From: Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
When Israel was devout, it had nothing to fear
I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride.
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
[3] Israel was holy to the Lord,
the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it became guilty;
evil came upon them, says the Lord.”
[7] And I brought you into a plentiful land
to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.
[8] The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and went after things that do not profit.
[12] Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord,
[13] for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.
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Commentary:
2:1-25:38. Most of the oracles are in verse in this part of the book, but there are
some prose passages. It is possible that the scroll containing the earliest ora-
cles (which was burnt in 605 by order of King Jehoiakim: cf. 36:21-23) was made
up largely of the poems found in this part (2:1-25:38). They would have been ar-
ranged in some sort of thematic order with an eye, too, on chronology.
In the first ten chapters, the oracles turn on the two great themes of the two in-
troductory visions. Firstly, in connexion with the vision of the root of almond (1:
11-12), we get a summary of the sins that the prophet has noticed in his role
as watchman: Israel and Judah have forsaken the Lord; therefore they must be
chastised. God has been faithful, but the people have rejected him; this wrong
must be righted without delay—unless there is a genuine change of heart (2:1-4:
4). Secondly, in connexion with the vision of the boiling pot facing away from the
north (1:13-19), we get oracles threatening destruction from that quarter (4:5-10:
25).
From chapter 11 on, prose passages appear with greater frequency, and Jere-
miah’s symbolic actions begin to have a higher profile. The prophet has personal
experience of suffering, and his cries for help epitomize the way the people feel
when they are struck down by misfortune in punishment for their sins (11:1-20:
18). This part of the book ends with a severe indictment of those who ought to
have given leadership but failed to do so (21:1-25:38).
All of this first part of the book is a severe warning to the people of Jerusalem
and the entire kingdom of Judah. Even so, divine mercy can still be discerned:
there is a prospect of forgiveness and salvation.
2:1-4:4. The oracles contained in this section were spoken early in Jeremiah’s mi-
nistry, during the reign of Josiah, and possibly before that king set in train his re-
ligious reform (for nowhere does Jeremiah refer to it). This means that they would
date from the period 627-622 BC. The difference is clearly drawn (3:6-11) between
Israel, the Northern kingdom, whose capital was Samaria, and which had fallen to
Assyria in 722, and Judah, the Southern kingdom, whose capital was Jerusalem.
Assyria had been in control of Israel for some one hundred years, but now it was
in decline; and Josiah, king of Judah, was trying to reestablish national unity on
all levels — social, political and religious. His efforts would culminate in the great
religious reform that began in 622 and which sought to centralize all ritual reli-
gious worship in Jerusalem.
The oracles in this section are set in this historical background. The earliest,
those conserved in verse form, were spoken by Jeremiah himself and exude the
vitality and pain of someone who was an eyewitness. The passages that now ap-
pear in prose may well have been added later, when the book was being rewritten
after the first manuscript was burned (cf. 36:21-23). These oracles are a warning
about sin, about the punishment that it draws down, and about the need for per-
sonal conversion in order to attain salvation. The text as it now stands makes it
clear that the misfortune that overtook the people of Israel was due to their un-
faithfulness to God (2:1-37). Even so, the Lord calls all to conversion; if they re-
spond, he will restore peace and unity to the people (3:1-4:4).
2:1-37. The oracles in this chapter follow the pattern of pleadings used in the an-
cient Middle East when pacts or alliances were broken. First, the accused party
and the witnesses are apprised of the subject of the dispute used. Then the be-
nefits enjoyed by the accused are spelt out; he, for his part, should have adhered
to what he agreed in the covenant. This is followed by a list of charges, often cou-
ched in the form of questions: and then at the end comes a demand for imme-
diate action to be taken to set things right. If no agreement is arrived at, a decla-
ration of war inevitably follows.
The word of the Lord here is not that of a judge but of one of the two parties who
made the Covenant and has been deceived by the unfaithfulness of the other.
The prophet begins by reminding the people of all the benefits they received from
God during the time that they were faithful to him. In the early days, as they made
their way through the wilderness, they had a loving relationship with the Lord, and
he took care of them (vv. 1-3); he rescued them from Egypt and brought them to
the land promised to them as their inheritance (cf. Hos 1-3). However, instead of
staying true to the Lord, the Israelites forsook him and fell lower than other na-
tions (symbolized here by the peoples of the Aegean, “the coasts of Cyprus”,
and the Arab lands, “Kedar”: v. 10). Their religion centred on a personal God who
took provident care of his followers, yet they turned their backs on him to worship
Baal and other gods, who are quite worthless (vv. 6-7). They may form alliances
with earthly powers in the hope of getting help, but to no avail.
Even the language that Jeremiah uses shows that Israel has been distancing it-
self from God (he is upbraiding Israel, to have Judah react). In the opening verses
he addresses his people using the familiar form of the word “you” (vv. 2-3), then
he changes to the formal “you” (vv. 4-10), and eventually uses the third person
(vv. 11-15). Only in the second part of these oracles does the familiar form return,
when he reproves the people, to get them to mend their ways (v. 16-37).
The metaphor of the leaking cisterns (v. 13) conveys very well just how ineffec-
tive are Israel’s pacts with foreign nations. In Jeremiah’s time, there was a lot of
debate about whether or not to make alliances with Assyria or Egypt to ensure
survival in the face of hostile foreign powers. The prophet regards such pacts as
being of no real use, but he also points to the danger of idolatry that may arise
through contact with foreigners. Hence the sarcasm in vv. 16-18: Memphis and
Tahpanhes, were two cities on the Lower Nile; “the Euphrates”: literally, “River”
(no definite article) in Hebrew. The people’s fascination with the waters and lands
of Egypt and Assyria indicates the pull exercised by those great powers on Isra-
el. God had taken care of his people, he had given them a beautiful land of their
own, yet Israel had turned away from him and gone after idols — infidelity leading
to idolatry (vv. 4-27). Yet Israel will not acknowledge that it has done wrong, so
the Lord accuses the people of their sins and warns them that if they don’t
change they will be brought low (vv. 28-37).
2:13. The image of the broken cisterns that cannot hold water is used again and
again in Christian writing as an example of the condition of man when, instead of
trusting in the Lord, he relies on himself or on earthly things. St Irenaeus of Ly-
ons, for example, advises us to look for really solid support: “Where the Church is,
there is the Spirit of God: and where the Spirit is, there is the Church and all grace.
The Spirit is truth. Those who are not possessed of the Spirit are not suckled at
their mother’s breast to give them life, nor do they draw from the living waters that
flow from the body of Christ: they hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cis-
terns, and drink stagnant water. They abandon the faith of the Church and are no
longer protected; they reject the Spirit and are not enlightened. Having departed
from the way of truth, they are overcome by every error; they can find no sure foo-
ting. Their beliefs change from one moment to the next, and they never come to
any conclusion because they would rather be the masters of words than followers
of the truth. They do not build on rock, but on sand” (Adversus haereses, 3, 24,
1-2).
For his part, St John of the Cross applies the image to those who neglect God
in their insatiable desire for possessions. “Their appetite grows and their thirst
increases the further they find themselves from the only source that can satisfy
them, who is God. God himself said of them through Jeremiah his prophet: they
have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for them-
selves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. What they drink in created
things cannot satisfy their thirst, but only increases it. They sin in a thousand
ways through their love for created things, and do themselves incalculable harm”
(Ascent of Mount Carmel, 3, 19, 7).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 13:10-17
Speaking in Parables (Continuation)
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Commentary:
16-17. In contrast with the closed attitude of many Jews who witnessed Jesus’
life but did not believe in Him, the disciples are praised by our Lord for their do-
cility to grace, their openness to recognizing Him as the Messiah and to accep-
ting His teaching.
He calls His disciples blessed, happy. As He says, the prophets and just men
and women of the Old Testament had for centuries lived in hope of enjoying one
day the peace the future Messiah would bring, but they had died without experien-
cing this good fortune. Simeon, towards the end of his long life, was filled with joy
on seeing the infant Jesus when He was presented in the temple: “He took Him
up in his arms and blessed God and said, `Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant
depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation’”
(Luke 2:28-30). During our Lord’s public life, His disciples were fortunate enough
to see and be on close terms with Him; later they would recall that incomparable
gift, and one of them would begin his first letter in these words: “That which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes,
which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of
life; [...] that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you
may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our [or: your] joy may be complete
1 John 1:1-4).
This exceptional good fortune was, obviously, not theirs but of special merit: God
planned it; it was He who decided that the time had come for the Old Testament
prophecies to be fulfilled. In any event, God gives every soul opportunities to meet
Him: each of us has to be sensitive enough to grasp them and not let them pass.
There were many men and women in Palestine who saw and heard the incarnate
Son of God but did not have the spiritual sensitivity to see in Him what the Apos-
tles and disciples saw.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.