Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 18:12-17

"But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity." — Jeremiah 18:12-17 (ASV)

1. Here, he speaks of the despair of those who rejected his preaching.

   • First, he mentions their desperation: we have no hope. He refers to what was said previously: and you have said, ‘I have despaired, I have done wickedly; I have indeed loved others greatly, and walked after them’ (Jeremiah 2:25).

   • Second, the condemnation of those who despaired is given: therefore, thus says the Lord.

     • First, he rebukes them for their horrendous sin in comparison to the nations: inquire of the nations. He refers to what was said previously: cross over to the isles of the Cethim and see; and send to Cedar and consider diligently; and see if there is a deed of this kind: if a nation has changed its gods. Certainly they are no gods (Jeremiah 2:10–11). He has despised my judgments, that he may be more wicked than the nations, and my commandments more than the lands which are round about him (Ezekiel 5:6).

       He uses a simile drawn from inanimate objects, which keep to the order God established for them: shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the stone of the field? Note that Lebanon is a large mountain with a great expanse at its top containing fields and caves in the rocks, where the snow remains permanently because the sun’s rays do not reach it.Mt. Lebanon, Qurnat as Sawda, in Arabic. Thomas Aquinas’s information is geographically accurate, and it seems to be drawn more from eyewitness accounts than from the biblical text. Or can the cold waters that burst forth be pulled up, so that they do not flow from Lebanon and other high mountains? It is as if he were saying, “No.” I have learned that all the works which God has made will endure forever. We can add nothing, nor take anything away from those things, which the Lord made that he might be feared (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

       The rebuke also comes from the nature of their works, because they are:

       • Useless: sacrificing in vain to idols. What fruit, therefore, did you have in those things of which you are now ashamed? (Romans 6:21).
       • Harmful: and stumbling, that is, causing offense. We have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, in dark places like the dead (Isaiah 59:10).
       • Shameful: in the ways of their time, meaning the idolatry that their entire generation follows. Do you not desire to keep to the path of the ages, which wicked men have trod, who were taken away before their time, and a river has overthrown their foundation, who said to God: depart from us, and we wish no knowledge of your ways? (Job 22:15).
       • Difficult: that they may walk in them by a way not taken by their holy fathers. Alternatively, this refers to their devising of vain sins: we have walked in difficult ways, and the way of the Lord we have not known . We will walk upon the trodden path (Numbers 20:17).

     • Second, he threatens an astonishing punishment.

       • Regarding the desolation of the land: that their land may become a waste, as a consequence. O all you who pass by the way, attend, and see, if there is grief like unto my grief (Lamentations 1:10).
       • Regarding the destruction of the nation: as a wind that withers all fruit, before the Babylonian enemy. He refers to what was said previously: a burning wind is on the roads, which are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to winnow, or to cleanse (Jeremiah 4:11).
       • Regarding the cessation of divine assistance. My back, he says, in the manner of an angry person. I will hide my face from them, and will consider their last end (Deuteronomy 32:20). Why, O Lord, have you rejected us completely, and why is your anger stirred up against the sheep of your pasture? (Psalms 73:1).