The last two chapters of this prophet are the last two sermons in which he, tired of preaching, predicts that the whole nation will be completely destroyed, both as far as the kingdom and the priesthood are concerned. And it is very probable that he is not only talking about the Babylonian desolation and captivity, but also about the last one, which happened at the time of Christ, when the priesthood perished at the same time as the kingdom.
V. 1. 2. A basket of fruit.
Puns in any language cannot be transferred into another language. So here in Hebrew is a pun, 1) which we must transcribe. 2) The Hebrew word means a basket or container, or a cage, in which animals are kept and fed for fattening. However, it is interpreted in two different ways. Some translate it by a basket of fruit, others by a container for fattening cattle. But this last I like the best, namely, where birds are fattened to be slaughtered. The opinion is, therefore, as if the prophet said thus: Because this people is told everything in vain, so desolation and slaughter is in store for it. Nothing but a miserable doom awaits it, for I see a container full of slaughtered animals. It will come to an end and everything that is of this people will be destroyed, as this is clear from the following, where this play on words is explained.
V. 2. The end has come upon my people Israel.
It is a similar nature of words in Hebrew as if one said in German:
1) D. f: or paronomasia,
2) Instead of the following in this passage D. puts: For the word kelud kais means a basket full of fruit. To this'similar is another word, Kss, which means the end. He plays therefore with similarly lautmven words (parouüwuma): You have seen Kais, I will make k "s, that is, I will make an end with this people and will reject it, since I preach in vain Utid teach,-As he adds
"I see a rice", and someone answered, "I will tear you right". It is "a rice" or a branch something completely different than "tear" and nevertheless an appeal (agnominatio) and a relationship of the sounds is there. The same word play is here also in Hebrew, which cannot be rendered in Latin.
I don't want to miss him anymore.
He used the same expression in the previous chapter [v. 8]: "I will no longer overlook him," that is, I will no longer turn a blind eye to his ungodliness, I will no longer spare him.
V. 3. And the songs in the church shall be turned into a howling (Stridebunt cardines templi).
That is to say, when this last captivity comes and the end of which I have already spoken, all the palaces will be pulled down and destroyed, the whole kingdom will fall, the royal house will come to ruin, it will be utterly destroyed with impetuosity.
There will be many dead bodies lying in all places, which will be carried away secretly.
Multi morientur in omni loco is poorly translated, but it is read that way in Hebrew: The multitude of dead bodies will cause silence in all places. 3) He describes the misery of the captivity. But he indicates two things, first that the kingdom will cease and everything that belongs to the kingdom will completely perish. Secondly, he predicts that mankind as a whole will be trampled underfoot and destroyed. 4) For he prophesies that there will be so many dead bodies that
3) In the Zwickau, the Altenburg and the Hall manuscript projioikt, but in D.: There will be a lot of corpses in all places, which will be taken away with silence.
4) From here to the end of the passage, D. has: that even those who remain, if any, nevertheless live exceedingly miserable in mourning and tears, for this he indicates by silence.
there will be a great silence everywhere, great misery and great loneliness. For this is what the Hebrew language indicates by the word "silence," namely, the destruction and desolation of all things and the ruin, after which silence follows, that is, solitude and, as it were, a desolation, as when a pestilence rages in any city, not many people are visible 2c. Virgil 1) also calls the shadows [of the dead] the silent ones. But that he says, "In all places," indicates the ruin and desolation of the whole people, as I said at the beginning of the chapter.
V. 4. Hear this, you who oppress the poor (conteritis).
Now he reminds them of their godlessness, that they themselves are the cause of this misfortune because of the sins he has punished above. Instead of conteritis, it should more correctly be said: you devour and put an end to the wretched in the land. You oppress the poor so much that nothing of yours is left to them; all their goods come to you through your godless avarice and tyranny.
V. 5. When will the new moon have an end.
Mensis ["new moon"] must be read, not messis [harvest].
That we sell grain and give the epha ringers 2c.
2) He touches the main parts of their ungodly avarice, for he punishes four things in them, as you see. As if he wanted to say: You do not have your equals in avarice. So even you devour the poor, by your avarice you bring it about that everything the poor have comes to you; and you settle this by ungodly deceit, since you falsify the measure and the price.
1) Vir^. 1iN. VI, v. 432.
2) Instead of this passage, D.: The prophet uses a very clear image to indicate their insatiable greed for money. He says: "You are so stingy and greedy that even the day of the new moon or the Sabbath, on which you may not do any work or seek profit, seems to be a year. It is not enough for you that six whole days are left to you for your profit and your avarice; even the seventh and holy day of the Sabbath you desire to desecrate with your trades, that you may accumulate riches. But he adds how they do this, namely, with fraud and injustice, by reducing the measure, counterfeiting the goods 2c.
V. 6. for a pair of shoes.
That is, you hold them in exceedingly low esteem. 3)
And sell chaff for grain.
This is the fourth vice he punishes, namely, that they sell refuse and filth, or the chaff and dust of grain, for good grain, that they do not sell purified grain to the poor, but mixed with dust and filth, so that usury becomes greater. This is also what our merchants do, and all those who have things to sell. But he punishes the peculiar avarice of the chief priests, saying that they celebrate with displeasure the new moon (mensem), that is, the day of the new moon (noviinnium). 4) For this day was holy; on the same one did not work. He says that the priests kept this new moon with displeasure, because they were not allowed to trade on the same and to take the money of the poor with cunning. And so, because of their ungodly avarice, the celebration of the feasts and the Sabbaths made them disgusted.
V. 7. Against the court of Jacob.
In superbiam, that is, against the court.
V. 8. Yes, it is to be completely overflowed as with water.
Again, poorly translated in our Latin Bible. But this is how it says in Hebrew: And it shall rise up, as a river, its ruin, and it shall be cast out, and it shall be exhausted, as the river of Egypt. For the Hebrew word is ambiguous, for it denotes both a river and light. Therefore it is uncertain which of both he had wanted to indicate. But the opinion is, as if he wanted to say: Like a sudden, violent downpour, so the destruction and the desolation will come over my people, and it will be
3) This is missing in D.
4) The following to the end is missing in D., who puts for it: because it was not allowed to trade at the same, and they could not stand the poor after their money.
5) According to the Weimar edition, D.: i"'; the Wittenberg and Jena editions state: Isor.
flow away like the river of Egypt, that is, 1) it will be swallowed up by the Assyrian, into whose land it will wander, and will be consumed and swallowed up, just as the river of Egypt, when it flows back into the sea, is swallowed up.
V. 9. At the same time I will cause the sun to set in the middle of the day.
These are Hebrew idioms, as I have said above. For one does not read that this ever happened, that the sun went down at noon. 2) Darkness signifies adversity and an unhappy outcome of things; light signifies happiness and good times. Thus cheerfulness of countenance signifies gladness, as it is said in the 38th Psalm, v. 11: "The light of mine eyes is not with me." As he therefore said above Cap. 5, 8: "He maketh dark night of the day," so he also says here that the sun will set in the middle of the day (what he calls "the bright day"), when the sun shines brightest and is clear, that is, when the kingdom will be in the highest bloom, when the greatest security will be there, then you will all set, not suspecting anything of the kind. You will be lifted high, so that you will do an even harder fall, as God does with all the wicked. And while they believe nothing less than that they will perish, then the Lord seeks them out and brings them to ruin by His judgment. And this is what Paul says 1 Thess. 5, 3: "When they shall say, There is peace, there is no danger; then destruction shall quickly overtake them." Jerome transfers this to the time of Christ's passion; but the circumstances and context of the text do not allow this to be done if accurate insight is taken. 3)
1) Instead of the following, D. has: just as the Nile floods horribly, so I will bring about, as it were, a flood of sin upon this people, that they may be scattered among the Gentiles 2c.
2) D. 1: therefore it must be understood figuratively.
3) D. f: For the prophet immediately interprets himself [v. 10.]: "I will turn your holidays*) into mourning." But this does not prevent this whole passage from being referred to the last calamity of the people, which occurred after Christ appeared, and in which they are still today. For in this way, I have said, the general rejection of the people is proclaimed here.
*) all editions wrong: LLzrtivitatos, for which after theVuligata:/"ÄiEate" should be read.
V. 10. I will bring the sackcloth over all the loins.
This was the custom of the Hebrews, that when they mourned and were in great distress, they clothed themselves with sackcloth, in order to indicate by the outward clothing the inward sadness and distress of the heart; not as if it were necessary to do this, but this was their custom. Therefore Christ says in the 69th Psalm, v. 12, that he had put on sackcloth, that is, that he was full of sorrow 2c. It is the same with the shaving of the head, as we also, when we are in tribulation, are in the habit of plucking out our hair.
A mourning, as one has over some son.
He indicates that the captivity will be a perpetual one, that they will never be returned. He took the simile from the mourning of a mother over an only son. A mother's grief is exceedingly intense when her only son has died and there is no hope of having children again. - 4) Instead of novissima, it should more correctly read: her descendants.
V. 11. Behold, the time is coming when I will send a famine into the land.
As this is the last punishment, it is also the greatest and most miserable. All the other punishments would still be bearable, but this one is quite terrifying, namely since he threatens that he will take away the right prophets and the right word of God, so that there should be no one to preach, even if the people wanted to hear the word with the highest eagerness, 5) and run here and there, which is the
4) This sentence is missing in D.
5) Instead of the few words that still follow in this sentence, D. has the following longer execution: For in other misfortunes, however great they may be, the hearts can still, if the word is there, be nipped with comfort. But when the word is taken away, there is no comfort, no hope left, but only sadness, despair and death. But the Jews, in the former calamities of captivity and servitude, always had prophets who strengthened the fainthearted hearts and raised and stirred them to the expectation of the future Christ, who should put an end, not to temporal calamity, but to eternal, eternal death.
Jews in the Assyrian and also in the last captivity ividerfahren. Therefore, we must pray and watch lest the same hunger be sent to us, while we are now showered in many ways with the fullness of the Word of God by the grace of God, lest, when it is taken away again, palpable darkness and the most horrible errors be sent, so that, although we would like to hear the Word, there is no one to preach it, as happened with the Jews, Greeks and Romans, who had the Word of God superfluous. For if the word is gone, what is left but the most horrible darkness of human reason, which wants to be a master and can teach nothing but the doctrines of the devil? For what else should darkness preach but darkness and error? There is no other light than through faith in the Word. And after that happens what the prophet adds here:
V. 12: That they go back and forth, from one sea to another.
That is, they will run here and there in search of the Word and will not find it. We have experienced this more than enough before the word has come to light again by God's grace. Hence come these innumerable sects of monks: one has become a Carthusian, another a Franciscan; another has taken yet another state by which he thought to please God; but there was no peace of conscience; one has run to Rome, another to St. James. Therefore, we should be grateful to God now and use this priceless gift rightly, so that we do not again, after it has been taken away from us as ingrates, fall into greater errors than ever before, and, while we now live in silk, must again lie in dung, as Jeremiah says in the Lamentations, Cap. 4, 5. For
and hell: but in the end, since Christ had now come, and they would not receive and acknowledge Him as the Messiah, they are deprived of the word, and this hunger continues to this day, so that Israel is blinded, as Paul says [Rom. 11:25.]. Therefore we must pray 2c.
What else have we eaten before the gospel is brought to light but the dung of the pope, to the detriment of our goods and our souls? But we are ungrateful. 1) The princes continue to be people like Midas, to whom it belongs to stimulate and support the studies of learned people. Here they should apply great costs so that the word and right studies would be taught abundantly, since they have previously given an immense amount of money to the servants of Satan; but here no one listens. We preach to deaf ears. If we continue to be such people, the same judgment will come upon us that the prophet threatens here. This begins almost already by the godless prophets 2) 2c.
V. 13. At that time beautiful virgins and young men will pine away because of thirst.
Here is the fruit of this terrible hunger, as if he wanted to say: There will be many beautiful and lovely virgins, there will be many excellent young men, but all of them will go limp and perish, so that none of them will be of any use. That is, the excellent youth will perish, who, if they had been instructed and raised in the word of God, could have served the community. They could have taught others and governed the community properly with God's help, but because the word of God has been taken away, they perish, led astray; they are of no use 2c. What else have our universities been in the whole world but murder pits for the best 3) young men, who, while they were being taught by
1) D. continues thus: and the princes, but especially the bishops, to whom the care is incumbent to promote the church, do not care about the holy studies. For while they should enrich and maintain the studies of learned men, and spend great expense that the word and right studies be abundantly taught, since they have previously given an immense amount of money to the servants of Satan, those who are the best either follow their pleasures and neglect the church, or they rage cruelly against the good teachers and devastate the church. If we now continue 2c.
2) D.: the godless and raving teachers.
3) Here D. continues until the second last sentence in this section: "Heads and a corruption of the youth? not only because there was a great licentiousness in vices, that is the least of it, but because no wholesome teaching.
were sent by their parents to learn godliness, so that they too could preside over the community, learned nothing but to drink profusely, to fornicate, and, immersed in all godlessness and crudeness, became corrupt. Thus, even the best minds perished through this ungodly nature. The same fruit also came out of the monasteries. Thus, we must necessarily grope about in broad daylight like a blind man in darkness, if we do not have the Word of God by which we are governed and enlightened.
V. 14: Those who now swear by the curse (in delicto) of Samaria.
That is, at the idol in Samaria. He calls the worship of human reason, which is performed without the word of God, beautiful.
The study of godliness was overwhelmed with annoying, useless and pernicious sophistries, which hindered the good minds and prevented them from bearing fruit. The same 2c.
The fact that the worship of the devil is a sin (delictum) indicates that they did not want to worship the devil, but the true God. For they thought, as we said above, that they were pleasing God by this worship, since they had done it in honor of the true God and not the idols. But because they thus associated GOt with the service they had devised themselves, about which they had no word from GOt, and thought that they would thereby please GOt, it was an abomination to GOt. All the works of our monks and ministers were also like this. See above. 1)
1) Instead of this passage, D. (also the Hallic manuscript in the margin): What the Latin translator has given by delietuin, that reads in Hebrew: Curse, imprecations, blasphemy. But he calls the idol so; because they worshipped it, and left the right worship, they deserved the wrath of God and the curse. But this must be applied generally to all ungodly worship, which reason devises to propitiate God, while there is no word of God. For God is not only not worshipped and reconciled in this way, but is provoked to plague more, to increase wrath and to heap punishment, as we see in other passages of the prophets.