Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Vol. 11: Prolegomena (prefaces and canons)
XIX. Chap. xix, ver. 1. “Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle from the ancients of the people, and go forth to the valley of the son of Ennom. And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that shall go with thee. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Even so will I break this people, and this city, as the potter’s vessel is broken.” Behold a hieroglyph explained by God.
XX. Chap. xxii, ver. 23. “Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how hast thou groaned when sorrows came upon thee, as the sorrows of a woman in labor?” as if to say: O Jerusalem, equal to Libanus in beauty and glory, who like an eagle dwellest in houses of lofty cedar, how wilt thou groan when thou art cut off by the Chaldeans!
XXI. Ver. 24. “As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias be the ring on my right hand, I will pluck him off thence.” This hieroglyph is explained further on, as is the following.
XXII. Ver. 29. “Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Write this man (Jechonias) barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David.”
XXIII. Chap. xxiii, ver. 5. “I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one.” This Davidic branch of justice is Christ the Saviour.
XXIV. Ver. 33. “If this people, etc., shall ask thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt say to them: You are the burden; for I will cast you away.”
XXV. Chap. xxiv, ver. 3. “What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: Figs, the good figs very good; and the evil figs very evil.” The very good figs represent Joachin and his followers, who, obedient to God and Jeremias, surrendered themselves to the Chaldeans, of whom he says in ver. 5: “As these good figs, so will I acknowledge the transmigration of Juda, whom I have sent forth from this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good,” as if to say: I will be good and kind to them; I will make this their transmigration turn to their good. The very evil figs represent Sedecias and his companions, who against the Lord’s command rebelled against the Chaldeans, and therefore perished, of whom he says, ver. 8: “And as the very bad figs, which cannot be eaten, because they are bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give up Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, etc., and I will give them up.”
XXVI. Chap. xxv, ver. 15. “Take the cup of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all the nations to drink of it, to which I shall send thee.” This cup is the measure of vengeance and destruction which God through Jeremias threatens to each nation in proportion to its guilt. Hence follows: “And they shall drink, and be troubled, and be mad because of the face of the sword which I will send among them.”
XXVII. Chap. xxvii, ver. 2 and 6. “Make thee bonds and chains: and thou shalt put them on thy neck. And thou shalt send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, etc.” These bonds signify the yoke of Nabuchodonosor, and the chains with which the Jews and other nations were to be bound by him; hence he adds in explanation: “And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, etc. And all nations shall serve him, etc. And whatsoever nation will not bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit that nation with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence.”
XXVIII. Chap. xxviii, ver. 10. “And Hananias the prophet (a false prophet) took the chain from the neck of Jeremias, and broke it, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nabuchodonosor. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias: Go, and say to Hananias: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast broken chains of wood: and thou shalt make for them chains of iron, because, etc., I have put a yoke of iron upon the necks of all these nations, to serve Nabuchodonosor. Hear, Hananias: This year thou shalt die. And he died the same year.”
XXIX. Chap. xxxi, ver. 15. “A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of mourning and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not.” This voice is of mothers weeping the slaughter of their sons, in Herod’s infanticide at the birth of Christ.
XXX. Ver. 31. “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Juda, etc., I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” The old law was written on stone, the new in the heart.
XXXI. Ver. 38. “The city shall be built to the Lord, from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner, etc.” The building and spread of the Church is signified.
XXXII. Chap. xxxii, ver. 9 and 15. “I bought (at God’s command) the field of Hananeel the son of my uncle. For thus saith the Lord, etc. Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet be possessed in this land.” I bought the field of my cousin while Jerusalem was besieged, that by this act I might represent, and give the Jews hope, that after the seventy years of captivity each would return to his own fields in Judea. Hence he closes the chapter, saying: “I will bring back their captivity.”
XXXIII. Chap. xliii, ver. 9. “Take great stones, and hide them in the vault that is under the brick wall at the gate of Pharao’s house in Taphnis, in the sight of the Jews; and thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will send and take Nabuchodonosor, etc., and I will set his throne upon these stones which I have hid, and he shall set his throne upon them, and coming he shall strike the land of Egypt.” Jeremias is here commanded to prophesy Nabuchodonosor’s victory over Egypt, and to build him there a symbolic throne.
XXXIV. Chap. xlviii, ver. 40. “Behold he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings against Moab.” The eagle is a hieroglyph of Nabuchodonosor, on account of his swiftness, rapacity and strength. For he spread the wings of horse and foot against Moab.
XXXV. Chap. xlix, ver. 19. “Behold he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan against the strong and beautiful,” as if to say: As a lion rushes upon its prey, so Nabuchodonosor, having crossed the swollen Jordan, will rush upon Idumea, which its inhabitants think most beautiful and strong.
XXXVI. Chap. l, ver. 17. “Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assur (Salmanasar) devoured him: this last Nabuchodonosor hath broken his bones (that is, overthrown Jerusalem and the temple, which were the strength and as it were the bones of Israel).” HIEROGLYPHICS AND SACRED SYMBOLS FROM THE LAMENTATIONS.
I. Chap. iv, ver. 7. “Her Nazarites were whiter than snow, purer than milk, more ruddy than the old ivory, fairer than sapphire. Their face is now blacker than coals, and they are not known in the streets,” as if to say: The Nazarites of the Jews, once comely and suffused with a rosy whiteness, are now through hunger and leanness squalid and black, so that they are not recognized. These Nazarites are a hieroglyph of Clerics and Religious, when from their sanctity and glory they fall into vices and shame before God and men.
II. Ver. 20. “The breath of our mouth (not Josias, not Sedecias, but the Saviour Jesus, who is our breath, soul and life), Christ the Lord, was taken in our sins, of whom we said: Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.” HIEROGLYPHICS FROM EZECHIEL.
I. Chap. i, ver. 4. “And I saw, and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, and a great cloud, and a fire infolding it, and brightness round about it, and out of the midst thereof, as it were the appearance of amber.” This whole chapter is the hieroglyph of the Cherubic chariot, which is a symbol of the majesty, strength and glory of God hastening to war and the destruction of the Jews and other nations. The whirlwind, then, is a symbol of anger, likewise of the storm and slaughter of Juda impending from God; the cloud signifies the dense camps of the Chaldeans; the infolding fire, the soon-coming burning of the city and temple.
II. Ver. 5. “And in the midst thereof the likeness of four living creatures: each one had four faces, and each one four wings: their feet were straight feet, and the soles of their feet like the sole of a calf’s foot, and sparks like the appearance of glowing brass.” The four living creatures represent the four Cherubim, that is, the chief Angels, who are as it were the attendants of God; hence they bear four of his emblems, of which he adds: