(Vers. 22, 23.) For he brings upon them suddenly a robber, because they dug a pit to capture me, and hid snares for my feet. But you, Lord, know all their counsel against me to bring about my death. Do not forgive their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight. Let them be overthrown (or let them stumble) before you; in the time of your anger, deal with them (or do to them). If we understand this from Jeremiah, let us refer the sudden robber to Nebuchadnezzar; if we understand it from the Savior, which is both truer and better, let us refer it to the Roman army. And so that the sentence of God may not seem unjust, he explains what they did against the Son of God, Christ, and what they suffered. But what he concludes, that you may not show favor to their wickedness, and their sin may not be blotted out from your presence, is by no means contrary to the previous sentence, in which he intercedes for the people to the Father; but after the time for repentance has passed, and they persist in their wickedness, the people and the elders are punished not so much for themselves as for others, so that their unavenged sin may not harm others by example. And what he brings forward: That those who stumble, or fall, in your sight, are similar to that of Isaiah and the Apostle Peter. And you will not stumble like on a stone of offense, and a rock of scandal (Isaiah VIII, 14; I Peter II, 8). The Prophet also mentions this in the Psalms: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This has been done by the Lord (Psalm CXVII, 22).
19:1-3
(Chapter 19, verses 1 and following) Thus says the Lord: Go, and take the potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests, and go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the entry of the earthen gate (or Charsith); and there you shall proclaim (or cry out, or read) the words that I shall speak to you, and you shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. For the potter's bottle, which is called 'Bocboc' in Hebrew, the Septuagint translated it as 'doliolum', and for the earthen gate, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion put the Hebrew word 'Harsith'. For this, the Septuagint, according to their custom of aspirating the letter 'Heth', added the Greek letter 'Chi', so that they would say 'Charsith' instead of 'Arsith', just as they say 'Chebron' for 'Hebron', and 'Jericho' for 'Jeriho'. But divine Scripture wants to instruct the people not only with their ears, but also with their eyes. For what is seen is more retained in the mind than what is heard: 'Take,' he says, 'your little bottle or earthenware jar as a witness, and go out to the valley of the sons of Hinnom, of which we have spoken before, where there is a temple of Baal, and a grove, and a grove irrigated by Siloam's springs. The valley itself, he says, is next to the gate, which in Hebrew is called Harsith, that is, earthenware.' And you will proclaim, or read there the words that I speak to you: so that they may hear what I am going to say. And as we have already said, you will proclaim, and cry out, and read it, because the Hebrew word Carath (), signifies these three things. And she wants both the kings of Judah to hear, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, both the royal lineage, and the whole people, so that those who refuse to listen may be without excuse.
19:4-6
(Verses 4-6.) Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring calamity (or evil) upon this place, such that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle, because they have forsaken me and have made this place a foreign land, and have burned incense in it to foreign gods, whom they and their fathers and the kings of Judah did not know. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something that I did not command (or think), nor did it come into my mind. And certain individuals foolishly refer this place to the heavenly Jerusalem. Lest we always remind, it suffices to have said this only: that this kind of explanation is to be avoided, indeed it is heresy, which clearly subverts and attempts to introduce certain deceits to the Churches of Christ. But there is no doubt that they placed the idol Baal in the Temple of God, whether in the shrine that was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, where the grove of Baal and his altar were located, on which they sacrificed and burned their children. What the Lord neither thought nor spoke, nor did they ascend into his heart. Not that God does not know the future, but because he says that he chooses not to know unworthy things, according to the words of the Gospel: Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I do not know you (Luke 13:27). For the Lord knows those who are his (2 Timothy). And, Whoever is ignorant, let him be ignorant (1 Corinthians 14:38). Or certainly in a human way, and these things must be understood about God, as well as others. But every heretic forsakes God and makes room for the dwelling of God, whom he has defiled by his deceit and offers sacrifices to foreign gods, whom neither he nor his fathers knew, namely the Apostles and apostolic men; but the kings of Judah, that is, the patriarchs of heretics, fill the place of God once with the blood of deceivers and the innocent. For unless he is foolish and simple, he is not quickly overthrown. And they build high places for Baal, while claiming to debate lofty matters. And they burn their sons as an offering to idols, whom they have begotten in their heresy. The Lord says that he is unaware of all these things and that they have never entered his mind.
19:6
(Verse 6.) Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. LXX: Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called ruin and πολυάνδριον (multiplicity) of the son of Hinnom, but πολυάνδριον (multiplicity) of slaughter. The valley of the son of Hinnom, which is called Gehenna in Hebrew (), from which it is thought to be named Gehenna, as we have said above. But I wonder what the meaning of the number 70 is for Topheth (), which means the place of ruin, and for the valley, πολυάνδριον, which signifies a multitude of men, unless it is because the people there have fallen and a multitude of men have been slain, either spiritually, in the error of idolatry, or literally, by the Babylonian army, as is more clearly stated in the following passage.
19:7-9
(Verse 7 and following) And I will scatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will overthrow them with the sword in the presence of their enemies and those who seek their lives, and I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city a horror, a hissing, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its wounds. And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall distress them. Although we know that these things also happened to the people in the Babylonian captivity, they are more fully related to the times of the Savior, when they were besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and their city, in the times of Hadrian, collapsed into eternal ashes, so that those who had offered their children to idols were themselves later compelled by the necessity of famine to turn them to the use of food, and the flesh of all creatures of the sky and of the earth was given to them, so that those who had abused the gifts of the Lord into impiety and had sacrificed their own entrails to idols, would make graves of their own children's bellies.
19:10-11
(Verse 10, 11.) And you shall break the jar in the eyes of the men who go or come with you. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So shall I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be restored any longer. Clearly it is spoken not of the Babylonian, but of the Roman captivity. For after the Babylonians, the city was rebuilt, the people brought back to Judah, and the former abundance restored. But after the captivity, which happened under Vespasian and Titus, and later under Hadrian, the ruins of Jerusalem will remain until the end of the world, although the Jews believe that golden and jeweled Jerusalem will be restored to them, and again there will be sacrifices and holy marriages and the kingdom of the Lord Savior on earth. Although we may not follow these beliefs, we cannot condemn them, because many ecclesiastical men and martyrs have spoken of these things. And let each one abound in his own sense, and let all things be reserved for the judgment of the Lord (Rom. XIV). However, just as a clay vessel, once it has been broken, cannot be restored to its former appearance: so too the people of the Jews and Jerusalem, once they have been destroyed, will not have their former condition. Finally, today the name of that city is empty, and it is called Aelia by Aelius Hadrianus, and it has lost its former name along with its former inhabitants, in order to destroy their pride. However, the names of the Holy Cross and Resurrection do not signify a city, but a place: nor the former greatness of riches, by which the Jewish people perished, but the glory of sanctity, which our humble Bethlehem possesses, not having gold and gems, but the bread that was born in it.
19:12
(Verse 12.) And they will bury (or be buried) in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury. Thus I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, and I will make this city like Topheth (or like ruins), and the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like Topheth (or like ruins). But what is inserted in the Septuagint: All the houses of the kings of Judah, like Topheth, is not found in the Hebrew. And it follows:
19:13
(Ver. 13.) All the houses are unclean, in whose dwellings (or roofs) they sacrificed to the whole heavenly host, and poured out drink offerings to foreign gods. What he said above. This place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the son ((or sons)) of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, now he explains more clearly that there will be such a great slaughter in that place, that the people will be buried there in heaps, and the once sacred grove ((or place)) will become a tumult of the dead. Also, let the city that is above this place become like Tophet, for which seventy were destroyed. Let the houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings be turned into similar ruins. And the reason is given, because they were unclean and polluted by the crime of idolatry, because they sacrificed to the sun, moon, and stars of heaven in their houses and on their roofs, and burned incense. And they were not satisfied with this error, but they also sacrificed to demons and poured out libations to foreign gods (Zephaniah 1).
19:14-15
(Verse 14, 15) But Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people: This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words. After breaking a jar or a small bottle in the presence of the elders of the people in Topheth, which Jeremiah had brought with him, he prophesied the words of the Lord to crush the people and the city of Jerusalem. Then he returned and stood in the court of the house of the Lord and spoke to the whole multitude that had not gone to Topheth, warning them that the Lord would bring upon the city of Jerusalem and all its towns all the evil that he had spoken against it. And lest we should think the sentence cruel, he gives the reasons why he will bring evil upon them. 'Because,' he says, 'they have hardened their neck, that they might not hear my words: nor have they done penance for their many wickednesses, desiring to do penance.'
20:1-2
(Chapter 20 — Verses 1, 2) And Phasur, the son of Emmer, a priest who was appointed as the chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. And Phasur struck the prophet Jeremiah and sent him into the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. For Phasur, the Septuagint translated as Phascor, which means "blackness of the mouth," and for the stocks, which we have mentioned, the Septuagint and Theodotion translated as "cataract," Symmachus as "instrument of torture" or "torture device," both of which signify torment. But we have called it by the common name of a nerve, which we also read as a type of torture in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles Paul and Silas were placed in prison (Acts XVI). But this man was the high priest of the Temple, and he abused the dignity of the Priesthood for evil purposes, not to teach and correct with words, but to terrify with tortures (John XIX). Therefore, both the Savior and the apostle Paul were beaten by order of the high priest (Acts XVI). It is not surprising if today the servants of God are killed by Phaschor, or sent to prison and held in terrible custody. For this power is given by God, so that the faith of the Prophets may be shown. However, the one who kills is not greater, but the one who is slain is stronger. And the Prophet accepts the judgment of God patiently, without protesting the blows, but considering the one who commands. Emmer () sounds like the word from which darkness is often generated, not by the fault of the parent, but by the wickedness of the degenerating. However, the torment by which the Prophet is afflicted seems to be on the right side, which is interpreted as Benjamin; and in the lofty gate, which indicates not truth, but the unjust power of the pontiff.
20:3
(Ver. 3.) And when it dawned on the next day, Phasur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks and Jeremiah said to him: The Lord did not call your name Phasur, but fear from all sides. And here both the name of the high priest and the type of torture are interpreted in the same way as before. However, the name of the high priest is changed, so that it may show the punishment of the future from the name. You will by no means have a blackened face and the unjust rule of power; but you will be led captive to Babylon, for this signifies fear from all sides or all around: that trembling and uncertain of your own safety, you look around here and there, and shrink back at the adversaries coming against you. For fear, which is written in Hebrew as Magur ((Al. Magor)), LXX and Theodotio μέτοικον, that is, a migrant, Aquila's second edition as a foreigner, the first as a watcher, Symmachus as taken away or gathered together.
20:4-6
(Vers. 4-6.) Because this is what the Lord says: Behold, I will make you a terror, along with all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. And I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon, and strike them with the sword. And I will give all the wealth (or strength) of this city, and all its labor, and all its precious things (or glory), and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, and take them away, and bring them to Babylon. But as for you, Phasur, and all the inhabitants of your house, you will go into captivity, and you will come to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsehood. According to the previous interpretation, in which Phasur (also known as Phaschor) had its name changed to Magur (or Magor), all similarly translated it to signify either terror, or sojourning, or removal and relocation, and congregation. And he is being pursued by his friends, about to be seized and handed over to the enemy's hands, and the whole Jewish population is to be occupied by the hands of the Babylonian king, some to be killed by the sword, and others to be led into captivity, and all the riches of both the city and the royal treasures are to be taken by the enemies. And Phasur himself and his entire family are to be led into captivity, and he is to die in Babylon, because he deceived his people with lies, promising not true and sad things, but prosperous things through deceit. At the same time, the patience and prudence of the Prophet are to be noted, as he remains silent when sent to prison, and through silence, he overcomes the injustice. However, he does not conceal what he knows will come to pass, so that at least in this way, the false prophet, the high priest, may cease to sin and implore the mercy of God.
20:7-8
(Verse 7, 8.) You have deceived me, Lord, and I have been deceived (or you have beguiled me, Lord, and I have been beguiled). You were stronger than me and prevailed (or you obtained and were able to). I have become a mockery all day long, everyone mocks me; because now I speak, crying out injustice and devastation (or because with bitter words I will laugh at transgression and call upon misery). The Prophet says he was deceived by the Lord, because from the beginning hearing: I have appointed you as a Prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). And again: Behold, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build up, and to plant (Jeremiah, 1:10), thinking that he would say nothing against the people of Judah, but rather against the various nations around. Therefore, he gladly accepted the prophecy; and it happened contrary, that while predicting the captivity of Jerusalem, he endured persecutions and hardships. And he accomplished it. I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me, because they think that he has been lying about everything and that all the things he predicted would happen were lies. And the Prophet immediately thought that what the Lord had threatened would come true, and the people thought that it would not come any more because it had not come immediately. And I cry out about the destruction of Babylon and the wickedness of the enemies through which my people will be oppressed. But if we follow the Seventy in what they said, that with bitter words I will laugh at their prevarication and call upon their misery, this is the meaning: I know that present sorrow will be exchanged for future joy, according to what is written: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:5); and therefore I willingly endure misery, wickedness, and affliction, so that I may desire and invoke them, and compensate for the brevity of the injustice with the eternity of happiness.