23:33-36
(Verse 33 and following) So if this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, saying: what is the burden of God (or what is the assumption of the Lord)? you shall say to them: You are the burden (or assumption). For I will cast (or hurl) you away, says the Lord. And the prophet and the priest and the people, who says the burden (or assumption) of the Lord, I will visit (or avenge) upon that man and upon his house. Each one will say to his friend (nearest in the Vulgate) and to his brother: what did the Lord answer, and what did the Lord speak? And the burden (or assumption) of the Lord will not be remembered anymore, because the burden (or assumption) will be each one's own word (in the Alexandrian version). The Hebrew word massa means burden and weight, as interpreted by Aquila as ἅρμα, that is, burden and weight: Symmachus, Septuagint, and Theodotion translate it as assumption. Therefore, wherever it is heavy, what the Lord threatens, and full of weight and labor, and unendurable, it is also called a burden in the title ἅρμα, that is, weight. Wherever, indeed, the Lord promises prosperity, or after a threat, he promises better things, there the Vision is spoken, or certainly the word of the Lord: and it was clear from the very title of the prophecy of the weight, or vision, and the Word of God, what kind of prediction would follow. Therefore, since the Prophets used to announce sad things and threaten punishments to the sinful people, in order to turn them back to repentance: but the merciful and compassionate Lord delayed his judgment for a long time, the deceived people, led astray by the fraud of false prophets, thought that what the Lord threatened would not come true, and they turned the true matter into a game and a joke; and mocking the prophets, they said: Here again he sees the weight and burden of the Lord. And so it happened that, not at all seriously but as a joke and mockery, the burden and weight were called the Vision. Therefore, the Lord instructed that whether the people, the prophets, or the priests asked Jeremiah what the burden or assumption of the Lord was, he should respond to them and say: You are the burden, and you are the assumption. For I will take you and cast you away, and I will crush you and make you perish. But if anyone thereafter, whether a prophet, a priest, or a member of the people, dares to name the burden and weight of the Lord, I will visit," he said, "upon that man and upon his house; and I will destroy him forever. Therefore let each person say to his neighbor and friend, 'Surely it is not the burden of the Lord?' But what did the Lord respond? And what did the Lord say? You have forgotten the Old: burden and weight, or assumption, should no longer resound in your mouth. For to each person, his own words and deeds will be considered a burden and weight, according to what is written: 'By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned' (Matthew 15).
23:37-40
(Verses 37 onwards) And you pervert the words of the living God: the Lord of hosts, our God. This is what you say to the Prophet: What did the Lord respond to you, and what did the Lord say? But if you say the burden of the Lord. Up to this point, it is not found in the Septuagint, and it continues: Therefore, this is what the Lord says: Because you have said this word, the burden of the Lord, and I have sent to you, saying: Do not say, the burden of the Lord: therefore, behold, I will take you up and cast you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers away from My presence, and I will make you an everlasting reproach and an eternal disgrace, which will never be forgotten. The Lord commanded that the discourse of burden and weight and assumption should never be spoken among the people; but rather the response to the word of God: because the people had scorned to fulfill it, the word itself is interpreted over them, and it says, 'Because you have said that I did not want this, even though I have often sent prophets and commanded you not to say it: therefore I will fulfill your discourse of assumption, burden, and weight in you by action. Indeed, I will assume you and lift you up and carry you, and I will make you stumble and cause you to fall from the heights to the ground.' Not only you, but also your city, which I gave to your fathers. And I will make you a disgrace and eternal ignominy, which will never be erased by forgetfulness. And we know that this happened during the Babylonian captivity; but it is more fully and perfectly fulfilled after the passion and resurrection of the Savior, when the Lord spoke: Your house will be left deserted to you (Luke 13:35): and this sentence will remain until the end. Let us also speak in another way, only according to the Septuagint: the word λῆμμα not only signifies assumption, but also gift and gift. Because the people always promised themselves prosperity, it says that they should not say this anymore. For they are unworthy of God's gifts and favors, rather they should be rejected and completely abandoned by God's help. However, often things are shown from the words and interpretation of names, as in the case of Abraham, Sarah, and Peter, and the names of the sons of Zebedee, where the changing of names signifies a change in circumstances. And in this same prophet, Phasur is said to mean fear, or translation, and colonus, or foreigner. It should be noted that the words 'Dei viventis,' 'Domini exercituum,' 'Dei nostri' are not found in the Latin and Greek manuscripts, and the Hebrews themselves read against this in their volumes, as it properly signifies the mystery of the Trinity.
Book Five
Book Five
The book of Quintus's Commentaries on Jeremiah will have its beginning from two baskets, in which one will demonstrate the sweetness of true faith and the other the bitterness of the perfidy of heretics. Although Ananias, son of Azur, opposes Jeremiah, and Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, desires to send the prophet to prison, and the priest Zephaniah speaks against the words of the false prophets (Jeremiah 28, 29): nevertheless, the truth can be closed and bound, but it cannot be conquered. It is content with its few followers and is not frightened by the multitude of its enemies. Therefore, raise your hands with Moses to the sky, and hang the ancient serpent in the wilderness; immediately Amalek will be destroyed, and venomous bites will not prevail, and the people of the Lord, safe with Jesus, will cross the waters of the Jordan; and after the vast solitude, they will eat the bread that was born in our little Bethlehem. (Exodus 17, Numbers 21).
24:1-10
(Chapter XXIV. - Verse 1ff.) The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets (or baskets) full of figs, placed before the temple of the Lord. After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes, the craftsmen, and the captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that ripen early, and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten because they were bad. And the Lord said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said: I see good figs, very good; and bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten, because they are bad. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: As these good figs, so will I know the captivity of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. And I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land, and I will build them up, and not tear them down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return to me with their whole heart. And as the fig tree, which cannot be eaten, because it is bad: thus saith the Lord, so will I give (or hand over) Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem, that remain in this city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt. And I will give them for vexation, affliction (or dispersion) to all the kingdoms of the earth as a reproach, and as a parable, and as a proverb, and as a curse in all places where I have driven them. And I will send upon them the sword, and famine, and the pestilence, until they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers. The two baskets, or baskets of good and evil (or of good things and evil things), are interpreted in the Law and in the Gospel; the Synagogue and the Church; the Jewish people and the Christians; Gehenna and the Kingdom of Heaven, of which one pertains to the punishment of sins, and the other to the dwelling place of the Saints. But we, knowing according to the Apostle Paul (Rom. VII) that the law is good and holy, and the commandment is good and holy, and that the God of both Testaments is one, or rather let us refer to those who believed and did not believe in the coming of the Lord Savior, who, instigated by the Scribes and priests, cried out, saying: Crucify, crucify such a one (Luc. XXIII, 21), let them be baskets of bad figs; but those who believed after his ascension, let them be referred to as good figs and the best basket and basket. But let us follow a simple and true history, which Jechoniah, who had surrendered himself to the counsel and command of Jeremiah and God, had called the basket of good figs, to whom the Lord also promises prosperity. But of Zedekiah, who went against the advice of God, he was captured, his eyes were blinded, and he was led to Babylon, where he died (2 Kings 25). However, God showed favor to those who obeyed His command and brought them back to their land. He built and did not destroy, planted and did not uproot, and gave them a heart to know Him, so that they would be His people and He would be their God. Even in captivity, God looked upon them and allowed them to work the land, build houses, and plant gardens in the region of Babylon. Daniel, through the signs and miracles, became a ruler suddenly from being a captive (Daniel 5), and the three young men were gloriously delivered from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). And after seventy years, under Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, Ezra, and Nehemiah, a great number of people returned to Jerusalem, which is recorded in the book of Ezra (Ezra 2). It should also be noted that this vision was given to the prophet during the time of Zedekiah, after Jehoiachin was taken into exile. For he did not mention captivity, since he had willingly surrendered himself. However, we should understand the blacksmiths and the enclosers, or the interpreters and teachers of the law, or the craftsmen and enclosers of gold and gems, which art is most precious among barbarian nations. They were interpreted for the jailers as referring to the seventy who were bound, in order to signify the evil of their captivity; and they added something of their own, the wealthy, which is not found in the Hebrew. Moreover, he compares a basket which had good figs, and very good ones, the figs of the first season, which in Greek are called πρώἳμα, namely, those of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Aaron, and Job, and the other holy men, concerning whom one of the twelve Prophets speaks: I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness, and as figs in the fig tree's first season I found your fathers. And we are also called sons of Abraham. And on the contrary, it is said to the Jews: If your father were Abraham, you would do his works (John 8:39). However, these nets, which had good and bad figs, were not outside and outside the Church, but in front of the temple of the Lord, because all of that knowledge is open: nor do these figs outside have such bitterness, as those which have been changed after the confession of faith through transgression. They lack the sweetness of a good fig, which are not in the presence of the temple of God: such were the worldly philosophers, who, though they seemed more to praise than to follow the virtues, recognized the natural good and intelligence of the Creator: how great is the sweetness of the figs that are in the temple of God, of which the Prophets and Apostles were, of whom one fig spoke: I have given you milk, not solid food (I Cor. III, 2). And: My little children, of whom I am in travail again until Christ be formed in you (Galat. IV, 19). Where it is said that in the sight of the temple of God, the good figs were very good; and the bad figs were very bad. And so that we do not think that our interpretation is incorrect, Scripture itself explains. Just as it says, these figs are good: so I will acknowledge the transmigration of Judah, which I sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans for good: signifying Jeconiah and the princes who were taken captive with him. And, on the contrary, concerning the basket that had the bad figs; and just as the figs, it says, which cannot be eaten because they are bad: so I will give Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes, and those who fled to Egypt, and those who remained in this city, into vexation and affliction for all the kingdoms of the earth (Jeremiah 42), when they were also taken captive in Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar set his throne in Tahpanhes, and the Lord sent against them the sword, famine, and pestilence until they were consumed from the land that he gave to their fathers. But what he said about the good figs: I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, is similar to the Apostle's: It is God who works in you both to will and to do (Philippians 2:13), so that not only our actions, but also our desires rely on the help of God. In this passage, the allegorical interpreter goes astray, always wanting to give a historical meaning to the truth, referring to those captured and taken to Chaldea from the heavenly Jerusalem, and then returning to their original place, like Jeremiah and the other holy prophets; but he says that the others who were sinners will die in this land and in the valley of tears. I placed the entire vision here without any cutting, so as not to divide the meaning in the explanation.
25:1
(Chapter 25, Verse 1) The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. These events took place before the vision because it was during the reign of Zedekiah, after Jehoiachin was deported to Babylon. But this event took place during the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, and the father of Jehoiachin. For the prophets (as I mentioned before) were not concerned with keeping track of the times, which require the laws of history, but rather with writing in a way that would be useful to those hearing or reading it. Some people wrongly seek the order of the history of the psalms in the Psalter, which is not observed in lyrical poetry.
25:2
(Verse 2) This is the first year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (which is not in the LXX. And it follows): What Jeremiah the Prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying. In the fourth year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah and father of Jeconiah, Nebuchadnezzar became the ruler in Babylon, and it happened that the year which was the first for Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon was the fourth for King Jehoiakim in Jerusalem. Finally, in the eighth year of his reign, Jechoniah, along with his mother and the princes, was led into captivity, having only reigned for three months after the death of his father, Joachim. However, Joachim was killed in the eleventh year of his reign in Jerusalem (2 Kings 24).
25:3
(Version 3.) From the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah, until this day, which is the twenty-third year, the word of the Lord came to me, and I spoke to you, rising up at night and speaking, but you did not listen. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, who reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years, Jeremiah began to prophesy, and he prophesied under him for nineteen years. After him, his son Joahaz became king, but he was immediately taken into captivity by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, and his brother Joachim succeeded to the throne (2 Kings 23). In the fourth year of his reign, this message of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and thus it was the twenty-third year of the prophet Jeremiah, since he began speaking to the people. And he never ceased to preach, but every day, rising at dawn and in the night, he spoke to the people. And you have not listened, he says. But if, as the heretics want from the old things, the law was given once for help, and established precepts which we do or do not do according to our own will; how does the Prophet always thrust himself forward and daily repeat the commands of God, which, certainly once received, were enough for those to whom they were given, unless to show this, that we always need the help of God and can never be sufficient, what was given once, unless it is renewed daily by the reminder of the Lord?
And the Lord sent to all of you his servants the Prophets, rising up in the morning and sending them; and you did not listen. Not through one Prophet, but through all his people, God always warned, and as if he himself arose in watchful vigil and stood up in the morning, to warn his people. And you did not listen; so with the more frequent admonition, how much greater have been the sins of those who despise?
25:4-5
(Verse 4, 5.) You did not incline your ears to listen when I said (Vulgate: said): Return to me, each one of you, from your evil ways and from your wicked thoughts. And you will dwell in the land that the Lord gave to you and your fathers from eternity to eternity. The hardness of the people was so great that they would not even assume the habit of listening and incline their ear, particularly when the Lord was warning them to turn each one from their evil ways and from their wicked thoughts. And, O infinite mercy, not to inflict punishment for crime, but to provoke to repentance, both for evil deeds, which the wicked way signifies, and for the worst thoughts, which are considered sin even without action. And He promises a reward, if they do what is commanded, that they may dwell in the land which was given to the fathers, and for the sins of their children to be removed. And He says: From age to age, or, from eternity to eternity, He shows the eternal gifts of God, if those to whom they are given are worthy.
25:6-7
(Verse 6, 7.) And do not go after foreign gods, to serve them and worship them; and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you. But you did not listen to me, says the Lord, to provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own harm. And this, I said to your forefathers, not to serve and worship foreign gods, and by doing so, provoke me to anger because of the works of your hands, so that I would do what I did not desire, and afflict you, and you did not listen to me. And what follows, says the Lord, that you have provoked me to anger with the works of your hands, for your own harm, is not found in the Septuagint.
25:8
(Verse 8.) Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not listened to my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. But the Lord sends forth angels to stir up the nations, or certainly moves such tribes, so that they may do the will of the Lord. And he calls his servant Nebuchadnezzar, not called as the prophets and all the saints are called, who truly serve the Lord; but so that in the destruction of Jerusalem, he may serve the will of the Lord: as the Apostle also speaks: Whom I have delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:20). There is no doubt that the Chaldeans are located in the northern part, near the site of Jerusalem.
25:9
(Verse 9) And I will bring them upon this land and upon its inhabitants and upon all the nations around it. And I will destroy them and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. These are the rewards of those who despise and refuse to listen to the words of God. Therefore, whatever evil comes upon us, it is because of our sins. And all the nations were brought against Jerusalem in that way, just as they are brought against the negligent Church today, to destroy them and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation, so that they may serve as an example and a wonder to all. But the hissing is a sign of a miracle and wonder; and eternal loneliness is found in those who do not have God as their guide.
25:10