9:12-14
(Verse 12 onwards) Who is the wise man who understands this, and to whom is the word of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it: why has the land perished and become scorched like a desert, because there is no one to pass through it? And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law that I gave to them, and have not listened to my voice, and have not walked in it, but have followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and after the Baals, which they learned from their fathers. He interrogates the Prophet, if anyone among the wise in Jerusalem is able to find, and those to whom the word of God is spoken, and who are able to announce the will of the Lord, and to provide reasons why Judah has been reduced to a desolation, and with everyone killed, there is no one remaining who can pass through it. And the Lord responds and provides reasons: because they have forsaken His Law that He gave to them, and have not listened to His voice, nor have they done what they should have done; but they have gone after the wickedness of their own hearts. Therefore, it is necessary to confess not according to our will, but in the Lord. For the heart is corrupt in all things. And from our heart come evil thoughts. And after the Baals, they went, as it is said, whom they learned from their fathers. Baal is the idol of the Sidonians, and Baalim is the plural number. Therefore, neither the error of our parents nor of our ancestors should be followed, but rather the authority of the Scriptures and the command of God, who teaches us.
9:15-16
(Verses 15, 16.) Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood (or distress), and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them among the nations, which neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until they are consumed. It can also be prophesied about the near future, when they were taken captive by the Chaldeans, and specifically about this time, when they were dispersed among the nations, which they and their fathers had not known, and were divided throughout the entire world, and were fed with wormwood, or with hardships and distress. And they drank a drink of water mixed with gall, which signifies either the magnitude of their evils, or the eternal yoke of captivity: or certainly, because of their ignorance of God's law, they are about to receive Antichrist in place of Christ. But a sword is sent after them, to consume them even to their destruction. Or certainly, a sword that divides them and does not allow them to have agreement in evil, so that they may perish in what is evil.
9:17-18
(Verse 17, 18.) Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider (or understand) and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the wise women, that they may hurry, and let them take up a lamentation for us (or for you), and let our (or your) eyes shed tears, and let our (or your) eyelids flow with water; for the voice of lamentation is heard from Zion (or in Zion). Because of the future captivity and destruction of Jerusalem, he orders the mourners to be called, who are accustomed to wailing, striking their chests with a lamenting voice, to provoke the people to tears. For this custom remains in Judaea even to this day, that women with their hair scattered and their breasts exposed, with a melodious voice, stir everyone to weeping. And God joins Himself with compassionate feeling, or the Prophet, so that whatever the people endure, he may declare that he himself endures and feels it. But what follows is: Because the voice of lamentation is heard from Zion, immediately follows what this voice is.
9:19
(Verse 19.) How desolate and utterly confused we are! Because we have forsaken the land, for our tents have been abandoned. This is the voice of those lamenting Zion: how desolate and utterly confused we are! And immediately they answer themselves and explain the reasons for their devastation, saying: Because we have forsaken the land, through our own fault and sin, and our tents have been abandoned, which once possessed as if passing by. Let them say this also to the crowds of once believing, in persecution: that they have been devastated and confused because they have abandoned the land of the Lord and have deserted their tents.
9:20-21
(Verse 20, 21.) Therefore, listen, women, to the word of the Lord, and let your ears receive the speech of His mouth, and teach your daughters lamentation, and each one her neighbor mourning. For death has entered through our windows, it has come into our houses: to destroy the children from outside, the young men from the streets. In the previous chapter, He had said: call for the mourning women to come, and send for the wise women, and let them hurry: now He speaks as if they were present, in condemnation of the priests and the teachers and all men: so that when they cease from teaching, these women may hear the word of the Lord, and receive the words of His mouth, and teach their daughters and neighbors the causes of mourning and the reasons for tears: For death has entered through our windows, it has come into our houses. Although it can be understood spiritually, because through all the senses death enters the soul's destruction of sins; yet it can also be understood about the attack of the Babylonians: that their strength and swiftness in fighting is so great that they do not wait to unlock doors; but they climb through windows and rooftops, to lay waste to the houses of Jerusalem. And the children who are outside perish, and leave Jerusalem; and the young ones, to whom John also writes, who do not enter through the narrow and restricted path that leads to life; but they walk through the streets, of which it is written: How broad and spacious is the path that leads to death (Matthew 7:13).
9:22
(Verse 22.) Speak these things, says the Lord, and the mortality of man (or the corpses of men) will fall like dung on the face of the region (or the field) and like hay behind the reaper, and there is no one to gather. The Hebrew word, which is written with three letters Daleth, Beth, Res (for it does not have vowels in the middle), signifies speech for a consequence and at the discretion of the reader if it is read as Dabar (), it signifies a word; if Deber, it signifies death; if Daber, it signifies speak. And both the Septuagint and Theodotion joined that previous chapter, so that they said, 'They will scatter the little ones outside, and the young men will die in the streets.' But Aquila and Symmachus translated λάλησον, which means 'speak': so that God commands the Prophet to speak what follows: Thus says the Lord, and the rest. And the meaning is: When death ascends through our windows, and enters the houses of Jerusalem, and the little ones and young men outside perish in the streets: then there will be their death, or the corpses of the dead, like dung on the face of the earth, and like straw that is left behind by those who have reaped, and is not collected as useless. He wants to show by these things that such a great slaughter will happen in Jerusalem and around the city that there will be no one to bury the fallen.
9:23-24
(Verse 23, 24.) Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong man boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” All of humanity's pride is removed, as their wisdom, strength, and wealth are considered as nothing. The only true boast is to know and understand that He is the Lord who practices love, justice, and righteousness on the earth. All things are governed by God's providence and justice, and what may seem to lack reason to us is filled with justice and reason. For these things alone please God, and in them is his will. So where are those who say that man can reign according to his own will, and thus the power of free will is given, so that the mercy of God is taken away and justice? Hence the Apostle, taking up this testimony, sets forth an example: Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:17).
9:25-26
(Vers. 25, 26.) Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will visit everyone who is circumcised and has the foreskin, including Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all those who have shaved their heads and live in the desert, for all the nations are uncircumcised. But the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Many of the nations, especially those bordering Judea and Palestine, still practice circumcision to this day, particularly the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and all the region of the Saracens who dwell in the wilderness and are said to have shaved heads and live in the desert. Therefore, Judah, who is mixed with the aforementioned Gentiles, should not boast, because he does not have foreskin, but is circumcised according to God's law. For there are others who do these things and do not keep the commandments of the law, and they are ignorant of the God of Israel. Circumcision does not profit, which is given as a sign, unless the commandments of the Lord are fulfilled; just as the hair, which signifies a nation, does not provide strength of body and the might of warriors. And what follows: All nations have foreskin, but all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. This has the meaning that, except for the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites, and the Ishmaelites who dwell in the wilderness, most of whom are circumcised, all other nations throughout the world are uncircumcised in flesh; but the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart, not in flesh; and this uncircumcision leads to death. For that is the flesh, this is the spirit.
10:1
(Chapter 10, Verse 1) Hear the word that the Lord has spoken to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are vanity. He specifically speaks against those who worship the celestial bodies and use the signs of the years, seasons, months, and days to determine the fate of humankind and to govern earthly matters based on celestial causes. And what he says: Laws, or legal regulations, of the people are empty, it shows that all human wisdom is futile, and has no usefulness in itself.
10:3-5
(v. 3-5.) Because it was cut down from the forest, the work of a craftsman with an axe: decorated with silver and gold, fastened with nails and hammers, so that it would not be dissolved (or moved). They are made in the likeness of a palm tree and do not speak: they are carried and brought, because they cannot walk. Therefore, do not fear them, because they cannot do evil, nor can they do good. Description of the idols that the nations worship. He said that he cut down the wood from the forest. Therefore, the material of idols is cheap and perishable: the work of a craftsman's hands. Since the craftsman is mortal, the things he makes are also mortal. He decorated it with silver and gold, to deceive the simple-minded with the splendor of both materials. This error has also passed to us, so that we consider wealth as a religion. He fastened it with nails and hammers, so that it would not be dissolved or moved. The power of these idols, which cannot stand on their own, unless they are fastened together with keys and hammers! They are made to resemble a palm tree, adorned with the beauty of metals and the art of painting: but they do not possess utility, by which they provide any benefits to the craftsman. And they cannot speak. For they have no life within them. Of them it is written: They have mouths, but do not speak; they have ears, but do not hear. They will be carried away (Psalm 115:5-6). He is stronger who carries than those who are carried; indeed, in him there is meaning, in this there is form without meaning. Therefore, do not fear them, because they can neither do good nor evil. For, indeed, many of the gentile demons are accustomed to worship, so as not to harm, and to beseech others to bestow blessings: Whence also that saying of Virgil (Aeneid. I):
The dark winter sky, the white sheep with favorable west winds. Whatever we have said about idols, it can be referred to all teachings that are contrary to the truth. For they themselves promise great things and fashion an image of empty worship from their own hearts. They boast of great things and deceive the simple, as if they were dazzling with golden senses and eloquent words, they bind the eyes of the foolish and are exalted by their inventors, in whom there is no usefulness, and whose worship is specific to the nations and those who do not know God.
10:6-10
(Verse 6 and following) There is none like you, O Lord: you are great, and your name is great in power. Who will not fear you, O king of the nations? Yours is the glory among all the wise of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. Both fools and wise men will be proved, their teaching is empty as a wooden idol. Silver brought from Tarshish is plated (or brought) and gold from Ophaz, the work of an artist and the hand of a craftsman. Hyacinthus and their purple garment: the work of craftsmen (or wise men) all these things. But the Lord God is true: this God is living and everlasting king. The earth will be moved from his indignation, and the nations will not be able to withstand his threat. These are not found in the Septuagint, but were added in many places from Theodotion's Edition, and although they seem clear according to the letter, they present a great difficulty according to allegory. For there is no one like the true God, of those gods who are fabricated by heretical art. All will fear him, for he is the king of the nations. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Prov. IX, 10): and from it we advance to true charity. 'The glory is yours,' he says. In truth, there is beauty; in falsehood, there is ugliness: although heretics, according to the wisdom of the world, which is destroyed, may seem wise to themselves; nevertheless, in all the kingdoms which they tear the Church in, none are like you, as the divine word says: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the prudence of the prudent' (I Cor. I, 19). Both the wise and the foolish exist together. Their education, depending on the quality of their intelligence, is either cheap and compared to wood, or similar to silver because of the elegance of their speech. It is brought from Tharsis. Tharsis is either a region of India, as Josephus says, or certainly the entire sea is called Tharsis, and it has a resemblance to the sky; and yet it is wrapped in the artifice of words, or extended. If it wants to deceive, it will not be able to. And gold from Ophaz. Gold is called by seven names among the Hebrews, one of which is called Ophaz, which we can call obryzum, so that it shines on the surface of idols, which internally is wood and of cheap material. They are covered with hyacinth and purple, so that they deceive the eyes with their surface, while promising to themselves the color of the heavens and the kingdoms of the sky; and yet all these things are the work of the wise, who are considered wise in this world; but before God they are foolish. But our Lord God, the true God, is. Therefore, all those things are lies. And He is the living God: therefore, those things that are feigned are dead. And He is the eternal king. The shadows of heretics prevail for a time, but are corrupted over a long time. The earth will be moved from His indignation: those who engage in earthly works and fashion worldly idols. And the nations will not endure, nor the people of the Lord, but the multitude of nations who are unable to bear the threat of God.
10:11
(Verse 11) So you shall say to them: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth, let them perish from the earth and from those things that are under the heavens. These things must be said about false gods and those that are artificially composed. For they neither made the heavens nor the earth. Those who are co-workers of Christ are called gods: and by the teaching of the Church, they assist greatly in building the house.