Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
Hieroglyphics and Sacred Symbols Collected from Jeremias
I. Chap. i, ver. 9. “And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth: lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms, to build and to plant.” This touch of God’s hand was a hieroglyph by which Jeremias was, first, consecrated a Prophet by God; second, strengthened, lest he should fear the hand and blows of the Jews; third, his mouth was opened, disposed and formed to utter God’s words aright: that is, that he might sincerely and freely foretell that these nations were to be plucked up and destroyed by God, those built up and established.
II. Ver. 11. “What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.” This watching rod was a hieroglyph of God’s watchfulness, and of his vigilant and swift vengeance, namely that through the Chaldeans as through a rod he would smite and scourge the Jews; hence he adds in explanation: “And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well, for I will watch over my word to perform it.”
III. Ver. 13. “What seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof from the face of the north.” This boiling caldron was a hieroglyph of Nabuchodonosor, who like a boiling caldron poured out and breathed forth the fire of fury against the Jews; hence he adds in explanation: “From the north (from Chaldea, which is north of Judea) shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.”
IV. Chap. ii, ver. 2. “I remember thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert.” By youth he means the youthful age of the Synagogue, when under Moses she was espoused to God, as his Church and spouse.
V. Ver. 3. “Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase.” What the firstfruits are among the fruits, that Israel was among the Gentiles: for before all, and for all, as firstfruits, it was offered and consecrated to God.
VI. Ver. 21. “I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto me into that which is the wild vine of a strange one?” The vineyard is a hieroglyph of the Synagogue and of the Church. See Isaias v, 1.
VII. Chap. vi, ver. 27. “… a strong one among my people: and thou shalt know and prove their ways. All these are princes that revolt, walking deceitfully, brass and iron: they are all corrupted. The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.” Jeremias is the assayer, that is, the silversmith and smelter: the silver to be purified and smelted are the Jews, who were so corrupt in morals that in the furnace of Jeremias’ reproof they yielded when refined not silver but brass, iron and dross: for when all was consumed, their wickedness was not consumed. Wherefore God cast them off and rejected them as reprobate silver.
VIII. Chap. vii, ver. 29. “Cut off thy hair, thou, O Jeremias, cut off thy hair in the manner of mourners, to portend the mourning of the Jews; and cast away thy locks from thee, to portend their dispersion and exile, because the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath,” that is, the Jewish nation, against which he decreed to rage and, as it were, be furious.
IX. Ver. 31. “They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and it shall be said no more, Topheth, and the valley of the son of Ennom, but the valley of slaughter, and they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no other place,” as if to say: Because in Topheth they burned their sons to the idol Moloch with joy and timbrels, therefore I will slay and bury them in Topheth by the Chaldeans, and so cause this valley not to be called Topheth, that is beautiful, or timbrel, but the valley of slaughter.
X. Chap. xi, ver. 16. “The Lord called thy name a plentiful olive tree, fair, fruitful, and beautiful: at the noise of a word, a great fire was kindled in it, and the branches thereof are burnt.” This olive tree is a hieroglyph of the Synagogue and Jerusalem: for as when lightning is hurled with thunder the olive trees are blasted, and soon their leaves and fruit are burnt up, so Jerusalem, suddenly struck by the Chaldeans as by lightning, lost all her citizens, wealth and glory, either by the fire or by the sword of the enemy.
XI. Ver. 19. “And I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim: and I knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living.” This lamb was a symbol of Jeremias, the patient one, and of Christ: hence the wood here is a type of the cross.
XII. Chap. xii, ver. 7. “I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have given my dear soul into the hand of her enemies,” as if to say: Jerusalem and the temple, which I loved as my own soul, I have delivered to the Chaldeans. He adds the cause: “My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: it hath cried out against me.”
XIII. Ver. 9. “Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? is it as a bird dyed throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all ye beasts of the earth, make haste to devour,” as if to say: The Chaldeans will pursue and devour the Jews, as birds pursue and devour a strange and hated bird, for example an owl; hence he invites and calls them to this prey, saying: “Come ye, assemble yourselves,” etc.
XIV. Chap. xiii, ver. 4. “Take the girdle which thou hast bought, which is about thy loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates. And it came to pass after many days, that I took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and behold it was rotten.” He explains this hieroglyph by adding:
“Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of Juda to rot, and the great pride of Jerusalem.” For the girdle, or the belt of the loins, is a symbol of Juda and Jerusalem. He gives the cause in ver. 11: “For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I closely joined to me all the house of Israel, that they might be unto me for a people, etc.”
XV. Ver. 12. “Every bottle shall be filled with wine:” so “behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, the kings, the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness: and I will scatter them, and I will not pity, so as not to destroy them,” as if to say: I will give them to drink a cup of vengeance and wrath so bitter that, having drunk it, as if drunken and out of their wits, they will seem to rave.
XVI. Chap. xiv, ver. 8. “O expectation of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble: why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge? Why wilt thou be as a man that is wandering, as a mighty man that cannot save?” as if to say: Why, O Lord, dost thou neglect thy Israel, pass by it like a traveller, and permit it to be oppressed by the Chaldeans? Hence praying he adds: “But thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is invoked upon us, forsake us not,” as if to say: Though thou seem to neglect us, yet in truth thou art in us, and with us. For we are thy people, therefore forsake us not.
XVII. Chap. xvi, ver. 16. “Behold I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them: and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” The fishers are the Apostles, the hunters apostolic men, as those who today search out Indians and barbarians, like wild beasts in their caves, tame them, and make them Christians.
XVIII. Chap. xviii, ver. 1. “The word which came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying: Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there thou shalt hear my words. And I went down to the potter’s house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Cannot I do with you, O house of Israel, as this potter, saith the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand:” and therefore I can remould you, like vessels broken and shattered in captivity, and bring you back to liberty and your country, and there enrich and endow you.