Jeremiah 3 · The Lantern

Vulgo dicitur: Si dimiserit vir uxorem suam, et recedens ab eo duxerit virum alterum, numquid revertetur ad eam ultra? numquid non polluta et contaminata erit mulier illa? Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis: tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus, et ego suscipiam te.

Scripture designates the children of adulterers as imperfect. Such a soul, to be sure, that prostrates itself totally to the tendencies of the flesh and bodily desires, has forsaken union with the spirit, and as if turned away from God will shamelessly hear, "You have the face of a harlot.

(Chapter III - Verse 1) It is commonly said (for which the Seventy have translated 'only said'). If a man divorces his wife and she goes and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be considered defiled and polluted?

Hence again under the figure of Judea it is said to every sinful soul: "If a man puts away his wife, and she departs and marries another man, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be polluted and contaminated? But you have fornicated with many lovers; nevertheless return to me, says the Lord." Behold, he gave the example of a shameful woman.

Leva oculos tuos in directum, et vide ubi non prostrata sis. In viis sedebas, exspectans eos quasi latro in solitudine: et polluisti terram in fornicationibus tuis, et in malitiis tuis.

Quam ob rem prohibitæ sunt stillæ pluviarum, et serotinus imber non fuit. Frons mulieris meretricis facta est tibi; noluisti erubescere.

Accusation is censure of wrongdoers.… Of this help the divine Instructor made use by Jeremiah, saying, "You have a prostitute's forehead. You were shameless toward all.

No, a widow must take every precaution not to overstep by an inch the bounds of chastity. For if she once oversteps them and breaks through the modesty that becomes a matron, she will soon riot in every kind of excess. So much so that the prophet's words shall be true of her, "You have a whore's forehead, you refuse to be ashamed."

For their own misery has taught them, which happiness had made negligent, alas, what an evil thing it is to fornicate against the Lord by presuming upon themselves; oh how good it is to cling to the Lord, always thinking humbly.

Ergo saltem amodo voca me: Pater meus, dux virginitatis meæ tu es:

numquid irasceris in perpetuum, aut perseverabis in finem? ecce locuta es, et fecisti mala, et potuisti.

Et dixit Dominus ad me in diebus Josiæ regis: Numquid vidisti quæ fecerit aversatrix Israël? Abiit sibimet super omnem montem excelsum, et sub omni ligno frondoso, et fornicata est ibi.

Et dixi, cum fecisset hæc omnia: Ad me revertere: et non est reversa. Et vidit prævaricatrix soror ejus Juda

"And she played the harlot there. And I said, after she had committed all this fornication: Turn back to me; and she did not turn back, and the faithless Judah saw her faithlessness." We too have been reproached — I mean those of us who sin and do not keep the covenants of God, nor look to the fact that those others destroyed the covenant though they were nobly born, being of A…

For these two indeed are chief sins, engendered of violent lust, the one of sexual desire, the other of the desire of money.… Let no man then of them that live in vice despair; let no man who lives in virtue slumber. Let neither this last be confident, for often the harlot will pass him by; nor let the other despair, for it is possible for him to pass by even the first.

Those who place themselves far from your care and choose to serve idols will reap the destructive fruit of defection. He calls idolatry infidelity here. God likewise says also through Jeremiah, "She went up every high hill and under every green tree and was unfaithful there.

quia pro eo quod mœchata esset aversatrix Israël, dimisissem eam, et dedissem ei libellum repudii: et non timuit prævaricatrix Juda soror ejus, sed abiit, et fornicata est etiam ipsa:

et facilitate fornicationis suæ contaminavit terram, et mœchata est cum lapide et ligno:

Admonition, then, is loving care's censure and produces understanding. Such is Christ the Educator in his admonitions, as when he says in the Gospel, "How often would I have gathered your children, as a bird gathers her young ones under her wings, and you would not!" And again, the Scripture admonishes, saying, "And they committed adultery with stock and stone and burned incens…

It is not only bodily sin that is called fornication and adultery, but any sin you have committed, and especially transgression against that which is divine. Perhaps you ask how we can prove this. "They prostituted themselves," it says "with things they made." Don't you see an impudent act of fornication?

et in omnibus his non est reversa ad me prævaricatrix soror ejus Juda in toto corde suo, sed in mendacio, ait Dominus.

Et dixit Dominus ad me: Justificavit animam suam aversatrix Israël, comparatione prævaricatricis Judæ.

Vade, et clama sermones istos contra aquilonem, et dices: Revertere, aversatrix Israël, ait Dominus, et non avertam faciem meam a vobis, quia sanctus ego sum, dicit Dominus, et non irascar in perpetuum.

Verumtamen scito iniquitatem tuam, quia in Dominum Deum tuum prævaricata es, et dispersisti vias tuas alienis sub omni ligno frondoso, et vocem meam non audisti, ait Dominus.

Convertimini, filii revertentes, dicit Dominus, quia ego vir vester: et assumam vos unum de civitate, et duos de cognatione, et introducam vos in Sion.

Et dabo vobis pastores juxta cor meum, et pascent vos scientia et doctrina.

Cumque multiplicati fueritis, et creveritis in terra in diebus illis, ait Dominus, non dicent ultra: Arca testamenti Domini: neque ascendet super cor, neque recordabuntur illius, nec visitabitur, nec fiet ultra.

In tempore illo vocabunt Jerusalem solium Domini: et congregabuntur ad eam omnes gentes in nomine Domini in Jerusalem, et non ambulabunt post pravitatem cordis sui pessimi.

In diebus illis ibit domus Juda ad domum Israël, et venient simul de terra aquilonis ad terram quam dedi patribus vestris.

Ego autem dixi: Quomodo ponam te in filios, et tribuam tibi terram desiderabilem, hæreditatem præclaram exercituum gentium? Et dixi: Patrem vocabis me, et post me ingredi non cessabis.

Sed quomodo si contemnat mulier amatorem suum, sic contempsit me domus Israël, dicit Dominus.

Vox in viis audita est, ploratus et ululatus filiorum Israël: quoniam iniquam fecerunt viam suam; obliti sunt Domini Dei sui.

Convertimini, filii revertentes, et sanabo aversiones vestras. Ecce nos venimus ad te: tu enim es Dominus Deus noster.

It is clearly written in the Acts of the apostles that the apostles first went into the synagogue of the Jews, proclaiming to them, as to kinsmen through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the things written concerning the coming of Jesus Christ.

Let us return to the Lord our God, and whenever we pray, he, who daily urges us to pause and get to know him, will hear us. And in another place he says, "Return to me, and I will return to you." And again, "Return to me, my backsliding children, and I will rule over you." Ezekiel likewise calls on us, saying, "Why will you die, O house of Israel?

Through the prophet the Lord speaks and declares with his own gracious words how much mercy and goodness he wishes to bestow on humankind. He says, "But if the wicked do penance for all his sins, which he has committed, and keeps all my commandments and does justice and mercy, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done.

Vere mendaces erant colles, et multitudo montium: vere in Domino Deo nostro salus Israël.

Confusio comedit laborem patrum nostrorum ab adolescentia nostra: greges eorum, et armenta eorum, filios eorum, et filias eorum.

Dormiemus in confusione nostra, et operiet nos ignominia nostra: quoniam Domino Deo nostro peccavimus nos, et patres nostri, ab adolescentia nostra usque ad diem hanc: et non audivimus vocem Domini Dei nostri.

Jeremiah3