Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 15

1. This section presents the final and decisive rejection of the prophet’s prayer for the people.

First, the rejection of the prayer is presented; second, the cause of this rejection is shown to be the people's stubbornness: the sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, and a nail of diamond (Jeremiah 17:1).

Regarding the first point, there are two aspects:

1. He forbids the prophet from praying for the people.
2. He commands him to shun their society as if he were excommunicating them: and the word of the Lord came to me, saying (Jeremiah 16:1).

Regarding the prophet's prayer itself, there are two parts:

1. The rejection of the prophet's prayer for the people is given.
2. Then, as if despairing of the people's well-being, he pours out a prayer for himself, at woe to me, O my mother! (Jeremiah 15:10).

Regarding the rejection of the prayer, there are two points:

1. The prayer is rejected.
2. The reason for its rejection is given: who shall have mercy upon you, Jerusalem? (Jeremiah 15:5).

Regarding the first point, the rejection of the prayer, there are two aspects to consider:

1. First, the rejection of the prayer is considered: even if Moses and Samuel stood. These men were effective in prayer because they were concerned for the people and prayed for their enemies. This is mentioned regarding Moses in Exodus 22 and regarding Samuel in 1 Samuel 12.

   My soul means the affections. It is as if he were saying, “It is not due to any failure on the part of the one praying that the prayer is not heard, but because of the failings of the people for whom the prayer is made.” As it says in Ezekiel: And if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, shall be in their midst, they shall deliver their own souls by their justice (Ezekiel 14:14). As it says later in the same place: even if these three men shall be in their midst, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they themselves alone shall be delivered (Ezekiel 14:18).

2. Second, the rejection of the nation, for which he was praying, is considered. This begins with the command to drive them out, meaning, show that they have been cast out from before my face, so that they may not see me and be defended by my presence. As it says in Genesis: Behold, you drive me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face (Genesis 4:14).

   The end to which this rejection is directed is a fourfold danger: but if they should say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them . . . those who are for death, to death, that is, by pestilence. It is as if he were saying, “These different people will be subject to these various punishments.” As Ezekiel says: A third part of you shall die by plague, and be consumed by famine in the midst of you, and a third part of you shall fall by the sword around you, and a third part I shall scatter to every wind, and I shall draw my sword after them (Ezekiel 5:12).

He also excludes the comfort of a proper burial for the dead: and I will visit upon them four kinds of punishment, which were already mentioned: death, sword, famine, and captivity. And I will add dogs to this. And the dead of this people shall be as food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive them away (Jeremiah 7:33).

Mercy is also excluded for the captives: and I shall give them in burning anger, that is, in the burning anger of hatred, because of Manasseh, who did many evil things (2 Kings 21:2–9). Thus, the same passage says: nevertheless, the Lord has not turned from the wrath of his great anger, by which his wrath was stirred up against Judah, because of the offences by which Manasseh provoked him (2 Kings 23:26).

The people are punished for the sins of the king because, at that time, an evil man was permitted to rule due to the people's own sins. As Job says, God is the one who made a hypocrite to rule because of the sins of the people (Job 34:30).

Furthermore, the people are punished because they imitated the king's sins. For, as is the ruler of a city, so are they who dwell in it . And as Proverbs states, the prince who willingly hears the words of a deceitful man has all his ministers wicked (Proverbs 29:12).

Here, the prophet gives the reason for their rejection.

1. First, a question of wonder is presented, which excludes three things:

   • The judge's mercy: Who will have mercy on you?
   • Comfort from a compassionate person: or who will grieve for you?
   • The prayer of a mediator: or who will go to seek your peace?

   God has withheld these because you continue in so many sins. Call his name ‘Without Mercy,’ because I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them (Hosea 1:6).

2. Second, he gives the reason for their rejection, which stems from their ingratitude and their stubbornness.

   First, from their ingratitude, he speaks of their guilt: You have left me. They have abandoned the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward (Isaiah 1:4). And the punishment: and I will stretch out my hand against you. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still (Isaiah 9:12).

   Second, from their stubbornness. This is shown in two ways.

   First, they have not been turned back by his pleas. He speaks of their guilt: I am weary of pleading with you. It is as if he were saying, “I have implored you so often to turn back,” or, “I would have labored, if it had been possible.” You have made me to serve in your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities (Isaiah 43:23). And the punishment: and I will scatter them with a winnowing fork—by the army of the Chaldeans, like straw from the threshing floor—in the gates of the land, that is, to the ends of the earth, for a gate is the outermost part of a house or city. Whose winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will cleanse his threshing floor, and gather his wheat and his barley into his barn, but the straw he will burn with unquenchable flame (Luke 3:17).

   Second, they are not corrected by punishments. He first speaks of their hardness and their punishment in general: I have slain, and I have destroyed, by leading them captive. In vain I have struck your children; they received no correction (Jeremiah 2:30).

   He then speaks of this in particular. With regard to the women, who are more miserable and sorrowful at the loss of their husbands: their widows are multiplied to me more than the sand of the sea. This is hyperbole—it is as if he were saying, “They were innumerable.” He will not have mercy on her orphans and her widows (Isaiah 9:17). And at the loss of an only son: I have brought upon them a spoiler, a slayer of the son, at midday. This shows the power of the enemies, who do not fight from ambushes but openly. He brought the spoiler suddenly, which shows their powerlessness to resist, because they had not been on guard. Her destruction will come suddenly, when it is not expected (Isaiah 30:13).

   He also speaks of the death of many sons at the same time, describing the mother: she is made weak, deprived of her sons, who are the strength of a mother. Until the barren mother bears many sons, and she who has many is made weak (1 Samuel 2:5). And the sadness of the mother: her soul fails because of the shock. The sun of joy has set for her because of the grief of her sorrow, which darkens the heart. She is put to shame inwardly; she has blushed outwardly, lacking that in which she once gloried. The sun will set at midday, and I will make the land dark in a day of light (Amos 8:9).

   Finally, he threatens punishment for those who remain after the punishments mentioned above. The Lord will make you fall before your enemies; you will go out one way against them and flee seven ways from them, and you will be scattered through all the kingdoms of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:25).

1. Here, the prophet prays for himself, as if despairing of the people.

   1. He gives his own lament and then describes the discord of the enemy: woe to me, meaning, this hangs over me because I was born. Of contention, meaning, as the one causing contention, because I prophesy unfavorable and evil things; of discord, because some attack me, and others defend me. This was also fulfilled in Christ. Why have you brought me forth from the womb? If only I had perished, that no eye might see me (Job 10:18).

      He excludes the cause of the discord, which usually arises from contracts: I have not lent on usury. All curse. They curse him, and you bless. Let those who rise against me be put to shame, but your servant shall rejoice (Psalms 108:28).

   2. He speaks of the consolation of the Lord: the LORD says.

      1. Concerning his own safety in the well-being of himself and his relatives: with your remnant, that is, with those who cling to you—for he did not have any children, as is shown later (Jeremiah 16:2); it shall surely be well, meaning, they will be well. This is aposiopesis,The figure of speech in which a sentence is deliberately and suddenly broken off. so we must supply: “I am not believed.”

         And concerning deliverance from evils: I shall surely help—I am prepared to help. Blessed be the God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our tribulation (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).

      2. Concerning the affliction of the enemy, he threatens an implacable enemy.

         1. He excludes an agreement with the enemy, because they wished to unite with the prophet: shall the people of Judah, who are the iron because of their hardness, and bronze because of their lack of endurance, be allied with the iron of the north, that is, with the Chaldeans? It is as if he were saying, “No.” Bronze and iron, all have been corrupted. The bellows have failed; the lead is consumed in fire (Jeremiah 6:28–29).

            Alternatively, you are the iron, preaching hard things to them, who are iron and bronze, and you cannot be allied with them. Do not wonder if the world hates you; know that they hated me before you (John 15:18).

         2. He excludes reliance on an alliance, whether by gifts: I shall give your riches and your treasures freely for spoil. It is as if he were saying, “Nothing will help you,” in all, that is, for all. Take the silver, take the gold, and there is no end of riches from every goodly vessel (Nahum 2:9).

            Or whether by pleading: and I will bring. It is as if he were saying, “You will not be able to plead with them, because they will not understand.” He will raise a signal to the distant nations, and whistle to him from the ends of the earth (Isaiah 5:26).

         3. He gives the reason: for a fire is kindled. A fire is kindled in my wrath, and it shall burn to the very depths of hell, and devour the earth with its bud, and burn the foundations of the mountains (Deuteronomy 32:22).

Here the prophet's petition is presented, which has two parts: first, his own prayer, and second, the Lord's response, which begins with the words, because of this the Lord spoke these things (Jeremiah 15:19). The first part, the prophet's prayer, consists of three points.

1. He presents the comfort he seeks from God. He says, you know what I suffer and what I have done. He asks God to Remember, that is, to act out of mercy, as in Lamentations 3:19: Remember my poverty and my transgression, wormwood and gall. He seeks comfort, asking, and visit me with consolation, for Your consolation has kept my spirit (Job 10:12). He asks God not to delay, saying, do not take me away in your forbearance, for the Most High repays with patience .

2. He mentions his own merit by describing the reproach he has patiently endured for God. He speaks of the injustice done to him, crying know—that is, show by your actions that you know. He explains this was for your sake, because he obeyed God's commands and proclaimed difficult things to the people. As the psalmist says, For your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face (Psalms 68:8).

   He also speaks of his experience of spiritual joy: your words were found, meaning they came to him, and I ate them, meaning he delighted in them. This recalls the psalm: How sweet are your words to my throat; they are sweeter than honey to my mouth (Psalms 119:103). He gives the reason for this joy: for I am called by your name, that is, he is known as a prophet of the Lord. This echoes the earlier prayer, your name is called upon us (Jeremiah 14:9).

   Furthermore, he describes the company he wisely avoided, highlighting his solitude: I have not sat in the assembly of mockers, much less of the wicked, so that he would not set aside his heavy heart and be free from God's commands. This is similar to the prayer in Tobit 3:17: I have never associated with jesters, nor have I made myself a companion of those who walk in frivolity. He speaks of his inner exaltation, saying, and I have gloried because of the presence of your correcting hand. This is like the Apostle's statement, Gladly will I glory in my infirmities (2 Corinthians 12:9). Alternatively, this "hand" could be the hand that consoles with spiritual gifts. Finally, he gives the reason for his solitude: I sat alone, for you have filled me with indignation. It is as if he were saying, "I have been weighed down by so many bitter things that I have had no time for amusement." As he says elsewhere, He has filled me with bitterness (Lamentations 3:15).

3. Third, he expresses wonder at the sting of his inflicted pain. He asks, why has my sorrow become continual? It is as if he is saying, "How is it that this trouble has not subsided after so many prayers and merits?" This echoes a later passage: your breach is incurable, your wound very grievous (Jeremiah 30:12). According to some Jewish interpretations, he speaks here in the person of Jerusalem.

   He adds a source of consolation, interpreting the phrase it has become to me as the falsehood of treacherous waters to mean: "Nevertheless, I will be consoled in this, because this kind of distress will pass swiftly, just like treacherous waters that gather from the rains and then disappear." This is compared to the cry, The waters have come in unto my soul (Psalms 68:1). An alternative interpretation is that the prophet says this because of the deceit of his adversaries.

Here the response of the Lord who heard him is set down.

1. He promises advancement in beatitude regarding uprightness of life: if you will turn—others to me from their sins—I will turn you from your difficulties; you will stand, by your uprightness of life or preeminence in contemplation. As the Lord lives, in whose sight I stand (1 Kings 17:1). He who makes the sinner to turn from the error of his way will free his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins (James 5:20). And with regard to the authority of his prediction: and if you will separate what is precious from what is vile, by distinguishing good works from bad, you will be my mouth, because I will speak through you. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matthew 10:20).
2. With regard to deliverance from evil:
   • From the evils of guilt: they will turn to you. It is as though he were saying, “They will imitate you, and not you them.” I urge you, be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16).
   • From the evils of punishment:
     1. He promises fortitude: and I will make you as a strong brazen wall before this people. Compare to the passage above: I have surely set you today as a fortified city, and as an iron pillar, and as a brazen wall over all the land, for the kings of Judah and her princes, for her priests and for the people of the land. And they will wage war against you, but will not prevail, for I am with you says the Lord (Jeremiah 1:18–19).
     2. He promises protection: and they will wage war. For if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil things, because you are with me (Psalms 23:4).
     3. He promises liberation: and I will deliver you. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name (Isaiah 43:1).

It should be noted that the saints glory (Jeremiah 15:17) in several things:

• In the good of virtue.
• In the suffering of tribulations: not only this, but we also glory in tribulations (Romans 5:3).
• In fellowship with their neighbors: I have much confidence in you, and much reason to glory in you (2 Corinthians 7:4).
• In the purity of their conscience: for our glory is this, the witness of our conscience (2 Corinthians 1:12).
• In God. This includes glorying in:
  • The divine love shown by the passion: may I never glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).
  • Divine knowledge: let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands, and knows me (Jeremiah 9:24).
  • Divine imitation: it is a great glory to follow the Lord; for long life will be received from him .