Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
About the same time Jeremias is commanded by God to make bonds and chains, and to wear them and put them on his neck, and afterwards, under Sedecias, to send the same to the kings of Tyre, Sidon, Edom, Moab and Ammon, that by them he might signify and portend that bonds and captivity were hanging over them from Nabuchodonosor, as is plain in Jeremias 27, verse 1 and following.
In the year of the world 3338, before Christ 611, in the 3rd year of the reign of Joakim, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon goes up, besieges Jerusalem, takes king Joakim with many nobles, among whom were Daniel, still a boy, and Ananias, Misael and Azarias. He carries the king bound with chains, with the others, and a part of the vessels of the temple, as quickly as he could, to Babylon, where he puts the vessels in the temple of his god. But Daniel and his three companions, because, being born of royal seed, they surpassed the rest in beauty and ability, he has nourished there on the king’s food, and instructed in the language and letters of the Chaldeans, that after three years they might stand before the king; and with the consent of the master of the eunuchs, abstaining from the king’s dainties and living on pulse and water alone, they obtain from God a fairer and fuller countenance, and wisdom above the other youths of their age who ate of the king’s food; and Daniel besides obtains the understanding of dreams: and when the three years were completed, they stand before the king, surpassing all the magicians of the Chaldeans tenfold.
In the year of the world 3339, before Christ 610, which was the 4th of Joakim, Jeremias prophesies, chapter 46, verse 2 and following, that the Chaldeans will defeat the Egyptians with their king Pharao Nechao. For Nechao, by his victory over and slaughter of Josias, had subjected the Jews to himself. Having therefore gathered a multitude of Egyptians, Libyans and Lydians, he came to avenge himself on the Chaldeans because they had driven the Jews, his tributaries, off to Babylon. In the 4th year, therefore, of the reign of Joakim, battle was joined near the river Euphrates at Charcamis, where each king fell, says Adrichomius in his Chronicle, namely the elder Nechao and the elder Nabuchodonosor (but of this elsewhere); the Egyptians were slain: but the Chaldeans, becoming the stronger, take from the Egyptians whatever these had taken from the Assyrians, from the Euphrates as far as Egypt: then Joakim, restored to his kingdom, becomes tributary to the king of Babylon, and serves him under tribute for 3 years. And this is the first year of the reign of the younger Nabuchodonosor, surnamed the Great, king of Babylon, who afterwards reigned for many years. In this same 4th year of Joakim, Jeremias cries out to the Jews that he has now prophesied for 23 years: but because neither he nor the other Prophets who exhorted them to penance would they hear, he foretells that they will be taken captive by the king of Babylon, and will serve him for 70 years. Jeremias, chapters 25, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 and 51.
And he prophesies that all the nations round about, the Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Idumeans and the rest, shall drink from the chalice of Babylon the wine of the fury of the Lord: and that after 70 years Babylon herself also shall drink, and be utterly overthrown by the Medes, and reduced to perpetual solitude, and that then at last Israel shall return into their own land, and there live well and happily.
In the same 4th year king Joakim shuts Jeremias up in prison: where, in the 5th year of Joakim, in the month of November, by God’s command Baruch the scribe and secretary of Jeremias writes in a book from the mouth of Jeremias all his prophecies against Juda and the Gentiles. Then, sent by Jeremias with the book to the people gathered in the temple and keeping a fast, he reads it there to all the people, that they may repent. Then, summoned to the princes, he reads it before all the princes in the house of the king; who, astonished, said to Baruch: “Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremias.” They therefore release the Prophet, and going in to the king, report to him the words of the book; which the king at once has read, and after a few passages have been read, has it cut with a knife and burned in the fire, and seeks Jeremias and Baruch to put them to death, but the Lord hid them. At whose command Baruch presently writes the same prophecies in another book from the mouth of Jeremias; and moreover he adds that, because of the burning of the former book, the corpse of Joakim shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night, Jeremias 36.
Then Jeremias reproves Baruch for faintheartedness, because he complained that he had sorrow and not rest; to whom nevertheless, amid the devastation of the rest, he promises safety of life.
In the year of the world 3342, before Christ 607, which was the 7th year of Joakim, Joakim, relying on the help of the Egyptians and rebelling against Nabuchodonosor, refuses him tribute, being unwilling to serve the Chaldeans any longer; whereupon armies of the Chaldeans, of Syria, of Moab and of Ammon, sent by God, ravage Juda for the sins of Manasses. Then Jeremias, at God’s command, goes to the Rechabites, who by the precept of their father lived religiously, not drinking wine, nor having fields or vineyards, dwelling in tents instead of houses, and now by the necessity of the war dwelling in the city: and he offers them wine; and when they would not drink it, by the example of their obedience he reproves the stubborn disobedience of the Jews, who neglected the commandment of God; wherefore he foretells punishment for these, and reward for those.
There were then in Babylon two old men, priests, Jewish judges, Achaz and Sedecias, who, desiring the most chaste Susanna, a Jewess, washing herself secretly in her garden, to lust or defilement, when they could not enjoy her, falsely accuse her before the people of adultery; and as she was being led condemned to death and was praying to God, the boy Daniel, raised up by the Spirit of God, chapter 13, reverses the judgment, and examining the old men separately, convicts them out of their own mouths of false witness: whom the people hastened to stone by the law of retaliation; but by order of Nabuchodonosor they were burned with fire, as Jeremias had foretold, chapter 29.
In the year of the world 3346, before Christ 603, in the 11th year of the reign of Joakim, Nabuchodonosor coming to Jerusalem, casts out Joakim, slain, outside Jerusalem, to be torn by beasts and birds, and makes his son Joachin, who is also Jechonias, king.
He reigns 3 months and 10 days, like his father in wickedness, unlike in name, 4 Kings 24; 2 Paralipomenon 36.
In the year of the world 3347, before Christ 602. After three months, in the spring, Nabuchodonosor returning besieges Jerusalem; and going out to him on the advice of Jeremias, king Joachin and his mother and wives and princes, and all the nobles and chief men of Juda, among whom were the young Ezechiel, and Mardocheus, and Josedec the high priest, give themselves up of their own accord to the king of Babylon, who transfers them, together with the other vessels and treasures of the temple and the palace, and the richer sort, and all the strong men and the best craftsmen, to Babylon; where Joachin is delivered to prison: and he appoints king his uncle Mathanias, son of Josias, and makes him swear by God that he will faithfully serve the Chaldeans under tribute; in token of which he changes his name, and calls him Sedecias, which signifies the justice of the Lord. He reigns impiously 11 years, doing evil, and not obeying the counsel of Jeremias. 4 Kings 24; 2 Paralipomenon 36; 1 Esdras 1; Jeremias chapters 36 and 52.
In the first year of his reign Jeremias sees, chapter 24, figs, very good and very bad, set by divine appointment before the temple, and hears that the former signify the Jews already long since carried over to Babylon, and that they will be brought back by the Lord into Judea; but the latter designate those who had remained in Jerusalem, and who were to be given up to the sword, famine and pestilence. And immediately Jeremias writes and sends a letter to those who had been carried away to Babylon, that after 70 years they shall return into their own land: but that those who had remained in Jerusalem shall be consumed by the sword, famine and pestilence. He prophesies also the true deliverance of the people that is to come through Christ, and a new law to be written in their hearts, and Jerusalem to be rebuilt, where freely, securely and joyfully, in the abundance of all good things, they shall serve the Lord, Jeremias chapters 29, 30 and 31.
About the same time, in the month of July, the false prophet Ananias, taking in the temple, before the priests and all the people, the wooden chain from the neck of Jeremias, which by God’s command he wore as a sign of the coming captivity, and breaking it, says: Thus will God break, after two years, the yoke of the king of Babylon from the neck of all nations, and king Jechonias and all the transmigrated, with the vessels of the temple, shall be brought back hither; but Jeremias, by God’s command bearing an iron chain in place of the wooden one, declares that Ananias prophesies falsely, and therefore will shortly die, who died in the second month after, Jeremias 28.