1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon
Jerome · AD 420 After the address of the Lord in which he commanded, "go throughout Jerusalem," and so on, the prophet addresses the Lord in return: "Lord, your eyes look for faith," which is ʾemûnā in Hebrew, referring not to the works of the Jews, in which they exulted according to ceremonies of the law, but to the faith of Christians, through which we are saved by faith.
2 And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
Cyprian · AD 258 Disasters occur either to discipline the obstinate people or punish evil people. The same God declares in the Holy Scriptures, "I have struck your children in vain. They have not received correction." The prophet devoted and dedicated to God answers these words in the same way and says, "You struck them, but they have not grieved.
Salvian the Presbyter · AD 500 Who among us has amended his life, or what part of the Roman world, no matter how afflicted, is corrected? As we read, "For all have declined, they have become useless at same time." Therefore, the prophet cries out to God and says, "You have struck them, and they have not sorrowed. You have consumed them, and they have refused to accept discipline.
3 O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "You consumed them, and they refused to receive instruction." When God, who exercises providence over all things, performs the purifying works for the salvation of a soul, then as far as it depends on him he has consumed it.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 3) Lord, your eyes look upon faith: you struck them, and they did not hurt; you crushed them, and they refused to accept discipline. They hardened their faces like rock, and they refused to turn back.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 Truly, slander humiliates a person, and slander troubles the poor person. The evil of slander is so great that it brings down both the perfect person … from his height, and the poor person, that is, the one who lacks great learning, as it seems to the prophet, who says, "Perhaps they are poor … therefore they will not hear.
Jerome · AD 420 (Vers. 4, 5.) But I said: Perhaps they are poor and foolish (or they were unable) and ignorant of the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. Therefore, I will go to the noble ones, and I will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 "Well-off" refers to the priests and the teachers of the law; "poor" refers to the rest, insofar as they did not possess the wealth of divine knowledge. Yet he accuses both of lawlessness, proceeding in this way, "They all alike broke the yoke, they snapped the bonds." It was not without purpose the prophet said this.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "I will go to the great ones and speak to them." Those who are great in soul are spoken of in praise. For among the Greeks too "greatness" (to hadron) is continually used to name the grandeur of the rational soul.
Philoxenus of Mabbug · AD 523 And the prophet of God reproacheth severely those who have broken the yoke, and cut the bands of the fear of God. Now Israel became rebels because there was no fear [in them]; and they trod under foot the commandments because they were not mindful of what was threatened; and they despised the law because they remembered not the penalty of Him that ordained it.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 6) And behold, these men have broken the yoke together: they have broken the bonds, therefore the lion from the forest has struck them, the wolf has laid waste to them in the evening, the vigilant leopard is over their cities; everyone who goes out from them will be captured. Because their transgressions have multiplied, their apostasies have become strengthened.
7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.
Didascalia Apostolorum · AD 230 We must conduct our festivals and rejoice with fear and trembling. A faithful Christian, the psalm says, must not sing the songs of the heathen or have anything to do with the principles and doctrines of strange assemblies. It may happen that through their songs, he might make mention of the names of idols, which God forbids the faithful to do.
Jerome · AD 420 (Vers. 7) How can I be propitious to you? Your sons have forsaken me, and they swear by those who are not gods. I have satisfied them, and they have committed adultery, and they have indulged in the house of a prostitute. Catalogue of the sins of Jerusalem: while she says that she does not know God, by whom she can be shown mercy. Your sons have forsaken me, she says.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.
Irenaeus · AD 202 Those who do indeed reject the Spirit's counsel, and are the slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives contrary to reason, and who, without restraint, plunge headlong into their own desires, having no longing after the Divine Spirit, do live after the manner of swine and of dogs; these men does the apostle very properly term "carnal," because they have no thought of anything else…
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 The neighing horse depicts the recklessness of young men.
Salvian the Presbyter · AD 500 Murder is rare among slaves because of their dread and terror of capital punishment, but it is common among the rich because of their hope and trust in impunity. Perhaps we are wrong in putting in the category of sins what the rich people do, because, when they kill their slaves, they think that it is legal and not a crime.
9 Shall I not visit for these things ? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation
Jerome · AD 420 (Vers. 9) Will I not visit them for these things, says the Lord? Will my soul not avenge itself on such a nation? When you do these things, he says, are you not worthy of punishment? And note that here visitation is used as punishment and torment, according to what is written: I will visit their iniquities with a rod.
10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S.
Jerome · AD 420 (Vers. 10, 11.) Ascendite muros ejus (sive propugnacula) et dissipate: consummationem autem nolite facere. Auferte propagines ejus (sive sustentacula) quia non sunt Domini. Praevaricatione enim praevaricata est in me domus Israel, et domus Juda, dicit Dominus.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 Accusation is the censure of wrongdoers. This mode of instruction God employs by David, when he says, "The people whom I did not know served me, and when their ears heard they obeyed me.
12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 12, 13.) They denied the Lord and said: He is not (or these things are not), and evil will not come upon us. We will not see sword and famine. The prophets spoke in vain and there was no answer (or response) in them. Therefore, these things will happen to them.
13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done
14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 14) Thus says the Lord God of hosts, because you have spoken these words: behold, I will make my words in your mouth like fire, and this people like wood, and it shall devour them.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 We say then that the power of the divine message resembles a live coal and fire. And the God of all somewhere said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Behold, I have made my words in your mouth to be fire, and this people to be wood, and it shall devour them." And again, "Are not my words as burning fire, says the Lord?" Rightly, therefore, did our Lord Jesus Christ say to us, "I came to…
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 15 and following) Behold, I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you will not understand, nor will you know what it speaks. Its quiver is like an open tomb, all mighty warriors.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 God, who judges "little by little," gives to those being chastised room for repentance, and does not, in punishing at the very moment of sin, bring the full completion of the punishment upon the one who has sinned. For this reason, "judging little by little," he chastises.
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 "And it shall be, when you say, 'For what reason has the Lord our God done to us all these evils?' — and you shall say to them, 'Because you forsook me and served other gods in your land, so shall you serve in a land not your own.'" Let the letter be understood, and it suffices for the present to set forth the reminder from the letter for those able to hear.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 19) But if you shall say: why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? You shall say to them: Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods (or foreign deities) in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours. It is a great folly not to know why they have suffered, since they have sinned so greatly.
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 20, 21.) Announce this to the house of Jacob, and make it heard in Judah, saying: Hear, foolish people, who have no understanding: who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear.
21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear
John Cassian · AD 435 One who does not carefully weigh every word of the opinions uttered cannot rightly discover the value of the assertion. For someone like this, who only possesses skill in disputation and ornaments of speech, cannot penetrate to the very heart of Scripture and the mysteries of its spiritual meanings. True knowledge is acquired only by true worshipers of God.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 Not understanding him who had been anointed and sent and who was the author of such wonderful works, they returned to their usual ways and talked about him in a foolish and vain way. For although they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth, yet their wish was to treat them as valueless.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 That it is the height of folly not to fear, the Lord says in Jeremiah: "Hear, O foolish people, who have no heart: who having eyes, see not, and ears, and hear not. Will you then not fear me, and will you not be grieved at my presence? I who have set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an everlasting decree, which it shall not pass beyond." Do you not fear me?
22 Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 Through all the story of waters be mindful of that first word, "Let the waters be gathered." It was necessary for them to flow that they might reach their own place. Then, being in the places appointed, they were to remain by themselves and not to advance further.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 The vessel was severely tossed by the violence of the tempest and the breaking of the waves. And along with the ship, the faith of the disciples also was tossed, so to speak, by similar agitations. But Christ, whose authority extends over all, immediately arose.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 That it is the height of folly not to fear, the Lord says in Jeremiah: "Hear, O foolish people, who have no heart: who having eyes, see not, and ears, and hear not. Will you then not fear me, and will you not be grieved at my presence? I who have set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an everlasting decree, which it shall not pass beyond." Do you not fear me?
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things , and your sins have withholden good
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 25) Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you. Therefore, if at any time the sea shall pass its bounds, and the rain shall be kept back, verily the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot do these things: but your sins, being present, have turned away good things from you, that they should not come unto yo…
26 For among my people are found wicked men : they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 26.) Because there were found among my people wicked ones plotting like bird catchers, setting snares and traps to capture men; like a net full of birds, so is their house full of deceit. Why did a temporary and late rain deviate from them, and all good things not come? The reasons are given: because there were found among his people wicked ones.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 27 and following) Therefore they have been magnified and enriched: they have become fat and grown thick, and have passed over my words wickedly: they have not judged the cause, the cause of the orphan, so they did not direct the judgment of the poor (or widow).
28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29 Shall I not visit for these things ? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 30, 31.) Astonishment and wonders were done on the earth. The prophets were prophesying falsehood (or wickedness) and the priests were applauding with their hands. And my people loved such things. What then will you do in the end? As it was said before: Shall I go to the nobles and speak to them?
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end