17: "By one chain of darkness all (the Egyptians) were bound." Thirdly, by burden. Galatians vi, 5: "Every one shall bear his own burden." Fourthly, by snares of death. II Kings xxii, 6: "The snares of death came before me." Proverbs xxi, 6: "He shall be driven into the snares of death." I Corinthians xv, 56: "The sting of death is sin." Romans v, 12: "By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death." Fifthly, by stone. Ecclesiasticus xxvii, 28: "He that casteth a stone on high, casteth it on his own head." Sixthly, by thorns. Hebrews vi, 8: "The earth bringing forth thorns and briers, is reprobate, and nigh unto a curse." Nahum i, 10: "As thorns are wrapped up together, so also the banqueting of them that drink together; they shall be consumed as stubble fully dry." Psalm lvii, 10: "Before your thorns could understand the brier." Seventhly, by worm. I Maccabees ii, 62: "His (the impious man's) glory is dung and worms." Eighthly and often, by seed and harvest. Hosea viii, 7: "They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind." Hosea x, 13: "You have ploughed impiety, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies." Proverbs xxii, 8: "He that soweth iniquity, shall reap evils." On the contrary, to the just it is said, Hosea x, 12: "Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy." And Galatians cap. vi, 8: "He that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption: but he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting." Ninthly, most beautifully and most effectively by fire, which Isaiah says the impious kindle for themselves, cap. L, last verse: "Behold, you all that kindle a fire, that are girded about with flames, walk in the light of your fire and in the flames which you have kindled." Our sins therefore are the wood, by which the pyre of the Chaldeans, Turks, heretics, enemies, and demons against us is kindled, and is inflamed day by day. Therefore "remove the wood from the fire, if you wish to extinguish the flame." Let crimes cease, and wars and plagues will cease. THE ROD FLOURISHED, that is to say, the Floralia are now beginning, soon to celebrate the Virgalia; now celebrate the Saturnalia, soon to celebrate the Funeralia. Thus among the Romans the Floralia were annual festivals and games in honor of Flora, who, having amassed great wealth through the art of harlotry, upon her death made the Roman people her heir. In like manner those who serve the belly and lust licentiously say, Wisdom ii, 7: "Let us fill ourselves with precious wine and ointments; and let not the flower of our time pass by us. Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they wither: let no meadow be untouched by our luxury." But soon in cap. v, 2, of these same persons it is said: "Seeing they shall be troubled with terrible fear, etc., saying within themselves, and doing penance, and groaning for anguish of spirit, etc. We are wearied in the way of iniquity, etc. What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow." And vers. 22: "The lightnings (sent by God the avenger against the wicked) shall go directly, and as from a well-bent bow of the clouds shall be scattered: the water of the sea shall rage against them," etc. This is the rod which the flower of concupiscence germinates and produces for the sinner himself. Namely, these are, as is commonly said, "the flowers of the Samians." For by this name was called a place in the island of Samos, where men with women held banquets and indulged in pleasures: effeminated by these delights, the Samians were subdued by the Persians and reduced to servitude. PRIDE GERMINATED, your pride has grown into a rod and a scourge, as I have already said. Otherwise R. David, Maldonatus and Vatablus: for they think there is here a repetition; for what he previously called a rod, they say, he now calls pride, because the king of Babylon was proud. Whence Vatablus for pride renders, man of pride; namely Nebuchadnezzar, who prepares himself to attack you, O Jerusalem. Concerning whom Jeremiah says, L, 31: "Behold I come against thee, O proud one, saith the Lord." Wherefore what he said before, "flourished," he now says, "germinated." Whence the Chaldean renders: The ruler germinated, the impious appeared. Thus also the Greeks understand these things of Nebuchadnezzar, that is to say, "The rod flourished," that is the scepter, or the kingdom of Babylon, "pride germinated," that is Nebuchadnezzar the proud increased in kingdoms and riches.
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11. INIQUITY HAS RISEN INTO A ROD OF IMPIETY (that is, with the scepter of the impious injustice has grown. But these increases) do not come from them (the Chaldeans, nor from the multitude of peoples, nor from the noise and tumult of armies; but from God, who made him and them a scourge for you. And therefore) THERE SHALL BE NO REST IN THEM. That is, the Chaldeans shall not rest until they capture and lay waste the city. Thus also Delrio, adage 714, who also in the word flourished, that is grew in strength and glory, thinks there is an allusion to the rod of Aaron, to indicate that Nebuchadnezzar was chosen by God to punish and afflict those whom God wills. But better concerning Note: This rod of impiety signifies crimes, especially pride, violence and injustice, by which judges and the powerful among the Jews oppressed the poor, perverted their right and judgment, and twisted them toward the rich. Hence consequently this rod signifies the scourge by which God will chastise these violent ones. Whence vers. 11, the Hebrew has: There arose the Jews understand these things, as I have said, and it will be clearer from what follows. Add, the former sense is far more elegant and profound; for it explains beautifully how the pride and iniquity of the Jews made for themselves a scourge, not God. Iniquity has risen into a rod. In Hebrew המטה lematte, that is into a rod, that is to say, their iniquity has grown into a rod by which their impiety shall be scourged. Iniquity therefore is a root budding into shoots of crimes, which finally thicken into rods by which it itself shall be chastised. See what is said vers. 10. Thus the Hebrews, Vatablus, Maldonatus and others. For in virgam impietatis, it can be rendered, into an evil rod, that is one that strikes sharply, afflicting with sharp pain. Not from them (namely there shall be anyone of the judges and princes who shall escape the rod, that is the scourge of God, nor also) FROM THE PEOPLE. NOR FROM THE SOUND. That is nor from joy, dancing, singing, and the pomp of trumpets and musicians, namely anything shall remain, or be left. Secondly, the Septuagint renders, not with disturbance, nor with haste, supply, Nebuchadnezzar shall seize you, but quietly and easily. Thirdly, R. David thinks the Hebrew מהמהם mehemehem is compounded from הם hem doubled, whence he renders, not from them them, that is to say, no one from them and their stock shall remain. Thus also the Chaldean. AND THERE SHALL BE NO REST IN THEM. There is here a threefold reading and version. Our text reads נח noach, that is rest, that is to say, I shall not give them rest, I shall always afflict them. Secondly, the Hebrew texts already have נה noah, that is lamentation. Whence Vatablus and R. David render, there shall be no mourning or lamentation, that is to say, so great shall be the multitude of the dying, and so great the calamity of the survivors, that the living shall not mourn the dead, and that the dead shall lack decent burial, that is funeral rites and the pomp of funeral lamentation, as Jeremiah threatened them, cap. xvi, 4, and cap. xxv, 33. Thirdly, the Septuagint with other punctuation read נוי nave, that is appearance, beauty. Whence they render: nor shall there be beauty in them. The first reading is clearer and more suited to the context.
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12. HE THAT BUYETH, LET HIM NOT REJOICE (because the Chaldeans will plunder the thing bought); AND HE THAT SELLETH, LET HIM NOT MOURN, that is, let him not grieve, because even if he had not sold it, he would have lost the thing sold, the victorious and plundering Chaldean seizing it. BECAUSE THE WRATH OF GOD IS UPON ALL HIS PEOPLE, namely of the region, that is of Judea; for in Hebrew it is a feminine pronoun. Vatablus translates: Because wrath is upon all the multitude or upon all his, as if to say, God angered will deliver their riches to the enemy; whence they should not rejoice possessing them, nor grieve transferring or losing them. The Prophet writes this to the Jews dwelling securely in Judea, and not fearing the enemy. Just as conversely Jeremiah writes to the Jews who were captives in Babylon, cap. xxix, 5: "Build houses, plant gardens, take wives," as if they were to remain long in captivity. 13. HE THAT SELLETH, SHALL NOT RETURN TO THAT WHICH HE SOLD, as in the jubilee the thing sold returned to the seller, according to the law of Levit. xxv, 40. And yet in the living, the life of them. That is, they shall remain in life, and yet they shall never return to their goods sold, not even in the jubilee, so that their life may be poor and miserable, and rather a long death than life. For the vision (this threatening prophecy) shall not RETURN empty and vain, but shall be fulfilled. They shall not be merely words and threats; but the thing itself, and stripes shall follow. It is a metaphor from an arrow, which when it does not pierce the mark, rebounds with an empty blow: or from a legate, soldier or officer, who is sent back to his master with the business unfinished. Again, to return, is to recall the word to the mouth of the speaker; which we commonly say: To eat his words, that is, to retract, as if to say, God will not recall his words, will not retract his threats and decrees. Secondly, the Chaldean and Hebrews translate: The vision to all the multitude, and yet it shall not return, that is, the possession of their goods shall not return to the multitude. For the Hebrew חזה chasa signifies both to apprehend and to see. Whence חזון chason denotes both apprehension and vision. A MAN IN THE INIQUITY OF HIS LIFE SHALL NOT BE STRENGTHENED, so as to resist the Chaldeans, and to protect and retain his riches from them, as if to say, iniquity shall not add strength to the impious, or rather, in, that is, on account of his iniquity he shall not be strengthened, nor shall the man prosper; but he shall fall, and shall succumb to the enemies, and shall be their prey.
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14. Sing. This is sarcasm, as if to say: Sound the trumpet, O Jews, summon the soldiers, seize spears and shields: behold the enemies are at hand, behold Nebuchadnezzar rushes upon you, why do you delay? He answers: There is no one who goes to battle, all lose heart; because God, on account of their crimes, casts fear and terror upon them, as Moses threatened them, Deuteronomy xxxii, 30. That this is the meaning is evident from verses 16 and 17. FOR MY WRATH IS UPON ALL HIS PEOPLE. In this chapter God repeatedly in verses 8, 12 and 14 reiterates His wrath. The question is therefore whether wrath truly and properly exists in God? Lactantius, in the book On Wrath, chapter IV, reports that the Epicureans, and in chapter v, the Stoics, deny that wrath exists in God; he himself, however, teaches that wrath properly exists in God: "For wrath," he says, "is a movement of the mind for restraining sins that arise." But such a movement exists in God: therefore wrath properly exists in God, not however fury, which denotes disturbance and precipitancy. Peter Gregory teaches the same thing in the Syntax of the Marvelous Art, book XI, chapter xxi, from the fact that Scripture everywhere attributes wrath to God. However, the common opinion of the Fathers and Scholastics is that wrath does not exist in God properly, but metaphorically; namely, because He rebukes, and punishes, and kills the guilty, as if He were angry with them. For "wrath," says Aristotle, book I On the Soul, chapter i, text 16 in the body, "is the effervescence of blood around the heart;" but in the soul it is "the appetite to inflict pain in turn upon an adversary." Cicero, according to Lactantius: "Wrath," he says, "is the desire of vengeance." Damascene, book II On Faith, xvi: "Wrath is the appetite for torment and vengeance from an injury received;" Horace: "Wrath is brief madness." Wrath therefore presupposes pain in the one who is angry; but God is incapable of pain: therefore also of wrath. Again, wrath turns and is turned about concerning vengeance that is arduous and difficult: in God, however, just as there is no desire or appetite for vengeance, so neither is there any vengeance arduous and difficult. The definition of wrath, therefore, which Lactantius gives, is diminished and insufficient. For wrath denotes a passion that is effervescent, agitated and turbid, such as none exists in God, whose mind is, even when He punishes the impious, His enemies, most serene and most peaceful. Thus teach Origen in Romans i, St. Chrysostom, sermon On Penance, Basil in Psalm xxxvii, Damascene book I Faith xxv, Cyprian to Demetrian, Ambrose in Psalm xxxvii, Jerome in Psalm xxix, Augustine, book XIII On the Trinity, chapter xvi, and others whom St. Thomas follows, I part. Question XX, article 1, to 2, and Gabriel Vasquez, I part. disputation LXXXIV, chapter IV. 16. AND THEY SHALL BE IN THE MOUNTAINS AS DOVES. The fugitive Jews shall be as trembling doves, which from the valleys where they dwell, in fear of fowlers, fly to the mountains. Others shall be as doves flying in the mountains, which when a storm is imminent lower themselves to the valleys, as if to a sunny place. Note: For "doves of the valleys," Theodotion translates "doves meditating and murmuring," that is, as Theodoret says, sighing, groaning.
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17. ALL HANDS SHALL BE DISSOLVED. In Hebrew, shall become flaccid, that is, shall be weak and unwarlike, the Jews shall not be able to fight, nor to stand firm for fear. For fear recalls the animal spirits to the fearful and afflicted heart to comfort and sustain it, whence it comes to pass that the hands, and feet, and other external parts become weak and flaccid. All knees shall flow with waters, namely, with sweat, from grave anguish; or rather with urine, from fear. Thus St. Jerome and the Greeks. Whence the Septuagint translates: All thighs shall be polluted with moisture. Aristotle gives the cause why the bladder is loosened in fear in the Problems.
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18. DREAD SHALL COVER (shall surround on all sides) THEM (and shall overwhelm, and as a garment shall cover them wholly) THEM. CONFUSION IN EVERY FACE, shame and blush: "The conscience of the sinner shines forth in the face," says St. Jerome. AND BALDNESS UPON ALL THEIR HEADS. Baldness of the head, says St. Jerome, is mourning
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19. THEIR SILVER SHALL BE CAST FORTH, so that they may be more ready for flight: "Let it not be a burden, which before was a luxury," says St. Jerome. Secondly, Theodotion and Polycarp interpret it, that is to say: On account of hunger and extreme desperation, they will cast away gold and silver; for to those about to perish it will profit no more than dung. This interpretation is better, for it follows: "Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them, etc., and their bellies shall not be filled." To which add: Thirdly: "Their silver shall be cast forth" by the Chaldeans plundering and casting it upon their horses and chariots. AND THEIR GOLD SHALL BE AS DUNG. In Hebrew לנדה lenidda, that is, into separation, into removal; and, as Rabbi David says, into commotion and migration, that is to say, it shall be transferred to Babylon. Hence secondly, לנדה lenidda is the same as into uncleanness; whence our translator renders it here "dung." By uncleanness, however, he understands the profanation and pollution by which the gold and silver of the Jews, that is, of the people of God, was plundered by the uncircumcised and unfaithful Chaldeans, and therefore by the unclean and impure. For by this very thing, the gold which before seemed as it were sacred appeared to be profaned, polluted, defiled and cast forth as it were into dung, in the opinion and estimation of the Jews and of the old law, that is to say: The Jews labor under a sacred hunger for gold, and on account of gold they violate my laws, so that they gather it by fair means and foul; wherefore I will profane that gold and deliver it to the impure and unclean Chaldeans, so that to the Jews their gold, before so beloved, may become accursed. That this is the meaning is evident from verse 20, where likewise concerning the ornament of jewels he says: "Therefore have I given it to them for uncleanness (in Hebrew לנדה lenidda): and I will give it into the hands of strangers (the Chaldeans) to be plundered, and to the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they shall defile it." Hence the Chaldean and the Septuagint render it: I will give it to them for contempt; for the Jews despised and abhorred things unclean and profaned by the gentiles. Otherwise Maldonatus: For contempt, he says, because gold will be despised by the Chaldeans, so that they will not wish to receive it as ransom and on account of it to spare the lives of the Jews, according to that passage in Isaiah xiii, 12: "A man shall be more precious than gold, and a man than the finest gold," that is to say: The Chaldeans will esteem it more to take away the lives of the Jews their enemies than to receive gold from them, especially because when they are killed, they will at the same time possess their gold. THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO DELIVER THEM IN THE DAY OF THE WRATH OF THE LORD, when the Lord as it were in fury shall besiege them through the Chal- gods, and will destroy and kill them by famine, plague, sword and fire. The same thing Sophonias threatened and foretold to them, cap. i, 18: "Their silver," he says, "and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord." For so great will be the wrath of God indignant at sins, that he adds: "In the fire of his zeal all the earth shall be devoured, because he will make a consumption, and that quickly, with all them that dwell in the earth." Let the avaricious note this, let the wicked note it; from the wrath of God, from death, from hell neither riches, nor grandsons, nor sons, nor wives, nor kinsmen, whom they wished to enrich unjustly with the loss of their own souls, will be able or willing to deliver them. Wisely therefore Eccli. cap. v, 10: "Be not," he says, "anxious in unjust riches," so that you may heap them up for yourself and yours by fair means and foul: "for they shall not profit you in the day of darkness and vengeance." And Prov. xi, 4: "Riches shall not profit in the day of vengeance: but justice shall deliver from death." What therefore is the vanity, what the stupidity, to gather unjustly those things which will bring destruction and hell to the gatherer, and will not be able to deliver him from it! Christ cries out: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?" The Psalmist cries out: "Brother (son, grandson, wife) shall not redeem, shall man redeem? shall he give to God a ransom for his soul?" Father Abraham was neither willing nor able to deliver the rich man from hell: much less Lazarus; much less riches and delights. This is the worm of conscience which gnaws the damned even to the bone, and will gnaw forever: Why, foolishly, have you sold your most precious soul, eternal and unique, for so vile a price, namely white and red earth (for silver, gold, riches and delights are nothing else) to the demon and to hell? Why for a brief and spurious pleasure have you brought upon yourself eternal and inescapable fires? You could have used them rightly at God's command and obedience, and by them have merited eternal glory, so that you might be placed among the Angels and the Blessed: you, foolishly, preferred to abuse them, and therefore with demons and the damned shall be your eternal lot, where "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished." Alas! senseless one, why were you so improvident and cruel to yourself? Why did you squander your blessedness for so vile a bait? Why did you exchange eternal misery for momentary pleasure, and procure it for yourself? What does pride now profit you? What the boasting of riches? What the splendor of grandsons and family? These things have passed away like smoke, like a dream, like a bird flying by, Wisdom v, 8. Truly St. Augustine: "The avaricious man," he says, "before he gains money, loses himself: before he captures anything, he is captured." And H. Pintus here: Rivers, he says, however sweet, when at length they enter the sea, become most bitter. So the riches and prosperities of the world, in the course of life, which passes like a river, delight their possessors as it were in passing; but in the end, when they touch the sea of death, into which all rivers of pleasures and goods of this life at length flow, they become sad, bitter and intolerable. Again St. Augustine in Psalm. xxx: See, he says, "lest while you gather (riches) you be gathered: lest perhaps while you wish to be a robber of the lesser, you become the prey of the greater." The same elsewhere: "The avaricious man uses God, enjoys money," because he serves God for the sake of money. And: "The avaricious man has a full barn, but an empty conscience." The poets depicted avarice through Tantalus, whom they say was damned in the underworld, so that standing in the Eridanus of the underworld, he neither enjoys the waters present nor the orchards near him, but is tortured by perpetual thirst. Whence Horace, satyr. 1: "Why do you laugh?" O avaricious man, "with the name changed, the story is told of you." For because the avaricious here continually thirst for riches, hence in hell they are tortured by extreme thirst. Wherefore Plato in the Cratylus writes that Tantalus was said to be called as it were Ταλάντατον, that is, most wretched. THE SOUL, the appetite of the soul, that is his hunger. BECAUSE THE SCANDAL OF THEIR INIQUITY WAS MADE. That is, gold and riches were to them the occasion of avarice, injustice, luxury, and especially of idols, which they cast from gold, as if to say: Because they seized gold, therefore their gold shall be seized; because they sinned by gold, therefore they shall be punished by gold, and shall be stripped of it. Truly Chilo said among the Greeks according to Plutarch in Apophthegms: "As gold is tested by stone, so man is tested by gold. For just as the Lydian stone by rubbing reveals what sort of gold it is: so gold by its contact tests what sort of man he is, and the man's greed or continence, vice or virtue."
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20. THE ORNAMENT OF JEWELS (jewels, which I gave them for an ornament, they converted into pride and haughtiness, that is into a haughty ornament, both their own and of their idols. The Septuagint translates, the choice things of the world (namely of women: for in Greek it is κόσμος, that is ornament, the ornament of women. Not therefore of the world, that is of the earth, as St. Jerome understood it) INTO PRIDE THEY PUT, AND IMAGES (some read, and imaginations, that is images which they imagined and fabricated) OF THEIR ABOMINATIONS AND IDOLS (and it signifies that is, as if to say Of abominations, that is of idols to be abhorred) THEY MADE FROM IT. For just as on Sinai they cast the golden calf from their jewels, Exodus xxxii, 2; so also they did in the time of the Prophets. Third, for ornament in Hebrew it is צבי tsebi, that is glory, beauty, ornament. Now, because the glory of the Jews was the temple; hence it is sometimes taken for the temple, indeed for Jerusalem, as I shall show in Daniel viii, 9. Whence the Hebrew and Vatablus translate: And the glory of the ornament He had placed (God) in them into pride, that is God had given them a glorious and proud temple, but they made their abominations in it: because they placed and worshipped idols in the temple, as Jeremiah objects to them in chapter xxxii, 24. OF ABOMINATIONS, of idols. Thus Theodoret and Apollinaris. THAT (namely those simulacra made of gold I gave) Third and best you may take both actively and passively; or more plainly: "that," namely, "ornament of jewels" from which they cast the idols: but the sense comes to the same thing. These therefore I gave them, namely to the Jews) UNCLEANNESS. Symmachus, into nausea; the Chaldean, into contempt, so that namely the ornament of jewels, namely idols made from it, as if dung should be abhorred, when they shall see themselves on account of it, and captured with it. See the words of verse 19.
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21. TO THE WICKED. The Septuagint, to pestilences, that is to the Babylonians most pestilential, and spreading like a plague. "Which we know both from the Babylonians, and from King Antiochus and Gnaeus Pompey, and finally happened under Vespasian and Titus, when the temple was captured and overthrown, and all things were accomplished which the following discourse of the Prophet embraces," says St. Jerome. THEY SHALL PROFANE, they shall profane, and as it were seize as profane what you held sacred. Tropologically, when the sinner abuses riches and other gifts of God into pride and other sins, our riches are given into the hands of demons, that they may use them at their pleasure; and to the wicked of the earth, that is to vices and sins, which profane them; so that what place ought to have been of holiness, becomes a place of uncleanness, according to that of the Gospel: "My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."
7:22
22. I WILL TURN MY FACE FROM THEM, from the Jews. THEY SHALL VIOLATE (that is profane) MY SECRET. The Septuagint, my visitation, that is the temple, in which I visit my people, and am visited by it. For the Chaldeans armed and bloodthirsty shall enter the Holy of Holies, which are secret and hidden, and there shall slay those they meet. Thus Theodoret. Emissaries, sent soldiers. The Hebrew פריצים paritsim, that is breakers-in, ravagers, robbers; Symmachus and Theodotion, those breaking in and pestilential.
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23. MAKE A CONCLUSION, that is all the threats and punishments of Jerusalem in a brief discourse, which follows immediately in verses 24 and following, conclude. The Chaldean and more recent translators render, make a chain; so that you may show it namely to the Jews, as a sign that they shall be captured and bound, as Jeremiah made and wore chains by the command of God, chapter xxviii, 13. Symmachus and Theodotion render, make a fastening; the Septuagint, φυρμόν, which St. Jerome renders, perturbation; Theodoret, defilement; aptly, so that namely the earth so defiled by bloodshed is perturbed, and is defiled by the slaughter of citizens. Because the earth is full of judgment (that is of condemnation) OF BLOODS, or of bloods by unjust judgment condemned and shed by them, that is the earth is filled with murders. Thus the Hebrews and the Chaldean, so that judgment may be taken actively. It can secondly be taken passively: "by judgment of bloods," that is by bloods and slaughters, on account of which they are to be judged and condemned. Note: Because murder is an enormous crime, hence blood, or the shedding of blood, signifies any enormous crimes, as I said in Isaiah 1, 15.
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24. Their pride, a magnificent and proud temple, by which they boast as if invincible and glory, saying: "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." Thus the Scholiast. Whence it follows: "The Chaldeans shall possess their sanctuaries." Secondly, properly and simply, I will break down and cast down their pride. Sanctuaries. That is, the sanctuary, which had three parts, and as it were three sanctuaries, namely the court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Others interpret "sanctuaries" which they had built for their idols. 25. When distress comes upon them. The Chaldean translator renders: Cutting off comes. For thus our translator renders the Hebrew קפד kephad, in Isaiah xxxviii, 12. The Septuagint, on the contrary, translates: Mercy shall come. THEY SHALL SEEK PEACE, both by prayer and by price from the Babylonians, but there shall be none to grant it. This is what Jeremiah says, cap. xiv, 19: "We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble." See how Ezekiel confirms the oracles of Jeremiah, so that he uses the same words and sentiments with him, and that frequently.
7:26
26. TROUBLE UPON TROUBLE, that is, as the Chaldean translator renders: Crushing upon crushing; the Septuagint: Woe upon woe; R. Solomon: Fall upon fall; Vatablus: One calamity shall come upon another. And hearing. That is, rumor and evil tidings of the coming and cruelty of the enemy, one upon another shall come. The same was foretold by Jeremiah cap. L, 46. THEY SHALL SEEK A VISION, a prophecy, how they might escape the disaster, and shall not find it. The same was foretold by Isaiah cap. III, 1 and 2, and the fulfillment is narrated by Daniel, cap. iii, 38. Law, the interpretation of the law: the Chaldean translator, doctrine; that is to say, There shall not be learned priests and elders who by their wisdom might avert the disaster or give counsel for escaping.
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27. The King shall mourn. In Hebrew יתאבל iitabbal, that is, he shall waste away in mourning. SHALL BE CLOTHED WITH SORROW, with a garment of sorrow; in Hebrew it is שממה scemama, that is, with stupor; that is to say, He shall be filled with sadness unto stupor, so that by the vehemence of grief he shall appear stupid, astonished, and of a disturbed mind. THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND SHALL BE TROUBLED. The Septuagint, shall be dissolved, they shall have neither strength nor courage to fight for their country, with affairs desperate; that is to say, All the Jews, both nobles and common people, shall mourn, all shall be astonished, all shall be terrified with fear and dread. ACCORDING TO THEIR WAY, according to their deeds and crimes. According to their judgments. According to their deserts, according to which judgment is rendered and sentence is passed. Whence Vatablus explains, that is to say, In proportion to their offenses, for which they are worthy of death; or rather: According to their judgments, etc., that is to say, In the manner in which they judged others, so shall I judge them: in the manner in which they acted as judges toward others, so shall I act toward them. They oppressed the poor, they themselves shall be oppressed; they did not listen, they themselves shall not be listened to; they rejected the law, and they shall be rejected; they killed, they shall be killed. Thus Prado. For this is the just law of retaliation, as I have shown in Exodus, cap. xxi, 23: "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth," etc. Likewise that law of Genesis ix, enacted by God immediately after the flood: "Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed." Thus the brothers, who had delivered Joseph to bonds and captivity, were justly subjected to the same prison by him, Genesis cap. xlii, 16 and 17. A similar, but more illustrious example was that of St. Ephrem, which I have recorded there. Thus the Jews, who had killed Christ, as a paschal lamb at Passover, were likewise slain by Titus at the capture of Jerusalem at Passover, as paschal victims of divine justice; nay, by God's just vengeance it came to pass that, as they themselves had mocked Christ crowned with a crown of thorns, clothed in a purple cloak, and marked with a reed as a scepter, greeting him: "Hail, King of the Jews," so also shortly after their king Agrippa, though absent in Alexandria, through a comedian who sustained his person, was publicly mocked in the theater in precisely the same manner as Christ was crowned and mocked, as Philo narrates in his work Against Flaccus.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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… various sacrifices and their modes, the conditions of purity, the criteria of leprosy, etc.), to those who consulted them; cf. Hag. 2, 11; Mal. 2, 6-9. The depositaries and dispensers of the t. were the priests: Mic. 3, 11; Jer. 2, 8; 18, 18; Zeph. 3, 4; Ez. 7, 26; 22, 16; 44, 23 (cf. Lev. 14, 57); cf. Hab. 1, 2-4 and Lam. 2, 9. Entrusted to the priesthood (cf. II Kings 17, 27-28; II Chron. 15, 3), the t. demanded absolute fidelity to certain …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.