Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Wherefore the princes ask of the king that the Prophet be put to death, and with his consent he is taken out of the prison and let down by a rope into a miry pit, that he might die there of hunger; but, the king conniving, Abdemelech the Ethiopian eunuch draws him out, and puts him back and shuts him up in the prison: and Abdemelech, for this kindness, and chiefly because he always trusted in God, hears from Jeremias that he shall be delivered from the impending captivity and death, Jeremias 38 and 39.
After this Jeremias is again led secretly to the king, and being asked in private, Sedecias is advised and counselled by him to give himself up to the Chaldeans, and thus he and the city would be saved: otherwise the city would be burned by them, and he himself would not escape; which having been said, he is taken back and shut up in prison, and remains there until the city is taken, Jeremias 37.
In the year of the world 3357, before Christ 591, and in the 11th year, on the first day of the month of March, Ezechiel prophesies that Tyre, a city famous on the sea and most wealthy through the crowd of its merchants, is to be overthrown by Nabuchodonosor, because it had exulted over the affliction and destruction of Jerusalem: and that the king of Tyre is to be slain for his pride, in which he boasted himself a god and wiser than Daniel, a man even then of great name and fame, for his interpretation of the king’s dreams and the deliverance of Susanna: and that the Jews are to be brought back into their own land, Ezechiel chapters 26, 27 and 28.
In the same 11th year, on the 5th day of May, Ezechiel compares Pharao with the king of the Assyrians: that as Assur, once lofty, was cast down, so also should the kingdom of Egypt be cast down, Ezechiel 30.
In the same 11th year of Sedecias, which was the 19th of Nabuchodonosor, on the 5th day of June, the Chaldeans break through the outer wall of Jerusalem, and enter as far as the inner gate of the second wall: seeing which, king Sedecias, fleeing by night by an underground way with his princes, is taken by the Chaldeans in the plain of Jericho, and is led to Nabuchodonosor at Reblatha; who, having reproached him for his faithlessness and perjury, slays his sons, the princes of Juda, before his eyes: then puts out his eyes, and binding him with chains, sends and brings him to Babylon; where he commits him to prison until his death, 4 Kings 25; Jeremias 39 and 52; and the word of the Lord was fulfilled which He had said: “I will bring him to Babylon,” “and he shall not see it,” Ezechiel 12.
On the 9th day of June the Chaldeans take the city of Jerusalem, and slay the people, sparing neither youth, maiden nor old man. On the 7th day of July came Nabuzardan, captain of the army, and burns the king’s palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Moreover on the 10th day of July he burned the temple of the Lord, when it had stood 440 years, and with it were burned the sacred books which are cited here and there in Scripture and no longer exist. Besides, he destroys all the towers and walls of the city of Jerusalem round about, and the remaining buildings; he leads away the remnant of the people, with the deserters and the vessels of the temple: he left in Jerusalem only some poor husbandmen to till the land, over whom he sets Godolias. Jeremias, however, Nabuzardan, by the command of Nabuchodonosor, looses from his chains, brings out of the prison, and gives him liberty, power and choice either of going to Babylon, promising that he would be honourably treated there, or of dwelling wherever he would. But the Prophet, preferring to remain in his native land, being given by him many provisions and gifts and commended to Godolias, dwells with Godolias at Masphath: where Godolias kindly receives the Jews scattered about, and promises them security, provided they will serve the king of Babylon: and he is warned by them to beware of Ismael, who was plotting his death; but he does not believe, nor listen to those who warn him well, 4 Kings 25; 2 Paralipomenon 36; Jeremias 39 and 40; 1 Esdras 1.
Lamentations. Jeremias, moreover, sitting in bitterness of soul, grieving and weeping, laments in a fourfold metrical alphabet the destruction of Jerusalem, and in his own affliction, as a type, bewails the passion, death and burial of Christ, and the desolation of the Church, and prays God for the desolate, Lamentations chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The murder of Godolias. On the third day of September, Ismael the Jew treacherously slays in Masphath Godolias, and very many other Jews and Chaldeans who were with him. Whereupon, being himself sought by the remnant of the Jews to be put to death, he fled with eight men to the Ammonites, Jeremias 41; 4 Kings 25.
The flight into Egypt. But the remnant of the Jews, fearing vengeance from the Chaldeans, determine to flee into Egypt, and ask Jeremias to pray and consult the Lord what they ought to do, swearing that they will do whatever he shall command. On the tenth day after, the Lord answers through Jeremias that they shall be safe under God’s protection if they remain in Judea: but if they flee into Egypt, He protests that they shall all die there by the sword, famine and pestilence. But they, despising the oracle of God, compelling Jeremias and Baruch to go with them, depart together and set out for Egypt, and dwell near Taphnis. Where Jeremias foretells to them that Nabuchodonosor will come and lay waste Egypt with its idols, and rule over it, Jeremias chapters 42 and 43. In the year of the world 3358, before Christ 591.
After this the Jews in Egypt, reproved by Jeremias for idolatry, because they sacrificed there to idols, answer obstinately, together with a multitude of women, that they will persist in their inveterate idolatry and will sacrifice to the queen of heaven, that is, the moon; whereupon Jeremias foretells that they will all be utterly consumed by the sword and famine, and that Pharao, king of Egypt, will be taken: and because he did not cease to reprove them, they stoned him in that same place; whom the Egyptians honoured, because by his prayer the serpents had been driven from that place, and buried him near the sepulchre of their kings, and venerate him there with great religion, Jeremias 44. After this other Jews emerge from the neighbouring places, to those who had fled, and say: Abraham was one, and he possessed the land: but we are many, to us the land is given for a possession; and so going they dwell there in the ruins and rubble of the city.
In the first year of the desolation of Jerusalem, which was the 12th of the transmigration, on the 5th day of December, a certain fugitive came from Jerusalem to Babylon to Ezechiel, saying: The city is laid waste: at which time Ezechiel prophesies that the remnant of the Jews, who dwelt in the ruins, would for their iniquities be destroyed by beasts, and by the sword and pestilence, and the land reduced to a wilderness, Ezechiel 33.
In the same year, on the 1st day of February, Ezechiel laments over the coming slaying of Pharao by Nabuchodonosor, and his descent, with that of many nations, to hell: because they had given their terror in the land of the living, that is, of the Jews and the Patriarchs: whom, for their knowledge and worship of God, the Lord in the Gospel calls living, Matthew 22. He describes also the office of the Evangelical preacher, and, for the shepherds of the Jews who neglected the flock and fed themselves, promises the true shepherd Christ, who will gather his sheep, heal them, and feed them in peace and plenty. Besides this he foretells that Idumea is to be laid waste and destroyed, because it had afflicted the people of God: and that Israel is to be brought back from captivity and restored to its own land, where, united under one king and shepherd Christ, they will dwell in happiness, and walk in the commandments of God. Whose restoration is shown to the Prophet in the plain by dry bones coming to life again, mystically prefiguring also the general resurrection of the dead. Lastly he prophesies that Gog and Magog in the last days, with a vast and well-ordered army, will come from the North into the land of Israel, and there perish. Ezechiel chapters 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38.
In the year of the world 3362, before Christ 587, which was the fifth year from the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem, Nabuchodonosor, according to the prophecies of Isaias, chapter 23, and of Jeremias, chapter 46, verse 13, invaded and occupied Coelesyria, the Ammonites and the Moabites (so Josephus, Antiquities book 10, chapter 11) and began to besiege Tyre, which he besieged for 13 years and at length took by storm. So Ezechiel chapter 29, verse 18, and Josephus. In the same year, which was the 24th of Nabuchodonosor, on the 17th day of the fifth month, Baruch reads the book written by him before Jechonias and all the people, in which he gives the Jews in Babylon counsels of salvation, namely that they had been led into captivity for their sins, but would be brought back with glory to Jerusalem. Again, that through Christ, God, who was to become man and converse on earth with men, men would be more fully and perfectly taught the way of wisdom and salvation, and be redeemed by Him, and be gladdened with eternal honour, splendour and joy, and adorned in the light of the majesty of God. Baruch chapter 1 and following. In the year of the world 3372, before Christ 578.
In the 14th year from the destruction of Jerusalem, which is the 25th of the transmigration, on the 10th day of March, Ezechiel, led in spirit into the land of Israel, an angel showing him, sees in a vision, under the figure of a city (Jerusalem) and of a temple, with certain measure and dimension, on a mountain to be rebuilt and filled with the glory of God, the holy mysteries of the Church of Christ. Ezechiel chapters 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48.