Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 20

Having finished the threat against the people, he begins the threat against the rulers.

First, the prophet’s threat against the rulers is given.

Second, the conspiracy of the rulers against the prophet is described, as it says below: in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah (Jeremiah 26:1).

Regarding the first point, there are two parts.

First, he makes a threat against the rulers of the Judean people.

Second, he makes a threat against them and others, as it says below: the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Jeremiah 25:1).

The first point divides into two parts.

First, he makes a threat against the rulers, as those established in the highest rank of dignity.

Second, he makes a threat against everyone, as it says below: woe to the shepherds who scatter and tear in pieces the flock (Jeremiah 23:1).

Regarding the first point, there are two parts.

First, he makes a threat against the highest in spiritual dignity, namely, the high priest.

Second, he makes a threat against the highest in temporal dignity, namely, the king, as it says below: the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Jeremiah 21:1).

Regarding the first point, there are two parts.

First, he gives the threat against the high priest.

Second, because of the danger that threatened the prophet as a result of this, he gives his own complaint: O Lord, you have deceived me (Jeremiah 20:7).

Regarding the first point, there are two parts.

First, the reason for the threat is established, arising from the prophet’s persecution. The reason for the persecution is given: prophesying these words against the city. For this was the duty of the high priest—to bring false prophets to trial, as it says below: the Lord has made you a priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that you may be the ruler in the house of the Lord over every madman and prophet, that you may put them in the stocks and in prison (Jeremiah 29:26).

The text describes the prophet’s persecution: and Pashhur struck . . . and put him in fetters, which was a device in a prison used for torturing captives. This happened at the gate of Benjamin, which led to the tribe of Benjamin, as the city was located on the border of both tribes (Joshua 15:8, 18:28). It is called the upper gate, perhaps because there were many gates leading to that land. The gate was in the house of the Lord, and for this reason, prophets and ministers of the temple were judged there and imprisoned. As the prophet says elsewhere, He has built against me all around that I may not go out; he has made my fetters heavy (Lamentations 3:7).

The prophet’s liberation is also described: the next day, when it was light, Pashhur brought Jeremiah from prison. It happened that next day that their princes gathered together in Jerusalem, both the elders and the scribes (Acts 4:5). Who brings forth the bound with strength (Psalms 67:7).

Second, the threat itself is given.

First, the punishment is designated by the changing of the name: and Jeremiah said to him. He speaks like a fearful man looking all around him. Terror to those who work evil (Proverbs 10:29).

Second, the threat of punishment is stated: for thus says the Lord.

• Regarding his friends: to yourself and all your friends. Their priests have fallen by the sword (Psalms 77:64).
• Regarding his subjects, speaking of the people’s captivity: and all Judah. Judah has gone away because of her affliction, and the greatness of her bondage; she has dwelt among the nations, but has found no rest (Lamentations 1:3).
• Regarding the plundering of goods: and I shall give the whole substance of this city. Everything which is in your house, and which your fathers stored up until this day, shall be carried away to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord (Isaiah 39:6).
• Regarding his own household: but you, Pashhur, and all those who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity . . . and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied a lie, by promising them prosperity. The Lord will cast you like a ball in a wide and spacious land. There, you will die (Isaiah 22:18). Your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land shall be measured by a line; and you shall die in a polluted land, and Israel shall go from his land as a captive (Amos 7:17).

Here the prophet's complaint is presented, which has two parts:

1. He laments the duty that has been assigned to him.
2. He laments his birth.

Regarding the first point—his lament over his duty—there are two aspects:

1. He grieves over the office assigned to him because of the resulting ridicule.
2. He grieves because of the persecution he endures, as seen in the verse, for I heard the reproaches of many (Jeremiah 20:10).

Concerning the ridicule, there are three points to consider:

1. He reveals the nature of the command by complaining, you have deceived me. He means that he found an occasion for feeling deceived by God's words, because he believed he would prophesy against the nations and not against the Jews, from whom he suffers persecution. However, he does not wish to accuse God of the crime of deception, because then he would be blaspheming.

   He continues, You prevailed, meaning God overcame him in imposing this duty when he resisted, as described previously in chapter 1. This was chiefly because he did not see the fruit of his own preaching, as Isaiah says, I have labored in vain, I have wasted my strength vainly and without cause (Isaiah 49:4).

2. He describes the outcome of his preaching when he speaks of their ridicule: I have become a laughingstock... everyone mocks me, showing their contempt by wrinkling their noses. This echoes Lamentations: I have become a laughingstock to my entire people, their song all the day long (Lamentations 3:14).

   He gives the reason for this mockery by explaining the substance of his preaching, in which he openly rebuked their faults and threatened punishments: for I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity, and I often proclaim destruction. This destruction, however, had not yet arrived. As Isaiah says, To them which rejoice upon a wall of baked bricks, tell their stripes (Isaiah 16:7). The result was further disgrace: and the word of the Lord has become a reproach to me, that is, a cause of reproach. This is similar to when Festus said to Paul: much learning has made you mad (Acts 26:24).

3. He resolves to revoke the duty that was assigned to him, beginning with, and I said.

   First, he rejects the duty: I will not make mention of him, meaning, "I will resolve not to speak to the people anymore." He did not wish to cast his pearls before swine, as the Lord taught, Do not give what is holy to the dogs (Matthew 7:6).

   Then, he takes up the duty he had cast off: but his word was in my heart as a burning fire. The author explains that the more one refrains from speaking God's words externally, the more one feels the internal fire of love. This is like the psalmist's experience: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire will burn (Psalms 38:4). The prophet continues, shut up in my bones, which means in the innermost part of his mind. He says, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay, meaning he failed in his purpose and was unable to bear the fire within. This brings him to the persecution: for I heard the reproaches of many (Jeremiah 20:10).

Concerning the persecution he endures for his duty, there are four points:

1. The persecution from his adversaries is described. He speaks of the multitude of his persecutors—of many—whom he is not able to resist. He says, Persecute, which points to their conspiracy against him. He even mentions their former familiarity: from all men who were at peace with me, which highlights the imminent danger. This is similar to Obadiah's prophecy: All the men of your confederacy have mocked you; the men of your peace have prevailed against you (Obadiah 1:7).

2. The prophet finds comfort in divine assistance: but the Lord is with me, to defend him. As Isaiah says, The Lord God is my help, and therefore I am not ashamed (Isaiah 50:7). Regarding his persecutors, he declares: therefore, those who persecute me shall fall, precisely because they persecute him. This is like the prophecy, Boys shall faint and labor, and young men shall fall from weakness (Isaiah 40:30).

   He continues, They shall be greatly ashamed, because they have spoken reproachfully. This is for they have not understood—that is, they did not wish to understand—the reproach of eternal damnation or of the coming captivity. The psalmist prays similarly: Let them be confounded and afraid, who seek my soul, that they may take it away (Psalms 39:15).

3. A petition is offered in which he longs for kindness and commends justice. He calls God a tester—that is, one who proves, or an investigator and examiner—of knowledge. He is the one who sees the reins, referring to the emotions, and hearts, referring to the thoughts. This refers back to an earlier passage: I the Lord examine the heart, and test the reins; it is I who give to each one according to his way (Jeremiah 17:10).

   He then seeks vengeance: let me see, I pray, my vengeance upon them. He gives the reason: for to you have I revealed my cause. This does not mean he is revealing it to one who is ignorant, but that he is entrusting his entire cause to God, as stated earlier: for to you have I revealed my cause (Jeremiah 11:20).

4. His thanksgiving is offered: sing to the Lord. This is because, as the psalm says, He has freed the poor from the powerful, the poor man who had no helper (Psalms 71:12).

1. Here, he laments the origin of his birth.

But one may object to this, for it is the duty of the saints to glory in tribulations, as it is said in Romans 5. Therefore, it seems that Jeremiah should not have erupted in cursing because of his tribulations.

Furthermore, the day is a creature of God, and to curse a creature of God is a sin.

Furthermore, a day is a transitory thing, and it is foolish to apply the punishment of a curse to it.

Furthermore, no one should curse the innocent. But the man who announced Jeremiah's birth was innocent, in that he did not kill him, and therefore Jeremiah sinned in cursing him.

To the first objection, the response is that tribulations, considered in themselves, are an evil to the extent that they are contrary to the nature of the good, as Augustine says.Augustine, De natura boni 20 (CSEL 41). Thus, to abhor them with a natural hatred is not a sin. If, however, they were used to argue against one's own righteousness, this would be a sin.

Considered, however, in terms of how they move one toward the good, the saints glory in them, as a sick man might glory in the amputation that heals him.

To the second and third objections, it should be said that he does not curse the day in its essential nature, because this would be foolish and sinful. Rather, he curses it because it was evil in that something bad happened on it. This is similar to how a festival day is celebrated because of something good that happened on that day, and this is what the curse signifies. Gregory, however, considering the nature of the day itself, says that the curse cannot be understood literally.

A similar response must be given to the last objection, because he does not curse those men except in relation to their action. From this, speaking hyperbolically, he makes us understand his own sense of horror and his weariness with life because of the difficulties he was suffering.

Therefore, concerning this, he makes two points.

1. First, he mentions the curse against the time of his birth: cursed is the day. May the day perish on which it was said: a man is conceived (Job 3:3). Against the messenger of his birth: cursed is the man who announced it to my father, saying, a man-child is born to you, and made him rejoice greatly. God has made joy for me, and whoever shall hear of it shall laugh with me (Genesis 21:6). He explains the manner of the curse: let that man be as the cities which the Lord has overthrown. You have made the city a heap, the strong city a ruin (Isaiah 25:2). And against the life of the servant who saved him: let him hear a cry of death, so that the grave might become my mother, as if he had never been counted among men; an everlasting conception, which never came to term. Why did I not die in the womb, why did I not immediately die when I came out of the belly (Job 3:11).
2. Second, the reason for the curse is given: why did I come forth from the womb? This echoes the earlier passage: woe to me, O my mother! Why did you give birth to me, a man of contention, a man of discord in the whole land? (Jeremiah 15:10). See also: Woe to me that I was born to see the destruction of my people, and the destruction of the holy city, and to dwell there when it is given into the hands of the enemy .

Collations

A note concerning the verse: O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived, you were stronger than I, and you prevailed (Jeremiah 20:7). The Lord "seduces" by drawing one along with persuasion: since I was clever, I caught you by guile (2 Corinthians 12:16); by alluring one with consolations: when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter (Revelation 10:10); and by comforting one with promises, as seen above: why have you deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace’? And behold the sword has come even unto the soul (Jeremiah 4:10).

But the Lord "prevails" by correcting: he taught me with his mighty hand, that I should not go in the way of this people (Isaiah 8:11); by drawing one back from what is harmful: I shall hedge your way with thorns, and I will stop it with a wall (Hosea 2:6); and by holding one fast with love: I shall draw them with the cords of a man, with the bonds of love (Hosea 11:4).