In the same, the prophet begins to punish the public vices, the fruit of unbelief, after he has acted on faith. The prophet is sure to preach the word of the Lord etc. - Instead of judicium, it would have been clearer: The Lord has something against those who dwell in the land.- Misericordia ["love"] is "a benefit", whether it be shown by God to men, or by men to other men. - Veritas Paul often translates by faith. Emetz [XXX] is truth (according to which 1) God is true) active, amuna [XXXXX] passive, when he infuses truth into our hearts. "The just shall live by faith," that is, in the truth which he has received, by which he himself is made true, that is, by which he adheres to divine truth. Non est veritas [that is], "there is no faithfulness on earth." Faithfulness is with few, unfaithfulness with many. 2) - Misericordia, "friendship"; no one does good to another.- Scientia, better notitia, passive cognitio. Thus it is written in Isa. 11, 9: "The land is full of knowledge (scientia) of the Lord." So Cap. 53, 11. s: "Through his er-.
1) We have assumed hua instead of haarn with the Hallic handwriting.
2) Instead of üäes we have assumed M"/" üäes. For as the sentence is written in the manuscript and in the prints: Vsritas paaeornrn est, üä68 rnrUtornm, it seems to us to be untrue, and not at all according to Luther's meaning.
knowledge" (scientia) etc.]. To know God as God, that we receive from Him all good etc., that is the knowledge of God.
V. 2. has overflowed [inundaverunt].
That is, it is going on in momentum, or it has taken over everywhere - Sanguis sanguinem tetigit, "one shedding of blood upon another," that is, bloodguilt, or the clamor because of shed blood, or for vengeance etc.
V. 3. Therefore.
This is the punishment. - Lugebit (it will mourn) is a figurative speech, that is: it will be devastated, it will get into great shortage, "the country will gain a miserable reputation, will go badly". - Infirmabitur ("it will go evil"). He speaks of vengeance on the land; that is, it will become poor, it will decline, "the cattle will perish," whether the animals do not give birth or they perish through pestilence. The dominion of man will diminish. - Congregabuntur ("they will be snatched away"), they will be annulled, better: "snatch up", so that neither fish nor animals nor birds are in the land. The Hebrew says: to make an end [XXXXX]. In the Psalm (26:9.) it says, "Take me not away (ne congreges) with sinners."
V. 4. But etc.
"But let no one scold." ,[Non] arguatur quisquam," better, "Let no man tell them." Thus it is said in Isaiah [Cap. 30, 10.), "Preach 1) us gently." - "For," answers the prophet, "there is such a people" who punish again him who says it to him and punishes it, and thrusts your word into your mouth again.
V. 5. by day and by night.
That is, in short, "today or tomorrow you will fall and will not be helped". - "The prophet", by this he understands the son who will fall etc., and he will also not grieve so much (tantum) about it. "He who cannot be told cannot be helped" etc. - "I will execute thy mother" (tacere feci), or I will silence her. [The Hebrew reads) silere, "to be silent." Virgil 2) speaks of the silent shadows, the silent places. To make nothing; "that is silent, never lets itself be stirred". By the "mother" he understands the synagogue.
V. 6. because it does not want to learn (scientiam).
That is, because of its ignorance, because it does not want to be punished, does not want to be confronted, it should be silenced before men (quiescet). Instead of: quia tu etc. it should read: "Because you have rejected the word of God (notitiam)" etc., as if he wanted to say: You refuse to be instructed by God, and yet you boast of your priesthood etc., therefore I will take away from you both teacher and pupil, and make you not know me. I will deliver you to justice. The priesthood of God is where the right knowledge of God is. Here is a threat of present and future punishment.
V. 7. The more of them will etc.
Secundum multitudinem eorum is a Hebrew way of saying, that is, as many as they are, so many sins have they committed. Thus says
1) Instead of loqueremini, the Vulgate reads loquimini.
2) Vir.]. lid. VI, v. 432.
Jeremiah, Cap. 2, 28.: They have as many mobs as they have villages and cities [secundum numerum etc. in the Vulgate], so do we etc.- "Their honor" he calls their idols and their worship, which they had set up under the pretense of the true God (de deo vero) etc. So it says in the Psalm [Ps. 106, 20.]: "And transformed their honor" etc. sOur honor is that,] of which we boast and trust. This glorious splendor of the sects I will turn into nothing. This is what happens to the papacy, whose honor has been turned into shame. As if he wanted to say: "They make it too much for me" etc.
V. 8. They eat the sin offerings of my people (peccata etc. ).
That is, they are puffed up in their glory, they fatten themselves and feed themselves gloriously on the sins of the people. They become rich, they live deliciously, because the people are in the godless being. Note the shameful (malam) interpretation of the papists: the more the people have given, the more we have devoured. - Sublevare animam (the Psalm [Ps. 25, 1.] says: Ad te levabo [animam] etc.)4 ) ift suspendere, "gape up, keep big" etc. Paul says [Tit. 1, 14.]: "Pay no attention to the Jewish fables", that is, they shut the people's mouths (suspendunt) and make them pay attention to their ungodliness and unrighteousness, so that they think it is done and acted in a godly way. This is the service of the priests.
V. 9. therefore it shall be to the people etc. (Et erit).
Now the retribution follows. It was used as a proverb and it is still now: "One is as important to me as the other", I will take away the people and the priesthood "I will wash up after them".
3) In the text: , 6t alnnt 86 6Ar6Ki6 psaeati" popuü ste. sie mehren sich von den funden xopnti". The German is obviously the translation of the preceding, therefore it is out of question that instead of "mehren" "nähren" is to be read. (Weim. in the margin: "nehren?").
4) These brackets are set by us. The Weimar edition has in the margin "Ps. 123, 1.", but, as we think, erroneously, because it depends on a voucher for levars. - In what follows we have resolved "kaffen" by gaffen.
V. 10: That they may eat, and not be satisfied; that they may commit fornication, and not prosper.
Ut manducent vel comedant, et non saturentur, ut fornicentur et non abundent vel non succedat eis, "to go away," it is better instead of: 1) Et comedent etc., that is, I will bring you into want, poverty and famine, that is, I will bring you into want, as if he wanted to say: Now ye eat the sins of the people, ye shall fatten yourselves etc. on these things; I will make that ye shall not even have crumbs "and barks" etc. They cannot whore as much as they would like etc. He will leave the doing of ungodliness, and yet they cannot do it etc.
V. 11. Fornication, wine and must make mad.
I think that this was a proverbial speech in the whole people through the whole country, as if he wanted to say: One says quite rightly that "fornication, wine and drunkenness make fools" etc. Behold our "priests and monks," what is there that is more dull-witted and unlearned than they? They are only concerned about their bellies, and that they are real boozers. 2) In Hebrew this is expressed by "wine and must.
V. 12. My people shall ask his wood, and his staff shall preach unto him. 3)
This is a better reading [than in the Vulgate]. Thus it is said in the law [Deut. 18:11] that one shall not ask the dead etc. As if to say, "Are they not great fools?" They go to ask a wooden god for counsel, and a staff gives them counsel etc. They desire an answer. In diminutive speech and contemptuously he says, "His wood." Notice the passage Isa. 44, 9. Notice that he speaks of clothing and food, on which we
1) The preceding is in the manuscript and in the prints still drawn with to verse 9.
2) Instead of ut 8urZuIioll68 we have assumed according to the following scripture: st ut AurSulionss siut.
3) Vulgate: kopulus rueus in liZno suo interroMvit 6t vacutus 6ZU8 aunuueiuvit 61. - We could have put these Latin words as a keyword, but preferred to make Luther's improvement the keyword.
trust; nothing has made us dull but this whoredom of the spirit, riches, wine and must etc., abundance of goods etc. These statutes, in which we trust, we have made ourselves. Now say whether we are "wiser" than those etc. I do not think that the prophet is speaking here "of divining rods", divining by the rods, but simply of the idols made of the wood that grew in their gardens, and from which they could have made staves. 4) - "For the spirit of harlotry seduces them." So you have to read. That is, this wind causes them to err etc. This is how Paul speaks in the letter to the Ephesians [Cap. 4, 14.]. Instead of "spirit" it would be better to say "wind", because there is no constancy here. This image is taken from carnal fornication and transferred to spiritual fornication.
V. 13. Up on the mountains etc.
(Instead of accendebant he read [, Luther: accendunt]). 5) That is, they run to idols, namely, on the mountains and hills. So they are also punished by Jeremiah [Cap. 2, 24.] etc. He punishes the noble and the good works which they themselves have chosen. Therefore he says afterwards [Cap. 6, 6.], "I delight in love, and not in sacrifice" etc. Instead of: Accendunt thymiama it should rather be: "they.
incense" (incensant = incensa adolent) or burn incense. These names of the trees except the first are uncertain 6) etc.- "For they have fine (bona) shade." Dona, that is, jucunda. They sought delightful and green places to tickle the senses also etc. Instead of "your brides," [the Hebrew] says daughters-in-law. This is the punishment: under fornication with idols they served the belly, from which follows voluptuousness and carnal fornication etc. as is now seen in the clergy. - "Therefore your daughters also become harlots" etc. because I will allow it etc. 7)
4) The Weimar edition has added the preceding from v. 12 to v. II without indicating by a paragraph or by a new verse number that something new is beginning. The Erlanger has V. 12. in the margin.
5) We consider these words, which we have placed in brackets, to be an interjection by the postscript, which could be supplemented in the manner indicated.
6) Erlanger: iuneta instead of: incerta.
7) The Weimar edition has drawn this last sentence to v. 14.
V. 14. Nor will I resist etc.
I will make them do all this with impunity, as is happening now. What is the cause? It is a punishment of God etc., because we do not have understanding princes etc.-["Because you perform another service with the whores."] Instead of: conversabantur it should better read: dispergebantur. They divided themselves into different parts, "here a whore host, there a whore host". Because you are scattered among many whores etc. "With the Bübinnen" or whores is better than cum effeminatis [in the Vulgate]. Jerome understands by this the cut-ups, but I do not believe Jerome here. As if he wanted to say: As ye commit fornication with the concubines or harlots, so shall your daughters become harlots etc. - "For the foolish people will be smitten." This will be the punishment, I will strike the people with blindness.
V. 15. Will you, O Israel, fornicate, that only Judah etc.
He addresses the tribe of Judah: "You who have the right kingdom, the right priesthood and the right temple, see that you do not hurry. And this will happen if you do what follows. As if he wanted to say: Stay with your temple. Instead of "BethAven" Jerome rightly reads BethEl, since one does not read anything about a service being held in BethAven. The ordinary services were in the places where God had performed something special (insigne) with the fathers. BethAven means a house of iniquity. - "And swear not, As the Lord liveth." That is, do not take the name of the Lord in vain, because in these places there is not God, but the devil. 1) Although God is everywhere, He does not want to be worshipped as you intend, therefore "do not swear" etc.
[v. 16. For Israel runs like a great heifer].
Israel discedit, "steps out" like a recalcitrant cow, "a young farr," 2) which is un-.
1) We have added this sentence according to the Haitian manuscript; the Zwickau one offers only: huiu in Uis loois non
bändig does not go along the right and middle road. It is better to put "toll" instead of lasciviens; which does not stay on the road, but deviates in its ways. 3) - "So also the Lord will make them pasture" etc. "Rhyme!" 4) "To make a lamb feed" has no evil meaning, as Jerome even forcibly twists it etc. It cannot be understood of the Assyrian captivity. As if to say: If you [Judah] continue in your ways, the Lord will make you feed in happy pastures like sheep.
V. 17 For Ephraim has joined himself to the idols.
That is, look not on Ephraim, let him go, because he is the journeyman of idols, "is entered into covenant" with Israel.
V. 18. [They have given themselves over to indulgence and fornication.] 5)
Instead of separatum est it should better read: separatum sit. As if he wanted to say: hold back and let it be far from you his indulgence in the service of idols. "Let them eat and drink, stay thou from it." - Fornicatione for
nicati sunt, better: fornicatione fornicentur
et diligant afferre ignominiam etc. Let them, they may commit fornication as they wish. 6) "Shields" [what in Hebrew is called the "great Hansen" among the people. GOd is also called a protector (scutum) or shield. - Diligant, that is, it may be their protectors (vel protectorum sui vel protec
tores sui), "strive to bring much shame upon themselves".
V. 19. [The wind with its wings will drive them bound] 7)
Ligavit etc. Here "Jerome has fehlet." [Instead of confundentur a sacrificiis suis the Septuagint has] better thus: And their altars shall be
3) In the Weimar edition, the preceding, from "B. 16." onward, is added to B. 15. without any verse number. The Erlanger has the verse number in the margin.
4) In the prints: "reum you."
5) Vulgate: Ls^aratum [st eonvivium voruw, cornioations koruieati suot.
6) We have rearranged this sentence. In the original, it comes before "better".
7) Vulgate: ILxavit surr" ventus in alis suis "t eontuncksotur u kaoriüeiis kuis.
become disgraceful. Instead of spirit, it would have been better to say "wind". - ["With its wings", that is what it means in the wings of Israel. The wind has seized it with its wings, 1) that is, they are carried away by the wind like a bird that is carried away by force, "going away" in the impetuosity of their wings.
1) Erlanger: malis instead of: inaHs.
Fornication etc. It is a figurative speech. The wings of Israel were the prophets and kings, which he called shields etc. It indicates that alliance of the prophets, the kings and the people. But still "their altars will become sin and shame". You see now also this alliance of the clergy and the people; "is hung in one another" etc.