Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Then also Jeremias sent chains to five kings, of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, by their ambassadors who had come to Sedecias, by which he warns them, and the king of Juda together with them, that if they will serve the king of Babylon they shall remain in their own land, otherwise they shall perish by the sword, famine and pestilence: he foretells also that the sacred vessels which are left in Jerusalem shall be carried over to Babylon, and at length brought back to Jerusalem.
In the year of the world 3350, before Christ 599, which was the fourth of Sedecias, Jeremias, chapter 19, breaks a bottle in the court of the temple, to show that the people was to be broken in like manner. Hence, chapter 20, imprisoned by Phassur, he threatens him with destruction, and from weariness of life and the bitterness of his troubles curses the day of his birth.
In the same year he prophesies, chapters 50 and 51, the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus: whence, verse 50, he writes in a book all the evils that were hanging over Babylon, and gives the book to Saraias, the chief officer of Sedecias, who was going with him to Babylon, and commands him to read it before the Jews, then to bind a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates, and say: “Thus shall Babylon sink,” Jeremias 51 and 19.
In the same year Jeremias, chapter 13, verse 18, is sent by God to Sedecias, who was rebelling against the Chaldeans, and to the queen, to announce to them the overthrow of the kingdom, as will be plain from the chronological order of Jeremias.
In the year of the world 3351, before Christ 598, which was the fifth of the transmigration of Joachin to Babylon and the fifth of the reign of Sedecias, on the 5th day of June, Ezechiel, a priest of the Jews among the captives in Babylon, in the 30th year of his age, sees in a cloud and fire the likeness of four living creatures, namely of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle, going straight forward with the impulse of the spirit, and the figure of a man sitting on the throne of the glory of God, mystically representing Christ and the four Evangelists; and being commanded, he eats a book sent from heaven, written within and without, containing lamentations, song and woe; and so, having received constancy of spirit, he is sent by heaven to prophesy to his fellow captives the Jews in Babylon: and when for seven days he had remained silent, the glory of the Lord being seen again in the plain, he is commanded to shut himself up in his house as though bound and dumb, and to portray by signs and draw on a tile the siege of Jerusalem, and to set between himself and the city an iron pan for a wall, which should shut out the remedy of heavenly help from those who were to be taken: and taking upon him the iniquities of Israel, to sleep upon his left side 390 days, then upon his right side 40 days, taking upon him the iniquities of Juda, and every day to eat bread by weight, a vile and scanty food, made with the dung of oxen, and to drink a little water by measure. He is commanded also to shave the hair of his head and beard, and to consume the shorn hair in three parts. And by all these things he signified and declared that, on account of the iniquities committed, a most straitened siege of the city of Jerusalem would come, and the final and unavoidable devastation of all Juda, chapters 4 and 5. In the 6th year of the transmigration, on the 5th day of August, Ezechiel, rapt in spirit and led to Jerusalem, sees there in the temple the most wicked abominations of idolatry of the Jews, and that on account of these, and the various crimes by which they surpassed Sodom and Samaria, even if Noe, Daniel and Job should pray for them, all and each who were not marked with the sign Thau on the forehead by the man clothed in linen were to be slain, and the city burned: and that Sedecias the king, because, having made a league with the king of Egypt, he rebelled against Nabuchodonosor, breaking and violating his oath, would be taken and led to Babylon, yet would not see it, and would die there; but that those who, giving themselves up to the Chaldeans, should migrate to Babylon, would return to their country; and that those of the people who remained in the city would perish by famine and pestilence. Chapters 6, 7 and 8.
In the 7th year of the transmigration, on the 10th day of July, Ezechiel, when the Jews were seeking from him a divine answer, recounts again the benefits of God shown to the Israelites in Egypt, in the desert and in the land of promise, and that nevertheless they had always been rebellious against His command, and therefore he threatens Jerusalem with the irrevocable sword, slaughter and destruction, Ezechiel chapters 20, 21, 22 and 23.
In the year of the world 3355, before Christ 594, in the 9th year of Sedecias, on the 10th day of December, Nabuchodonosor came with his army and most closely besieges Jerusalem for a year and a half, except that in the meantime he was absent for two months because of the Egyptians; meanwhile so great a famine pressed upon the besieged in the city that parents ate their children, and children their parents, 4 Kings 25; Jeremias 39, 52 and 19.
On the same day, in the morning, Ezechiel, by a pot filled with chosen flesh and bones, set to the fire and melted, signifies to the transmigrated that the burning of Jerusalem and the destruction of the people will come. And in the evening of the same day his beloved wife died, for whom he is forbidden by God to mourn, as a sign of the future desolation of the temple; and he prophesies that destruction hangs over the Ammonites, Moabites, Idumeans and Palestines or Philistines also, because they had exulted over the affliction of Jerusalem, Ezechiel 24 and 25.
Then king Sedecias sends messengers to consult Jeremias: to whom the Prophet answers that king Sedecias shall be taken, and the city burned; that those who remain in it shall die by the sword, famine and pestilence; but that those who flee to the Chaldeans shall live, Jeremias 21.
In the year of the world 3356, before Christ 593, in the 10th year of Sedecias, Jeremias, sent by the Lord to Sedecias, tells him that the city would be taken and burned, and that the king would not escape, but would be taken, and would speak with Nabuchodonosor face to face; yet that he would not be put to death by the sword, but, led to Babylon, would die there in peace of a natural death: for which cause the king shuts up the Prophet in prison for some days, Jeremias 32 and 34.
But Jeremias, being put in prison, by the Lord’s command bought of his cousin a field that was in Anathoth; and he commands Baruch himself to take care that the deeds of purchase be sealed and put in an earthen vessel and kept; testifying that Jerusalem indeed would be destroyed and the people led captive, but that they would return again, and securely possess their fields in prosperity. He prophesies also that Christ will be born, and, redemption having been wrought, will reign happily, in all joy, over the house of Jacob and David without end, Jeremias chapters 32 and 33.
After this Sedecias, placed in a strait by the danger that threatened, since the seventh year was at hand, this being the sabbath of the land, lets the Prophet go, and calls the people to the temple: they make a covenant before the Lord that each should set his servants free; and in token of the firmness of the covenant, the parties pass between the divided parts of a calf, calling down upon themselves the last punishments unless they kept the covenant; and so they let their servants go, Jeremias 34.
Meanwhile the army of the king of Egypt comes into Judea, to bring the promised help to the Jews: which the Chaldeans hearing, raising the siege of Jerusalem, go to meet the Egyptians and force them to retreat, Jeremias 37.
In the same 10th year, in December, Ezechiel prophesies against Egypt, because the king of Egypt had given help to the Jews, that Egypt was to be laid waste by Nabuchodonosor, destroyed and reduced to a desert: but after 40 years to be restored, though not to its former glory, Ezechiel 29 and 30. When the Chaldeans had withdrawn, the Jews, thinking themselves wholly delivered, at once bring back into servitude the servants they had let go. Whereupon the Lord, rebuking the covenant-breakers through Jeremias, says that they shall perish by the sword, pestilence and famine, Jeremias 34.
Moreover Jeremias answers king Sedecias, who asked of him a divine answer, that the Egyptians would return into their own land, and the Chaldeans would come back to Jerusalem and burn the city, Jeremias chapter 37.
Then Jeremias, wishing to go out to Anathoth, the village from which he was sprung, to take possession of the field he had bought, is seized at the gate by the guards, who falsely accuse him of deserting to the Chaldeans, and by order of the princes is cast blind into prison, and sat there many days. Then brought out by Sedecias, and asked secretly for the truth, he says that he shall surely be taken. So he is put back into prison, and a cake of bread is assigned him daily, until all the bread of the besieged city should be consumed, Jeremias 37.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians being put to flight, the siege of Jerusalem is continued. But Jeremias from the prison incessantly preached to all the people that the city would be taken, and that those who remained in it would die by the sword, famine and pestilence; but that those who had fled over to the Chaldeans would escape death.