(Verse 26, 27.) Just as a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so were the people of Israel and their kings, leaders, priests, and prophets ashamed. Even though the faces of thieves are shameless and bold, they are still embarrassed when caught in the act. And so, when Israel says to a piece of wood, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You have given birth to me,' they are calling their own creations their parents, and they are ashamed when caught in their idolatry. And let us not say this about him of the common people: He sets up kings and princes, and priests, and their prophets. Let us use this testimony against our leaders, and against those who are considered leaders in the Church, when they have been caught in shameful sins.
They turned their back to me, and not their face. Those who reject the words of God, turn their back against Him and not their face. For when a master gives a command, the sign of obedience is if the servant listens with head lowered. But if they turn their back, it is a sign of contempt; as it is written in another place: And they turned their shoulder, wanting to go away (Zach. VII, 11). So much have they despised my commands, that they did not even want to hear, but showed their arrogance with their body language.
And in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us. Those who did not perceive through blessings will perceive through torments that God.
2:28
(Verse 28.) Where are your gods, whom you made for yourself? Let them arise and deliver you in the time of your affliction. It is a shameless request to seek help from one whom you have despised in times of peace. And it should be read with the emotion of rebuke: Let your gods deliver you, whom you made for yourself. So that when God, the Creator of mankind, becomes a man, man may make a god, and the necessity may prove what power those whom you worshiped with confidence before possess.
According to the number of your cities, your gods were the gods of Judah. Each individual city worshipped either the same gods or different ones, so that they did not seem to have agreement in impiety, but rather, by fighting against each other, superstition followed different errors. And what follows is that, according to the number of roads, they sacrificed to Baal in Jerusalem, as added by the seventy translators.
2:29
(Verse 29) What do you want to contend with me in judgment? You all have forsaken me, says the Lord. Human perversity is inclined to make excuses for itself, so that whatever it rightfully endures, it may seem to endure unjustly; and it may attribute its own fault to the judgment of God. Therefore, in vain, you present complaints, and an unjust cause to the judge, when it is because of your impiety that you suffer. And what follows: And you have all acted unjustly against me, is added by the Septuagint.
2:30
(Verse 30) Without cause, I struck your sons: they did not receive discipline. For this reason, you did not receive the 70. And the sense in Hebrew is: Those who were struck did not want to receive discipline. But in the Septuagint: Therefore, I struck your sons so that you may be taught by their death. And lest you say: You did not want to correct sinners, learn from the blows inflicted upon your sons, because I desired to heal you with a more severe remedy.
Your sword devoured your prophets. Not mine, but yours: not my sword, but yours, devoured, which you endured for your sins. Moreover, the 70 do not have yours: but they have simply interpreted 'your sword devoured your prophets' to show either an enemy sword or my sword, through which your sins were stabbed.
As a destructive lion is your generation. LXX: As a destructive lion, and you did not fear. The sword, he says, which devoured your prophets; undoubtedly this signifies Baal and the soothsayers of idols, like a lion he ravaged everything: and yet your generation, which should have improved through the punishment of a few, continued in all wickedness. But in the Septuagint the sense is this: The sword of the Lord, which showed the sword of the adversaries, devoured and tore apart your false prophets, like a lion, which fiercely tears apart the prey it finds, and yet you were not able to be converted to better things through the punishment of your prophets.
2:31
(Verse 31.) See the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a barren land? Why then said my people, We are gone, we will come no more at you? LXX: Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a land full of darkness? Why do my people say, We will not serve, we will not come to you? And Moses saw the voice of God (Exod. XXXIII), and John the Apostle says that he has seen and touched the word of God (I John I). But he wonders how the people of Israel had treated God as if it were a wilderness, when they followed idols as if they were the bustling city. It is a late land, which does not receive the showers of teachings, nor the discipline of the Gospel; and it is full of thorns, because it had not been cultivated. Therefore, the once people of God are more wicked in that they have turned away from the Lord and do not want to return to their Lord anymore. It is a great offense not to seek to appease the one you have offended.
2:32
(Verse 32.) Will the virgin forget her adornment, and the bride her breastplate? My people have forgotten me in countless days. Through these things we learn that Christ is the bridegroom of the virgin Church, which has no blemish or wrinkle. But if he is the bridegroom, his words are, as John the Baptist speaks: He who has the bride is the bridegroom (John 3:29). Therefore, he loses his adornment who departs from the Lord, and loses the understanding of the teachings, which is symbolized in the breastplate. Wherefore also John the Evangelist leaned on the breast of the Lord (John 13), and among other things, the chest of the victims is separated for the priests (Numbers 18). But as the number of times in which we forget the Lord increases, so does the greater punishment of sin, which neither the length of the ages can subdue.
2:33-34
(Verse 33, 34) Why do you insist on showing your good path in seeking affection, when you have also taught your wicked ways? And on your wings (or in your hands) the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent is found. I did not find them in ditches (or pits), but in all of these (or under every oak tree). In vain, he says, you desire to defend yourself with the art of words, and to show your works as if they were good, so that you may deserve affection. Moreover, you have also taught others your ways, and you have become an example for all evil works, and on your wings (or in your hands), indeed, the blood of the innocent is found, whom you sacrificed to idols, or whose souls you lost through the likeness of sacrifices. We placed the poor, from Hebrew, who are not found in the Septuagint. However, he says, the poor and innocent ones, I did not find slain in ditches, which is usually the result of the plots of robbers: but in all the things I mentioned above, whether under the oak, which in Hebrew is called Ella (): which indeed also signifies this; so the meaning is: In all these things, whether under the oak or terebinth, under whose shade and foliage you enjoyed yourself as if in pleasant places of idolatrous crimes.
2:35-36
(Ver. 35, 36) And you said: I am without sin and innocent: and therefore let your anger turn away from me. Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: I have not sinned: how despicable you have become, repeating your ways too much (or how greatly you have despised). This should be used against those who refuse to acknowledge their own sins: but in the time of affliction and distress, they claim to unjustly endure what they endure: and they provoke the wrath of God even more, because the greater sin is not to mourn what they have done, but to offer empty excuses for their sins. He said, 'I will argue with you in court for what you have said, 'I have not sinned': as if this sin is any greater, to have something in one's conscience and to speak it out in one's words. Let the new heresy hear that the wrath of God is even the greatest, not to humbly confess one's sin, but shamelessly boast of righteousness.'
2:37
(Verse 37.) And you will be confounded by Egypt, just as you were confounded by Assyria: for you will also go out from there, and your hands will be on your head: because the Lord has broken your confidence (or hope), and you will have nothing prosperous in it. In order to avoid the attack of the Egyptians, they fled to the Assyrians, whose defense was in vain, for we read that they were defeated by the Egyptians. Again, in order to escape the wrath of the Assyrians, they used the help of the Egyptians; whom the Assyrians overcame, as the history tells. Therefore, they are rebuked because, having abandoned hope in the Lord, they rely on the assistance of men, which is totally broken and so destroyed that they cannot find any usefulness in it. Hence it is said: 'And you shall leave this, that is, Egypt, just as you left Assyria; and your hands shall be upon your head, and you shall grieve in vain for having expected help from the Egyptians.' Let us remember the story when Thamar was corrupted and violated by her wicked brother Amnon, and she put her hands sprinkled with ashes on her head, and thus she returned to her house (II Kings XIII).
3:1
(Chapter III - Verse 1) It is commonly said (for which the Seventy have translated 'only said'). If a man divorces his wife and she goes and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be considered defiled and polluted? (or that land?) And you have committed adultery with many lovers (or shepherds.) For the word 'Reim' (), which is written with four letters Res, Ain, Yod, Mem, signifies both lovers and shepherds. And if we read Reim, it means lovers; if Roim, it means shepherds.
But return to me, says the Lord (or you have returned to me, says the Lord). In Hebrew, even after fornication, he accepts the repentant, and exhorts them to return to him. But in the Septuagint, it does not invite to repentance, but reproaches the impudence of the prostitute who dares to return to her husband after adultery. And what it says: and that woman will be defiled, for which in Hebrew we read the land, provides an example, and speaks more clearly about the land of Israel, which is compared to the adulterous woman. Let us use this testimony against those who abandon the faith of the Lord and, hindered by the errors of heretics, after many fornications and deceptions of souls, pretend to return to the ancient truth: not to remove the venom from their hearts, but to deceive others.