20:9-10
(Verse 9, 10.) Because the word of the Lord has become a reproach to me, and a mockery all day long. And I said: I will not mention him (or I will not call the Lord by name), nor speak any more in his name. But there was as it were a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I was weary (or dissolved) in enduring it, and could not bear it. For I heard the reproach of many, and terror on every side (or as they gathered together everywhere), persecute him, and we will persecute him. As I was proclaiming and saying that the Babylonian army was already coming and that all would be plundered by the hostile sword, the word of the Lord came to me as a reproach and mockery, as they considered the delay of the prophecy to be a lie. Therefore, I made up my mind not to speak any longer to the people of God with words, nor to mention His name. But when I was overcome with shame, though timidly and foolishly, it became like a burning fire in my heart, shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it any longer. For the divine word conceived in the mind, not spoken by the mouth, burns in the heart. Therefore, Paul also says: If I preach the Gospel, there is no glory for me. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, a stewardship is entrusted to me. And when he was in Athens and saw the city given to idolatry, he was stirred up in his spirit and greatly distressed. And shortly after in the same volume we read: 'And when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.' (Acts 18). But even today, many of the Doctors in the Church endure similar things, hearing the condemnation of many that are gathered together against them, saying: 'Persecute them, and let us pursue them.'
20:11
(Verse 11.) All the men, who were peaceful towards me, and guarding my side: if we are deceived in any way, let us prevail against him, and achieve vengeance from him. But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior. When the adversaries rise up, and former friends and peaceful men turn to war, and they want to set traps for us, let us not be greatly concerned; but let us desire to say this which the Prophet speaks: But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior.
Therefore those who persecute me will fall and be weak (or because they have persecuted me and could not understand). Let them be greatly ashamed because they did not understand the everlasting disgrace, which will never be destroyed. Because they have persecuted, they could not understand the prophetic word, and intense confusion followed their ignorance, and they did not understand the everlasting disgrace, which will possess them and will not be erased by any forgetfulness. So let them say what they want, those once peaceful men who guarded my side and desired to deceive, as long as a just man and teacher of the Church after such persecution may obtain such vengeance and rewards.
20:12
(Verse 12.) And you, Lord, the tester of the righteous (or the one who tests the righteous), who sees the reins and the heart, may I please see your vengeance from them, for I have revealed my cause to you (Luke 6). The Lord alone is the one who knows how to test righteousness, just as he alone is the one who can see the inner thoughts of the heart. Thus, Jesus, knowing the thoughts of men, is not from advancement, as some may think, but by nature is God. Something similar is also expressed in the Psalms: No one living shall be justified in your sight (Psalm 143:2). If one who lives by virtues will not be justified, how much more so one who is dead because of sins? And even though he knows he has God as his advocate, still in the impatience of human frailty, he desires to see what he knows will come in the future, even now. And he to whom he revealed his cause, who says in another place: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord (Deut. 32:35). But happy is the conscience for whom the cause is revealed to the Lord (Heb. 10:30), as the Apostle says: Everything that is revealed is light (Eph. 5:13).
20:13
(Verse 13) Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked. The one who is poor in spirit and does not have riches, which have received their consolation in this world, about which Paul also speaks: Only that we should be mindful of the poor (I Cor. 13), when he has obtained vengeance from the Lord, praises the Lord in spirit, and boasts of being delivered from the hand of the wicked. However, all this happens not by our merit, but by the grace of Him who freed the poor, and it does not have the riches of the falling pride, but the humility of the freed poor.
20:14-18
(Verse 14 and following) Cursed be the day in which I was born, the day in which my mother bore me, let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man (or person) who brought the news to my father, saying, 'A male child is born to you,' and made him rejoice as if with joy. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without regret; let him hear the cry in the morning and the wailing at noonday, because he did not kill me from the womb to be my mother's grave, and her womb forever pregnant. Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in confusion? Those who consider that the souls were in heavenly things, and were precipitated from a better to a worse state, make use of this and similar testimonies, which indeed imply that it is better to dwell in heavenly things than in earthly things and to assume a body of humility: certain new things, or rather old, seeking arguments for their heresy. But we, on the other hand, reading that of the blessed Job: Cursed be the day wherein I was born; and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived (Job 3:3). And cursed is the man who announced to my father, saying, a boy is born to you, we fit this testimony, namely that it is better not to exist than to live in torments, according to what is written: Death is rest for a man, to whom God has closed his way (Sirach. XXII, 11). And again: Why is light given to the miserable, and life to those who are bitter of soul (Job. III, 20)? And in the Gospel we read a simple statement: It would have been better for him if he had not been born (Matthew XXVI, 24): not that there is anyone who has not been born; but that it is better not to exist than to be in a bad state. For it is one thing to not exist at all, another to exist but suffer without any respite, just as we prefer a peaceful death to a miserable life. Hence Amos refers to it as a day of darkness, a day of affliction (Amos, V). And Jacob, because he had lived in labor and distress, calls the days of his life few and evil (Gen. XLVII). And the Apostle Paul says: Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from the present evil world (Gal. I, 4). And again: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephes. V, 16). The Hebrews calculate the fifth month, when Jerusalem was captured and the Temple was destroyed, as the birth of Jeremiah, with certain and extraordinary arguments. But if they can prove this, I do not know how they can interpret the testimony of Job, unless perhaps they consider that day as a certain prefiguration and prophecy of the future destruction of the Temple. And I think that the similarity of the destroyed cities to Sodom and Gomorrah is mentioned, and every time is in mourning, so that there is a cry and a wailing in the morning and at midday. But what he brings forward: 'Whoever does not kill me in the womb, they think signifies God.' So that, he says, there would be eternal conception for me, which are all said hyperbolically. Finally, he explains the reasons why he prefers death to life, and indeed that not existing at all is better than existing badly, adding: 'Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and that my days should be consumed in confusion?'
21:1-2
(Chapter 21, verses 1 and following) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 'Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.' Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who struck Jeremiah, had a son named Pashhur. But Phasur is the son of Melchiah. This is why, so that no one might think he is the same. And King Zedekiah sends to the Prophet, not wanting either the people or the leaders to know, in order to secretly through messengers inquire, what judgment the Lord has against the city of Jerusalem and the people of Judah. And what he brings forward: Because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is making war against us, it is already shown that Jerusalem is besieged, Sedekiah inquires about this from the Prophet. And it should be noted, that in the Prophets, especially in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, the order of kings and times is not followed, but rather in reverse, that which happened later is recounted first, and that which happened earlier is recounted later. For it is one thing to write history, and another to write prophecy: as in this place, Zedekiah, who was captured with the city of Jerusalem, is mentioned sending a letter to Jeremiah, and at the same time when Jerusalem was under siege, and later the history of his brother Jehoiakim is narrated, who was king before him, and Jehoiachin. That is, Jechoniah, who was the son of Joachim, about whom it will be said in the following.
21:3-6
(Vers. 3 seqq.) And Jeremiah said to them: Thus shall you say to Zedekiah: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war (or the weapons of warfare) which are in your hands, wherewith you fight against the king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans that besiege you round about the walls: and I will gather them (or it) together in the midst of this city, and I will fight against you with stretched-out hand, and with a strong arm (or an exalted one), and in fury, and in wrath, and in great indignation. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city: both men and animals will die from a great pestilence. In vain, he says, do you want to resist the Chaldeans who are besieging you, and prepare your weapons of war, of which you will only have use in the middle of the city, so that you seem to be armed. However, against those besieging you, I will conquer you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and I will strike you with my fury and indignation: so that both you and everything that breathes may die in the middle of the city from hunger and pestilence. Indeed, we have read that this indeed happened. Without any crown and without any noise of the combatants, such a great city was captured by siege, that they did not have those whom they had conquered, but only those whom they had captured. Better, he says, were those wounded by the sword than those killed by hunger.
21:7
(Verse 7) And after these things, the Lord said: I will give Sedecias, king of Judah, and his servants, and his people, and those who have been left in this city from the plague, and the sword, and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he will strike them with the edge of the sword, and he will not show mercy, and he will not spare, and he will not have pity. What we have translated is not found in the Septuagint. And concerning what we have said: He will not be moved, neither will he spare, nor will he have mercy, the Seventy translated: I will not spare, neither will I have mercy. And it is better according to the Hebrew, that the sentence may seem cruel and unyielding, more like that of the Babylonian king than of the Lord. But first it was prophesied concerning the entire city: now it is specifically predicted of Zedekiah and his people, who will remain after the plague, that he is to be captured by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and to be killed with his friends by the sword. Nor should he hope for any mercy from him, whom he betrayed his covenant and friendship by perjury.
21:8-10
(Verse 8 and following) And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live, and shall have his life as a prize of war. For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall burn it with fire. Those who were sent by the king and came to the Prophet to plead with him to inquire of the Lord for them, received an answer concerning the king of Judah and what they should report to him. Now he encourages them to respond to the people and advises them to surrender to the Chaldeans against the king's will, which the Prophet knows was dangerous. Therefore, he curses the day of his birth, saying: 'Cursed be the day on which I was born.' (Jeremiah 20:14). And why did I come out from the womb, to see toil and sorrow (Ibid., 18)? Not because it is a trivial matter, nor yet to give advice to those already captured, that they should willingly submit to captivity, as if a shipwreck were ordered on those about to suffer it, so that, before the shipwreck and the ship being dashed to pieces, they should seize the oars and planks and cast themselves into the waves; but because it is more tolerable to live in whatever way, having been captured, than to be consumed by the sword, famine, and pestilence. There are those who have expounded this passage as follows, according to a metaphorical interpretation: the secular disciplines, and especially philosophy, are better than remaining within that Church in which there is hunger for the word of God, and the entire people die from both a scarcity of doctrine and a heretical plague.
21:11-12
(Verse 11, 12.) And to the house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord, O house of David. Thus says the Lord, Judge in the morning, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, lest my indignation goes forth like fire and is kindled with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds. The phrase 'because of the evil of your deeds' is not found in the Septuagint. Because above (Al. already above) it had said, And to this people you shall say, Thus says the Lord, subsequently it now adds, and to the house of the king of Judah: so that it is understood, you shall say, thus says the Lord: for both the higher and the lower are connected; so that the meaning is: And to this people you shall say, Thus says the Lord. But a proper speech is made to the royal house, because of whose fault the city is besieged, so that it may correct the error through repentance, and obtain the mercy of the Lord. Judge, he says, justice in the morning, not in the darkness of iniquity, but in the light of justice. And deliver the one oppressed by force, from the hand of the slanderer, so that you do not show favoritism in judgment, but that the authority of God may prevail more among you than the power of the persecutor. And if, he says, you do this, the fire of my anger will not be kindled in you, nor will it find material to consume. In this place the incredible mercy of God is demonstrated, as concerning those of whom it was said before: For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good; it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire, with the judgment of the Lord already approaching, so as to provoke them to seek salvation. Not that he is unaware that the city of Jerusalem is to be taken, but because the free will of man is preserved, so that they may seem to perish not by ignorance of the future, but by their own choice. How did the Savior know that the Apostle would deny him and that he himself would be crucified? Surely he had often foretold this to the Apostles and nevertheless reminded them, desiring to correct them for repentance, so that whatever they would subsequently endure, it would happen to them by their own fault, not because of the severity of the one threatening.
21:13-14
(Verse 13, 14.) Behold, I am against you, O inhabitants of the solid and level valley, says the Lord, those who say, who will strike (or terrify) us? And who will enter our houses? And I will visit upon you; and what follows, according to the fruit of your endeavors, says the Lord, is not found in the Septuagint. And I will set fire to its forest, and it will consume all around it. For the inhabitants of the solid and level valley, the Septuagint translated, Behold, I am against you, who dwell in the valley of Sor () the level, for which Symmachus interpreted as a rock besieged, Theodotius as a fortified place; in the first edition of Aquila it is solid, in the second Tyre. For Tyre speaks its language, and the land of the Hebrews, and the area around it, and it sounds like a restricted place. However, it speaks against Jerusalem, which is surrounded by siege, or in the likeness of Tyre, like a vast sea, it is encircled by the Babylonian army and cannot escape. Or certainly, it sees itself as an impregnable and robust rock due to the strength of its walls and their size, and it says: Who can frighten us? And who will enter our house? When God speaks in the opposite way: I will visit you; you will not be able to escape my eye. But I will visit you for destruction, and I will repay you the fruit of your wickedness. And I will kindle a fire in your forest. Not the Babylonians, as you think, not the king of the Chaldeans; but my anger will accomplish all these things. But he calls the forest Jerusalem, and all the surrounding region, which does not have the fruitful trees of good works, because it is prepared for burning. He calls the valley beautiful because it is easily passable by enemies, and not a high mountain that can be difficult to climb, next to which it is also said in Isaiah: The vision of the Valley of Zion (Isa. 22:1). Let us refer whatever is prophesied about the royal house and the metropolis city to the ecclesiastical order and the leaders of the Churches, only those who have surrendered to pride, riches, and indulgence. Not immediately because it is the royal house, it will be saved from destruction, just as those who are of the Davidic lineage, very few have been found who pleased the Lord like David himself, Hezekiah and Josiah, and a great part of the leaders and the royal lineage as a whole provoked the wrath of the Lord against the people.
22:1-5
(Chapter XXII - Verses 1 onwards) Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter by these gates. Thus says the Lord, Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the hand of his oppressor. And do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you do this word, then the kings sitting upon the throne of David will enter in by the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. This vision, or rather this word of the Lord, either happened before the messengers of Sedecias were sent to him, or certainly after they were sent, and before they returned again, Jeremiah is commanded, that he should not speak to the king by messengers, but that he himself should go into the house of the king, and there speak to him. At the same time, we notice the divine wisdom, that through messengers he commands sad news to be announced, mixed with good news, if the king will repent. However, because he is commanded himself to move forward, he does not announce sad news, and the impending captivity; but he warns what he should do to avoid the impending judgment of God. But it is the duty of kings to administer judgment and justice, and to deliver those oppressed by the violence of slanderers, and to provide assistance to foreigners, orphans, and widows (who are more easily oppressed by the powerful). And in order to impose a greater care of the commandments of God upon them, he said: Do not be distressed, so that you not only do not rescue, but also do not even allow others to be distressed through your connivance. And do not shed innocent blood in this place. For punishing murderers, sacrilegious, and poisoners is not the shedding of blood, but the ministry of the laws. If you do these things, O kings of Judah, you will maintain your former power, and you will enter the gates of Jerusalem with ambition. But if you refuse to do so, O royal household, the cruelty will not be so much of the Lord as it will be of your will, so that the whole city will be reduced to desolation. Let the bishops, along with their associates the presbyters and deacons, and all the ecclesiastical order, understand whatever has been said to the royal household, so that if they do what has been commanded and, among other things, do not shed innocent blood, causing offense to the least of these and striking the consciences of each individual, they may obtain the dignity entrusted to them by the Lord. But if they refuse and despise, let them themselves reduce the Church of God to solitude. And they enter by the gates of Jerusalem from the lineage of David, and they sit upon his throne, which is interpreted as strong by hand, and they ascend in chariots and horses, when they restrain both their own and the disturbances of the people, and in an orderly manner they enter the Church, with the chorus of many virtues, and singing in harmony from every side. And to believe that this is true, he swears by himself, because, according to the Apostle, he has no one greater by whom he may swear (Heb. VI).