(Verse 5) Therefore, why is this people in Jerusalem turned away with contentious turning away? They have grasped falsehood and did not want to return. As much as I have provoked them to repentance, they have turned away from me, not so much out of a desire to sin, but to overcome me. For they have strongly grasped falsehood, whether idols or every corrupt thing that is contrary to truth and justice, and they did not want to return. It is not said: they were not able; but they have eagerly followed unjust things.
8:6
(Verse 6.) I listened and heard: no one speaks what is good. There is no one who repents for his sin, saying: what have I done? All have turned to their own course, like a horse rushing into battle. Called to repentance, they scornfully refuse to listen: and it is not enough for them to have sinned against the Lord and spoken blasphemy, but they all rush like horses, and with fervent speed into battle, not reflecting on their sin, nor saying, what have I done? By these things we understand that either these things are said about the whole human race, because it is prone to vices, or about the time of the Savior, when all together they became useless: there was no one who did good, there was not even one (Psalm 13). Therefore, he himself cries out mystically: Save me, Lord, for the holy one has failed (Psalm 11, 1). But if these things are so, where are those who say that we are free from sin by our own will? No one, he says, speaks what is good (Matt. XI): because we will also be held accountable for idle words on the day of judgment.
8:7
(Verse 7) The kite in the sky knows its time: the turtledove and the swallow and the stork keep the time of their arrival. But my people do not know the judgment of the Lord. Regarding the kite, which Symmachus interpreted, the Septuagint and Theodotion used the Hebrew word 'Asida' (). Aquila translated it as 'herodium'. Again, for the swallow, Symmachus translated it as 'cicada', which is called 'Sis' in Hebrew (). But for the stork that we have translated, both Aquila and Symmachus translated it as it is written in Hebrew, 'Agur' (). However, the Septuagint translated it as 'agri passeres'. But it is the same perception, which is also placed at the beginning of Isaiah: The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel does not know me, and my people do not understand me (Isaiah 1:3); so even small birds know their seasons, and know when they should avoid the harshness of winter and return to their usual regions in the beginning of spring. But here we should understand "heaven" as the air that is above.
8:8
(Verse 8.) How do you say, 'We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us'? Truly, the deceitful pen has worked deceit, scribes who boast knowledge of the Law, and the writers write iniquity. And he says:
8:9
(Verse 9) The wise are confused, terrified and captured. For they have rejected the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them. Not because they are wise who do these things; but rather, He calls the wise so that they may be condemned under judgment and their wisdom may be proven foolishness, as the Apostle Paul says: 'You who teach others, do you not teach yourself?' (Romans 2:21). And because they have rejected the word of the Lord, therefore there is no wisdom in them. Therefore, those who destroy doctrine with their actions boast in vain of their knowledge of the law.
8:10-11
(Verses 10, 11.) Therefore I will give their women (or wives) to foreigners: their fields to their heirs. Because from the least to the greatest, all are eager for greed; from prophet to priest, all practice falsehood (or iniquity). And they healed the brokenness of my people lightly, saying: Peace, peace, when there is no peace. They received the wages of their works: those who rejected the word of the Lord were rejected by him. Their wives, he says, and possessions I will hand over to the enemy. And so that my opinion may not be considered cruel, let the judge hear the reasons: From the least to the greatest, all are devoted to greed (1 Timothy 6). For greed is the root of all evils. From prophet to priest, who should be preventing others from sinning, the first are guilty of crimes: and all either commit injustice by plundering others, or at least lie, so that there is no truth in their mouths. And after these things, as good physicians, they desired to heal the wounds of others with their words, who themselves were afflicted with wounds of all kinds of crimes. We see this every day also in our own people, with the blessed Apostle Paul saying: 'You who preach against stealing, do you steal?' (Rom. II, 21), and so on. When they see sinners and the wealthy, they desire to heal the contrition of the daughter of the people of God, that is, the Church; to the shame either of those who are deceived or of those who deceive others, so that they may say, with every wicked deed concealed: peace, peace, when there is no peace, and war of sins threatens them.
8:12
(Verse 12.) They were confused because they committed abominations. However, they were not confused by their confusion, and they did not blush. Questioningly, is this to be read, so that the meaning would be: Did they blush at their crimes and understand the abominations they had committed? By no means, but they burst forth into such madness that they neither desired to correct their vices through confusion, nor to confess their crimes in the hope of forgiveness.
They will fall among the fallen (or rushing), at the time of their visitation they will fall, says the Lord. These are the rewards of those who have not known how to be ashamed: whose dignity was higher than the peoples, they will be mixed with the ruins of the people. From the least to the greatest, everyone goes after falsehood, from prophet to priest, all practice deceit: but the time of visitation is coming, a near captivity.
8:13
(Verse 13) I will gather them together, says the Lord. There are no grapes on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig tree; the leaf has fallen off, and I have given them what has passed by. The time of visitation, in which the transgressors will fall, is more clearly shown, saying: I will gather them together. Without a doubt, in Jerusalem, so that they will be besieged by the Chaldeans for a long time, and endure the evils of famine. When, he says, the seasons pass by, and summer turns into autumn, and the leaves of the trees fall in winter, you will see everything from afar, and from these things you will not obtain food. For there is no grape on your vines, from which you do not take the fruit (he will take): and there are no figs on the fig-tree, which the oppressed people sees the fruits of their trees devoured by enemies. The leaves, he says, will fall in the summer and autumn. For I have given them things that they would see passing by; and they would lose the abundance of all things with greater pain than they were not allowed to touch.
8:14-15
(Vers. 14, 15.) Why are we sitting? Come together, and let us enter the fortified city or cities, and let us remain silent there or be cast out there, for our Lord has made us silent and has given us the drink of gall water. For we have sinned against the Lord, we have waited for peace, and it was not good: a time of healing, and behold, fear. The voice of the people responding is introduced, and confessing its own vices, and encouraging one another, to enter the fortified cities or walled city, or one city, Jerusalem: for the others had already been captured. And let us be silent there, he says, because our Lord has made us silent: for we do not have confidence in praying, whether we are cast there or expelled like refuse. He himself has given us a drink of bitter water: because we have turned sweet into bitterness against God. And the reason is clear why we drink such waters: For we have sinned against the Lord, and we have expected peace, even though we have done no good works: and we thought that the time of healing had come for us, when everything was filled with fear and terror. The change of persons, especially in the Prophets, makes understanding difficult: but if they are restored to their proper places, causes, and times, what seemed obscure will become clear.
8:16
(Verse 16.) And a sound of his horses was heard, from the voice of the neighing of his warriors (or cavalry) the whole earth was shaken. And they came and devoured (or they will come and devour) the land and its abundance, the city and its inhabitants. Therefore, as the Septuagint translated above, the people did not say: Let us enter fortified cities, but a fortified city, to signify Jerusalem. Finally, even now he brings forth: the city and its inhabitants. But it is described by Dan, coming through Phoenicia with the army of Nebuchadnezzar, in the place where the river Jordan rises, and it predicts the events that will happen in the future, in Hebrew for the sake of truth.
8:17
(Verse 17) Behold, I will send you serpents, rulers (or as the Septuagint translated, deadly ones) with whom there is no enchantment. And they will bite you, says the Lord, incurably, and you will fail with the pain of your heart. Those who come from Dan, whose noise has been heard and who have turned the whole land into a wilderness, are the same ones that the prophetic word indicates under a different figure, calling them deadly serpents or rulers as the Hebrew word Saphphonim (). I do not understand why the second edition of his work, as he says, was intended for spies, unless perhaps because of the similarity of words. To them, he says, there is no enchantment. For they pour out prayers in vain to God against the ancient serpent, the twisted serpent, who have despised the commandments of God. Let us use this passage against those who, by disregarding the words of the Savior, are delivered to hostile powers.
8:18
(Verse 18) My sorrow is upon sorrow, my heart is mourning within me. As we have said before, the previous seventy sentences, which were said, were connected in order to establish: 'And they will bite you,' says the Lord, 'incurably: with the pain of your heart, you will faint.' However, in Hebrew, the word for pain, which is translated into Greek as ὀδύνη, is not so much a physical pain as it is a grimace of the mouth, contracted and resembling a laugh. These words must be read emphatically from the perspective of God, mourning the downfall of Jerusalem and not enduring its miseries.
8:19