10:12-16
(Verse 12 and following) The one who made the earth in his strength, who established the world in his wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens in his understanding. By his voice, he gives a multitude of waters in the sky, and he lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth. He made lightning for rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Every man has become foolish because of his knowledge; every artisan is put to shame by his idols. For what he has made is false and there is no spirit in them. They are worthless and fit only for ridicule. They will perish at the time of their visitation. It is not like these, the portion of Jacob. For He who formed all things, He is, and Israel is the rod of His inheritance; the Lord of hosts is His name. He who makes the earth by His power, He is God the Father. But He also makes by His power the Lord the Savior. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). He Himself is both wisdom and the one by whom the heavens are stretched out. For He Himself spoke and they were made; He Himself commanded and they were created (Psalm 33:9); speaking to the Son: Let us make man in our image, and according to our likeness (Genesis 1:26). He gives a multitude of waters in the heavens at his voice. For all the doctrine of the Lord flows from the heavens, as David says: You will separate God a voluntary rain for your inheritance, and it was weakened, but you have perfected it. And he raises or brings forth the clouds from the ends of the earth (Psal. 67:10). The clouds, or the clouds by which God commanded that they should not rain a shower upon Israel (Isa. 5), are brought forth from the ends of the earth, of which one cloud spoke: For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as men appointed to death, because we are made a spectacle to this world, and to angels, and to men (1 Cor. 4:9). He made lightning into rain. For when the rain of doctrine comes down from heaven and nourishes the parched hearts of men, then you will find flashes and bright flashes of wisdom. And he brings forth winds from his treasuries; in them are all the treasures of hidden wisdom and knowledge. All men have become fools because of knowledge. Though that Paul, though Peter, though Moses, and Abraham may be wise, in comparison to God, all their wisdom will be considered as nothing: hence, even the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Every artist who sculpted images without a heart is confused and what he created is false. But if every person is ignorant of knowledge, everything false that he made is foolish. And there is no spirit in them. It should be noted that in this chapter, wind and spirit are called by one name among the Hebrews, Rûaḥ (); but he calls it the Spirit of sanctification, which cannot be found in the minds of heretics. They are vain and worthy of laughter. For who would not laugh when they see the images of heretics? Either they are rustic and wooden, or they are composed in beautiful language and contain silver, or they are admittedly simulated with their own sense and falsely promise the image of gold. In the time of their visitation, they will perish. Heresy is valuable for a time, so that the chosen ones may be made manifest and proven. But when the visitation of God comes and His foolish eye sees everything, all things fall silent (I Cor. XI). There is no one like these people of Jacob: those who have supplanted the Jews and destroy heretics every day. But the part of God is the Saints: of whom the prophet says: My part, O Lord. For he who formed all things, he is (Psalm 72:26): who made and fashioned all things, both in spirit and in body. And Israel is the rod of his inheritance. Whoever is upright in God or perceives God with understanding, is the scepter of his inheritance. Whose name is the Lord Almighty, or of Hosts, for this means the Lord of Hosts, which is written in Hebrew as the Lord Sabaoth.
10:17-18
(Vers. 17, 18.) Gather from the land your confusion, you who dwell in siege; for thus says the Lord: Behold, I will cast far away the inhabitants of the earth this time, and I will afflict them that they may be found. LXX: It has gathered from outside its substance, which dwells in the fortified place. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will overthrow the inhabitants of this land, and I will afflict them, that they may be found. Jerusalem is commanded to gather whatever substance it has outside into the heavily fortified city, and to prepare provisions for a long siege. For never in the past has it been threatened about the future and long time, but now about the imminent captivity, which is soon to come. Gather, he says, both from outside and from the land, that is, from your fields, your possessions or confusion. For whatever you have, it is worthy of confusion: which, although you may prepare these things, learn the words of the Lord about them. Behold, in this case, at this time, I will cast, or rather throw far away the inhabitants of this land like a sling: for which the Seventy translated 'I will supplant' and 'I will make them fall.' For the Hebrew word Colea (), Aquila and Symmachus interpreted it as σφενδονήσω. And the meaning is: I will cast like a sling with all my might, and thus I will besiege them: and I will distress and constrain them, so that all may be found in the city, and they may not be able to escape the disaster.
10:19
(Verse 19.) Woe is me for my brokenness, my grievous wound. LXX: Woe is you for your brokenness, your grievous wound. According to the Hebrew text, Jerusalem itself speaks, expressing that it has been heavily afflicted and endures an incurable wound. However, according to the LXX, it is the Prophet who speaks to Jerusalem and laments over its brokenness and its wound.
But I say, truly this is my weakness (or my wound), and I will bear it (or it seizes me). Jerusalem itself speaks: whatever I suffer, I suffer by my own fault: I understand my wound which seizes me, or I will endure the wrath of the Lord, for I have sinned against Him.
10:20
(Verse 20.) My tent has been devastated, all my ropes have been torn (or all my skins have been ripped), my sons have left me (or my sheep), and there is no one left ((Alternatively: remaining)): there is no one to extend my tent any further (or there is no place beyond my tent) and to set up my skins. Jerusalem laments the ease with which its city is overthrown, not by walls and fortifications completely destroyed, but by the removal of tents and tabernacles. The tabernacle, he says, that is, my dwelling, was suddenly taken away. All my cords were broken. He preserves the metaphor of the tabernacle, that is, all my coverings were torn. My sons have left me, that is, my livestock, which is added by the Septuagint, does not fit the story. For in a long siege, how could sheep and livestock be taken away from Jerusalem, which even if they had been there, would have been consumed by famine? And they do not remain, that is, they are not. For they have not been translated into Chaldean, but a great part of them has been completely destroyed and wiped out. There is no one to extend my tent anymore: there is no one to restore me and lay the foundations of my walls, which have been laid down to the ground.
10:21
(Verse 21.) Because the shepherds acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord: therefore, they did not understand, and the whole flock was scattered. Through the fault and dispersal of the shepherds and sheep, the culpability and scattering of the people is described. For the princes acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord, whom they should have sought with their whole heart: therefore, they did not see the coming evils, or did not understand the Lord, and the whole multitude of Jerusalem was scattered here and there.
10:22
(Verse 22) A voice of the cry, behold it comes, and a great commotion from the land of the North: to make the cities of Judah desolate, a habitation of dragons (or a den of ostriches). And as Symmachus has interpreted, of sirens: for which in Hebrew, Thannim () is put. The words of the prophet: Behold, he says, the noise and the tumult of the Babylonian coming is heard, and great commotion, or earthquake, from the land of the North: to reduce all the cities of Judah, with the inhabitants being killed, into desolation, and to make dragons dwell instead of men, and all venomous creatures, or ostriches, which animal itself is familiar with desolation and is born and nurtured in the wilderness. Certainly, we can understand certain sirens, monsters, and phantoms of demons. All of these things that both past and present speech have described, let us refer them to times of persecution of the Church, when the tabernacles of the Lord are overthrown, and all the dwelling of the Church is reduced to solitude. And in order for all these things to happen, it is the fault of the shepherds, who acted foolishly and did not seek the Lord, nor understand Him, and therefore the whole flock is scattered.
10:23
(Verse 23) I know, Lord, that it is not in man to direct his own steps: nor is it in man, to walk and guide his own footsteps. Let the new preachers be ashamed, who say that each one is ruled by his own will, when even the Prophet says: It is not in man to direct his own steps (Psalm 36:23). And let David sing in his lyric song: The steps of man are directed by the Lord, and his way he greatly desires. Whether this is referring to what we suffer from the Babylonians, it is not due to their strength, but to our own merit and your indignation.
10:24-25
(Verse 24, 25.) Rebuke me, O Lord, but with justice, not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing. Pour out your indignation on the nations that do not know you, and on the provinces (or generations) that have not invoked your name, for they have devoured Jacob and consumed his dwelling place, and they have scattered (or reduced to desolation) his glory (or pasture). We also read this passage in the psalm: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not discipline me in your wrath (Psalm 6:1; 38:1). And the meaning is this: We indeed deserve all that we endure, and we deserve much greater things than what we suffer. Nevertheless, I beseech you, that you may correct me as a father, not as an adversary: that you may correct me as a son, and not punish me as an enemy (Hebrews 12); for you discipline every son whom you receive, and you correct Jerusalem through every pain and scourge. However, the enemies who do not know you, and the provinces or regions who have not invoked your name, should not feel your judgment, but rather your displeasure (Psalm 88). For you have handed us over to be corrected. But they have made their yoke heavier: they have not spared the elderly, and they have afflicted the little ones: they have eaten us up and completely devoured us, and they have reduced Jerusalem to such desolation that they have plundered both public and private buildings and killed your people.
11:1-3
(Chapter 11, verses 1-3) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying: Hear the words of this covenant (or testament), and speak to the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. It is not indeed stated in the title under which time, or under which king, and in which year of his, this prophecy was made: but we understand that either this is to be connected with the previous prophecy and time, or certainly after some interval of time the word of the Lord was made to the Prophet in this message. However, it should be noted that the word Berith, in Aquila and Symmachus, is always translated as pact, while in the Septuagint and Theodotion it is translated as testament. Specifically, it now refers to Jerusalem and the men of the tribe of Judah.
11:4
(Ver. 4.) Cursed is the man who does not listen to the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying: Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you, and you shall be my people, and I will be your Lord (or God). Not because of the privileges of lineage, not because of the injury of circumcision, and the rest of the Sabbath, but because of obedience, God becomes the people of Israel, and Israel becomes his people. And here indeed He speaks as if to slaves, so that they may please God. But in the Gospel, the Lord says to His disciples: 'You are my friends,' He says, 'if you do what I command you. I will no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father.' (John 15:14-15). And when they have become My friends, they pass on to being children: For as many as received Him, He gave them the power to become children of God. (John 1:12). Where he instructs his friends and disciples: Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48); he is commanding likeness, not equality. And there is obedience to the commandments, here is the likeness of God. And when he says: On the day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, he gives us understanding that the furnace and the iron furnace, and the kindling of tribulation and punishment signify magnitude, not a specific place of punishment, prepared with iron material.
11:5
(Verse 5.) In order to fulfill the oath that I swore to your fathers, I will give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is on this day. The fathers seem to receive, as the sons receive; and the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in his descendants. However, we must understand the land flowing with milk and honey metaphorically as representing the abundance of all things, as Virgil says in Eclogue III.
Let honey flow for them, let the rough bramble bear cinnamon. And again:
And everywhere he restrained the wines flowing in the rivers. Or certainly, tropologically, let us perceive the Church of Christ as the land flowing with milk and honey, in which we are nurtured as infants and sucklings through faith, so that we may be able to receive solid food.