Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Ezechiel
I. Chap. vii, ver. 16. “And they that flee of them (of the Jews laid waste by the Chaldeans) shall be saved: and they shall be on the mountains like the doves of the valleys, all of them trembling, every one in his iniquity.”
II. Chap. xi, ver. 19. “And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in my commandments, and keep my judgments, and do them: and that they may be my people, and I may be their God.” God here promises and establishes the new testament, in which by the grace of Christ the stony heart is taken away from Christians, and a heart of flesh is given, that is soft, pliant, obedient at every nod of God.
III. Chap. xiii, ver. 4. “Thy prophets, O Israel, were like foxes in the deserts. You have not gone up to face the enemy, nor opposed a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle in the day of the Lord,” that you might by prayers oppose God fighting for the Chaldeans, and mitigate his anger: “they see vain things, and divine lies.”
IV. Ver. 9. “And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vain things, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel,” as if to say: They shall not return from captivity, nor be written in the catalogue of the just and the living.
V. Ver. 10. “Because they have deceived my people, saying: Peace, and there is no peace: and one built up a wall, and they daubed it with untempered mortar. Say to them that daub without temper, that it shall fall: for there shall be an overflowing shower, and I will cause great stones to fall violently from above, and a stormy wind to break it down,” as if to say: The false prophets rashly, and without foundation, prophesy prosperity to the Jews; but these false oracles of theirs, like a wall daubed with mortar without straw, will be thrown down by the shower, wind and hail of divine vengeance.
VI. Ver. 18. “Woe to them that sew cushions under every elbow of the hand: and make pillows for the heads of persons of every age to catch souls.” These are they who flatter sinners in their sins, and excuse and foster them, taking away from men the fear of God and of divine vengeance. Hence God, ver. 20, says of these cushions: “I will tear them from your arms: and I will tear your pillows.”
VII. Chap. xxxiv, ver. 2. “Woe to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves: should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds? You eat the milk, and you clothe yourselves with the wool, and you kill that which was fat: but my flock you do not feed. The weak you have not strengthened, and that which was sick you have not healed, that which was broken you have not bound up, and that which was driven away you have not brought again, neither have you sought that which was lost: but you ruled over them with rigour and with a high hand.”
VIII. Ver. 10. “Behold I myself come upon the shepherds, I will require my flock at their hand; behold I myself will seek my sheep, and will visit them as a shepherd visiteth his flock. I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures. I will seek that which was lost, and that which was driven away I will bring again, and that which was broken I will bind up, and that which was weak I will strengthen, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve.”
IX. Ver. 23. “And I will set up one shepherd over them, to feed them, my servant David (namely Christ the son of David): he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God.”
Daniel
I. Chap. xii, ver. 3. “But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity.”