Jeremias 19
Jerome · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jeremias 19:1
(Chapter 19, Verse 1) Thus says the Lord: Go, and take the potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests. For the potter's bottle, which is called 'Bocboc' in Hebrew, the Septuagint translated it as 'doliolum'. But divine Scripture wants to instruct the people not only with their ears, but also with their eyes. For what is seen is more retained in the mind than what is heard: 'Take,' he says, 'your little bottle or earthenware jar as a witness.' — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:2
(Verse 2) And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the entry of the earthen gate (or Charsith); and there you shall proclaim (or cry out, or read) the words that I shall speak to you. And for the earthen gate, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion put the Hebrew word 'Harsith'. For this, the Septuagint, according to their custom of aspirating the letter 'Heth', added the Greek letter 'Chi', so that they would say 'Charsith' instead of 'Arsith', just as they say 'Chebron' for 'Hebron', and 'Jericho' for 'Jeriho'. 'And go out to the valley of the sons of Hinnom, of which we have spoken before, where there is a temple of Baal, and a grove, and a grove irrigated by Siloam's springs. The valley itself, he says, is next to the gate, which in Hebrew is called Harsith, that is, earthenware.' And you will proclaim, or read there the words that I speak to you: so that they may hear what I am going to say. And as we have already said, you will proclaim, and cry out, and read it, because the Hebrew word Carath (), signifies these three things. — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:3
(Verse 3) And you shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. And she wants both the kings of Judah to hear, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, both the royal lineage, and the whole people, so that those who refuse to listen may be without excuse. — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:4-6
(Verses 4-6.) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring calamity (or evil) upon this place, such that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle, because they have forsaken me and have made this place a foreign land, and have burned incense in it to foreign gods, whom they and their fathers and the kings of Judah did not know. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something that I did not command (or think), nor did it come into my mind. And certain individuals foolishly refer this place to the heavenly Jerusalem. Lest we always remind, it suffices to have said this only: that this kind of explanation is to be avoided, indeed it is heresy, which clearly subverts and attempts to introduce certain deceits to the Churches of Christ. But there is no doubt that they placed the idol Baal in the Temple of God, whether in the shrine that was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where the grove of Baal and his altar were located, on which they sacrificed and burned their children. What the Lord neither thought nor spoke, nor did they ascend into his heart. Not that God does not know the future, but because he says that he chooses not to know unworthy things, according to the words of the Gospel: Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I do not know you (Luke 13:27). For the Lord knows those who are his (2 Timothy). And, Whoever is ignorant, let him be ignorant (1 Corinthians 14:38). Or certainly in a human way, and these things must be understood about God, as well as others. But every heretic forsakes God and makes room for the dwelling of God, whom he has defiled by his deceit and offers sacrifices to foreign gods, whom neither he nor his fathers knew, namely the Apostles and apostolic men; but the kings of Judah, that is, the patriarchs of heretics, fill the place of God once with the blood of deceivers and the innocent. For unless he is foolish and simple, he is not quickly overthrown. And they build high places for Baal, while claiming to debate lofty matters. And they burn their sons as an offering to idols, whom they have begotten in their heresy. The Lord says that he is unaware of all these things and that they have never entered his mind. — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:6
(Verse 6.) Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. LXX: Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called ruin and πολυάνδριον (multiplicity) of the son of Hinnom, but πολυάνδριον (multiplicity) of slaughter. The valley of the son of Hinnom, which is called Gehenna in Hebrew (), from which it is thought to be named Gehenna, as we have said above. But I wonder what the meaning of the number 70 is for Topheth (), which means the place of ruin, and for the valley, πολυάνδριον, which signifies a multitude of men, unless it is because the people there have fallen and a multitude of men have been slain, either spiritually, in the error of idolatry, or literally, by the Babylonian army, as is more clearly stated in the following passage. — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:7-9
(Verse 7 and following) And I will scatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will overthrow them with the sword in the presence of their enemies and those who seek their lives, and I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city a horror, a hissing, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its wounds. And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall distress them. Although we know that these things also happened to the people in the Babylonian captivity, they are more fully related to the times of the Savior, when they were besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and their city, in the times of Hadrian, collapsed into eternal ashes, so that those who had offered their children to idols were themselves later compelled by the necessity of famine to turn them to the use of food, and the flesh of all creatures of the sky and of the earth was given to them, so that those who had abused the gifts of the Lord into impiety and had sacrificed their own entrails to idols, would make graves of their own children's bellies. — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:10-11
(Verse 10, 11.) And you shall break the jar in the eyes of the men who go or come with you. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So shall I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be restored any longer. Clearly it is spoken not of the Babylonian, but of the Roman captivity. For after the Babylonians, the city was rebuilt, the people brought back to Judah, and the former abundance restored. But after the captivity, which happened under Vespasian and Titus, and later under Hadrian, the ruins of Jerusalem will remain until the end of the world, although the Jews believe that golden and jeweled Jerusalem will be restored to them, and again there will be sacrifices and holy marriages and the kingdom of the Lord Savior on earth. Although we may not follow these beliefs, we cannot condemn them, because many ecclesiastical men and martyrs have spoken of these things. And let each one abound in his own sense, and let all things be reserved for the judgment of the Lord (Rom. XIV). However, just as a clay vessel, once it has been broken, cannot be restored to its former appearance: so too the people of the Jews and Jerusalem, once they have been destroyed, will not have their former condition. Finally, today the name of that city is empty, and it is called Aelia by Aelius Hadrianus, and it has lost its former name along with its former inhabitants, in order to destroy their pride. However, the names of the Holy Cross and Resurrection do not signify a city, but a place: nor the former greatness of riches, by which the Jewish people perished, but the glory of sanctity, which our humble Bethlehem possesses, not having gold and gems, but the bread that was born in it. — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:12
(Verse 12.) And they will bury (or be buried) in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury. Thus I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, and I will make this city like Topheth (or like ruins), and the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like Topheth (or like ruins). But what is inserted in the Septuagint: All the houses of the kings of Judah, like Topheth, is not found in the Hebrew. And it follows: — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:13
(Ver. 13.) All the houses are unclean, in whose dwellings (or roofs) they sacrificed to the whole heavenly host, and poured out drink offerings to foreign gods. What he said above. This place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the son ((or sons)) of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, now he explains more clearly that there will be such a great slaughter in that place, that the people will be buried there in heaps, and the once sacred grove ((or place)) will become a tumult of the dead. Also, let the city that is above this place become like Tophet, for which seventy were destroyed. Let the houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings be turned into similar ruins. And the reason is given, because they were unclean and polluted by the crime of idolatry, because they sacrificed to the sun, moon, and stars of heaven in their houses and on their roofs, and burned incense. And they were not satisfied with this error, but they also sacrificed to demons and poured out libations to foreign gods (Zephaniah 1). — Commentary on Jeremiah
Jeremias 19:14-15
(Verse 14, 15) But Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people: This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words. After breaking a jar or a small bottle in the presence of the elders of the people in Topheth, which Jeremiah had brought with him, he prophesied the words of the Lord to crush the people and the city of Jerusalem. Then he returned and stood in the court of the house of the Lord and spoke to the whole multitude that had not gone to Topheth, warning them that the Lord would bring upon the city of Jerusalem and all its towns all the evil that he had spoken against it. And lest we should think the sentence cruel, he gives the reasons why he will bring evil upon them. 'Because,' he says, 'they have hardened their neck, that they might not hear my words: nor have they done penance for their many wickednesses, desiring to do penance.' — Commentary on Jeremiah