1 Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel came before me, I would have no desire for this people: send them away from before me, and let them go.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 15, Verse 1) And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel stood before me (or against me), my soul would not be for this people. For we read that these men resisted the anger of the Lord for the people and turned away the impending judgment.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Hence the Truth says: "When you stand to pray, forgive if you have anything in your hearts." We show the virtue of forgiveness more clearly if we bring forward one testimony from the Old Testament.
2 And it will be, when they say to you, Where are we to go? then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are to be in need of food, to need of food; and such as are to be taken away prisoners, to be taken away.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verses 2, 3.) But if they say to you: Where shall we go out? You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: He who is for death, to death; and he who is for the sword, to the sword; and he who is for famine, to famine; and he who is for captivity, to captivity.
3 And I will put over them four divisions, says the Lord: the sword causing death, dogs pulling the dead bodies about, and the birds of heaven, and the beasts of the earth to take their bodies for food and put an end to them.
4 And I will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 4.) And I will give them into the heat (or turmoil and distress) of all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem. We read in the Book of Days that Manasseh, after captivity and repentance, returned to Jerusalem and reigned (2 Chronicles 33).
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 He forecasts what would happen after the return, what would happen to them under the Macedonians and the destruction that would be inflicted on them by the Romans. He brings out that the first fate would happen to them owing to the impiety committed by Manasseh. Yet he is not an unjust judge, nor does he require an account of them for others' faults.
5 For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? and who will have sorrow for you? or who will go out of his way to see how you are?
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 We wish to understand the words spoken to Jerusalem with much menace, which run thus: "Who will spare you, O Jerusalem? Or who will be sorrowful for you? Or who will turn aside to ask after your peace? You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You shall go backward, and I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you, and I will no longer let you go.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 5.) Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will grieve for you? Or who will go to ask for your peace? For no one can, having offended God, ask for forgiveness for the sins; for neither can a creature be as merciful as its creator, nor can it be as distant from foreigners as the Lord is inclined to spare his own people.
6 You have given me up, says the Lord, you have gone back: so my hand is stretched out against you for your destruction; I am tired of changing my purpose.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 And to each interpretation of Jerusalem what follows will also fit: "You have turned away from me, says the Lord. You shall go backward." That you have turned away from the Son of God, and because of having turned away from the Son of God you have turned away from God — what need is there even to say it?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 6.) You have forsaken me, says the Lord: you have gone backward. The reason is given why no one has pity on Jerusalem, nor is she grieved for; nor is she beseeched for the sake of her peace: which, according to the Apostle (Philippians 3), should forget the things that are behind and extend oneself to the things that are before, is on the contrary turned backward, and de…
7 And I have sent a cleaning wind on them in the public places of the land; I have taken their children from them; I have given my people to destruction; they have not been turned from their ways.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 7.) And I will scatter them with a winnowing fan at the gates of the land (or my people). I have killed and destroyed (Vulgate: scattered and destroyed) my people; yet they have not returned from their wicked ways. What use is it for me to be asked repeatedly, when they do not return from their wicked ways and do not repent?
8 I have let their widows be increased in number more than the sand of the seas: I have sent against them, against the mother and the young men, one who makes waste in the heat of the day, causing pain and fears to come on her suddenly.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 8.) Her widows are multiplied to me above the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them the destroyer at noonday: I have sent troubles suddenly upon the cities. With various medicines God desires to save sinners: so that those who despised His gentle entreaties may fear His threatening.
9 The mother of seven is without strength; her spirit is gone from her, her sun has gone down while it is still day: she has been shamed and overcome: and the rest of them I will give up to the sword before their haters, says the Lord.
Irenaeus · AD 202 "In that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation," plainly announced that obscuration of the sun which at the time of His crucifixion took place from the sixth hour onwards, and that after this event, those days which were t…
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius · AD 325 What more can now be said respecting the crime of the Jews, than that they were then blinded and seized with incurable madness, who read these things daily and yet neither understood them nor were able to be on their guard so as not to do them?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 9) She has been weakened (or cast aside, or made empty) who gave birth to seven (or many); her soul has failed: the sun has set upon her while it was still day (or midday). She is confused and ashamed: and I will give her remaining ones into the sword in the sight of their enemies, says the Lord.
10 Sorrow is mine, my mother, because you have given birth to me, a cause of fighting and argument in all the earth! I have not made men my creditors and I am not in debt to any, but every one of them is cursing me.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Physicians of bodies, being present with the sick and always devoting themselves to the care of the ailing according to the intent of the medical art, look upon dreadful things and touch loathsome ones; from the misfortunes of others they reap their own griefs, and their life is always in the midst of hardship.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Jeremiah also bewails his birth in these words: "Woe is me, my mother! Why have you borne me, a man of contention in all the earth? I have not benefited others, nor has anyone benefited me.
Jerome · AD 420 This synecdoche can be understood concerning Jeremiah, who shall be judged only in the land of Judea, out of the entire world.
11 ...
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "So be it, Lord, when they set straight their way; did I not stand by you in the time of their evils?" What is "So be it, Lord"? Let the one who is able gather such a meaning for himself.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 11) The Lord says: If your remnants are not for good, if I do not come to you in the time of affliction and in the time of tribulation and anguish against the enemy. These things can also be understood from the perspective of Jeremiah, who was compelled to prophesy in the worst of times, with captivity imminent, and enduring hardship from an unbelieving people.
12 Is it possible for iron to be broken; even iron from the north, and brass?
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Upon these things [what] does God answer to the people that was accused by the prophet or by Christ, and he says these things to it: "Iron and a covering of bronze is your strength"—hard, unyielding, not to be hammered out. "Iron and a covering of bronze is your strength," that is, your strength is something cutting and dividing, a strength not existing for good.
Jerome · AD 420 (Vers. 12.) Will iron be bound to iron by the North Wind, and bronze? Symmachus, Will iron be harmed by iron by the North Wind, and bronze? LXX and Theodotion, If it recognizes iron and a copper covering?
13 I will give your wealth and your stores to your attackers, without a price, because of all your sins, even in every part of your land.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "And I will give your treasures for plunder, as an exchange for all your sins." What "treasures" of the sinners does God give "for plunder," and give them "as an exchange for all their sins"? Is it perchance those treasured up for themselves on earth? For each of men treasures up: if he is base, upon earth; but if he is refined, in heaven, as we were taught from the Gospel.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 13, 14) I will give your riches and treasures as plunder, freely (or without payment), for all your sins and in all your territories. And I will bring your enemies (or make your enemies serve you) from a land you do not know: for a fire is kindled in my anger, it shall burn upon you.
14 They will go away with your haters into a land which is strange to you: for my wrath is on fire with a flame which will be burning on you.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "And I will make you a slave among all your enemies in the land which you did not know." That people has been enslaved among its enemies, and has come to be in the land which it did not know. "Because a fire has been kindled out of my wrath; it shall be burned upon you."
15 O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come to my help, and give their right reward to those who are attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry: see how I have undergone shame because of you from all those who make little of your word;
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 After these things and the words of the threats spoken to the people, the one who prayed above completes his prayer and joins to the aforesaid these words: "You know, Lord; remember me and visit me, and acquit me from those who persecute me, not unto long-suffering." And let the prophet say these things, persecuted by those he reproved, hated by those who cannot contain the tru…
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 15, 16.) You know, O Lord, remember me and visit me, and protect me from those who persecute me. Do not take me in your patience, know that I have endured reproach for you. Your words have been found and I have eaten them (or consume them from those who reject your words).
16 But to me your word is a joy, making my heart glad; for I am named by your name, O Lord God of armies.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "And your word shall be to me for gladness." It is not now, but "shall be"; for since at present your word is to me for imprisonments, for trials, for troubles, for defamations, for pains — yet the end of these shall be gladness.
17 I did not take my seat among the band of those who are glad, and I had no joy; I kept by myself because of your hand; for you have made me full of wrath.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "I did not sit in the assembly of them when they made sport." If ever the prophet saw the assembly not of those in earnest but of those making sport, he fled from being gathered together rather than hastened toward the gathering of those making sport. You must, then, understand the difference between an assembly of those making sport and of those in earnest.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 17, 18.) I did not sit in the council of the jesters, and I boasted (or feared) from the face of your hand: I sat alone, for you filled me with bitterness ((Vulgate: threat)). Why has my pain become perpetual (or why do those who distress me, find comfort) and my incurable wound refuse to be healed (or my strong wound, from where shall I be cured)?
18 Why is my pain unending and my wound without hope of being made well? Sorrow is mine, for you are to me as a stream offering false hope and as waters which are not certain.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "Why do those who hate me prevail?" He had many troubles; he suffered from those who did not wish to hear the truth, and those men were more powerful than he here in this age, since the kingdom of God is not from this age, but from the better regions, as the Savior says: "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have striven, that I should not be delivered to the Jew…
Athanasius of Alexandria · AD 373 Now the so-called gods of the Greeks, unworthy of the name, are faithful neither in their essence nor in their promises, because they are not everywhere. The local deities amount to nothing over the course of time and undergo a natural extinction.
Jerome · AD 420 This the Hebrews believe to be said in the person of Jerusalem, which sat alone and was filled with bitterness and whose pain was unending and the word of whose prophets passed through it deceitfully, like flowing water.
19 For this cause the Lord has said, If you will come back, then I will again let you take your place before me; and if you give out what is of value and not that which has no value, you will be as my mouth: let them come back to you, but do not go back to them.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "Therefore thus says the Lord: If you return, then I will restore you." These things again are said to each one whom God shall exhort to return to him. And a mystery seems to me to be indicated here in the "I will restore you." No one is restored to a place in which he has in no way ever been, but the restoration is to what is one's own.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Consider to what a dignity one exalts himself who esteems others' salvation to be of great importance. Such a person is imitating God as far as lies within the power of humankind.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 19 onwards) Because of this, the Lord says: If you turn back, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. And if you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be like my mouth. They will turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.
20 And I will make you a strong wall of brass to this people; they will be fighting against you, but they will not overcome you: for I am with you to keep you safe, says the Lord.
21 I will keep you safe from the hands of the evil-doers, and I will give you salvation from the hands of the cruel ones.